Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days to be tempted by the devil. Luke 4: 1-13
Luke’s account of the temptations Jesus experienced occurs early in his Gospel. In order for us to understand both their significance and Luke’s reason for presenting them in detail, it is important that we look at the context in which they are located and at the kind of temptations which Jesus experienced. The main point of Luke’s account was to inform his audience that Jesus was not exempt from temptation and that struggling with temptation was no less difficult for Jesus than it is and has been for every other human being.
What is interesting about Luke’s account is that he placed it shortly after describing how the adolescent Jesus had engaged in discussion with the doctors of the Law in the Jerusalem Temple. Luke concluded that episode by stating that Jesus continued to mature and “increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and men” (Luke 2: 52). This was followed by the account of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan by the Baptist and, shortly thereafter, by his being tempted by the devil in the wilderness.
Most commentators on Luke’s Gospel have suggested that the account of the struggle that Jesus had with Satan was not a literal one. They point out that Luke highlighted the intensity of the experience for Jesus by placing his three temptations in succession, as though it was an extended ordeal. Luke was at pains to note that Jesus was led into the wilderness by God’s Spirit. The purpose of that was to remind his audience that, in time of temptation, Jesus, just like every single one of them and us, has available the guidance of God’s Spirit. So, let us not forget that God’s Spirit is present deep within every one of us to guide and strengthen us in every ordeal and temptation that comes our way.
The forty-day period of solitude in the wilderness serves to underline the role that solitude and reflection played in Jesus’ coming to discern the vocation and mission on which he would embark. Luke intentionally referred to the period of forty days to remind his audience of very significant events in the history of Israel in which different ones of their leaders had engaged in lengthy periods of discernment. Moses, for instance, had prayed and fasted in God’s presence for forty days and nights before committing to writing the words of God’s Covenant with Israel (Exodus 34: 28). The people of Israel had wandered through the desert for forty years before coming to their senses and reaching the Promised Land (The Book of Joshua Chapters 1-24). The great Prophet Elijah endured a fast of forty days and forty nights as he made his trek to Mount Horeb where he encountered God in a cave (1 Kings 19: 8).
The graphic detail in which Luke describes the tussle between Jesus and Satan suggests that Jesus had a titanic struggle but still clearly outsmarted his tempter. If we look below Luke’s dramatic way of presenting the struggle, we will see that the temptations with which we do battle are essentially the same as those with which Satan confronted Jesus. It’s important here to remember that the public mission that Jesus had discerned for himself was several years in the making. After he had embarked on it, he still had to make prudential decisions like how best to deal with the religious authorities who set out to derail and undermine him. He surely would have been tempted to return their hostility with venom. Haven’t we all been tempted to deal in spades with people who have sniped at us?
So, let’s look at the clever tactics with which Satan attempted to seduce Jesus. Effectively, Satan tried to sidetrack Jesus by appealing to him to pamper himself a little: “Look, Jesus”, Satan might have said, “You’ve just come through a 40-day ordeal. Why not use some of your God-given power to be nice to yourself. After all, you’ve earned a bit of self-indulgence.”
A modern-day equivalent might be getting caught into saying to ourselves: “You know you’ve gone out of your way to sort out problems at the office that were not of your making. Why not treat yourself to a long weekend? Just phone into the office on Friday morning and tell the boss that you have a touch of ‘flu and that it would be unwise to come to work and risk giving it to everyone else in the office.”
The second temptation to which Luke referred was an appeal to Jesus to ease up on what he was expecting of those who would come to listen to him, to compromise his values and principles and be more accommodating of others. In that way he would be more successful at winning their support.
In our workplaces and neighbourhoods, we are sometimes given the message that we would be breaking ranks if we were not prepared to turn a blind eye to the the unethical conduct of colleagues who were cheating on their employers and neighbours who were recycling stolen goods. It is much safer to stay popular and it will only cost you compromising a bit on what you know is right.
The third temptation put to Jesus was to give his attention to winning the support of his fellow citizens by whatever stunts he could conjure up: “If you can do the impossible for others, they’ll know you’re on their side!” These days, we often hear it said: “Whom you know is better than what you know!” The message is that we will win support and popularity if we can open the way for people whose self-interest will be satisfied if they can only be introduced to powerful people who can make things happen, even if these people are involved in shady business.
Ultimately, the temptations Jesus experienced are simply types or illustrations of the temptations that have been the lot of every human being. The point of Jesus’ response to the temptation that God’s son should never go hungry is that he hold’s firm to the providence of God and puts that well ahead of satisfying self-interest. The second temptation was to worship power – either his own power or power he could access by doing deals with the unscrupulous. The third temptation was to give his attention to manipulating, controlling or persuading God (haven’t we all tried to do that?). Who of us has not thought that if we keep going to Church, praying and doing good to others, we will earn the right to be free of sickness and misfortune. The temptation there is to believe that fidelity to religious practice is an insurance policy. The bottom line to all this, the implication in all of Jesus’ responses to Satan is that Faith is essentially a developing relationship with the God who loved us into life.
