1-2 Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry.
3 The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: “Since you’re God’s Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.”
4 Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to really live.” 5-7 For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once. Then the Devil said, “They’re yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the whole works.”
8 Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.” 9-11 For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you are God’s Son, jump. It’s written, isn’t it, that ‘he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone’?”
12 “Yes,” said Jesus, “and it’s also written, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’”
13 That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.l
Jesus is ready to take on the world and all that needs changing therein. He knew God better then any mortal before him, and was more ready to do God’s will then anyone had ever been.
And yet, he is still temptable.
The battle with evil begins at the moment he is sure he is the One sent of God.
It is the temptation to take the easy way out. To sell his soul for a bite of bread.
We too are tempted to think that we can live by bread alone.
It is the temptation to believe that the end does justify the means - idolatry is okay if it is for the right reason. I can keep my faith separate from the rest of my life, bowing to God on Sunday and doing what I have to do to make it the rest of the time.
It is the temptation to prove God’s goodness by trying to control what God does - by thinking we can be in charge of God’s miracles.
No! No! No! Our faith is to lead us to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8) Nothing less is enough.
“The greatest temptations are not those
that solicit our consent to obvious sin,
but those that offer us great evils
masking as the greatest goods.”
Thomas Merton
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