‘One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’ ”
11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Questions
- Why does Jesus go to the wilderness why not fast at home?
- Why does Jesus fast if he knows he will be tempted, why intentionally weaken himself before this struggle?
- What is the real sin behind each of the three temptations? Is it wrong to make bread etc?
Background
Related Scriptures: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Luke 4:1-13; Hebrews 4
Jesus’ fast was an intentional time of reliance in God but one cannot be relying on God if one is not facing temptation, otherwise there is nothing to rely on God for. Further, when tempted Jesus demonstrates reliance on God by relying on Scripture to reflect God’s character.
John Chrysostom: The text says “then.” Then when? This was after the descent of the Spirit, after the voice that was borne from above had said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Led by whom? This is marvelous. All of this was led by the Holy Spirit. For it says Jesus was “led up by the Spirit.” All this was for our instruction. The Lord does whatever is necessary for our salvation by both acting and being acted upon. He submitted himself to being led up there to wrestle against the devil. Now we should not be troubled if, after our baptism, we too have to endure great temptations. We should not treat this as if unexpected but continue to endure all things nobly, as though it were happening in the natural course of things. [1]
Reflection
Jesus has experienced a grueling month and a half, physically and emotionally and at the end of it the Devil is at his shoulder saying, “I’ll give you everything you came here for.” Yes, the text says that the Devil offered the world in exchange for worship, but we do not want to read these words so literally that they become of caricature of what they actually mean. A formal or ritualized worship of the Devil would have been so repugnant to Jesus that it would not have been a temptation. The Devil is not so foolish as to think Jesus would start praying to him in exchange for the kingdoms of earth. When the Scripture says worship it is saying serve, or use the tactics that the Devil uses. All three of the Devil’s temptations are meant to distract Jesus from doing things God’s way. Whether it is making food before God gives it to him or conquering the world through the ways of Rome, each of the temptations are about Jesus laying aside God’s principles to serve his own ends. Notice though the ends the Devil tempts him toward are the same goals God wants Jesus to accomplish. God wants Jesus to be alive so of course God wants Jesus fed. Of course God would not want Jesus to die from a fall. God wants Jesus to reign over the earth. These are the three things the Devil says. The temptation is not the wrong end goal, it is the means used to achieve that end.
This passage points to the fact that how Jesus accomplished his mission was important as what he did. The ends do not justify the means. The Devil does not try to get Jesus to deviate from the plan of ruling the world but he wants Jesus to deviate in how he reaches that end. He never asked Jesus to give up on the ultimate goal that God had for him, instead he was even more subtle. Why? Because Jesus could only truly reign over the earth if he lived a life worthy of his calling. Jesus might have been given power over the world if he had followed the Devil’s means but he would never truly reign. Because true dominion works with God to fulfill the call of humanity in Genesis 1. Truly taking on the rule of the world means identifying fully with God to the fullest extent and Jesus could not do that through the traditional power politics used by humans.
This matters for us, not simply because we look to Jesus work and are grateful he resisted temptation but as Hebrews 4:15 says “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” We are in fact tempted in the same ways as Jesus. We are tempted to abandon God’s means while trying to accomplish God’s ends. We are tempted to care more about the ends of my own life and happiness more than doing things the way God wants. Each day we are tempted to “take matters into our own hands” in ways that “get things done” but do not honor God. And the worst part is that these temptations can often be defended by Scripture, the same way the Devil did. So how do I, who clearly am not Jesus, hope to overcome temptation? How can I distinguish God’s voice in Scripture from the temptation? This is the question and it is why Jesus spent so much time alone in the wilderness connecting to God. Jesus wanted to hear clearly from God and took steps to understand God more deeply, and so we should also. We need to be invested in learning to distinguish God’s voice and learn wisdom from God. Because even today there is a temptation to seek the kind of power that the Devil offered Jesus. Even today we hear opposing messages about the Scriptures. Yet even today God has not left us alone, we are still connected to the Holy Spirit and if we devote time to hearing from God we too will be able to distinguish the messages and understand God’s voice. This obviously takes time and we need to be patient with ourselves but the temptation to walk away from God’s path to try to achieve God’s ends is real and we need to recognize that. We need to give ourselves time with God regularly so that we can learn to understand God’s purposes and hear God’s voice. Otherwise we will be succumbing to the temptations that Jesus calls us to resist.
[1] Manlio Simonetti, ed., Matthew 1–13, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture 56.
Squinting in the Light 
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