The Temptation of Jesus - Luke 4: 1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Commentary

Today's gospel story is the familiar one of the temptation of Jesus by the devil. None of us are likely to fast for 40 days in the desert, nor are we likely to be taken to a mountain top where we can be shown all the kingdoms of the world, nor to the pinnacle of the temple. So are we home free on this one? No. I think we all know that the devil is always around tempting us and we are always bound by our faith to resist his temptations.
Is that enough?

I think the best way for us to consider this question is not by looking at the temptations, but instead to look at the commandments Jesus quotes in answering them. For the sake of time, I am only going to consider the first two. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY word of God; and Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and him only shalt thou serve.

Lets take them one at a time. Jesus says that we are to live by every word of God, and he compares this to living by bread. I think he is saying that the word of God is just as essential to life as is bread. Without it we will starve. I do not think that Jesus felt he was exaggerating. In his religion, mankind was made in the image of God. And his mission was to entice us to fully live into that role. To Jesus, life is not just about feeding our belly. Rather to live fully, we are to also fill our minds and our hearts. To do that we need the Word of God. I know of two sources for the Word of God. One is the Bible and the other is all of creation. And Jesus tells us to LIVE on this food.
That is a big task to undertake.

Now Jesus also tells us we are to serve ONLY God. I don't think Jesus meant by this that we can't take a job, or take a spouse. But I do think he meant that in a properly balanced life we need to focus solely on serving God and the rest will come along appropriately. If we are not focused on God alone, then we are not going to get it right.

Compared to these commandments, I want to suggest that temptations are the wrong thing to focus on. The Devil is happy to have us beat him in our little temptations if in doing so, we loose sight of the big commandments. All the thou shalt nots are not going to save us. Jesus tells us to LIVE on the word of God. Jesus tells us to be focused SOLELY on serving God. If we do that, we will not have time for temptations.
AMEN