Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days,
to be tempted by the devil.
Jesus went into the desert to be tempted by the devil. But he did not do this because he was reckless, nor in order to show off his spiritual prowess. Temptation was not in fact the direct objective his time in the desert, but rather a necessary consequence of his true objective, that of solidarity with sinful men and women who were subject to temptation. He had to become like us in all things but sin, meaning that he himself had to be tempted as we are tempted, yet without sinning (see Hebrews 4:15). This is not to say that the devil ever had a chance. God himself could not be tempted in the way that creatures compromised by original sin are subject to temptation (see James 1:13). Even his human nature, infused with the light of divine knowledge and beatitude, would find the provocations of the devil uncompelling. Even his sensual nature was properly subordinated to reason and divine law so that even after forty days of fasting the bread of the word of the Father was more desirable than bread gained by sin. Does this mean that temptation did not feel similarly for Jesus as it does for us? This seems likely. And if that is so, in what sense is his experience of temptation a comfort?
The devil said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become bread.”
To put it mildly, humans have a history of succumbing to temptation. In the garden Eve stretched out her hand to take the forbidden fruit. In the desert Israel complained against Moses and God because of their hunger. The devil hoped to ensnare Jesus with the same temptation to put the sensual before the spiritual but Jesus answered immediately with the answer that Israel only learned the hard way.
So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord (see Deuteronomy 8:3).
In the garden Adam chose to serve the serpent rather than the creator. In the desert Israel desired a false God to worship when Moses and God seemed distant and unhelpful. This led caused them to succumb to the worship of the golden calf. Jesus himself had a hard path ahead and he knew it. Would he give in to the temptation of the devil to use worldly power as a shortcut to bring his Kingdom to the world?
Then he took him up and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him,
“I shall give to you all this power and glory;
for it has been handed over to me,
and I may give it to whomever I wish.
All this will be yours, if you worship me.”
Jesus came for the very purpose of destroying the works of the devil (see First John 3:8) and liberating those in bondage. Such a Kingdom could only exist with God in the primary place, with the words of Shema prayer of Israel etched in the very hearts of the citizens of that Kingdom. Any concessions to the world or to the devil would subvert the very purpose for which Jesus came. Jesus knew well the words of Deuteronomy that Israel must, "be careful not to forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that house of slavery" (see Deuteronomy 6:12), and therefore responded by quoting the subsequent verse.
You shall worship the Lord, your God,
and him alone shall you serve.
Adam and Eve tested the words of the Lord, not believing that they would experience the consequences promised for their sinful act. So too did ancient Israel put the Lord to the test at the waters of Meribah, demanding that of the Lord, "Give us water to drink" (see Exodus 17:2). Even the great figure of Moses failed in that instance, giving in to anger and impatience, striking the rock twice. The devil tried to play on an imagined insecurity in Jesus about his own identity and mission, suggesting that if he was the Son of God he could force God's hand in revealing that fact to the world. But Jesus knew that there was only one way his story was meant to go, one plan of the Father he was meant to fulfill. He would not attempt to short circuit that plan or circumvent it. He already knew the third lesson that Israel only learned by their failure.
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.
Jesus went to the desert in solidarity with sinful men and women, not so much to feel the temptations he experienced as to definitively defeat them all. He won victory over temptations to pleasure, to power, and to pride so that he could reproduce that victory in each of us. Hence it is important that we learn to say and to understand that "he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (see First John 4:4). On our own we flounder against these temptations just as did our first parents, Israel, and so many other historical precedents. But in Jesus we become more than conquerors (see Romans 8:37) because in him we already have the victory.
What does Scripture say?
The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart
—that is, the word of faith that we preach—,
for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
Because Jesus trusted in the word that was near him, because it was on his lips and thoroughly rooted in his heart, even through temptation, he made it possible for us to experience salvation from temptation, from sin, and finally from death itself. But for us the path to victory is only through faith in Jesus himself reproducing his own victory in us. But he himself has come so near to us as to dwell in our hearts. His word is more than close us to save us whenever we feel ourselves at risk. Let us remember at such times that we need faith to conquer. Let us even be free to confess with our lips his Lordship over any difficulties we face, for he is the Lord of all (see Acts 10:36).
When we live by the power of faith, in the practice of confessing the primacy of our Lord Jesus, we will be in a better position even than Israel freed from slavery in Egypt to offer all that we have and all that we are back to God.
Therefore, I have now brought you the firstfruits
of the products of the soil
which you, O LORD, have given me.
We can imagine, considering the failures of Israel in the desert, how our Lenten experience will be less effective if we spend the whole time grumbling. Our practices can strengthen us, fasting against sensual pleasure, alms giving against the desire for power and greed, prayer against temptations to pride. They do this best when they are responses of thanksgiving to the freedom and salvation we have already been given by the death and resurrection of Jesus himself.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress;
I will deliver him and glorify him.
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