(Audio)
Just as ancient Israel was led out of Egypt into the desert for forty years of trial during which they often succumbed to temptation so Jesus would now allow himself to be led into the desert for forty days in order to conquer those temptations. Israel was said to be the firstborn son called out of Egypt, but now it was revealed that this was only a shadow of the true firstborn Son: "Out of Egypt I called my son" (see Matthew 2:15).
"If you are the Son of God,
command that these stones become loaves of bread."
A superficial analysis of these words might make us wonder, 'Why not?' After all, the forty days of his fast were over and he was hungry. Why not put his power to use to satisfy this hunger and at the same time give an undeniable assertion of his identity as the Son of God? But Jesus knew that to use his power to satisfy himself in this way would miss the point of his forty day fast. The point was precisely that he would rely on his Father and not on himself to sustain him, would subjugate even his hunger to trust in God. He would not suddenly tear that surrendered control back into his own hands. The Father was trustworthy for the forty days, and he would continue to be trustworthy, as the angels who were to come and minister to Jesus would soon reveal.
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD (see Deuteronomy 8:3).
By remaining faithful Jesus did refashioned broken human nature into a form that could endure trials and privations, and remain solid even when faced with the more subtle temptation to rely on oneself rather than God.
Then the devil took him to the holy city,
and made him stand on the parapet of the temple,
and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.
Again the devil attacked the identity of Jesus as the Son, yet this time with a different strategy. If Jesus really trusted in his Father's word then why not avail himself of the promised protection offered in that word?
He will command his angels concerning you
and with their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Although the devil could quote Scripture, he took it out of context and subverted its meaning. The devil wanted Jesus to feel that it would be so easy to just force God's hand by choosing to slip only slightly and thereby reveal his divine identity to all who witnessed it, guaranteed to be no small number given the location on the parapet of the temple. We succumb to temptations like this more frequently than we realize when we try to act in a way that forces God to respond. Sometimes it does seem to be just so easy to collapse and demand that he catch us. And how great, we know, are the times when God does safeguard those who fall. We sometimes long for such encounters so much as to demand them, and indeed to grumble for them as the Israelites grumbled when they didn't receive what they wanted on the terms they chose to set. We demand revisions to the plan when the desert journey as not as smooth and easy as we had hoped, when it requires more trust than we seem to be able to offer. But Jesus reforged this fallen aspect of our nature as well. The Israelites grumbled, but Jesus was content with his Father's will, even knowing full well where that will would lead him.
Jesus answered him,
"Again it is written,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test."
The devil tried a last desperate strategy to cause Jesus to turn aside from the Father's plan for him, one last easy out that Jesus might choose instead of the long and hard road of the cross.
Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain,
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,
and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you,
if you will prostrate yourself and worship me."
This might seem to us so extreme as to be laughable, as indeed Jesus might have found it to be. But we, like the Israelites of old are all too prone to choose idols when our desert journey seems to become unbearable. Like them, we have a variety of golden statues with whom we bargain when it seems to us that we can't get what we desire from the Lord. When God seems distant, as he did to Israel when Moses seemed to have been absent on the mountain for too long, we tend to take things into our own hands. And what are these idols? The list is long: power, politics, pleasure, science, and a variety of other lesser although still genuine goods. Yet we prop them up on pedestals as if they themselves will answer our prayers. Fortunately for us Jesus did not mince words in his response, did not hesitate in fidelity, and therefore reforged this fallen aspect of our human nature as well.
At this, Jesus said to him,
"Get away, Satan!
It is written:
The Lord, your God, shall you worship
and him alone shall you serve."
We are so subject to all of the desert temptations to which Israel succumbed because we inherited the spiritual death of Adam. But we can see, perhaps more clearly than before, that this need no longer be so because of the promise that has been made to us in Jesus Christ.
For if by the transgression of the one, the many died,
how much more did the grace of God
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ
overflow for the many.
For this gracious gift to be all that it is meant to be we must receive it not just once at the beginning, but in an ongoing way that allows it to transform us, giving us not just pardon and acquittal, but life, and not just any life, but one in which we too are victorious over temptation, in which we can even be said to "reign" through Jesus Christ.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
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