Luke 4.1-13
Temptation is real, for Jesus and for us. Today’s gospel is, as Luke tells us, a real visitation of the power of evil, an attempt to turn Jesus away from trust and reliance on God and his God-given mission in the world and prove himself by other means. This is not play-acting. Jesus isn’t a celestial Superman, coming in the guise of Clark Kent, mild-mannered human being by day but ready with his red cape to get out of difficulties when they arise. No, the gospels tell a different story. In them, we see that Jesus, in his human nature, is not immune to things common to us all: hunger, exhaustion, exasperation, as well as today’s temptation. The New Testament letter of Hebrews says, “Jesus has been tempted in every way as we are.” No one is exempt from temptation: not you, not me, not Jesus.
But what does temptation look like? In some ways, all three of Jesus’ temptations are perfectly sensible, even attractive: bread, power, honor. We need food to eat; we want enough power to be confident in life and be worn down by the whims of others; we like being acknowledged for the things we do: bread, power, honor. And none of the temptations that Jesus faces are the sort of things we normally think of as bad. There’s no temptation toward self-indulgence, cruelty, or violating any of the Ten Commandments. Rather, all three temptations are driven by a single word: if. ‘If you are the Son of God.’ ‘If you worship me the world will be yours.’ And again, ‘If you are the Son of God.’ In other words, prove yourself. Who doesn’t want to be able to do that?
But the ‘if’ of the devil’s questioning isn’t really a question at all. Because today’s gospel comes right after the account of Jesus’ baptism. There, the voice of God the Father declares him beloved Son, the heavens are opened above him, and the Holy Spirit is alive in him. Only what an odd time for temptation to take place. Don’t we usually think that when temptation is near, God is far away, that temptation’s presence is a sign of God’s absence? ‘If God were close to me, and I were close to God, this wouldn’t be happening.’ But here we see the opposite. “Great privileges and special signs of God’s favor will not secure us from being tempted,” says Matthew Henry. Jesus’ temptations come at the very point of great privilege. “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit…was tempted by the devil.” Today we see that temptation can come when we are at our best, enticing us to take good life and good gifts that God gives us, and use them for purposes other than God desires.
The first temptation isn’t about sin at all but the basic need for nourishment and survival: bread, food. After 40 days of fasting, Jesus was, the Gospel of Luke says, “famished.” The devilish voice? ‘God couldn’t possibly want that for his beloved Son, could he? If you are the Son of God, claim God’s blessing for your life now. If you are who you say you are, prove it. You’re hungry, have a sandwich.’ Who could resist?
The scripture passage that Jesus cites in response to this temptation is realistic about our need for bread. “One does not live by bread alone,” Jesus says. He does not say, ‘One does not live by bread at all.’ That would be unrealistic. We live by bread at least; we need to eat. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray for daily bread; in his ministry he feeds the hungry multitudes with bread. And yet, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “Life is more than food;” and of his own life and ministry, he says, “My food is to do the will of the Father who sent me;” and in another place, he tells his followers not to strive for bread that gets stale but for bread that nourishes with lasting life. There are things to hunger for that give meaning and purpose to life and satisfy us in the way a loaf of bread never will. “Why spend money on what is not bread,” the Lord says in Isaiah. “Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good.” That is the life God desires. Jesus is unwilling to turn stones into a sandwich at the devil’s word; he is only satisfied with God’s word. “One does not live by bread alone.”
The second temptation shifts from a basic human need to a common human desire, from bread to power. If Jesus is to be Lord of the world—the very thing the angel Gabriel told Mary before Jesus was born, “He will be great, Son of the Most High, and will reign forever”—the devilish voice suggests an easy path to get there. Why not claim the kingdoms of the world no matter the cost, especially now when peace feels precarious and the world fragile? What’s wrong with a little muscle to get things done?
Now the devil, as you heard, claims that the power and authority of the world have been handed over to him. (You can decide whether to take the devil at his word. Some days I wonder.) Here again, though, temptation is not about violating one of the commandments; this temptation is for Jesus to turn from the God-given path of humble service, the way of the cross, and prove himself by seizing the world with a power that is recognizable as power.
Only it doesn’t work, not for Jesus and not for us—no matter how tempted we are to try. Robert Farrar Capon points out how easy it is for us to succumb to the temptation of trying to set things right by exercising power. “For a long time, since the fall [of Adam and Eve] in fact, humankind has been in love with a demonic style of power. Most, if not all, of the mischief in the world is done out of the belief that one more application of power will bring in the kingdom. One more invasion, one more war, one more escalation; [or in our personal life] one more jealous fit, one more towering rage—in short, one more twist of whatever arm you’ve got hold of will make goodness triumph and peace reign. It might work short-term, but it doesn’t work ultimately because that’s not how Jesus works.” Or as Jesus himself says, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” The setting right of all things in heaven and earth, and the peace that comes from it, happens on the cross.
Each temptation then appeals to identity and purpose, of who we are and how our lives are meant to be lived. Will the good life and good gifts God gives us be used in ways and for purposes other than God desires? That is the question. And it is true of the third temptation, too. For Jesus, the voice of the third temptation says, ‘If you really are who you say you are, God will suspend the law of gravity and the angels will pick you up before you crash.’ This is the Clark Kent temptation: leap from a tall building in a single bound; do something spectacular that leaves a good impression.
And for us? Applied personally, this is the voice that tells us that self-worth and personal value can be proved by any number of things: income, positive performance reviews, a well-lived life, body image, successful relationships, good parents, or good parenting. Yet to make any of those things, even good things, the guiding principle of life means listening to an echo of the voice that Jesus heard, the voice asking for proof of one’s value in something tangible rather than simple trust in the word that you are now a beloved child of God.
The third temptation is a temptation to turn from a God-oriented, God-directed life and find your value, purpose, and goal in something other than the values of God’s kingdom, a kingdom of justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. This is a kingdom where the poor and poor in spirit are blessed, along with mourners, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; a kingdom where the merciful are blessed; the pure in heart are blessed; where peacemakers are blessed. And you—even when life is a challenge—you are blessed. There’s very little proof of that but there is plenty of opportunity to turn toward God in trust when you are tempted to believe otherwise.
Bread, power, honor: temptation really is a question of where life is focused and of how it’s meant to be lived: turned toward God or away from God. Whatever temptations you are facing right now, look to Jesus in his. For Jesus, trust begins with the voice of God the Father declaring him beloved Son. In other words, it begins at his baptism.
For us, too, when we’re tempted to prove our worth to the satisfaction of others or even to ourselves. It begins with our baptism, the tangible act of being washed in water with the Word of God spoken over us and the Spirit of God given us; the assurance of being “marked as Christ’s own forever.” Christ’s own. That’s you. Christ’s own forever. Your identity and purpose begin and end with the promise of God’s enduring and steadfast faithfulness through all of life.
You may not be tempted in the same way as Jesus was, but he can give you the wisdom to recognize temptation’s voice and the strength to resist when you hear it. And when you fall, as you will, he will lift you up in grace and forgiveness. Because of Jesus and his faithfulness, we can, the New Testament says in another place, “Approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Jesus’ faithfulness through temptation is his gift to you in yours. Alive in the Spirit and Christ’s own forever. He will lead you again and again in a life that God desires.
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