DEVOTIONAL
Lent Bible Study Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, ² 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. ³ The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ ⁴ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.”’ ⁵ Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶ 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. ⁷ If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ ⁸ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”’ ⁹ 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, ¹⁰ for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”,¹¹ and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’ ¹² Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ ¹³ When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. (Luke 4: 1 – 13) Traditionally the church approaches Easter through Lent, forty days of preparation for our travelling with Jesus through Holy Week to Table, Temple and Tomb. These forty days are a symbolic way for us to enter the wilderness of Jesus’ temptation and struggle, which begins Jesus’ public ministry. They are also a reminder of the forty years Israel spent in the wilderness, (Ex 34:28ff, Deut 8:2). Luke’s account of the Temptations follows Jesus baptism, (Luke 3:21-23) and precedes his self-announcement in the Nazareth synagogue, (Luke 4: 14 – 30), as the longed-for Messiah. Having been revealed as the Son of God at the baptism, the question is what kind of Son, what kind of God? The temptations help to answer this, as does their echo in Holy Week at the Table, in the Temple and the Tomb.
Temptation 1 A hungry Jesus is invited to turn stone into bread Forty days and nights without food is going beyond the experience of Israel, who at least had manna in the desert. Famished and starving as he is, Jesus still allows Scripture to speak more loudly than the rumbling of his stomach. The Devil invites Jesus to do what human beings do, which is to put their needs before everyone and anything else.
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INSiGHT | February 2020
But Jesus refuses to objectify creation, he seems willing to let stones be stones, rather than process them into something he can use and profit from. Jesus’ curious loyalty to stones will be rehearsed again at the entry into Jerusalem, when Jesus tells the Pharisees that the stones themselves would herald his messiahship if his disciples were silent, (Luke 19:40). Jesus, understands his calling speaks to the identities and dignities of all creation and they are not to be used and exploited for his purpose. As Jesus remarks, one does not live by bread alone, one lives by the relationships we inhabit and loyalties we honour. When we come with Jesus to the table, we realise that far from taking a self-denying approach to bread, in fact Jesus values bread so highly, he is ready to become it himself, (Luke 22:19). Far from crushing stones into bread, he will break his body, not so that he might live, but that ‘whosoever might eat this bread will live’ (John 6:51)
Temptation 2 Taking or overturning the throne of authority? The Devil offers Jesus a vantage point on all the kingdoms of the world in hope of their glory and adulation. Isn’t this God’s normal vantage point, looking down on Creation looking up to God? The witness of the Bible to this point suggests that this has not worked out well for God. Even his own people have been stiff necked and refused to look up in love, (Exod. 32:9). It must be tempting for God to impose God’s authority and power and settle for a ‘quid pro quo’ deal with the powerful and the popular, after all this is what the Church has done and does. Here we have the temptation for God, and God’s Son in particular to come to the earth as Emperor and settle for a worship he knows is unfaithful and the product of fear and envy.
