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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. 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.
Instead of the Emperor’s throne Jesus chooses the position of the rebel and this becomes apparent several times in the Temple. Jesus’ rebellious spirit in shown in the cleansing of the Temple, (Luke 19: 45-46), the prediction that it will be torn down and three days later rebuilt, (Matt 26: 61, John 2:19). The position God takes is not from above, but from below. When Jesus sees the widow make her gift to the Temple, and predicts the destruction of the Temple, (Luke 21:6) he looks up, (Luke 21:1). Jesus, in this way comes not from above but from below, not from afar but from amongst. His presence and power are not concerned with getting the agreement of the powerful but beginning the liberation of the powerless. Thus he steps out onto the streets of Hong Kong or Delhi because his mother gives him this rebellious Spirit, when she sings her Magnificat over him, (Luke 1:46-55). This is the Spirit Jesus is as full of in the wilderness, (Luke 4: 1) as the Temple is empty of in Holy Week.
Temptation 3
Fake vulnerability
The Devil invites Jesus into a show of power, that will fake jeopardy to impress and entertain the crowds: ‘Show them you cannot die’, hints the Devil, ‘show that you are indeed protected and upheld by divine love’. In that tempting drama, the crowds spectate his possible death and this angelic intervention will confirm that Jesus is undoubtedly the Son of God. The Devil knows that the Tomb is the test for God, that most think the argument for faith in God is that it should, God should, offer protection to the faithful, (Ps.16:10). The irony is of course, that Jesus, will take up a place on a pinnacle. Not on the Temple Mount, but on Mount Golgotha, on the cross. And he will throw himself down, even to the place of the dead, but no angels will come to minister to him there, and even precious few of his friends. Indeed, God in Jesus will be put to the test, as Jesus wrestles with accepting the cup of suffering in Gethsemane, (Luke: 22:42) and then at that moment, the angel does come to give him strength, Luke 22:43, not to evade death but to choose it.
And the Devil is right, the stone will not harm him. We come to Easter morning, and there we discover the faithfulness of the stone, for it rolls away for him as he steps into new life. (Luke 24:2)
Prayer
Lord Jesus Host at our table And guest at our meal Teach us to stop turning the earth’s bread into stone Through the pollution we cause. So that we may live in new communion With you and your creation.
Holy Christ Host at our Temple Member of our congregation Stir in us your rebellious Spirit That worship may send us Into an uprising of love, So that we may come to your cross standing with those who protest The evil of empire today.
Living Lord Host at our tomb Bearer of our bodies Call us forth now into your new day That your resurrection may uproot hell From our world, our wounds, our systems and our streets, And this we ask in the name of Mary’s son Amen.
This Ash Wednesday remember all that has been burnt in Delhi. Remember all those who have been killed. Let not the ash on your forehead be an individual act of piety but a public solidarity with all victims of violence.
- Rev Philip Vinod Peacock Executive Secretary for Justice and Witness World Communion of Reformed Churches “
