Each year at the start of the Lenten season, we are led to the desert to undergo a survival course with Jesus. The narration of the temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11) shows us that to be tempted is human, but to overcome temptation is Christian.
‘If you are…’
The desert is a place of truth, as it is a place of trials. In the wilderness we look into our inner selves and reflect on our motives and goals. Following His pivotal religious experience of God at His baptism at the Jordan, Jesus withdrew into the desert “to be tempted by the devil.” It was the Spirit leading Him into this encounter with the devil, so that His relationship with God and His perceived mission may be discerned further and deepened. Like Israel of old, Jesus’ “40” days and nights in the wilderness would be either a “yes” or a “no” to God with the struggle it entails.
Being truly human, Jesus could not bypass the trial. At the Jordan He heard, “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). The devil picked it up from there, to make Jesus doubt what God proclaimed, just like the way the devil seduced the woman to doubt God’s word (Genesis 3:1-6). But here subtly and no outright contradiction, but a suggested testing of God’s word: “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” Verify the truth, get a sign —changing stones into bread would be just timely to appease His hunger after a long fast. Hunger for food had also led Israel in the desert to doubt whether God had really chosen them (Exodus 16:3). They would know they were loved only if their stomachs were full.
God’s word as life
The stand of Jesus was unequivocal: One does not doubt God’s word; in fact it alone gives life. Quoting from (Deuteronomy 8:3), Jesus countered the devil’s imagined bread with the apodictic truth that “man lives by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord.” For God’s word is as the manna that concretized God’s promised care for His people journeying in the desert. Jesus knows that His status as the beloved son should not be equated with His being always full; He may be hungry but still the beloved son.
As expected, the devil does not give up easily. The next temptation is a variation of the first. From the parapet of the temple in Jerusalem, a jump before the teeming crowds below would certainly establish God’s expressed love for Jesus. Using God’s own word, the devil cited Scripture to reason out that some dramatic experience of God’s concern for Jesus would prove that He is truly the Son of God. And the response of Jesus to the tempter the second time around is also but a repetition of His total faith in and radical commitment to God. Again relying on God’s word, Jesus told the devil, “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test” (Deuteronomy 6:16). Jesus would not do what the people did at Massah and Meribah challenging God to prove Himself to them (Exodus 17:7). Jesus knows that He is still God’s beloved son even if He is hurt; God loves Him also amid pain and suffering.
Alálaong bagá, the stand of Jesus is final and irrevocable: absolute fidelity to God—“The Lord, your God, shall you worship and Him alone shall you serve” (Deuteronomy 6:16). Jesus has no other gods; He is the beloved son even in poverty and without political power. The devil’s final attempt to distract Jesus with the trump card of having all the kingdoms of the world if only Jesus would prostrate Himself before Him in adoration, received the clear-cut rebuke “Get away, Satan!” The devil is unmasked; calling Satan by His name is to expose and reject Him, the purpose of all exorcism. One makes no deal with the devil; its sole purpose is to separate us from God into perdition. We need to expose it in whatever way it tries to ensnare us.
Lent is our annual journeying in the desert in imitation of Jesus Christ. Like Him “led by the Holy Spirit,” we look into ourselves and examine our priorities in life. We need to affirm our absolute commitment to listen and live by the word of God.
Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.