The Temptation of Jesus

August 31, 2025                                                                                                         

Luke 4:1-13 

Soon after John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, Luke tells us Jesus was "full of the Holy Spirit," and he was "led by the Spirit in the wilderness."  Actually, the Greek word translated “led" has some power behind it.  One can translate it that he was pushed by the Spirit into the wilderness.  Or he was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness.  In translating it with the weaker word "led", it gives us the idea he could have done something else instead of going into the wilderness.  From the big time of baptism which included the affirmation of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is compelled to go into the Judean wilderness for a time of temptation.

            In Greek, the word “temptation” can also be translated “hard testing.”  I suspect that everyone present here has gone through times of temptation and hard testing.  Such times are just part of being a follower of Christ Jesus.  The devil came to test Jesus, and he comes to test us.  The devil came to tempt Jesus, and he comes to tempt us.  Let us see what Jesus did to pass his time of testing and temptation. 

His wilderness experience was not an easy time.  It was a difficult time.  Jesus proved himself in the wilderness.  He learned in the wilderness that he had the stuff for being the Messiah.  He went into the wilderness as some go to college or the military, to be proven and challenged.  It was a time when he was in prayer and fasting.  He drew closer to the Lord God.  He went through a period of hard testing and passed the test with flying colors.

Sometimes we think of Jesus as a kind of superman.  We forget that while he was fully God, he was also fully human.  We must remember that he is the fullness of God in human flesh.  He felt pain and joy.  He experienced the fullness of temptation and testing as we do.  In recent years, people are rediscovering the Gnostic writings.  Some claim they are secret or hidden Gospels.  Gnosticism was a popular early heresy of Christianity that taught some very strange things.  Gnosticism saw Jesus as a spiritual being, not possessing a body like we do. They taught that he did not experience life in the body as we do. Unlike the Gnostics, orthodox Christians have for two thousand years recognized that Jesus is really human.  Since Jesus is fully human, we believe that he experienced everything we experience-hunger, anger, love, pain and the full range of feelings and vulnerabilities.  When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he was fully and strongly tempted.  When Jesus fasted in the wilderness, he suffered everything we suffer when we go without food for a long time.  Jesus' body was a completely human body.

Luke is clear about Jesus’ time in the wilderness.  Jesus comes to the wilderness to be tested by the devil.  The Adversary of humankind comes to see what Jesus is made of.  He comes with enticing offers of power.  He comes to sidetrack Jesus and press him become a false messiah, not the Messiah of God.  In the wilderness Jesus is tested.  The one doing the testing is the devil, and he has a lot of experience in testing humans.  He is an expert in lies, deceptions and painting beautiful pictures that lead to disaster.  We moderns have a difficult time believing that there is such a personage as the devil.  Some of our understandings of the devil come from Medieval European images.  You know what I'm talking about.  The little red man with cloven hooves for feet.  The snake or dragon image.  Medieval images are hideous and frightening.  However, we might do better in imagining the devil as one who comes in a fancy suit, handsome and tempting us to be anything but the people God calls us to be.  Those who think the devil comes with tail, red tights and carrying a fork are off target.  He comes in many ways to tempt us and get us off track.

Jesus was driven into the desert for a time of testing, a time of severe temptation.  Luke reports three key temptations that Jesus faced.  These three temptations were at the core of who he is as God's Messiah, God's anointed one.  He fasted 40 days.  In biblical terms forty days means a long time.  It may have been forty twenty-four-hour days, but usually the words "forty days" is metaphor meaning “a long time.”  He was hungry.  He was in a terribly vulnerable situation.  When a human is deprived of food for a long period he or she goes through stages of deprivation.  At first, one is terribly hungry and then one loses hunger.  But something else happens when humans are constantly hungry.  From the experience of people in prison camps and concentration camps, we know that food deprived people are obsessed with food.  They dream of food.  They think constantly about food.  Jesus was in a state of physiological hunger.  Luke tells us “...he was famished (Luke 4:2)."  His body cried out for food.  He was terribly vulnerable, and the devil comes at us in our area of vulnerability.

Temptation #1:  It is time for the first temptation.  The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread (Luke 4:4)."  He is tempted to use his divine powers to make a hunk of round desert limestone turn into a loaf of bread that he can eat.  That would be a simple task for one who has divine power.  It does not sound like a bad or evil thing.  He was hungry.  Why not do this simple thing?  Jesus quotes Scripture in answering the Devil:  "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.’"  He is quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3. The last portion of the verse is, "...you shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."  Jesus is being sustained, not by bread, but by God.  To use divine power to end his fast would be a selfish misuse of his powers.  It would sidetrack him completely. He was in the wilderness in order to be fed by God, not to play magic with limestone. He told the evil one that he is fed by and completely sustained by God.  Jesus passed the first test.

Temptation #2: Test number two comes.  The devil led him up a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world.  Imagine that sight.  He saw Rome in all its splendor and power.  He saw the great kingdoms of China.  He saw human wealth and power at its greatness.  I have seen parts of the Roman Empire that are today in ruin.  Even in ruin they are spectacular, and must have been awesome in their prime.  They had great temples.  Their roadways were magnificent.  Jesus saw the greatest of the greatest in all their glory.  He saw their palaces and great public buildings.  Then the devil said, "I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.  If you worship me, it will all be yours (Luke 4:6-7)."  This is the temptation of human wealth and power.  This is the temptation to accept second best rather than God's best.  This is the temptation to live for time and not eternity.  This is the temptation to be the most powerful king or emperor of the world. Here Jesus is tempted to become the temporal king of the world.  Those who run for office may want to become junior king of the world but there is always a price to pay.  Notice the devil said "If”?  “If you worship me, it will all be yours."  Worship is a simple act.  Jesus answered the devil's "If” with a command from Scripture: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him (Luke 4:8)."  Nothing is worth the price of idolatry.  The only being worthy of our worship is the Lord God, not the devil.  The only being worthy of our complete service is the Lord God, not the devil.  Nothing is worth the price of idolatry.  Jesus passes test number two.

The Final Test:  It is time for the last test, number three.  The devil took him to the very top of the temple in Jerusalem.  He said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you to protect you,' and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone (Luke 4:9-11)."  We learn that even the devil can quote Scripture as long as it is to his advantage.  It is a long drop from the pinnacle of the temple to the bottom of the Kidron Valley.  Since there is always a crowd at the temple, many people would witness such a feat.  Jesus would have quickly gained quite a following.  People like to follow those who do spectacular things.  There is always the question, "What will he do next?"  People like a spectacle.  I saw a video of a Frenchman who liked the challenge of climbing up city skyscrapers without rope or net.  He certainly drew a crowd!  People like to watch someone doing something that is dangerous and life threatening.  Jesus again replied from Scripture: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test (Luke 4:12)."  He passes the final test, then Luke tells us, "When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time (Luke 4:13).”

At the end of Wadi Kelt, a large valley in Israel, there is a village called, Taybeh.  In that village attached to a church is a first century house.  While making a trip to a brewery to get some Arab beer, an archaeologist found the house.  He sought out the priest and then found a woman who was over one hundred years old.  He talked with her about the house and she revealed an interesting piece of local history.  She recalled when she was a little girl that the elders told her, “When the Lord came out of the wilderness, he came to our village, and he was nursed back to health."  The village is the only Arab village that is 100% Christian.  If the woman's story is true and village stories often are true, then Jesus’ time in Judean wilderness was serious time that required a period of recovery and care.

Temptation is always serious business.  If Jesus dealt with temptation, we must recognize we are not exempt to it.  If Jesus was successful in passing the tests--in overcoming temptation--then we too can overcome temptation.  While he was in the wilderness, he received his marching orders. He learned more of what God wanted him to do.  Our times of temptation are opportunities to pass the test.  They do not have to be times of failure.  Since we Christians possess the Holy Spirit, we have the power we need to pass the test of temptation, and each test we pass makes us stronger.  We can take heart in what John wrote:  …the one who is in U is greater than the one that is in the world (1 John 4:4.)”  In other words, we have the power of the Holy Spirit to deal successfully with every test and temptation we will face in life.