Rector’s Reflections
Tuesday 4th March 2025
The Temptations of Christ
Today I am starting a new series of reflections, on the subject of the temptations of Christ. Today is Shrove Tuesday, and the topic of temptation seems particularly appropriate as we look ahead to the start of Lent.
Lent is an opportunity to face up to the temptations in our life, and to try and overcome them through the strength which God gives us through his Holy Spirit. In this practice, Christians seek to imitate Jesus Christ, who faced temptation throughout his life, but most especially at the start of his public ministry and at the end.
At the start of Jesus’ public ministry, immediately following on from his Baptism, we read in Mark’s gospel that “the Spirit immediately drove him out into the Wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and angels waited on him” (Mark chapter 1, verses 12 and 13). Matthew and Luke provide us with some more detail on the particular temptations which Jesus faced at the beginning of his ministry, and we shall look at these in the days ahead.
Luke ends his account of Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness with the following comment:” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4, verse 13). How true this is in our own experience! We struggle with a particular temptation, and feel that we have mastered it. And some time later, months later, perhaps years later, the temptation comes back again, as strong as ever.
Luke does not specify the time and occasion when “the devil” returned to tempt Jesus, but it is quite possibly a reference to the time during Holy Week, when Jesus was praying on the Mount of Olives. He knew that he was facing arrest by the authorities, and an excruciating death by Crucifixion. He knew that this was God’s will, but he was also a human being, and it was natural for him to hesitate at the prospect of such a painful death. This is Luke’s account of what happened: “[Jesus] came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial [ or into temptation] “. Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed. “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done”. Then an angel from heaven appeared o him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground. When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, and he said to hem, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial” (Luke chapter 22, verses 39 to 46).
Jesus was of course a human being, and as a human being it was natural for him to face temptation. The temptations which we human beings face in the course of our lives come in all different shapes and sizes. Different people are tempted by different things. Some are particularly tempted by the desire for money; some enjoy the feeling of power over other people; some are driven by the desire for sexual experience. I think it is often the case that different types of temptation can come together, for example the desire for sexual experience can easily become entwined with the desire for power over another human being.
I should add that the things that tempt us can change over the years. The temptations we experience as teenagers might well be different from the temptations we face in later life.
And what of Jesus? We know of some of the temptations he faced at the start of his public ministry, and in the last week of his life. But what of the other temptations? The gospels are largely silent on the details. But the anonymous author of the Letter to the Hebrews hints that Jesus did indeed face the temptations which are the common lot of human kind. In chapter 4 of the Letter, Jesus is described as “ a great high priest who has passed through the heaven”. But the author adds that he is a high priest who is able “to sympathize with our weaknesses”, because he is “one who in every respect has been tested [or tempted] as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4, verses 14 and 15).
So Jesus was tempted as we are, yet without sin. We shall look in more detail at some of Jesus’ s temptations in the days ahead.