Rector’s Reflections
Wednesday 5th March 2025
The Temptations of Christ
In yesterday’s reflections, I gave a general introduction to this subject. The early Christians knew that Jesus had experienced temptation his life, and some these temptations are included in the gospels. Perhaps the most well known are the three temptations which Jesus faced during his time in the Wilderness, and I shall look at these in the days ahead.
The first of Jesus’ temptations in the Wilderness can be summed up in the following phrase: “You shall not live by bread alone”.
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of Gd, command these stones to become loaves of bread”. But he answered, “It is written, “One does live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew chapter 4, verses 1 to 4).
What was the nature of this temptation? It seems to have been the temptation for Jesus to use his gifts solely or mainly as a way of meeting the physical needs of the people around him. Many people in Jesus’ society would not have had enough to eat. Jesus was able to work miracles, so he might well have been tempted to use his miraculous powers to ensure that everyone had enough to eat. Jesus was a kind and compassionate human being, so one can understand the temptation. But Jesus resisted the temptation, because he felt that God wanted him to focus on meeting people’s spiritual needs instead. Yes, people have physical needs, and it is good to do what one can to meet these. But they have spiritual needs as well, and this is where Jesus is going to put the focus of his ministry.
As a faithful Jew, Jesus would have had a thorough knowledge of what Christians refer to as the Old Testament. In this first temptation, Jesus quotes from the book of Deuteronomy, in which God gives his people Israel some words of guidance as they travel through the wilderness towards the Promised Land. Writers in English tend to refer to God’s words of guidance as his “law” , but the English word “law” can imply something narrowly legalistic, whereas the concept of God’s “law” as it is found in the Old Testament is much broader and richer in its meaning. It’s about God’s “instruction”, his “teaching”, and his “guidance”. The Hebrew word is “Torah”, and the first five books of the Old Testament are sometimes simply referred to as “The Torah”.
In order to meet the first temptation, Jesus quotes from part of chapter 8, in which Moses reminds the Jewish people not to forget God during times of prosperity: “Remember the long way that the Lord your god has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that "one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord"
The following verses are worth quoting as well : “The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the Lord your God disciplines you. Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the lord your God for the good land that he has given you” (Deuteronomy 8, verses 2 to 10)
By quoting from this section of Deuteronomy, Jesus reminds us of the ongoing goodness of God: God continues to provide for us as we travel through the wilderness, towards the Promised Land. So let us not get too worried about our physical needs. God will provide. Let us instead place our focus on listening to God’s words of guidance. “For one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”.
I wonder what God might be wishing to say to us at the start of this Lent?