Homily: The Three Temptations

Today’s First Reading from the Book of Genesis tells us about the creation of our first parents and their disobedience to God.  God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into him the breath of life.  He created him in his own image and likeness, giving him knowledge and consciousness.  Having created man as the supreme creature, God put every creation at the service of man. In his benevolence God created the human person as distinct from all other creatures on earth and placed him in the Garden of Eden. The Hebrew meaning of the word Eden is pleasure.  The Garden of Eden was created to be a place of ongoing bliss for humans, a benevolent place where all their needs would be met.  God also gave man a suitable life partner in Eve. God created Eve to complement Adam so that they may become one in the sharing of each other’s happiness and that of God. 

The Second Reading from The Letter of Paul to the Romans provides us with a greater understanding of the nature of sin. The story of Paradise describes the disobedience of the original human couple.   Paul begins his description of the status of the reconciled Christian by comparing it with man’s previous condition before the coming of Christ. It is a comparison of Adam, the first parent, with Christ, the head of the new humanity. But it is not smoothly worked out; for Paul also wants to extol the superabundance of Christ’s grace which now reigns instead of Sin and Death which had been in control of man since Adam’s time. Just as sin came into the world through Adam and with it death entered the world affecting all people, so also through Christ uprightness came into the world and with it life eternal. With the disobedience of the first Adam death entered the human act.

The Gospel Reading of today tells us that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he prayed and fasted for forty days and there he was put to the test by the Satan. The wilderness or the desert is a place of silence, solitude, fear and emptiness.  We are uncertain about the place of his prayer and temptations but we know that he prayed a long time as he was preparing for his mission and was awfully hungry. The forty days and nights may be symbolic of the 40 years in the desert when Israel endured a time of temptations and failure. Now, Jesus, the new Israel, is likewise being tempted in the desert and overcomes the tempter. There are the three temptations with three answers of Jesus and then an aftermath. The main focus of the study of course, is on each of the three temptations, to determine what the temptation actually was and how Jesus dealt with it. The introduction, the first couple of verses, tells us a couple of very significant things. First, that He was led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness. This is the same Spirit that descended on Jesus at His baptism in the form of a dove.

The gospel tells us that Jesus was tempted three times and each of the three temptations touches on Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, which had been revealed during his baptism.  “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  The first temptation is to turn stones into bread. The tempter picks up the fact that Jesus was hungry, that he had not eaten for forty days. The tempter says that if he is truly the Son of God, he could command the stones to become bread.  The tempter was telling him that he has a long mission ahead of him and he needs physical strength and he has the power of working miracles. He can work one for himself and can be strengthened for his ministry.   These Words of Jesus mirror a passage in the Book of Deuteronomy. “He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known 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 second temptation was to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple and the Satan quotes from a psalm that says that God will not allow Jesus to be hurt.  He will give the angels charge over him so that he will not dash his foot against a stone.    Now it is the Tempter himself who cleverly quotes from a psalm which is a psalm of trust, telling how God takes care of his people. If the first test was in the realm of the physical, the second is a test of a spiritual nature. In fact, the test strikes at the heart of the previous victory. Jesus had escaped that temptation by showing that He was not just physical but spiritual, that He could accept the hunger and the weakness if it meant obeying God. And so Satan wants Him to do something spectacular to demonstrate that He is spiritually perfect.  Jesus responds with a passage from Scripture, from the Book of Deuteronomy which says that it is also written not to put the Lord God to the test. This is the chapter in the Law that is foundational to Israel’s faith.  

In the final temptation is to compromise.  Here the Satan took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed Him all the Kingdoms of the world and their splendor. Now this temptation is amazing in its boldness as the Satan tells Jesus to fall down and worship him as if he is the creator of the Universe. This temptation had to do with fulfilling the commission or plan of God with a shortcut, not following God’s ways.  Luke adds that Satan claimed he had been given these kingdoms and it was his right to give them to whomever he wished. Satan was saying to Jesus, “Look, you came as the king to inherit the nations. Here they are. Why go through the trouble of being the suffering servant to get to the crown. Give me one moment’s homage and I will abdicate and all is yours.” What the tempter offers is the human craving for power, fame and wealth. The mission of Jesus was to fulfill the call of the Kingdom and Satan shows him the easy way.  Jesus absolutely rejects the offer and tells the Satan to go away from him.  He once again quotes the Book of Deuteronomy which says that every creature has to worship the Lord God, and serve Him alone and no one else.

In fact, these three tests are really symbols of real tests that we find in the life of Jesus. In reality all of the temptations can be summed up as temptations to power, pride and glory. The first temptation demanded that miraculous power be used to provide for basic material needs. The second temptation demanded that Divine power be used to produce a spectacular “sign” that would compel anyone to believe, leading to pride. The third temptation demanded the use of Divine power to establish a worldly Kingdom of God and secure glory.  All the three Temptations can be summarized briefly as a suggestion of short cut by the Satan to be unfaithful to the call and mission of the Father. Jesus had the mission to save the world by his suffering and cross. The Satan shows the easy way and indicated how the same end can be met but he will not be following the way of the Father. Matthew in this temptation narrative shows Jesus as the new Israel.

An eight-year-old boy approached an old man in front of a wishing well, looked up into his eyes, and asked: “I understand you’re a very wise man. I’d like to know the secret of life.”  The old man looked down at the youngster and replied: “I’ve thought a lot in my lifetime, and the secret can be summed up in four words. The first is think. Think about the values you wish to live your life by. The second is believe. Believe in yourself based on the thinking you’ve done about the values you’re going to live your life by.  The third is dream. Dream about the things that can be, based on your belief in yourself and the values you’re going to live by.   The last is dare. Dare to make your dreams become reality, based on your belief in yourself and your values.”  And with that, Walter E. Disney said to the little boy, “Think, Believe, Dream, and Dare.”

The dentist’s office is full of very expensive and sophisticated equipment. The high-tech gadgetry helps him to monitor possible problems with any one’s teeth and treat whatever problems may arise with greater precision and less pain for each.  But there’s one dental-health issue that all the fancy equipment can’t address: the results of not flossing daily. Standing in the middle of all that equipment, the dentist told his patient: “There’s no substitute for running that piece of floss between your teeth.” It’s hard to believe that an action so simple can have such great effect.   There’s no substitute for flossing, and there’s no substitute for praying and reading scripture daily. Dear God, help us do the things that will bring us closer to you. Amen.