Matthew 4:1–11

⁴ Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³ And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”⁴ But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple ⁶ and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’

and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

⁷ Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”

¹¹ Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him

Matthew 4.1–11 ESV – Bible Gateway

As we enter the first Sunday of Lent, the lectionary pairs the Gospel with the First Reading to set the scene and to prepare us.

The only way the Gospel writers could possibly have learned about Christ’s three temptations in the wilderness was from Christ himself. They were not there. He was alone. So this story is right from the lips of Jesus Christ, not from human witnesses and interpreters.[1]

One of the first questions people intuitively ask about event recorded in the synoptic Gospels is the devil’s knowledge of who Jesus is? Jimmy Akin in his commentary on the parallel passage in the Gospel of Luke responds:

It could be that the devil is trying to put pressure on Jesus out of sheer spite, without hoping to actually corrupt him. On the other hand, the devil may have the irrational arrogance to think that he could corrupt the infinitely holy Son of God.
Or it could be something else: The Greek verb used here (peirazō) means not only tempt but also test. The devil can be seen as testing Jesus—putting pressure on Jesus to see whether it is possible to get him to give in to sin.
Why would he do that? If the devil knows that it is impossible to get the Son of God to sin then, presumably, he would be doing it to find out if Jesus is the Son of God. By passing the test, Jesus shows that he is.[2]

The Catechism[3] points out:

394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls “a murderer from the beginning,” who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.
395 The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God’s reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries—of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature—to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but “we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.”

Jimmy also replied to this question on a recent episode of Catholic Answers Live where he also notes that the even if the devil knew he was the Christ, he could have just been being malicious.

The Gospel writer presents this event with the imagery of “a new Exodus with Jesus as the new Israel.”[4]

Dr. Brant Pitre ties together our first reading from Genesis with the three temptations presented here:

So that’s the threefold lust: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Well what do those mean? So if you correlate these three with the three temptations of Adam and Eve, you can see that they go together. The lust of the flesh is the disordered desire for pleasure, so like when Eve sees the fruit, she saw that it was “good for food.” That’s the lust of the flesh, her desire to eat of that fruit even though it had been forbidden, so the desire for the pleasure of eating. Second, the lust of the eyes, goes back to Eve seeing the fruit, that it wasn’t just good for fruit, but that it was a “delight to the eyes.” In other words, it was beautiful, it was some good-looking fruit. So she saw it and even though it didn’t belong to her, she wanted to possess it. So the lust of the flesh is the disordered desire for pleasure and the lust of the eyes is a disordered desire to possess things that don’t belong to us. And then finally, the pride of life, St. John describes, goes back to the third reason. Eve took of the fruit because it was “desirable to make one wise.” What does that mean? In other words, to make one wise like God. Because what the devil said to her was “you will not die when you eat of it, the day you eat of it you will become like God,” or in the Hebrew literally like Elohim (plural), you will become like gods. So there’s a temptation there to be like God but apart from God. So this is what we call the sin of pride or vanity. So those are the three temptations: pleasure, possessions and pride or vanity. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.[5]

St. Thomas Aquinas in his commentary on Matthew notes the difference in ordering of the three temptations/testings.

“… according to Augustine: for everything which is narrated here is also narrated in Luke nor is it related in Luke either that this was the first or the second temptation. But Rabanus says that Luke observes the order of history; and thus he ordered the account according to which it happened. On the other hand, Matthew followed the nature of the temptations, because after the temptation of gluttony and of vainglory follows the temptation of ambition: for thus was Adam tempted…”[6]

There is so much that you can take from the devil’s questions and Jesus replies, but I found this an interesting irony, as presented by Dr. Brant Pitre:

This is a really interesting temptation because in it, the devil quotes Scripture also. We have seen that Jesus is quoting Scripture, so the devil gets into the game and he quotes Psalm 91, which does in fact say that “God will give his angels charge of you and they will bear you up less you strike your foot against a stone.” But what is interesting about this Psalm in a first century Jewish context, is that the Psalm was also the Psalm of exorcism. So in other words, Psalm 91 was the Psalm that Jewish exorcists would sing when they were casting out demons. They used this Psalm to cast out the devil. So it is kind of funny. I like to tell my students sometimes that “the devil knew this Psalm really well,” he had heard it before in other words. So he takes a couple of the verses out of context and then he throws them back at Jesus.
… So is this a real temptation? Well I think yes because what the devil is basically doing is trying to tell Jesus to commit the sin of pride. In other words, he’s trying to say “if you’re really the son of God then why don’t you just prove it.”[7]

He also notes an important conclusion to this testing and one that is good to dwell on.

The triumph of Jesus in the wilderness is much more than a personal victory. It is also a triumph for the people of God. In part, this is because Jesus overcomes temptation with his human will. He could have vanquished the tempter with his divine might, but this was not his chosen approach. Instead, Jesus faced his trial in a human way, in full solidarity with humanity. He never ceased to be the Son of God, and yet he won the battle as a man.[8]

Dr. Peter Kreeft concurs in this when he wrote:

Jesus was fully human, like us in every way except sin. Therefore, he was tempted, really tempted, because he had a completely human nature. Adam and Eve were tempted even before they had any sin, when they were completely holy and completely innocent. So was the perfect and innocent Jesus. Adam and Eve gave in; Jesus did not.[9]

This example from Jesus is one for us to draw upon in our lives. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible summarizes this aspect.

Morally (St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in Matt. 8): Jesus’ victory sets an example for Christian obedience. Earthly life is a wilderness trial for God’s people en route to the land of heaven. Through this probationary period, God wills the faithful to overcome temptations from the world, the flesh, and the devil. Triumph is possible through penance and obedience to God’s word. Rather than earthly bread and power, the faithful must desire the food of God’s will and the humility of Christ (11:29; Jn 4:34). The battle successfully won merits heavenly comfort in the company of angels (4:11). The Church annually reminds us of this life-long vocation during the 40 days of Lent (CCC 540, 2849).[10]

One last point on these temptations regarding Jesus. Returning to St. Thomas Aquinas’s commentary, where he references St. Gregory the Great.

Gregory says that there are three stages of temptation, namely, by suggestion, pleasure and consent. The first is from without, and can be without sin; the second is from within, in which it begins to be a sin, and which indeed is completed by consent. The first stage could have been in Christ, but not the others.[11]

Returning to Dr. Brant Pitre:

In the end, Jesus has proven himself the loyal Son of God. Neither the pangs of hunger nor the prospect of worldwide kingship have been able to bend his will away from the Father’s. In a final scene, we are told that angels from heaven came and ministered to him. Most likely this means that Jesus was fed by the angels, much as Elijah was in the Old Testament (1 Kings 19:4–7).[12]

I love this paragraph from the Catechism on the role of Angels in Jesus’ life. To reflect on the role of our Guardian Angel in our own life.

333 From the Incarnation to the Ascension, the life of the Word incarnate is surrounded by the adoration and service of angels. When God “brings the firstborn into the world, he says: ‘Let all God’s angels worship him.’” Their song of praise at the birth of Christ has not ceased resounding in the Church’s praise: “Glory to God in the highest!” They protect Jesus in his infancy, serve him in the desert, strengthen him in his agony in the garden, when he could have been saved by them from the hands of his enemies as Israel had been. Again, it is the angels who “evangelize” by proclaiming the Good News of Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection. They will be present at Christ’s return, which they will announce, to serve at his judgment.[13]

Sources

Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A, # FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT ↩
Jimmy Akin. (2014). Mark, A Commentary. ↩
Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed). United States Catholic Conference. Paragraphs 394, 395. ↩
Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre, 1st Sunday in Lent (Year A) ↩
ibid ↩
Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew, Dolorosa Press ↩
Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre, 1st Sunday in Lent (Year A) ↩
ibid ↩
Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Cycle A, # FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT ↩
Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament ↩
Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew, Dolorosa Press ↩
Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre, 1st Sunday in Lent (Year A) ↩
Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed). United States Catholic Conference. Paragraph 333. ↩

My Reflection on Sunday’s Gospel Matthew 4:1-11

Matthew 4:1–11

Sources

The Weekly Francis – Volume 451

Our Cosmic Insignificance

You may also like

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply