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

Luke 4:1–11 ESV – The Temptation of Jesus – And Jesus, – Bible Gateway

This passage in Luke is just so rich in meaning and parallels it is difficult to limit it to some quick observations. Just the first line relates to Jesus being baptized by John and that the Holy Spirit descended and now Jesus is filled and led by the Holy Spirit is filled with mystery.

The first Sunday in Lent always uses a reading dealing with an account of Jesus’s temptations in the desert. Since it is year C, we are using Luke’s account. In scripture, we see the significance of the number “40” as it relates to a period of purification, testing, and also of preparation. We see this first used as it related to Noah and we especially see this in the Exodus account. In Exodus, the Israelites start their journey by passing through the Red Sea before entering the wilderness. St. Paul in 1 Corinthians (10:1–4) describes this event as them being baptized into Moses. An allusion that was also picked up by the Church Fathers. Jesus is baptized and then also enters into the desert.

Jesus spend these 40 days fasting from all food and at the end, Luke says “he was hungry.” This seems like such an understatement while also pointing to the humanity of Jesus. He is then presented with a series of temptations from the devil.

Jimmy Akin notes:

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. [1]

As he also notes this could be a test by the devil to find out if Jesus is actually the Son of God or that this is just done out of sheer spite, without actual hope of corrupting him.

In Luke’s account, the order of the three temptations is different than that of Matthew. In Mark, it is only mentioned briefly that Jesus was tempted by Satan. Brant Pitre writes that “we don’t exactly know which order they happened in but you can make a strong case—is that in Luke’s account, he’s highlighting the order that corresponds to the order of Adam’s fall.”[2] In Luke, “Jesus’ genealogy is presented, going back to Adam. Like Adam, Jesus is tempted by the devil. Unlike Adam, Jesus is victorious over temptation, thus revealing that he is the one who can save humanity from sin.”[3]

In 1 John 2:16, we see a formulation of three dominant temptations. “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life.”

We can see this plainly in Genesis 3:6:

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Brant Pitre’s summary of the Threefold Concupiscent states:

It’s basically the universal, human, experience of a disordered desire for pleasure (the pleasure of the flesh, that’s the lust of the flesh), whether it be sexual pleasure or the pleasure of food and drink. Number 2, a disordered desire for possessions, that’s the lust of the eyes. We see something that doesn’t belong to us and we want to possess it, like Eve saw the fruit and wanted to possess it, even though it didn’t belong to her. And the third one is pride or vanity. It’s a disordered love of self to the exclusion of the love of God, and that’s what happens to Adam and Eve. It was desirable to make one wise like God. In other words, they want the wisdom of God, they want to be wise like God, by breaking God’s commandment (which is irrational, but it’s what drives them). So they choose three things that are actually good. The fruit is good, food’s good; possessions are good, God gives Adam and Eve the whole word; and even the desire to be like God is a good thing, to be wise is a good thing. But in this case, they want good things but in a bad way.[2]

The devil’s first question seems to be a test of Jesus if he will serve his own needs or those of others? In the second question, the devil assumes what Jesus would later call the Prince of the World. That he has authority over the kingdoms and thus control over their ultimate destination. That if only Jesus would bow down to him, he would release his grip on the world and give control to him. Jesus again answers him again with scripture in that it is only God we should worship and serve.

Peter Kreeft offers what he calls an original and unusual interpretation of the second temptation.

If you do things your way, only some of your beloved children will be saved and I will keep some of them forever in hell. But if you do things my way—if you bow down to me and my will—I will release all those souls from hell and you will get what you most want: to save everybody, all these children you so dearly love. And that—universal salvation—would be the very best thing that could possibly happen, the greatest good in the world. So that was a real temptation to Christ. But the means to that end would be the worst sin, idolatry, worshiping a false God instead of the true God. So this is a temptation to let the good end justify an evil means, to be a moral relativist, a utilitarian, a pragmatist.[4]

The third time the devil decides to quote scripture himself and uses part of Psalm 91 as a proof text. A test of pride to see who Jesus is. That if he is really the Son of God why go through this slow reveal and get right to it and show his power. Possibly hoping that Jesus might have a “Don’t you know who I am?” moment. The fallen angels, who are beings of pure intellect, fell through the only sin they could seem to commit—pride. To place oneself always before others. Jesus’ humility was something he could not grasp.

Philippians 2:8: And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Ironically the devil quotes from a Psalm that was used in Jesus’ time for exorcisms and he leaves out a subsequent verse.

You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

This is a good reminder that when someone throws a proof text at you, to read for context.

To summarize this section of Luke we can look at Paragraph 539 of the Catechism:

The evangelists indicate the salvific meaning of this mysterious event: Jesus is the new Adam who remained faithful just where the first Adam had given in to temptation. Jesus fulfills Israel’s vocation perfectly: in contrast to those who had once provoked God during forty years in the desert, Christ reveals himself as God’s Servant, totally obedient to the divine will. In this, Jesus is the devil’s conqueror: he “binds the strong man” to take back his plunder. Jesus’ victory over the tempter in the desert anticipates victory at the Passion, the supreme act of obedience of his filial love for the Father.[5]

And then Paragraph 540:

Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to him. This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning.” By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.[5]

Sources

• The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz
• Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C
• Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
• Jimmy Akin’s Studies on Mark (3 vols.) – Verbum
• Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

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1. Jimmy Akin. (2014). Mark, A Commentary  ↩
2. Catholic Productions, Brant Pitre  ↩
3. The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz  ↩
4. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C  ↩
5. Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed). United States Catholic Conference.  ↩