We sometimes forget that we live in a world where evil exists, we forget that we are in a spiritual war with Satan and all the evil spirits in the world.
Just prior to today’s Gospel, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. “After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
In Jesus’ time, the wilderness was a place where evil lived. John Pilch wrote:
“Now when the voice from heaven identified Jesus at his baptism as “You are my Beloved Son, with you I am well pleased” (Lk 3:22), all the spirits heard this compliment.
Every Mediterranean native knows what must and will happen next in Jesus’ life. Spirits will test him to determine whether the compliment is indeed true, and just in case it might be true, the spirits will try to make Jesus do something displeasing to God.
It is no surprise, then, that the very next scene in Jesus’ life that Luke presents is “the temptation.”
How real was Jesus’ temptation?
We sometimes believe that it was easy for Jesus to resist the temptation of Satan because he was God. If that were true, then Jesus died in vain. Jesus came to earth like each of us. Jesus knew his Father’s will and sought to follow it. Jesus’ love for God his Father was greater than the things of this world. This gives us hope that we too can overcome the temptations that haunt us.
In Food for the Soul, Peter Kreeft wrote:
“The three temptations of Christ correspond to the three sources of all our temptations too: the world (social approval from our pagan culture), the flesh (our fallen human nature’s weakness), and the devil himself (his desire to get us to worship him as our lord and to obey his will rather than God’s). We are at war, like it or not. Life is a spiritual warfare.”
Our culture trains and prepares us to control everything. We are successful if we climb the corporate ladder. That takes skill and finesse. It is the temptation for social approval which I, like many others, sought to get ahead.
In the spiritual battle, we are weak because of our fallen human nature. It is easy to be tricked by Satan into worshiping the enticements of this world because it is fun and brings instant gratification. But it is not a permanent happiness, and it does not bring the peace that only Jesus can give us.
The Gospel ends with “When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.” It was clearly not over for Jesus. The devil would come back to tempt Jesus again and again just like the devil and the evil spirits tempt us again and again.
Three times the devil tempts Jesus with the enticements of this world. Three times Jesus rebukes the devil with scripture. Notice how the devil also uses scripture “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written ….” Jesus uses scripture to rebuke Satan again.
As John Pilch told us, whenever we are on a high place, the devil will attack us just like he did with Jesus. This is true whether it is a high moment in our physical life or our spiritual life. The devil wants to bring us down so that we will succumb to his temptations and serve him instead of God.
We all get temptations. How do we resist them? The steps that Jesus took to resist the devil are prayer, fasting, and scripture.
Prayer is a part of our daily lives just like it was for Jesus. A priest I know encouraged parishioners to pray at least an hour a day. But you say, “That’s a lot of time that I don’t have.” You’re right. Our lives are so busy and filled with work, family, church, and activities that it’s hard to find ten minutes let alone an hour. I pray Morning and Evening prayer each day. I’m retired and I still find that I need to pray Morning prayer before I leave the bedroom or before I know it, it’s noon and I didn’t pray Morning prayer. During this Lent, let us sacrifice five minutes a day to spend in prayer.
We usually don’t think of fasting except during Lent, when we place an extra emphasis on fasting. That doesn’t mean that we can’t fast throughout the year. This is especially true when we have a special need such as peace in the Ukraine, healing for a family member or guidance on a major life decision.
Reading the Bible needs to be part of our daily routine just like prayer. Even when the devil quoted scripture to Jesus, he knew the scriptures well enough that he was able to reply with scripture. If Satan used scripture with Jesus, do we think that he will not use scriptures on us to justify what we are thinking of doing? We must know the scriptures well enough to keep us secure in our faith. This Lent is a good time to start reading at least one chapter or five minutes of our Bible each day.
Jesus overcomes the devil by refusing to accept the temptations the devil presents to him. Prayer, fasting and scripture will help us resist the devil too. Are we willing to turn the TV off a few minutes early in the evening to pray before we go to bed? Or is the show we like to watch more important?
Are we willing to sit at our desk for lunch and read a chapter or two of the Bible? Or will we go out with coworkers to have more fun and be part of the group?
Are we willing to sacrifice a few minutes each day to improve our spiritual life with prayer, fasting and scripture knowledge?
