The Temptation of Christ

   “The spirit immediately drove him into the desert.  He remained there forty days, during which time he was tempted by Satan.” (Mark 1: 12 – 13) 

   Today’s gospel tells of Jesus’ temptation in the desert.  I’ve often wondered to what purpose He was tempted.  Did Satan really believe He could tempt the Son of God to rebel against God?  God against God?

   While I do not believe that there was ever a chance that He would cede to temptation there was a purpose to allowing it.  I believe He chose to experience the temptations that mankind knows every day of their life to provide an example of how to resist them.

   First, He was tempted by hunger, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to be transformed into loaves of bread.” (Matt 4: 3).  Especially during Lent, a time of fasting, we sometimes are tempted by the food we are fasting from, not from hunger but from desire.  We want what we can’t have.  We must, like Jesus, recognize that we do not “live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” (Matt 4: 4).

   Satan then tempted our Lord to test the word of God.  “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.  For it is written ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and with their hands they will raise you up lest  you dash your foot against a stone.'" (Matt 4: 6).  But we are not to challenge God, to dare Him to prove His love for us.  We must not put God to the test.  We must rather have complete trust and confidence in Him and His word.

   Finally, Jesus was tempted with fame and power.  “Finally, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their splendor.  Then he said to him, ‘All these I will give you if you kneel down and worship me.” (Matt 4: 8 – 9).  Today, we are tempted by the many false gods of this world, fame, fortune, money, and many others.  But we too must turn from these evil desires, remembering that we are to worship the Lord our God, and serve only Him.

   Jesus’ life was an example of how we are to live our life if we are to be the children of God.  His temptation in the dessert is one of those examples.  During this Lent, let’s study the life of our Lord and strive to live as He lived, totally in the with will of the Father.