The Deception of Temptation: A Meditation on Luke 4 for the First Sunday in Lent

And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan,

and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Being forty days tempted of the devil.

And in those days he did eat nothing:

and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

 

And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God,

command this stone that it be made bread.

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written,

That man shall not live by bread alone,

but by every word of God.

 

And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain,

shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee,

and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me;

and to whomsoever I will I give it.

If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

 

And Jesus answered and said unto him,

Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written,

Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,

and him only shalt thou serve.

 

And he brought him to Jerusalem,

and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him,

 If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:

For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:

And in their hands they shall bear thee up,

lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

 

 And Jesus answering said unto him,

It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

And when the devil had ended all the temptation,

he departed from him for a season.

 

Lent is for Christians a time of honest reflection, of trusting in the Word of God, and turning from the evil ways which come so easily to fallen man.  This season of faith and repentance prepares the Christian to walk with Jesus through the suffering and persecution of His journey to Calvary, to witness His act of all-surpassing love in taking our sins upon Himself together with our duly earned judgment and condemnation, and rising again with His Gospel of Salvation by grace through faith in Him.  Just as the Gospel cannot be understood apart from the Law, neither can true faith in that Gospel be found without authentic repentance before the Law.  The devil knows this perhaps better than any living soul, which is why he spends so much time and effort tempting all people away from faith, discouraging repentance, and propping people up on lying promises that will fail them in both this world and in eternity.  Given the unfathomable riches of grace in Jesus and the unthinkable horrors of judgment apart from Him, we should take time to learn from Jesus how to navigate the devil’s temptations.

 

It is worth noting that the primary objective of the devil is not to bless or provide for humanity, but to draw them away from God so that they might share the same eternal hell to which he is destined.  There is no love in the devil or his evil demonic horde—only hatred of God, and hatred of man because man is loved by God.  The devil and the demons are indeed powerful, even though they are fallen, and they can cause great harm and mischief in the world, particularly through those who have rejected God and embraced evil.  We see their evil played out in the machinations of evil tyrants on a global stage, even as we see them played out locally where one person wrongs another.  The thief believes the lie that stolen waters are sweet, that fulfilling their lust and covetousness of the things God has not given them, will give them joy and contentment if taken by subtlety or force.  Likewise the murderer who takes another’s life, or the adulterer who takes another’s spouse, or the idolater who takes away the worship due to God alone, or the liar who robs another of their reputation.  The devil presents the Law of God as an impediment to human flourishing, knowing all the while that the path of evil is the path of destruction, suffering, and death.

 

What Jesus can see clearly through divine and human eyes, we often see through a glass darkly, because our own fallen nature wants to believe the lie.  When the devil presented Jesus with the false promise of using power for self-satisfaction and against the purpose for which it was given, Jesus dissolved the devil’s lie by pointing out the promise of eternal life through abiding in the Word of God.  When the devil offered to manipulate the world’s fallen kingdoms and riches to benefit Jesus in return for worship and deference, Jesus forcefully rejected him by declaring that the life-giving Word of God commanded worship of God alone.  And when the devil demanded that Jesus prove Himself by misappropriating the promises of God’s Word against their intent, Jesus shattered the devil’s false argument by declaring that no one was worthy of putting the King of the Universe to their own tests or trials.  Jesus resisted temptation of the devil by abiding in the Word of God, because He is the Word of God.  While the temptation was real, there was no way the devil could separate the Son from the Father and the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Trinity is indivisible, incorruptible, and all powerful.  Whatever tools the devil may have at his disposal, they crashed against the power of the Lord God Almighty, and failed.

 

This is good news to us, who so often are deceived and lured into dark paths by the inclination of our own fallen hearts, and the external influence of demonic forces.  Jesus knew that no man descended from Adam could survive the devil’s onslaught, which is why Jesus’ love and compassion for the world drove Him to endure all our suffering so that He might give us grace and life in return.  The victory is not by our own resolve, by our own strength, or our own cunning—indeed, all our fallen powers have been proven insufficient to resist the devil’s tyranny in every generation since the fall of man.  There is no piety or exercise or 12-step plan that can make us more powerful than our enemy, and only a delusional mind would reject the witness of God’s Word to rely on their own.  But for those who hear the Word of God, who trust not in their own wisdom, will, or understanding, but rather in the promises of Christ crucified for sinners like us, Jesus’ victory becomes our victory.  As Jesus suffered and died, so we join Him in our baptism, and as He rose again, we join Him in the promise of His resurrection.  For those who will abide in the Word of God by faith, there is the peace which passes all understanding in the grace, mercy, and forgiveness of sins won for us in the shed blood of Jesus.  As Christians, we do not celebrate our own victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil, but Jesus’ victory which He gives to us as a free and unmerited gift of divine love.

 

This is the mystery of Lent, where faith and repentance, Law and Gospel, meet in the hearts of those who abide in the Living and Eternal Word of God.  We are called to repentance, but do not trust in our own works or powers to save us; we are called to faith, but we do not rely on our own hearts or minds to redeem us; we are called to take up our crosses and follow Jesus to Calvary, but we do not hope in our own burdens; we are called to rise up as new creatures born of Water and Spirit unto eternal life, but we do not believe in our own power to rise from the dead.  For us, our trust, our reliance, our hope, and our belief is in Jesus Christ alone.  In the victory of Jesus we live, and living in Him, empowered by Him, we rise up to work in Him, to resist temptation in Him, and to bear witness to the world of Him.  May our eyes always seek our Savior, and our ears always hear His Word, that the deceptions of the evil one may crash harmlessly against us who reside in the bulwark of His Grace, just as they once surged in futility against the unfailing goodness of our Lord.  Amen.