Writings: The Triple Victory

By: Dr. Gregory S. Neal

I have always been a large guy. When I was a kid, I took a lot of ribbing for it and got picked on a lot for being fat. When we were choosing up teams for most sporting events, I was usually picked last … except for when we were playing tug-of-war or if a strong, steady center was need in football; I was really good at those.

The temptations of food have long been my challenge. Put a plate of enchiladas in front of me and they’ll be gone in nothing flat. Cookies, cake, other sweets have their own allure, but they’re not the problem that high fat, high cholesterol foods are. Give me fried chicken or country fired steak with mashed potatoes and gravy, or an Alfredo pasta with plenty of extra cheese, or Mexican food, or breads of many kinds. Yes, these foods are all temptations to me. Enormous temptations … temptations to which I will usually fall. And this is why the story of the Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness always speaks volumes to me.

When I would be on the athletics field at SMU, one of the most unbelievably alluring odors was the smell of bread baking at the Mrs. Baird’s Bakery across Mockingbird Lane from the campus. Those amazingly wonderful odors would waft over in the breeze, and part of me always just wanted to hike the ball, break though the defensive line, and keep running across that street to the day-old bread shop. Oh my … those odors were so wonderful, so amazingly tempting! That experience informs my reading of the first temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.

“The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”” (Luke 4:3)

Oh, my … if it had been me, and if it had been a loaf of Mrs. Baird’s Bread, I would have been in seriously deep trouble right about then. It’s a good thing I’m not Jesus and don’t have the power to transform rocks into loaves of bread … and especially not if heated up, with butter on it! Ugh …!

This first temptation is the one that gets me every time; I would have been done for, and I know it. But not Jesus. Of course, I can’t change a rock into a loaf of bread ... but I’ve sat by a camp fire at night and know the strange tricks that the shadows cast by a flickering flame can play on one’s mind. Add to that being exceedingly famished after 40 days without food, and imagining nearly anything at all seems real to me ... especially a stone looking like a loaf of bread.

As the story goes, this is a real temptation for Jesus ... changing a stone into bread isn't beyond his abilities. But how is this a temptation? Why is it even thought of as a temptation? We can get a hint of how it’s a temptation in the devil’s taunting:

“If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”

In other words, prove that you’re the son of God by making the stone into a loaf of bread and eating it … as if Jesus had to prove his identity to anybody: the devil, the reader (that’s us, friends), or even to himself. But this is the substance of the temptation. Proving his identity, vanquishing his hunger by his power and abilities as the Son of God, silencing that sarcastic, questioning voice of doubt personified by the devil. I get it. It’s a real temptation for Jesus … and I’d be tempted to show the devil what-for in such a moment, too.

“Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” (Luke 4:4)

Rather than falling to this first temptation; rather than being tempted to prove to himself, to the devil, or to us that he really is the son of God; rather than being tempted to supply his own need for food and to depend upon himself, Jesus’ answer shifts the focus from himself to scripture:

“It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”

This comes from Deuteronomy 8:3 which, ironically, is a reference to the Manna that God gave to the Israelites … who were also in the wilderness … to eat. It’s not just bread that we need, but God’s word, God’s presence, God’s grace, God’s love. We not only need physical sustenance, we also need spiritual sustenance to have abundant life. It’s not just the needs of the body that must be addressed, it’s also the needs of the mind, the soul, and the spirit must be filled. And, for that, we must turn to God. Yes, Jesus could have fed himself … even in the wilderness there would have plenty to eat. Likewise, we can feed ourselves through hard work, long hours of labor, and much effort. But, spiritually, we need God.

That’s the first temptation: to depend solely upon ourselves rather than upon God’s gifts; God’s grace; God’s love.

The second temptation in Luke’s Gospel is the third temptation in Matthew’s. The reason that the order of the temptations has been inverted from Matthew to Luke is a subject for discussion among scholars of the New Testament. Many reasons have been proposed, but mostly they’re not important to the general message of the temptations. Apart from their order, they’re pretty much the same temptations. So, we’ll take them in the sequence we find them in Luke’s Gospel.

The second temptation is far more insidious than the first. The first was to prove his identity by depending upon himself to satiate his hunger, rather than by depending upon God. Since that temptation failed, the devil takes a different tactic:

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” (Luke 4:5-7)

Now, as is often true throughout scripture, this really shouldn’t be taken literally. There has never been a high place from which one can see all the nations of the world. No, while the account is figurative, the point of the temptation is both obvious and simple: the devil offered to Jesus everything anyone could ever want or desire: power over the rulers and kingdoms of the whole world, if only Jesus will worship him. No one need ever know how it happened; it would remain between the devil and Jesus. And, it would be so simple and so easy … much easier than the path that was stretching out before Jesus. There would be no need to collect a bunch of smelly disciples, no need to preach to a bunch of people many of whom couldn’t care less. There would be no need to upset the religious leaders, no need to challenge Rome’s authority, no need to be betrayed, whipped, crucified, or killed. No need for any of that. “Just worship me …” says the devil “… and I’ll give you the whole world.”

Jesus responds to this temptation the same way he responds to the first: he quotes scripture.

“Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” (Luke 4:8)

Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:13 in response to the devil because the temptation to idolatry can be very seductive. Just accept the idolatry of the short-cut, the easy way, the expedient way, and obtain everything that you could ever want. Our gods of choice can involve the acquisition of money, power, influence, position, security, or even the comfort of nice houses and cars … or, we can worship God and God alone and live a life of justice and righteousness, grace and peace, compassion and forgiveness. That’s our choice.

The third temptation in Luke’s version of the story ties all of this together and brings this point home:

“Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” (Luke 4:9-11)

It’s like the devil is saying: “Ok, Jesus, if you’re going to quote the Bible at me, then here’s some Bible for you to depend upon.” The devil then cites part of Psalm 91 and applies it: “In front of all the religious leaders, prove you’re the Son of God and prove your trust in the Scriptures by throwing yourself off the pinnacle of the Temple and allow God to save you by sending angels to catch you.”

The third temptation is hideous, but it’s one to which we frequently fall: the temptation to pervert Scripture, to twist it, to spin it and make it say whatever we want it to say; this is what the devil is trying to tempt Jesus into doing. The 91st Psalm doesn’t say anything about casting yourself into harm’s way, forcing God to rescue you by sending in the angels; it says that if you stumble, God’s angels will be there for you. That doesn’t mean that we won’t often hit the ground – that happens to me a lot – it means that, even in the midst of life’s difficult times, we’re not alone.

One of the greatest temptations of the spiritual life is to mis-quote, twist and spin the scriptures in order to make them say things that they never actually say. Many of us will do this when we take it all as literally as we can, rather than seeing the deeper meanings within the biblical stories – the lessons they teach us, the answers the deep questions of life, like: “What does this story tell us about God?” and “What does this story teach us about ourselves?” and “What does this story teach us about our relationship with God and others?”

The story of the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness is a good example. Jesus had victory over these temptations by turning to some very simple principles within scripture:

• We don’t live by bread alone.
• We worship nothing else but God.
• We can trust God to see us through.