The temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ

It’s the first Sunday of Lent and yes, it is also Valentine’s Day. So first of all, allow me to greet our faithful and loyal readers a Happy Valentine’s Day. Somehow, our gospel reading today has some connection to Valentine’s Day as it is called Love Day and everyone who loves someone expresses their love without any hesitation or, worse, without control. To our single boys and girls, you may still express your love, but with limits — no sex until you get married. Surely, the temptation is great. After all, when it comes to sex, it is no longer the mind that does the thinking.

Today’s gospel reading comes from Luke 4:1-13 and it is about the temptation of our Lord Jesus by the devil. Now if God himself was tempted, all the more that we humans get tempted. But our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us the way to avoid temptation. So please read this scripture passage.

“1 Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert 2 for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” 5 Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.

6 The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish.” 7 All this will be yours, if you worship me. 8 Jesus said to him, “It is written; ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.’”              

9 Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said 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 guard you, 11 and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”

12 Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’” 13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.”

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I’m sure that all Catholics have already known this story of the temptation of Christ by the devil he triumphed over the Evil One in the end. How was the Lord able to overcome his temptation by Satan himself? Now if you read the first part of this gospel reading, you will notice that the spirit led our Lord Jesus Christ into the desert where he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. Clearly, fasting is one way to overcome any temptation in life. In this story, the Lord Jesus Christ showed us how to overcome temptation when he fasted for forty days and forty nights. Now I don’t expect you folks to go into that extreme, but a modicum of fasting would be of great help to you.

Remember the tempter of our Lord Jesus Christ was no ordinary tempter as it was Satan himself, the very same fallen angel who tempted Adam and Eve and caused humans to be forced out from paradise. Just imagine yourself being tempted by Satan who shows you the kingdoms of the world under his reign and he had the power to deliver these kingdoms to you if you worshipped him, Many of us would succumb to his temptation.

Since they were both in the desert, our Lord Jesus and Satan could very well be talking in heaven. However, if you examine carefully the questions of Satan, you will immediately notice that he was not sure whether this Jesus Christ was the Son of God for he always begins his questions with “If you are the Son of God….” But the Lord Jesus Christ did not respond to Satan in a divine manner, but rather in the wisdom of God as written in the Bible, which Satan used to quote and asked him questions.

The temptation of Christ is a teaching about God’s humility. If God didn’t send his only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the second person in the Holy Trinity, Satan could never ever hope to tempt God. But God allowed his Son to become man in order to be like us in everyway, except sin. As we know in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ wept for Jerusalem, cried over the loss of his friend Lazarus and got angry with the moneychangers in the temple and wined and dined with his friends just like us.

The temptation of Christ was truly a humbling experience for the God man and without his divine powers, he rejected Satan using the words of God in scripture. And because of his wisdom, Satan couldn’t tempt the Lord Jesus Christ and that is why he left him in the desert. Truly God triumphs over evil. This is why for this Lenten season, we must learn how to fast and deny ourselves certain things that we love to do and offer it as our mortification to God who taught us that fasting can help overcome evil.

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