The temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ

It is the First Sunday of Lent as we have already left the ordinary time as for the next 40 days we shall be reading the gospel stories that reminds us of the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord Jesus in become human like us except in sin. He died for the human race in order to bring us back to where God the Father wants us to be: in Paradise, which our first parents, Adam and Eve, lost for the human race. Through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, we regained what was lost to humanity. To-day’s gospel reading is found in Luke 4: 1-13, the Temptation of Christ.

4 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”

 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,and him only shall yo u serve.’”

9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle 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 “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” 12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.”

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There is no question that our Lord Jesus Christ was not only the Son

of God, but was also as human as you and me to the point that Satan obvi-ously wasn’t sure that he was of divine origin. If you read today’s gospel reading, you will note that Satan tempted our Lord who was in the midst of prayer and fasting for 40 days and nights. So his first temptation was about food because he knew that Jesus was very hungry and it was some sort of a trick question when he said “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But the Lord answered him using a passage in the Bible when he said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”

If you visit Israel, you should go to Jericho and see the mountain that has been traced as the place where Satan tempted the Lord and it is quite a high mountain. So he then showed to the Lord all the kingdoms on earth and said to him “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”

Of course, the Lord already knew that Satan was lying for those kingdoms could never belong to him… his power was only to show them to the Lord…something he could never give. Once again, our Lord answered Satan using scripture when he said, “It is written,“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,and him only shall you serve.’”

Then they went to Jerusalem and stood in the parapet the highest point in the Temple and sensing that our Lord used Scripture to answer Sa-tan which he could not refute, Satan then also used Scripture saying“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 “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.” This was not the last time that Satan tried to tempt our Lord Jesus.

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