In the season of Lent, as we seek to rid ourselves of sin and respond more generously to the love of God which comes to us in Christ Jesus, it is helpful to look at the temptations faced by Our Lord at the outset of his ministry.
As recounted by Matthew, the first temptations in the desert begin with the phrase “If you are the Son of God” (4:3). Thus, the devil begins by trying to plant doubt; he wants Jesus to doubt his very identity as the beloved Son of the Father. “Turn these stones to bread,” rather than trust that your Father will supply all of your needs. “Throw yourself down” (4:6), rather than trust in your Father’s protection and count on his promise to send angels to carry you lest you fall.
Heaven and the Father
In the third temptation, the devil offers all kingdoms of the world if Jesus will turn from his Father and offer homage instead to the devil (Mt 4:8-9). To understand the emptiness of this temptation, it is helpful to consider the example of a child at an amusement park. What is more heavenly for a child than an amusement park? With its rides and games and sweet treats, it offers everything a child could desire. Yet think of one child in this earthly paradise when he accidentally becomes separated from his parents and finds himself alone. The heaven immediately becomes hell. The rides and games and treats offer no consolation to a lost child; his peace will only be restored when he is united again with the parents who love him. When it is time to go home, the parents may have to drag their child out of the park crying and screaming, but the child will be happier crying in the homebound car with his parents than wandering an amusement park alone.
Now consider Jesus, the Son of the Father. The kingdoms of the world in all their splendor must have been an impressive sight, but the beloved Son knows that without his Father all is meaningless. Jesus knows that true joy lies in adherence to his loving Father, even when that means suffering and death. Moreover, without the Father’s love, all the glory of the world is an illusion, a lie.
Overcoming temptation
If I am not convinced that following Christ and avoiding sin will really make me happier, then resisting temptation becomes a moralistic game in which I will always be the loser. Overcoming temptation is possible only when one knows that there is a truer and deeper answer to the human desire sin falsely promises to satisfy. In his Passion, Jesus offers a true response to each one of the devil’ s temptations.
The devil wanted Jesus to turn stones into bread, but on the eve of his Passion at the Last Supper, Jesus turns bread into God. The gift of the Eucharist shows us that God’s merciful goodness is completely beyond the devil’s imagination. The devil can only offer petty and false imitations.
God’s promise
The devil wanted Jesus to question his Father and to test his promise to send angels. But in the garden, when one of the disciples takes up a sword, Jesus responds, “Put your sword back, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Or do you think I cannot appeal to my Father, who would promptly send twelve legions of angels to my defense?” (Mt 26:52-53). Jesus knows his Father’s love. The love of the Father is so real that it does not have to be tested, neither in the desert nor in the garden.
The devil asked Jesus to worship him in exchange for the kingdoms of the world. On the cross Jesus cries out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” By referring to the title of Psalm 22, Jesus is calling to mind the entire psalm, which goes on to say, “The whole wide world will remember and return to Yahweh, all the families of nations bow down before him. For Yahweh, ruler of nations, belongs kingly power. All who prosper on earth will bow down before him.” (Ps 22:27-29)
In God alone does our soul find fulfillment. We are his beloved children, he is our Father. Anything that does not open us up to the love he has promised us is an empty proposal, a dead end. In order to say “no” to sin we must have something, Someone, greater to say “yes” to. We must have some experience of God’s promise, some reason to trust that it is unfolding even in the midst of our own difficulty and suffering. Jesus said to a group of women on the road to Calvary, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, weep for yourselves and for your children” (Lk 23:28). Even in the midst of his intense suffering, Jesus was more joyful than the pitying onlookers. For he understood what it means to be loved by the Father, whereas the onlookers did not.
Let us ask the Holy Spirit for a deeper understanding of the presence of Christ in the sacraments and in the communion of his Body, the Church, so that we might have a concrete, profound and enduring experience of the love of the Father. Knowing that he was never alone, Jesus withstood the empty lies of the devil. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit enable us to endure patiently the trials we encounter on the road to our promised fulfillment.
©Magnificat March 2000
