Tempting the Son of God

First Sunday of Lent, Year C; Luke 4:1-13

Luke’s version of the Temptation of Jesus expands on the pithy account of Mark by including a three-part dialogue with the devil. Luke has inserted a genealogy between the baptism scene and this one, and perhaps because of that distance doubly emphasizes the role of the Spirit in the set-up so as not to lose that link: “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit…” The Spirit’s leading reminds us this story is part of the divine plan; the devil is an evil and powerful figure, but never capable of acting outside the scope of God’s purpose.

Luke implies that the whole forty day experience is one of testing (whereas Matthew separates the fast and the temptation). The forty days without food resembles stories of both Moses (Exod 34:28) and Elijah (see 1 Kings 19:8), his companions later at the Transfiguration. While these were also tests of endurance, they were part of the divine purpose for all these figures. This scene-setting hints at how the temptation experience resonates with Israelite history, as Jesus’ responses to the devil will make clear, but also with the rest of Jesus’ story.

In Luke (as in Matthew) there are three exchanges between Jesus and the “devil” (Luke’s preferred terminology), but the order is different. Both start with the question about stones and bread, but Luke then presents the enticement to worldly power before the last scene at the Temple. Matthew’s sequence is one of expanding scope or power, from personal need to religious practice to cosmic authority; Luke may have a similar view, but a different sense of the relative importance of the three.

The first of the exchanges about bread and stones has personal focus, given Jesus’ hunger, but the scriptural response suggests something more is going on. The quotation—and each of Jesus’ three retorts, in fact— comes from Deuteronomy:

He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (Deut 8:3).

While there is something universal in the lesson offered by Moses about dependence on God, the context here is the forty-year experience in the desert. Like the wandering Israelites, Jesus now endures a kind of testing in the wilderness that will form the relationship that follows; like Israel, he is God’s son, as the devil points out so reasonably at each end of this story (4:3, 9). Jesus is repeating the experience of Israel, but rather than complaining or hankering after the plentiful food of Egypt, he trusts in God. It is not just that he resists the temptation to use power for what seems an innocuous yet self-centered purpose, but that he must stay the course for reasons much greater than his own need.

The second temptation in Luke is the political one. While our translations are likely to render Matthew’s (4:8) and Luke’s phrases identically as “the kingdoms of the world,” Luke has the word oikoumene—literally “the inhabited world”—where Matthew had kosmos, the universe. Luke makes use of oikoumene quite often, including in Acts, to refer to the Roman Empire itself, less as a political structure perhaps than as a social reality, that arena on which the spread of the Gospel is to be enacted. When Luke uses kosmos in other cases he means the whole natural world. In any case, the point is about specifically human society and authority here.

George Romney (1734-1802), “Temptation of Christ” (Study), Yale Center for British Art

Jesus’ response comes from Deuteronomy again (6:13) where the Israelites are being instructed about life in the promised land. Amid prosperity, Moses warns, they may forget YHWH who brought them to this land and serve other gods. In our Gospel the devil, who uniquely here in Luke claims to have been given authority over the nations, has demanded “worship” (literally “prostration”) a word used in reference to earthly as well as divine authorities in this era. So in both Deuteronomy and here, the political and religious are intertwined. Jesus’ rejection of the devil’s offer is partly about who made it, but also partly about misconstrual of the authority and power Jesus must really seek. He is to become the true ruler of these kingdoms, but his authority will not be established as that of one emperor among others.

Luke’s presentation of the Temple scene as the last of the three exchanges fits with what we have seen already about the place of Jerusalem in this Gospel, such as in Jesus’ Presentation and unlikely childhood visit. It is here, not on scenic mountain tops, that real power lies. For Luke this is not so much a step from the political (in the second temptation) to the religious, as from the everyday to the ultimate. The high stakes are reflected in how the devil, in this case alone of the three temptations, himself quotes scripture (a reminder that some forms of ostensible biblical literacy are no necessary sign of holiness or sincerity).¹

The warning by Jesus not to “put the Lord your God to the test” is from the same scene in Deuteronomy 6. There it refers to the other great miracle of wilderness provision, apart from the manna alluded to in the first exchange: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah” (Deut 6:16). Massah was where Moses brought water from the rock, proving God’s fidelity—at the expense of the covenant relationship. In one sense there would be nothing wrong with Jesus’ seeking God’s support; yet the cost of doing so would be vast. Luke’s story will expand from here to show us how Jesus’ victory over the devil will require him not to seek divine intervention before he has undergone loss.

One temptation for us is to imagine these scenes as exemplary in some abstract way for the Christian, as generic images of how we may be tempted, apart from what they say about Jesus’ sonship. All the synoptic Gospels though have the story follow Jesus’ manifestation as Son of God at the Jordan; Luke will follow it with Jesus’ inaugural sermon in Nazareth. This is about his own identity and mission, not about temptations generally. The whole narrative up to this point establishes that Jesus is God’s son, and the devil appears to say “well then, if you are…” The three temptations are anticipations of what Jesus himself must experience in what is to come. He will be tempted again to use power in just these same ways, and to avoid the path he has to follow. So the story of his temptation is not done here; it is more a rehearsal than a completed achievement.

There are of course equivalents or echoes of these questions now, and their relevance to us may become more evident when we consider how others continue to claim or seek to misuse the true authority that belongs to Jesus. When a powerful figure demands adulation and obedience as the price of exercising their basic responsibility, we are reminded that “all authority” can still be in diabolical hands.

Later in Luke’s Gospel Jesus, on his way to the acceptance of suffering for the sake of others, sees “Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (10:18). Whatever may appear to be the case, the power of evil is illusory; the key to Christian resistance to the devil is to understand that the devil is not in charge, but that the power of self-giving love, made known in God’s Son, must and will prevail.

1. SeeRobyn J. Whitaker, Even the Devil Quotes Scripture: Reading the Bible on Its Own Terms. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2023.