The Temptations of Jesus

Before we dive into the temptations of Jesus, please take a minute to read the 1st reading and Gospel from the 1st Sunday of Lent.

I am forever amazed by the scriptures. The way the New Testament fulfills the Old Testament, the ways that the Old Testament is a shadow of all that is to come in the new. Our Lenten observance is no different.  It is steeped in scripture, and has its roots in the garden with the fall of man. The temptations of Jesus don’t come out of nowhere, we see where they come from when we look closely at the account of the fall.

Now, I’m skipping over some aspects of Lent, like why Jesus went to the desert. We see plenty of reasons why, between the 40 days of Noah’s flood, Moses on Sinai, and Israel wandering in the desert, among other things. But I’d like to focus here on the actual temptations.

In the Beginning…

Everything began in the garden. Perfection. Gardens are places of lush greenery, colorful flowers, and choice fruits. This garden would have reflected the perfection of the interior life. Humans began in a perfect relationship with one another because they were yet in perfect relationship with God. They were in a state of perfect solitude, purity, and nakedness before God and one another.

But then, sin. Sin mars all of this. Adam and Eve have perfect and complete freedom, and one command to obey, “…Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gen. 3:16-17).

Everything is fine until the temptation. “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate” (Gen 3:4-6). 

It’s very important to take note of the three ways in which Eve was tempted. It’s really easy to gloss over, but take note of them:

Fall of Adam (Genesis 3)

good for food

delight to the eyes

make one wise

A threefold temptation. A submission to evil. And then, driven out of the garden to toil and struggle. 

Not only were they driven from the garden and into a proverbial “desert” of sorts, their hearts, through sin, become a desert. No longer enjoying the security of a perfect relationship with God, not through an fault of God, but because of our feeble selves rejecting him and all his promises.

The Temptations

In Luke 4:1-13, we see the devil tempting Jesus at the end of his days of fasting, when he was hungry. He waited for Jesus’ time of greatest vulnerability. Satan does the same thing for you and me. But he tempted Jesus in three ways. 

1. “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Lk 4:3
2. 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. Lk 4:6-7 
3. ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 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.” ’ Lk 4:9-11

To summarize what we’ve looked at thus far:

Fall of Adam (Genesis 3)	Jesus (Matthew 4)
good for food	turn stones into bread
delight to the eyes	all kingdoms of world
make one wise	if you are the son of God

How are these temptations related? 

To see the common thread between these temptations, let’s look at 1 John 2:16. Here, we see these temptations of the world referred to as what is called the triple lust. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”

1. Lust of the flesh (disordered desire for food, drink, or sexual pleasure)
2. Lust of the eyes (disordered desire for possessions, ie: money)
3. The pride of life (disordered love of self, to the exclusion of God)

So what we see here is Satan presenting the same types of temptations here to Jesus in the desert as he presented to Adam and Eve in the garden, primarily because human sin has transformed the garden into a desert. 

In this table, you can see how the first temptations are both related to these physical pleasures, tempting with food, which similarly corresponds to this lust of the flesh. We can see this same correspondence in the following rows, appealing to a desire for possessions, to possess more and to gather more power. And finally, to be like God, to be so disordered by our own self love that we exclude God.

Fall of Adam (Genesis 3)	Jesus (Matthew 4)	Triple Lust (1 John 2:16)
good for food	turn stones into bread	lust of the flesh
delight to the eyes	all the kingdoms of the world	lust of the eyes
make one wise	if you are the son of God	pride of life

Day after day, year after year, these are the same temptations we are constantly presented with by Satan. He’s not creative in the way he works in our lives, but he can be subtle and inconspicuous, twisting partial truths and making it seem appealing. Though we can likely categorize our temptations and sins into one of these three lusts, we need to take heart because Jesus has conquered these temptations. He does this not so that we don’t have to conquer them on our own, but as Dr. Brant Pitre put it, he does it so that we can conquer these temptations.

The Antidote?

So, you might ask, how do we actually conquer these? Is there a formula? In short, yes. Jesus gives us the antidote, and the church reinforces this every lent. We hear it in Matthew 6:2-16. When you give alms, when you fast, when you pray. These are the answers.  Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Fall of Adam (Genesis 3)	Jesus (Matthew 4)	Triple Lust (1 John 2:16)	The Antidote (Matthew 6)
good for food	turn stones into bread	lust of the flesh	fasting
delight to eyes	all kingdoms of world	lust of the eyes	almsgiving
make one wise	if you are the son of God	pride of life	prayer

**This table has been adapted from class notes from SCRP 502 – Session 10: The Temptations of Jesus at the Augustine Institute taught by Dr. Brant Pitre.**

Examine Your Heart

First, are you struggling with lust of the flesh? Trying to get your passions in check? Then it’s time to practice some self discipline in your life by fasting.  Sometimes it’s hard to keep physical purity in check, sacrificing something in a different area in your life can really help you temper the struggles that come with practicing purity in your relationships. There were times in lent when I practiced moderating my consumption of sweets, allowing myself only one sweet per day. In many ways, this was harder than making a total sacrifice of sweets. But ultimately, you have to consider, what are the areas where I succumb to a physical need or desire to numb some sort of pain or struggle? This could be an area you need to fast.

Second, are you struggling with lust of the eyes? Do you have some sort of disordered passion for money or possession? I know for me, sometimes it’s hard to be generous because I want to save my money. But ultimately, it’s so important to remember that everything we have is a gift. We are pilgrims on a journey, we are just passing through this earth, and we need to be generous with what we have. This is why alms are the antidote. It encourages us to give what we have to others.

Take a moment to consider this quote:

“When someone steals another’s clothes, we call them a thief.  Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not?  The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.”  

St. Basil the Great

Finally, do you struggle with the pride of life? Do you have a disordered love of self? In one way or another, we all have this problem. In what areas of your life do you reject God, excluding him from decisions? Pushing him out of circumstances? Allowing yourself the illusion of control because you are afraid?  Prayer is the antidote. True prayer, when we allow ourselves to be emptied of self and filled with God, is when we can find humility and peace and detachment. Sometimes I know I have the temptation of thinking I’m not that prideful or I’m so holy. But the truth is I have attachments in so many places and areas of my life. 

As long as this attachment remains, it is impossible to make progress in perfection, even though the imperfection be very small. It makes little difference whether a bird is tied by a thin thread or by a cord. Even if it is tied by a thread, the bird will be held bound… it will be impeded from flying as long as it does not break the thread.

St John of The Cross, Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Book One, 11.4

He’s Making Your Heart a Garden

Jesus went into the desert in his humanity to struggle and suffer and fast that we may follow him. He desires to transform the deserts of our hearts and lives into the garden it was in the beginning. And each year in Lent we are given the opportunity to buckle down and focus on restoring our hearts through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — the God-given antidotes to overcoming temptations in our life and restoring the garden within our hearts. So I encourage you to take some time to pray over these temptations as well as their antidotes because you might be amazed at how God desires to change your heart and bring newness and life into the desert.

Reflection Questions:

Consider the three areas of temptation. What do you struggle with most in each area? Does your Lenten observance help you to overcome or combat this temptation?

1. Lust of the flesh: In which areas do you need greater self discipline in regards to your passions/pleasures?
2. Lust of the eyes: What material things are you most attached to? How would you finish this statement: I can’t live without______________.
3. Pride of life:  How are you prideful? In what ways or areas do you seek to maintain “control”? How does prayer fit into your daily life?

For further discussion or prayer:

1. What is something you found interesting or beautiful about these scripture passages?
2. How do you see these different temptations working in your own life? Is there one you struggle with more than the others?
3. In what ways do you feel that your life is a “desert” right now? 
4. Do you believe that Jesus desires to restore this desert, bringing new life, making your heart a garden? Why or why not? 
5. In what ways has he already restored your heart?