The Three Temptations of Jesus
This blog will be a reflection on the passage in Luke 4 (similarly in Matt 4) in which Jesus is tempted by Satan in the wilderness following his baptism.
The fact that we see three temptations should not lead us to think they were the only temptations Jesus ever faced. Being tempted three times (or ‘tested’—the word means both—keep in mind throughout) was not just an item to get out of the way on Jesus’ DFH (down-from-heaven) checklist before more important matters, like the Sermon on the Mount and some healings: “Been there, done that; tick box.” Hebrews 4:15 tells us that he was ‘tempted in every way, just as we are’—and most of us get more than three in a lifetime. Satan was aware of that well enough (withdrawing, per v.13, until an ‘opportune time’ to have another go).
These temptations were not merely ‘symbolic’, to help us identify with Jesus (nor, for that matter, to help Jesus identify with us)—they were real, because Jesus’ humanity was real.
If you know the passage, then scroll down to the commentary.
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’
4 Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone.”’
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, ‘I will give you all their authority and splendour; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.’
8 Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”’
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:
‘“He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”’
12 Jesus answered, ‘It is said: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’
13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit …
The context immediately preceding this encounter is Jesus’ baptism, at which a voice from heaven says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Note that at this point in the Gospel story, in terms of ministry, Jesus has basically done . . . nothing (that we know of)—nothing that would make him a sought-after celebrity guest speaker to headline conferences and festivals.
The temptations that follow will be testing what Jesus thinks ‘Sonship’ looks like, before he starts out. Satan knows (or at the very least suspects) that Jesus is the divine Son. That won’t be the basis of his challenge, because diverting is easier than denying. Satan’s challenges are based on the kind of Son that Jesus is going to be. What kind of ambition and desire for fame and success does Jesus have? What compromises is Jesus willing to live with?
Two others are notably spoken of as ‘God’s Son’ in Scripture, with whom Jesus the Son will implicitly be contrasted: Adam (Luke 3:38) and the nation of Israel (Exod 4:22). Israel the Son was tempted in the wilderness and failed. Adam the Son was tempted in the Garden and failed. How will Jesus the Son fare?
Let’s be clear that—however unthinkable this would seem—failure (disobedience) had to have been a possibility, or else Jesus would not have been “fully human in every way as we are” (Heb 2:17). If divinity were somehow ‘imposed’ on his humanity to preclude failure, then the notion of Jesus ‘winning a victory’, celebrated in heaven, would be a sham.
Jesus being led by the Spirit to be tempted reminds us of something Jesus invites us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer: “Lead us not into temptation (testing), but deliver us from the evil one” (Matt 6:13). Why would the Holy Spirit want to tempt or test someone in the first place? Perhaps it’s analogous to a sportsperson needing to replicate on the training ground the conditions they will face on a matchday (for example, high-impact contact training for rugby players).
Rather than seeing Jesus’ temptations either as ‘just’ those three, or as a ‘symbolic’ three, it’s probably best to see them as a ‘representative’ three—three kinds, or categories (ones with which we ourselves might also identify).
We should assume that these are three temptation themes which characterised Satan’s psychological assault on Jesus during those forty days, rather than three quick-fire exchanges between them, as a literal reading of the text might lead us to assume (if so, it would reflect a mere 90 seconds or so of conversation).
What, then, might those three themes be?
The first is framed in ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’ As Christians who live in an age of science (since the Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), we are all the more inclined to think in categories of evidentiary proofs: ‘If . . . then.’
If God loves me, then he will . . .
If the Holy Spirit is with us, then he will . . .
If the Bible is inerrantly true, then I can claim any promise and God will deliver it (which is a ‘genie-in-the-bottle’ way of using the Bible).
And so on.
It’s so easy to work backwards from something we want from God, and then to make receiving it a test of God’s love, or the Bible’s trustworthiness, or the Holy Spirit’s presence and power. But Jesus is comfortable in his identity, however much the exact definition of ‘Sonship’ may still be emerging in his mind. Remember, too, that Jesus is fasting and is therefore hungry (making him more susceptible to that kind of temptation). There are times when our life circumstances similarly make us more naturally susceptible to a certain kind of temptation; something that’s important to be aware of. But Jesus does not succumb. His response is founded on his understanding of Deut 8:3, “Man shall not live on bread alone”—there is so much more to believing God’s love than seeking ratification from what he does for us.
NB There’s an echo in this temptation of Israel’s grumbling in the wilderness about the ‘bread’ God gave them (the daily manna).
The second temptation theme is Satan showing Jesus ‘the kingdoms of the world’ and offering to give him ‘all their authority and splendour,’ which he says has been given to him, to pass on to anyone he wants to (the only criterion being to ‘worship’ him). How could worshipping Satan be seriously considered by the divine Son of God? Sounds like a pretty easy one to resist. There can’t have been too many Satanic Worship Centres offering their services in first-century Israel. But worship is far more than that. We’re all worshippers, whether we realise it or not. The only question is who or what we’re worshipping. We’re ‘worshipping’ the things we’re valuing the most in life and pursuing the most in life—whatever is fuelling our ambition and consuming our desires. Whatever absorbs our thoughts, our time, and our money. All of which can, unfortunately, happily coexist with going to church on a Sunday and even a home group on a Wednesday.
Satan is offering Jesus an easy way to see the kingdom come in the world. Jesus can achieve a lot of good through authority, and who wouldn’t like their ministry to be characterised by a bit of splendour?
In the previous chapter, John the Baptist’s message had been, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” It’s already ‘come near’ at this point, simply in Jesus’ presence, but it hasn’t yet begun in his ministry. So what kind of kingdom—achieved by what means—is that going to be? It’s easy for Christian leaders to be tempted to take moral and ethical shortcuts in ‘how we get there’ to achieve desirable things ‘for the kingdom’—prioritising the end over the means and accepting some casualties along the way as the cost of victory. Satan is offering Jesus one of those: access to power, which might make achievable what may otherwise be unachievable. Tempting!
I have heard this temptation interpreted from the direction that Satan was lying here: that the kingdoms of the world were not his to give in the first place. But that isn’t consistent with Scripture (see e.g., 2 Cor 4:4; and John 12:31, 14:30, and 16:11). And in any event, to the extent that Satan is granted de facto allegiance anywhere, then he is de facto ruler. When Satan says they’ve been ‘given to me,’ it isn't necessarily reflecting God having given them!
How many Christian leaders have been captivated by the ‘authority’ and ‘splendour’ on offer to them in their little piece of Christ’s kingdom, without realising who is really offering it? Here’s a litmus test: whenever achieving—or maintaining—‘authority’ or ‘splendour’ in our ministry requires moral or ethical compromise, the ultimate fruit will not be pleasing to God. Again, Jesus responds from Deuteronomy (6:13; cf. Exod 20:3): “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”
And the third temptation is when Satan “led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.” This is probably mental imagery, in his imagination or a dream, rather than literal (the text otherwise suggests that Jesus was physically in the wilderness that whole period), but nothing hinges on it. The temptation theme is framed as “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down”—in support of which, Satan tempts Jesus to name and claim a ‘biblical promise’ (Psalm 91:11–12) that angels would catch him. How might that be tempting? Not only would it affirm the authority and inerrancy of the Word of God (can that ever be a bad thing? evangelicals might wonder), but equally importantly, it would scripturally validate Jesus’ divine Sonship. Twice the bang for your buck.
But this is a classic example in Scripture, offered in this instance by Jesus himself, as to why ‘proof-texting’ is so flawed (quoting Bible verses out of context, especially ‘naming and claiming’ them). For the third time, Jesus responds from a better understanding of reading and applying Scripture than Satan’s knowingly fundamentalist approach (once again, he cites Deuteronomy: here, it’s Deut 6:16): “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” as Israel the Son had done so many times (see Numbers 14:22).
Proof-texting is such a bad practice because the Bible is only the Word of God to us when it is being 'read’ and applied well.
One final thought. The third temptation theme warns us against showmanship and theatre for validating and advancing the kingdom. There are times when God will do the spectacular (in what’s been called ‘power evangelism’), but we should be cautious about expecting it at our bidding. Relative to the time periods covered by Scripture, supernatural divine intervention is never unremitting, even in the ministry of Jesus (even in his healings and raisings from the dead). Miracles are sometimes God’s way of demonstrating the kingdom, but are they always? We do well to reflect on the difference between humbly inviting God to move and presumptuously putting God to the test.