What can we learn from the temptation of Christ in the wilderness? Brothers and sisters, there could be volumes written about this subject. Everyone from the Church Fathers all throughout Christian history, right up until Pope Benedict XVI, have written extensively on the subject of Christ's temptation. What we plan to do here is not so much write an exhaustive explanation but, rather, a concise overview of how Satan attempted to skew the will of God the Father in Jesus' life and how that relates to us today. There is a reason why Sacred Scripture is called, "God's Living Word". Unlike any other book written in human history, the Bible is authored by God and written by man, (CCC #105) It speaks life into us, it is Divine Revelation and whenever read it goes far beyond mere intellectual understanding. This is the reason why Scripture is held in such reverence during Holy Mass. Like breathing air gives our physical bodies life, reading Sacred Scripture pours life into our souls. This is the reason why we chose to focus, first of all, on what has already been Divinely revealed concerning Satan and how he operates before moving toward the lives of the saints and then our own personal experiences. We, and our reader, will benefit the most from the example of Scripture before all others.
The very first verse in Matthew's Gospel (Chapter 4) tells us a great deal. It says, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." God the Father, as He does with each and every one of us, tests our faith and trust, thus, He did so with His Son as well. This verse shows us that this episode was preordained by the Father in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit led Christ right into the devils domain on purpose. Here we see that God will allow for us (as He didn't spare His own Son) to be tempted by the devil. He will even lead us to it at times as He did here. Furthermore, despite Christ being fully God His humanity needed to be tried and found spotless. This incident, perhaps, ordained by the Father, could have been done for our own benefit and not for that of Christs. Christ Jesus, in order to better associate Himself with His Creatures, gives us the perfect example of complete obedience by willingly endured the assaults of our common adversary.While it is understood that God does and has allowed many to be tempted by the devil, it must also be understood that God is all good. God is love! The Father would never will a circumstance to occur to harm us in any way. Rather, He permits it in order to grow in deeper union with Him as was this example which Christ gives to us.
We will not be commenting on the specific dialog between Christ and Satan but only highlight the ways in which Satan went about to temp and deceive Jesus.
The text in verse two tells us that Christ fasted for forty days and forty nights when the tempter came to Him. This is key because in this we see that Satan will assail us when he knows we are weak. Scripture tells us that Christ was hungry. This is obvious, but take note of what Satan says to Jesus just before tempting Him to turn stones into bread. He says, "If you are the Son of God..." Why, do you suppose, Satan questioned Christs' divinity? Satan knows what he is doing. He is an intelligent spirit. He understood that in Christs' weakened condition, after not having eaten in forty day and nights, In His humanity His mind might be somewhat delusional. He, therefore, tried to take advantage of the situation and attempt to kill two birds with one stone; to cause Christ to question who He is as Son of the Living God and to lose focus on why He was fasting in the first place. We, too, will be questioned as to our true identity as children of God. Satan will infiltrate our minds with confusion as to the reality that we really are heirs and adopted children of the Most High God. If this isn't enough to discourage us he will 'kick us while we're down,' so-to-speak and, like he did with Christ, take this opportunity to challenge our faith even further. Living an authentic life of faith in God is hard enough let alone having to muster the ability (by the grace of God) to withstand an ambush of doubt. Satan's motive in tempting Christ to turn stones into bread was not done simply to satisfy Jesus' hunger. Otherwise, Christ would not have responded as He did by saying, "It is written, `Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." We see here Satan's deceptivity at work. His intent was to have Christ, the Son of the Living God and the Redeemer of the world, yield to Satan's request rather than remain steadfast to His Fathers command and will despite His hunger pangs. Jesus fully understood Satan's nature as being the "father of lies" (John 8:44) and acted accordingly. Here is where most Christians fall. What makes playing mind games with Satan so difficult is because when Satan speaks (or tempts) he does so because there is no truth in him. It is in his very nature to lie. (John 8:44) As a result, his craftiness and deceitful ways of leading us into sin are very difficult to recognize. We must all understand this before doing battle or else we won't even stand a chance.
We see in Christs' second temptation that Satan challenges God Himself. He asks Jesus to throw Himself down a cliff overlooking the Holy City simply to see whether or not the angels, as Scripture testifies, will protect Him. Normally such a temptation would seem laughable to Christ but in His weakened condition Satan gives it a try knowing Jesus is suffering greatly and may not be thinking straight. However, Christ quickly responds that we are not to tempt the Lord our God. Satan will do the same with us as well. He knows Sacred Scripture and we see in Scripture itself that he uses it to his own advantage by designating a different meaning to a certain passage than what the author originally intended. In his deceit and because of this, he causes us to doubt God and to turn away from Him. This is why, like a previous blog pointed out (Know Your Faith), we have to know the Word of God so well that we can, like Jesus did, recognize when it is being used falsely. Therefore, once again, KNOW YOUR FAITH and fight back!
The third and final temptation is one in which most people, I believe, would fall. It culminates the chiefest of all sin, pride. "The devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them;" (Matthew 4:8) This temptation is interesting. We can see that Satan has the ability to transfer images or bi-locate. Whatever the case may be we know that Satan will make sin appear pleasurable and pleasing to the senses. He tickles our fallen nature to yearn for dominion in that which is not ours; to look inside of us and feed the hunger of greed and power. Hence, he challenges Jesus and says, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." It wasn't Satan's attempt to give Jesus that which is rightfully His, for He created them, but it's Satan's desire to have Christ forsake His Father. Worldly dominion, at least from a temporal standpoint, wasn't what was really at stake. Can you see the trickery of the devil? He takes something which is seemingly harmless and tries to bring about destruction. Jesus is fed-up by now and proclaims with authority, "Begone, Satan!" The devil, as St. Teresa of Avila used to say, is like a fly. We swat pesky flies whenever they bother us and here Jesus is "swatting" Satan. "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." Simple enough, Satan could not muster the "greed" n Christs' humanity (O' the irony) to cause Him to fall.
There is a prayer in the Tridentine Holy Mass that states, "Laetantibus vobis humana natura mire ["You (God) have exulted man's nature most wonderfully.."] Indeed He has! This is why Satan takes advantage of deceiving us by way of our intellect more-so than through "hauntings" or any other paranormal activity. After all, hauntings and the paranormal probably won't convince the 'hauntee' to fly away from God but toward Him. Therefore, I encourage all readers to consider their every thought, every action and "take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5) May Almighty God richly bless you!
Copyright 2011 A New Voice for Broken Souls
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