A familiar passage often taken as a story about sticking with God and just not giving in to the Devil, Jesus' 40 days and nights in the desert is often equally misunderstood. Indeed, the Devil's temptations are seen as arbitrary things which Satan is just throwing out there to see if Jesus will pick up rather than what they are: a systematic attack on Jesus conscience. These attacks are the same ones that the Devil makes upon the faithful, and Jesus' responses have great importance for those dedicating themselves to the Christ-like path of peace.

I will quote each section as it is presented first in Matthew and then in Luke, with discussion in between each temptation. First, to set the stage...

Matthew 4:1-4

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'"

Luke 4:1-4

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.'"

Here we have the Devil's first temptation: the temptation of luxury. Much justification for violence and warfare is centred around the need to protect our stuff... That "there are are evil people out there that we have to kill because we're good and they want to take our stuff". There is very little we won't justify, in fact, to secure a present material well-being, be it violence or oppression or simply being cold and indifferent to the poverty in our own communities. Our only concern is that we protect our own lives and luxury and needs.

This isn't simply misguided, but a Satanic attack upon our conscience. To make us worry for our material wellbeing is a powerful way to get us to forsake the way of Christ. Offer us the path of bread, the promise of freedom and security and privilege, and precious few will not take the Devil up on the offer and do anything - absolutely anything - necessary for that freedom and security and privilege.

But Christ does reject it, and we are to imitate Christ through His strength. In response He says that one does not live by bread alone, but by the power and love of God. Our material well-being is only a tool, an instrument to maintain our bodies. It is the way of Christ and of love and peace which maintains our souls, and our souls are infinitely more important than our bodies. Jesus asks in Matthew 16 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" What will it profit us to have freedom and security and privilege if we have forsaken the principles of Christ in doing so?

Better for us to die on our knees in prayer than for us to live on our feet as users and approvers of violence. For those who have fought with violence for a present well-being, they already have their reward. For those who have fought with prayer for the hope given to us in Christ's Resurrection, our reward will be great in Heaven.

Matthew 4:5-7

Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, 'HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU'; and 'ON THEIR HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'" Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, 'YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'"

Luke 4:9-12

And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, 'HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,' and, 'ON THEIR HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'" And Jesus answered and said to him, "It is said, 'YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'"

And here is the temptation of signs... The Satanic attempt to get us to prove the power of God through power and might rather than in the path of suffering and faith. This temptation would have us determine who has the blessings of Divinity through our material well-being. This is the cry of those who say that one nation or other is blessed and loved by God because it is the strongest and wealthiest and most influential. Yet they ignore that all this strength is military, and all this wealth is exploitational, and all this influence is oppressing.

Freidrich Neitszche's great complain against Judeo-Christianity was that it was a system of "slave morality": that when the Jews were taken captive in Babylon, rather than admit that God was with their enemies who had overpowered them, they chose instead to develop a system where the strong are considered the enemies of God. He saw this as foolishness and evil, and he saw Jesus as the greatest example of this hatred of the weak against the strong.

And had Jesus not stopped being dead, then I suppose that Neitszche would be correct. However, Jesus did stop being dead, and it turns out that Neitszche's ideas of right and wrong are mistaken. When the Devil tempts Jesus with displays of His Godly power and might, Jesus rejects this path as a viable one.

Instead, He choses the path of humility and sacrifice, of humilitation and death. We preach not signs or the intillect, but only the absurdity of Christ crucified (I Corinthians 1:18-25). It is only by making the same choice that we follow in His footsteps: the choice not to take the path of glory, and not to glory in our military and economic strength.

Matthew 4:8-10

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Go, Satan! For it is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'"

Luke 4:5-8

And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'"

And here is the final temptation: the State, in which is summed both previous temptations. It is important to note that this is the only one of the three temptations in which Satan demands to be worshipped himself. The other temptations were simply attempts to provoke Jesus to take a path other than that of the suffering servant and sacrificial Lamb of God. Yet here, when speaking of the State, the Devil says that he is to be worshipped.

Why is clear... The kingdoms of the world have been handed over to Satan as part of his authority over the world. To serve the State as an instrument of the State is to serve the Evil One. In the State we meet the fulfillment of the desire for material wellbeing and physical power. The State assures us bread through superior firepower. When we choose to serve the State, then we are choosing this path of luxury and domination.

When Satan offers Jesus the kingdoms of the earth, it is not merely to hand over a set of keys. He is tempting Jesus into undertaking the path of the State, the path of violence and domination and hierarchy which is necessary to the functioning and control of a State. He is trying to goad the sinless one onto performing those "necessary evils" (or shall we call them "necessary sins"?) which bring order out of chaos... Not realizing that the problem of the universe is not order vs. chaos, but moral vs. immoral, right vs. wrong.

To serve the State is to forsake the leadership and morality of God (I Sam. 8), and so Jesus rejects it. And in imitation of Him, we too are to reject it. The State is not a worthwile ordering principle for society as it has proven throughout humanity's long and bloody history, for to serve the State is to serve Satan. Instead we are to serve God alone and not to engage willingly in systems of violence and domination.

When Jesus had completed His trial in the desert - facing the temptations of the Devil to seek material wellbeing, physical power, and the domination of humanity through the State - He returned to His mission field with a stronger and deeper sense of purpose and identity. He knew clearly what His mission then was. After the desert...

Luke 4:14-21

And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

"THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME,
BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.
HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES,
AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,
TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,
TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD."

And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Having rejected the ways of the world (Romans 12:1-2), we are able to freely engage in the mission of Christ: to preach the good news to the poor and release ot the captives, recovery of sight to the physically and spiritually blind, to set free the oppressed and to proclaim the Kingdom of God. These we cannot do while we still insist upon our own material comforts and "freedoms", while we glory in the capacity of power and violence, and while we align ourselves with the world system of kings and rulers.