The Temptation of Jesus

 Luke 4:1-13.

Jesus spent forty days, alone in the desert, fasting. As if forty days of heat and loneliness and hunger were not enough, at the end of that time, the devil came to tempt him. When he must already have been desperate for anything to fill his stomach, the devil urged Jesus to use his power to turn stones into bread.

Then the devil showed him the entire world, all the wealth, power and prestige, every thing in life that might tempt a man. All these could be his, if he would only worship Satan. Jesus, of, course, refused. So the devil mocked him. "Why don't you prove who you are? Show me! If God really is your Father, he won't let anything happen to you."

But why did Jesus have to put up with all this? Wasn't the ultimate sacrifice he'd come to make, the one that would leave him suffering on a cross for hours before he died, enough? In order to truly prove who he was, he faced more sacrifice, more temptation, in those forty days than any other man has seen in a lifetime.

By rising above all that, refusing to give into it, he demonstrated his perfection and showed he could meet the ultimate test. He proved, conclusively, that he was able to do what we are not. He could not have become an acceptable sacrifice without being tested, examined, and shown to lack even a single flaw. So this ordeal, too, was essential in his journey toward that final sacrifice, the one which would make even those forty days of self denial seem easy. -Ray Beere Johnson


Father, Draw near to us in our temptation. Help us not to listen to the voices around us or even inside our heads that try to convince us that we are anything less than who we truly are: beloved children of God. Teach us to be humble and grateful for all that Jesus endured in his journey to the cross as well as on it for our sake.  Amen