1st Lent, Year C Luke 4:1-13 – Testing the Prophet 1 Filled with the holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert 2 for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” 5 Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. 6 The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. 7 All this will be yours, if you worship me.” 8 Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.’” 9 Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ 11 and: ‘With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” 12 Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, ‘You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.’” 13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time. Context As we move from Ordinary Time into the Lenten Season, we experience a shift in trajectory of the Sunday gospel readings as the order changes to align with the liturgical season – and rightly so. The readings between the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of Lent primarily dealt with the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in the 3rd-5th Sundays of Ordinary Time. In this 1st Sunday of Lent, we find Jesus preparing for his public ministry, “filled with the Spirit.” Let us consider where this account falls in Luke’s narrative apart from its use in the Lenten season. In the Gospel according to Luke the account of Jesus being tempted in the desert falls in the following “orderly sequence” (Luke 1:3). Luke 1:5 – 2:52 The Infancy Narrative Luke 3:1 – 4:13 Preparations for the Ministry of Jesus 3:1–6 The Setting of John’s Ministry 3:7–18 John’s Preaching 3:19–20 The Imprisonment of John 3:21–22 The Baptism of Jesus 3:23–38 The Genealogy of Jesus 4:1–13 The Temptation of Jesus (Gospel for 1st Sunday in Lent) Luke 4:14 – 9:50 The Ministry in Galilee 4:14-30 Preaching in Nazareth (Gospel for 3rd and 4th Sundays in Year C) …. 5:1-11 Calling Disciples (Gospel for 5th Sunday in Year C) 6:17, 20-26 Sermon on the Plain (Gospel for 6th Sunday in Year C – missing in 2016; early Lent) The narrative thrust introduces us to John the Baptist as a prelude to meeting the adult Jesus about to take on his very public ministry. Remember that in the gospel narrative just preceding the account of the temptation, Jesus had been at the Jordan River. “21 After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22). Immediately following this account Jesus will begin his public ministry: “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit” (4:14). It is no surprise that Luke continues to remind us of the animating and invigorating power of God’s spirit: “Filled with the holy Spirit, 1 1st Lent, Year C Jesus…was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days to be tempted by the devil.” By using the divine passive (“was led”) and the preposition “in” before the Spirit, Luke is emphasizing the fact that it is God who is leading Jesus by means of the Spirit – into the desert/wilderness. The wilderness is no less part of the divine presence in the life of Jesus than is the serene scene at the Jordan River. The Palestinian wilderness is not the sandy waste of the Sahara. The parts around the Dead Sea are utterly barren, but most of the Palestinian desert is semi-arid, with some vegetation, particularly in the winter. It was a dangerous place, uncharted, inhabited by wild animals and bandits. The wilderness was believed to be the haunt of demons (Isa 13:21; 34:14); it is no surprise that Jesus met the devil there. No surprise that Jesus encounters struggle, temptation and testing. The wilderness is where holiness in put on trial. It was the place of struggle, temptation and testing for Israel during its 40-year sojourn in the Sinai. The specific mention of Jesus’ forty days in the desert is meant to trigger an association with Israel’s forty years of wandering in the wilderness. In Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, Stephen describes those years of wandering as years of testing and failure for the people of God (Acts 7:39–43). In slowly drawing parallels between Jesus and Moses-led Israel, this episode highlights that Jesus is also tested in the desert but remains faithful. Perhaps one can look to the OT to find a divine purpose for Jesus’ temptation: “testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments” (Deut 8:2). At the Jordan Jesus was declared to be the Son of God – thus the divine sonship of Jesus is not in question (Luke has even included a genealogy to that fact). Rather it seems as though the wilderness is the place where Jesus must come to accept and embrace what it means to be the Son of God. And so, the devil begins the temptations with “If you are the Son of God” (also validly translated as “Since you are the Son of God). It is no less a question for us – “since you are the Son of God” – we have expectations, hopes, and more. As Culpepper [97] notes: “On one level the story describes Jesus’ response to calls for misuse of his power and sonship. On another level, the story educates, disabusing the reader of any expectation that Jesus would manifest his sonship by a series of theatrical demonstrations. The work of the Spirit requires faithfulness; neither compromise with Satan nor concessions to popular demands could be allowed.” The Lucan Gospel unfolds in such a way that it creates misunderstanding, disappointment, confusion, and shattered expectations. One would not expect someone who is the Son of God to face the opposition and hostility, as Jesus will. And the greatest of all paradoxes, this Son of God will be rejected by his own people as well as the Romans and will be condemned and executed on a cross. It is in this larger context, that we must understand the thrust of these three temptations in the wilderness. Commentary As often noted, Luke writes with a narrative intent. This is true also for the account of the temptations. Luke 4:1–13 presents a number of key elements linking it to surrounding material, helping to ensure its interpretation as a bridge scene moving Jesus from his reception of the Spirit at his baptism to his public ministry. The most obvious such bridges include references to the other worldly (3:21–22; 4:5), the setting of the wilderness in the vicinity of the Jordan (3:2–3, 4, 21; 4:1, 14), the Holy Spirit (3:22; 4:1, 1, 14, 16), Jesus’ sonship (3:22, 38; 4:3, 9, 41 – If you are the Son of God), the attention to the meaning of Jesus’ mission, and Jesus’ encounter with hostile forces – human and spiritual (4:2–13, 22–30, 33–36). Some of the bridges are less obvious. So often we skip over genealogies in Scripture, but our text is connected with the genealogy (3:23-38) that ends with “Adam, son of God.” How is Jesus, Son of God, the same and different from Adam? One similarity is that “[t]emptation is a universal human experience. Had Jesus not been tempted, he would not really have been human. ... The wonder is not that Jesus was incapable of sinning but that he was able to avoid sinning although he was tempted. Along with the birth 2 1st Lent, Year C narrative, therefore, the temptations make an important anti-docetic statement: Jesus was fully human and knew what it meant to be tempted.” [Culpepper, 100-101; docetism heresy] Testing and Temptations. Filled with the holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert 2 for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. We are so used to hearing this story described as “Jesus’ Temptations in the desert” that we pass over the word peirozo (4:2), a Greek word that can mean “temptation” or “testing.” This word is not without its scriptural precedence and usage. The word is often used in the Greek translation of the OT (LXX) for God testing people, for example: “God put Abraham to the test” by asking him to sacrifice his son (Genesis 22:1).