The Temptation of Christ

Luk 4:1 Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild.
Luk 4:2 For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry.
Luk 4:3 The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: "Since you're God's Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread."
Luk 4:4 Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: "It takes more than bread to really live."
Luk 4:5 For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once.
Luk 4:6 Then the Devil said, "They're yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I'm in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish.
Luk 4:7 Worship me and they're yours, the whole works."
Luk 4:8 Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: "Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness."
Luk 4:9 For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, "If you are God's Son, jump.
Luk 4:10 It's written, isn't it, that 'he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you;
Luk 4:11 they will catch you; you won't so much as stub your toe on a stone'?"
Luk 4:12 "Yes," said Jesus, "and it's also written, 'Don't you dare tempt the Lord your God.'"
Luk 4:13 That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.

Sunday's Gospel is known as the Temptation of Christ

In Luke this follows immediately upon the Baptism of Christ and God's declaration that He is His Beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased. What follows in Luke is a rendering of Christ's earthly lineage through Joseph to King David, Abraham, and God. It is the earthly creature who is tempted in the desert and the nature of these temptations, Christ's vulnerabilities, the strengths he draws on in dealing with them, the responses he makes, and his triumphs over them are instructive for us even today.

First off, let it be said that although elsewhere we read that Mary's was a virgin birth, incarnate of the Holy Spirit; Luke the physician is definitive in acknowledging Joseph as the father.

So what is the nature of these temptations. Whether or not we perceive evil as an animate personal force temptations to sin are all around us and given our fallen nature, our weakness, we are bound to fall prey to them in our daily life. However the greatest temptations play to our strengths, not our weaknesses and we need to be vigilant that in our pride we not fall victim to them.

We have already learned that Jesus is capable of performing signs and wonders, we call them the miracles; his preaching attracted great crowds and could have gotten him a great following, but his kingdom was not of this world; and knowing that he was God's chosen one, he might have showed off to prove his invulnerability and he could also have avoided the cross. So he is tempted to turn stones into bread, become a great earthly ruler, prove to the world that God was at his beck and call; all things apparently within his power. In resisting these appeals to his own vanity Jesus declares that the comforts of this world are not his principal goal in life, fame and fortune are secondary to heavenly riches, and the adulation of the crowds takes a back seat to faithfulness to God and his purposes.

The answer it would seem to resisting temptation is not in being strong so that we yield not but in placing our priorities with God so that we not be tempted to yield in the first place. For where our hearts are there will our treasure be also. Even pride in resisting temptation can be a sin.