Mt. 4: 1-11
“Every time you defeat a temptation, you become more like Jesus!” (Rick Warren) On the first Sunday of a temptation, you become more like Jesus!” (Rick Warren) On the first Sunday of Lent, we are invited to mediate the fall of humanity through our disobedience and the restoration of humanity through the perfect obedience of Jesus. In the gospel passage, we reflect on the temptation of Jesus, and in the first reading of the day, we reflect on the temptation encountered by Adam and Eve. Jesus was in the desert for forty days and nights without food. We could easily imagine the intensity of Jesus’ hunger. We all know a single day without food is so hard; if so, what about 40 days?
The devil appears at that critical juncture. In Jesus’ case, after spending forty days in prayer, he was spiritually strengthened but physically weak. ‘If you are the Son of God, order these stones to turn into bread. The interesting thing to remember here is that the devil knows our needs just as well as we do, if not better. He will not come until we are spiritually, physically, emotionally, and psychologically strong. He comes when we are fragile. We may wonder what the problem is with the temptation to turn stone into bread. After all, Jesus is hungry, and being in the desert, the only possibility is to transform those available stones into bread. In the first reading, we see a similar situation wherein the devil knew that the Lord forbade them from eating the fruit from the tree of life. One of the characteristic features of the devil is that he is a deceiver. He deceived Adam and Eve. He could water down their convictions and make them fall into his trap. Eve easily falls into this trap and listens to the words of the devil rather than God’s Word. Whereas, Jesus defends the deceiver by reminding him that man does not live by bread alone but also by the Word of God.
His next attempt was to take Jesus to the pinnacle of the Jerusalem Temple and prompt him to jump from there. He even quotes the Psalms to make his temptation attractive: “God will give orders to his angels about you; they will hold you up with their hands so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones.” (Psalm. 91:11) The Lord told Adam and Eve that if they ate the fruit, they would die, but the cunning serpent told them that they would not die and that nothing would happen to them. In both cases, the devil tries to manipulate the Word of the Lord. Jesus defined it by telling us: “Do not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
In his third attempt, he takes Jesus to the high mountain and shows all the kingdoms of the world their greatness. The Devil tells him that he will give everything to Jesus if he kneels down and worships him. In the case of our first parents, the devil would say, “If you eat, you will be like God, who knows what is good and what is bad.” They fell into the trap of thinking they were wise, thereby obtaining vain glory. Whereas, Jesus, who knows nothing belongs to the devil, reminds him to worship the Lord, your God, and serve him alone. In the case of our first parents, he managed to deceive them, and they disobeyed God. However, in the case of Jesus, the devil failed miserably.
In the second reading taken from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, we reflect that because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, the entire human race was condemned with the punishment of death, judgment, and being guilty, whereas the perfect obedience of Jesus granted the human race life, grace, and not being guilty. The gospel concludes by saying that the devil left Jesus for another opportune time. At Gethsemane, we see this opportune time.The devil was well aware of our vulnerable moments. At this juncture, he tempts Jesus to deny the chalice of human salvation that the Lord asked him to drink. The Devil might have tempted him by projecting the terrible torture and mental agony that he would undergo in a matter of time and all those who deny his salvation in the future, but Jesus refuted it by saying, “Not my will but your will be done.”
Are we alone in our moments of temptation? It is true that we may be strained spiritually and physically in our moments of temptation. But the Lord will not leave us alone. We see in the desert as well as the Garden of Gethsemane that angels were sent to attend to Jesus and strengthen him. We are called to imitate Jesus’ example in our moments of temptation. He remains focused and attunes himself to the Word of God. He was not deceived by the flowery words of Satan. He always obeyed the Word of God. As we continue our Lenten journey, let us attune ourselves to the Word of God and grow into the conviction that we are never alone in our moments of temptation.