SOME NEW THOUGHTS ON THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS
June 11, 2012

Three of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke have some account of Jesus being tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13) The accounts seem to agree that after his baptism in the Jordan River Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. There Jesus remained for forty days fasting and praying. Luke’s Gospel points out that after his baptism Jesus was full of the Spirit and was led by the Spirit. The bottom line, this was a spiritual experience, and somehow being led by the Spirit is a key in understanding this event.

For years I have read these accounts of the temptation, and I read them from a very human point of view. After all I have little experience with fasting, limited to about one day, every now and then, not more than three meals at a time. Then I read the accounts of  Jesus fasting and praying forty days. In my mind he had to be hungry and tired after that length of time. Forty days seems almost impossible.

Then in his hunger the devil came and tempted him with food . . . turn stones into bread. In my mind, the devil came in his time of weakness and began to tempt Jesus. Yet even in his weakness Jesus was able to withstand the devil.

That may be true, of course, but what if something else was going on in those forty days. Remember the Spirit led him into the wilderness. Jesus has spent forty days praying and fasting. This is not a time of spiritual weakness, but a time of spiritual strength. He has spent forty days with his Father. In the spiritual discipline Jesus shows us a key to spiritual strength.

Those of us who do not fast are the ones who think that fasting brings weakness. Maybe we need to reorient our thinking to realize that fasting has the potential of bringing spiritual strength to our lives as well. The devil does not come when Jesus is spiritually weak, but the devil has come when Jesus is spiritually strong, after forty days of fasting and prayer.

Maybe one of the ways we can understand is found in Jesus’ response to his disciples in John’s Gospel. He has just had a conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-42). She has gone into the city, and his disciples have brought food. This is what we find:

    Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

    But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”

    So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?”

    Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.”

Jesus has a very different perspective from his disciples, and I would venture to say from us as well. When we draw close to God, we discover spiritual resources that we did not even know were available. Could it be that fasting and prayer needs to become a part of our spiritual discipline?