Day 135: Luke 4:1–13

Jesus returned from the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by the Devil (vv. 1–2).

Christ’s experience in the desert represented an intense season of temptation that was tailored by the enemy for the challenges of messiahship that lay ahead. God placed Jesus with His adversary in a lab of sorts to establish the ground rules from the very beginning. With this idea in mind, let’s briefly consider each temptation:

1. “Tell this stone to become bread” (v. 3). Could Christ turn a stone into bread? Undoubtedly! So why shouldn’t He? After all, He was famished. Matthew 4:2 tells us He had been fasting for forty days. Nothing is wrong with eating when a person is hungry—unless a greater issue is involved. Most likely Jesus’ intent in fasting was to seek God and refrain from all distractions, much the same way Anna, the prophetess, was said to serve God “night and day, fasting and praying” (Luke 2:37). Since we know Jesus was filled with the Spirit and led by the Spirit, we can assume the Spirit prompted the fast; therefore, the fast wasn’t over until God said so.

What did this temptation have to do with Christ’s imminent ministry? Robert Stein says the issue was whether or not Christ would use His power for His own ends. “Would He live by the same requirements of faith and dependence on God as everyone else in the kingdom?”32 Satan’s strategy wasn’t all that different from what he used when tempting Eve in the garden (see Gen. 3:1). In both cases, Satan wanted to sow doubt, but not because he had any. He knew what God had said to Adam and Eve, and he definitely knew Christ was the Son of God. Why in the world would Satan have tried sowing doubt in Christ?

We see a second similarity between the Garden of Eden and the wilderness, in that both temptations involved food. Christ was hungry. Eve was hungry, too, even though her hunger was for something different. Our appetites are ferocious. They are fodder for much temptation. I find Paul’s description of the enemies of the cross of Christ very interesting in Philippians 3:19 when he said their minds are on earthly things and “their god is their stomach.” Although you and I are not enemies of the cross, we certainly know the temptation of making our stomachs gods. But Christ didn’t fall to this temptation. Instead He responded with two critical phrases.

Christ’s first phrase of response was universal, because Scripture applies to every temptation we can ever face. He said, “It is written” (Luke 4:4). In those words He clarified the matter of authority. Jesus subjugated Satan’s words to God’s Word.

The second phrase of Jesus’ response was issue-specific. “Man must not live on bread alone.” Christ applied the specific word from Scripture to meet His need. So Satan moved on to the next temptation.

2. “If you worship me, it will all be yours” (v. 7). We cannot imagine Christ ever being the least bit tempted to worship Satan, but can we not imagine that He might have been tempted to rip Satan’s authority out of his hands?

Christ didn’t challenge Satan’s ability to make such an offer. We can assume Satan must have had the authority as the prince of this world. It’s true the authority God has allowed Satan is limited and temporary, but it is nonetheless very real.

Yet can you imagine how Christ must feel as He watches the state of the world under the influence of the evil prince’s authority? Oppression, violence, and deception characterize the world God loves. Surely Christ is counting the days until He grabs the deed restriction to the world and reigns without rival in righteousness.

Satan was hoping Christ would be so anxious to secure the world that He’d worship him. Needless to say, Satan was wrong. Christ will most assuredly reign over this world, but not until all things have happened according to God’s kingdom calendar.

Once again Christ called on Scripture, this time with the specific application: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only” (v. 8). Christ adamantly resisted worshiping Satan as a way to gain the world. So Satan moved to his third temptation.

3. “Throw yourself down from here” (v. 9). Based on Christ’s response to this temptation, we know that at least one of Satan’s intentions was to tempt Christ to put God to the test. But Satan may have had a second intention in this particular temptation. The placement of the temptation at the temple suggests that the enemy may have been hoping a dramatic scene would cause the Jews to hail Jesus as their king before He faced the cross. If Christ had foregone the cross, He would have been no less God, but we would be lost.

In conclusion, it’s clear that these were no ordinary temptations. They appear to be direct assaults on the messiahship of Christ. We can, however, draw a few applications from them:

• Seasons of intense temptation are not indications of God’s displeasure.

• Satan is tenacious. Don’t expect him to give up after one or two tries.

• Scripture is the most powerful tool in our fight against temptation. Don’t fight back with your words. Fight back with God’s!