Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, to spend forty days and nights in prayer and fasting. The Holy Spirit not only led Jesus into temptation but also gave Him the sustaining power to overcome the temptations. Now, let us consider each of the temptations Christ endured in the desert. Satan himself starts from the fact of the Messianic mission of Jesus. The devil never doubts this fact, but proposes ways and means for the mission of Christ that are contrary to the course destined by God. In other words, the devil urges Jesus to do other than the will of God. Satan begins, in the first temptation, when Jesus is physically hungry after prayer and fasting, by suggesting that Jesus turn the stones into loaf of bread and misuse the miraculous power to satisfy His hunger.

But Jesus replies with a text from the Book of Deuteronomy (8:3) which includes the belief that God fed his children in the wilderness with manna, something new and strange, desiring that the people understand that “it is not on bread alone that man lives, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”. Satan attempts to lead Jesus astray, away from the narrow path, the difficult course that God has planned for His mission. But Jesus is not moved by the devil to do other than the Father’s will. Satan turns this defeat into a means of attack in the second temptation. If Jesus trusted that the Father would not let Him starve, why should Jesus not show even greater trust and “prostrate himself in homage before me, and all the kingdoms of the world shall be yours”. Jesus answers this temptation with another Word from Deuteronomy (6:13), “The Lord your God you shall fear; Him you shall serve, and by His name alone you shall swear.”

Lastly, the devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and tries to get the Lord to throw Himself from the topmost of the temple, entrusting Himself into the hands of the angels, but Jesus counters with Deuteronomy (6:16) “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Unshaken in adherence to God’s will, Jesus does not give in to the devil, who finally leaves Jesus, awaiting another opportunity. What Jesus shows us in the desert is the ideal of every Christian life, that we need to live the Gospel without compromise in any circumstances.