Christ's Temptations in the Desert
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The Temptations
Jesus was a divine Person, incapable of Sin. The divine will is necessarily perfect. It’s part of what it means to be God, so there’s no way that Jesus, who was God, could act in a way that was incompatible with His Divine Nature. Why then, would Jesus go through the motions of being tempted to sin when sin was precisely what He was incapable of?
First of all, so that He could sympathize with us in our temptations. Hebrews 14 says that Christ, Our High Priest, can sympathize with our infirmities, since He was tempted like we are, but without sin. In other words, it wasn’t just a charade. He did struggle, He did feel the attraction of the goods which Satan presented to Him. He felt that internal tug-of-war between the lesser but so-desirable good and the greater good God wants for us. He knows, by His own experience, how powerful temptation can be.
But secondly, so that He could show us how to overcome temptation, what practices, what preparation can make us ready to choose rightly when evil presents itself as a live option.
He is our example in all things and here we need to look carefully at the weapons he brought to his battle with Satan.
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The Sources of Temptation
The tradition has identified three avenues through which we are tempted, i.e., through which we are attracted to sin, to pursuing a good in a disordered way that contradicts reason and God’s plan: The World, the Flesh, and the Devil.
We see these sources in Christ’s temptation.
The Flesh refers to the temptations that come to us from within ourselves, our natural desires for food, for drink, for love and comfort, all these quickly become disordered. The world of sense, sight, taste, and touch, these take over for so many of us.
Satan urges Christ to put His physical pleasure first. He tells Him to turn stones into bread, to use His miraculous power for His own bodily satisfaction.
The World refers to the temptations that come to us from other people: peer pressure, social expectation, cultural norms. So many of our disordered desires are taught to us by others. So many of our sins are born of trying to compare ourselves to others, or out of a concern for what other people think. Satan approaches through this avenue too. He takes Jesus to the highest point in the most crowded part of Israel, the top of the temple, and says, “Throw yourself down, and then at the last second let God save you! Sure it’s kind of a pointless miracle, but it’ll sure impress people, and we all want to impress people – try it!”
The Devil, of course, is at the root of all our temptations. He’s the first tempter, the one we obey every time we choose some worldly thing over God. At the last temptation Satan takes off the mask, and says, “I’ll give anything on earth! I’ll give you everything on earth! Just forsake God, let me be your master!”
Christ wins every time.
What does He exhibit in this battle that we can emulate in our own preparation against temptation?
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Fasting: our defense against the flesh
It’s pretty clear that if we’re going to be able to resist the urges of the flesh, we’ll have to discipline our bodies.
Christ prepares for the struggle with temptation by fasting, by denying His body what it wants.
What kind of training do you give your senses as part of the Christian life?
Do you abstain from meat or treats or seasonings on certain days of the week? Or do you just eat whatever you like as long as it doesn’t have too many calories? Do you discipline your eyes in what they look at or do you just let yourself watch videos and tv and video games?
If you struggle with lust, or with gluttony but you have no spiritual exercise of self-denial regarding your senses, well then what did you expect?
Christ Himself prepared for temptation by fasting, do you think He needed more preparation than you do?
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Time in solitude: our defense against the world
Why do you think Christ went to the desert to prepare for His battle with Satan? Probably because, as you might have guessed from its name, the desert is deserted.
Our lives, by contrast, are absolutely flooded with other people’s voices. Either we’re talking to someone or the radio’s on or we’re listening to podcasts or the tv’s playing or maybe we’re on the phone with someone. How can you build up the moral reserves to do the right thing regardless of what other people think when you never stop listening to what other people think?
Christ didn’t check social media in the desert. He didn’t watch the news. He was alone with nature and with God. When Satan came He was ready.
So do you take time every day to be away from people, away from your devices, to be silent and meditate and pray?
If not, then you will always be the slave of the group and Satan will manipulate you at will.
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Scripture: our defense against Satan
Satan rarely takes the mask off when he deals with us. We usually don’t recognize his presence. But it’s his voice speaking to us through the lure of temptations of the flesh and of the world. It’s his voice we obey instead of God’s when we give in.
How can we make sure we hear God’s voice more strongly than Satan’s? Where can we find God’s message to us in His own words? In Scripture.
It was Scripture that Jesus opposed to Satan’s promptings. Jesus quoted the Bible to counter the attacks of temptation.
St. Jerome said that ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ but we might add that ignorance of Scripture is vulnerability to the devil.
Do you pray with the Word of God? If so, you are arming yourself with God’s voice as a shield against the voice of the devil. If not, you’re walking into a battle weaponless and you’ll be an easy victim.
Christ faced down the world, the flesh and the devil, and He won. If we fast, if we pray in solitude and make frequent use of the Scriptures, we will too.