Luke 4:1-13

   Life is full of tests, some of which are official, while others are informal.  Some involve a number 2 pencil and filling in those little bubbles completely.  Some tests prove that you know the material, while others are designed to prove that you are qualified for something: a job, a license, or admission to a school.  Sometimes the connection between the test and the actual skill being tested seems tenuous but other times it’s obvious.  A driver’s test, for example.  Imagine the roads filled with drivers who never had to pass a driver’s test.  A good test needs to measure something that matters, something that shows the person taking the test will be able to hack it in the real world, not just that he or she is a good test taker. 

   If Jesus were to take a test that truly showed he could hack it as the Son of God, what would be on the test?  That’s what we find out in Luke’s version of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, a story that appears in Matthew and Mark as well.  In Luke, when Jesus was baptized, he heard the voice of God calling him God’s beloved son.  Then “filled with the Holy Spirit,” he’s led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where he’s tempted “by the devil.”  There’s no explanation of who or what that means, and in our 21st century mindset, it’s easy to dismiss the whole story because of that one word, “devil.”  Scripture characterizes evil in different ways: sometimes as tendencies within us, sometimes personified as forces outside us.  When our experience is that whatever is evil is coming at us from the outside, people often have used the word “devil” as the metaphor to describe that outside force.  That is what Luke is doing here.

   So, the devil, the personification of evil as a force outside of us, tempts Jesus.  These temptations are his test.  All the devil’s temptations address the fears Jesus faces as he begins his ministry; evil gets its foothold by playing on our fears.  The first temptation is not only personal but social.  Will Jesus’ ministry be one of turning stones to bread?  He could solve world hunger!  Now, that’s tempting.  But that is not what God does. 

   The second temptation is an offer to take power over all the nations of the earth.  In this temptation, the devil is claiming he has dominion over what belongs to God alone.  So part of the test is: Whom will you serve?  Whom will you worship?  But it’s also a temptation to take political control.  Wouldn’t that solve all the world’s problems, if Jesus just took over and saved the world?  But that is not what God does.

   The third temptation is religious: Will Jesus use supernatural power to prove he is who he is, and to prove who God is?  Wouldn’t it make everything easier if God just did something so unambiguous and flashy that no one could ignore it and everyone would have to believe it?  But that is not what God does.

   In each case Jesus answers the devil with Scripture.  At the heart of each reply is Jesus’ absolute trust in – and dependence on – God for his identity and future.  God does not coerce or threaten people into believing or becoming what God intends for us to be.  God does not solve the world’s problems with magic, snap-your-finger solutions.  God changes reality through persuasion, by inviting us to love the world the way God loves us.  Jesus’ responses show us that this is the way he understands God; this is the God that Jesus trusts.

   It’s a good test, and Jesus passes.  This story is followed by Jesus’ announcement in the Nazareth synagogue about what his ministry will look like: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  Jesus will do these things not with flashy shows of power but with transforming love.  That is what God does.  That is what it takes to be the Son of God.

   This story tells us about the God Jesus trusts, as well as why Jesus doesn’t magically fix everything.  It tells us something about ourselves, too.  We, too, are invited to trust this God.  We, too, are invited to withstand the temptation to doubt that God has claimed us as God’s beloveds.  Recovering, remembering, and trusting our identity as God’s beloveds is the work of the season of Lent.  Nadia Bolz-Weber writes, “We are tempted to doubt our innate value precisely to the degree that we are insecure about our identity from, and our relationship to, God.  When what seems to be depression or compulsive eating or narcissism or despair or discouragement or resentment or isolation takes over, try picturing it as a vulnerable and desperate force” – something like the devil described in the Luke passage – “seeking to defy God’s grace and mercy in your life.  And then tell it to piss off and say defiantly to it, … ‘I am God’s,’ because nothing else gets to tell you who you are.”

   We belong to God.  We are God’s beloveds.  Nothing else gets to tell you who you are. 

© Joanne Whitt 2025 all rights reserved.