Index

Jesus is tempted by Satan ...........................................................2

The Catechism of the Catholic Church ........................................3

The Temptation in other Gospels ................................................6

The First Temptation ...................................................................9

The second temptation ...............................................................10

The Third Temptation .................................................................11

Jesus is left for a more opportune Time ......................................13

Temptations in our lives..............................................................14

Reflections ..................................................................................18

References ..................................................................................20
Jesus is tempted by Satan
Gospel of Matthew
Chapter 4 : 1-11

1.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
2.
He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry.
3.
The tempter approached and said to him, If you are the Son of God,
command that these stones become loaves of bread.
4.
He said in reply, It is written: One does not live by bread alone, but by
every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
5.
Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet
of the temple,
6.
and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is
written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands
they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
7.
Jesus answered him, Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your
God, to the test.
8.
Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all
the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,
9.
and he said to him, All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate
yourself and worship me.
10.
At this, Jesus said to him, Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your
God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.
11.
Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

2
 Chapter 1
The Catechism of the Catholic Church

1. How could Jesus, who is All-Holy, be tempted?

The Greek word used here for temptation (peirazo) does not indicate that Jesus
had the disordered desire that we refer to in English as temptation. Instead, it
means "to try," "to attempt." Here the devil tries to get Jesus to sin--and fails.
CCC 538 recalls how Christ was driven into the desert "by the Spirit" just after
His Baptism by Saint John the Baptist. He fasts for forty days and overcomes the
temptations of the devil, remaining true to His Holy Father in Heaven. 538 also
notes how the Israelites were tested in the desert, with Jesus' triumph reversing
their weaknesses:

Jesus' Temptations
538 The Gospels speak of a time of solitude for Jesus in the desert immediately
after his baptism by John. Driven by the Spirit into the desert, Jesus remains there
for forty days without eating; he lives among wild beasts, and angels minister to
him.[ ] At the end of this time Satan tempts him three times, seeking to
compromise his filial attitude toward God. Jesus rebuffs these attacks, which
recapitulate the temptations of Adam in Paradise and of Israel in the desert, and
the devil leaves him "until an opportune time."[ ]

Note that it is the Holy Spirit which leads Him on His Journey, how Holy Angels
minister to Him, and how it is in response to His Baptism. His Baptism, of course,
saw all three Persons of the Holy Trinity in action, with God the Father declaring
Jesus to be His Son, and for us to listen to Him. It is then in response to the Spirit
that Jesus fasts and prays in the desert, and loyalty to the Father that He
demonstrates.

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2. What does this event reveal to us about Jesus, Adam, and the devil?

CCC 539 focuses on how Jesus demonstrates obedience to the Father, and
how the resulting conquering of the devil anticipates the Triumph of Jesus'
Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

539 The evangelists indicate the salvific meaning of this mysterious event: Jesus
is the new Adam who remained faithful just where the first Adam had given in
to temptation. Jesus fulfills Israel's vocation perfectly: in contrast to those who
had once provoked God during forty years in the desert, Christ reveals himself as
God's Servant, totally obedient to the divine will. In this, Jesus is the devil's
conqueror: he "binds the strong man" to take back his plunder.[ ] Jesus' victory
over the tempter in the desert anticipates victory at the Passion, the supreme
act of obedience of his filial love for the Father.

Recall how the Triumph of Jesus' Passion, Death, and Resurrection also ushered
in a new age, in which the previous ruler of the world, the devil, has been
overthrown and sinners are saved and invited to Eternal Life.

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3. What does this show us about Jesus' role as the Messiah?

CCC 540 itself focuses upon the Son of God as Messiah, and how Jesus' forty
days in the desert help illustrate the true Messianic Nature of Jesus Christ. He is
Messiah and High Priest able to sympathize with our human weaknesses, True
God and True Man, tested in every way but without sinning:

540 Jesus' temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah,
contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and the way men wish to attribute to
him.[ ] This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: "For we have not a high
priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every
respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning."[ ] By the solemn forty
days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the
desert.

566 The temptation in the desert shows Jesus, the humble Messiah, who
triumphs over Satan by his total adherence to the plan of salvation willed by the
Father.

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 Chapter 2
The Temptation in other Gospels

The temptation of Christ is found in all of the synoptic gospels: Matthew (4:1-11),
like Luke (4:1- 13), gives an extensive account whereas Mark (1:12-13) gives a very
brief summary of the historic event.

Satan recognized Jesus as the Son of God and thus saw in Him One who had come
into the world to overthrow his kingdom. The Redeemer had come. The prison door
was about to be thrown open and the captives were about to be set free. The prince
of this world was not about to give way to the Prince of Peace without a
momentous struggle. After all, he had overcome the first Adam in the Garden of
Eden, Why, then, should he not overcome the second Adam in the desert? As He
had banished man from then garden, why shouldnt he now banish him from Gods
kingdom?

Satan didnt wait around very long. He went after Jesus at the very beginning of His
public ministry. The plan was to divert Him right away, to nip His ministry in the
bud, and undercut Him before His ministry got traction.

It is true that Jesus had no inner desire or inclination to sin, for these in themselves
are sin (Mt 5:22,28). Because He was the Son of God, He did not sin in any way,
whether by actions or word or inner desire (2 Co 5:21; Heb 7:26; 1 Jn 3:5). Yet Jesus
temptation was real, not merely symbolic. Jesus was not playing charades, nor was
He just going through the motions. He
was fighting the forces of evil. As the writer to the Hebrew Christians put it :

He was tempted in every way, just as we areyet was without sin (Heb 4:15).
This means that Jesus was confronted by the tempter with a real opportunity to
sin.

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Mark 1:12-14

Mark's concise summary (1:12-14) helps establish the setting for the temptation of
Jesus. Mark indicates that after Jesus baptism the Spirit immediately led Jesus into
the desert. The words wilderness or desert refer to deserted areas in the
unpopulated wilds of Palestine. Mark indicates Jesus was "with the wild animals,"
presumably isolated from the distractions of humanity (Mk 1:13).

The wilderness temptation is the first recorded event that follows the baptism of
Jesus. Thus it is important to review Christ's baptism to better understand His
temptation. Jesus moves quickly from a time of honor to a time of conflict. When
Jesus was baptized God declared, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased" (Mt 3:17, Mk 1:11). Satan challenged this declaration in the first two
temptations. First came the testimony of God the Father: You are My beloved
Son. Then came the sneering suggestion of Satan, If you are the Son of God. The
significance of Jesus temptations, especially because they occurred at the outset
of His public ministry, seems best understood in terms of the kind of Messiah He
was to be. The temptation of Jesus, which was divinely intended, has as its primary
background.

Deuteronomy 8:1-5, from which Jesus also quotes in His first reply to the devil.
Moses recalls how the Lord led the Israelites in the desert forty years to humble
you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you
would keep His commands.

Here at the beginning of Jesus ministry Jesus is subjected to a similar test and
shows Himself to be the true Israelite who lives on every word that comes from
the mouth of the Lord. Whereas Adam failed the great test and plunged the whole
race into sin (Ge 3), Jesus was faithful and thus demonstrated His qualification to
become the Savior of all who receive Him. Moreover, it was important that Jesus
be tested, as Israel and we are, so that He could become our merciful and faithful
high priest (Heb. 2:17) and thus be able to help those who are being tempted
(Heb 2:18; 4:15-16). Finally, as the one who remained faithful in temptation, Jesus
became the model for all believers when they are tempted. Scripture states that
Jesus was tempted by the devil (4:23). God surely tests His people, but it is the

7
devil who tempts. The purpose of testing is to reveal our strengths and weaknesses
whereas the purpose of temptation is to encourage us to do evil.
The name devil means accuser or slanderer. The devil is a personal being, not
a mere force or influence. He is the personification of evil and thus the great
archenemy of God and the leader of the hosts of darkness.

Luke 4:1- 13

St. Luke points out that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit during His time of
temptation. Luke emphasizes the Holy Spirit not only in his gospel (1:35,41,67;
2:25-27; 3:16,22; 4:14,18; 10:21; 11:13; 12:10,12) but also in Acts, where the Spirit
is mentioned fifty-seven times.

The Temptation took place in the desert, probably the Desert of Judea, an area
which stretched some twenty miles between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, an area
where John the Baptist probably lived. Luke states that Jesus was tempted for the
forty days he was fasting, and the three specific temptations recounted in Matthew
and Luke seem to have occurred at the close of this periodwhen Jesus hunger
was greatest and his resistance lowest.

Forty days and forty nights (4:2) reminds us of the experiences of Moses (Ex
24:18; 34:28) and Elijah (1 Ki 19:8), as well as the forty years of Israels temptation
(testing) in the desert (Dt 8:2-3).

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 Chapter 3
The First Temptation (4:3-4)

The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.
Jesus answered, It is written: Man does not live on bread alone' (vv. 3-4).

The danger of this temptation was not in making bread. Jesus was not under a
prohibition from miraculously creating food. On two occasions Jesus used his
power to create bread for a multitude of people (Mk 6:35-44; 8:1-21). The real peril
lay in Satan's proposed reason for creating bread. Jesus immediately perceived the
real danger and responded with a passage from Deuteronomy 8:3. In that passage
Moses reminded the Israelites that God humbled them in the wilderness when He
provided manna from heaven.

If you are the Son of God (4:3) here probably means Since you are for Satan is
not casting doubt on Jesus divine sonship but is tempting Him to use His
supernatural powers as the Son of God for His own ends. The phrase tell this stone
to become bread (v. 3) illustrates the fact that the devil always makes his
temptations seem reasonable and attractive. Why should He, the Son of God, have
to wait any longer? Arent forty days and nights long enough? Why not tell this
stone to become bread? Just as God gave the Israelites manna in a supernatural
way (Dt 8:3), so also man must rely on God for spiritual feeding.

Jesus relied on His Father, not His own miracle power, for provision of food (v. 4).
Notice that Jesus responded to this temptation by using His Sword of the Spirit,
that is, by quoting the Scripture.

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 Chapter 4
The Second Temptation (4:5-8)

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms
of the world. And he said to him, I will give you all their authority and splendor, for
it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me,
it will all be yours. Jesus answered, It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and
serve him only (4:5-8).

For world dominion, Satan asked worship. Worship me, he said, And I will give
You the world! (4:7) The devil was tempting Jesus to avoid the sufferings of the
cross, which He came
specifically to endure: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mk 10:45).

Now My heart is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour?
No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour (Jn 12:27).

The temptation offered an easy shortcut to world dominion. Again, Jesus used His
sword, the Word, as he quoted from Deuteronomy 6:13.

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 Chapter 5
The Third Temptation (4:9-12)

The third and last temptation took place from the highest point of the temple (v.
9). This was either the southeast corner of the temple colonnade, from which there
was a drop of some 100 feet to the Kidron Valley below, or the pinnacle of the
temple proper. Although the exact spot is not given, Josephus, the Jewish historian,
recorded that Herod's royal portico towered 450 feet over the Kidron Valley.

If you are (4:9) again probably means Since you are. The devil led him to
Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son
of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. For it is written: 'He will
command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in
their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'

Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test' (vv. 9-12).
Jesus did not question Satan's authority to grant the world's kingdoms. Bear in
mind, however, that Jesus did not directly address Satan's apparent deceptions in
the first two temptations. Either Satan possessed this authority, or he was
validating his reputation as "the father of lies" (Jn 8:44).But the real issue was not
Satan's authority. Rather, his suggestion violated the first commandment, which
states: "You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex 20:3).

After having lost the first two challenges, Satan appealed to Scripture by quoting
Psalm 91:11-12. When isolated from other passages, this proposal seems
reasonable. If Jesus were God's Son, then Scripture promised to save Him.
Deceptively, Satan tried inciting Jesus to test the Scripture. Jesus addressed the real
issue by quoting Scripture. The devil will use Scripture if it advances his cause. Jesus
responds by again quoting Deuteronomy 6:16:

"Do not test the Lord your God (Mt 4:7).

Satan tempts Jesus to test Gods faithfulness and to attract public attention in a
very dramatic way. According to the first temptation, as Messiah Jesus would not
accomplish His mission by using His supernatural power for His own needs. Jesus

11
refusal to give in to the second temptation showed that Jesus refused to use His
power to win a large following by miracles or magic. His resistance to the third and
last temptation showed that Jesus would not compromise with the devil. In His
encounter with the devil, the enemy of His soul and ours, Jesus demonstrated what
he declared later in His ministry:

I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself, He can do only what He
sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does (Jn.
5:19).

By Myself I can do nothing (Jn 5:30).

And He said the same of us: I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains
in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, apart from Me you can do nothing (Jn
15:5).

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 Chapter 5
Jesus is left for a more opportune Time (4:13)

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left Him until an opportune time
(v. 13).

Satan continued his tempting throughout Jesus ministry (Mk 8:33), culminating in
the supreme test at Gethsemane. Because Peters attempt to dissuade Jesus from
going to the cross held the same temptation Satan tempted Jesus with, Jesus
severely rebuked him: But when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, he
rebuke Peter. Get behind me, Satan! He said. You do not have in mind the things
of God, but the things of men. (Mk. 8:33)

As Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6:

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of
evil in the heavenly realms (Eph 6:12).

This is why we are exhorted to put on the full armor of God (Eph 6:13).

Our real enemy is not human beings, but Satan. Therefore the battle cannot be
fought using mere human resources.

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 Chapter 6
Temptations in our lives

Temptations seem to be everywhere these days. Luxurious food commercials on

TV, lusty billboards, R-rated movies, dirty jokes, etc. The challenge for us all is to
overcome these things and to stand up for morality and chastity. So how do we do
this? Through sheer will power? Or is there a better way?

The Bible talks about Jesus being tempted in the desert by satan himself. These
three temptations concerning the flesh (turn these stones into bread if you are the
son of God), the devil (all these kingdoms will be yours if you fall down and worship
satan), and the world (throw yourself down from the pinnacle, and let the angels
catch you), are the same 3 temptations that we have to overcome every day - those
of the flesh, the devil, and the world. Jesus overcame these temptations through
prayer and fasting, which is an excellent recipe for us today.

Another parallel to the above 3 temptations of Jesus regards the Israelites in the
desert. The Israelites had just come up out of the water of the Red Sea into the
desert, where they spent 40 years. Jesus came up out of the waters of the Jordan
River, following His Baptism, and spent 40 days in the desert. The Israelites
worshiped a golden calf in the desert, instead of God. Then the Israelites grumbled
about food, and God sent them bread from heaven, called manna. Then they
grumbled about thirst, and put God to the test. Moses then struck the rock, and
out came water. Notice the parallels here with Jesus - satan wanted Jesus to
worship him, a false God (the golden calf), the devil told Jesus to turn the stones
into bread (the manna from heaven), then he wanted Jesus to put God to the test
by jumping off of the high pinnacle (putting God to the test by striking the rock to
bring water). Whereas the Israelites failed their 3 tests in the desert, Jesus passed
the same 3 tests with flying colors.

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Jesus also gave us some great insights resulting from these temptations- "Man does
not live on bread alone, but on every Word that comes from the mouth of God" (a
prefigurement of the Mass, composed of the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of
the Eucharist), "You shall not tempt the Lord your God" (the sin of presumption),
and "Begone satan. You shall worship the Lord your God, and only Him shall you
serve" (how many of us worship money, pleasure, drugs, food, etc., instead of God).

Matthew 4:1-11: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he
was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God,
command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written,
`Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth
of God.'" Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of
the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it
is written, `He will give his angels charge of you,' and `On their hands they will bear
you up,lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "Again it is
written, `You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'" Again, the devil took him to a
very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory
of them; and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and
worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! for it is written, `You shall
worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" Then the devil left him,
and behold, angels came and ministered to him.

Deuteronomy 8:1-20: "All the commandment which I command you this day you shall be careful to do,
that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your
fathers. And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in
the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would
keep his commandments, or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which
you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by
bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing
did not wear out upon you, and your foot did not swell, these forty years. Know then in your heart that,
as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of
the LORD your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the LORD your God is bringing you into
a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills, a land
of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in
which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron,

15
and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your
God for the good land he has given you. "Take heed lest you forget the LORD your God, by not keeping
his commandments and his ordinances and his statutes, which I command you this day: lest, when you
have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks
multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted
up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and
thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in
the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to
do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, `My power and the might of my hand have
gotten me this wealth.' You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get
wealth; that he may confirm his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day. And if you forget
the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you this
day that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you
perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.

In the above chapter 8 of Deuteronomy, God tells us all how he operates - He tests
us to see if we really love Him. If we don't love Him, and trust in our own strength
to save us, then we will perish. And whereas this is referencing the Israelites in the
desert, if you substitute the word "heaven" for "a good land" and "modern society"
for "wilderness" in the verses above in Deuteronomy, you will see that this also
applies to us, who walk in the very dry and arid wilderness of a secular culture. Our
serpents and scorpions that could keep us from heaven are the spirit of lust and
gluttony we see on TV, the movies, and on billboards. Our thirsty ground is living
in a society where many people don't even acknowledge that God exists. So if we
want to get to our promised land of heaven, then we need to not go after the false
gods of money, sex, drugs, power, and the occult. Rather, just like Jesus, we need
to tell satan to "begone" and to worship Jesus Christ only, through his body that He
created, the Church.

And notice how the devil left Jesus alone after he had resisted the 3 temptations.
James says in his epistle:
James 4:7: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee
from you.

16
Some people believe that by giving in to the devil, he will leave you alone, when
just the opposite is true. So start saying that rosary every day, ask Jesus for Divine
Mercy, and start going to daily Mass and Eucharistic Adoration as often as possible.
If you really want satan to leave you alone, then start singing "Hail Holy Queen" or
"Immaculate Mary" in your car. He really hates Mary, and flees from her every time,
because she is the one human being other than Jesus that he has no power over,
even for a second.

Be ready for battle! Satan is poised as a roaring lion looking for whom he may
devour (1 Pe 5:8).

Use the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Although Jesus was the Son of
God, he defeated Satan by using a weapon that everyone has at his or her
disposal: the sword of the Spirit, which is the world of God (Eph 6:17). He met
all three temptations with scriptural truth (vv. 4,8,10) from the Book of
Deuteronomy.

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Reflections

How do Jesus' "temptations" relate to ours?

Pope Benedict explains:

Matthew and Luke recount three temptations of Jesus that reflect the inner
struggle over his own particular mission and, at the same time, address the
question as to what truly matters in human life.
At the heart of all temptations, as we see here, is the act of pushing God aside
because we perceive him as secondary, if not actually superfluous and annoying, in
comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives.
Constructing a world by our own lights, without reference to God, building on our
own foundation; refusing to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the
political and material, while setting God aside as an illusionthat is the temptation
that threatens us in many varied forms [Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 1, p. 28].

How can we relate Jesus' time in the desert to our own experience of Lent?

Pope Benedict explains:

Lent is like a long "retreat" in which to re-enter oneself and listen to God's voice in
order to overcome the temptations of the Evil One and to find the truth of our
existence.
It is a time, we may say, of spiritual "training" in order to live alongside Jesus not
with pride and presumption but rather by using the weapons of faith: namely
prayer, listening to the Word of God and penance.
In this way we shall succeed in celebrating Easter in truth, ready to renew our
baptismal promises [Angelus, Feb. 21, 2010].

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Conclusion from CCC

2119 Tempting God consists in putting his goodness and almighty power to the test
by word or deed. Thus Satan tried to induce Jesus to throw himself down from the
Temple and, by this gesture, force God to act.49 Jesus opposed Satan with the word
of God: "You shall not put the LORD your God to the test."50 The challenge
contained in such tempting of God wounds the respect and trust we owe our Creator
and Lord. It always harbors doubt about his love, his providence, and his power.51

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References

Josephus, Antiquities XV. 412.

Catechism of Catholic Church

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www.goodnewsaboutgod.com

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