Luke 4: 1-13
1And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit 2for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry. 3The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." 4And Jesus answered him, "It is written, `Man shall not live by bread alone.'" 5And the devil took him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7If you, then, will worship me, it shall all be yours." 8And Jesus answered him, "It is written, `You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'" 9And he took him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; 10for it is written, `He will give his angels charge of you, to guard you,' 11and `On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" 12And Jesus answered him, "It is said, `You shall not tempt You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'" 13And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
What touched my Soul
In today’s gospel from Luke Jesus is tempted by the Devil.
Actualy this is very interesting as we see the Son of God, God himself and at the same time man be tempted by the Devil. Jesus, God ,could have sent the devil away in the first instance, why didnt he do it?
My interpretation is that God wanted to let Jesus the man be tempted, like any one of us and instruct us on how to fight the devil’s temptations:
- ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.'" - material matters are not what man should seek to be fullfiled and saved, but the matters of God.
- `You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'" - well this one is self explicative, we shall only worship the Lord Our God.
- ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'" - we must respect and fear our God, not tempt him in any circunstancies. Even the devil runned away under this order from Jesus.
In this Lent period where rependance and penitence is central we must learn from this gospel that we have the tools to resist the devil:
- Focus on the spiritual good, pray, spiritual fast and repent through confessions.
- Pray - have I referred pray as a biggest tool to fight the evil and temptation?
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