the first temptation

The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."

More on this later, after I've had lunch.

Ummm...that was good...

Many people talk about the “if” in this temptation, as though Satan were trying to cast doubts on Jesus’ identity.  That may certainly be the case, but the temptation begins with something more than a question of Jesus’ self-identity.  Satan does not ask “If you are divine”  or “If you are truly God and truly human” or “If you are the Messiah”.  Satan questions Jesus’ relationship to God.  “If you are the Son of God”.  It is a question of relationship.  After all, that is what temptation is designed to do – break our relationship with God and with one another.  It is not merely about my self-identity, it is about my relationships.  Don’t we use this “if” word all the time?  If you loved me you would do this;  if you cared you would have noticed.

So Satan asks Jesus to turn stones into bread.  A reasonable thing – after all, Jesus is famished.  We all need to sustain our bodies.  This is the second part of the temptation.  It is a temptation to think only of our physical selves.  That we are nothing more than our bodies, a complex of neurons and sinews and chemicals – we are only physical creatures - and so we should only satisfy our physical selves.  We forget what a human being is.

There is a another, subtle element to this temptation – Satan says “command” these stones to become bread.  Do it just because you have the power to do it.  Use force, use coercion, make it happen by sheer might or power.  It is the temptation to use one’s ability or position or power arbitrarily.  Make it happen.  But a Jesus who forces things to happen is not a Jesus worth following.  Jesus will not force or command the stones to become bread.  Just as he will not force anyone to follow him.  He will not force anyone to love him.  He will not force us to become like him and follow him – he invites us.

"It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"