First Sunday of Lent
Lk 4:1-13
Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit is the result of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him during baptism which is the beginning of the Jesus’ public ministry. Same Holy Spirit will descend on the apostles, Mother Mary and the people on the day of Pentecost which is the beginning of the Church. He is being led to the desert to be tempted by devil for forty days and nights as the People of Israel were tempted in the wilderness for forty years before they entered the Promised Land. Now equips Jesus to face the temptation.


John Milton in his ninth of book of Paradise lost describes how cunning could the devil be? The devil looks for an opportune time and place and circumstance where he could easily tempt Eve. He hides himself in the garden and into the water bodies in order to stay away from the sight of Adam for he knew that Adam could not be easily tempted but Eve could be. He waits for an opportune time when Eve could be alone away from Adam. He comes to Eve when she is alone and he praises about the beauty of Eve and deceives her and once confident about Eve being in his control begins to question her about the forbidden fruit. He wants to makes sure that a doubt and confusion arises in the mind of Eve which would ultimately lead her to be deceived. Thus, Eve falls to Satan.


In today’s Gospel, Satan uses the same technique to tempt Jesus. Jesus has been in the desert now for forty days. Why did Satan not tempt him at the beginning of Jesus’ desert experience? Why does he need to tempt Jesus at this time? It is very clear that Satan has been waiting for an opportune time, a time of human weakness, which Jesus also suffered as a human person. Every human person feels hungry few hours after every meal. No wonder that Jesus would feel hungry after having fasted for forty days and forty nights. At this moment of weakness Satan wants to tempt Jesus. But what is the response of Jesus?


In the first temptation Satan says, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” First of all Satan is questioning Jesus’ identity. Are you really the Son of God? For sure Satan knew that Jesus was the Son of God. Then why should he question Jesus? Same as in the case of Eve Satan is trying to put that doubt in the mind of Jesus about his identity. And he uses the right means at right time. He knows that Jesus must be so hungry after forty days of fast and he is badly in need of some food. Therefore, he cannot get a better opportune time than this to make Jesus fall in his trap. But Jesus’ response is just opposite to what anyone could imagine in the situation like this.


Jesus knows for sure that he is the Son of God. His ego could have made him to prove himself in front of his tempter. But he would lose the focus on the purpose of his coming to this earth if he proves himself in front of his tempter. The purpose is to suffer and die on the cross for our sins. Satan did not want it to happen. That is the reason why he is showing the pleasure to Jesus instead of sufferings.