He is our Way
Scripture
Deuteronomy 26:4-10,
Romans 10:8-13,
Luke 4:1-13.
Dear sisters and brothers,
Today, we are in the first week of Lent and we read from the Gospel of Saint Luke (Luke 4:1-13):
“Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days,
to be tempted by the devil.
He ate nothing during those days,
and when they were over he was hungry.
The devil said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered him,
“It is written, One does not live on bread alone.”
Then he took him up and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him,
“I shall give to you all this power and glory;
for it has been handed over to me,
and I may give it to whomever I wish.
All this will be yours, if you worship me.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“It is written
You shall worship the Lord, your God,
and him alone shall you serve.”
Then he led him to Jerusalem,
made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down from here, for it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,
and:
With their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“It also says,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
When the devil had finished every temptation,
he departed from him for a time.”
Reflection
Our Gospel today is on the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.
Three temptations:
To change stone into bread,
To fall down and worship the devil, and
To jump down from the pinnacle of the Temple.
These three temptations happened in the wilderness.
The wilderness can be a rough phase of our own lives.
What is our response when we face the rough phase in our lives?
What did we do during the pandemic time?
Did we use what we have to get what we want?
Or
Did we respond like Jesus, during the pandemic or during the rough time of our lives?
I am sure that we have heard:
“Use what you have to get what you want.”
Many people indeed take this as their philosophy of life.
However, Jesus shows us that the principle of using whatever you have, to get whatever you want, is not always right, through the Gospel reading of today.
In fact, when the principle: ‘use what you have to get what you want’, is applied without putting God first, it becomes a philosophy of the world.
In other words, it becomes the devil’s own philosophy, a philosophy that should be rejected as Jesus did in his life.
The gospel of today starts by saying:
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returns from the Baptism.
At the Jordan, after the Baptism of Jesus there was a voice from heaven (Luke 3:21-22) saying:
“Now when all the people were baptized,
and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
the heaven was opened,
and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved;
with you I am well pleased.””
In the first temptation, the devil puts an idea into Jesus’ head:
“If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread” (Luke 4:3).
Notice that the first thing the devil does is sow a doubt in his mind: “If you are the Son of God...”
Jesus came with the belief that he is the Son of God after his baptism at Jordan.
Now, the devil comes asking Jesus: “Are you really sure that you are the Son of God?”
There is a doubt.
We read the same thing in the book of Genesis in the Garden of Eden.
The first thing the Tempter said to Eve was:
“Did God really say you should not eat of any fruit of the garden” (Genesis 3:1).
There was a doubt in the mind of Eve after this question.
Every temptation always begins with a doubting thought.
A doubting thought can be:
Does God really exist?
Will God answer my prayer?
Did God really say this?
Are you sure God is with you?
These are the doubting questions.
We often face these temptations during the rough times in our lives.
Our rough time can be a suffering, a sickness, a death of a loved one, a pandemic and so on.
What did we do?
What do we do?
We ask a question:
“What did Jesus do when the same doubting question or temptation came up in his life?”
Jesus overcame the temptations by refusing to entertain such doubts.
Jesus stood by the Word of God.
The Word of God is active and alive.
It answers all our questions at all the times.
Secondly, we know from our lives that we are tempted only with what we need or what we want.
Jesus fasted for forty days.
Jesus was in dire need of food.
Why did Jesus need food?
Because, Jesus was hungry after forty days of fast and he was in the desert, where one does not get anything to eat.
In the other words, after his fasting Jesus needed to eat.
Therefore, the devil tempted him with food.
The devil tempted him with the need.
It is not a sin for Jesus to eat after fasting.
The temptation lie’s in how the food is obtained to feed the hungry.
Should Jesus follow the normal way of obtaining bread?
Or
Should he take the shortcut suggested by the devil to obtain?
Jesus refuses to take the devil’s advice.
Jesus encounters his temptation with the Word of God.
What does it mean to us?
It means that we must satisfy our needs in accordance with the Word of God.
Feeding on God’s word is ultimately more important than feeding on bread:
“It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone’” (Luke 4:4).
We wonder how Jesus could easily overcome his temptation of hunger or doubt.
It was easy for Jesus to overcome his doubt because the Spirit led him to the right direction.
We need to be led by the Spirit at all times.
Lent is the time for receiving this grace of the Spirit in our lives.
In each of these temptations what the devil says to Jesus is:
“Come on; use what you have to get what you want.”
However, in each case, Jesus overcomes all three temptations by replying:
“No, we can only use divinely means to satisfy our God-given needs or to pursue our goals in our lives.”
Jesus used what he had.
Let us all use Jesus, the Son of the Living God, to get what we want in our lives like the people of Israel. (Deuteronomy 26:4-10)
As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” (Romans 10:8-13)
Let us confess our faith in Jesus, the Incarnate Word saying:
Jesus is our way.
Jesus is our truth.
Jesus is our life.
I conclude this reflection with the Word of God:
“What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Mark 8:36)
May the Heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen…
