Right after Jesus' baptism and before he begins his ministry in Galilee as the light that shines on those who sit in darkness, Jesus is tempted by the Devil. Matthew (4:1-11) follows Mark's outline here and like Luke expands the narrative to include the dialogue between the Tempter and Jesus.
The temptation narrative in Matthew begins and ends with activities of agents from heaven. It starts with the Spirit leading Jesus into the desert "to be tempted by the Devil". The account concludes with angels arriving to minister to the victorious Jesus (v. 11). In between these frames, Jesus goes hungry with fasting and is tempted three times by the devil who is identified as the Tempter (v. 3) and Satan (v. 10).
On first glance, the structure seems to be an account of the temptation of a just man similar to that of Abraham or Job. In the temptations of the just, the aim is
to prove the rightness and sincerity of the dispositions he nourishes towards God. The person approved through this testing time obviously comes out fortified and so this type of temptation is often presented as one of the devices by which God teaches and brings man to greater perfection.1
This would be the case if the temptations were not as specific as the one proferred by the Devil here. In Matthew 4:1-11, the temptation is about Jesus' being the Son of God.
Matthew had already presented Jesus through the voice from heaven that said: "This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased." These words show Jesus above all as the Servant who pleases God by his total obedience. During the temptation, what is highlighted is Jesus' obedience to the Father. Here Servanthood appears under the aspect of Sonship.
During Jesus' baptism, Matthew made it clear that the Nazarene's immersion in the waters was an act of solidarity with repentant Israel. Israel was "tempted" by God in the desert as a father disciplines a son (cf. Deut. 8:5). But it was also in the desert where the pattern of Israel's subsequent sins became clear. In the desert, Israel murmurred in the absence of food (Ex. 16:3), they tested God for lack of water (Ex. 17:1-7), and they worshipped the Golden Calf (Ex. 32). When the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted, it was so that he could retrace the steps Israel took in their journey through barren places as they walked behind Yahweh. Still in solidarity with repentant Israel, Jesus is presented to the Tempter to undo Israel's sin of disobedience. What Matthew had begun to show in the infancy narratives is followed up here. Jesus, the New Israelis tested in fidelity.
The temptation is presented in three phases, the first two being prefaced by the conditional "If you are Son of God...". The content of these temptations are about food, God's care and power and glory. Each correspond to one of the sins of Israel in the desert: of murmurring (Ex. 16:3), of contending against God and testing Him (Ex. 17:1-17), of idolatry (Ex. 32).
The first temptation touches on Jesus' hunger and on man's basic instinct to survive. The devil asks Jesus to make use of his power to satisfy himself. Israel in the desert complained to God because of the lack of food. Yahweh responded with mannah and quail, demonstrating that He is larger than the Israelites' problem of surviving in the desert. The devil plays on the hunger of Jesus as a bait to make him perform a self-serving act.
The second temptation is about a just man's assurance of God's care and providence. It is noteworthy that the Tempter makes use of a verse from Psalm 91, a didactic psalm about God's care for His devotee. He does this on the parapet of the Temple, symbol of God's Holy presence among His own. From Solomon's dedicatory prayer (1 Kgs. 8:26-52), we get the idea that the Temple is a "sacrament" of God's provident care; it is Psalm 91's "shelter of the Most High" (91:1), a reminder of God's attention to those who call upon Him (91:15). "Is the Lord among us or not?" is Israel's contention and test at Massah and Meribah. The Devil plays on Jesus' loneliness, atop the parapet of the Temple, to make him ask for assurance that he is not alone.
Finally, the third temptation, is a direct offer of all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worshipping a non-God. Here, the conditional "If you are Son of God..." is dropped and the identity of the Devil as expressed in Wisdom 2:24 is revealed2. The Devil wants Jesus to transfer allegiance to him. Israel had, immediately after receiving the commandments of God (Ex. 24) turned to the worship of the Golden Calf (Ex. 32). What could have been the high point of Israel's liberation from the slavery of Egypt became a pattern for all its sins until its utter destruction in 587 BC.
Jesus' response to each of the Devil's invitation is a word from Scriptures, specifically from Deuteronomy, the constitution of Israel in the Holy land. Each of those responses is an expression of Jesus' abandonment to the will of the Father. During his baptism, he told the Baptist that his immersion in the waters is for the fulfillment of all righteousness, that is, what is right in the eyes of God. In the desert, he, like Isaac before him (Gen. 22) abandons himself to the will of the Father refusing Satan's invitations.
Jesus' first response is a quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3, a verse that recalls how Yahweh fed and nourished Israel through the desert. Jesus' refusal to do what the Devil commanded amounts to a refusal to use his powers for his own advantage.
Jesus' second response, taken from Deut. 6:16 amounts to a continuing loyalty to God inspite of His seeming absence. He will not throw himself down from the parapet in order to prove that he is cared for. Even the loneliness of the just -- that solitude which could make them cry out "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1) -- will not be an occassion for Jesus to tempt God as Israel did at Massah and Meribah.
The third and final response is a command ("Depart from me, Satan!") and a verse from the Shema (Deut. 6:4), the pledge of allegiance to Yahweh. Where Israel's wealth became the occassion for the idolatrous worship of the Calf, here, the power and glory of all the kingdoms of the world fail to move Jesus from his devotion to the Father.
In each of the above phases of the Devil's temptation, a preview of the rest of the Gospel is given.
In the temptation about food, Jesus' life-giving ministry and the instances where he fed multitudes is presaged. In the temptation at the Temple parapet, Jesus' solitude in the midst of resistance coming from the authorities and his subsequent death is alluded to. Not even on the cross does he call upon God to save him. Finally, the temptation on the high mountain has its correspondence in Matthew 28. There the victorious Risen One announces that all authority has been given to him, and that now the kingdom he had earlier announced can begin to take shape in the discipling of the nations.
1. "Temptation" in The New World Dictionary-Concordance to the New American Bible (1970), p. 683
2. Wisdom 2:23-24 is actually a commentary on the victory of the devil over Adam. It was out of envy that the devil tricked man and made him rebel against God. Luke's temptation account makes the devil attempt to do to Jesus what he succeeded to do to Adam. The Lucan genealogy that ends with "Adam, son of God" also succeeds in showing that Jesus' victory over the Devil can also become everyman's victory over the Tempter.
