No Deals With the Devil

In real life it would be handy if the devil¹ clearly identified themselves as they apparently did in the story of the testing of Jesus. It can be difficult to know when the devil is lurking about offering us enticing opportunities and plausible excuses for our actions.

The Bible, among other things, helps us to become wise. It helps us to see how God is at work in the world and it helps us see how evil acts in the world. In the story of the tempting of Jesus, the devil tries to take over and control what already belongs to Jesus. As we read about how Jesus refused to make a deal with the devil, we gain insight into how Jesus lived and moved through the world of his day. And we can read and consider our own situations of temptation in our own times.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tested by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.”

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”

Jesus answered him, “It is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”

Then the devil led him to Jerusalem and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourselves down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you, and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'”

Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. (Luke 4:1-13 NRSVUE)

A couple of things to note about the text- In Luke’s gospel, just before this story is the story of Jesus baptism where the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus. Just after this story, Jesus returns to Galilee to teach and heal “in the power of the Spirit”². The Holy Spirit is with Jesus before, during, and after this time of testing.

Biblical scholars say that here, when the devil says, “if” they actually mean “since”. The devil isn’t asking Jesus to prove he is the Son of God. They are tempting Jesus to misuse his status as God’s Son.

Jesus responses to the devil are all from Deuteronomy. The first response, “One does not live by bread alone” is from Deuteronomy 8:3 where Moses is reminding the people of Israel that God fed them during the Exodus in the wilderness and ultimately brought them to the promised land. The second response, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” comes from Deuteronomy 6:13. Again the text in Deuteronomy is Moses reminding the people that God brought them to the promised land and delivered them from slavery and so they should worship God and not other God’s. Jesus last response is from Deuteronomy 6:16. Here Moses is cautioning people against testing God as they had at Massah and to keep their covenant with God.³

The author of the Gospel of Luke wants us to make connections between the great leader and prophet Moses and Jesus. Moses spends 40 years in the wilderness, Jesus spends 40 days. Both are faithful to God even when life becomes difficult. Both- each in their own way- lead people out of slavery and to freedom in the promised land.

So what is the devil up to? Why these temptations? I think they are working to subvert Jesus’ work. The commonality between the temptations is that they, each in their own way, are attempting to get Jesus to put himself and his needs and sense of mission ahead of what God wants and needs.

Let’s start with the second temptation, to take authority over all the kingdoms. As the Son of God, Jesus already has this authority. The devil is exaggerating their power. Not that they don’t have power, because they do. But their power or authority is temporary and limited. Jesus knows that God’s authority is neither temporary nor limited. God’s power is not power “over” but rather power “with”. Jesus comes with God’s power and authority, but look at how he uses it in the rest of the gospel. Jesus invites people. He feeds people, he heals people, he restores relationships. He doesn’t shy away from speaking truthfully and even forcefully to the powerful, but he does it with the aim of restoring them into relationship with God. Jesus’ power is not the power of control. God’s power is the power of love.

The first temptation has always been puzzling to me. Jesus is obviously hungry. What’s wrong with changing a stone into bread? It’s fine to say one does not live by bread alone. But without bread, one does not live. It’s important to remember that 80-90% of the people in first century Galilee were desperately poor. Most were subsistence farmers. The Empire took a significant portion of what they produced. Food was scarce. The poorest of the poor were displaced off the land and had to travel around looking for work or begging so they could eat. The devil’s temptation to Jesus is for him to only worry about himself. To feed himself and not worry about others. The devil doesn’t say command these stones to become many loaves of bread. It’s feed yourself. Jesus refusal to feed only himself is an act of solidarity with the poor.

The last temptation is ironic. The devil in effect says, “put yourself in harms way and God will protect you.” Jesus, of course, ends up in Jerusalem and puts himself in harm’s way. But his arrest and crucifixion are not a test, they are the result of Jesus’ faithfulness. And faithfulness takes Jesus into danger, not away from it. Of course, Jesus does ultimately overcome death.

When Luke tells us about the devil’s temptations and Jesus’ response, he is helping us understand why Jesus does what he does. Jesus’ messiahship is not what anyone then or now would expect. It’s not business as usual in the world. Jesus the Messiah is not focused on personal glory and gain. He is aware of the lures and traps of the culture. Jesus doesn’t avoid the culture or people of his time. He engages them in a way that is faithful to God’s ways and in ways that invited people to join him in the particular way of living.

We who would follow Jesus, look carefully at what he does, consider our own situations and listen to what the Spirit urges us to do. In some ways, the challenges are the same.

R. Alan Culpepper writes this about Jesus’ temptations.

Although the temptation story does not offer ethical instructions that cover every eventuality, it does describe the perennial ethical challenges that Christians face: the temptation to forget one’s baptismal identity, to attempt to use one’s religion for personal gain, to try to be successful rather than faithfulness to be dazzled by the riches of the world, to make compromises where one is called to stand firm, and to avoid that path of sacrifice and suffering. ⁴

I’m sure that you, like I am, are able to think of current day examples of Jesus’ temptations. Sometimes we are personally tempted. Sometimes we encounter Christians and Christian groups who have been enticed by these temptations. Our challenge is how do we respond?

1. There is a lot to unpack about how the Bible and Christians speak about evil. How the Bible talks about the devil, or Satan, or the adversary, or the accuser (all these words are used to describe evil personified) is somewhat fluid and changed over time. Whether one believes there is an individual entity or not, the Biblical witness is that, broadly speaking, there are forces that oppose the will and desire of God. ↩︎
2. Luke 4:14 NRSVUE ↩︎
3. See Exodus 17:1-7 for the story. ↩︎
4. Culpepper, R. Allen, “The Gospel of Luke: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume IX, Leander E. Keck, Ed. Abingdon Press: 1995, page101. ↩︎