Luke 4:3-4 3And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone so it might become bread.” 4And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘A person will not live on bread alone.’ ”
Luke recounts three temptations the devil gave to Jesus. Luke has a different order than Matthew 4:1-11 and gives the last temptation on the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. The temptations Jesus faced were real, not just theories. He was at a low point physically in his humanity because of his fasting. His temptations were unique in all of history but also paradigmatic for what we also go through in our lives. Each of the temptations reflects on the experiences of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. In the background of this passage lies the reference to Adam in Luke 3:38. The first temptation reflects Genesis 3:6 and the temptation to look at the forbidden fruit as good to eat.
The devil tempts Jesus to turn stone into bread. There were stones all over in the wilderness. Jesus was very hungry by this point, possibly on the verge of starvation. The phrasing of the devil’s temptation in the Greek can be interpreted as “since you are” (ei . . . ei). The devil was not challenging Jesus’ identity as the Son of God. The devil had no option but to acknowledge Jesus’ authority and divinity. Rather, the challenge was in his humanity. If the devil could get Jesus to compromise in the Incarnation, everything else in Jesus’ ministry and purpose would crumble. Jesus had to be one with humanity in all ways in order to be the sufficient Mediator.
At the heart of the first temptation was to rely on self and not God. The devil was trying to get Jesus to doubt the care of the Father. The temptation was to be independent of God, like Adam and Eve would become. The devil was tricky by alluding to Psalm 78:19-20. Jesus always did miracles for the good of others and not himself. He gave up himself, not exalted himself. He served rather than sought to be served. He would rather that the devil prove him to be humanly weak than to let the devil have control over him. He showed total trust in the Father by placing his physical situation in his care.
The only words Jesus speaks in these three temptations are quotations from Scripture, and all three come from Deuteronomy. He used the word of God like a sword in his spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:17). His quote comes from Deuteronomy 8:3, which was a reminder to Israel that they also had to learn to trust in God’s providential care during their forty years of wilderness wandering. There was no food in the desert to feed all the people, so God provided manna. This “bread from heaven” was a daily reminder that God loved them and had a special plan for them. Instead of forty years, Jesus had forty days of wilderness wandering. He lived by this verse during his time in the desert. No matter what the future would be like, he trusted his Heavenly Father for his care. Every person faces the same temptation because it lies at the core of who we are as human beings. Who will be in control of our lives? Will we put our full trust in God, even when we do not know the outcome, or will we lead on our own understanding and seek the answers from our own human and worldly resources?
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