Advent Readings: Luke 4

Luke 4

The chapter begins with a story of temptation. Many of us know it almost by heart. Bread, glory, false humility… Jesus gloriously defends Himself with the Word, to be precise – with the words of Moses from his last sermon, delivered right before Israel left the desert going to the Land of promise. Even a pitiful attempt of the devil to misinterpret Psalm 91 [which rabbinical tradition assigns to Moses], didn’t break through the Torah based shielding or a very unique technic of fencing with the Word of God (cp. Eph. 6:17).

We see Jesus being attack or seduced, yet He is able to withstand every temptation. Later, the author of the Letter to Hebrew will summarize this way: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without   sin” (Heb. 4:15). So far so good – not really surprising.

What was interesting for me is how the story ends: “and when devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him… until opportune time” (Lk. 4:13). Tw things here: first, devil should’ve learned the lesson – it is pointless to tempt the Messiah. Yet, he will come back – at the garden of Gethsemane (garden again…). We know he won’t win, but we see that he would use any opportunity to penetrate through the guards.

Second, no wonder he attacks the faithful ones. If we call ourselves the Body of Christ, we “deserve” the fate of Christ – being under the assaults of the evil one (cp. Mt. 6:13). But here is the difference: devil goes after us from time to time, walking around as a roaring lion (1 Pet. 5:8), while God promises us “I will NEVER leave you nor forsake you” (Josh. 1:5; Heb. 13:5).