Shortcuts to the Kingdom

March 9, 2025

The reference to the temptations of Jesus are found only in the three Synoptic Gospels (not in John’s Gospel). And each liturgical year they always come at the beginning of the Lenten season  (Mathew in Year A, Mark in Year B, and Luke in Year C), perhaps so that we contemplate on what are the temptations in our life and accordingly consciously work towards overcoming those.   

Since Mark’s Gospel, considered the earliest of the four Gospels, has a very brief reference to the temptations, it is quite likely that the story of temptations in Mathew and Luke were part of the oral tradition among the early Christians. But the fact that the Church decided to include the reference to the temptations in the New Testament implies that the Church accepted that Jesus did face temptations. And one could also surmise that  the Gospel of John probably did not include the reference to temptations because the idea that the Word of God could be tempted perhaps did not fit in with the purpose of that Gospel.

Based on Mathew’s and Luke’s narration (the order is different in these two Gospels) the three temptations are these: a) the temptation to use his power to satisfy his own physical hunger by creating bread;  b) the temptation to do something that would have all the world acknowledge him as the expected Messiah or king; and c) the temptation to do something that would nudge God to prove to the world that he was indeed the Christ, the anointed one, by not allowing him to suffer.

Why are these temptations?  I had partially responded to this in a previous  blog  (“What was Jesus’ greatest temptation”, Sept 3, 2023), when I suggested that a temptation is not always one that draws us to do a ‘bad’ thing.  Sometimes it calls us to do a good thing, but it is nevertheless a temptation, because it is not what God is calling us to do.

So why were these temptations for Jesus?  And could a careful reading of Mark’s Gospel explain these temptations to us in a manner that is more easily connected to life than when we read the stylised story as found in Mathew and Luke?   

Let me explore this.  It is interesting to note that there are only three times in Mark’s Gospel that Jesus retires to pray.  Were those times when he felt particularly tempted, and so felt the need to commune with his Father in order to overcome them?

The first time Jesus retires to pray in Mark happens after he has spent the day working many miracles, by healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, and then healing many many sick people and throwing out many demons.  And it ends with the Gospel writer telling us that “he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him”. (Mark 1:21-34).  And then, early next morning ’when it was still dark’, (Mark 1:35)  Jesus goes out to a deserted place to pray.  After he emerges from prayer, his disciples find him and tell him that the crowds are looking for him, but Jesus refuses to go back to his adoring crowds, and tells his apostles that he must leave to go and proclaim his message (Mark 1:38).  Why does Jesus not use this wonder-working spell of his as a way to sell his message? And why does he prevent the demons from speaking and telling the world that he is the chosen one?  In short, why does Jesus feel the need to retire to pray? Was it because that gradually Jesus began to realise that it was a temptation (for him at least) to use miracles to gather followers - for the incandescent bright light of the miracle overshadowed and thus hindered people from getting his real message.  Later Jesus articulates this danger when he tells the Pharisees: Why does this generation ask for a sign (miracle)?  Truly, I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.” (Mark 8:12).  

The second time Jesus separates himself to pray is after he has multiplied bread and fed the crowd, (Mark 6:46). In Jewish eyes that would have made him the new Moses, as it was through the old Moses that they had received manna in the desert. But after this miracle, the Gospel tell us he immediately dismisses the crowds, makes his disciples get into a boat and move away, and then he himself goes up the mountain to pray alone.  Why did he do that?  We hear the reason in John’s Gospel which tells us that after this miracle the people’s response was “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world” and that Jesus perceived, “that they were about to come and ... make him king’ (John 6:14-15). And later Jesus tells them: ”Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves” (John 6:26) .  Was the temptation here that a focus on satisfying physical needs could quite easily distract his listeners from searching for that which endures.   So he warns those who follow him:  Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life” (John 6:27).  But don’t people (even today) generally always prefer to go to the miracle worker who satisfies their immediate needs - namely for the “food that perishes”?

In the third instance (Mark 14:35) Jesus is about to enter his passion and he takes himself apart from his disciples and prays in agony, that if it were possible the suffering that he foresaw  for himself might not be necessary, and might pass him by.  And the temptation to use power to avoid suffering is expressed by him when he tells Peter who has drawn his sword to defend him:  Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matthew 26:53–54). This temptation is repeated when he is on the cross, and hears the taunt of the high priests: "If he is God's Messiah let him save himself" (Luke 23:35) -  thus echoing Satan’s taunt to Jesus that if he was indeed the Son of God, then God would  not allow him to even strike his foot against a stone. It is interesting to note that the last temptation is the one verbalised by Peter too (repeating Satan’s assurance that God would never allow him to suffer) with the result that Jesus turns violently on him and exclaims: “Get behind me Satan”, (Mathew 16:23). 

Jesus saw all three proposals in the temptation story as temptations to compromise his Messianic mission, - by gaining followers through wonder working; or by attracting people to follow him by satisfying their physical needs (like hunger), or using his  power to avoid suffering - and in all these ways to thus prove to them that he was  truly God’s anointed (the Christ).  But as he gradually grew in wisdom and favour with God (Luke 2:52) Jesus realised that his mission was to draw people to him through the message that he gave them in his life - both in his teachings and his willingness to break himself for others, - rather than use the ‘shortcuts’ as proposed by the ‘devil’.  

These are temptations for us, and for all those who have the ability to influence the lives of others - whether we are religious leaders, political leaders, social workers, teachers, parents, and others including religious institutions, political parties, NGOs, schools/universities etc. Maybe we start with a wonderful message, a wonderful intervention in people's lives, that we want to share with others.  But then our own success gradually gives way (unconsciously perhaps) to a desire to keep people glued to us, - and so we succumb to the temptations to focus on satisfying their ‘physical’ needs, or dazzling them with our influence and power, or playing into their need to have a leader to whom they can hand over their own responsibility to choose what is right and wrong. And then we tell ourselves that the fact that they follow us would mean that they acknowledge, what we ourselves are  beginning to believe about ourselves, namely that WE know what is best for them.  And so we convince ourselves that we are called to be the shepherds who must guide (or is it control?) the sheep. 

First Reading: Deuteronomy 26: 4-10

The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God.  Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression.  So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders.  He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey;  and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him.

  

Second Reading: Romans 10: 8-13

But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim:  If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.  As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

 

Gospel: Luke 4: 1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,  where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

 

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

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

 

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you carefully;
they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

 

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.