Summary
Soon after being baptized and filled with the HolyHoly is a term that originally meant set apart for the worship or service of God. While the term may refer to people, objects, time, or places, holiness in Judaism and Christianity primarily denotes the realm of the divine Spirit (LukeThe "beloved physician" and companion of Paul. 3:21-22), JesusJesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God's saving act for humanity. undergoes a 40-day-long period of testing in the wilderness. While he fasts and relies on the Holy Spirit, Jesus encounters the devil, who tries to get him to embrace a counterfeit understanding of the power and prestige available to him as the Son of God. Jesus nevertheless perseveres.
Analysis
Jesus’ public ministry in Luke—like in MatthewA tax collector who became one of Jesus' 12 disciples. and Mark—does not get underway until he endures a prolonged time of testing by the devil (see Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13). This happens to him in a deserted, wilderness region. The unforgiving setting underscores the threat facing him as he endures various kinds of hardship during a time of testing, which we today might label as bodily, psychological, and spiritual in character. In the wilderness he is also in a place on the edges: not in a population center and not with easy access to the necessities of life. It is there where the devil urges him to choose a certain path.
That path is about using his power as God’s Son to take care of his material needs, seize dominion for himself, and demand divine protection while also garnering attention to himself. First the devil invites him to turn a stone into bread. Then the devil offers to give him authority over “all the kingdoms of the world.” Finally the devil promises him that if he throws himself off the temple’s pinnacle that God will rescue him from all harm in a location so central and noteworthy that everyone in Jerusalem might witness it. Jesus rejects all three offers, each time quoting from the book of Deuteronomy to expose the devil as untrustworthy (Deuteronomy 8:3; 6:13; 6:16). Jesus chooses different ways of trusting God.
It is important to note that this passage comes immediately after a declaration that Jesus is God’s “beloved” Son (Luke 3:22; cf. 3:38) and just prior to the beginning of his public ministry (Luke 4:14). The devil’s first and third tests promise Jesus that if he is indeed God’s “Son,” then he can use that authority to his advantage. Jesus’ refusals indicate that he desires to follow a different pattern, one of submission and humility instead of dominance and acclaim. Luke’s story is just getting started, but already readers get a sense that Jesus will not make himself invulnerable to risk and hardship. He will be a different kind of king and a different kind of Son of God.
Luke’s sequence of the devil’s three tests differs from Matthew’s order (Matthew 4:1-11). Many interpreters surmise that this has something to do with the special prominence that Luke and Acts give to the Jerusalem templeThe Jerusalem temple, unlike the tabernacle, was a permanent structure, although (like the tabernacle) it was a place of worship and religious activity. On one occasion Jesus felt such activity was unacceptable and, as reported in all four Gospels, drove from the temple those engaged.... Because the final, culminating test in Luke occurs at the temple, readers are reminded that Luke emphasizes Jesus’ identity as a prophetic MessiahThe Messiah was the one who, it was believed, would come to free the people of Israel from bondage and exile. In Jewish thought the Messiah is the anticipated one who will come, as prophesied by Isaiah. In Christian thought Jesus of Nazareth is identified... sent to Israel and a prophet who struggles to find acceptance among the people of Jerusalem.
