Gospel Reflection on Lk 4:1-13

March 9, 2025

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God,

command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, One does not live on bread alone.” Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written

You shall worship the Lord, your God,

and him alone shall you serve.”

Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written:

He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,

and:

With their hands they will support you,

lest you dash your foot against a stone.”

Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says,

You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”

When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

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We begin Lent in the desert, that place of testing. Every significant dimension of our life needs moments of verification. It seems that only when our life is put to the test do we really know what's there. Jesus arrives at this moment. It comes to him as a moment of extreme hunger.

Now even stones are looked at in relationship to his hunger. If he is who he thinks he is, he can use his status to satisfy hunger. But instead, he abandons himself as a child to the father. Because he is son, he doesn't fling himself off the temple, expecting the father to rescue him. In the desert, he comes face to face with the urge to make his agenda absolute, to make his solutions the only solutions, to make his needs the only needs.

The test that begins Lent is to use things, people, even God in service of our ego. How often have I misused something to satisfy my appetite? In that moment, I didn't care what the real value or the real identity of a thing was so long as it could satisfy me. I can approach people and institutions the same way, using them to serve my wishes. If we use things for our own ends and do not appreciate their real value, then in the end, not only do we lose those gifts, we also lose ourselves.

Maybe this year during Lent, we could simply try to see each day the world around us, stones, people, even institutions as gifts created by God for God's own purposes, and approach all of them as children filled with wonder at the mere fact that they exist.