The temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-17), features a contest between Jesus and the devil over what it means for Jesus to be the Son of God. The devil tests Jesus in the material, spiritual, and political realms, tempting him to exercise power in his own self-interest rather than trusting himself to God’s care.

The temptations Jesus faces challenge his faithfulness to God. They are carried out by the devil (also called “the tempter” in 4:3), but they are instigated by the Holy Spirit, who leads Jesus out into the wilderness precisely in order to be tempted (4:1). Even Jesus had to prove himself worthy to bear the gospel of abundant life to the world. Not just anyone can do it.

So, too, the church faces our own wilderness temptations—material, spiritual, and political—in which we must likewise prove ourselves worthy to be bearers of good news to a hurting world. This story demands that we, like Jesus, resist the temptation to use our power for self-preservation, trusting instead that God will see us through. Only by trusting in God and not our own power can we be worthy of the gospel that has been entrusted to our care.

Stones into Bread

The first temptation Jesus faces concerns his very survival. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, Jesus is famished. The tempter appears to him in that moment—not with an offer of food but with a reminder of his power to produce food. The devil doesn’t say, “Eat this bread” but rather

If you are the Son of God,
command these stones
to become loaves of bread. (4:3)

The temptation is not to merely to breaking the fast, but rather to employing his power as the Son of God toward the ends of self-preservation. Jesus could starve to death. The tempter reminds Jesus that, as the Son of God, he has the power to produce bread from stone. He has the resources to stave off death. Why not use them?

But Jesus fends off the temptation by turning to scripture. “One does not live by bread alone,” he says, “But by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (4:5). Drawing on the words of Deuteronomy 8:3, Jesus reminds the devil that it is not material goods that sustain the community of faith. Rather the word of God enlivens the faithful. We depend not on bread but on God’s utterance for our survival.

So, too, with the church. Especially in these difficult times of waning memberships and tightening budgets, our temptation is to use our power for self-preservation. Our temptation is to produce bread for ourselves. To use our creative powers to live another day. Yet this story reminds us that we cannot be bearers of light to the world by focusing on our own material survival. The gospel does not consist in balancing our budgets. Only by relying on the word of God to sustain us—even though we might die in the wilderness trying—can we be witnesses to the One who is himself the bread of life.

The Pinnacle of the Temple

In the second temptation, the devil takes Jesus to Jerusalem to the pinnacle of the Temple, squarely in the religious realm. He takes Jesus to the holiest city, to the holiest place, and sets him upon its highest point. The devil tells Jesus to throw himself down from the Temple, knowing that God will send angels to save him. He wants Jesus to manipulate God—to force God’s hand—in order to show that he is indeed the son of God, the one wielding religious authority.

Notably, in this religious context, the devil quotes scripture to justify his temptation of Jesus. Turning to Psalm 91:11-12, the devil says, “It is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone” (Matthew 4:6). Even the devil can cite scripture to support his position.

Yet when Jesus rejects the devil’s offer, he likewise quotes scripture. “Again it is written,” he says, quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, “‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Matthew 4:8).

What we have here is a battle of scripture quotations. Both Jesus and the devil know their scriptures, and both can cite the Bible for their own purposes. This complicates the old mantra “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it!,” since what the Bible says can in fact be manipulated by its interpreters. We ought not simply trust someone when they quote scripture. They could be doing the devil’s work.

Yet we aren’t helpless to know who can and can’t be trusted with scripture. In this passage, the devil quotes scripture as a way of tempting Jesus to demonstrate the power of his religious position as the Son of God. He wants Jesus to use that power to force God to act in conformity with Jesus’s own desires. This is the way the devil uses scripture: to manipulate God in the interest of power.

When Jesus quotes scripture, he uses it once again to defer to God’s authority, as he did when he refused to turn stones to bread. Legitimate interpretation of scripture doesn’t seek power for itself. It doesn’t try to force God to conform with its own agenda. It refuses to put God to the test.

All the Kingdoms of the World

Finally, the devil tempts Jesus with political power. He takes Jesus to the top of a high mountain and offers him the capacity to rule over all the kingdoms of the world. This time, the price to pay is for Jesus to worship the devil. Jesus again quotes scripture, saying, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him” (Deuteronomy 6:13).

The church, too, is often tempted to trade its soul for political power. When Jerry Falwell Jr pledges his unwavering support to Donald Trump, he has given in to the temptation to political power. When white churches in Birmingham cautioned against moving too quickly for civil rights, they gave in to the temptation of maintaining their own cultural standing rather than engaging the struggle for justice.

The church wants to be relevant. The church wants to be significant. But the cost of cultural power may be the trap of idolatry. We come to worship power rather than God. We seek status rather than justice. We dedicate ourselves to maintaining an unjust peace in the hope that we, too, might receive a hegemonic pat on the head.

Surviving the Wilderness

Yet Jesus shows us that the path of the Gospel lies in refusing to gather power to ourselves. To bear the good news of abundant life, we must be willing to let go of our own life, to trust in the faithfulness of God, to believe in the power of resurrection.

It’s possible to die out there in the wilderness. If we turn our powers toward healing the world rather than sustaining ourselves with bread, we may lose our cultural significance. We may lose our political power. We may even lose our institutional lives.

But therein lies the power of the Gospel. Therein is the test that Jesus must pass—and, I believe, that we too must pass if we wish to be worthy of this calling to which we have been called. Are we willing to risk ourselves—materially, religiously, and politically—and put our trust in God? That is the way of faithfulness. Everything else is giving in to temptation.