Duel with the Devil

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 by 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 their 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.

Luke 4:1-13

---

Sparring with Scripture

After his baptism in the Jordan, Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, journeys into the desert to empty himself of every human comfort. Finding the Son of God in such a vulnerable position, the devil tempts him to abandon his mission to suffer with sinners. To a starving man, stones resemble nourishing loaves; Jesus possessed the power to turn them into bread to satisfy his hunger. What man, having access to divine power, would not grasp it? So baits his adversary. “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone,’” Christ counters, fulfilling the Mosaic injunction to Israel concerning the desert wanderings (Deuteronomy 8:3). “But man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord,” the scripture concludes.

Defeated in the realm of sensual appetite, the devil dangles the whole world before Christ, offering him universal power and glory in exchange for worship. How many men and women throughout history have been corrupted by the lust for power, exchanging their souls for the love of mammon and other false gods? “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve,’” Jesus rebukes. 

In the third and final round of the duel, the devil pressures Jesus to prove his divine sonship by forcing God to send angels to rescue him from a precipitous leap. “For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you… lest you dash your foot against a stone,” the devil cunningly cajoles, invoking Psalm 91:11-12. In the knockout blow of scripture on scripture, Jesus crushes the challenger who provokes God by recklessly demanding miracles and favors. “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test,” Jesus resolves. Rather than taking matters into his own hands, the Son willingly submits to his Father’s plan. Defeated, the devil departs “until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). 

The Return of the Rival

When Christ is finally crucified in fulfillment of the Father’s will, his rival returns in the chief priests, scribes, elders, and soldiers who taunt him, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross,” and “Save yourself!” (Matthew 27:39-43; Mark 15:29-32; Luke 23:35-37). Their jeers eerily echo the devil’s earlier temptation.

Glory in the Cross

Paul celebrates Christ’s conquest of Satan and self-will in his early Christian hymn:

Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11

Traditional Chinese Translation

經過三輪較量，魔鬼還是未能勝過基督，
因為基督不會試探上帝的旨意。