A reading from the book of Deuteronomy (26:4-10)
Moses said to the people: ‘The priest will take the basket from your hand and lay it before the altar of the Lord your God. In the presence of the Lord your God, you will then pronounce these words, “My father was a wandering Aramaean; he went down to Egypt, few in number, and stayed there; there he became a great, powerful and numerous nation. The Egyptians ill-treated us, they oppressed us and inflicted harsh slavery on us. But we called on the Lord, God of our ancestors. The Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, our toil and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with mighty hand and outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders. He brought us here and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So I now bring the first-fruits of the soil that you, Lord , have given me.” You will then set it down before the Lord your God, and prostrate yourself in the presence of the Lord your God.’
The ritual of presenting to God the first fruits of the harvest is spelt out here. As the person offering approaches the priest, he makes a declaration about the acts of God for Israel from the patriarchs until the entry into the promised land. The reference to the ‘wandering Aramaean’ may well be to Jacob, who spent years in the ancestral land of Aram after his rift with Esau (Genesis 28). The declaration recalls that the Israelites have been delivered from slavery in Egypt and brought to a ‘fruitful’ land, where ‘milk and honey’ flow. In gratitude the person offers the first fruits of ‘the soil you have given me’. The confession of God’s good deeds for Israel is followed by an offering to God.
Psalm 91 (90) This psalm prepares us for the gospel of the temptations, during which the devil uses this text to ensnare Jesus, and assure him of God’s protection if he hurls himself off the temple parapet: ‘his angels will keep you in all your ways’.
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans (10:8-13)
Scripture says: The word is near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of the faith which we proclaim). If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Belief with the heart leads to righteousness, and confession with the lips leads to salvation. Scripture says: No one who believes in him will be brought to disgrace, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: the same Lord is the Lord of all, generous to all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
After the declaration of faith in the previous reading St Paul gives us the essence of the Christian creed, that Jesus is Lord, and that God raised him from the dead. Belief ‘with the heart’ brings ‘righteousness’, and confession ‘with the lips’ brings ‘salvation’. These gifts are given to all who believe, Jew and gentile alike, for God is ‘generous’ in mercy. Paul ends the passage with a quotation from the second part of Isaiah, from the prophet who looked forward to universal salvation. The words Paul quotes from this part of Scripture are fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ, the Lord.
A reading from the holy gospel according to Luke (4:1-13)
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert, for forty days being put to the test by the devil. During that time he ate nothing at all and when they were over he was hungry. Then the devil said to him, ‘If you are Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf.’ But Jesus replied to him, ‘Scripture says:
A human does not live on bread alone.’
Then, leading him to a height, the devil showed him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and said to him, ‘I will give you all this power and their splendour, for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to anyone I wish. If you, then, worship me, it shall all be yours.’ But Jesus answered him, ‘It is written:
You shall worship the Lord your God, him alone shall you serve.’
Then he led him to Jerusalem and set him on the parapet of the Temple and said to him, ‘If you are Son of God throw yourself down from here, for it is written:
He has given his angels orders about you, to guard you, and that,
They will carry you in their arms in case you trip on a stone.’
But Jesus answered him, ‘It is said:
Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’
Having finished every way of putting him to the test, the devil left him, until the opportune moment.
The account of the temptations in the gospel of Luke is, like Matthew’s account, developed from the brief reference in Mark’s gospel. The texts of Scripture used by Jesus, and by Satan, are the same. The temptations concern pleasure, prestige and power, but the order of the temptations is changed. In Luke the final temptation is that Jesus should demonstrate his status by throwing himself off the parapet of the Temple. At this point, as in Matthew, Satan quotes from Psalm 91, that God’s angels will protect Jesus. The positioning of this Jerusalem temptation as the final one matches Luke’s emphasis on the role of Jerusalem in the gospel story of Luke, which began with the vision of the priest Zechariah in the temple in Jerusalem, and will end with the apostles gathering for prayer in the temple after the ascension of the Lord. Luke’s account concludes with an ominous reference to the return of the devil at the ‘opportune moment’, and in 22:3, as the story of the Passion begins, Luke will indeed maintain that Satan ‘entered into Judas’.
How can I derive strength and encouragement from the Scriptures?
For those who put temptation in the way of the innocent, we pray.