Text: Luke 4:1-13
According to Luke, the devil asks three questions, and they all include if statements. If is conditional. It’s a word for doubt, a word for deals. “IF you really are… then prove it.” “IF you’ll do this for me, then I’ll do this for you.” Notice how both questions place the asker above the listener. You need to prove yourself to me. I’m going to cut you a deal.
The only way you win that game is not to play. If you know who you are, you don’t need to prove yourself to anybody. If you already have everything you need, you don’t need to cut a deal.
The first question the devil asks is, “If you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus has been fasting for 40 days at this point, and Luke, gospel writer and master of understatement says, “He was hungry.” The temptation here is to use his power to satisfy his own physical needs. But there’s more to it than that.
This is an attack on Jesus’ relationship with creation. Way back at the beginning, God gave us a way to get bread from dirt. It involves sweat, hours, and attention. We call it farming. The devil says, “Skip all that. If you’re the Son of God and you’re hungry, snap your fingers and eat! Work is for peasants. You’re a prince!” About half of the population of the planet is malnourished. How could Jesus possibly claim to be on our side if he didn’t understand hunger?
Want to seriously mess up your children? Make sure they never know hunger and never have to work for anything. Then they’ll imagine success comes to those with the best intentions rather than to those who invest the most sweat, and hours, and attention. They will forever feel entitled, and never grateful. And having never felt pain, they will not recognize it in others.
