On a hot summer day in early July (41 Celsius), I pursued one of the most important components of an Orthodox pilgrimage by visiting Jericho, Palestine. In biblical history, after Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan, he proceeded to a high spot in the Desert, overlooking the oases in Jericho, with the Dead Sea on the right-hand side, and the Jordan mountains in the distance. The purpose of Jesus' actions was to engage with evil before his public ministry. Fasting 40 days without food and water on the side of a cliff that was (and still is) sprawling with caves, Christ encountered Satan who appeared before Him with all power and frankness. This is what the area from which Christ was overlooking the earth, the land, materiality, and humanity looks like today:
This set of interactions is famously described in the Gospel of Matthew as follows:
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil, and after fasting forty days and forty nights, he hungered at last. And the adversary came unto him, and said, If thou art the Son of God, thou shalt say that these stones may become loaves. And he answered and said unto him, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil takes Him to the holy city, and places Him on the wing of the temple, and saith unto Him, If Thou art the Son of God, throw thyself down, for it is written, He shall command His angels concerning Thee, and they shall carry Thee in their arms, lest thou stumble upon a stone with Thy foot. Jesus said to him, "It is also written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Again the devil takes Him to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and says to Him, "I will give all these things to You, if you fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Depart from me, Satan," for it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.' Then the devil leaves him, and behold, the angels came and ministered to him" (Matthew 4:1-11).
There are important characteristics of where this event took place:
(I) Location. The interactions took place in the desert. Thid is a battlefield that was chosen as a deserted place, cut off from human sympathy. Everything external and superficial was discarded, only the very essence of temptation remained for Christ. An implication of the outcome of these interactions can be summarized as follows: it is said that Adam, having sinned, turned the garden into a desert, and Jesus, resisting sin, turned the desert into a garden.
(II) Opponents. On one side was Jesus, who had just been baptized, during which God recognized Him as His Son. When He came out of the water, He was ready to begin His personal ministry. On the other side was the devil. In the wilderness, Jesus came face to face with the prince of the air, the god of the world, the ruler of the powers of darkness (2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2; 6:12).
(III) Value. This confrontation was not an accident, and it did not happen without cause. As noted above, Matt. 4:1 says, "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." The divine plan was being fulfilled. Perhaps nothing shows this more clearly than the fact that in this dispute the devil had to show himself in all his glory. Holy fathers have argued that Satan does not like to fight in the open. He prefers to act covertly, through their agents (demons). However, since Jesus strategically removed himself from areas that were hitherto commonplace, Satan had to come face to face with Jesus.
There is an active Orthodox Greek Monastery that oversees this Holy place. After proceeding through a small area of worship, there is a staircase that leads to the rock that Jesus sat on for 40 days.
What's more, in the corridor that leads to this Holy area, there are several caves that are deep within the mountain.
This area is literally a cave within a cave. There are icons for worship placed inside and even with the 41-degree heat from the sun scorching down on the hot desert rock, the inside of these caves was tranquil, incredibly clean, and was far from ordinary.
There was a strong energy within this area. It was dark, but also somehow light. The Monk that was attending to guests permitted me to light and place a candle.
Below, I add more context to the interactions that took place between Christ and Satan. These interactions also form a central theme in one of history's most prolific novels -- Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, specifically in parable and Legend of the Grand Inquisitor.
THE FIRST TEMPTATION (4:1-4) - The first temptation Satan gave Christ was a physical test.
Satan (vv. 1-3) «... Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and after fasting forty days and forty nights,5 he hungered at last. And the adversary came to Him..." (vv. 1-3).
Satan's task in the first temptation was to test Christ's faithfulness to God. He challenged Jesus: "If you are the Son of God, tell them that these stones may become loaves" (v. 3). Forty days ago, a voice from heaven announced, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). And now the devil was basically saying, "If the Voice has told the truth—if you are indeed God's Son—then why are you hungry? What is the use of being without privilege?" Satan hinted that if Jesus turned the stones of the desert into bread, he would achieve two goals: satisfy His natural need (hunger) and prove His Sonship.
Christ (v. 4) Christ unraveled Satan's trick. "And he answered and said to him, 'It is written'" (v. 4). Jesus' weapon against temptation was God's Word. The psalmist said, "In my heart I have hidden thy word, that I may not sin before thee" (Psalm 118:11). A corresponding text to help ward off this temptation is found in Deuteronomy. 8:3. Jesus quoted, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (v. 4). First, mark the word "man": "Man shall not live by bread alone..." The forty days in the wilderness were mainly a test not of Jesus' divinity, but of His humanity. His purpose was not to prove that He was God, but to demonstrate that He was fully a Man who lived in perfect harmony with the revealed will of God. Jesus resisted the first temptation.
THE SECOND TEMPTATION (4:5-7) - was a spiritual test.
Satan (vv. 5, 6) Satan transported Christ to the "holy city" of Jerusalem (v. 5), a place dear to the Jews and to Jesus (Ps. 47:3; 136:5; Matt. 23:37). Then he took Him to the temple, the most revered place in this city. He then raised Him to the highest point of the structure. The text says that he placed Him "on the wing of the temple" (v. 5). Probably the highest place of the temple was the southern wing, from which it was possible, looking down, to see both the temple complex and the panorama of the city stretching into the distance. Standing beside Jesus on a high parapet, Satan said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will command his angels about you, and they will carry you in their arms, lest you stumble against a stone with your foot'" (v. 6).
The devil tested Jesus' faith in God. In other words, he was saying, "You believe in God, don't you? Let's see how much you believe in God. Do you trust Him enough to throw yourself off this parapet?" And again, "You have brought the Scriptures. I know a little of the Scriptures myself. Here, listen..." And he quoted Ps. 90:11, 12. Psalm 90 is a psalm of unconditional faith in the Lord. Here is his first verse: "He who dwells under the shelter of the Almighty rests under the shadow of the Almighty.
Christ (v. 7) The devil tried to fight "with the sword of the spirit" (Eph. 6:17), but Jesus showed that He wielded it better. "Jesus said to him, 'It is also written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God'" (v. 7). Or to put it another way, "Satan, you have quoted a passage of Scripture, but there is no single passage that fully conveys what the Word says on the subject. It is necessary to take everything that the Bible says about it." Jesus then quoted from Deut. 6:16: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (v. 7). Don't misunderstand Jesus' answer. He didn't mean Himself or say, "You can't tempt Me." (Don't forget that He was subjected to these temptations as a full Man, not as a Deity.) He said he shouldn't test God. Satan said that by jumping off the roof of the temple, Jesus would show that he trusted God; Jesus replied that this would mean that He was tempting God. In fact, it would show that He does not trust God. If we fully trust someone, we don't see the need to verify them. And only if our confidence in it has wavered, the thought of the need for verification comes to mind. Jesus showed He was determined not to deviate from God's will. He resisted the second temptation.
THE THIRD TEMPTATION (4:8-10) - The third temptation was decisive, for it was a test of Jesus' mission—or, more precisely, a test of Jesus' determination to fulfil His mission at all costs. After failing in his attempt to destroy the Servant, Satan tried to destroy His ministry.
Satan (vv. 8, 9) This temptation was the most audacious of all. In the first two temptations, Jesus exposed the devil's cunning disguise and his true evil motives. In the third temptation, Satan himself abandoned his wretched trickery and openly, directly, defiantly demanded that Christ worship him.
"Again the devil takes him to a very high mountain, and shows him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory" (v. 8). The glory of all the kingdoms of the world, all empires, present and past: the great Roman Empire, Greece, Persia, Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, the kingdoms of David and Solomon - not to mention such kingdoms as Bithynia and Syria. All these material things, goods, money, and ideas on power flashed before Jesus' eyes.
Then Satan said, "I will give all these things to you, if you fall down and worship me" (v. 9). The implication was that the devil was in charge (see Luke 4:6), and Jesus did not deny it. If the proposal were not quite businesslike, then there would be no temptation. Some believe that this temptation contained a lie: Satan, they say, promised what he could not give. Satan ruled over the kingdoms of the world. They obeyed his incitement; they obeyed his commands; they were captured by his will. Jesus later called him "the prince of this world" (John 12:31). This temptation was a test of Jesus' mission. The devil said that Jesus could achieve almost the same goal without suffering or dying. He offered a shortcut to divine predestination. Along similar lines, this temptation may have meant perhaps more to Jesus than Satan could have realized, even with all his cunning. To understand the horror of what awaited Christ, imagine Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He poured out His heart to the Father, and sweat streamed down His face: "My Father! If possible, let this cup pass away from me" (Matthew 26:39).
Satan clearly had a very high opinion of Christ. He believed that Jesus was worth more than all the kingdoms he had. Some do not believe that Jesus' death could be enough for everyone, but the devil knew His true value. This is clearly echoed in Dostoevsky's works who argued that a principal component of the entire basis human nature is premised on a battlefield in which the devil and God are fighting for the souls of humankind.
Furthermore,
Christ (v. 10) In response to the devil, Jesus spoke for the first time as having His own authority. He gained this power through the victories won in previous attacks.
At first, Christ abruptly commanded the adversary, "Depart from me, Satan" (v. 10). Then Jesus again raised the sword of the Word, quoting from Deut. 6:13: "For it is written, 'To the Lord thy God thou shalt worship, and to him alone shalt thou serve'" (v. 10). Christ's words laid bare the essence of this temptation. What the devil said is, "Worship me, and I will make you lord of kingdoms." Christ pointed out that worship is inseparable from service. He could not worship Satan without becoming his servant. Satan would have made Him the puppet ruler of the kingdoms of the world, but in reality, He would have received nothing. Satan would still have everything under his control.
Jesus' response showed that God's rewards are infinitely better than Satan's. Satan can give these rewards an attractive appearance, as evidenced by the outward glory of the kingdoms of the world. Luke's account of Jesus' temptation has one significant detail: the devil showed Jesus the empire "in the blink of time" (Luke 4:5). Similarly, their glory was the glory of tinsel, not gold. As John said, "And the world passes away, and the lust thereof" (1 John 2:17).
CONCLUSION (4:11) - After Christ's answer, the devil fell silent—proof of his defeat. Verse 11 says, "Then the devil leaves him." However, Luke in his narrative adds: "And having finished all temptation, the devil departed from him before the time" (Luke 4:13). We will see how Satan continued to tempt Christ: the people tried to make Him an earthly King (John 6:15); people constantly demanded a sign from Him (Luke 11:29); one of His disciples even tried to dissuade Him from going to the cross (Matt. 16:21-23). And yet, from that time on, Jesus spoke to the devil and his agents as Master spoke to slaves. He won. Christ came out of the wilderness, prepared for His ministry. Lux. 4:14 tells us that "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee." He also came out of His trial, ready to be crucified. He remained the sinless Son of God, "the blameless and pure Lamb" (1 Pet. 1:19).