2/26/2023

“One does not live on bread alone, but on every
Word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:
4b)
Jesus is led by the Spirit, immediately after His
Baptism into the wilderness. At His Baptism He was iden-
tified as God’s Son, the Beloved, and in the wilderness He
will be tested in His fidelity to this identity and obedience
to His Father. Fasting from physical food, feasting in the
Spirit, Jesus is famished, and at His low point in His re-
sistance, the tempter, or devil slithers in to put Him to the
test. By putting nothing but the words of the Hebrew
Scriptures on Jesus’ lips, Matthew witnesses to his readers
and listeners, including our Eucharistic assembly, the sig-
nificance of the Word of God as a “sword of the Spir-
it” (Ephesians 6: 17) in the fight against temptation. Mat-
thew is not concerned with how Jesus thought of Himself
but with how the Christians of His and future Christian
communities would think about Jesus.
` Hunger and vulnerability go together, and the first
temptation is for Jesus to work a miracle and command the
stones to become bread. The Hebrews in the desert grum-
bled and tried to manipulate God’s will, demanding food
from heaven and then becoming dissatisfied with the man-
na, so Jesus’ response to this first temptation, is the remind-
er that “one does not live on bread alone, but on every word
that comes forth from the mouth of God (quoting Deuteron-
omy 8: 3). Is the Word of God sustaining us, or are we
more addicted to overeating, to junk food, to keep a full
kitchen pantry while millions of our sisters and brothers go
hungry?
The devil then takes Jesus up to a high part of the
Jerusalem Temple and tempts Him to another miracle. Let
Jesus toss Himself off the pinnacle and force God’s hand so
that angels will catch Him. But Jesus has other “wings” that
will save Him—His trust in God’s loving protection (Psalm
91: 4) - and again He refuses to put God to the test (see
Deuteronomy 6: 10). We may wish for, pray for the mi-
raculous intervention of God in our lives, but often this has
much to do with our self-centeredness and little to do with
faith in God’s care for us.
Finally, the devil takes Jesus up a high mountain
and there presents himself as the one with dominion over
the powers of the world. But Jesus will have nothing to do
with the seductions of political power and wealth. He will
be the powerless servant, but the one who has the authority
to command, “Get away, Satan!” because homage is due to
God alone (Deuteronomy 6: 13).
At the end of Matthew’s Gospel , after Jesus has
passed through the wilderness of suffering and death and
has been exalted in His Resurrection, He will stand on an-
other mountain with His disciples, and there they will wor-
ship Him with a very human mixture of faith and doubt.
Jesus the Son of God then gives them a share in His author-
ity so that they may go to make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that Jesus has
taught them. (Matthew 28: 16-20).