Temptation an inner conflict

Wilson SVD

First Sunday of the Lent

                               Gen 2: 7-9, 3: 1-7;   Rom 5: 12-19;   Mtth 4: 1-11

One of the commonly narrated stories is, ‘on a morning of a beautiful day, children walk into the school with mixed feelings, surprisingly they notice a basket full of chocolates placed in a room with an instruction above, ‘kindly take one each chocolate because God is watching.’ Children, as they came in picked up one each chocolate and were moving to their class rooms.  One of them noticed in the next room, a basket full of apples, she with her tiny hands pushed it to the corridor and placed a note, ‘you may take as many apples as you wish because God is busy watching the chocolates.’

The event of temptation of Jesus as narrated in the gospel (Mtth 4: 1-11), the dramatic experience of Adam and Eve in the garden (Gen 3: 1-7) and our lives today have a striking resemblance. Temptation is part of human existence and we live in a world of temptations that are more real and rampant than ever before. There are times in our battle against these adversities, we become weary and succumb to the irresistible. Why do we struggle and what is the purpose of the temptations?

One of the motifs of the evangelist Matthew is to present Jesus as the new Adam and new Moses. In this passage, we encounter interesting parallelism with the event of garden of Eden and to the experience of Israel in the wilderness; Israel experience a season of testing in the wilderness after the deliverance from Egypt and the establishment of the covenant relationship. The major difference is, Adam, Eve and Israel succumb to their test while Jesus emerges victorious demonstrating perfectly his identity as Son of God. It is important to observe that the event of the testing of Jesus occurs immediately after the baptism of Jesus (Mtth 3: 13-17), where he is declared the Son of God and his Sonship is vitally important to his mission. This account is placed here deliberately because it serves as an important prolegomenon to the ministry of Jesus. How does Jesus prove his Sonship? How does Jesus authenticate his identity as Son of God? Does he exhibit the qualities that are called for in Sonship to the Father? This is what is being dramatically depicted in this event of temptation.

I would prefer to analyze this pericope not as an outward experience of Jesus but primarily as an inner struggle that went on in his mind, heart and soul. This is probably a subjective experience of Jesus; Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit and in the desert Jesus is alone, i.e. Jesus is with himself and in solitude emerges the inner struggle, the real self and desire to establish his identity, a struggle to choose God or charms of this world, pleasure or pain, service or power - this is definitely an inner battle. The tempter talks to Eve, when she was alone in the garden; Probably, Adam and Eve too underwent an inner struggle. Human beings are battling constantly between the two competing impulses one to do evil and another to do good. The Hebrew word for evil is hara and the root of this word indicates that prompting to do evil is rather a force within the individual than an influence from outside. It is through our inmost thoughts and desires that the tempter comes to us. The temptation is launched in our own minds first and thus the tempter finds his allies and his weapons in our own inmost thoughts and desires.

This inner conflict could be elaborated in the following three categories;

The pericope consists of three temptation segments, framed by an introductory sentence (vv 1–2) and a concluding sentence (v 11);

1.  to turn stones into bread (vv 3–4) – Desires of the flesh

            2.  to jump from the pinnacle of the temple (vv 5–7) - Pride of life

3.  to receive the kingdom of the world by worshiping the devil (vv 8–10) – Desires of the eyes

1. Desires of the flesh

The desires of the flesh is a temptation to satisfy bodily needs. Eve saw that the forbidden tree was good for food and was tempted.  Jesus was hungry and was in need of food after forty days of fasting. Jesus undergoes an inner struggle to make use of his divine powers to satisfy his physical needs. Jesus wins over this temptation taking recourse to Det 8:3. The point here is Jesus will not make use of his divine powers for his personal advantages, he knows God will give him food at the right time and so he waits and consciously postpones his physical needs.  What about us? All of us at certain times, go through this experience of conflict between physical needs and needs of a higher value. One of the oppressively rampant struggle today is we are not able to wait and postpone our physical pleasures. The modern society is struggling with the syndrome of dissatisfaction. We are not able to say, its enough, I have sufficient, I am happy, I am contented.  The phenomenon of pleasure and instantaneous enjoyment seems to rule the toast today, consequently, dependency on alcohol and drugs are on constant increase, value for marriage is diminishing and live-in relationships, divorces are on upsurge. Pleasure seeking attitude considers human beings as disposable commodities.   The challenge is, can we postpone consciously or say no to the physical gratification for a higher value?

2. Pride of life

Jesus stands at the pinnacle of the temple: probably with overwhelming conflict between pride and humility; to be proud of the possession of supernatural powers and perform spectacular stuffs, a dazzling feat or to be humble that these are a gratuitous gift. Jesus again takes a resource to the word of God ( Dt 6:16) and over-comes this temptation for pride. On the contrary, Eve desired to possess the knowledge of life and succumbed to vanity. How about us? Do we stand at the pinnacle of anywhere? Are there times, we are unduly proud of ourselves, our wealth, family, physical appearance, intelligence, talents and achievements? We boast of our technological advancements forgetting the disasters they have brought along. One of the comforts we boast of today is online shopping but in the bargain, we have sacrificed humanness. When I go to the grocer, I talk to him and meet other customers, interact and establish a bound of relationship and communion. Haven’t we sacrificed human value?  Humility is the beginning of wisdom.   

3. Desires of the eyes

Jesus captures a panoramic view of the whole universe: What a vision it must have been; the cities, the fields, the flocks and everything the nature could offer with wealth and splendor spread before him -  a conflict between power and service. Eve saw that the fruit was delightful to the eyes, made compromises, misquoted God, ate the fruit and shared with Adam. Instead, Jesus choose to serve God in humility (Dt 6: 13, 10: 20) and we are blessed with a savior. What about us? Eye is one of the human faculties that affects simultaneously mind and heart. The old cliché, ‘all that glitters is not gold’, is very true because what we see could be deceptive. Are we not allured by many things that we see or perceive? It’s true that things of this world are delightful, charming and attractive. People, wealth, nature, we wish to possess them, control and exercise power over them. Do I desire to serve or to be served?

Jesus battled against his inner conflict and emerged victorious and established his identity as a Son of God and began his mission on earth.  Therefore, these conflicts and struggles are to make us strong and enable us to conquer evil and live our Christian vocation meaningfully.  Hence, life is a battle both within and outside and the one who fights righteously depending on God emerges triumphant like Jesus. Let us fight the battle of life confiding in God and celebrate life for life is beautiful……..