Christian life begins with spitting at the devil.
Usually that’s only a verbal spitting, but in the early church it was often done literally. A candidate for baptism would be told to turn to the west and spit at the devil before turning to the east, the direction of sunrise, and confessing faith in Christ.1 That’s no longer done, at least in the western church, but a candidate for baptism may be asked questions that serve the same purpose. In one order for baptism, a candidate is asked if she or he renounces “the devil and all the forces that defy God,” “the powers of this world that rebel against God” and “the ways of sin that draw you from God.” After the response “I renounce them” to each question, the candidate makes a positive confession of the Christian faith and the baptism takes place.2
For Jesus the order of things was reversed. He had already been baptized by John, had heard a heavenly voice proclaiming him God’s beloved Son and felt the Spirit come to him. Right after that the Spirit led him into the wilderness, where he would be called to renounce the devil. He would be tested — or tempted. The Greek word used in the text can have both senses. Being tested to see if you can carry out a difficult task can also tempt you to quit because the task is too hard. And the way you respond to a temptation can show you what you’re capable of.
The tempted Christ
The temptation of Christ after his baptism is the gospel reading from Matthew, Mark or Luke on this First Sunday of Lent every year. Mark’s account is brief, taking only two verses.3 Matthew and Luke each tell of the same three individual temptations, but the order in which they occur differs. In both of those gospels, the devil first suggests to Jesus after he’s been fasting for forty days that if he is really the Son of God (as the heavenly voice at his baptism declared), he should satisfy his hunger by turning stones into bread. Jesus quickly rejects that idea with a verse of scripture. Then in Matthew’s account,4 the devil suggests that Jesus could jump from the pinnacle of the t
...approximately 1,534 words remaining. You are not logged in. Please see options at the top of this page to view complete sermon.
