“We have a high priest who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin” Hebrews 4:15
What has forty days in a wilderness fasting and being tempted by the devil to do with paradise? Everything. In the wilderness experience, Jesus wrestled with what it really meant to be God’s son. In so doing, he prepared himself to resist the temptations of a public ministry. Let’s all use this Lent, to learn afresh what it means to be a disciple of Christ and to prepare ourselves to resist the temptations we may face.
Paradise Regained (Luke 4:1-13)
St. Luke’s Ramsgate 9 March 2025
You may have heard that in the seventeenth century John Milton wrote the poem Paradise Lost, which re-tells the story of the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden over ten thousand lines. (Don’t worry, I’m not going to read it to you!) It’s less well known that Milton wrote a sequel, a two thousand line poem titled Paradise Regained. (I won’t be reading that one either.) But Paradise Regained is a re-telling of the Gospel story of Jesus being tempted in the desert. So the Garden of Eden was the setting in which humanity succumbed to temptation and paradise was lost, and the desert was the setting for the story we have heard read from Luke chapter 4 this morning, in which Jesus resisted and overcame temptation, and paradise was regained.
It’s helpful for us at the outset to have the big picture of what is at stake in the Gospel reading, so that we don’t go away thinking that what we have here, are some top tips from Jesus about how to resist temptation, maybe as some kind of Lenten discipline. The fact is that we need a lot more than a few top tips! Having ourselves repeatedly failed to resist temptation, we are lost. A little bit of Lenten discipline is not going to remedy that. Frankly, we need rescuing from the consequences of our own actions.
It is fair to say that there is some wisdom to be gained from Luke chapter 4 as to how we may do better in the future. But, over and above that, there is much comfort to be gained from this chapter in the knowledge that someone in the past – not just anyone, but a capital-S Someone – has done better than we could ever hope to do, and that we may look to him, rather than have to rely on our own feeble efforts, to recoup everything that we have lost, to deal with our past, and to secure our future. I said I wouldn’t read all twelve thousand lines of John Milton’s poems, but here is a very short excerpt:
“A while ago”, writes John Milton, “I sang of the happy garden lost by one man’s disobedience. Now I sing of paradise regained to all mankind through one man’s obedience, being tested with every temptation, and the tempter beaten – with all his cunning, beaten and thrown back – and Eden created again in the empty wilderness.”1
So this morning let us consider the character of each of the three temptations outlined in Luke chapter 4, and how they were resisted and overcome by Jesus, and then let us consider the common character of every temptation, and how they were resisted and overcome by him, and from this let us obtain both wisdom and comfort.
But just before we get on to the first temptation, let me say this: we may think that we are all experts when it comes to temptation: because we are constantly subject to it, thanks to the devil; because we are vulnerable to it, thanks to the flesh; and because it’s all around us, thanks to the world. Because of the flesh, the world, and the devil, we may think that we are all experts when it comes to temptation. However, I’m not sure that’s precisely right. Our strength to resist temptation is very limited. “Either it has to be taken away, or [our resistance must be] supported by the Lord’s word, or else [our strength] collapses, we cannot hold up”.2 When we succumb to the pressure to do the wrong thing, this is proof that we are no kind of experts when it comes to the pain of temptation. We have just take the easy route out by succumbing to it, and that makes us, in fact, experts in sin and wrongdoing. But not Jesus – he is the true expert in temptation, because “he could hold the weight” indefinitely. “That doesn’t mean he couldn’t feel the pain of it, and the longer he held it, the worse the pain got, so that Jesus experienced every temptation to the end”3 in a way that none of us have ever done, yet without sin – in fact, precisely because he did so without sin. We by contrast have never been tempted to the nth degree; in fact, the Bible tells us that God will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear, and that he will always provide a way out (1 Cor 10:13).
The first temptation recorded in Luke chapter 4 is the temptation to fulfil desire, purely and simply because of the existence of that desire. Jesus was fasting, and we are told in verse 2 of chapter 4 that he was hungry. And so the temptation was simply to do what was within his power to do, to close the gap between what he had, and what he wanted. “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Indeed, in Luke chapter 9, Jesus would use his divine power to feed five thousand people in the wilderness, so here in chapter 4, verse 3, the temptation was effectively to do the same thing to serve himself in the wilderness. The rock-bottom reason he resisted this temptation was because he came not to be served, but to serve (Mark 10:45). And that’s what he was doing in the desert. He was serving not himself but us. Here is our mighty comfort. Jesus resisted temptation to regain the paradise that had been lost through humanity’s failure to resist temptation.
And here is wisdom: Jesus did not resist this temptation by means of any sort of miraculous power – by which his hunger vanished, for example – but solely by means of the word of the Lord in Deuteronomy chapter 8, ‘It is written, Man does not live by bread alone’. You may know how that verse from Deuteronomy continues: ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’, and here the word of the Lord alone proves to be enough to resist the devil and block this temptation. The word of the Lord was enough. Understanding this must put us to shame when we look back, given how many times we ourselves have fallen into sin in the past, but it also gives us hope for resisting temptation looking forward. The word of the Lord alone is enough to resist the devil and block temptation. That is wisdom.
The second temptation was to pride, power and influence, in verses 6 and 7. “I will give you all the authority and splendour [of the kingdoms of the world], for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”
Now what Jesus could have said in response to this, and what we might have expected him to say, is ‘What are you talking about? All the kingdoms of the world are mine already. You can’t give me what I already possess.’ Instead Jesus said, in verse 8, “It is written, Worship your God and serve him only”.
Again, here is wisdom: the naked word of the Lord from Deuteronomy, chapter 6 this time, is more than enough to overcome this temptation. And here again is comfort. In relying solely on the word of the Lord to resist, rather than on an assertion of divine power and privilege, which was his by right, Jesus continues not to be served, but to serve you and me. The devil’s offer was a Faustian pact, the path of least resistance, an easy way, it would seem, of inheriting the kingdom of the Father – seemingly easy, but in practice ineffective. That was not the path chosen by Jesus. He laid all pride, power, and influence aside, and became the least of all. For our sake, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. The cross was his throne; his crown was one of thorns; his royal accession was proclaimed in the notice pinned above his head: the king of the Jews. That was his path, and that was the only path, to being exalted to the highest place, and being given the name that is above every other name: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Saviour of sinners.
The third temptation was to twist the word of God to his own advantage, to make it say something it doesn’t. “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down [from the highest point of the temple], for it is written [in Psalm 91], ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully” and so on. The implication is that angels would guard him no matter what reckless thing he did, but Psalm 91 doesn’t actually say that. Instead it says, “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways”. When that phrase ‘in all your ways’ is left out, the promise is twisted. The promise is of protection in carrying out a vocation. It is not protection against stupidity and recklessness. Testing the limits of a blanket protection would be to put God to the test, so against this deliberately incomplete Scriptural citation Jesus places yet another word of the Lord from Deuteronomy, chapter 6: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test”. Once again, let those in need of wisdom take note: the word of God is enough to silence the tempter. And once again, let those in need of comfort take note: Jesus refused to put himself in harm’s way recklessly, but he was willing to do so in following the vocation he received from the Father. In following that vocation all the way to death on a cross, he entrusted himself wholly to his Father, and that trust was not disappointed, because he was delivered to death for our sins, and then was raised to new life for our justification (cf. Romans 4:25).
Now let us consider what is common to each of these temptations, and what is common to every temptation. Two out of the three temptations recorded in Luke chapter 4 start with the words, “If you are the Son of God”, then do such and such to prove it. (In Matthew’s account of the temptations, this is how all three of the temptations are introduced.) Yet in the previous chapter of the Gospel, the baptism of Jesus is recorded, after which the divine assurance was given: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). Sowing seeds of doubt in the word of the Lord and the divine Sonship of Christ is therefore common to all three temptations. Likewise, in whatever particular ways we are tempted, through them we are commonly invited to doubt the truth of God’s word, the reliability of his love, and our status as his children.
And let us not imagine that Jesus was only ever tempted in these three ways and no others: to the instant fulfilment of desire; to pride, power, and influence; and to twisting God’s word to his own advantage. We read in Luke chapter 4 verse 13 that the devil “finished all this tempting”, or according to another English translation “finished every test”, and then left only temporarily, later to return at an “opportune time”. We know from elsewhere in the New Testament that Jesus was “tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin”, and that consequently he is able “to sympathise with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15). So, “as much temptation as hunger could give you, Jesus felt it. As much temptation as thirst could give you, Jesus felt it. As much temptation as anger could give you, Jesus felt it. As much temptation as lust can bring, Jesus felt it. As much temptation as greed could bring, Jesus felt it.”4 All of this, and more, is true.
We know he was tempted in many ways throughout his ministry. Just think of how he responded to Peter’s suggestion that he should not walk the way of the cross: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (Matthew 16:23).
But the last and most trying temptation must surely have been the one Jesus experienced on the cross, when “those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself; come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God’” (Matthew 27:39-40) – there is the tempter again, sowing seeds of doubt, and appealing to self-interest: ‘if you are the Son of God, save yourself’. In the 1980s film The Last Temptation of Christ, which was controversial at the time of its release, Jesus the film character succumbs to this temptation to come down from the cross and live out a normal domestic life with a wife and family into old age. Having shirked the way of suffering and death, the movie Jesus discovers at last that he has left himself nothing, and has left his followers and his doubters nothing whatsoever, to believe in ever again. There would be no forgiveness of sins, there would be no resurrection of the body, there would be no life everlasting. That would have been a grim scenario. That would have been a betrayal of Christ’s calling. In contrast, the Gospels show us what actually happened – the costly fulfilment of his calling, in the teeth of insults, in humility, and in willing surrender. How else would the Scriptures have been fulfilled which say that his glorification, and our redemption, must happen in this way?
Drawing this connection between the first recorded temptations of Christ’s ministry, and the last temptation – with those insidious questions ‘If you are the Son of God…’ acting as bookends – drawing this connection makes one thing crystal clear. Jesus did not undergo temptation simply to provide an example of resisting temptation for us to follow, and to teach us how to do it. No doubt, there is some value in knowing the power of the written word of God and the security of our status as children of God in overcoming temptation. There is wisdom in that. But in Luke chapter 4, “Jesus is not only showing us how to resist the devil, he’s [resisting the devil] for us, he’s in our place”.5 At the beginning and end of his ministry, he stands firm in the exact place where you, and me, and the rest of humanity, have faltered and fallen. He wasn’t in the desert on a personal journey of self-discovery – he went out there for our sake, and where our discipline failed, his stood firm. In doing so, he has regained paradise for you and for me. So let us remember this throughout Lent. Had Jesus deserved to die the death of a sinner, his death would have been unexceptional and ultimately meaningless. It would have saved no-one. But in fact, he withstood every temptation that was thrown at him. God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us, then raised him to life, and glorified him. And in this there is glorious comfort. Paradise, once lost, has been restored. “And we sing of paradise regained to all mankind through one man’s obedience, being tested with every temptation, and the tempter beaten – with all his cunning, beaten and thrown back – and Eden created again in the empty wilderness.”6
1 John Milton, Paradise Regained in Plain and Simple English (BookCaps Study Guide, 2012), page 3, altered.
2 Bryan Wolfmueller, What of Christ’s temptation?, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADhO4zefldE, 09:10.
3 Ibid., 09:30.
4 Ibid., p. 09:40.
5 Ibid., 32:10.
6 See note 1.
St. George's Church Ramsgate 