The temptation of Jesus
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted[a] by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’[b]”
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’[c]”
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[d]”
12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[e]”
13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
Why was Jesus tempted ?
Saint John Casian, Spiritual talks, Ist Part, The communication of father Serapion, Cap. V, 1; VI, 3-5, in Church Fathers and Writers (1990), vol. 57, pp. 379-381
„(…) Our Lord Jesus Christ was tempted as the apostle says it `in everything according to our resemblance` but except for sin`, meaning without being touched by any passion not having any fleshly desires we are attacked by without knowing or without wanting, as He had no resemblance with us in what regards His conception.
(…) Although He had a real body as He naturally ate drank and slept and was pierced by nails however He hadn`t any sin of the flesh only the weakness of it. He was not attacked by the fire temptations of the physical desire which is born in us naturally even without our wish He was only tried by the appearance of sin by the physical resemblance with us.
As He fulfilled what appertains to us and bore in Himself all the human weaknesses i t was possible to believe He was subdued by passions and He had in His flesh the weakness of vice and sin. The devil tempted him only with those vices he cheated the first man thinking that this One could have been cheated in the same way as a man as he defeated the first. But he could not bring Him in the second disease which comes out of vice because he was rejected from the first fight.
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