We listen to the story of Jesus’ temptation during the beginning of Lent. Why was Jesus tempted? Shouldn’t He have been free from such things?
As counterintuitive as it may seem, Jesus’ temptation in the desert is not a sign of weakness or imperfection, but rather the perfection of His humanity. When we speak of Jesus’ incarnation, we must affirm that in Jesus, God took on a complete human nature, including free will and, therefore, capacity for temptation. Without that free will, Jesus would have been less than human, not more.
Sometimes people misunderstand temptations themselves as sinful, but tempting thoughts only become sinful when we consent to them (saying, in effect, “I like this thought and I want it to continue”). Many thoughts come to our minds without choice, but when a person rejects these thoughts and asks God to remove them, this is actually an example of personal virtue, not sin.
By explicitly showing that Jesus was tempted as we are, we can gain confidence when we face similar situations. We do not need to feel ashamed that we are tempted, nor do we need to feel alone. As the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 5:15).
Of course, it is important that Jesus, even though He was tempted, did not sin. He therefore sets an example for us. Just as He rejects Satan’s false promises, so should we. Of course, one of the most effective means of doing that is by prayer. One of my regular pieces of advice in the confessional is to use involuntary thoughts and impulses toward sin as a kind of good “temptation” — an opportunity that reminds us to pray and rely upon God’s help rather than sin!
The temptation of Jesus also is an example of how He saves our fallen world. When God created the world, it was entirely good, but our sin introduced corruption into that good world and led to separation from God. In order to reverse this, God decided to “re-create” the world through the incarnation of Jesus. What had been damaged Jesus restores to its original grace (and more!). By His rejection of temptation and Satan, Jesus rewrites our history with a new ending. Where the first Adam did not resist temptation, Jesus is the “new Adam,” who successfully chooses God rather than temptation. Our human freedom is no longer separated from God’s plan but in line with God’s will, and we are drawn back into the union of love and grace that was meant to be.
Father Chris Schroeder is parochial administrator of Christ the King Parish in University City and St. Joseph Parish in Clayton.
