The Temptation on the Mountain (2)
The Temptation on the Mountain (2)
Children are like angels, but…
Self-emptying is a continual act
Beginning service with solitude
When to give bread
The devil fights solitude
He gave no direct reply
And loves the work of guidance
He did not descend to his level
Ten differences between Adam’s temptation and Christ’s
The temptation of easy service
A period of struggle, not rest
Answering temptation with a verse
Continuing the temptation of bread
The temptation on the pinnacle of the temple
Unusual hunger
He fights even in holy places
Divinity did not prevent hunger nor satisfy it
Also the war of sights and amazement
Claim your rights as a son
No miracles for show
The Temptation
Temptation is a test. The Lord Christ passed the test and proved His greatness and perfection according to the flesh and His success in every trial He faced.
Some may say that children are pure like angels, and yet surely their reward is less than that of adults. Why?
Because children have not yet passed through the period of testing. They may grow and be tested—and fail. But adults who have passed through trials, endured them, and did not fall—their reward is greater.
The Temptations of the Lord Christ on the Mountain
They began after His baptism, at the age of thirty. According to Jewish law, spiritual ministry begins at age thirty (Numbers 4:3, 23, 47). Thus John the Baptist began his service, and at the same age, the Lord Christ began His—by baptism first (Luke 3:23). In His baptism, He was anointed as King, Priest, and Prophet, as foretold by Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor” (Isaiah 61:1).
He had to begin His ministry, but He chose first to begin with a quiet session with the Father, and with Himself in the wilderness, on the mountain, in fasting and meditation. It is a lesson for us—that we begin our service with a time alone with the Father. That is why new priests are given forty days after ordination, to spend as Christ did in the wilderness—in fasting, meditation, and quietness.
During those forty days, Christ set before Himself all the principles that would guide His ministry afterward: self-emptying, toil, and sacrifice for the sake of people; not using His divinity for the comfort of His humanity; and always keeping the Cross before His eyes, for He came to redeem mankind.
When the devil saw Christ alone on the mountain, it disturbed him. He decided to interfere—as if saying: “Why do You sit alone on the mountain? I have come to sit with You! If You want to spread the Kingdom, I have advice and proposals for You—fruits of the tree of knowledge. Let us reason together. You want to triumph; I do too!”
The devil loves the role of counselor, roaming the earth offering suggestions and ideas. When he saw Christ sitting with the Father, he said: “Let us distract Him, bring Him down from the level of divine and heavenly matters to the earthly—or at least to something that appears spiritual. Let Him not remain in communion with the Father! Let’s occupy Him with bread, with sights, with all the kingdoms of the earth and their glory.”
He had used the same trick with Adam and Eve, distracting them from communion with God by the sight of the tree, the fruit, and the promise of knowledge and glory—“you will be like God.” So why not try the same with Christ? But he found a vast difference between Adam and Christ.
Differences Between Adam and the Lord Christ
Especially regarding the temptation and the circumstances in which it occurred:
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Adam began life bearing the image and likeness of God. Christ began by taking the form of a servant, though He was the Son of God.
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Adam began life in the Garden of Eden; Christ began His ministry in a barren wilderness, in poverty, on a mountain—His birth itself had been in a manger.
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Adam was tempted with food and ate though he was not hungry—and from a forbidden tree. Christ refused to eat though He was hungry—and from bread lawful to all.
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Adam obeyed the devil’s counsel though it was only one suggestion; Christ rejected the devil’s counsel three times on the mountain—and many more later.
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Adam broke God’s command; Christ obeyed all that was written.
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Adam fell into pride, wanting to become like God; Christ humbled Himself before John, receiving baptism of repentance though sinless, and humbly allowed the devil to choose the field of battle!
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Adam desired authority not his own; Christ renounced using His divine authority.
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Adam fell into sin and deserved death; Christ fulfilled all righteousness (Matthew 3:15) and saved mankind from death and destruction.
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Adam lived carnally, fulfilling the lust of the flesh by eating; Christ lived spiritually, feeding on every word from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).
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Adam sought self-exaltation and lost everything; Christ chose self-emptying and restored all that man had lost.
Thus the battle was not easy for the devil. He tried to tempt Christ but failed completely. The forty-day fast was not a time of rest but of struggle.
So during Great Lent, keep before you the image of Christ—prepare to struggle, for the devil will fight you, but you will overcome through the grace and work of Christ in you.
The days of fasting were days of struggle and also holy days.
Just as feast days are holy, so are days of fasting and spiritual trial.
They are also days of spiritual fullness. Wretched is the person who comes out of fasting saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb” (Job 1:21).
The Temptation of Bread
The Gospel says of Christ: “He was afterward hungry. Then the tempter came to Him” (Matthew 4:2–3).
Naturally, this was an intense, severe hunger. The forty days were all a time of hunger, but the phrase “afterward He was hungry” means an unbearable hunger—the kind that drives a man to accept any counsel to eat.
This shows that His humanity was capable of hunger like ours, and that His divinity did not prevent His body from feeling hunger. Yet He refused the devil’s suggestion to eat—because the means was wrong, the goal was wrong, and because the advice came from the devil.
The devil said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
Here the devil presented a concept of sonship that gratifies the self by using power for comfort. In his view, a son of God should not be hungry and has the right to take.
But Christ did not claim His rights as the Son.
How astonishing, then, that some say we must demand our rights as children and heirs with Christ!
Who are we to demand rights—when the only-begotten Son refused to use His divine nature for His own comfort?
Christ’s self-emptying was not only in the Incarnation—it was a lifelong principle, lasting until His Ascension.
He had authority as the Son to turn stones into bread, but He would not do so to benefit Himself. He would not use a miracle for personal comfort, otherwise the Incarnation would become merely symbolic.
He did not use His divinity to prevent hunger or to satisfy it. Nor did He use His divine power to provide bread for people to make them believe—for that would be lowering the level of faith.
He could offer bread out of love and compassion, but not as payment for faith. Thus, in the miracle of feeding the multitudes, He said: “I have compassion on the multitude… they have continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat” (Mark 8:2–3). He first gave them spiritual nourishment while they fasted, then provided physical food out of compassion—not to display divinity or to purchase belief.
The devil presented the temptation of bread—but what was Christ’s reply?
He gave no direct answer. He did not respond to “If You are the Son of God.” He ignored the challenge and did not descend to the devil’s material level. Instead, He lifted the matter to the spiritual realm: “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
Man is not merely flesh but spirit—and the spirit lives by God’s word.
So Christ closed the subject of bread and matter entirely, refusing to open any discussion. You too can close the door to the devil whenever he suggests unspiritual topics—divert your thoughts to the Word of God.
Even if the devil tries to disguise material things in spiritual form—Christ refused. He would not be drawn into the temptation of “easy service.”
If faith came by bread, it would vanish when bread ceased.
Christ’s response teaches us a method of victory: Answer temptation with Scripture.
For “the Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12).
The Temptation on the Pinnacle of the Temple
This took place in the holy city, on the temple’s pinnacle. The devil said: “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written, He shall give His angels charge over You…” (Matthew 4:6).
The same issue remained—“If You are the Son of God”—and Christ still gave no answer to it.
How bold the devil is! He dares to fight even in holy places—in the city of God, on the temple itself! He is ready to enter the church and tempt, even during prayer or fasting. He loves to defile the sacred.
He tempted Adam and Eve in Paradise, the thief beside Christ on the cross, Lot’s wife while her hand was in the angel’s hand, and the sons of Eli in the place of sacrifice.
So what was the temptation here? The devil proposed:
“Throw Yourself from the temple pinnacle; the angels will carry You, and everyone will see this wonder. They will be amazed and believe You are the Messiah. Thus, You will spread Your kingdom easily.”
But Christ did not come to dazzle the eyes with miracles—He came to redeem with His blood. He refused the way of spectacle and empty glory.
The devil’s desire is always for show, for admiration, for vain glory—not salvation.
If he were to lead a mission, he would come on a cloud, as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). And in the end times, the Antichrist will come “with all power, signs, and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9) to turn people from faith.
Christ refused this path of show. He performed miracles only out of love and compassion—not for display. When the Jews demanded a sign, He answered, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 12:39)—the sign of His death and burial for three days.
To be continued next week, God willing.
Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani newspaper on March 30, 1986.
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