Image: Christ in the Desert (1872) by Ivan Kramskoi
At Bible study last Thursday, one of our folks told an anecdote about visiting one of the contenders for Jesus’s baptismal site in northern Israel. Several people in gleaming white robes went down to be baptized. When they came up from the water, algae was all over their robes! They were cleansed from sin and simultaneously came up with the muck of this realm clinging to them.
I wonder if Jesus felt like that after his baptism. He had just received a wonderful confirmation and promise of his identity from his Father God and his Holy Spirit. After he rose from the water, he heard his Father say, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well-pleased,” followed by the Spirit’s descent on him. An amazing, soul-filling moment.
But the Spirit leads him out of there quickly. When we think about being led by the Spirit, we often think about experiences like the one Jesus had at his baptism. But that’s not what happens. The Spirit leads Jesus not into another amazing experience, but into the wilderness to fast and be tested by Satan. Not warm and fuzzy by any means. Which demonstrates a rule of this realm: As soon as God gives a promise, a time of testing follows. The devil is close behind to sow not mere doubt, but active unbelief.
That’s the real temptation here. It isn’t to turn stones to bread, or command God’s angels, or to take power over the world. It’s to disbelieve the Father’s promise.
We see this same tactic in Eden. There, God gave a promise and a command: “You may eat from any tree you like, except this one. If you do, you will surely die.” At the beginning of Genesis 3, the serpent strikes: “Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat that tree?” Is it really such a bad thing to eat from that tree? Why would God put it there in the first place if he didn’t want you to eat it? Who wouldn’t want to become wise? Who wouldn’t want to be like God? After all, isn’t that growing into who God made us to be? The temptation seems so reasonable, so logical. But the serpent’s goal is to create unbelief: unbelief that God means what he says. Unbelief that God knows best. Unbelief that God has created us primarily to care for God’s creation and for each other as beloved children. And when our first parents took the fruit, that unfaithful action led to shame and blame. Shame in that they feel the need to cover themselves. Blame in that Adam blames both his wife and God in one breath, while Eve blames the serpent. Unbelief leads to destruction, particularly destruction of relationships: relationship to self, relationship to creation, relationship to others, and relationship to God.
And that’s the devil’s goal here with Jesus. The devil wants Jesus to disbelieve that he is the Son of God in the way the Father has revealed to him. All three temptations are basically the same: “If you’re the Son of God, prove it! Take your divine power over nature, over the angels, over the crowds, over the Temple and the holy city, over the entire world! Take control, Jesus! Wouldn’t the world be a better place if you just relieved people from their burdens, like hunger or governance? Would it be so wrong if you took matters into your own hands, Jesus, and gave them a good show while doing it? God knows no one else can do it better than you can!” It sounds so reasonable, right?
Truth be told, we do this all the time with our own power as children of God. We are either tempted to take direct control of things and people, working for rather than with; or we are tempted to give all our power away to someone else for the promise that they will take care of us, give us a good show, and deal with the messy work of community on our behalf. The devil’s temptations are perennial, based on “if-then”. “If you are a child of God, then take control.” Or, “If you are a child of God, then let someone else take care of it because God’s got it.” The devil’s temptations are subtle and double-sided. Either way, we often betray our identity as God’s children.
But Jesus does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He knows who he is as Son of God and he knows what the power of the Son of God looks like. It doesn’t look like control. It doesn’t look like manipulation. It doesn’t look like self-reliance. Rather, Jesus relies on the strength his Father God gives him. He relies on the Word spoken by God to the Israelites through Moses. Jesus truly empties himself, even of his own inherent power as God’s Son and the incarnate Word of God, to cling to power of his Father. In a word, Jesus defeats the devil by faith and only by faith. Jesus trusts his Father completely. He trusts the promise that He is Son of God without reservation and hesitancy. He does what the people of God throughout time and space have failed to do. The ancient Israelites failed to trust God’s promise that they were to be his priestly people. From the time of Constantine on, the church has often sought its validation in worldly power, wealth, influence, or cultural relevance rather than in the promise it has received from God. But Jesus relies wholly on his Father. Jesus succeeds where we fail.
And Jesus likewise empowers us as his siblings to live by that same faith. True, we still struggle with the old blaming, shaming creature within us. But God has claimed us forever through our baptism. What Jesus is by nature, we are by adoption. We are sons, daughters, children of God not because of our own abilities or talents, but by God’s grace alone. That status cannot be taken away from us, no matter what we have done. Rather, our lives from our baptism on are about living in repentance and renewal. Or as Luther puts it, “the old creature is drowned and dies through daily contrition and repentance, and daily a new person rises up to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” The whole earthly life and ministry of Jesus is a life lived in utter faithfulness to God and to the humanity he came to save. Everything else follows from that faith.
And out of that faith, Jesus gives himself to us today in, with, and under the bread and wine. At this table, we receive the power of God to live in repentance and renewal. So come forward today to receive him. And know that even though the devil will be close at hand to sow unbelief, the promise we have from God is stronger. God help us keep that faith throughout all circumstances of our lives, so that we may live into our identity as children of our heavenly Father and siblings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God. Amen.
© 2026, David M. Fleener. Permission granted to copy and adapt original material herein for non-commercial purposes.