It's Tempting

Good late morning. Got so interested and wrapped up in my Sunday School lesson for this morning that I forgot about my +Time blog posting. What reminded me?

Linda saying, “Good morning.” To which my response is always, “Good morning. I’ll get the paper for you.”

Why do I get the paper instead of letting Linda get it? It has naught to do with chivalry. It's because not having served in Navy ships, nor with Admiral Chet Heffner in Columbus, Ohio forty years ago, she is not as mindful of safety and accident avoidance as I am. Consequently, she is not as careful as I am going down and up the eight concrete steps down into the lower part of the front yard to the lower sidewalk where the paper always is thrown by our new newspaper carrier (paper boy). If Linda fell it would be disaster for both of us. If I fell (which is most unlikely because I hold on to the rail my grandfather put there a hundred years ago) Linda could book a nice singles cruise. Perhaps on the Carnival Triumph.

Anyway, here’s the Scripture for the Sunday School lesson

Luke 4:1-13 (YLT)

4 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, turned back from the Jordan, and was brought in the Spirit εν τω πνευματι to the wilderness,

2 forty days being tempted by the Devil πειραζομενος υπο του διαβολου, and he did not eat anything in those days, and they having been ended, he afterward hungered, 3 and the Devil said to him, `If Son thou art of God, speak to this stone that it may become bread.'

4 And Jesus answered him, saying, `It hath been written, that, not on bread only shall man live, but on every saying of God.'

5 And the Devil having brought him up to an high mountain, shewed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and the Devil said to him, `To thee I will give all this authority, and their glory, because to me it hath been delivered, and to whomsoever I will, I do give it; 7 thou, then, if thou mayest bow before me -- all shall be thine.'

8 And Jesus answering him said, `Get thee behind me, σατανα *, for' (Alexandrinus 5th C., British Museum, London) it hath been written, Thou shalt bow before the Lord thy God, and Him only thou shalt serve.'

9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, `If the Son thou art of God, cast thyself down hence, 10 for it hath been written -- To His messengers He will give charge concerning thee, to guard over thee, 11 and -- On hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou mayest dash against a stone thy foot.'

12 And Jesus answering said to him -- `It hath been said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.'

13 And having ended all temptation, the Devil departed from him till a convenient season.

So the contemplation is

Read the three temptation accounts in the synoptic gospels (does not appear in John).

Compare/contrast them. Why are Luke and Matthew different from Mark?

Read another temptation account (Mk 8:33, Mt 16:23).

8 ... υπαγε οπισω μου σατανα γεγραπται γαρ

... get behind me satan it is written for

At Mk 8:33, Mt 16:23 he is not calling Peter “satan”. He seems to be using an idiom for “don’t tempt me.” 

What tempted Jesus, according to the gospels? (BTW, both by Scripture and by Tradition (theology and doctrine) it is incontestable that Jesus was tempted.

How did Jesus rebuke/resist temptation?

What tempts YOU?

How do YOU resist? How might you train yourself better to resist?

See you in Sunday School.

TW+