Written by: Bishop Tim Thornton – Bishop of Sherburn

Luke 3 v 21-22
When all the people were being baptized by John, Jesus also was baptized. While Jesus was praying, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit came down on him in the form of a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “You are my Son, whom I love, and I am very pleased with you.”

Notes
To read that Jesus is baptised as well as others always takes me slightly by surprise. It establishes the reality that Jesus is God become man, word made flesh, ordinary as well as extraordinary.

The baptism of Jesus caused a great deal of confusion in the early church. Did Jesus only become fully the Son of God at his baptism? No, Jesus is the Son of God and as such is baptised and anointed with God’s grace. 

Baptism is the sacrament for all Christians; the sign that God is at work in our lives. Perhaps this verse can be a reminder to us that we do not need to earn God’s grace, it is there for us, it was there for Jesus and he accepted it, how much more then should we accept it.

Luke 3 v 23
When Jesus began his ministry, he was about thirty years old. People thought that Jesus was Joseph’s son.
(Then a list is given of 76 generations, going back to…..Adam was the Son of God)

Notes
This verse needs to be read in conjunction with the verses that follow (verses 24 – 38). They are not easy to read; after all they are just a long list of names! However this long list is there for a purpose.

Luke establishes through this list that Jesus is the son of man, Adam the first man. There is another list in the gospel according to St Mathew not the same list but another list making a different point.

We perhaps find such lists unhelpful, a series of names that seem to mean nothing to us. Yet here is a vital truth, an important connection that helps us recognise Jesus for who he really is.

How often do we take something for granted, or look at something and dismiss it and say it has nothing to tell us, we have nothing to learn from that.

Beware our limitations and the restrictions we place on our selves and be willing to look and see, to listen and to hear even in the most surprising places.

Luke 4 v 1-2
Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. The Spirit led Jesus into the desert where the devil tempted Jesus for forty days. Jesus ate nothing during that time, and when those days were ended, he was very hungry.

Notes
Jesus begins his ministry not with some great statement or deed, not with a spectacular event, not with a great miracle but with time spent by himself and with the devil.

Forty days, the way of saying a long time, Jesus spent on his own in the wilderness. This would not be the last time, Jesus spent many times on his own struggling and working at his mission. During this time Jesus found life difficult, he was physically hungry and no doubt tired as well.

We all can echo such times in our lives. We all know what it is to be tired and exhausted, hungry and thirsty. Jesus is there with us no matter how low we feel, Jesus is alongside us. It is important to notice that not every moment of the life of Jesus was wonderful and glorious there were difficult times.

Luke 4 v 3-4
The devil said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, tell this rock to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written in the Scriptures: ‘A person does not live by eating only bread.’ ”

Notes
So Jesus is tempted, first to turn stone into bread to solve the hunger problem. Jesus stays firm and resolute, he is aware that the solutions the devil offers are temporary and illusory. How often do we know deep down that even if we please ourselves for a few minutes, if we do what we want to do, it will not help us in the long run.

Our lives are more than food and drink; we do not live by bread alone. There is so much more to life than we at first are willing or able to see.

Luke 4 v 5-8
Then the devil took Jesus and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in an instant. The devil said to Jesus, “I will give you all these kingdoms and all their power and glory. It has all been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I wish. If you worship me, then it will all be yours.”
Jesus answered, “It is written in the Scriptures: ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’ ”

Notes
‘If I ruled the world’ so the old song goes and wouldn’t it be wonderful to rule the world. So this second of three temptations that Jesus has to undergo is accessible for all of us and even more so for him of course as he did indeed rule the world. This is such a simple temptation and therefore all the more difficult to confront. We must not bow down to the wrong people. We must not worship the wrong gods and yet we do it all the time. The gods of money, leisure, power, self; the list is almost endless. It is worth remembering verse 8, above many other verses of Scripture, “You must worship the Lord your God and serve only Him”.

Luke 4 v 9-12
Then the devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and put him on a high place of the Temple. He said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, jump down. It is written in the Scriptures:
‘He has put his angels in charge of you to watch over you.’ 
It is also written:
‘They will catch you in their hands so that you will not hit your foot on a rock.’ ” 
Jesus answered, “But it also says in the Scriptures: ‘Do not test the Lord your God.’ ”

Notes
The third of the temptations is a variation on the first two, Jesus is again being asked to display his greatness in an inappropriate way. Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords; all things are possible for him. Yet his life on this earth was not about spectacular stunts and unbelievable tricks. He had become human so that we might become divine in the words of Ireneaus (one of the early church Fathers).

Temptations always will catch us at our weakest point. They will be things we can do so easily and apparently with no real consequences. That is precisely why they are so tempting. If Jesus has been tempted how much more will we be tempted and indeed will we give in to temptation.

Luke 4 v 13
After the devil had tempted Jesus in every way, he left him to wait until a better time.

Notes 
This one short verse paints a wonderful and yet daunting picture for Jesus and for us. The devil we are told left him to wait for a better time. When was that better time in the life of Jesus? I suspect we don’t know; but it could have been when his friend Lazarus died and he was tempted to raise him from the dead because he was his friend. It could have been in the garden of Gethsemane almost at the end of his life when he prayed “Father take this cup from me”. Or of course it could be that there never was a better time for the devil to attack Jesus.

What of us, what of our lives and how tempted are we by so much that happens around us and inside us? Jesus kept spending time on his own with his Father trying to gain strength and wisdom to resist temptation and to be equipped for the life he had to leave. We too must spend time in prayer resisting and finding strength and wisdom to live our lives.


word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes