‘One on one with Jesus’ series: Jesus and the Devil in the wilderness of lies
Stuart Slann, an English tourist in Mexico, coincidentally met two other English tourists at a bar. They struck up a friendly conversation, talking about their hometowns and soccer allegiances. Stuart was from Manchester and supported Manchester United. The other two were from Liverpool and supported Liverpool FC.
Now, Liverpool and Manchester United fans are fierce rivals, somewhat like Port Adelaide and the Crows—but it seems that in England, sports rivalry goes to an even deeper level. After they returned home, the two Liverpool fans schemed to humiliate Stuart from Manchester. They set up a fake FaceBook profile in which they pretended to be a Scottish woman named Emma, and managed to engage Stuart on that site for a month—before finally enticing him to drive a 9 hour, 650km journey to a remote Scottish farm to meet her. After making Stuart wait there for three hours, the pranksters called him and revealed the hoax. They recorded their phone conversation and mercilessly forwarded it to Stuart’s wife, which ended their marriage. (Just for the record I’ve never done anything like that to a Crows supporter!)
People aren’t likely to be deceived by people who are horrible to them—they are deceived by people who appear nice and friendly. The two men in the bar appeared friendly and trustworthy to Stuart Slann, which is what makes the unfolding of deception harder to pick. They deceived him with devastating consequences.
In today’s Gospel Reading Satan comes to Jesus with the same deceptive ploy. The panorama Matthew lays out before us is a dry, dusty, uninhabitable wilderness, far different to the lush, bountiful Garden full of every kind of food, where we first hear of the devil in Scripture.
There, in the beginning, Adam and Eve are not repulsed or shocked by the appearance of Satan to them. He presents as quite nice and encouraging—even loving, concerned for their wellbeing and interests. He has groomed them so that they are quite comfortable in engaging in conversation with him—just like Stuart Slann in the Mexican bar. But as Stuart was deceived with disastrous consequences, so too the Devil’s deception here brings devastating outcomes:
- The Devil deceives Adam and Eve to think it is fine to act independently of God.
- He deceives Adam and Eve to act as if what is evil is good, and what is good is evil (Cf Isaiah 5:20)
- He deceives Adam and Eve to think that God is not trustworthy and what he says is an unreliable guide for life: “Did God really say?”
- He deceives Adam and Eve to believe they should be the final authority of what is right and good as the captain of their soul.
He outright lies to them: “You will not surely die!” to undermine God’s trustworthiness by suggesting that God doesn’t really have their best interests at heart.
We know what happens next—they fall to the Devil’s trap. He has deceived them to believe that what is true to be false, and what is false to be true. He has them right where he wants them—and everyone else—because the crisp crack of their first bite into the fruit opens the chasm between the human race and God, and the shattering of human relationships with one another.
Satan knows that Jesus is the only One who can stop his bid for all domination and control. So in today’s Gospel Reading, the Devil has Jesus right where he wants him, as the last domino to fall. It’s a prime opportunity as Jesus has not eaten for forty days and forty nights. Truly human, Jesus must be hungry—not just a “How long to dinner” kind of hungry—but famished, exhausted, weak. The Devil knows that Jesus is the Son of God who with a word can transform stones into loaves. So he strikes at the core of Jesus’ need: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.”
It’s the same tactic he used against Adam and Eve: to act independently of God by eating what God commanded them not to eat. But the temptation in the Garden was to enjoy a tasty treat. But here, in the wilderness, this is for Jesus’ very survival. What harm can it do if Jesus uses his power to turn some stones into loaves? Won’t things be worse if he doesn’t? Any longer without eating and Jesus will die…is this really what his Father wants? At any rate, it doesn’t look like God will provide what he needs—things haven’t looked too promising to this point. He tries to deceive Jesus into seizing control and serving himself rather than trusting in his Father. But Jesus is the better Adam, who does the will of his Father, and lives by his word. He replies: “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
So look how subtle the Devil’s next temptation to Jesus is! He quotes Scripture! He turns God’s own word around to try to deceive Jesus that what he suggests is good and true: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'” Jesus answered: ‘”Again, it is written: ‘You will not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Then comes Satan’s third attempt to deceive Jesus. He took Jesus with him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. He said to Jesus: “All this I will give to you if you will bow down and worship me.” He tries to deceive Jesus into believing that obedience to his Father is futile, because look at what he’s missing out on! All the splendour, riches, and pleasure of the world! The Devil tries get Jesus to believe the lie: ‘What matters for happiness and fulfillment in life are the material things of this world, not spiritual riches from following God and obeying his word. Look at how things are going for you. How is this good? If you worship me, I’ll give you so much more.’ That’s a lie. The devil can’t. The whole earth and everything in it belongs to the Lord (Psalm 24:1). Every good gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights (James 1:17).
As Christians we might think that we won’t be troubled much by the Devil. But look at what our readings portray. Satan is right there with God’s people in the Garden of Eden. He is right with Jesus in the wilderness. He doesn’t really care about lost unbelievers, who are healthy, wealthy and unwise. He has them right where he wants them. His concern is with God’s children. The closer one is to God, the closer the Devil is to them. Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus: “[Be] strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:10-12).
As Christians we should expect that the Devil will come to us to tempt us, and seek to deceive us in the same ways as he did with Jesus. His approach is to make his lies so subtle they seem true and harmless to our human logic. He wants us to shift our faith in God’s goodness and have faith in ourselves instead. He wants to take us from a daily trust that our Heavenly Father will provide all things according to his will, and just go ahead and do for ourselves what we think we need, so that, over time, even though we still believe in a Heavenly Father…we don’t live as though our lives depend on him.
Closely connected with this is the second deception: the Christian just needs to take a leap of faith—a leap of faith into ourselves, and believe that it’s really ok to live by bread alone, not by every word from the mouth of God. He deceives us to think that one can read God’s word too much, and study it too deeply—and that’s bad, because it stifles our freedom to be true to ourselves and just go and get, or do, or be, whatever we think is right and good. God will be there to catch us if we fall.
And the third deception is closely connected as well: the devil wants us to evaluate our lives by human values, and chart a course of following worldly priorities, rather than growing in wisdom from the Spirit through the Word that results in spiritual health and wealth. He wants us to evaluate our lives by what other people, and families, and workplaces and churches have, and to think what we have been given from God is not enough, and we are missing out. He wants to deceive us to think that it is not good to be in the posture of beggars, kneeling before God reaching out with empty hands. We deserve what we don’t have—we are even entitled to it, and should grasp it!
In all of these ways, the devil doesn’t tempt Christians to doubt whether God is real or not…he just deceives us to drift away from seeking first the Kingdom of God and all his righteousness. And that is arguably even more dangerous: because people can believe there is a God, but don’t live as if life depends on him (which is what true faith is).
Today’s Gospel reading brings Good News as the Devil seeks to attack us: though Jesus was weak, he was strong for you. Jesus is the better Adam who perfectly obeyed his Father for you. Jesus said to the Devil: “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘You will worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'” Jesus did what none of us in our human weakness could do—even though he was tempted in every way we are, he did not sin (Hebrews 4:15).
Your Father in Heaven does not want you to be lost in a wilderness of lies but has revealed his truth to you. His truth sets us free from the wilderness of deception, of who we are, and whose we are, in Christ. In Christ, when you are weak, then you are strong. Christ is the innocent, sinless one, whose death on the Cross is sufficient for righteousness and salvation, received through faith in him. Although the Devil brings accusations against God’s people day and night, (Revelation 12:10) and would want to deceive us to think that we do not have the fulness of God’s favour and approval because of our sin, God has given you the fulness of his favour and approval in Christ.
Jesus is our Great High Priest who has made the sacrifice to wash away all the sins of his people, and comes between God and us to plead for and pray for us. He promises that whoever acknowledges him on earth he will acknowledge before his Father in Heaven (Matthew 10:32). So John can say: “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2).
Just one drop of Jesus’ blood has broken the power of the Devil over you, ransomed you from his kingdom and reconciled you to God. Through faith in Jesus, his Father in Heaven is your Father in heaven. Your right standing before God is not grounded in your good behaviour, but in Christ’s perfect behaviour and ongoing ministry for you.
We should expect Satan to be near to us. That’s not a sign there is a problem with our relationship with God—but the very sign we are in a right relationship with God. So even though the Devil is near, Jesus is always with us. As we journey through the wilderness of this life, we have everything we need. Baptised into Christ, you come under God’s authority alone and belong to him.
He does command his angels concerning you, to protect you and bear you up along life’s rough way. Clothed with Christ, his robe of righteousness covers over all your shame. United with Christ and his own death and resurrection, you too have died to sin so that it is no longer the only driving force in our life, as we live in the new life of Jesus’ resurrection each day. We have a home far more glorious than all the cities on earth, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give those in Christ the Kingdom of Heaven (Luke 12:32).
It is not by our power or might that we overcome Satan, but by the invincible might of Jesus, who said: “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘You will worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'” When the Devil comes knocking on the door, may we not fall again by looking to ourselves. For we have a Great High Priest who was tempted in every way we are, yet did not sin. So let us approach his throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16). Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
First Sunday of Lent, 2026
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
“People can believe there is a God, but don’t live as if life depends on him”
- What are the vulnerabilities in your life that the Devil repeatedly targets?
- On what occasions does your conscience seem troubled? Does Satan tempt you to think your standing before God is in jeopardy?
- What areas of your life are easier to depend on God, than others?
- In challenging times, who, or what, do you tend to trust in?
- What ways do you feel deceived by others? By the Devil?
- What human values do you evaluate your life by?
- Does it ever feel like you have missed out on the things of this life?
- How can the truth of God’s word free you from deception, accusation and condemnation—even ‘self-condemnation’?
- What assurance do you have in the midst of the devil’s accusations?
- How has God given you the fulness of his favour?
