MARCH62022

There were no eye-witnesses to the temptations of Jesus in the desert. Each evangelist, therefore, shaped the story as it had been handed down to him to fit how he wanted the reader, us, to come to faith in Jesus. We learn alot about each evangelist by seeing how they tell the story. For example, both Matthew and Luke report three temptations. However, the order is different. Matthew’s seem to make the more logical sense: temptation to care for oneself, temptation to religious authority, temptation to worldly power. In Luke’s telliing the last temptation is the religious one at the temple in Jerusalem. That emphasizes his approach that all of history is funneling down to the events of Jesus’ suffering and death in Jerusalem. Then, the faith in the Risen Christ radiates from Jerusalem in wider and wider circles to fill the whole world. It makes sense from his perspective that the last temptation would be in Jerusalem. Maybe that serves as a reminder to us that we have to tell the story of Jesus in a way that makes sense to the listener. Simply to repeat what worked in the past might not work in the future. Like Luke we must be creative in talking of Jesus to help others come to faith.