In our first reading today, the book of Genesis tells us that “The serpent was the most subtle of all the wild beasts;” the serpent certainly knows how to distort the truth and make temptation irresistibly attractive. The woman and the man fall to the subtlety of the serpent’s promise that by eating the forbidden fruit their eyes will be opened and they will be “like gods.” They eat, their eyes are opened but they see, instead, that their innocence has been lost. Sin has entered the world.
Jesus fasts in the wilderness for forty days; He is hungry and the devil’s time has come. The three temptations wear masks of persuasive reason: by using His miraculous powers Jesus’ hunger can be assuaged through turning stones into bread; belief in His mission can be guaranteed by a spectacular sign; and the temporal power to achieve that mission can be assured.
The story of our salvation take us from the garden in Eden to the wilderness of the Exodus and from the Lord’s temptations to another garden, Gethsemane, where Jesus told His disciples that they should pray not to be put to the test. When the ultimate test of their discipleship came, most of them failed. What about us?