13He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beast; and the angels waited on him."(The New Oxford Annotated Bible, 58) In Luke, the temptations are listed as the bread, the kingdoms, and then the pinnacle of the temple. Some scholars believe that Luke chose to relay the temptations in this order because it "represents a more natural geographic movement" and ends in a focal point in Luke, Jerusalem. Luke also centers on the declaration of Jesus" sonship. He IS the son of GOD (The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 382-383).
So now that we understand possibly why the text was written the way it was, we now proceed to where the selected text took place. In the first verse, it says that Jesus left Jordan and went into the "wilderness." One might ask where is this "wilderness?" Is it in another part of the country? According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, the wilderness was actually in lower Jordan in the highlands of Judea and west of the Dead Sea (1005). The fact that Luke says that Jesus left Jordan and went into this desert might suggest that Luke was less accustomed with the area than that of Mark and Matthew (Harvy, 235).
As far as personal interpretation of Luke 4:1-13 goes, it is pretty straightforward. Jesus goes into the desert, gets tempted by the Devil, Jesus overcomes the Devil, and all is well. However, when you break each temptation down, you can really see a lot of continuity and reflections back onto the Old Testament. .
When Satan first comes upon Jesus in the desert, he has just been fasting for forty days and nights and has to be extremely hungry. He is psychologically susceptible to the temptations of food. Satan, of course, chose this time to temp Jesus for just that reason. This can be related to modern times. When do we, as humans, seem to be most tempted to do the wrong thing? When we are weak and looking for an easy way out.
