Seminary Chapel

The Temptation to be Less Than Human
This is a three-week Lenten series of homilies on the temptation of Christ. It is significant that all three of these temptations came immediately after Jesus’ baptism, where he identified with us, and heaven declared that he was “the Beloved, with whom God is well pleased.” As the Son of Humanity, Jesus’ temptations depict the essence of our temptations. All of them make us question if we are truly the beloved of God.

Scripture: Matthew 4:5-7

“The Temptation to be Certain”
The devil uses scripture to tempt Jesus to jump from a high peak in order to make God send angels to rescue him, and prove that he was the beloved. Certainty doesn’t make us have faith. To the contrary, it makes no room for faith. And we can only enjoy the love of God by faith.