The Temptation of Christ

"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" -- The Bible, Matthew 4:1-2

"Man cannot love God supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual." -- Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 326, lines 9-11

"To say, "Of myself I can do nothing" is to gain all Power. And yet it is but a seeming paradox. As God created you, you have all Power. The image you made of yourself has none. The Holy Spirit knows the Truth about you. The image you made does not." -- A Course in Miracles, Manual for Teachers, 29:4:2-7

Regular readers of this blog will notice that I am actually citing specific passages, rather than simply quoting them as usual. This is at the request of some readers who wish to go deeper into the passages that are referenced.

I love the Biblical story of the Temptation of Christ. It has symbolic meaning on so many levels. When working with a mentor of mine a while back, she pointed out that this story has deep personal significance for each of us. We have been fed thus far with teachings and the experiences around these teachings. There is a deeper, more spiritual answer. Reality is so much more than any teaching. We are all being guided and pushed into the land of the Allness of Spirit.

Jesus was tempted before he began his ministry. All of the solutions he was tempted with were material answers. His reply was, "Get thee behind me, Satan, for you are a liar and the father of all lies." Satan is the material sense, the great projection that is the world. As Mary Baker Eddy points out in the reference above, as long as the material sense holds the majority of our love and loyalty and fear, we cannot know the Christ as Self. We then live and move and have our being in the false gods of mortal bodies, and lack and limitation and illusions of every sort.

Who are we, really? Who do we trust and serve? A Course in Miracles says, "Remember, you are His completion and His Love. Remember your weakness is His Strength. But do not read this hastily or wrongly. If His Strength is in you, what you perceive as your weakness is but illusion. And He has given you the means to prove it so. Ask all things of His Teacher, and all things are given you. Not in the future, but immediately; now. God does not wait, for waiting implies time and He is timeless. Forget your foolish images, your sense of frailty and your fear of harm, your dreams of danger and selected 'wrongs.' God knows but his Son, and as He was created so He Is."

The Temptation of Christ is relived every day that we continue in the dream. We are tempted always with the material sense and material solutions to what appear to be our problems or our goals. Same mistake. Looking outside Self for anything at all is the devil itself.

We are told in all scripture, whether The Bible or Science and Health or A Course in Miracles, that all of our perceived needs are met instantly and effortlessly as we Remember Who We Are. Not as reward for doing anything. Not because we had an insight, as in "oh, now I get it." There's nothing to get. Who We Are is Whole and Complete, and can only reflect and mirror completion. Form is completely irrelevant. We are the Light of Awareness, the Radiance of the One, shining and radiating the Truth. We simply have to put down the illusions we generate to block this Awareness. And the instant we ask, the Light shines and the darkness of illusions is simply not.

The Temptation of Christ is the allegory of your Awakening, and mine. Our hunger is for the Truth, as we Awaken to our True Self.

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." -- The Bible, Matthew 5:6

"You need only recognize that everything you learned you do not want. Ask to be taught, and do not use your experiences to confirm what you have learned." -- A Course in Miracles, Text, Chapter 14, Section XI, 6:4-5