‘If you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread’
‘You need food; not a luxury but an essential. You’ve done ever so well and gone without for a while; what harm will it do to treat yourself and break your fast just for a moment? Nobody will know. Only me!’
Jesus’s response is not to deny that he needs or wants food, but referring to words from the book Deuteronomy (8 v. 3), words echoed later in the Sermon on the Mount, that man does not live by bread alone – life is more than food (Matthew 6 v. 25). Matthew’s version of the story adds that man lives to the full by observing the words and commands of God. Jesus, later and then in the Gospel according to John, tells those who listen that he comes to bring life in all its fullness (10 v. 10). That fullness is to keep a guard on spiritual well-being as well as physical well-being. Food for both body and soul are needful and we should forget neither.
If we are trying hard to do without something this Lent, the voice of temptation may be as clear to us as it was to Jesus. ‘Nobody will know that you’ve given in.’ But we will know and God will know; so stick at it. This is discipline, being a disciple, not punishment. It’s setting priorities not making forced choices. It’s about being spiritually strong.