Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. There He was tempted by the devil for forty days, and did not eat anything during these days, and after they had passed, He hungered for the end. And the devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, then command this stone to become bread." Jesus answered and said to him, "It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." And having brought him up to a high mountain, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and the devil said to him, "To thee will I give power over all these [kingdoms] and their glory, for it is delivered to me, and to whom I will give it; therefore, if you worship me, all things will be yours. Jesus answered and said to him, "Get thee behind me, Satan; it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. And he led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the wing of the temple, and said unto him, If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: for it is written, His angels shall give charge concerning thee to keep thee; and they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus answered and said to him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

The Lord was baptized in order to sanctify the waters for us who have to taste grace. After Baptism, "He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness," for the Holy Spirit led Him into the struggle against the devil. He goes "into the wilderness" in order to give the devil a reason to attack Him, for he comes to us especially when we are alone. He fasts "forty days" and does not exceed the measure of the fast of Moses and Elijah, so as not to give Satan the idea that He is greater than they, but so that he approaches Him, thinking that He is also a man, and at the same time so that he does not appear incarnate only in a ghostly way. He is "tempted" after Baptism in order to show us that after Baptism we will be met with temptations. He fasts because fasting is a great weapon in temptations, and because after baptism we should give ourselves over not to sensual pleasures, but to fasting. The enemy attacks Him first with gluttony, as he did with Adam (Gen. 3), then with covetousness, showing Him all the kingdoms. How did he show it? Some say that I presented them to Him in thought. But I think that it was not in thought, but in sensuality, that I showed them to Him, putting them before His eyes in a phantom, and not in the imagination of the Lord. Further, he attacks Him with vanity, for he says: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down." He spoke idly of this, caressing Him, so that He, deceived by flattery and wishing to show Himself to be the Son of God, would throw Himself down and thus reveal Himself to Him who He was. "Thou shalt not tempt," he says, "the Lord thy God," for no one should expose himself to obvious danger in self-deception that God will help him. Note also that it is very useful to know the Scriptures; for the Lord also smote Satan with the Scriptures. "Man shall not live by bread alone," this is Moses' saying about manna (Deuteronomy 8:3); for though manna was not bread, yet it nourished the people. Likewise, the sayings of Moses: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God" and "Thou shalt not tempt" (Deuteronomy 6:13, 16).

And having finished all the temptation, the devil departed from Him for a time. And Jesus returned in strength of spirit to Galilee; and the fame of him spread throughout all the country round about. He taught in their synagogues, and was glorified by all.

Although the Lord was tempted by three temptations, Luke says that He finished all temptations, because the foundations of all temptations are these three: gluttony, covetousness, and vanity. The Lord repelled the temptation of satiety with the words: "Man shall not live by bread alone." Before all other temptations, He brought this temptation upon Him, as well as upon Adam. For he could not stumble Adam with covetousness, since Adam, being alone, had no one more to desire against; nor with anger, for he had no one to be angry with; nor envy; but stumbled him with gluttony. The Lord repelled the temptation of covetousness by not falling, not bowing down before him. For when he sensually showed all the kingdoms in a ghost, the Lord did not submit to him. Some understood this about kingdoms not sensual, but conceivable, that he, for example, showed Him the kingdom of intemperance, the kingdom of envy, and in general of all sins, and said to Him as it were: "If Thou wouldst reign over all passions, and for this purpose Thou hast come to captivate those possessed by me, then fall down and worship me, and receive all over whom I reign." The Lord wants to reign and has come to do so, but to reign not with sin, not without struggle, but after podvig and victory. That is what some have understood. To anyone, let them understand it. The Lord also repelled the temptation of vanity with the words of the Scriptures. Lord, deliver us from these three heads of the serpent! "Jesus returned in the power of the spirit." It seems to me that Jesus returned in a state of inspiration, for that means "in the power of the Spirit." Pay deep attention to the Scriptures, for then it is written, "In the power of the Spirit," when He overcame the tempter and manifested His power. The words: "departed from Him for a time" have the following meaning: the devil attacks the Lord with two feelings, pleasure and sorrow; with pleasure he attacked the Lord, for example, on a mountain; but he departed from Him until the time, that is, until the time of the Cross, for then he intended to attack Him with sorrow.

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went in, according to his custom, on the Sabbath day into the synagogue, and arose to read. They gave him the book of the prophet Isaiah; and he opened the book, and found a place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; for he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, and has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to restore sight to the blind, to set the afflicted at liberty, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And having closed the book and given it to the attendant, he sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And he began to say to them, "This day this scripture has been fulfilled which you have heard."

The Lord wished to reveal Himself to the Israelites, because He was also anointed by God and the Father in order to save those who dwell in the heavenly places. He arranges this wonderfully. Before others, He appears to the inhabitants of Nazareth, with whom He was brought up, in order to teach us that we must first do good to our own and teach them, and then pour out love for mankind on others as well. When they gave Him a book, He unfolded it and found not what He happened to come across, but what He Himself desired. For do not think that He opened the book and happened to find the passage in which it is written about Him; it happened according to His will. What was written? "The Spirit of the Lord anointed Me," that is, He consecrated Me, He appointed Me to preach the gospel to the "poor," that is, the Gentiles, who, having neither law nor prophets, were indeed in great poverty. The "brokenhearted" were, perhaps, the Israelites, whose hearts were at first great and lofty and were the house of God, but later, when they began to serve idols and sin in various ways, their hearts were broken and upset, becoming instead of the house of God a den of thieves. Thus, the Lord came to heal them, and to give "deliverance to the captives" and "sight to the blind," the Gentiles and the Israelites. For both of these parts were both captive to Satan and blind. This can also be understood about the dead. For they, too, having been captive and broken, were freed from the power of hell through the Resurrection. — He preached "the year of the Lord's acceptance." What kind of favorable summer is this? Perhaps also the age to come, of which the Lord preached, saying: "And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing" (John 16:23), and again: "The time is coming when the dead shall live" (John 5:25). But a pleasant summer is also the time of the Lord's coming in the flesh. Of him Paul says: "Now is the time of favor, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). Having read this, He said: "Today this scripture has been fulfilled which you have heard," evidently indicating in Himself to the hearers of Him of Whom it is written.

And they all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the words of grace that proceeded out of His mouth, and said, Is this not Joseph's son? He said to them, "Surely you will say to Me the proverb, 'Physician!' heal Thyself; do here in Thy homeland what we have heard in Capernaum. And he said, "Verily I say to you, no prophet is received in his own country." Verily I say unto you, There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up for three years and six months, so that there was a great famine in all the land, and Elijah was not sent to any of them, but only to the widow in Zarephath of Sidon. and there were many lepers in Israel under Elisha the prophet, and not one of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian. When all in the synagogue heard this, they were filled with rage, and arose, and drove him out of the city, and led him to the top of the mountain on which their city was built, to overthrow him; but he passed through the midst of them and departed.