The three temptations that Jesus encounters in the wilderness has profound philosophical and political meanings that can be extracted from them. But a key point that was hammered home for me is a fundamental concern quite common in the believers and non believers mind: If God exists, the manifestation of unfairness should be minimal, if at all existent.
The first temptation has modern day parallels to our capacity to suffer. This could take the form of questions such as “Why has God allowed for me to pursue this career when I cannot find a job? Or “Why has God allowed me to marry so-and-so when we ended up getting divorced?” or “Why does God allow for bad things to happen to good people?” and many other variations on this theme. From a political perspective these questions could take on the following secular forms: “Why don't we solve the problem of inequality with universal basic income?” or “Why don't we socialize the cost of college so all can attend?” etc.
Jesus in the wilderness suffered the pains of hunger and thirst and Satan exploiting this weakness, tempts him to transform rocks into bread. He could've in an instant, with the snap of a finger, alleviated the pangs of hunger, but Jesus’ level headed and prudent response was “It is written ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[Matt 4:4]”
His response instructs us that there is more to fulfillment then gratifying our carnal desires. Hunger is one variation of many other forms of suffering and our ability to delay indulging or alleviating our suffering can bear many positive fruits. We do not live on bread alone is similar to saying that we do not live for the comforts of life alone and often we mustn't succumb to the temptation that we can outright fix the immediate problems before us. Often money can seem like the silver bullet for societal issues, but the unseen consequences can be much graver. The temptation lies in the power of legislation. Why not wave the magic wand of government and make everything fair?
Life will inevitably be unfair, but just as this biblical story illustrates we cannot be lured into the way of thinking that “easing our hunger” will fix our problems. Conversely, it could greatly exacerbate our situation and throw us into a spiral of chaos. Thus, the first great temptation of evil is to think that all should be equitable and the lack of such is the fault of God.
