Tuesday, 11 November 2008

What were the words Satan used to tempt Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane?

I don't
think that there was much written about the devil tempting Jesus in the garden at Gethsemane.  I
think that most of the accounts of this moment involve Jesus, the apostles, and prophets of old
who comes to him in his time of need.  This "agony in the garden" is when Jesus offers
prayers indicating that "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."  There is no
temptation offered here.  Jesus prays to God that he wishes to have this cup "pass him
by."  However, he does state that if he must drink from "this cup," he will abide
and do so.  It is at this moment where temptation is not seen, where the battle between good and
evil is not as evident.  However, there is a battle between desire and duty.  The poignancy of
Jesus praying to his father to avoid the fate that is in front of him in terms of the cross is
brought forth with ideas from the Gospel of Luke, who says that the prayers that Jesus offered
were so authentic, that "his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down upon
the ground."  There is not much in way of temptation here, but rather the searching for the
summoning of will to do what in one's heart know what needs to be done.  I would think that if
one were searching for temptation, I would focus on the time that Jesus spends out in the desert
in order to test his own faith and devotion to God.  In this, one sees a great deal of offerings
from the devil in order to tempt Jesus.

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