Luke tells us that Jesus walked the journey of faith just as you and I do, and thus has him pray Jesus needed strength and resorted to prayer – during his temptation in the desert, before choosing the apostles, during his debates with his adversaries, in the garden, and on the cross. We like to imagine that Jesus did not flinch, doubt, or ever question Gods love. The much greater message is that, in his humanity he did flinch, have doubts, and ask questions and still remained faithful. He is indeed our “pioneer and perfecter” in the ways of faith, who “disregards the shamefulness of it all” (see Hebrews 12:2).

We see Jesus’s faith being tested in the temptation scenes in Luke 4:1-13. The basic question, put before him three times, is this: “Is God to be trusted?” That is the great question the human race is asking at the most basic level. We hear Jesus answer, ever more resoundingly; “Yes, God is on your side. Yes, God is more for you than you are for yourself”

+Adapted from The Good News According to Luke: Spiritual Reflections, p. 92.