Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil ... And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to becomes loaves of bread (Matthew 4:1-3)."

Some of the worst temptations seem to come when you are alone, do they not? Of course we are tempted by individuals and sometimes by the crowd. But even in those instances the struggle that their temptations occasion happen in us. Consequently even on those occasions we face the temptation alone, just like Jesus did.

Matthew's narrative also refers to the devil's role in tempting Jesus. Regardless of what you think of a personal devil, all of us can agree that we have experienced something like what Jesus experienced. Even when we are alone when we are tempted, it is as if som…