Replies

Some other thoughts from the web:

The Spirit, not Satan, leads him into the desert...

Note that it is the Spirit, not Satan, that leads him into the desert to be tempted. It is, therefore, part of the divine plan that he should suffer these temptations. Perhaps he cannot discern his true destiny without considering and rejecting certain alternatives.

Remember the three temptations which are put to Christ:

To turn stones into bread
To have the power and splendour of all the kingdoms of the world.
To throw himself from a height, relying on the providence of God to protect and sustain him.

Scholars point out that the three temptations echo the three elements of the great Jewish commandment, the Shema:
" Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore you shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength."

The Shema is found in Chapter 6 of Deuteronomy. (Tellingly, all of Jesus's quotes from scripture rejecting the temptations come from Chapters 6 and 8 of the same book.) The elements of heart, soul and strength are not included for poetic effect; they each add something to the commandment.
The heart, to Jews of the time, was the seat of the will, and therefore of moral choice. To turn stones in to bread by supernatural means would be for Jesus to oppose his will to the will of God, who made them stones in the first place.
The soul meant life, the breath of life. For Jesus to throw himself from a height would be to use his own life to te God (and would make a mockery of the real martyrdom which of course awaited Jesus).
Strength in the Hebrew scriptures often meant, not personal physical strength, but power, possessions, status and wealth. In offering Jesus the power and splendour of kingdoms, Satan is inviting Jesus to choose wealth and power for their own sakes, rather than subordinating them to the love of God.

Thanks for this post.

BXVI in his Book “On The Way To Jesus Christ” uses these temptations to refute the modern day demand by atheists that if Christ were God why doesn’t he do something demonstrably spectacular to prove himself. It was no different that that of the unrepentant thief who demanded that Christ prove Himself by coming down from the Cross. Christ, as Benedict XVI informs us, has already answered this in His response to the three temptations.