The Temptations of Jesus and the Temptation of Abortion

The accounts of Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and Mark present a profound spiritual lesson that applies to contemporary moral issues, including abortion.

 

In these narratives, Jesus fasts for forty days and is confronted by Satan with three temptations, each of which distorts normal human desires by offering shortcuts that bypass trust in God.

 

Obviously, Jesus was never going to sin; he cannot – because God cannot betray God. But in allowing these temptations to happen, He was teaching us how the devil tempts us, and how we can battle against him.

 

In the first temptation, Satan urges Jesus to turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger. Hunger itself is not sinful; it is a natural human need. Yet Jesus refuses to meet a legitimate need through disobedience, responding, “Man shall not live by bread alone.”

 

How does the devil tempt mothers and fathers to choose abortion? One of the ways is to play on their fears of not having the resources to give birth to and raise that child. This ties into the temptation turn the stones into bread; in other words, do whatever you need to do to ensure you have whatever you need.

 

I am not downplaying the severe financial circumstances that might lead mothers and fathers to see abortion as a solution. But the temptation of the devil is to make us feel more isolated than we are. Then he wants us to seek the resources we need by doing evil, and then, ultimately, they will be of no use to us because we have betrayed God.

 

In the second temptation, the devil tells Jesus to throw himself from the highest point of the temple, in the expectation that God will rescue him. This has a clear parallel to the ways some Christians – including clergy! – can find ways to rationalize abortion: They know God will forgive them.

 

But for someone to abort a child – or coerce an abortion – and then expect immediate forgiveness misses an important middle step, which is the very heart of Lent: Repentance.

 

Without repentance, we are not even asking God to forgive us. If we are not turning away from the sin, why would God forgive us?

 

I remember visiting an abortion facility where the director welcomed me in and gave me a tour. On the walls outside the procedure rooms, I saw little hearts made of construction paper, where the moms had written messages to the babies who were about to be killed. They said things like, “I know God loves me and I’m sorry but he’ll forgive me for the wrong I’ve done to you.”

 

That’s not genuine repentance, not an acknowledgment of a grave sin and a conscious desire to repent of that sin, nor is there a vow to sin no more. If we do not even turn away from the sin, merely presuming that God will forgive us is not the road to redemption.

 

In the third temptation, the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and says he will give all of them to Jesus, if he would just bend the knee to the devil.

 

Putting aside the fact that all the kingdoms of the world are not the devil’s to bestow, we can also clearly link this third temptation to abortion. What many people are thinking when they choose abortion is that it is the only way to save their career, their education, their marriage, their relationship, their home, their other children, their future – their kingdom, if you will. The devil speaks clearly here: Look how much you will have if you just get that child of God out of the way.

 

At the heart of this temptation is the deception that we really have to choose between the life of our own child, and our future. Pro-life feminists have coined the phrase “refuse to choose.” Never give in to the idea that you can’t have an education, a career, and a child.

 

Finally, the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ temptations also emphasize compassion. The wilderness stories end not with condemnation but with angels ministering to Jesus. In the same way, those of us who oppose abortion seek to minister to those who are vulnerable to the devil’s temptations, even to those who have already made that terrible mistake.

 

Lent is a season of repentance, and we call it a joyful season. Indeed, resisting temptation with the truth of God’s Word and total confidence in him is one of the greatest joys of life.

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