Temptation

We need to reframe the idea of the Trinity, and of other spiritual entities like angels, Satan, and demons.

For Christians it's a familiar idea that Jesus is God, and he is also the Holy Spirit.

What if the point of this concept is not to ascribe a supernatural status to the person of Jesus, but simply to illustrate that Jesus, the ordinary human being, had divine qualities within him just like everyone else -- and what made him special was that he recognized that inner deity and worshiped himself as his own god?

"The Spirit" is simply our own intuition, the subconscious knowledge that helps guide our decisions. Similarly, "Satan" is a presence that exists within each of our minds, a voice against reason, a voice that comes from pain and dysfunction and motivates us toward self-hate. "God" is our self, our divine nature, our connection with the rest of the universe, pure love and energy, which also resides somewhere within us.

So let's read the next passage and keep in mind that these spiritual entities are merely metaphors for different aspects of his internal state.

"When Jesus was about thirty years old, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. He ate nothing during those days and when they were ended, he was hungry.
So Satan said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."
But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Then Satan took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
Then Satan took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And he said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."
Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'"

"The Spirit" led him to the wilderness: he sensed intuitively that it was necessary to spend time there.

He went there to test his boundaries, going without food, living outside among animals. Separating himself from the things a person would usually rely on: food, security, predictability.

"The angels" ministering to him were sunlight, fresh water, quiet, solitude.

"Satan" tempted him -- basically, in his point of greatest weakness he still had make choices to preserve himself. The "God" part of him had to be stronger than the "Satan" part. Even when extremely hungry and probably exhausted, when it is easiest for destructive thought patterns to take hold, he had to pull through to make choices out of self-love.

He's so hungry that he notices a thought, "I wonder if I could eat these stones like they're bread." But he talks himself back down with "no, I know I don't have food, I am here to find God inside me."

Then he went up to the "pinnacle of the temple" and thought about throwing himself off. He was delusional enough to think "maybe I'd be OK". But through the haze he remembers his respect for the laws of physics and the foolishness of considering such a thing.

Lastly he thinks about all the kingdoms in the world, and what it would be like to sacrifice his well being for the sake of gaining power over them; and he knows that all the power in the world would be far less gratifying than worshiping himself.

Jesus did all this to make himself stronger. It's like a coming of age, test of strength kind of thing. He faced his inner demons and found that his own spirit was stronger, that even in weakness he could rely upon his own divine nature to point him to the truth and avoid destruction.

Jesus's first rebellion

This passage includes the first recorded words of Jesus in the Bible:

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year for the Feast of the Passover and this year, Jesus was twelve years old.
And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But his parents did not know, and supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey before realizing he was not with them. And when they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.
After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
And when his parents saw him, they were astonished and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us so? Your father and I have been searching for you in great distress." And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.

From age 12, Jesus was confident in doing what he felt was right, despite how it made his parents feel. When his parents accused him of treating them wrongly, he turned the question right around on them and accepted no blame. "I'm doing what's important to me. What's your problem?" This seems to go against the idea that children should strictly obey and respect their parents. His priority was to follow his internal guidance.