After His baptism, Jesus goes into the wilderness for forty days. The Joseph Smith Translation says He went there “to be with God” and had communed with God before the tempter came (JST Matthew 4:1–2, in the footnotes); it also clarifies that the Spirit, not the devil, brought Him to the pinnacle of the temple and the high mountain. Satan’s pitch comes in three waves: bread for a starving body, a spectacular leap to prove God’s protection, and every kingdom of the world in exchange for worship. Twice he opens with “If thou be the Son of God,” after the Father’s voice had declared, “This is my beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus answers every time with Deuteronomy (8:3; 6:16; 6:13), and Luke adds that the devil left Him only “for a season” (Luke 4:13).
In Nazareth, Jesus stands up in His hometown synagogue, reads Isaiah 61:1–2 and announces, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:16–21). The people who watched Him grow up can’t get past “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (4:22), and they end up trying to throw Him off a cliff (4:28–30). In Luke 5, after a night of catching nothing, Simon lets down his nets on Jesus’s word, the nets break, both boats start to sink, and Peter, James and John leave everything to follow Him (5:1–11).
This is a preparation lesson for 16- to 18-year-olds. Many are a year or two from mission papers, college, the endowment and patriarchal blessings. The Savior shows the pattern: time with God before the work starts, scripture learned before the test comes, and a settled sense of who He was. Then Peter shows what trust looks like when it doesn’t make sense yet: “nevertheless at thy word.” Peter’s next reaction matters just as much. He feels too sinful to stand near Jesus, and the Lord’s answer is “Fear not,” followed by a calling. President Ezra Taft Benson taught that God can make far more of a life turned over to Him than we could make of it ourselves. Elder Jorge F. Zeballos’s October 2022 talk “Building a Life Resistant to the Adversary” is great preparation.
Handle temptation with care. Being tempted is not sinning: Jesus “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), and Alma 7:11–12 teaches that He understands our struggles from the inside. Talk about patterns, never ask anyone to confess anything, and if a youth opens up afterward, listen warmly and point them to parents and the bishop.