Matthew 4:2 says that after “fasting forty days and forty nights,” Jesus “was hungry.” Commenting on this verse, D.A. Carson writes,
Jesus’ hunger introduces us to a number of ironies to which Matthew more or less explicitly alludes:
– Jesus is hungry (v. 2) but feeds others (Matthew 14:13–21; 15:29–39);
– he grows weary (Matthew 8:24) but offers others rest (Matthew 11:28);
– he is the King Messiah but pays tribute (Matthew 17:24–27);
– he is called the devil but casts out demons (Matthew 12:22–32);
– he dies the death of a sinner but comes to save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21);
– he is sold for thirty pieces of silver but gives his life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28);
– he will not turn stones to bread for himself (Matthew 4:3–4) but gives his own body as bread for people (Matthew 26:26).
D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), 112.
