Genesis 3:1-21/2 Corinthians 6:1-10/St Matthew 4:1-11
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
It confuses most people, Christians and unbelievers alike. “If you are Christians, then why are you living under such hardship and burden; such toil and temptation?” If St Paul was truly a servant of God, a fellow workman with Christ, then why did he suffer calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger? Why was he treated with such dishonor and slander? As an impostor?
If Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God, if they were His beloved creation, then why did He withhold from them?
We ask ourselves that same question. “If I am a child of God, then why am I struggling with sin? If God loves me, why am I enduring such hardship? If He gives me all that I need, why am I unable to pay my bills?” And so on.
That little word “if” can get us into a lot of trouble. It is a conditional. “If” begs the question. “If” demands proof. But God does not “prove” Himself. He declares and it is so. At the Jordan River He declared to Jesus, having just received the sinner’s baptism, This is My beloved Son, with Him I am well pleased. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the slanderer. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” “If You are the only begotten of the Father, if His heart delights in You, if You have come to fulfill all righteousness, then prove it. Eat.”
“If” causes doubt. “If” looks for evidence outside the sure and certain Word of God. But Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” It is written. It stands firm. In the face of uncertainty, in the moments of doubt, one thing remains, the surety of the objective, unchanging, written Word of the Lord.
This is why Job desired a pen and a rock and molten lead, that he might engrave a hope that lasts forever: For I know that my Redeemer live, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25-27).
Then the slanderer stood 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,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” “Okay, Christ. If You are so pious, if You are so faithful to the Word, if You trust your Father, then prove it. Jump!” Again “if.” Again seeking proof, demanding evidence outside the declaration of the Word of God. It was no different for Adam and Eve. For with them, as with Christ, Satan twisted Scripture, pitting Scripture against Scripture, demanding proof outside of the Word. It is no different for you. Are you not tempted in the same manner? Do you not pray, “Dear God, if You do this for me, if You give me a sign, then I’ll . . .”
Learn, instead, how to pray from He who first taught you aright. Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” You cannot pit Scripture against Scripture. You cannot make a deal with God. Rather, this is true prayer, to simply pray back to the Father the Word He has spoken to us. Jesus does not battle the devil responding, “Sure, but . . .” He does not speculate. He does not wait for a new word from God. He simply hears the temptation and dismisses it precisely because it is contrary to the Word of the Lord. It is written. This is objective. This is sure. The Word is certain.
Again, the slanderer took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these I will give You, If You will fall down and worship me. Again, the temptation is the same. The conditional “if.” “If You are the Son of God, and posses all authority in heaven and on earth, prove it. Take these kingdoms by force.” “If You worship me, if You bypass the Cross and Passion, You can have the glory now.”
At this Christ has heard enough. As He once expelled that ancient Serpent from heaven, as He pronounced the curse upon him in the Garden, so now the Word made flesh exerts His authority over this fallen angel, Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.”
It is written. It is trustworthy. It cannot be changed or forgotten. It endures. Thus written - and not subject to the wavering and episodic feelings and opinions of men - it is the sword of the Spirit. And the Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who makes war with the devil.
Yet for all of that, we don’t face the devil the same way our Lord did. We can’t. We are always complicit in temptation because of the sin that infects us. The Lord can hear the temptation and not sin. He is indeed true Man, but He does not have any desire for evil as we do. He doesn’t even imagine it. He rejects it because it is contrary to the Word of God.
But when we hear temptation - no matter how vile or evil or stupid it is - there is part of us that participates. We consider it. We imagine it. We way the options. The “if” of doubt creeps in. “If I do this, if I give in, just this once; if I forget, ignore, deny, that Word of the Lord, I’ll repent later.”
Repent now. Now is the day of salvation. You cannot sin that grace may abound. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. In the end all sin is devil worship. All sin steals from God what is His.
For all of our culpability, for all of our weakness, for all of our doubt there is but one answer - God’s Word. He is our strength, our Refuge and Fortress. And Christ, the eternal Word, is our perfect obedience. Not only does He submit to the will of His Father - in the temptation in the wilderness, in the humility of the Cross, in the pain of death - He also obeys the Word of the Lord in all things. He lives by every Word from the mouth of God. He trusts His Father to feed Him at the proper time. He does not test the Lord, but willingly submits to Him. Even when forsaken by the Father, Christ faithfully trusts and worships Him alone.
The temptation of our Lord shows us the right way to respond to temptation - with fasting, that is bodily discipline, prayer, and the Word of God. He is an example; the most excellent and perfect example, of a truly godly and God-pleasing life. But more than that - and here is what almost nobody gets - the temptation of Jesus stands in our place. He is our substitute. He is the Second Adam, fulfilling what the first Adam did not do. He is Israel, trusting in the goodness and mercy of the Father, where Israel grumbled and failed. He is your Kinsman-Redeemer, the Seed who crushes the head of the serpent on your behalf.
He takes upon Himself the enmity brought between you and the Father on account of sin, Adam’s and yours. He endures the hardship and burden, the beatings and dishonor and slander and death due us. Everything that Jesus did, He did for us, in our place, as our substitute and champion. Everything. He did nothing that wasn’t for us.
We don’t have to overcome the devil. We don’t have to suffer for our sins. We don’t even have to die. The Holy Spirit did this to Jesus on purpose, in our stead, for us, so that we would be spared. This is what pleases the Father. This is His will. This is why He was anointed by St John in the Jordan’s filthy waters.
You, beloved in the Lord, are baptized into His suffering, death, and resurrection for you. His baptism, perfect fasting and temptation are yours. They avail for you by faith. You will have calamity and hardship, burden and toil, but do not grow weary or fainthearted. Lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons (Heb 12:1b-2, 7).
This is His declaration to you. No ‘“ifs”. Solid. Certain. Secure. You belong to Him, baptized and forgiven in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Trust that Word of the Lord. Cling to it in the face of temptation.
And one more thing: Eve fell by eating. Israel grumbled about food. Jesus resisted bread in the desert. And He now delivers to you the fruit of the Tree of Life, the true Bread from heaven, His Body and Blood. Better than manna in the desert, this is food that gives true Wisdom and Life. This is the Word written in stone in the flesh of St Mary, hidden in bread, that you would not stand against the slanderer but would live as God’s own holy child.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
It confuses most people, Christians and unbelievers alike. “If you are Christians, then why are you living under such hardship and burden; such toil and temptation?” If St Paul was truly a servant of God, a fellow workman with Christ, then why did he suffer calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger? Why was he treated with such dishonor and slander? As an impostor?
If Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God, if they were His beloved creation, then why did He withhold from them?
We ask ourselves that same question. “If I am a child of God, then why am I struggling with sin? If God loves me, why am I enduring such hardship? If He gives me all that I need, why am I unable to pay my bills?” And so on.
That little word “if” can get us into a lot of trouble. It is a conditional. “If” begs the question. “If” demands proof. But God does not “prove” Himself. He declares and it is so. At the Jordan River He declared to Jesus, having just received the sinner’s baptism, This is My beloved Son, with Him I am well pleased. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the slanderer. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” “If You are the only begotten of the Father, if His heart delights in You, if You have come to fulfill all righteousness, then prove it. Eat.”
“If” causes doubt. “If” looks for evidence outside the sure and certain Word of God. But Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” It is written. It stands firm. In the face of uncertainty, in the moments of doubt, one thing remains, the surety of the objective, unchanging, written Word of the Lord.
This is why Job desired a pen and a rock and molten lead, that he might engrave a hope that lasts forever: For I know that my Redeemer live, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25-27).
Then the slanderer stood 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,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” “Okay, Christ. If You are so pious, if You are so faithful to the Word, if You trust your Father, then prove it. Jump!” Again “if.” Again seeking proof, demanding evidence outside the declaration of the Word of God. It was no different for Adam and Eve. For with them, as with Christ, Satan twisted Scripture, pitting Scripture against Scripture, demanding proof outside of the Word. It is no different for you. Are you not tempted in the same manner? Do you not pray, “Dear God, if You do this for me, if You give me a sign, then I’ll . . .”
Learn, instead, how to pray from He who first taught you aright. Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” You cannot pit Scripture against Scripture. You cannot make a deal with God. Rather, this is true prayer, to simply pray back to the Father the Word He has spoken to us. Jesus does not battle the devil responding, “Sure, but . . .” He does not speculate. He does not wait for a new word from God. He simply hears the temptation and dismisses it precisely because it is contrary to the Word of the Lord. It is written. This is objective. This is sure. The Word is certain.
Again, the slanderer took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these I will give You, If You will fall down and worship me. Again, the temptation is the same. The conditional “if.” “If You are the Son of God, and posses all authority in heaven and on earth, prove it. Take these kingdoms by force.” “If You worship me, if You bypass the Cross and Passion, You can have the glory now.”
At this Christ has heard enough. As He once expelled that ancient Serpent from heaven, as He pronounced the curse upon him in the Garden, so now the Word made flesh exerts His authority over this fallen angel, Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.”
It is written. It is trustworthy. It cannot be changed or forgotten. It endures. Thus written - and not subject to the wavering and episodic feelings and opinions of men - it is the sword of the Spirit. And the Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who makes war with the devil.
Yet for all of that, we don’t face the devil the same way our Lord did. We can’t. We are always complicit in temptation because of the sin that infects us. The Lord can hear the temptation and not sin. He is indeed true Man, but He does not have any desire for evil as we do. He doesn’t even imagine it. He rejects it because it is contrary to the Word of God.
But when we hear temptation - no matter how vile or evil or stupid it is - there is part of us that participates. We consider it. We imagine it. We way the options. The “if” of doubt creeps in. “If I do this, if I give in, just this once; if I forget, ignore, deny, that Word of the Lord, I’ll repent later.”
Repent now. Now is the day of salvation. You cannot sin that grace may abound. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. In the end all sin is devil worship. All sin steals from God what is His.
For all of our culpability, for all of our weakness, for all of our doubt there is but one answer - God’s Word. He is our strength, our Refuge and Fortress. And Christ, the eternal Word, is our perfect obedience. Not only does He submit to the will of His Father - in the temptation in the wilderness, in the humility of the Cross, in the pain of death - He also obeys the Word of the Lord in all things. He lives by every Word from the mouth of God. He trusts His Father to feed Him at the proper time. He does not test the Lord, but willingly submits to Him. Even when forsaken by the Father, Christ faithfully trusts and worships Him alone.
The temptation of our Lord shows us the right way to respond to temptation - with fasting, that is bodily discipline, prayer, and the Word of God. He is an example; the most excellent and perfect example, of a truly godly and God-pleasing life. But more than that - and here is what almost nobody gets - the temptation of Jesus stands in our place. He is our substitute. He is the Second Adam, fulfilling what the first Adam did not do. He is Israel, trusting in the goodness and mercy of the Father, where Israel grumbled and failed. He is your Kinsman-Redeemer, the Seed who crushes the head of the serpent on your behalf.
He takes upon Himself the enmity brought between you and the Father on account of sin, Adam’s and yours. He endures the hardship and burden, the beatings and dishonor and slander and death due us. Everything that Jesus did, He did for us, in our place, as our substitute and champion. Everything. He did nothing that wasn’t for us.
We don’t have to overcome the devil. We don’t have to suffer for our sins. We don’t even have to die. The Holy Spirit did this to Jesus on purpose, in our stead, for us, so that we would be spared. This is what pleases the Father. This is His will. This is why He was anointed by St John in the Jordan’s filthy waters.
You, beloved in the Lord, are baptized into His suffering, death, and resurrection for you. His baptism, perfect fasting and temptation are yours. They avail for you by faith. You will have calamity and hardship, burden and toil, but do not grow weary or fainthearted. Lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons (Heb 12:1b-2, 7).
This is His declaration to you. No ‘“ifs”. Solid. Certain. Secure. You belong to Him, baptized and forgiven in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Trust that Word of the Lord. Cling to it in the face of temptation.
And one more thing: Eve fell by eating. Israel grumbled about food. Jesus resisted bread in the desert. And He now delivers to you the fruit of the Tree of Life, the true Bread from heaven, His Body and Blood. Better than manna in the desert, this is food that gives true Wisdom and Life. This is the Word written in stone in the flesh of St Mary, hidden in bread, that you would not stand against the slanderer but would live as God’s own holy child.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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