You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve

 

 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.  Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"  

 

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, 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 shall give His angels charge over you,'

and, 

 'In their hands they shall bear you up,

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"

Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"

 

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to Him,  Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan!  For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"  Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

 

- Matthew 4:1-11 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.  And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are you coming to me?"  But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."  Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water;  and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.  And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  My study Bible explains that to be tempted is to be tested in fundamental areas of faith.  As in St. Mark's Gospel, here Jesus is led up into the wilderness after His Baptism to be tested by a struggle with the devil (in St. Mark's Gospel, we're told that He was thrown or driven out by the Spirit; in Greek ἐκβάλλει).  My study Bible comments that we who are baptized in Christ need not be defeated by temptations because we too are aided by the Holy Spirit.  The wilderness forms a battleground, an image of the world, both the dwelling place of demons and a source of divine tranquility and victory. 

 

 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.  Jesus fasted to overcome temptation; according to my study Bible, in so doing, He gives us an example of our own power and limitations in the face of temptation.  We are to note that Christ's hunger of His flesh doesn't control Him.  Rather, He controls His flesh.  Christ's fast of forty days is the foundation of the Church's forty-day Lenten fast before Holy Week and also a traditional fast before Christmas.  In the verses that follow, we read of the various temptations given by the devil.  In this contest or struggle, Jesus reverses Israel's falling to temptation in the wilderness.  My study Bible reminds us that the Israelites were tested forty years in the wilderness and proved disobedient and disloyal.  God humbled them by first letting them go hungry and then feeding them with manna to help them learn to be dependent upon Him (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).  In today's reading, Jesus is tested with hunger for forty days, and He does not sin.  All of His answers to Satan are from Deuteronomy, and they all call for loyalty to God.

 

 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  Note that the devil's temptation is to challenge Christ's relationship to the Father, the very thing revealed at His baptism in yesterday's reading, and the messianic secret for which He will be judged a blasphemer and be put to death.  If You are the Son of God calls into question that declaration by the Father (see yesterday's reading, above).  My study Bible comments that the devil wants Jesus to act independently and to detach Himself from the will of the Father -- thus, destroying His mission.  According to my study Bible, in Christ's divine nature, He shares one will with the Father and the Holy Spirit; He can do nothing of Himself (John 5:30), apart from the Father.  But in His humanity, He possesses free will and at all times must choose to remain obedient to the divine will of the Father.

 

 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"   Jesus rejects the first temptation of the devil, thereby rejecting an earthly kingdom.  This shows us not to pursue earthly comfort in the "food which perishes" (John 6:27), my study Bible says.  It notes that while Adam disregarded the divine word in order to pursue the passions of the body (Genesis 3), the New Adam -- Christ -- conquers all temptation by the divine word, giving human nature the power to conquer Satan.  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8:3.

 

 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down."  The holy city is Jerusalem.  Once again, the devil is tempting Christ to reject His identity as Son and His loyalty and love of the Father.

 

"For it is written:  'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and,  'In their hands they shall bear you up,

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"  As in the first temptation Jesus had defeated Satan through the power of the Scriptures, he vainly tried to use Scriptures here to put God's power of protection to the test (see also 2 Peter 1:19-21).  Satan quotes from Psalm 91:11-12.

 

 Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"  My study Bible comments that trials and temptations come on their own; we should never intentionally expose ourselves to danger in order to test or prove God's protection.  To do so is to tempt the LORD.  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:16.

 

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."  Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan!  For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"   Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.  My study Bible notes here for us that God's Kingdom is not one of earthly power and possessions.  In this test by the devil, Jesus is being asked to choose worldly power over the Kingdom of God.  (Note also how the devil mimics divine actions by being on an exceedingly high mountain; see, for example, Matthew 17:1-3.)  My study Bible comments that the devil is the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31), "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4), because the whole world is in his power (1 John 5:19).  It notes that Jesus refuses the road of earthly glory, which would lead Him away from His suffering and death for the redemption of the world.  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:13.  Note also that in Greek, "Away with you, Satan!" reads literally, "Get behind Me, Satan!"  These are the same words Christ will use with St. Peter, when he suggests that Christ not go to the Cross (see Matthew 16:21-23).  

 

Jesus refutes every temptation of the devil with one central thing:  His loyalty and love of the Father.  More essentially, He does so by clinging to His real identity; He is the Son of  God, the Son of God the Father.   This, of course, is the one thing the devil attacks, consistently and repeatedly.  He begins the first two temptations with, "If You are the Son of God . . .."  Jesus' adherence to this identity, of course, is not the product of pride, of social life or a system of social values, nor is it something He inherited or was conferred upon Him at birth.  This is the spiritual reality of who He is, and occurs within the power of a fully loving and participating identity within the embrace of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.  This is a divine reality, and His relations within it are relations of love and loyalty.  The devil makes his last appeal to Christ in a way that reveals what he really wants. He says, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."  The devil wants to usurp God's place and the things that belong only to God.  He wants worship; He even wants Christ's worship and loyalty, which seems to indicate that he doesn't understand Christ the Son at all, and so continues to challenge Him.  But Jesus responds by turning the tables on the devil.  His words, "Away with you, Satan!" are more accurately translated, "Get behind Me, Satan," indicating who is really in charge here, whose authority must be followed.  Therefore in today's reading about temptation in the wilderness we are getting a sense of the true meaning of Christ's saving mission.  We must keep in mind that to be tempted is to be tested.  There is the devil, who is the "ruler of this world," and Christ who comes to claim it as the Son.  This is salvation, redemption.  So, what happens in this time of fasting in the wilderness is what we should understand as spiritual warfare, and in our own lives we also participate in that warfare.  As my study Bible indicates, the wilderness is a battleground, an image of the world, and we human beings are in the middle of it.   In the Lenten tradition of the fast, the Church makes it clear that we are also called into this struggle, with Christ, for we also are tested.  He shows us the way; He is the firstfruits in all ways, and we enter into His life.  In today's lectionary reading, we are also given the Ten Commandments, found in Exodus 20:1-21.  We often forget that the foundation of those commandments, and the first half of them, is the worship due only to God.  But Jesus never forgets that; it is His basic weapon with which He fights the devil in today's reading.  Let us also hold fast to what comes first.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed

 

 They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone.  How can You say, 'You will be made free'?"  Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.  And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.  Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.  

 

"I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.  I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father."  They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father."  Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.  But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God.  Abraham did not do this.  You do the deeds of your father."  Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father -- God."  

 

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.  Why do you not understand My speech?  Because you are not able to listen to My word.  You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.  But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.  Which of you convicts Me of sin?  And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?  He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God."

 

- John 8:33–47 

 

In our current readings, Jesus is at the Feast of Tabernacles, an autumn festival.  It is now the final year of His worldly life as Jesus.  He has been in disputes with the religious leaders in Jerusalem, who have unsuccessfully sought to have Him arrested at this feast.  Yesterday we read that Jesus replied again to the religious leaders, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin.  Where I go you cannot come."  So the Jews said, "Will He kill Himself, because He says, 'Where I go you cannot come'?"  And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above.  You are of this world; I am not of this world.  Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."  Then they said to Him, "Who are You?"  And Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.  I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him."  They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father. Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.   And He who sent Me is with Me.  The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him."  As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word,  you are my disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

 

  They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone.  How can You say, 'You will be made free'?"  Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.  And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.  Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."  Christ's response builds on His words from yesterday's reading (above), "If you abide in My word,  you are my disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

 

 "I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.  I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father."  They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father."  Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.  But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God.  Abraham did not do this.  You do the deeds of your father."  Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father -- God."  My study Bible tells us that to be a child of Abraham, it is not enough to be simply related by blood.  Abraham's true children, by contrast, are those who share his faith and virtue (Luke 3:8).  According to St. John Chrysostom, it notes, our Lord wanted to detach these men from racial pride and teach them no longer to put hope of salvation in being of the race of Abraham's children by nature, but to come to faith by their own free will.  Their notion that being a descendant of Abraham was enough for salvation was in fact the very thing that prevented them from coming to Christ.  

 

 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me."  Proceeded, according to my study Bible, refers not to the Son coming eternally from the Father, but to Christ being sent from the Father to His Incarnation on earth.  

 

 "Why do you not understand My speech?  Because you are not able to listen to My word.  You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.  But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.  Which of you convicts Me of sin?  And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?  He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God."  Just as being a child of Abraham is based on sharing the attributes of Abraham, so it is also that those who reject Christ share the same attributes as the devil (in particular, a hatred for truth).  Therefore, my study Bible explains, they are rightly called in this sense of attributes the devil's children.  

 

 Jesus says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.  And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.  Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."  These words really do give us pause.  As modern citizens of a very modern world, we in the West, in particular, might consider how important that notion of freedom is to our cultures and communities, and then seek what it is that Jesus had in mind when He taught these words two thousand years ago.  While freedom for us may mean that we have the freedom to do or say just about anything, freedom in the sense that Christ is using this teaching here means something else ("If you abide in My word,  you are my disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.")  Jesus expands on what freedom means here by giving us an ever deeper context to His words.  He says that "whoever commits sin is a slave of sin."  So, He is contrasting freedom and slavery.  In Christ's time, slavery was common.  Often people became slaves because their people had been conquered in war, and so they were a subject people.  Still others were slaves due to debt, or perhaps they had been born into slavery.  Slaves were subject to being bought and sold by their masters, and so in this sense, they were not free.  In this sense, Christ says something quite commonly understood when He tells these leaders that "a slave does not abide in the house forever."  A slave also has a master, and so we must understand in what sense committing sin effectively makes someone a slave.  It follows that sin takes on characteristics of a master, commanding and imposing a will upon another.  So, we might understand, sin is a product of a prompting, a desire that takes us away from the freedom found in God, in the Son who can make us free indeed.  St. Augustine points out that the way that "freedom" is used here in the Greek is a verb; that is, this refers to being made free, liberated.   To be free, then, in this sense in which this word appears in the Gospel, is to be made free, saved, released from slavery, from bondage.  And sin cannot set us free nor liberate; only Christ can do that, and only the truth in Christ can give us that kind of liberation. Only Christ the Son can make us free to remain in the master's home.   Just as God showed their Hebrew ancestors freedom from slavery in Egypt, so Christ comes declaring His doctrine of worship in spirit and in truth.  Therefore what Jesus implies here is that to commit sin is to follow a kind of command or will that does not come from the Son, and is not part of the love that gives us grace and truth.  The impulse to sin does not come from a loving master who makes free, but a cruel one which entangles and enslaves more deeply, even to a kind of compulsion or addiction.  Jesus says elsewhere, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24).  So there is a choice of which master we would rather serve:  the one who makes free and makes us a home in His house, or the one that would enslave us in hell.  Jesus speaks quite clearly of how we human beings take on the character or attributes of that which we serve.  Is it love or hate we wish to serve?  Truth or lies?  Grace and truth, or condemnation and blindness?  The mercy of God's love is the liberation the Son brings to us; running away from God means turning to a cruel master.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you also want to go away?

 

 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.  And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

 

- John 6:60-71 

 

Yesterday we read that, because of Christ's teachings, the religious leaders quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?"  Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drinks His blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.  This is the bread which came down from heaven -- not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead.  He who eats this bread will live forever."  These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.  

 

 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you?  What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?  It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.  But there are some of you who do not believe."  For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.  And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."  From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  My study Bible comments that even His disciples took Christ's teaching on His Body and Blood as a hard saying, and many walked with Him no more.   To this day, it remarks, there are still those who reject Christ's own words concerning the sacramental eating of His Body and drinking of His Blood, and therefore do not "walk" in this teaching.  Because of the difficulty of grasping the depth of this Mystery, my study Bible continues, many attempt either to define its nature rationally or to explain away Christ's words altogether.  This takes the form of giving them a purely metaphorical meaning.  In either case, these answers are dubious.  To reject the sacramental teaching of Christ is to reject the witness of the Scriptures and the unanimous teaching of the Church throughout history.  

 

 Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.  Simon Peter's response to Jesus contains two powerful statements.  The first is that He has the words of eternal life.  Peter implies that there is nowhere else to go; only Jesus has the words He preaches and gives to the people.  The second statement is, "Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  While others turn away because of Christ's "hard teachings," Simon Peter's faith is cemented and grows deeper; he is left with the conviction that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.  

 

Let us first stop to notice the effects of Christ's truth, stark as it is, and as seemingly inexplicable to His audience as His words are.  There are those who walk away.  St. John, the author of our Gospel, will also write in one of his Epistles of those who were once followers, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us" (1 John 2:19).  In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul asks, "Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?"  In a modern context, in which so many people seem to "shop for faith," to consider faith a kind of smorgasbord of ideas from which to pick and to choose in the ways that are personally pleasing, this scenario -- and any sort of shaming of those who can no longer follow Christ for these words -- may seem entirely unreasonable.  But, in effect, the Gospel and the events recorded here tell us yet again about our faith and how faith works.  Several Church Fathers comment on Christ's use of language in this passage, both to persuade and to caution.  St. Athanasius writes that "it is the part of true godliness not to compel but to persuade. Our Lord himself does not employ force but offers the choice, saying to everyone, 'If anyone will follow after me,' and to his disciples in particular, 'Will you also go away?'" (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, 2009; p 247).  St. Chrysostom praises Christ's way of speaking regarding the one who will betray Him.  He comments, "See the wisdom of Christ. He neither exposes the traitor nor allows him to remain hidden. In this way, [Judas] is not so publicly humiliated that he becomes more contentious, but Christ also does not embolden him by allowing him to think that his wicked deeds are proceeding undetected" (Homilies on the Gospel of John 47.4).  So we can marvel at all of these ways in which Christ not only tells what sounds perhaps like a blunt and brutal truth regarding his Body and Blood, but that in so doing He is acutely aware of the hearts of the people whom He addresses, and His effects on them.  He does not shrink from the truth, even when it offends.  And yet, at the same time, He elicits faith, as well as the reality of the heart which will betray Him.  We, with the saints and Fathers of the Church, are left to marvel, and to piece together our own faith based on what we read and encounter in this Gospel.  Perhaps the most astounding truth of all is that it is love that Christ is working upon, and that faith is closely entwined with love.  For what else do we make of Simon Peter's response to the words that have now sent others away:  "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  It's at that heart-rending point of love that we come realize the importance of such questions as, "Do you want to go away?"  Just as Christ endured everything at the Cross for the love of His Father, and for His love of us, so we are also challenged with what is in our hearts when following is difficult.  Whether it is a bond with a spouse, a child, another loved one, or indeed, our faith -- it all comes down to love.  Do we want to go away?  Perhaps with St. Peter, we must say that there is no one else for us.  But His words will always challenge, and our faith will always pull us further along into the life He asks of us.  In the end, we know that God is love, as the Evangelist attests in his Epistle.  And it is love that has to lead us forward into the truth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father

 

 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house.  And His disciples came to Him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field."  He answered and said to them:  "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.  The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.   The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.  Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.  The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire.  There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

 

- Matthew 13:36-43 

 

On Saturday, we read that Jesus gave another parable to the crowds, saying:  "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches."  Another parable He spoke to them:  "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened."  All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:  "I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world." 

 

  Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house.  And His disciples came to Him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field."  He answered and said to them:  "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.  The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.  The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.  Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.  The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire.  There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"  Jesus gives to the disciples in private the explanation of the parable He told to the crowds, just as He had also done for the parable of the Sower, the first of the parables He began teaching.  See Matthew 13:1-23.  In today's reading, Jesus is explaining to the disciples the parable of the tares of the field, found in Friday's reading.   A note in my study Bible on this parable explains that it builds on the previous parable of the Sower, but here the focus is on the enemy who has sown his seed among the seed (or word) of Christ.  My study Bible says that as falsehood came after truth and false prophets came after the true prophets, so the Antichrist will come after Christ.  Just as the weeds in the parable appear similar to the wheat, so the devil fashions his lies to resemble the truth, as is the case in heresies.  That the devil sows while men slept indicates that heresy and lies creep in when people are apathetic. 

 

Jesus' explanation of the parable of the Wheat and Tares makes it very clear that He speaking about judgment.  As we reviewed in the commentary on the reading in which He first gave the parable (here), there is a type of weed which closely resembles wheat, but it's toxic for human beings.  So, first of all, we could think of the seed as that which grows something; there is a  clear message here about what type of crop is produced.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned His disciples of false prophets to come, in what is a parallel teaching to this parable.  He said, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matthew 7:15-19).  We can see the parallels, even in the allusion to the trees that don't bear good fruit being thrown into the fire.  But let's think of this important metaphor of Christ that He used so often, about the seeds that spring up into "good" or "bad" plants.  If we take this understanding of the enemy's seeds as lies that mislead and trick people (especially if, like heresies, they bear a resemblance to truth, such as in half-truths), then what we hear from Jesus is how building our lives on lies or partial truths leads to a bad outcome for us as persons, in the wholeness of who we are.  So the foundations of the soul, of real identity, also depend upon how we're nurtured, what we base on own growth upon.  Like plants, human beings are in a constant state of growth or change, one way or another.  We go in one direction or another, and it all depends upon how we're nurtured and what start we give ourselves each day.  In another way of looking at the parable, we might take it that we want to make sure we're ingesting the good wheat (as in the Eucharist), the things that nourish us for our best spiritual health in life, because this determines the growth of the soul.  In light of Christ's strong assurance here of a judgment to come, and the giving of His interpretation of the parable, He asks us yet again to take this quite seriously, because our very lives truly depend upon it.  The growth of the soul in life is something many people find it easy to forget about, given how busy modern life can be.  We find ourselves consumed with cares regarding work, family, keeping our lives and loved ones safe and in good care, our housing, and all manner of things we are constantly demanded to pay attention to.  It's so easy to lose focus on that slow growing, quiet inner life that concerns the state of the soul.  But nevertheless, there it is, and there it always is.  People notice us hardening our hearts; we can get to the place where we don't recognize what we're doing to ourselves in the face of these "necessities" of life.  But Christ has taught us that there is really one thing most needful, one thing most necessary, in the story of Martha and Mary (found here at Luke 10:38-42).  In light of all of His teachings, we can say that when we forget about this most needful thing, our lives are upside down, disordered in terms of what is most necessary for us.  At this time, many of us are gearing up for the period of the holidays, in which we will be bombarded with all the things that seem "necessary" for those holidays.  Black Friday, the time of the great sales in stores in the United States, is already being advertized -- all a part of the rush for things we "need" for the holidays.  But on the contrary, it's the time (in the Northern Hemisphere at any rate) when nature is slowing down, getting ready for the needful rest of winter, the earth's necessary Sabbath.  We should perhaps keep in mind that the holidays we celebrate are "holy days," and the very reason for celebration should not be lost. We give thanks to God for our blessings.  It may be a national holiday, but its roots are in our faith.  Of course, the same is true for the Nativity of our Lord, Christmas.  From the earliest times of the Church, the great and most celebrated holiday was Easter, the commemoration and celebration of Resurrection.  Christmas has been built up into the major holiday it is to a great extent by advertising and sales. We're all encouraged to give, but the hastening of so many things to prepare, to buy, to fix, to show, and all that goes with it, often seems to miss the entire point of the festival and the season.  The little family in Bethlehem, taking refuge in a cave used for farm animals, should serve to remind us that love, joy, grace, and God's glory in the message of the angels are in the midst of all of it, and this is in contrast to the anxieties that are stoked in the ways we celebrate.  It's also in tremendous contrast to the sense of competition and comparison it seems to create.  Many people are lonelier than ever at this time, or perhaps feeling want in the face of all the celebration that others seem to be doing.  With our social media what it is now, this is ever-increasing as studies confirm.  So let us remember, as we go into this "quiet time" toward winter that we need our Sabbath as does the earth and all of creation; and we need to remember God.  Remember the good growth Christ urges us toward, and what we need for the kind of persons He calls us to be, for nurturing that in ourselves and in our families, friends, communities.  Remember anything we have to be grateful for and give thanks to God, remember Christ the infant who would give Himself for the life of the world.   Let us put aside time for the things which are most necessary, so that we may grow into the "good trees" bearing the good fruits Christ desires.  Let us set aside time for the things which are most important and needful of all, and order our priorities His way.  For righteousness is about good order, right relations to ourselves and all else as Christ would order them.  Let us make time for the good seed He sows in us.

 

 

 

 

You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve

 

 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.  Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"

 

Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, 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 shall give His angels charge over you,'

and, 

 'In their hands they shall bear you up,

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'" 

Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"

 

Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.   And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."  Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan!  For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"  Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him. 

 

- Matthew 4:1-11

 

 On Saturday, we read about the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.  And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?"  But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."  Then he allowed Him.  When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.  And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

 

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. My study Bible explains that to be tempted is to be tested in fundamental areas of faith.  As in St. Mark's Gospel, here the Spirit leads, or "throws," Jesus into the wilderness after His Baptism to be tested by a struggle with the devil.  We who are baptized in Christ, it says, need not be defeated by temptations because we are also aided by the Holy Spirit.  Here the wilderness is a battleground, an image of the world.  That is, it is both the dwelling place of demons and a source of divine tranquility and victory. 

 

 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.  My study Bible reminds us that the Israelites were tested forty years in the wilderness and proved disobedient and disloyal.  God humbled them by first letting them go hungry and then feeding them with manna to help them learn to be dependent upon God (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).  In today's reading, my study Bible says, Jesus is tested with hunger for forty days, but He does not sin.  In reading the passage, let us keep in mind that all of Christ's answers to Satan are from Deuteronomy, and they are all calling for loyalty to God.  My study Bible adds that Jesus fasted in order to overcome temptation, which gives us an example of our own power and limitations in the face of temptation.  The hunger of Christ's flesh doesn't control Him.  Instead, He controls His flesh.  Christ's fast of forty days is the foundation of the Church's traditional practice of a Lenten fast before Holy Week, and also before Christmas.

 

 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  It's important to note that the bedrock of all things is our love of God who loves us.  Here, the devil begins with a challenge of Christ's relationship to the Father.  He says, "If You are the Son of God" in order to call into question the Father's declaration at Jesus' Baptism (see Saturday's reading, above, in which the voice of the Father declares, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased").  My study Bible says that the devil wants Jesus to act independently and to detach Himself from the will of the Father.  In Christ's divine nature, He shares one will with the Father and the Holy Spirit; He can do nothing of Himself (John 5:30), apart from God the Father.  But in Christ's humanity, He has free will, and at all times must choose to remain obedient to the divine will of the Father. 

 

  But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"  In rejecting this first temptation, Jesus is rejecting a purely worldly perspective and shows us not to pursue earthly comfort in the "food which perishes" (John 6:27).  In the poetry of the Bible, we see that Adam disregarded the divine word in order to pursue the passions of the Body (Genesis 3), and here the New Adam -- Jesus Christ -- conquers all temptation by the divine word, giving human nature the power to conquer Satan.  

 

 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, 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 shall give His angels charge over you,' and,  'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"   The holy city is Jerusalem.  Here the devil tries a trick; as Jesus was able to defeat him through the power of Scripture in the first temptation above, now the devil tries to use Scripture to put God's power of protection to the test.  See also 2 Peter 1:19-21.  

 

 Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"  Jesus responds by quoting from Deuteronomy 6:16.  My study Bible comments that trials and temptations come on their own; we should never intentionally expose ourselves to danger in order to test or prove God's protection.  To do so is to tempt the LORD. 

 

 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.   And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."  Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan!  For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"  Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.   My study Bible reminds us here that God's Kingdom is not one of earthly power and possessions.  In the devil's test, Jesus was being asked to choose worldly power over the Kingdom of God.  The devil is the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31), "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4), because the whole world is in his power (1 John 5:19).  Here Jesus refuses this road of earthly glory, which would lead Him away from His suffering and death for the redemption of the world.  

 

Let us note that the last verse in today's reading tells us that then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.   It illustrates this nature of the wilderness in which we find ourselves.  There is tremendous beauty of God, there is the defeat in the temptations of the devil, high and low, exalted and debased.  We have saints and angels with us, we have the devil and the fallen demons who tempt us.  We are in the middle of a battleground, as my study Bible puts it, and when we forget that this is where we are, we forget what we are meant to be about.  Fasting is a practice in which we meet our temptations, as does Jesus here.  For each person, the temptations will vary, but if you ask a priest listening to confession, they are so often the same old things, just varying in pattern and details of a person's particular life experience.  We should say, to begin with, that fasting in the Christian context is not about going on a diet, not about willpower, not just about self-discipline in some athletic or stoic sense.  Neither is it about morality.  Fasting is something we do with God and for God; it is a way of both showing love and commitment to God (to Christ), and at the same time struggling against our own temptations to take shortcuts, to think it doesn't matter, to think of ourselves simply as thinking machines with bodies irrelevant to faith and to love of Christ and separated from our minds and hearts.  Fasting reminds us that we are all of a whole:  body, soul, and spirit, for it involves all.  When we fast we do it to shore up and rely upon that relationship to God, to understand that our dependency upon God gives us strength to rise above the worldly exigencies that press in upon us and to meet them the way God would ask us to, not imply to be controlled by them.  Fasting in this sense helps us to say "no" to the rest of things we need to discern and reject, and to say "yes" to what we need for our true strength and growth and development.  In that sense, all the disciplines in the Church are meant to help us to grow in our own identity as human beings, to come to know what it is to be formed and shaped by Christ to become more like Him, and to meet the challenges of bearing our own crosses in the world.  Let us note first of all that it is the Holy Spirit who leads Christ up into the wilderness to face these temptations.  This is preparation for His ministry to come.  When Jesus resists temptation in today's reading, He's doing several things we can observe.  First of all, He's setting limits on the devil, on what the devil can tempt Him to do, and on the devil's presumption to ensnare Him in his power, like a slave.  He defeats the devil by saying no to the temptations presented.  And Jesus does more than that.  He sets down the rules by which He needs to live His life, and carry out His ministry in the world.  When we say no to temptation, we are doing the same.  We are setting up our own protective boundaries, a fence that lines the road we intend to follow for not just our own good but for the life of the world, in following Christ.  We have the power to resist temptation and choose the path of Christ instead.  Faith practices such as fasting help us to mark that clear delineation and to know, as my study Bible says, that we have the power to do so, exercising and developing that strength in Christ through faith.  When we go through periods of testing and temptation, when we feel sorely pressed and without resource, let us remember what we read here, that Christ is with us, and angels minister to us, and that through our faith we have the power to say no to what is not good for us, the things that lead us away from God, the phony temptations that sound good but are a snare.  Let us remember that sin easily leads to our own slavery; as anyone struggling with addiction of any kind -- including to material wealth, power, or anything else we make into an idol.  Every false consolation leads us to a degraded and weak condition, and takes away from our humanity, what we can be as human beings created in the image of God.  Let us take heart and be like Christ, and follow Him.   He puts His relationship with God the Father first; let's remember where our love belongs and the One who will teach us more of love.

 

 

 

 

 

And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison; but he delivered Jesus to their will

 

 Then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, "You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people.  And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him; no, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him.  I will therefore chastise Him and release Him (for it was necessary for him to release one to them at the feast).  And they all cried out at once, saying, "Away with this Man, and release to us Barabbas" -- who has been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder.  Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them.  But they shouted, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!"  Then he said to them the third time, "Why, what evil has He done?  I have found no reason for death in Him.  I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go."  But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified.  And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed.  So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested.  And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison; but he delivered Jesus to their will.

 

- Luke 23:13–25 

 

Yesterday we read that the whole multitude of the religious leaders who seized at night and held Him for questioning the next morning arose and led Him to Pilate.  And they began to accuse Him, saying, "We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ, a King."  Then Pilate asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?"  He answered him and said, "It is as you say."  So Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no fault in this Man."  But they were the more fierce, saying, "He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place."  When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the Man were a Galilean.  And as soon as he knew that He belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at this time.  Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him.  Then he questioned Him with many words, but He answered him nothing.  And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused Him.  Then Herod, with his men of war, treated Him with contempt and mocked Him, arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe, and sent Him back to Pilate.  That very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other.

 

  Then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, "You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people.  And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him; no, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him.  I will therefore chastise Him and release Him (for it was necessary for him to release one to them at the feast).  And they all cried out at once, saying, "Away with this Man, and release to us Barabbas" -- who has been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder.  Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them.  But they shouted, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!"  Then he said to them the third time, "Why, what evil has He done?  I have found no reason for death in Him.  I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go."  But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified.  And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed.  So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested.  And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison; but he delivered Jesus to their will.  My study Bible notes of today's passage that three times Pilate attempts to release Jesus (verses 16, 20, 22), and three times the chief priest the rulers incite the people to demand He be put to death.  In the end, these men demand the release of a rebel like themselves.  Barabbas, my study Bible continues, means "son of the father" and indicates to which father these rulers belong -- the devil (John 8:44).  

 

Over the course of the past several readings, we have spoken of the darkness that is present, to which Jesus referred at His arrest, when He said, "But this is your hour, and the power of darkness" (Monday's reading).  In today's reading, the darkness is still present.  There are those who vehemently hurl false accusations against Jesus: the chief priests, rulers, and the people they've stirred up to shout against Him.  But into this darkness we start to get hints of exposure, of light shining through to expose the lies.  Three times Pilate tries to let Him go, saying he's found no fault in Jesus worthy of death.  Even Herod found no fault in the man, said Pilate.  Pilate -- a shrewd and, in a sense, disinterested administrator -- has as his top priority one thing:  to keep the peace, so that he keeps his head, so to speak, and his position as governor.  This was the difficult job of the Roman governor of Judea.  But the darkness has another evil plan in mind, and the leaders and the people demand instead the release of Barabbas.  Barabbas, as my study Bible points out, means "son of the father."  And so, for those who read the Scriptures and know them, Jesus has already pronounced who the father of the darkness is, for he is the same as the father of lies.  In an earlier encounter with these men, the religious leaders who seek to kill Him, as reported in St. John's Gospel, Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.  Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God" (John 8:42-47).  The darkness is present, of that there is no doubt.  It's present in the murderer, Barabbas, whom they prefer.  It's present in the lies they tell.  And it's present spiritually in the reality of the one who is the father of lies.  But here, the light shines also, because the darkness is exposed in Barabbas' name and in what he's done, in the truth obvious even to Pilate and Herod about Jesus, in the open preference for a murderer and rebel to Jesus the Christ.  If we look around us in life, with our eyes opened, we may also find hints of exposure like this when we're caught in evil circumstances, for the light can't stay hidden, and evil is exposed through its own arrogance and ignorance.  The hints are all here to what is really going on.  They're there for those who are willing to see them, named and identified:  murder, lies, deceit, false accusation.  They are all there in the open for those who will see.  For again, in St. John's Gospel, Jesus says to Nicodemus, "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed" (John 3:20).  But in St. Luke's Gospel, He also affirms, "For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.  Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him" Luke 8:17-18).  Even in the midst of deception, the truth of these men is exposed, the lies understood, the murder in their hearts revealed.  And even what they seem to have will be taken from them.  Let us, even today, keep our full trust in the light, and remember what we're to be about as His followers.  Will we be the ones who go along with the lies, or those who remain in the truth?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience

 

 Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.  And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities -- Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.

 

And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable:  "A sower went out to sow his seed.  And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it.  Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.  But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold."  When He had said these things He cried, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

 

Then His disciples asked Him, saying, "What does this parable mean?"  And He said, "To you it has been given to know the mysteries  of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that

'Seeing they may not see,

 And hearing they may not understand.'

"Now the parable is this:  The seed is the word of God.   Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.  But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in a time of temptation fall away.  Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.  But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience."

 

- Luke 8:1–15 

 

Yesterday we read that one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him.  And He went to the Pharisee's house, and sat down to eat.  And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.  Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, "This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner."  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you."  So he said, "Teacher, say it."  There was a certain creditor who had two debtors.  One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both.  Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more?"  Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more."  And He said to him, "You have rightly judged."  Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman?  I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.  You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in.  You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.  Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.  But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."  Then He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."  And those who sat at table with Him began to say to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"  Then He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you.  Go in peace."

 

  Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.  And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities -- Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.  My study Bible comments that these women were faithful to Christ to the end (Luke 23:49, 55), and they were the first to receive and to proclaim the news of His Resurrection (Luke 24:1-10).  In Scriptures, it notes, the number seven often symbolizes totality and completeness, indicating that Mary called Magdalene had been thoroughly given over to darkness before her healing. 

And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable:  "A sower went out to sow his seed.  And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it.  Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.  But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold."  When He had said these things He cried, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"  As the crowds around Jesus have grown extremely large (a great multitude), and many people now come to hear Him speak, He initiates His speaking style in parables with this first one, the parable of the Sower. 

Then His disciples asked Him, saying, "What does this parable mean?"  And He said, "To you it has been given to know the mysteries  of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that 'Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'"  My study Bible comments here that mysteries are not obscure intellectual concepts, but the presence of the Kingdom of God which cannot be defined.  A person's unwillingness to understand Christ's parables is due to a rejection of His Kingdom.   My study Bible quotes St. John Chrysostom here:  "If the blindness were natural, it would have been proper for God to open their eyes; but because it was a voluntary and self-chosen blindness, He does not overthrow their free will."  To do so would have been not only to "no advantage for them, but an even greater condemnation."  Jesus refers to the words of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:9-10).

 

 "Now the parable is this:  The seed is the word of God.   Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.  But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in a time of temptation fall away.  Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.  But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience."  Here Jesus explains the parable to His disciples.  My study Bible comments that, as the sower in the parable, Christ fulfills the prophecy in Isaiah 55:10-13.  It asks us to note that while some might teach that a person is permanently saved at the moment one professes faith -- a view which was never held by the historic Church -- the teaching of Christ is clear in the explanation of the parable that it's possible for one to believe for a while and then fall away.  

My study Bible describes parables as stories in word-pictures, which reveal spiritual truth.  In Hebrew and Aramaic, it says, the words for parable also mean "allegory," "riddle," or "proverb."  They express a constant which persists even today in the Near and Middle East, the seeming paradox of mysteries or riddles that tell us truths which are elusive and not always obvious to our minds.  Parables are also poetical, in the sense that they give us metaphors to think about, ways to conceive of ourselves in our world and before God.  Although their images are drawn from every day life to reach all, they communicate the deep things of God.  But, as my study Bible indicates, and Jesus says Himself in today's reading, the truth communicated in Christ's parables is not evident to all who hear.  Thus, midst these crowds, He's seeking those who can respond.  The parable of the Sower illustrates various levels of acceptance of such truths and the working of faith.  They indicate whether or not we have persistence, or whether difficulties can put us off this pursuit of faith.  The parable expresses the joy with which someone may receive the gospel, only to turn away at a later date.  It also teaches us that not everyone immediately accepts or grasps Christ's truths, and the word (or seed) of God.  The parable of the Sower teaches us what it is to persist in the struggle for our faith, just as St. Paul tells us that we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (see Philippians 2:11-13).  Clearly the "action" of the parable is dynamic, meaning that this central drama of faith is one that persists throughout our lives, and is not meant merely for a moment's decision.  We're all capable of doubt, of struggle with temptation and with hardship, and like St. Peter (for one example in the Gospels), we're capable of failure and return.  There will be times when we struggle to accept what God is trying to teach us, and times when we grasp it with joy.  Today's reading begins with the illustration of the women, who in their own example give us an image of what the parable teaches.  Even Mary Magdalene, who will be the first to see the resurrected Christ, and carry the word to the apostles (as her title, Apostle to the Apostles, indicates), is one who had been fully immersed in darkness, as the text tells us, given over to "the other side," as we might say.  We can imagine their persistence in faith, as they remained true to Christ throughout His ministry, His Crucifixion and death, and in the early Church.  Let us endeavor to be like the women, pursuing our salvation, keeping His word, struggling through temptation and hardship, even tribulation.  For keeping His word produces a value beyond the cares, riches, and pleasures of life with which we may imagine Mary Magdalene herself struggled, and overcame to produce fruit far beyond a hundredfold -- even to inspire us today.  In these women we see those who heard the word with a noble and good heart, kept it, and bore fruit with patience through all things.

 

 

 

Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time

 

 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil.  And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.  And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."  But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'"  

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours."  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan!  For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"

Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.  For it is written:

'He shall give His angels charge over you,

To keep you,'

"and,

'In their hands they shall bear you up, 

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"

And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"

Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

 

- Luke 4:1–13 

 

Yesterday we read that, as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John the Baptist, whether he was the Christ or not, John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire."  And with many other exhortations he preached to the people. But Herod the tetrarch,  being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, also added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison.  When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.  And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased."

 

  Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil.  My study Bible comments that this exodus of Jesus into the wilderness immediately following His baptism (and being filled with the Holy Spirit) has a dual symbolism.  First, it fulfills the Old Testament type, in which Israel journeyed in the wilderness for forty year after its "baptism" in the Red Sea; and second, it's a prefiguring of our own journey throgh the fallen world after baptism, as we also struggle toward the Kingdom.  

 

And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.  And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."  But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'"   This first temptation is seemingly about hunger, but Christ's human hunger is really just a lever, for testing Him about His relationship to God the Father.  The real temptation is the question, "If You are the Son of God. . ." seeking to tempt Christ away from His faith in the Father and the identity given of the Father.  Keep in mind that at His baptism by John, the Father declared, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased."  This is a challenge to that declaration.  My study Bible points out that in His humanity, Christ must choose to obey that divine will, even if in His divinity His will is one with the Father's.  Just as Israel was tempted through hunger to disobey God when following Moses in the wilderness, Christ responds with Scripture from Deuteronomy 8:3.

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours."  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan!  For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"  Here is the next temptation, and once again, it's a challenge to Christ's relationship to God the Father.  The devil tempts Jesus with a worldly sense of power, authority, and glory, if only Jesus will worship before him.  But as Jesus has already indicated with the first temptation, it's not the things of the world that make life, but the things of God.  My study Bible comments that the devil is the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31), "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4), because the whole world is in his power (1 John 5:19).   Christ will so memorably teach, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36).  "Get behind Me, Satan!" is a phrase He will use again (Matthew 15:33; Mark 8:33), and in the similar sense that, as my study Bible puts it, He refuses the road of earthly glory, which would lead Him away from His suffering and death for the redemption of the world.   Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:13.

Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.  For it is written:  'He shall give His angels charge over you,

To keep you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.':  And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"  My study Bible comments that here, seeing as how Christ had defeated him through the power of the Scriptures, Satan tries in vain to use the Scriptures to put God's power of protection to the test.  (See also 2 Peter 1:19-21).  It further notes that trials and temptations come on their own; we should never intentionally expose ourselves to danger in order to test or prove God's protection.  To do so is to tempt the LORD.  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:16.

Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.  The devil still works to wait until an opportune time (see Luke 22:40-46, 23:35; Matthew 16:21-23).  

We note that the devil departed from Him until an opportune time.  My study Bible comments on the temptation of hunger after forty days of fasting, that, while Adam disregarded God's divine word in order to pursue the passions of the body (Genesis 3), the New Adam -- who is Christ -- conquers all temptation by the divine word; in effect, Christ gives human nature the power to conquer Satan.  So this devil who waits until an opportune time is something we should take seriously, because we ourselves struggle against similar temptations and in the same world in which the devil remains the "god of this age" or "the ruler of this world."  That's not to say that the devil has utterly usurped the place of God or even that Christ hasn't power against the devil.  What it does say is that this struggle in which Christ engages Himself as human being, while He is yet also the Son of God, is our struggle.  In effect, Jesus engages in this struggle and even begins His ministry with it, because it is our struggle.  Everything about Christ's life, and especially His ministry, is to engage fully in human life in order to transfigure that life through His divinity, so that we also may follow, even drawing on the strength that He gives us to do so, as my study Bible explained.  Note that today's passage begins by telling us that Jesus, when embarking on this forty day fasting period, was filled with the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to do so.  This is a forceful statement, it's the Holy Spirit, essentially bringing or carrying Him here.  Moreover, if we look closely at Mark's Gospel, we'll see that St. Mark writes (in Greek) that the Spirit "threw" Him into the wilderness.  So this powerful period, which sets us up for understanding how we are to meet temptation in the world, is the first order of business of Christ's public ministry, and it's fully begun and set into motion through the actions of the Spirit.  So this public ministry in which Christ is now immersed, prepared through temptation, but also working in order to harness the power of redemption and resistance to the devil for us human beings, starts off with this selfless act guaranteed to transfigure what it is to be a human being following Christ in faith.  We're here not just to follow Him but to also be engaged in the same work we see Him doing.  Our faith is in some sense about being born into this battleground, where, in the words of St. Peter, "your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).   We still face the same kinds of temptations that Jesus did:  questions that shake up our faith in God and God's love for us, temptations that look good -- like all the splendid goods of the world and its power and glory -- but really aren't very good for us after all.  We're born into a world where there might be all kinds of seemingly new "forms" of such things, but they're not really new at all.  We still hunger for things that nominally seem good, but given at the wrong time or gone after for the wrong reasons are all about defying what God wants for us, and falling into the hands of the one who wants to oppose God's plan.  The one thing the modern world, especially in its more "developed" environments may excel at is bombarding us with temptations of all sorts, and this is particularly so for those of us immersed in technological communications and their modern capacities over the internet.  We'll be feasted and tempted with a huge host of images to follow:  what we should look like, what we should pursue, what we should be collecting or consuming, who our friends should be, etc. in an endless parade that doesn't stop.  What we need to do amid this host of temptations is stop and pray, take the time for God, seek to set our feet upon the right path, asking for Christ's light to guide us the way through the darkness that still dwells in ignorance of what God has in mind for us.  Just ask anyone who's struggled with an addiction, engaged in self-destructive activities, worked their way into a fever pitch of chasing all the dreams that paid back very little in terms of meaning, and nothing in terms of love and goodness and mercy.  Let us be mindful of our faith amidst it all.  For it's Christ who'll teach us who we really are, and what we really need to be that person.