Away with you, Satan!

 

 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be temped 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 

 

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, sarom heying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

 

  Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be temped by the devil.  My study Bible explains that to be tempted means to be tested in fundamental areas of faith.  It is the Holy Spirit who leads Jesus into the wilderness after His Baptism to be tested by a struggle with the devil.  (In St. Mark's Gospel, the Greek literally reads that the Spirit "throws" Jesus into the wilderness.)  My study Bible remarks that we who are baptized in Christ need not be defeated by temptations because we also are aided by the Holy Spirit.  It says explains that the wilderness is a battleground, an image of the world -- both the dwelling place of demons and also a source of divine tranquility and victory.  

And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. In the whole of today's reading, Jesus effectively reverses the falling to temptation of Israel in the wilderness.  The Israelites were tested for forty years in the wilderness, and proved disobedient and disloyal.  My study Bible explains that God humbled them by first letting them go hungry and then feeding them with manna to help them learn to be dependent on Him (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).  Here in today's passage, Jesus is tested with hunger for forty days, but He does not sin.  All of His answers to Satan are from Deuteronomy, and all call for loyalty to God -- which Jesus' life and righteousness exemplify.  My study Bible adds that Jesus fasted to overcome temptation, and in so doing gives us an example of our own power and limitations in the face of temptation.  It's not the hunger of His flesh that controls Him.  Instead, He controls His flesh.  The Lord's fast of forty days is the foundation of the forty-day Lenten fast in the Church before Holy Week, and also of a traditional fast before Christmas.  

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.' "  Here the devil challenges the relationship of Christ to the Father.  If You are the Son of God isn't simply a taunt to Jesus, but it also calls into question the Father's declaration at Christ's Baptism (see yesterday's reading, above), challenging Christ's faith and obedience.  The devil, my study Bible says, wants Jesus to act independently and to detach Himself from the will of God the Father.  In Christ's divine nature, it notes, He shares one will with the Father and the Holy Spirit; He can do nothing of Himself (John 5:30), separately from God the Father.  But in Jesus' humanity, He has free will, and therefore at all times He must choose to remain obedient to the divine will of the Father. Jesus responds to the tempter by quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3.  By rejecting this first temptation, Jesus is rejecting an earthly kingdom.  He also shows us not to pursue earthly comfort alone in the "food which perishes" (John 6:27).  My study Bible remarks 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, which gives 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.  Again, the devil tries to shake Christ's confidence and loyalty to God the Father, saying "If You are the Son of God . . .. "  My study Bible says that as Christ had defeated the devil through the power of the Scriptures, Satan now vainly tries to use the Scriptures to put God's power of protection to the test.  The devil is quoting from Psalm 91:11, 12. 

Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.' "  Again, Jesus quotes from the book of Deuteronomy and the story of Israel's temptations in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 6:16).  My study Bible explains 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 comments that God's Kingdom is not one of earthly power and possessions.  It says that 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, Christ is refusing the road of earthly glory, which would lead Him away from His suffering and death for the redemption of the world, as my study Bible notes.  Jesus quotes again from Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 6:13, 10:20; see also Joshua 24:14, referring to the same event).

How do we worship the devil?  Does the devil come to us and claim that if we worship him, he will give us all that we want?  Well, it might not happen in this clearly declarative way in people's experience (that would be quite frightening to witness), but temptations come nonetheless, and in ways that we can all relate to through the examples here.  If we pay close attention to our prayer lives, we might find that we are prompted in deep prayer to a kind of humility that doesn't make sense in terms of "the world's" logic.  In the world, we are constantly tempted -- particularly on the internet -- to conform and aspire to all kinds of images and acquisition of things that will impress others, declare us to be "good" or "superior" in some sense, perhaps even "great" in terms of achievement or the things we have.  There are numerous studies regarding, for example, internet use and young people in terms of the depression caused not through isolation alone, but through the endless feed of impossible images to acquire for oneself.  This is particularly true when it comes to body image for young women.  These are all forms of temptation that ask us to turn away from the heart -- and concerns about the state of our hearts -- to outward acquisitions that will favorably impress others or give us a sense of being acceptable on purely worldly terms.  Great skill, hard work, beauty in whatever form (such as dance, art, music), are all wonderful things to enjoy.  But at the expense of devotion to God, to what is truly good for us, even to the place of our communion with God where we'll find true identity (and not something patched together from what the world is offering today), none of these things are worthwhile in the sense that they take us off the path of our own righteousness and love of God.  The communion with God of the heart is the place where from which Christ speaks for all of us when He expresses His loyalty to the Father.  It is in this place where we find the One who loves us and knows us better than we know ourselves, and who can teach us who we are and what we need to pursue in life and even in the world.  This is the place where we learn both love of God and proper love of neighbor.  The themes we have encountered so far in our readings in St. Matthew's Gospel which have begun this week all center on what constitutes righteousness.  Jesus exemplifies the love and loyalty to God -- lived faithfulness -- that define what it means to be truly righteous.  When we have the humility necessary to understand that we need this guidance, then we can find Christ who has lived and experienced this world for us first, to show us His light so that we can walk in it through a world filled with temptations to  false and misleading ways in life.  They may look good, but don't deliver.  Above all, we will find the love that anchors it all in a deep sense of being truly cared for.  Let us trust in Him and His way for us.  Let us note how all the things offered to Christ are things that would make Him "great" on worldly terms.  But His loyalty to the Father comes first, and the greatness of Christ is what will be accomplished through humility, loyalty, and love.

 

 

 

If You are the Son of God

 

 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 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 we also read in Mark's Gospel, in the Greek, the text tells us that the Spirit leads, or rather literally "throws" Jesus into the wilderness after His Baptism to be tested by a struggle with the devil.  It notes that we who are baptized in Christ need not be defeated by temptations because we also are helped by the Holy Spirit.  The wilderness, it explains, is 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.  In the encounters with the devil in today's reading, Jesus reverses Israel's falling to temptation in the wilderness.  My study Bible explains 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 in order to help them learn to be dependent upon God (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).  Here, Jesus is tested with hunger for forty days.  But He does not sin.  All of His responses to Satan are from Deuteronomy, and all call 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 His flesh does not control Him; rather, He controls His flesh.  Christ's fast of forty days is the foundation of the Church's historical forty-day Lenten fast before Holy Week and and before before Christmas.  

Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  My study Bible points out that the devil first challenges Jesus' relationship to the Father.  If You are the Son of God is calling into question the Father's declaration at Christ's Baptism (see Saturday's reading, above, in which it was declared, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased").  The devil wants Jesus to act independently and also to detach Himself from the will of the Father.  My study Bible notes that in His divine nature, Christ 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 possesses free will, and at all times He 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 rejects an earthly kingdom.  According to my study Bible, it shows us not to pursue earthly comfort in the "food which perishes" (John 6:27).  Adam disregarded the divine word in order to pursue the passions of the body (Genesis 3), and here 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.  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.  My study Bible comments that, seeing that Christ had defeated him through the power of the Scriptures, Satan vainly tries to use the Scriptures to put God's power of protection to the test.  Here the devil quotes from Psalms 91:11, 12.  (See also 2 Peter 1:19-21.)

Jesus said, to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:16.  My study Bible comments here that trials and temptations come on their own, and we should never intentionally expose ourselves to danger in order to test or to prove God's protection.  To do so is to tempt [or "test"] 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 comments 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," my study Bible says (after 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.  We may note also that Jesus' response is to issue a command, showing His authority, "Away with you, Satan!"  Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:13; 10:20.

If we look closely at Christ's temptations, we see the things that we might expect someone would like to make a possible ministry look like.  First the devil wants to shake and challenge Christ's claim to be the Son of God.  Now we know that in His earthly ministry, He is very careful not to openly declare Himself for a great period of the ministry.  Rather, in following the Father's will, Christ reveals Himself first the way He is meant to, long before this messianic secret is revealed to His disciples -- and even then He says to tell no one.  So this test is really a challenge to act independently, and not depend upon God the Father for the direction of His ministry and particularly the revelation of the truth of His divine identity.  He's not to go out and clobber the world with showy uses of power, abuses of His authority, or flamboyant declarations about Himself.  Moreover, He could make life very easy for Himself by the sort of use of power He's tempted to do here.  But Jesus comes not just as one of us, but as one of the poorest among us.  He will declare, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Matthew 8:20).  In His itinerant ministry He will depend upon what His followers can bring (Luke 8:1-3).  In their first apostolic mission, He will direct His apostles to take very little with them, even though He will share with them His power over unclean spirits (see Mark 6:7-9).  The next temptation is again to give a great show, to convince everyone that He is who He is by a spectacular proof.  And once again, we know that Christ's ministry will unfold in quite another way, that He will present Himself as a Man from among common people, not one of authority and not one who seeks to prove to others who He is by any means, except to follow God the Father's will in His unfolding ministry to the world.  Indeed, even on the Cross, He will still be challenged by the religious leadership to "prove" who He is by saving Himself in some great show of divine power (see this reading).   Finally there is the temptation to grab a whole kingdom for Himself or even for His mission, but the kingdom of God which Christ preaches will have to be established in an entirely different way, one that includes the voluntary participation of human beings, their hearts and minds not being made slaves but rather those who love Christ.  As Jesus will say, "For many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14).  The temptations of the devil, if we look closely, may also be temptations that we all face in our own lives.  How often might we say to ourselves that we lack the capability to magnificently create shortcuts to fulfill our desires?  Or that we should be able to prove to all how worthy we are in some way?  Perhaps our social media use is over-preoccupied with the desire to impress -- for this is what social media naturally inclines itself to.  Do we think we'll be more happy if only we have more -- money, material power, clout, property?  But Jesus responds with only one thing needed:   a reliance on God, and all things come from that.  This is the story of Israel in the wilderness, and it is the story of Christ in the wilderness as well.  We are all faced with such worldly temptations, but let us consider His example that came first for all of us.  What we need to do in our lives is given by God, and so is whatever we truly need to fulfill that purpose.  Let us consider what it means to do so, as He did.   For Christ, the devil's temptation is based on the challenge, "If You are the Son of God."  What is your challenge or vulnerability?  We each must face this struggle and this choice for where He leads us to go as well.  We do not have to prove to anyone that we are God's beloved children; we need only to seek God who loves us instead.

 

 

 

 

If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham

 

 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 recent readings, Jesus is at the Feast of Tabernacles, an autumn festival; it is the final year of His earthly life.  He has been disputing in the temple with the religious leaders, particularly the Pharisees, and in front of the crowds.  We recall that the term "the Jews" is used as a type of political term for the religious leadership, and not for the Jewish people.  Yesterday we read that then Jesus said to them again, "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."  The religious leaders continue their questions to Jesus after He tells them, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (see yesterday's reading, above).  Again, John's Gospel uses worldly or earthly terms to denote spiritual things, and the resulting confusion asks us to learn to distinguish what Jesus is saying, and especially through an understanding of faith.  My study Bible comments that truth refers both to the virtue of truth, and also to the Person of Christ Himself (see John 14:6).  It adds that to be free refers to freedom from darkness, confusion, and lies, and also the freedom from the bondage of sin and death -- upon which Jesus expands here in today's reading.  Jesus speaks of the faith through grace, and the power of the Spirit to come to help to recollect His word, His teachings, and to follow.  Note that He is also speaking of the sense of adoption through the Son into the life of the Resurrection.  In the letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes, "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:3-4). 

 

 "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."  My study Bible comments that to be a child of Abraham, it is not enough to be simply related by blood.  On the contrary, Abraham's true children are those who share Abraham's faith virtue (Luke 3:8).   According to St. John Chrysostom, our Lord wanted to detach them from racial pride, and to teach these leaders no longer to place their hope of salvation in being of the race of Abraham's children by nature -- but to come to faith of their own free will.  My study Bible explains that their idea that being a descendant of Abraham was enough for salvation was the very thing that prevented them from coming to Christ.  

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."  My study Bible notes that proceeded here refers not to the Son coming eternally from the Father, but Christ being sent from the Father to His Incarnation on earth.  Once again, Jesus returns to the essential theme of love for God in the heart, a requirement for recognizing Christ and "hearing" His 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 Abraham's attributes, my study Bible explains, so here Christ is saying that those who convict Him of sin share the same attributes as the devil (and in particular, this is distinguished by a hatred for truth), are rightly called the devil's children.  

If we are to understand Christ clearly, everything begins with a love of God the Father.  As the Son, He is sent by the Father, and in His word, Christ presents His identity and serves His Father with obedience.  He tells the truth about who He is, and His relationship to the Father, and what His mission is.  In this, He is rooted in truth, the truth of His being and identity, His relationship to the Father as the Son, and even in His teaching about what is to come; that is, the Resurrection and the Spirit who will sent to the faithful.  In the stories of the Gospel, we read about all kinds of motivations for Christ's rejection, not least of which is that these leaders seek to protect their places and their authority.  He is not one of them, He is an outsider.  Moreover, He has acted to shake up the ways that things are done in the temple (see this reading).  There is a clear distinction made in John's Gospel between those rulers who want to cast Him out and plot against Him, and others who believe (see, for example, John 12:42).  Moreover, the actions of the leaders do not reflect the choices or decisions of the common people, who are afraid to speak in front of them.  But, more importantly for us, these questions of truth remain.  The questions of a love for God in the heart remain.  However, in today's reading, our focus shifts to the question of the rejection of truth.  What makes people embrace lies?  What ulterior motives can get in the way of a love for God?  It is clear that in the presentation of Christ's words and teachings, we look to the image found in the Old Testament, and also quoted by St. Paul, of God as a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29); therefore the love of God acts as a union with this fire.  In its original context in Deuteronomy, this phrase comes with the teaching against worshiping idols.  In St. Paul's letter to the Hebrews, he writes of the call to the Kingdom.  In both cases, the understanding of God as a consuming fire -- and therefore the love of God in our hearts as union with the same -- speaks of allowing everything else to be cast aside that cannot stand in that fire or would get in the way of this union.  St. Paul writes of Christ, "See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, 'Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.'  Now this, 'Yet once more,' indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain" (Hebrews 12:25-27).  St. Paul expands with consistency upon the teaching from Deuteronomy, indicating that, like the "carved image" forbidden ancient Israel, so "things that are made" should not and cannot stand in the way of the consuming fire of God's love and being.  When Christ speaks of the refusal of truth, this is what we should understand -- that nothing will stand in the way of the truth of God.  Not the things we cling to that become our desires on earth, not the false image of ourselves we make in hopes of our own glory in the eyes of others, not the attachments or falsehoods we feed ourselves that stand in the way of who we are in that fire -- that which is eternal and does not burn away, which cannot be shaken.  It is that truth of who we are that meets the truth of Christ there, and the love of God -- and whatever would take us away from that is of the one who hates truth and acts against God.  And so, we come to this same question we are called to ask ourselves every day:  Who are we in Christ?  What is the identity He holds for you, for me, for each of us?  In the Revelation, we're told that the Spirit has a white stone for each who overcomes, with a new name written upon it (Revelation 2:17).  Let us think about the place to which Christ calls us, and what fond desire might stand in the way.  What is being shaken in you?  What might you be asked to cast aside, or which is consumed by that fire, in order to more fully participate in the energies of God and the identity to which you're called?  Power and social acceptance, our image in the eyes of others, forms of "worldly glory," will always be with us, despite a changing scenario and the moving history of life in the world and what it offers and looks like.  He still asks us to remember a love of truth, and to leave aside the stumbling blocks that are put in the way of its embrace in us.  In today's reading, Jesus uses the image of Abraham, a man whose righteousness was credited to faith: "And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6).  Abraham, whose love of God is apparent from the stories we know of him, sacrificed so much that he knew in order to follow God, and to receive the promise of God for himself and all those who would follow him, including we who also call ourselves faithful.  This is the power of the love of God in this first ancestor of faith, whom Christ cites as the example for the religious leaders.  For Abraham, the "consuming fire" led him through all things, far away from his home, through the stories we know from the Bible.  But we should also "remember Lot's wife" as Christ has said (Luke 17:32).  This is the story of our faith, and it remains so today.

He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God

 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 out 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

Events in our current readings take place at the Feast of Tabernacles, an eight-day autumn harvest festival.  Yesterday we read that on the last and great day of the feast, Jesus said to them to the crowds and leadership again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin.  Where I go you cannot come."  So the Jews  [meaning the leaders] 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.  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 out 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."    To be a child of Abraham, according to my study bible, it is not enough to be simply related by blood; rather, Abraham's true children share his faith and his virtue (Luke 3:8).  St. John Chrysostom teaches that Christ wanted to detach them from racial pride and instead to teach them no longer to place their hope of salvation simply in being of the race of Abraham's children by nature.  Instead Christ seeks for all to come to faith by their own free will.  Their idea that being a descendant of Abraham was enough for salvation was the very thing that prevented them from coming to Christ. 

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."  When Jesus states here that He proceeded forth and came from God, He's not speaking of Himself as Son coming eternally from the Father, but rather as 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 Jesus has already expressed the idea that being a child of Abraham is based on sharing Abraham's attributes, here likewise He suggests that those who reject Christ share the attributes of the devil -- this would in particular mean a hatred for truth, my study bible says -- and thus are rightly called the devil's children.

Jesus identifies attributes shared between certain figures and those who also embody those attributes, constituting a kind of kinship that renders them described as "children" of those figures.   This works for good and for bad.  Those who are truly children of Abraham are those who share the attributes of Abraham, and in particular his most praiseworthy character traits of faith and virtue.  Perhaps Abraham is most notable for his obedience to God, which led him from his home toward a new and different land to call home.   In that light, it's important to understand Abraham as a figure that embodies the subsequent spiritual history of Israel, those who would wander following Moses, for which this particular festival being celebrated (The Feast of Tabernacles) serves as commemoration.   Abraham is also renowned for his hospitality to strangers (Genesis 18:1-15), a custom which remains essential to life in the deserts of Sinai and surrounding regions.  We should note that hospitality would remain for the earliest Christian monks of the desert, until today, a virtue second perhaps only to humility.  When we share these attributes, then, in Jesus' way of thinking we become "children" of such figures.  Linked indelibly to this understanding is Christ's revelation of the Father through His own actions and ministry, His sharing of the will of the Father as Son and through obedience as human being.  When we do likewise, we are also children of God the Father.  But to reject truth with hostility, Jesus says, is to share the traits of a different father, of the devil.  And here we need to pause and think.  We need to ask ourselves what serious notions Jesus introduces here for us, how powerful indeed it is to reject the truths that He teaches.  A facile understanding of Jesus' teachings here will bring us all kinds of discord, dissension, misunderstanding, and pain.  We have to see into the depths Jesus presents us with.  This is not a simple rejection He is speaking about, nor is this a threat of retaliation or retribution He presents.  Rather, at the depths from which Jesus introduces concepts of life to us, to the depths that are within us which are capable of recognizing love -- and essentially, we are still talking about condemnation for healing a man on the Sabbath -- these are the profound things reflected in His words.  It's not something we can take lightly nor symbolically; it is about a rejection of the truths we need for the abundance of life He shares and offers, and moreover there is a determination within that rejection to murder Christ and prevent others from following as well.  Christ gives us a relatedness to God within the practice and action of God's love, and those who reject the relationship as well as the truth that comes with it create hostility to truth itself.   If we think about this deeply, we may find ourselves confronted with such choices daily, hidden behind the things we encounter every day.  Do we find a legalism that contents us with its seeming clarity, but when taken to its limits will overlook the practice of mercy and acts of goodness?  Do you think of circumstances in which it is good to overlook the "errors" of another in order to perceive the good fruits they produce?  What about those who help and encourage others who may need it at the expense of social appearance?  These are all small choices we may find every day in our own lives, but they ask us to think about whose child we are and whose attributes we wish to share. The truth has to be the essential thing we guard and keep within our hearts, living it within the fidelity that we have to God. Everything starts with relationship and love, and life and works proceed from there.  What is He telling you about what you love? 

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God

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 shall you serve.'"

Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

- Matthew 4:1-11

On Saturday, we read that Jesus came from Galilee to John the Baptist 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.   To be tempted, my study bible says, is to be tested in fundamental areas of faith.  As in Mark's Gospel, the Spirit leads -- or rather, literally in the Greek, "throws" -- Jesus into the wilderness after His baptism, so that He is tested by a struggle with the devil.  We remember that we who are baptized in Christ are also aided by the Holy Spirit, and so need not be defeated by temptations.  A note reminds us that the wilderness is a battleground, an image of the world.  It is both the dwelling place of the demons and a source of divine tranquility and victory.

And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.  A traditional reading of this text gives us Jesus reversing Israel's falling to temptation in the wilderness.  The Israelites were tested for forty years in the wilderness.  They were proven disobedient and disloyal.  God humbled them by first allowing them to go hungry and then feeding them with manna, teaching dependence upon God (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).  Here, Jesus is tested for forty days, but He doesn't sin.  All of His answers to Satan are from Deuteronomy, and all of them call for loyalty to God.   Jesus fasted to overcome temptation, which gives us an example of our own power and limitations in the face of temptation.  The hunger of His flesh doesn't control Him; rather, he is the one who controls His flesh.  Christ's fast for forty days is the foundation of the traditional forty-day Lenten fast before Holy Week.

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.'"  Here the tempter challenges the Lord's relationship to the Father.  If You are the Son of God is a way to call into question the declaration of the Father's voice at Baptism (see Saturday's reading, above).  The impulse presented by the devil to Jesus is 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), separate from the Father.  But in His humanity, Jesus possesses free will and must always choose to remain obedient to the divine will of the Father.  By rejecting this first temptation, Jesus is rejecting an earthly kingdom, and He shows us not to pursue earthly comfort in the "food which perishes" (John 6:27), my study bible notes.   It says that while Adam disregarded the divine word in order to pursue the passions of the body (Genesis 3), here the New Adam (Christ) conquers all temptation by the divine word, which gives 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.'"  Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'"  The holy city is Jerusalem.  As Jesus has defeated him by using Scripture in the first temptation, Satan tries to use Scripture to put God's power of protection to the test (see also 2 Peter 1:19-21).  My study bible explains about our own lives that trials and temptations come on their own; we should never choose to 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 shall you serve.'" Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.  The kingdom of God isn't about earthly power and possessions.  In this test, Jesus is being asked to choose worldly power over the kingdom of God.  The devil is called the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31),  and also "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4) my study bible says, because the whole world is in his power (1 John 5:19).  Jesus refuses the road of earthly glory, which would lead Him away from His suffering and death for the redemption of the world. 

My study bible mentions, in the last note mentioned above, that in rejecting earthly glory, Jesus determines His road to the Cross, "His suffering and death for the redemption of the world."  This forty-day fast in the wilderness would mark the model for the early Christian monastics (and indeed remains the model for ascetic practice),  a movement which began in the deserts of Egypt in the immediate centuries after Christ.  To enter into the wilderness was to face temptation, to do spiritual battle, to live a calling to God that demanded every aspect of one's choices and being in dedication to the Lord.  Our modern spiritual struggles are no less significant and important, and no less mirrored in today's reading.  Jesus faces temptations that involve His security, His dependency upon God alone, and the social struggle for recognition and validation in the eyes of the world.  In a modern context, we might plainly see how such struggles shape our own kinds of temptations.  Where does our own security come from?  On what do we base our impulses for it?  Dependence upon God is not a modern image of the rugged individual nor of the great genius with his or her own personal "superpower" nor natural talents or intelligence who may beat the world in a game of competition.  To face up to the image we present to the world is to take on the great challenge of true personal identity.  Do we find our own worth and value given to us in our faith and in our communion with God, or is it based on what the world will tell us about ourselves -- our own reflection in the eyes of others (similar to the Greek myth of Narcissus)?  These are just a tiny handful of reflections of the temptations in today's reading.  I'm certain if one thinks about them, they reflect all kinds of powerful ways in which we as individuals may be tempted every single day.  In modern life, we find that quite famous and successful people, who seem to have the world by a string, are depressed and suicidal.  Where does self-worth come from?  Where does joy?  Where does meaning?  Each of these questions is reflected in today's reading, and emphasizes the strength and power and dependency upon God in the struggle of living our lives with a kind of dignity or inward strength that transcends a "worldly" sense of where we are and who we are.  Modern images pervade our lives in ways our ancestors could not have imagined, and technology focuses us more than ever on what is happening "out there" and our place in the images in the eyes of others.  And yet, depression and even suicidal impulse seem to accompany and correlate directly to social media use among the young, according to some modern studies.  (Some results suggest it is the type of interaction or internet use that determines the outcome, which tells us once again the role that choice and refusal of temptation plays in our well-being.  It is not a bad idea to combine restriction of social media into a type of "fast," as many are choosing to do.)   In today's reading, Christ faces head on the temptations the world will offer us, the types of temptations we all face in varied and myriad and individual forms in our lives.  As far away as the text may seem with its images from 2,000 years ago, we may frequently find ourselves in a wilderness of our own, without the support of those who'd remind us of God's love, in an environment in which survival of the fittest seems to be the only demand or restriction, in a life where we're shown dazzling images of the things everybody else seems to get -- reflected in the lies and temptations of the devil for worldly kingdoms.  We may even find ourselves subject to misleading interpretations of Scripture that point us in the wrong direction, away from a more time-honored approach that has given value to generations of people.  What we know from Christ is the importance of facing the fact that everything isn't going to come to us by following a magical sort of thinking, that life offers to us struggles of our own.  We need our dependency upon God in ways that run subtly and deeply beneath the surface of the images life will show to us.  We always need timeless values to help us, and God's love -- in which we may participate and share with one another -- really is the measure of all things. It is the well-being of all human beings that most concerns Jesus.  In the image of the Cross, He teaches us each to take up our own, and that the struggle against the dictates of the world and for the love of God is real and transcendent and lasting.  Most of all, we need to know that we have the help that ministers to us as did Jesus in the wilderness, and to call upon that help in our lives.

Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve"

 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, 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 he 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 says that the exodus of Jesus into the wilderness following His baptism has a dual symbolism.  First, it fulfills the Old Testament type, in which Israel journeyed in the wilderness for forty years after its "baptism" in the Red Sea.  Second, it prefigures our own journey through the fallen world after baptism as we struggle towards the Kingdom.  It's important to understand, from the point of view of emphasis in the Gospels, that Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness for this struggle.   The wilderness is a battleground, an image of the world in the sense that it is both the dwelling place of evil (or demons) and also a source of divine tranquility and victory, the beauty of nature as inspiration to worship Creator.

And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. Jesus is tempted for forty days.  This is a reversal of Israel's falling into temptation in the wilderness.  The Israelites were tested for forty years and were disobedient and disobedient and disloyal.  They were humbled by first being allowed by God to go hungry and then fed with manna to help them learn dependence upon God (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).  Jesus is tempted with hunger for forty days, and yet doesn't sin.  His answers to the devil come from Deuteronomy, and call for loyalty to God.  Christ's forty day fast is the basis for the Church's Lenten fast before Holy Week, and by tradition also before Christmas.  He fasts to overcome temptation, giving us an example of our own capacities and limitations in the face of temptation.  His hunger doesn't control Him.  We, too, have the Holy Spirit with us to help us face our own struggles.

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.'"   My study bible notes that the devil challenges Christ's relationship to the Father.  If You are the Son of God calls into question the Father's declaration at Jesus' Baptism (see yesterday's reading, above).  The devil wants Jesus to act independently, detaching Himself from the will of the Father.  In His divine nature, Christ shares one with with the Father and the Holy Spirit; in John 5:30, Jesus says that He can do nothing of Himself apart from the Father.  But as human being, Jesus possesses free will and at all times must choose to remain obedient to the divine will of the Father.

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.'"  Jesus has already rejected an earthly kingdom in the sense that He shows us not to pursue earthly comfort in the "food which perishes" (John 6:27).  In Christ, we have the power to conquer temptation.  Here the temptation extends to earthly power and possessions, a worldly glory rather than the glory of God.  Jesus is asked to choose worldly power over the Kingdom of God, as the devil is the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31), and has also been called "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4), because the whole world is in his power (1 John 5:19).  Jesus refuses earthly glory, which would lead Him away from His mission of suffering and death for the redemption of the world.

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.'"  Since so much of Christ's power to deflect temptation comes through Scripture, Satan tries to use Scripture to put God's power of protection to the test (see also 2 Peter 1:19-21).  The devil quotes from Psalm 91:11-12.  Jesus' response teaches us that trials and temptations enough will come on their own.  We should never intentionally expose ourselves to danger in order to prove God's protection.  To do so is to tempt the LORD.

Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.  There will be other times of great temptation, particularly during the events of His Passion and Crucifixion (Luke 22:40-46, 23:35; Matthew 16:21-23).

Each of us has our own temptations we encounter in life.  In modern understanding, many temptations can come from psychological formation in childhood.  Father Thomas Keating, one of the founders of the Centering Prayer movement, writes often of our "programs" (that is, impulses within us) that derive from the experience of trauma, which he says form the basis for the "false self."  That is, a false understanding of who we are.    He places them in three categories:  power/control, esteem/affection, and security/survival.  If we look closely at Jesus' three temptations, they would seem to fall into these categories:  the false tempting of God seems to indicate power and control, the temptation of worldly kingdoms and glory falls under esteem and affection, the temptation to use power to turn the stone to bread under security and survival.  Father Keating's understanding is one example of how we might discern what temptations we face in our own lives.  The notion of "false self" is akin to the idea of "ego" in popular language.  We have to dig deeply into our relationship with God, just as Jesus does, to find and follow who we truly are in the image of God, and who we may become as we dwell in Christ.  This leads us "becoming" the person God knows us to be, as only our Creator can know.  The battle for struggle and temptation, when viewed in that modern context, becomes all the more important in a world where we face constant challenges to our sense of ourselves.  Modern social media puts us in an immediate kind of environment that challenges the need for esteem, linked to worldly belonging, security, even survival.  There are all kinds of articles and studies done on the effect of a large number of "likes" on a Facebook post!  Jesus' experience in the wilderness meets the challenge of the distortions of who we are and who we need to be, and it teaches us about our own power to transcend the worldly temptations that may come fast and furious.  A priest's sermon I heard the other day spoke of demonic temptation in the internal voices that seem to tell us that we're all alone, or that we're not loved.  The Gospels testify to the lie in each of those thoughts for every single one of us.  Christ is always present, and God's love for us always steady.  More than that, in Christ we live also in a Kingdom which is alive with a communion of saints, with whom we may also pray and worship.  The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus calls the Helper (or "Paraclete") in John's Gospel, is always with us.  We have an infinite force of those who are with us, and all form the Church, the Body of Christ -- that great cloud of witnesses by whom we're encompassed.  One can see the need for affection and esteem and its temptations to chase after false idols and a sense of belonging, even pulling at our survival instincts to be one of the pack or tribe or group.  But we're made for something more and something better.  And this is where Christ leads us. This is where His temptation in the wilderness takes us and what it teaches us.  We rely on God, and therein comes our strength to make of our lives something more:  the difference between a good and rich fruitful life, and a barren wilderness.

If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread

 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 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 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 says that to be tempted is to be testing in fundamental areas of faith.  As in Mark, the Spirit leads -- or more literally "throws" -- Jesus into the wilderness after Baptism to be tested in a struggle with the devil.  This is not an accident nor merely a volitional choice by Jesus.  It is something important and essential.  My study bible says that as we are aided by the Holy Spirit as well, we need not be defeated by temptations.  The wilderness is a kind of battleground, an image of the world -- both as dwelling place of demons and also a source of divine peace and victory.

And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.  Jesus' time in the wilderness is a kind of reversal of the experience of Israel's falling to temptation in the wilderness.  The Israelites were tested forty years in the wilderness, says my study bible, and proved disobedient and disloyal.  God humbled them by first letting them go hungry and then feeding them with manna, helping them learn dependence on Him (see Deuteronomy 8:2-5).  Jesus is now tested with hunger for forty days, but doesn't sin.  All of His answers to Satan in today's passage are also from Deuteronomy, and they all call for loyalty to God.  My study bible teaches that Jesus fasted to overcome temptation, giving us an example of our own power and limitations in the face of temptation.  The hunger of His flesh does not control Him; rather, He controls our flesh.  Our Lord's fast of forty days is the foundation the traditional Church forty-day fast of Lent.

Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  Here my study bible challenges Jesus' relationship to the Father.  "If You are the Son of God" calls into question the declaration of the Father at Jesus' Baptism (see yesterday's reading above, specifically 3:17).   It's an attempt to push Jesus to act independently and detach Himself from the will of the Father.  In Christ's divine nature, He shares one will with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and He can do nothing of Himself (John 5:30), apart from the Father.  However, in Jesus' humanity He possesses free will, and must choose at all times if he is to remain obedient to the divine will of the Father.  We note this is a temptation to use power as Son, attempting to prey on Jesus' hunger.

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 this first temptation, and thereby rejects an earthly kingdom.  My study bible says that it shows us not to pursue earthly comfort in the "food which perishes (John 6:27).  It says that Adam disregarded the divine word in order to pursue passions of the body (Genesis 3), but the New Adam, who is Christ, conquers all temptation by the divine word, giving human nature the power to conquer Satan.  Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3.  All of His quotations are teachings for the rest of us, as well.

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.'"   Here, the devil quotes from Psalm 91:11-12.  My study bible tells us that seeing that Christ had defeated him through the power of Scriptures, Satan vainly tries to use the Scriptures 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.'"   My study bible tells us that trials and temptations will come on their own, and we're never to intentionally expose ourselves to danger in order to test or prove God's protection.  To do that is to tempt the LORD.  Quotation is 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 tells us that God's Kingdom isn't one of earthly power and possessions.  This is an important teaching for us, as it tells us about ourselves, that our own connection to God isn't dependent upon such things!  In the devil's test, says my study bible, Jesus was being asked to choose worldly power over the Kingdom of God.  The devil is the "ruler of this world" (according to John 12:31), "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4), because the whole world is in his power (1 John 5:19).   What Jesus refuses is this path of "earthly glory" -- such a choice would lead Him away from suffering and death for the redemption of the world.

What does it mean to be tempted?  I believe that it is very important that we recognize Jesus' temptation as something essential to His mission, something made possible through the Holy Spirit's action of "throwing" Him into the wilderness.  My study bible suggests that the wilderness represents the world, where we are torn between the tranquility and beauty of God's creation, and also dwelling place of demons.  Thereby, it's traditionally seen as a battleground, a place both of temptation to weakness and also of victory.  The earliest monastics went into the deserts, the wilderness such as the one into which Jesus went, in order to live lives within such a battleground, to pray without ceasing, and to depend upon God, in a life devoted to such practices and spiritual dedication.  There are many stories about them, all of which are surprising and enlightening.  But what we learn from Jesus' experience is that He goes there before us, and that none of us are exempt.  And it doesn't matter the site of the battleground, the city or the wilderness, we all face temptation to our weaknesses.  I believe the most important thing we can learn and understand is really our dependence upon God.  We have the failure of Peter, a seasoned apostle by the time of his temptation to deny Christ three times while Jesus is on trial, just outside the building as he warms himself on a fire, and in the face of a servant girl of the high priest.  It tells us that of ourselves, even the "best" of us, we can't really do this alone; everything depends on our relationship to God for this kind of strength.  Failure isn't an obstacle but rather a stepping stone, a way of learning better, understanding ourselves with greater honesty, and turning in greater faith back to the One upon whom we depend, in the love and mercy and help of both Christ and the Spirit.  We pray to Our Father, as taught by Jesus, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil " (or the evil one, as can also be interpreted from the Greek).   If we think about it, a "worldly" perspective seems to offer us two choices:  dominate or be dominated.  Both lead us into a failure to live a good and healthy life in terms of spiritual choices, and they leave us with a false dilemma.  To be dominated is to be led away from what we might think is best, following a false god, giving away our soul.  To dominate is to be tempted to use power in service to the worst of our hidden inclinations and weaknesses.  Both can capture us in temptation.  The hidden solution is really dependence upon God, a life lived outside the box of the worldly perspective, serving the image God gives us of ourselves, and learning and growing as we go, negotiating the worldly on His terms.  And that is our goal as Christians, and the Way that Christ has taught.  We are all sons of God by faith, inheritors of the Kingdom, and we follow Him to become such as fully as possible.  To fail to do so is to lose His promise of being with Him.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God

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

 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.  Once again, this reading is given many notes in my study bible.  Here, we read that "to be tempted is to be tested in fundamental areas of faith.  As in Mark, 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 into Him need not be defeated when temptations come along because, like Jesus, we are aided by the Spirit.  The wilderness is a battleground, a picture of the world, at once the abode of demons and a source of divine tranquility and contemplation."

And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.  Of today's entire passage that follows, my study bible says, "Jesus reverses Israel's dallying with temptation in the wilderness.  The Israelites were tested 40 years in the wilderness, during which they were disloyal and disobedient.  So God humbled them by letting them go hungry, then feeding them with manna, all to help them realize their dependence upon Him (Deut. 8:2,3).  Jesus is tested with hunger 40 days, but He does not sin.  Jesus' answers to Satan are from Deuteronomy, and all of them call for loyalty to God:  we are to live by that which God commands.  Contrary to the opinions of His detractors, in His messiahship Jesus actually fulfills the Law.  He is the loyal and obedient Son who triumphs over temptations. . . .  Jesus fasted to overcome temptation, giving us an example of our own power and our limitations.  The hunger of His flesh does not control Him, rather, He controls His flesh.  Jesus' fasting forty days is the foundation of the Church's forty-day Lenten observance before Holy Week . . . It is a spiritual preparation for the Passion and Resurrection of Christ."

Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  My study bible suggests that here the devil is challenging Jesus' relationship to the Father.  In this sense, it's a direct attack on His place, and His authority, by attempting to shake His confidence in the Father's love.  "If You are the Son of God calls into question the Father's declaration of Jesus' sonship at His baptism.  The devil wants Jesus to abuse His divine powers, to act independently, detaching His will from the will of the Father.  In His divine nature, the Son shares one will with the Father and the Spirit.  He can do nothing of Himself (John 5:30); He has no operation that is distinct from His Father's.  But in His humanity He possesses 'free will' and at all times must choose to remain in communion with His Father, to be obedient to the divine will."

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.'"   My study bible says that "by rejecting the first temptation, Jesus rejects a kingdom based on materialism, earthly well-being, the 'bread which perishes' (see John 6:1-40).  He teaches us not to love ease and comfort, to accept willingly the struggle necessary to purify us from evil.  While Adam and Eve disregarded the divine word given them, subordinating their souls to the passions of the body (Gen. 3), the New Adam conquers all temptations, that He might give our nature power to conquer the Adversary."

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."  The holy city is Jerusalem.  My study bible says, "Satan puts God's power of protection to the test.  Will Jesus depend on spectacular signs and self-aggrandizement, or will He humbly submit to persecution, humiliation and death according to the Father's will?"  Of Jesus' quotation, it notes, "God's Kingdom is not one of earthly spectacle and fame.  Therefore we should never expose ourselves to danger just to test whether God is going to 'protect' us.  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.  Here, my study bible says, "God's Kingdom is not one of earthly power and possessions.  In the devil's offering of the kingdoms of the world, Jesus was being asked to choose worldly power over the Kingdom of God.  The devil is 'the ruler of this world' (John 12:31, 16:11), 'the god of this age' (2 Cor. 4:4), because the whole world is in his power (1 John 5:19). . . . But Jesus refused to take a road that would lead Him away from the path of suffering and death for the redemption of the world.  Jesus says simply, away with you, Satan -- a command rather than a rebuke."  That the angels came and ministered to Him is a reflection of this place of the wilderness:  where both good and evil battle; we should always remember the ministering angels present as well.  But perhaps He was left alone to battle temptation for an essential reason for His ministry, and for us.

In today's lectionary readings, we are also given the following passage from St. Paul:  "I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints"  (Colossians 1:24-26).  It is generally considered that Paul wrote this particular Epistle (and some others) during his time in Roman imprisonment, where he also would die.  If I understand St. Paul's words, what he is saying here is that his particular suffering is good for the entire body of Christ, the Church, just as the afflictions of Christ, His suffering and the endurance of temptation, also built up the body of the Church.  This is very enlightening, because it tells us something about this time in the wilderness:  it wasn't just for Christ's achievements as Son, but it was also for us.  As my study bible put it, the New Adam conquers all temptations, that He might give our nature power to conquer the Adversary."   In other words, our own suffering, through the work of Christ and as we continue our faith in God, becomes, ironically, food for others, help for others, strength for the entire body of the Church, that was and is and is to come.  This is an amazing part of the good news, the Gospel.  And the other thing we note is how Books written many years later, such as the Book of John, and also the Epistles of Paul, support and are consistent with this earlier Book of Matthew.  The Gospel is consistent, the message is consistent, and this is another thing we must remember when we, too, go through our own struggles and meet them with faith.  It is entirely in keeping with this Gospel message; if our struggles contribute to the body of Christ, the Church, then they substantiate both a new contribution and also the consistent message which has been given from the beginning.  It is important to consider that while Christ showed us the way, our "work" of faith, too, can contribute and build, even "filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, the Church."  And that is, simply, awesome news -- extraordinary news about the essence and importance of our own lives, and what it means to Christ that nothing should be lost of those given to Him, in yet another quotation from John.  If we consider that our struggles also help others, and in fact, the entire body of the Church, perhaps we shall see them in quite a different light than we might assume, and our own faith takes on new dimensions and dynamics.  How do you turn to God when you struggle and are afflicted?  Let us consider the power and importance in such a way of life -- especially in the times we feel we are struggling with something alone.