And so he rebuffs Satan’s attacks decisively.
Jesus won’t be fooled. He is the new Adam who will remain faithful just where
the first Adam had given in to temptation. And he will perfectly fulfill
Israel's destiny; for in contrast to those who provoked God during forty years
in the desert, Christ Jesus reveals himself as God's Servant, totally obedient
to the Father. Jesus will be Satan’s conqueror; he will "bind the strong
man."[3] And even though
he tempts Our Lord this morning, Satan knows he doesn’t have a chance in hell; he knows
it and he’s furious. And he’s not backing down.
And so as Satan taunts Jesus this
morning, “If you are the Son of
God;” we hear an echo of the ridicule that will be barked at him on Calvary. “If you are the Son of God, come down
from there.” Jesus’ victory over Satan this morning in the desert anticipates
his victory on the cross. For it is there on the cross that Jesus will express
perfectly his love for the Father and each of us. This will be his supreme act
of filial obedience.[4] There in
his agony Jesus will dupe Satan once and for all, trampling down death by death.
But here in the desert this morning,
Satan’s still on the attack. Jesus is ready for him. Make bread out of a rock?
No, I don’t think so; for his food is to do the will of his Father. Have
secular rule over all the kingdoms of the earth? Why bother. It’s not going to
happen, for Jesus is with us to inaugurate the kingdom of God, a kingdom of
justice and compassion and mercy where it is the poor and lowly will be lifted
up and set on thrones. As for leaping off the top of the temple, the only
plunge Jesus is going to take in Jerusalem will be into the depths of death.[5]
There on the cross he will sink into sorrow and untold pain, all to reverse
their power over us. Then taken down from his cross of agony, he will fall into
the arms of most sorrowful mother.
It strikes me that the scene that
precedes his temptation is fundamental to our understanding. For there at
his Baptism Jesus descended into the murky water that is our humanity - soggy,
sin-prone and unpredictable, ever vulnerable to temptation. Jesus has immersed
himself in all of it. Perhaps for too long we have thought that God was after us, trying
to catch us, watching from far off to see if we would mess up and give in to
temptation. Maybe we got it wrong. God in Christ is never that far away, he’s
with us; he has come to share unreservedly in all that we go through. He is always
able to empathize with us in our weaknesses; he has been tempted in every way
that as we are - yet without
sinning. He has
taken upon himself all that we are. He’s not far away spying on
us; he’s down here with us in the mess, accompanying us, even in the confusion of
our temptations.
I want to say, “Jesus, what are you
doing down here? What can it mean that you were tempted, you who said, 'My
will is to do the will of him who sent me?'" Yet we see that he was
tempted to do otherwise and has to stand his ground. Like us in all things but
sin; he knows the reality of what it means to be pulled in the wrong direction.
So much does Jesus love us, that our temptation to sin has become his temptation.
And by identifying with us down there, Jesus has paved the way for us to share
the righteousness that characterizes God himself, “so that in him we might
become the very holiness of God.” That is
our destiny.
Some years ago in the flush of new
fervor for my faith, and a love for Christ I had never before experienced, I think
I felt a bit rarefied and somewhat above the common fray. And I remember one afternoon
a temptation sneaking in, softly, suddenly, insistently. I was embarrassed, lost
my balance. Imagine feeling such things again; I was supposed to be way beyond
that now. Ha! And as I tried to pray through it, I sensed Jesus somehow saying
to me, very quietly but definitely, “Would you be less than I am?” “Would you be less than I am?” which is
to say, “I went through all of these things, I was tempted in every way as you
are. I am, I will be with you, in you, through all of it. Trust me, rely on me
alone. Don’t you want to be like me?”
Our weakness and temptations can be places of encounter with Christ. Down there with him we have the blessed opportunity to
depend on him alone, to cry out in our helplessness and flee to him for refuge.
Then he can save us, for his power is always completed in our weakness. Jesus is with us, and he shows us this morning
how to stand firm, grounded in our identity as beloved of God, so that we can
make the loving choice when faced with the possibility of doing otherwise. And most
breathtaking of all, if we do give in to temptation, if foolishly, weakly, deliberately we do sin, we are able to beg for his mercy and forgiveness. He has promised always, always to bend down, pick us up, wash
our wounds with the blood and water flowing from his own wounded side and carry us home
to the Father. What could be better than that?
Baptized
into Christ Jesus, we are beloved in him. Death and
evil, Satan and all his wiles, even when we feel like we’re up to our neck in temptation
and sin. None of it ultimately has any power at all over us; we belong to Christ Jesus. He
has won the victory for us.
[1] See
Pope Francis, Misericordiae Vultus
[2] See
N.T. Wright, Simply Jesus.
[3] Catechism
of the Catholic Church.
[4] Catechism
of the Catholic Church.
[5] See Luke
Timothy Johnson, Sacra Pagina: Luke.
Reflection
by one of the monks.