Do Not Let The Devil Win!

(Homily for the 1^st Sunday of Lent Yr. C)

          Every first Sunday of Lent we read the Gospel passage of the temptation of Jesus, which in turn serves as a reminder for us to always say “No” to Satan and his promises as Jesus did. Secondly, it reminds us that in our lives temptations must come, but we are called to resist as Jesus did. Jesus’ experience of temptation evidences that we humans are not immune to temptation. The author of the letter to the Hebrews was firm on this fact when he affirms: “we do not have a high priest who is incapable of feeling our weakness with us, but one who has been tempted in all things like us, but has not sinned” (Heb. 4:15). So, the Devil will continue to tempt us, but God does not, He only tests us. St. James in his letter says that “God tempts no one” (Jm. 1:13). The purpose of temptation is to make us bad, but the purpose of test is to make us better. One thing we have to bear in mind is the fact that condition favors Satan in his antics and temptations, he saw Jesus in the desert, hungry after 40 days fasting.

         In the Gospel reading (Lk. 4:1-13) we see the threefold temptation of Jesus. This account is found both in Mathew (Mt. 4:1-4) and in Luke, although there is a little difference in their manner of presenting the temptations, while Mathew has bread-temple-mountain, Luke has bread-mountain-temple. It does appear that Mathew’s intention was to bring together the two questions pertaining to Jesus as Son of God. As such, for Mathew the temptations of Jesus are messianic in character. On the other hand, Luke’s ordering is suggestive of his desire to emphasize that Jesus is the new Adam, the antitype of the first Adam, who fell when tempted by the serpent. Also Luke’s choice has a theological reason, namely, the climax of Jesus’s temptation will take place in the Holy City on top of the temple, for the ultimate victory of Jesus will take place there. The attempt of Satan to make Jesus abandon his mission will be rejected by Jesus, but the final victory of Jesus will be accomplished three years later on the Cross. As a matter of fact, given that we are reading the Lukan version, we are going to thread the line of St. Luke, therefore, seeing Jesus’ temptation as the temptation of the new Adam. St. Luke in his account affirmed that the devil left Jesus “until an opportune time” (v.13), this is of great importance to the theology of St. Luke. St. Luke links the temptation story with the event of the Passion. The three temptations condense the three fundamental relations of man:

●Towards oneself (stone or bread) Concupiscence of the body

●Towards others (power and science) Concupiscence of power

●Towards God (God at my disposition) Concupiscence of the eyes

         The first temptation was the demand of the Devil to Jesus to change stone to bread. Even though it is true that bread is good, but the word of God is best. It is also true that we need “bread” to survive, but what keeps us in being is the word of God. His “word are spirit and they are life” (Jn. 6:63), so also man “lives of every word that comes out of the mouth of the Lord” (Mt. 4:4). This is the temptation to use his power to His material and personal advantage, to satisfy his hunger, after 40 days of fasting, but the real word that satisfies is the word of God. Till today we are still faced with the temptation of turning everything to “bread” just for personal satisfaction. Little wonder, greed, selfishness and insatiable desires for material things is erupting the foundation of our world.

          The second temptation was the Devil’s open challenge to Jesus. He took Jesus up to a height and showed Him all the Kingdoms of the world, and then the Devil tells Jesus (God) to worship him. The devil invited Jesus to succumb to his logic, for him to have everything. What an irony! Here we see the logic of the devil: “I give you, you give me”. This is the temptation for power (to have power over others). This temptation for power has dealt with our present world. This indeed is the exact contrary of God. God in His logic loves us first, and gratuitously too. He loves and gives without asking for anything in return. The devil’s logic is “nothing goes for nothing” and God’s logic is “something goes for nothing”.

        The third temptation was the devil’s attempt to put Jesus to his disposition. He took Jesus up the pinnacle of the temple, and challenged Him: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge over you, to guard you…” And Jesus to the devil, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God”. Here, the devil asks Jesus for a miracle. The devil used the written word of God to tempt the Incarnate Word of God. Peter made a similar request to Jesus at the episode he saw Jesus walking on water. “Lord, he said, if it is you tell me to come to you across the water” (Mt.14:28), and Jesus allowed him, but after three steps, he became afraid and started to sink. Indeed, miracles are not necessary for one to have faith. We remember Jesus performed so many miracles in Galilee and Samaria, yet his people wanted to throw Him down from the hill in Nazareth (cf. Lk. 4: 22-30). It is not miracle that gives faith, it is a supernatural gift. This is the temptation to make God succumb to the devil’s will, sometimes also we are like the devil, when we want to bend God’s will to our will, when we command God for miracles because we want them, not because He willed them. Some of us tempt God with: Give me, do this or do that etc. We want God to act when and how we desire.

     Jesus in the threefold temptation teaches us to always put God first in our life. The responses (Man shall not live by bread alone, you shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve, you shall not put the Lord, your God to the test) of Jesus to the devil manifest that Jesus put God first in everything. Who is first in your life?

     These three temptations are the three ways through which man deserts the way of God:

●temptation of idolizing material things (selfishness)

●temptation to grab power for the sake of domination

●temptation to desire for success and personal prestige

        We too, are constantly tempted to deviate from God, but Jesus indicates to us through his experience a major road in order not to fall into temptation. We should avoid a type of an accommodating Christianity that tends to please man, rather than God.

          Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit, and he was tempted. He felt that there is an obscure power in the world he has to wage war against. And at the end of the temptation the devil left him, but St. Luke added: “the devil left him, until the opportune moment” (Lk. 4:13). And truly he did return, when instead of the pinnacle of the temple he took him (Jesus) to the pinnacle of the Cross and says to him: “if you are the son of God come down from the cross” (Mt. 27:40). Satan departed only for a moment, he waited for another chance, as such, we must never be complacent to his antics, a Christian need to always be on the tiptoe. In the episode of today’s passage Jesus started his fight against sin and against Satan the Instigator. Through his victory over Satan He created a new possibility for us: that is the possibility of overcoming temptation and sin. He is the antithesis of Adam. He (Adam), man wanted to be like God; but Jesus even though God became man to save man from his evil inclination and desire. St. Paul says of him: “Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God…But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6-8). The temptation of Eden has not ended, for there are still many serpents who continue to lead man astray and make him deviate from the divine will, but Jesus has opened a new possibility for us, he won Satan and his temptations in the desert, we too can win him in the desert of our human existences.

          In the first reading (Deut. 26:4-10) we see the confession of faith of the chosen people, but prior to their confession of faith they strayed. This passage reminds us that whenever we sin, is as if we forget who we are and what God has done for us. Here, the Jews remembered who they are and what God has done for them, by liberating them from the hands of the Egyptians, to Canaan. They Israelites fell into temptation and sinned when they loosed sight of what God has done for them (we can say that the greatest sin of the Old Testament is forgetting the greatest miracle of the Old Testament, the Exodus). Likewise, when we lose sight of what God has done in our lives, we fall into temptation and sin, we forget the pivotal element of our faith: Jesus’ death and resurrection.

          According to some exegetes this passage from the book of Deuteronomy is fundamental in the whole of the Old Testament, or precisely in the Pentateuch. Deuteronomy 26:4-20 occupies a similar position to that of 1Corinthians 15:3-8 in the New Testament. As such, what Christ’s death and resurrection are to the New Testament, the exodus is to the Old Testament. Therein, the mighty acts of God prompted a confession of faith, and a recall of those mighty works.

        The second reading (Rm. 10:8-13) presents the confession of faith of the believers in Christ. St. Paul presents a New Testament confession of faith (cf. v.9), which corresponds with the Old Testament confession in the first reading. Therein, St. Paul declared the fundamental truths to be believed in order to be saved:

●to believe that Jesus is Lord

●to believe that the Father raised Him from the dead.

St. Paul went further and affirmed that whoever that invokes the name of the Lord will be saved. Here it is not all about believing and professing our faith in Him with “the mouth”, it is necessary to believe and profess it “with the heart”.

       As we reflect on the episode where the Devil tempted Jesus for three good times, the tempter had a sort of a formula: “if you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread” (v.3); “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down” (v.6); “I will give you all these, if you fall at my feet and do me homage” (v.9). The “if question” was something recurrent in the life and mission of Jesus, indeed, the part of the struggle he had to contend with was that of doubt and challenge, even upon the cross: “If you are the Son of God come down from the cross” (Mt. 27:40). Peter was caught up with the same question, upon seeing Jesus walk on water, “Lord, he said, if it is you tell me to come to you across the water” (Mt.14:28). The same question was addressed to him regarding his identity at the beginning of his public ministry. In our own experiences today, despite our human frailty and sins, we are invited to put the “if question” into the hands of God, and allow Him to fill us with the assurance of his presence and divine grace.

        Above all else however, the Lenten season brings to our consideration the necessity to evaluate our faith. Whether our faith is full of only words and inconsistency, or is concretized in good works and in love. We are indeed invited to follow the way of Christ in dealing with temptations and the tempter. Remember do not let the Devil win! May He who was tempted in the same way we are, and yet remained without sin continue to strengthen us in our daily struggle to resist the devil and his promises. We pray earnestly in this season of Lent that we may experience more deeply God’s mercy, goodness and love! Amen!!

(Fr. Vitus M. C. Unegbu, SC)