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The text for the sermon is taken from the Lent I Collect:

“Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey thy godly motions in righteousness, and true holiness.”

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The temptation of Jesus, which occurs at the beginning of Matthew four, is immediately preceded by the baptism of Jesus. Matthew writes at the end of chapter three: “[Mat 3:16-17 KJV] And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  It is important to note that once his sonship is announced, Jesus goes out to the desert, fasts for 40 days, and then is tempted by the devil.

This greater context helps the typological meaning in these passages. By typological, I mean how Jesus fulfills OT allusions. The OT scenes and characters are shadows or types of Jesus. Moses and Elijah both fasted for 40 days and are shadows of Jesus. Even more, the nation of Israel is a prefiguration of Jesus and yet also fulfilled in Jesus–as they wandered and failed in the desert, Jesus resists the temptations and fulfills the mission of Israel.

But even more, Jesus should be seen as the New Adam, the model of a re-created humanity, healed from the wounds of the fall. Adam was in the garden with every need provided and with the companionship of Eve. Jesus is now alone, hungry, and in a desert wilderness. As Adam had every advantage to not sin, now Jesus is tempted with everything in favor of the tempter himself–and yet Jesus prevails where Adam failed. Jesus is now answering the sins of Adam, reversing the destruction that Adam wrought.

Adam gave up his special relationship as a child of God in order to try to be a God. Satan tempts Jesus in the same way, attempting to make him deny his Sonship. In each of the temptations, Satan challenges the declaration of God at Jesus’ baptism. “If thou be the Son of God”! Satan is challenging Jesus’ sonship, but in each challenge, Jesus puts his Father’s will before his. Instead of instantly making food for himself, Jesus allows His Father to give it to him as He did for Israel in the wilderness. He refuses to expect, as a false prophet would, that God supports those who put Him to the test. Instead, he obeys as a perfect son. Finally, he denies the temptation for worldly power as the Pharisees and others (including Peter at some points) expected from him. Instead, he humbly serves in the kingdom of His Father. Jesus reverses Adam’s sins, faces the devil and conquers as the New Adam, the true Son of God.

The disobedience of Adam is matched by the radical and free obedience of Christ. We come to the paradoxical nature of the Christian life–that our freedom comes from obedience. I am reminded of the MP Collect for peace: “O GOD, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom.” This prayer is expanding upon the Apostle Paul’s continual emphasis that we are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness [Rom 6]. The yoke of Christ is easy and brings a unique freedom [Gal 5]. This is one of the great paradoxes of our Christian faith, and leads us to the Epistle for today where Paul brings out the irony in the life of the Christian–though we live in the world, we truly are new creations, adopted sons and daughters of God. The devil thinks he is tricky when he asks Jesus to throw himself down from the pinnacle, but look at what Paul says. Paul has already given his whole life in obedience to the Lord. Paul has stood at the door of death in shipwreck, torture, stonings, but he has gained eternal life. The devil tempts Jesus with all the kingdoms of the world, not realizing that though Christians are poor, they are rich and possess all things!

You see now how important these passages are for us as we enter the Lenten wilderness. We are given a model to follow and a reminder of how our lives as Christians are lived by a wisdom not of this world. Christians grow strong by fasting, we gain the world by giving away to the poor, and we live to God by dying to ourselves. As Jesus fasted to prepare himself for the temptations of the devil and his ministry, we too should fast as it strengthens and prepares us for coming temptations.

Again, this might seem strange that fasting helps, but the Orthodox bishop, Kallistos Ware describes fasting so well: “Ascetic self discipline, then, signifies a rejection of the world, only in so far as it is corrupted by the fall; of the body, only in so far as it is dominated by sinful passions. Lust excludes love: so long as we lust after other persons or other things, we cannot truly love them. By delivering us from lust, the fast renders us capable of genuine love. No longer ruled by the selfish desire to grasp and to exploit, we begin to see the world with the eyes of Adam in paradise. Our self-denial is the path that leads to our self affirmation; it is our means of entry into that cosmic liturgy whereby all things visible and invisible ascribe glory to their Creator” (Ware, Introduction to Triodion, 27-28). 

Fasting actually helps us back into a right relationship with our bodies, other people, and God. In our own lives, obedience to God often requires force, and it requires force against ourselves, to work against ourselves so that we may give ourselves to God. 

What stands in our way? How can we break those chains? The Lord told us himself: fasting and prayer! When we fast and pray we teach our bodies that we live on much more than bread alone, that our bodies need to be ruled.

During a fast we also join with Christ in a small way. When we give up our sensual desires for the sake of a higher desire, our self-denial is joined to Christ’s. As we begin to imitate him, we become like him, and we can join his true freedom. 

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“Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey thy godly motions in righteousness, and true holiness.”

Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him…

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Though it is true that each of us constitutes a personal horizon, it is also true that we share a common vision as Christians. And within that range of vision, there are common landmarks that mean everything to us. Think of a landmark event as something like the true poles of a compass. A compass enables us find the right direction and to make progress in our journey. Along life’s way we individually take compass readings, spiritually speaking, through the Daily Office and other prayers; and as the Body of Christ we are used to gathering on the Lord’s Day to take our common bearings. God provided the children of Israel with his own compass as they journeyed to the Promised Land: a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God has provided Holy Mother Church with the true compass in the life of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ. From Jesus’ life story we have landmark events that mean everything to us, and from those landmarks we have built our liturgical calendar. He is our true compass. He is our true north. Every year in Lent we begin with one of our most important landmark — our Lord’s Temptation in the wilderness. Let’s take a look. 

The doors of heaven swung open at Jesus’ baptism and the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, came to light upon his head. Then God the Father spoke: 

This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

Immediately after his baptism, Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit that John had witnessed come down from Heaven. St. Mark puts it even stronger: 

The Spirit immediately drove him into the wilderness.

This place, this wilderness, this wasteland is referred to in the Old Testament as The Devastation. It is sterile, full of salt deposits from the Dead Sea and no vegetation can grow there. It is also the location of the Qumran with hundreds of limestone cliffs and caves. If you have ever seen photographs of the Qumran you know what a lifeless place it is. David hid from King Saul in and around this region. This was the place known as the Wilderness where Jesus was tempted of the devil. 

His baptism and the Father’s revelation was the first step into his public ministry — the declaration by the Father that Jesus was his Son. The second step was the testing — proving that declaration and that is what the temptation of our Lord in the wilderness is all about. This narrative is not meant to demonstrate to Christians the manner by which temptations may be overcome. That is not to say that lessons for living cannot be drawn from our Lord’s personal experience of temptation — that is the directions that the compass points out are true. But the danger of a utilitarian approach, that is always looking for way to fight my personal temptation, is that it will overshadow the meaning that the event had for Jesus and his Apostles. That meaning, simply put, is that Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, is the Son of God and he has come to defeat the enemies of God and he will do it and one day all creation will burst into blossom because God himself has come to our rescue. The temptation is all about Jesus, all about his identity, all about his mission. That is what the devil meant to dispute and destroy by force or fraud or deceit and trickery. “If thou be the Son of God…” is the challenge, the resistance, the hostility we will hear from this moment forward in one way or another throughout Jesus’s ministry. But here is the beginning of the conflict:

If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread…

Notice that nowhere in the Old Testament is there any indication that stones will be turned into bread by the Messiah. Not even God does that. Jesus will in fact take a few loaves of bread and a few fish and he will multiply them hand over fist to feed thousands of hungry people. But he never turned a stone into bread because that would be magic and magic overturns the sacramental principle, which is the very principle of the life of Christ and of the life of his Church. What is that sacramental principle? There are two parts to the sacramental principle: first of all the material creation is not the opposite of the spiritual, but in fact the material is spiritual. The great example, the great Archetype of that truth is the Incarnation itself. “The Word became Flesh.” The life-giving sacraments of the Church are all based upon the fact that God himself has entered the material creation as a material creature. The Word did not come down from Glory like Birth of Venus; or like Athena bursting forth from the head of Zeus a full adult. He has a mother like all of us. That leads us to the second sacramental principle: Grace does not destroy nature; grace perfects nature. So the Word by becoming flesh perfects flesh, the Word will turn water into wine, multiply real loaves and fishes, loosen the tied-tongues of the children of Israel, and give sight to the blind —  but he never overturns nature, he always perfects, completes nature. The Word became Flesh without destroying flesh. The devil is tempting Jesus to use his divinity to work magic, to destroy nature. This Jesus rejects.

But even more devastating to Jesus’ identity–turning stones into bread would be a rejection of God’s will for his Son. The will of the Father for the Son, at that moment, involved fasting and hunger for his Son. Jesus loved his Father with his whole heart, soul and mind. 

But he answered and said: It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.

Jesus rebuffs the devil’s second temptation with a quotation from Deuteronomy 6:16: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord your God.” Israel had demanded signs from God over and over again –- a testing of God. 

Jesus finally defeated the devil at the end of the third temptation which is really the temptation to avoid the Cross and still possess the whole world, with the words of Deuteronomy 6:13: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.”

The temptation of Christ in the wilderness provides the Church with true bearings, orienting us for our journey back to God. The sense of direction we gain from this event, the path of Christ is absolutely reliable because he is God made flesh and he loves us. Furthermore you have been empowered to resist temptations that will lead us away from God because you are baptized. This is not hard to grasp, but it is hard to do. There is nothing I can say that will make resisting temptation effortless or painless. But any real, authentic Catholic community of love — a parish —  will provide you with opportunities for great personal sacrifice, ample occasions for the imitation of Christ. How important is it to you to follow Jesus? How important is it to be the person you claim to be? It is time to put away childish things. Time to be the adult. Take responsibility. Today as we come to the altar of God to receive the body and blood of Christ our God pray he will stiffen our resolve to be the people we claim to be.

“He cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”

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Today is the feast day of St. Valentine, the martyr and saint from 3rd century Rome. We all know how this day has been commercialized to the point that the man himself is often just forgotten! In addition the whole emphasis of the day is on romantic love. This is not, necessarily, a bad thing but what is often forgotten is that there are many different types of love, and each one of them comes from one source, God himself. When we talk about God as love, we are then talking about one specific type of love out of which all other love flows, and that is called charity. Today it also happens to be Charity Sunday as you all heard from our Collect (one of the few that is actually from Reformation) and Epistle reading.

It is important to realize that our one English word love, covers a variety of meanings. Paul’s exhortation in 1 Cor 13 about love is marvelous–one of those rapturous moments in the NT that catches our attention. But if we take this passage to be about romantic love or just filial love, we will end up in some very tough situations. For instance, if we insist that love must bear all things and believe all things, as Paul says, what happens in situations where someone is abusive or lies? Must we as Christians return and bear more? Or just hope that the lies will stop? Of course not! This passage, in fact, is not about romantic love primarily–it is about the heavenly virtue of charity which was given to us at baptism. And this love is the love towards God. So, a good paraphrase of Paul’s passage would be: “Charity bears up under all things, continues to entrust one’s well-being to God in all situations, keeps on looking to God’s finality come what may, and awaits his resolutions for my life and the life of the world whether my personal circumstances appear to be good or bad at the moment.”

The virtue of charity is what points us towards God throughout all life, in all situations, at all times. Remember what the Collect says for this week: “O LORD, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send thy Holy Spirit, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever lives is counted dead before thee: Grant this for thine only Son Jesus Christ’s sake.  Amen.” God desires his people to live for Him, so that they dedicate each of their actions toward Him. He desires this so much that he actually gives us Charity as a gift! We now have the ability to love God as He desires to be loved. St. Paul describes it so well:”Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”

This is Divine Love. Notice that this type of love, this divine type of love that we call charity has little to do with how you feel, because this type of love is not the love of emotions. Charity is a type of love that has to do with your will, what you choose. And as St. Paul describes this so well, our Gospel shows it forth in the person of Jesus Christ, the embodiment of Divine Love.

Jesus told His disciples what was coming because He is heading to Jerusalem of His own Will, not compelled or forced. Because Christ went towards His passion knowing what was to come, it was an act of His will, a perfect act of charity.

This journey of love is our journey as well as we respond to His love. As Jesus approaches his intense agony during our annual liturgical cycle, and we again have a chance to either join Him in that journey or again let Him pass by. The purpose of the liturgical calendar is to bring us closer to God in time and space. In Lent, in particular, we do this as we repent from the sin in our lives, gain perfect remission of those sins, and receive from God a new and contrite heart. It is a journey of sorrow in order to gain joy, to dedicate our lives to God. I like to think of the blind man from the Gospel as our Lenten guide, for he is our example of how to reach out towards Divine Love.

We reach out to God by crying for God to have mercy on us. St. Gregory the Great understands the people who try to silence the blind man as our own vices: “We often wish to be converted to the Lord when we have committed some wrong. When we try to pray earnestly against the wrongs we have committed, images of our sins come into our hearts. They obscure our inner vision, they disturb our minds and overwhelm the sound of our petition” (Hom. 13, 96). So we must persist in our prayers and not be bound by the chains of sin in our lives. Lent is a time to cast off those sins that hinder us, to enjoy the freedom of walking in Charity with Jesus in our sight. Do not let your sins hold you back from following Jesus in whom you believe. As bitter as they might be, you must face those sins and repent.

The Church has already set out the best way to do this, which is the Sacrament of Penance — Confession. It is in Confession that you can bare your soul to Jesus in absolute secrecy, to let go of all the sins that are holding you back, plead to God for His mercy and receive complete freedom from those sins through the Absolution. Every week we say the General Confession during the Mass, and the priest does give a full absolution. But if you have a hard time thinking that you have “truly and earnestly repented of your sins,” or if your conscience is not at peace after this Confession, you need to come to private Confession. Our own Prayer Book puts it this way: “if there be any of you, who by this means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other Minister of God’s Word, and open his grief; that he may receive such godly counsel and advice, as may tend to the quieting of his conscience, and the removing of all scruple and doubtfulness.” The blind man cried out above the crowds that tried to press him down in order to receive the healing touch of Love. We must do the same by seeking out Confession, be freed from your bondage, and live out this Lent in charity.

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“He cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”