“EAT THE WORD”
Saint Matthew 4. 1-11
Invocavit - The First Sunday in Lent 13 February Anno Domini 2005
Fr Watson
Man shall not live by bread alone. Eat the Word.
In the wilderness Cain killed Abel. In the wilderness the sons of Jacob stripped, imprisoned and sold Joseph into slavery. In the wilderness the rebels Korah, Dathan and Abiram revolted against Moses. In the wilderness you attack Jesus every day with old-nature sin. In the wilderness are sin, death, and the devil.
In the wilderness is loneliness and isolation. The solitary confinement of the desert is but a precursor to the eternal estrangement of hell. This was not the way God made things; this is not His perfect will and desire for His beloved children. Man was made for the Garden, for Paradise. Man was made to eat of all the trees delicious fruit (save one) not hunger. Man was made to drink and be quenched, not to thirst and sweat burning salt. Man was made for communion with the Lord not for prideful disobedience and treasonous actions against Creator and fellow creature.
Dr. Luther writes that "the account of Christ's temptation has been written for [y]our learning and admonition."
Adam listened to the voice of the tempter. Adam sought to eat what he wanted, what he thought he needed, the "bread" of the world's wisdom, instead of eating the Word which the Lord had given him. Adam's eviction from Eden is your banishment to the wilderness Lenten-Lands as well. Man sins but God feeds. Man craves and eats poison but the Lord makes His own to lie down in green pastures wherein He feeds them good grass and crystal-clean water. Man is attacked daily by the devil, and daily succumbs to the lies of self and ego. If you have been washed clean in Baptism, why must you suffer so? If you have been anointed co-heir of the Father why must you grow old, become diseased and die? Why must you be hungry and thirsty and cold and attacked by friends and family? Why must you be in the wilderness? These are serpent questions.
You are sons of Adam; you have old sinful natures which will not entirely be put off till the resurrection of all flesh. You are also buried with Christ by your Baptisms so that you are united with Him in His atoning death for all of your trespasses. You are united with Him "under the cross" even while you must spend your allotted "40" years in the wilderness of this world.
Man shall not live by bread alone. Eat the Word.
What Adam and Moses and all of you cannot do, in the dessert of satanic attack, the Lord Jesus Christ did accomplish. Theodore of Mopsuestia was correct: "Adam's temptation was reversed in Jesus' temptation." Where Adam fell, the Lord stood firm. Where the Israelites back-slid, apostatized, and stiffened their necks, the Christ spoke the Word of God, His Father's Word, His own Word. Where you disobey God's commands to love Him perfectly and your neighbor as yourself, Jesus obeyed. Where you crave the world (security, lack of struggle, peace at any price, creature comforts, having others honor you and respect your wisdom and choices, and having what you want when you want it: food, drink, entertainment, affirmation, sex, palatial accommodations); where you crave this world and it's "bread," Jesus was nourished by the Word of God. Man shall not live by bread alone. Eat the Word.
Christ's victory over the Law is your victory. He is your Champion, your David, against the Goliath of fear, pain, and accusations. Moses' own 40 day fast on Mount Horeb, awaiting the delivery of the Tablets, pointed ahead to the real obedience in thought, word and deed of the Son. Elijah's 40 day dessert exile was a picture of the Lamb surrounded by wild beasts in barren lands. Israel's four decade-long wilderness trek is a "type" of your own complete life, warring against the spiritual powers here in the Church Militant. Moses was fed by God on the mountain shrouded with clouds. Elijah was fed by God under the tree as his eventual assumption into heaven was clouded by the sin, might, and trials of evil King Ahab and his Baal worshipping minions. Israel was fed for 40 years by God. The children of the heavenly Father were given manna and quail---bread and meat--- as a harbinger, "forcast," of the Holy meal itself, wherein the bread is Christ's very body. But all of these temporary deliverances, rescues, by God have meaning and purpose only in light of what the Second Adam, the true eternal Son of David would do.
Jesus obeyed. After rejecting the bread that is only bread. Jesus was given the bread of angels, even as the holy Messengers attended to Him. The blood that your Savior shed on the cross pays for the blood shed by Cain and by you when you murder your brother in your hearts. The tears shed by Jesus in pain over the sins of the world, your sins, pay for all the tears which you have caused to be shed; all the tears you have shed when others have wronged and hurt you. Your imperfect and aging flesh is renewed and restored by the Flesh of God, given on the Tree, given to you in the Supper, and Given in obedience to His Father when it stood eye to eye with the dragon on the hot sand of temptation and said: "Get thee hence Satan, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only thou shalt serve." Man shall not live by bread alone. Eat the Word. Saint Hilary of Potiers, called the "Athanasius of the West," was correct when he wrote: "It was fitting that the devil was defeated in the same human flesh in whose death he was glorified."
Be fed and strengthened by Christ's Invocabit Victory. God does take care of His own.
Yes, for the moment you are in the world, in the desert. But, "be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." [St. Jn. 16. 33] If God could nourish Christ for forty days without food, He can also nourish you, Jesus' brothers and sisters.
Man shall not live by bread alone. Eat the Word.
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost