“POWER IN THE WORD”
Saint Matthew 4. 1-11
Invocavit: The First Sunday in Lent 10 February Anno Domini 2008
Fr Watson
Worshipping the Bible is like worshipping a Golden Calf, or your own "knowledge," or, the serpent. Adam was tossed out of paradise into the wilderness. You are in the wilderness too, but not only for his sin, but for your own daily trespasses.
You are tempted every day to sin. Have you ever withstood a temptation? God does not credit you for trying real hard; it is either sin or refrain from sinning. Oh you have not murdered and you have not committed adultery but you have nonetheless murdered with hatred and anger and unforgiving hearts. You have broken the Sixth Commandment with thoughts and lusts. For every time you have abided by the Word of the Lord during a twenty-four hour time-frame you have acquiesced to Satan dozens of times. Not only is your win/loss record abysmal, it is dooming you to hell. The Patriots had almost a perfect record for 2007/8, but if your record was the same, for any day, any hour, any second, you would be damned.
Because you succumb to temptation, the Lord was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Jesus wasn't punished because you don't "fast" during Lent from wine and meat on Fridays; Jesus suffered hunger and thirst because you can't even fast one day from sin on any day! Think of it; God in the flesh had stomach cramps and a parched mouth because you "pig out" on selfishness and gulp down greedy "my-way" milkshakes. You will sin till you die; a complete life of not doing what God made His children for. For this the Lord, perfect and pure, fasted for forty days (the number of completion) to fulfill obedience to the Good Maker.
Three strikes and you're out goes the rule in Baseball. To miss the Holy Will and desire of the Trinity, the Three-in-One, is to strike out in the game of life. Three times Jesus faces the "heat" of the deceiver. The devil, Bible Scholar that he is, quotes King David but the Lord will have none of this protestant mis-exegesis. There is no protesting against the unfairness of the Father, for God is Good, period; even when the evidence of the senses, of the hungry belly, parched throat, naked body, aching cancer-ridden body, depressed lonely serotonin deprived mind, shouts out differently; God is good and He will only give you exactly what you need. No matter how weary and hurt His body is, Jesus will not use His Divinity for His own pleasure, satisfaction, or even life; Jesus obeys on your behalf. You daily rebelling is now covered over and hidden in the Lord's desert distress; His stomach rumbles were loud enough to cover all of your squeals of anger, rage and lying. Because Jesus lived and sustained Himself on the Word, the Will of the Father, Jesus is now the living, enfleshed Word that satisfies and nourishes you. You eat not the Bible, but rather the very Body and Blood of the content of the Bible: The Lamb of God.
On the roof of the Temple Satan prodded the Lord to become a charismatic clown: "toss yourself off the roof 'Ja-ee-zus' because the Bible says the angels got to catch you." The angles would have borne up their Prince of Peace safely, but that is not the point. To momentarily keep from being hurt, or even to prolong life at the expense of the Word of God, is never the point. Those who desire to gauge, locate, and pimp the Church by miracles, healings, wealth, strength, size, and television ratings, are doing what the devil wanted Jesus to do; they are rooting after glory and not carrying their crosses in the shadow of the Suffering Servant.
For all those times you've used the Holy Scriptures, or your impious questions concerning the more difficult passages, to try and "trip someone up," show your Solomonic wisdom, make some "Kingdom of the Left" political point, shame someone mired in sin, or to justify your own un-Biblical conduct, the Christ stood rock like on the full counsel of the Word: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy God." Eve buckled under the sly word games of Satan: "Did God really say?" You too are trapped like flies by the "Prince of Flies" and his honey rhetoric of rebellion. But Jesus is the Word in flesh and blood. He the Word would pay the toll by letting the devil nail that Word, that Body and Blood to the cross. The pen is mightier than the sword for the pen of the Holy Spirit, writing the truth in Christ's flesh, the Finger of the Father scouring the wrath of the Law against you, in Christ's flesh, triumphs over all the swords, spears, and self-wills of Romans, Jews, and Kansas Lutherans.
For all the times you've worshipped the devil; and let's be clear, I am not saying that you have intentionally named Satan as the focus of your praise and fealty; the devil is far too wise to let himself be seen openly. But for all the times you have bowed down to anything that wasn't the Trinity, you have in reality been giving worth to Satan. Your deity is what you put your trust in. Your idol is what you think about; spend most of your time with/on. Your God is that which you look to. For the time yesterday, today and tomorrow that you will bend your knee to your own way and your own will, the Lord refused to do obeisance to the old serpent.
Jesus did away with Satan by allowing Himself to be done away with. Jesus bent His knee to the Father. Jesus prayed "not My will but Thy will O Father." Jesus the God/Man perfectly worshipped and served the Blessed Trinity and now you receive the benefit and the blessing. The devil gave up; he's a loser, he'll always give up when confronted by the Pure Word. The devil gave up and left Jesus.
In Jesus, covered by His Blood, wearing His Name, feasting on His Body and Blood, refreshed and energized by His Water, and secure in His Holy Body the Church, the devil leaves you. Here too angels minister to you by giving you Jesus.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost