Lent 1

Lent I (Matthew 4:1-11) It is written.

Jesus quoted scripture.

It is important to understand that as a child Jesus learned the scriptures in the exact same way we learn the scriptures. Jesus was fully human. He experienced life as we experience life.

St. Paul tells us that when the co-eternal Son of God the Father came to earth and became a particular human being, he emptied himself of his divine knowledge and power. He did this precisely in order to be able to experience human existence with all of its limitations and temptations.

As a child, Jesus spent many hours in the ancient equivalent of Hebrew School in order to learn the Biblical stories and in order to memorize scripture. He learned by repetition. He practiced. His mother, Mary, and step father, Joseph, helped him and from time to time tested him.

Most importantly, Jesus memorized scripture so that at the moment of temptation he could use the resources God makes available to all of us to resist the temptation.
There are three sources of temptation: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The world is the surrounding culture with all of its values and institutions. The world derives its values and creates its institutions from the place of separation that now defines human nature. That separation produces in all people a deeply seated prevalent spiritual pain. Modern philosophers call that pain existential angst. It is the feeling that something is wrong and something is missing. It is the tendency to ask the question about life: is that all there is?

It is the way we who live in a state of separation from God, nature, other people and our own true nature experience the creation and our place in our society.
The values and institutions humanity creates are a defense against this deeply rooted spiritual pain. The various cultures human beings have created are designed to distract us from this pain and to suppress our conscious awareness of this pain. The world creates a false image about God, nature and human life in order to block our the reality of the Original Pain we inherit along with Original Sin.

We don’t need to take the Biblical assertions about human nature at face value. We can read the observations of human behavior and human culture recorded in the many varied books of the Bible. We can look around us and ask the question: what is happening in the world? We can examine our own lives and pay attention to our own reactions to life and to other people.

We can ask the important questions: where I am living defensively? How do I try to distract myself and avoid paying attention to the world as it is? What is this unease I feel about myself, other people, God?

The flesh is the body of distorted desires we carry with us. Original Sin is the choice we made to separate from God. That choice produces Original Pain. The pain distorts the way we think, the way we experience our emotions and the way we make choices. When the Bible speaks of “the flesh” as a source of temptation it is referring to these distortions.

The desires of our heart are rooted in the Original Blessing of our creation but distorted by the Original pain of our choice to separate from God. The Seven Deadly sins are all corrupted virtues that result from these distortions.

Our culture seeks to distract us from our pain. That distraction only results in suffering. Suffering is recycled unconscious pain.

The flesh is the body of distorted desires that leads us to corrupt virtue into sin.
The devil scarcely needs to do any more. The role he has chosen for himself is to keep us in a state of confusion. If we are religious he uses religion to create false images of God. If we are reading the Bible, the devil wants to focus our thoughts on apparent inconsistencies and contradictions rather than the central truth the Bible teaches.

If we have not accepted Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, the devil devises bait and switch tactics to redefine the problem confronting the human race.
If we are in Christ, the devil seeks to steal the joy of our salvation by encouraging conflict and controversy within the Church.

In Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness we see the pattern of temptation the devil brings.

First, the devil attempts to convince us to meet a legitimate human need by wrongful means. So, the devil recognizes Jesus’ hunger and tempts him to use his divine power to turn stones into bread. This is the corruption of miracle into magic through an appeal to power.

Jesus meets this temptation by quoting scripture. So, the devil switches tactics and quotes scripture. He misquotes it, to be sure. But, the fact that the devil quotes scripture at all can be very confusing to people, especially religious people.

Jesus fights fire with fire and uses scripture to correct the misuse of scripture. That is why it is important not just to read the Bible but to study the Bible and to memorize the Bible. The devil will use false teachers to misquote the Bible in order to confuse the faithful and scandalize unbelievers. Jesus sets the pattern for us to counteract this temptation by his careful and insightful use of scripture.

The third temptation is the same appeal Lucifer made to the angels. It is the appeal he made to our first parents Adam and Eve. It is the distortion of worship.
That is why the first commandment God revealed to Moses deals with worship. The devil always seeks to redefine worship and to confuse the meaning and purpose of worship. In a very simple and crude manner he appeals to the human will to power. He encourages us to approach worship with the question: what’s in it for me?

The devil only needs a tiny foothold in our conscious awareness of the call to worship. He only needs to intrude a small deceit to produce ever expanding levels of frustration.

Jesus once again quotes scripture in its proper context and with its proper perspective.

The great gift Jesus offers all of us to combat and resist temptation is the proper use of Scripture. At the Last Supper Jesus promised to send a Counselor, a teacher, to help us. That Counselor is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit speaks definitively in the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Church. The summary statement of the Councils is the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed.
On a personal and individual level, the Holy Spirit is with us as we read, mark learn and inwardly digest the scripture. It is important to read the Scripture in its proper context and with its proper perspective. The meaning of Scripture emerges most fully in the context of the broader life of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The world, the flesh and the devil would prefer we not read scripture. But, if we do, then the world, the flesh and the devil will tempt us to read scripture alone, apart from the insights of the wider church, and out of its proper historical and spiritual context.

The Holy Spirit wants us to be able to follow Jesus’ example as he combats temptation with the words: it is written. We can only do this as we make a firm resolve to read the Bible, study the Bible, and to memorize the Bible. If you only memorize one verse a month, the memory verse in the monthly newsletter and the Sunday bulletin, you will have implanted twelve verses into your mind and heart in the course of a year. You will have twelve more opportunities to meet temptation with the words: it is written.