“Be sober! Be vigilant! Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, strong in the faith!” (1 Peter 5:8,9) Those words that Peter wrote to newly baptized Christians in his first letter, capture the theme of today’s readings.
In the sad words of Genesis we learn where listening to the devil lands us: in exile from the home our God planned and planted for us. The devil is like the mythical chimera, and can assume many shapes. So he appears to our first mother as a serpent. But he was hungry to devour her, and her husband. He eats both body and soul - but he always goes for the soul first. He begins by sinking his teeth into our inner being and draining it of faith, of trust in our God.
So he plants the seeds of doubt: “Did God really say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?” The implication being, “what an unreasonable God, he is! Why would he demand such a thing?” And then the bold contradiction of what God had said: “No! You will not die! God knows in fact that the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.” The insinuation that God had denied them access to that tree because He wanted to hold them back and keep them from growing into all they were destined to be.
You can almost see the serpent licking his chops as Eve reaches out to the tree and takes and gives to Adam and then Adam eats as well. The Serpent sighed. That was a good meal, he just ate. And there would be more to devour later, for their bodies would be his too now. Death would devour them. Two people who now shared his distrust of God. Two people who would pass that distrust on to all their descendants. Two people who died inside as the serpent sucked the faith right out of them.
From the Garden to the desert. In the Gospel reading, we see the old serpent at work again. This time he is identified by three names: the devil, the tester, and Satan (or the accuser). It’s a different setting, to be sure, but his tactics remain the same. And once again, the consequences are enormous. In the first reading, a world fell into unbelief through the deceit of the devil. In the Gospel reading, that very world is being rescued by the promised Seed of Eve. He endures what his and our first parents endured – the assault of the devil. And make no mistake about it: it is His trust in the Father that is under attack.
Remember, that Jesus has just come from the River Jordan, where he was baptized for us and the Spirit descended and the Father spoke: “This is my Son, whom I love, in him I am well-pleased.” Forty days alone in the desert, and Satan begins to work on him: “Some fine Father you have! I see how beloved you really are. Leaves you out here all alone. Well, the only way to get ahead in this world, Jesus, is to look out for #1, so why don’t you make these stones bread. Your Father sure isn’t bothered with feeding you, is he?”
Do you see what Satan is attacking? Our Lord’s trust in the Father. His trust that His Father loves Him and cares for Him and provides for Him. And how does our Lord answer? He quotes Deuteronomy. A passage that begins: “He humbled you, he made you feel hunger, he fed you with manna which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known to make you understand that human beings to do not live on bread alone but on every Word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” As though He said to Satan: My Father’s promises do not fail.
So Satan changes his vantage point, but launches the same attack: “You trust Your Father. How sweet. Well, come up here with me and jump off from this tower. For the Lord has promised: ‘He has given his angels orders about you,’ and ‘thy will carry you in their arms in case you trip over a stone.’ So, jump, Jesus! Jump and trust!” Jesus goes back again to Deuteronomy and quotes: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” You see, what Satan was urging Him to do was not to trust the Father, but to jump in order to make the Father prove that He loved His Son. Jesus will have none of it.
In the final test, Satan’s hunger is unveiled for all to see. He is hungry for worship, for adoration that belongs to God alone. He promises Jesus the world if only Jesus will worship him. Jesus says: “That’s enough. Away with you, Satan!” Again He quotes Deuteronomy: “The Lord your God is the one to whom you must to homage; him alone you must serve.” And being unsuccessful in turning our Lord away from trust in His Father, the devil departs and the Father’s unfailing love sends angels to Jesus, who is comforted and refreshed by them.
So Jesus’ trust in His Father does not waiver, does not fail. It holds through the desert and the temptations; it holds all the way – even through the cross. Our Lord lives in the faith that His Father will not let Him down, that His Father’s promises are more sure than heaven and earth. In this faith in the Father, He goes to the tree where He offers Himself a sacrifice of faith at the Father’s bidding in place of all our unbelief and distrust. And so He grants forgiveness to a world of rebellious distrustful humanity – even you and me.
Our second reading spoke of our times of testing, when Satan is coming after us to devour us, to swallow us down and make us share in his unbelief and distrust. When those moments come upon us, and he whispers in our ears: “If you really were a beloved child of God, would he let this happen to you? He doesn’t love the likes of you!” - I say, when those moments come, it is our unspeakable joy to be able to go to the throne of mercy and find grace when we are in need of help. Our Lord Jesus, who knows our every temptation to unbelief and distrust, He will strengthen us and keep us firm in the faith.
Today He spreads His table before us again. Here He who conquered temptation for us comes to us with the body and blood that is our redemption; He comes to us whispering: “Child, my Father did not abandon me in my time of need, but raised me from the dead; no more shall I abandon you, whom I have purchased with my own blood. Be of good courage – Satan shall not devour you, not now and not ever.” Amen.
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