Homilies on Matthew, Homily 13

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Then. When? After the descent of the Spirit, after the voice that came from above and said, “This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And the remarkable thing is that it was the Holy Spirit who did this; for he says here that the Spirit led Him up. Since He did and endured everything to teach us, He also accepts being led up there and wrestling with the devil, so that anyone who is baptized and has to endure greater temptations afterward will not be troubled as though something unexpected has happened, but will continue to endure everything nobly, as though it were happening in the natural course of things. Yes, that is why you took up arms: to fight, not to sit idle. That is also why God does not stop temptations as they come: first, to teach you that you have become much stronger; next, to keep you humble and prevent even the greatness of your gifts from making you proud, since temptations have the power to restrain you; also, so that the wicked demon, who for a while doubts whether you have deserted him, may be fully assured through the test of temptations that you have utterly abandoned him and broken away from him; fourth, so that you may become stronger in this way, and better tempered than any steel; fifth, so that you may have clear proof of the treasures entrusted to you. For the devil would not have attacked you unless he had seen you raised to greater honor. That is why, for example, he attacked Adam in the beginning: he saw him enjoying great dignity. That is why he set himself against Job: he saw him crowned and publicly praised by the God of all. Then why does He say, “Pray that you do not enter into temptation”? That is why the writer shows you Jesus being “led up,” rather than simply going up, in accordance with the plan of His incarnation. Through this he hints that we should not rush into temptation on our own, but should stand courageously when we are dragged into it. And see where the Spirit led Him when He took Him: into a wilderness, rather than a city and marketplace. That is, intending to draw the devil to Him, He gives him an opening through both His hunger and the place. For the devil attacks most readily when he sees people left alone, by themselves. That is also how he attacked the woman in the beginning, catching her alone and finding her apart from her husband. When he sees us with others, united together, he is less confident and does not attack. For this very reason, we especially need to keep gathering together so that we will not be exposed to the devil’s attacks. 2. Having found Him in the wilderness, and a wilderness without paths (for Mark makes clear that it was like this when he says that He “was with the wild beasts”), see how cunningly and wickedly he approaches, and what sort of opportunity he watches for. He approaches Him when He is hungry, rather than during His fast. This teaches you how good fasting is, what a powerful shield it is against the devil, and that after baptism people should devote themselves to fasting, rather than luxury, drunkenness, and lavish meals. That is why He Himself fasted: to teach us, though He had no need of it Himself. Since our sins before baptism came from serving the belly, He Himself introduced fasting after baptism, just as someone who had cured a sick person would forbid him to do the things that caused the illness. For Adam was driven out of paradise through his lack of restraint in eating; this also brought about the flood in Noah’s time, and this brought the thunderbolts down on Sodom. Although sexual immorality was also a charge against them, this was nevertheless the root from which each of those punishments grew. Ezekiel indicated this too when he said, “But this was Sodom’s iniquity: she grew self-indulgent in pride, in an abundance of bread, and in abundant luxury.” In the same way, the Jews committed the greatest wickedness, driven into transgression by drunkenness and luxurious living. That is why He too fasts forty days, showing us the medicines for our salvation. Yet He goes no further, so that the extraordinary greatness of the miracle will not discredit the reality of His incarnation. As it stands, that cannot happen, since Moses and Elijah had already been able to go for that length of time, strengthened by God’s power. If He had gone further, this, among other things, would have made His taking on our flesh seem unbelievable to many. Having fasted forty days and as many nights, “He was hungry afterward,” giving the devil an opening to seize and approach, so that through actual combat He could show how to prevail and win. Wrestlers do the same thing: when teaching their pupils how to prevail and overcome, they voluntarily face others in the arena, giving their pupils a chance to see and learn how to win through their opponents. That is what happened here too. Since He wanted to draw the devil this far, He both made His hunger known to him and waited for him to approach. And just as He waited for him, He also threw him to the ground once, twice, and three times, with the ease fitting for Him. 3. But so that we do not lessen the benefit to you by rushing through these victories, let us begin with the first attack and examine each one carefully. After He became hungry, it says, “The tempter came and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” He had heard a voice coming from above and saying, “This is My beloved Son,” and had also heard John testify so fully about Him. Then he saw Him hungry, and this left him confused. He could not believe that He was merely a man because of what had been said about Him; yet he could not accept that He was the Son of God either, seeing Him hungry as he did. In his confusion, he speaks ambiguously. Just as, when he approached Adam in the beginning, he pretended things were true that were not, in order to learn what was true, so here too, without clearly understanding the unspeakable mystery of the incarnation or who this One who had come might be, he tries to weave other nets through which he thought he could discover what was hidden and obscure. And what does he say? “If You are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” He did not say, “Because You are hungry,” but, “If You are the Son of God,” thinking he could deceive Him with compliments. He therefore said nothing about His hunger, so that he would not seem to be bringing it up and reproaching Him with it. Since he did not understand the greatness of the divine plan that was unfolding, he supposed this was something shameful for Him. So, flattering Him cunningly, he mentions only His dignity. What does Christ say? To put down his pride and show that what had happened was neither shameful nor unworthy of His wisdom, He brings forward and openly states what the other had kept silent about in order to flatter Him: “Man will not live by bread alone.” So He begins with the belly’s need. But notice, I ask you, the cunning of that wicked demon, where he begins his wrestling, and how he does not forget his own craft. He weaves his deception here through the very means by which he drove out the first man and surrounded him with countless other evils: lack of restraint in eating. Even now you can hear many foolish people utter countless wicked words because of their bellies. But Christ, to show that even this tyranny cannot force a virtuous person to do anything shameful, first becomes hungry and then refuses to do what He is told, teaching us to obey the devil in nothing. Since the first man both offended God and broke the law by doing this, He teaches you this much and more: even if what the devil commands is no transgression, you must still refuse to obey. And why do I say “transgression”? “Even if the demons suggest something beneficial,” He says, “you must still pay no attention to them.” For example, He also silenced those demons who proclaimed Him the Son of God. And Paul rebuked them too when they cried out this very thing. What they said was beneficial; yet to put them to greater shame and block their plot against us, he drove them away even when they were preaching the teachings of salvation, shutting their mouths and ordering them to be silent. That is why He did not agree to what was said in this case either. What does He say instead? “Man will not live by bread alone.” His meaning is this: “God is able to nourish a hungry person even by a word.” He brings the devil testimony from the ancient Scripture and teaches us never to fall away from our Lord, even if we are hungry—yes, whatever we suffer. But if someone says, “Still, He should have shown who He was,” I would ask him, with what purpose and for what reason? The other did not speak that way in order to believe, but because he thought he could argue Him into unbelief. That is how he deceived and talked the first human beings into giving way, because they did not firmly trust God. He promised them the opposite of what God had said, filled them with empty hopes, led them into unbelief, and so drove them out of the blessings they actually possessed. But Christ shows that He did not agree to the demand for signs, either from the devil then or later from the Jews who sided with him. He consistently teaches us that, whatever we may have the power to do, we should do nothing pointlessly or at random, and should not obey the devil even when need presses us. 4. What does this accursed one do then? Defeated and unable to persuade Him to do his bidding, even when He was pressed by such intense hunger, he moves on to something else, saying, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, He will put His angels in charge of You, and they will carry You in their hands.” Why does he add this at each temptation: “If You are the Son of God”? He is doing much the same thing now that he did in the earlier case. Then he slandered God by saying, “On the day you eat, your eyes will be opened,” intending to suggest that they had been deceived and cheated and had received no benefit. Here too he insinuates the same thing, saying, “God has called You Son for nothing and has deceived You with His gift; if that is not so, give us some clear proof that You possess that power.” Then, because Christ had reasoned with him from Scripture, he too brings in testimony from the prophet. What does Christ do then? He is neither indignant nor provoked, but with that utmost gentleness He reasons with him again from the Scriptures, saying, “You must not put the Lord your God to the test.” He teaches us that we must overcome the devil through restraint and patient endurance, rather than miracles, and that we should do nothing at all for show and empty glory. But notice his foolishness even in the very testimony he brought forward. Both passages the Lord cited were entirely appropriate; his, on the other hand, were sayings chosen haphazardly and at random, and he did not bring forward anything that applied to the matter at hand. The words “He will put His angels in charge of You” certainly do not advise anyone to hurl himself headfirst down from a height. Moreover, this was not even spoken about the Lord. For the moment, however, He did not expose this, although the devil’s way of speaking was both insulting and deeply inconsistent. No one demands these things of God’s Son. Throwing oneself down is the work of the devil and demons, while God’s work is to raise up even those who are down. And if He ought to have displayed His own power, it would have been by saving others, rather than hurling Himself down at random. Throwing ourselves down cliffs and into pits properly belongs to the devil’s company. The conjurer among them, for example, does this everywhere. But even when these things are said, Christ does not yet reveal Himself. For a while He speaks with him as a man. The sayings “Man will not live by bread alone” and “You must not put the Lord your God to the test” suited someone who was revealing little of Himself and presenting Himself as an ordinary person. Do not be surprised if the devil repeatedly shifts his ground while reasoning with Christ. Like boxers who stagger after receiving deadly blows, drenched in blood and blinded, he too, dazed by the first and second blows, blurts out whatever comes into his head at random and proceeds to his third attack. 5. “And he leads Him up onto a high mountain, shows Him all the kingdoms, and says, I will give You all these things if You fall down and worship me. Then He says, Get behind Me, Satan, for it is written, You must worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone.” Since he had now gone so far as to sin against the Father, saying that everything belonging to the Father was his and trying to present himself as God, the maker of the universe, He rebuked him then. But even then He did so without vehemence, simply saying, “Go away, Satan.” This itself was more a command than a rebuke. For as soon as He said, “Go away,” He made him flee, and the devil brought no further temptations against Him. Then how does Luke say that “he finished every temptation”? It seems to me that, by mentioning the chief temptations, he spoke of all of them, as though the rest were included in these. For these are the things at the heart of countless evils: being a slave to the belly, doing anything for empty glory, and being ruled by the madness for riches. With this in mind, that accursed one saved the most powerful of all for last: the desire for more. Although he had been struggling to reach this from the very beginning, he kept it for last because it had more force than the others. This is how he wrestles: he uses last the things that seem most likely to bring someone down. He did the same sort of thing with Job. So here too, after beginning with the motives that seem more degrading and weaker, he moves on to the more powerful ones. How then are we to overcome him? In the way Christ taught us: by fleeing to God for refuge; by refusing to lose heart in famine, trusting God, who can feed us even with a word; by refusing, amid whatever good things we receive, to put their Giver to the test; by being content with the glory that comes from above, caring nothing for glory from people; and by despising, on every occasion, whatever goes beyond our need. For nothing puts us under the devil’s power like longing for more and loving greed. We can see this even in what happens now. Even now there are people who say, “We will give you all these things if you fall down and worship.” They are human by nature, but they have become his instruments. For even then he approached Him both by himself and through others. Luke made this clear too when he said that “he departed from Him until a later time,” showing that afterward he approached Him through his own instruments. “And look, angels came and served Him.” While the attack was underway, He did not allow them to appear, so that He would not drive away the prey by their presence. But after He had exposed the devil on every point and made him flee, they appeared. This teaches you too that after victories patterned on His, angels will also welcome you, applaud you, and attend you as guards in everything. Angels, for example, take Lazarus away with them after the furnace of poverty, famine, and every distress. For, as I have already said, Christ on this occasion displays many things that we ourselves are to enjoy. 6. Since all these things have been done for you, strive to follow and imitate His victory. And if one of that evil spirit’s servants, who shares his way of thinking, approaches you and taunts you by saying, “If you are so remarkable and great, move the mountain,” do not be troubled or confused. Answer gently, saying something like what you have heard your Lord say: “You must not put the Lord your God to the test.” Or if he offers glory, dominion, and endless wealth, and orders you to worship him, stand courageously once again. For the devil did not use these schemes only against the common Lord of us all. Every day he brings them to bear against each of His servants, in cities, marketplaces, and courts of justice as well as in mountains and wildernesses, and through our own fellow human beings as well as by himself. What must we do then? Refuse to believe him at all, close our ears to him, hate him when he flatters us, and avoid him all the more when he offers more. For in Eve’s case too, it was when he raised her highest with hopes that he threw her down and did her the greatest harm. Yes, he is an implacable enemy and has waged a war against us that allows no treaty. We are not as eager for our own salvation as he is for our ruin. Let us therefore avoid him in our actions as well as our words, in what we do as well as what we think. Let us do none of the things he approves, for then we will do everything God approves. He makes many promises, but his purpose is to take, rather than give. He promises gains through robbery so that he can deprive us of the kingdom and righteousness. He lays earthly treasures like snares or traps so that he can rob us both of these and of the treasures in Heaven. He wants us to be rich here so that we will not be rich there. And if he cannot use wealth to drive us out of our share there, he comes another way, through poverty, as he did with Job. When he saw that wealth did Job no harm, he wove his snares through poverty, expecting to overcome him that way. But what could be more foolish? Someone who has been able to bear wealth with moderation will be all the more able to bear poverty courageously. And someone who does not crave riches when he has them will not seek them when they are gone. That blessed man did not; instead, through his poverty he became still more glorious. The wicked demon did have the power to strip him of his possessions, but he could not take away his love for God. He actually made it stronger, and by stripping him of everything, he made him abound in still more blessings. This left him bewildered. The more afflictions he brought upon Job, the stronger he saw him become. And so, as you know, when he had tried everything and thoroughly tested his mettle without making any progress, he turned to his old weapon, the woman. He puts on a mask of concern, paints a tragic picture of Job’s calamities in a deeply pitiful tone, and pretends to offer that deadly advice as a way to end his suffering. But he did not prevail even then. That remarkable man recognized the bait and wisely silenced the woman who was speaking at the devil’s prompting. We must act in the same way. Whether it is a brother, a trusted friend, a wife, or anyone else close to us whom he has entered and through whom he says something improper, we must not accept the advice because of who is speaking. We must turn away from the speaker because the advice is deadly. Even now he does many things like this, putting on a mask of sympathy and, while seeming friendly, pouring in his destructive words, which are worse than poison. Just as it is his work to flatter us for evil, it is God’s work to discipline us for our good. 7. Let us not be deceived, then, or seek a life of ease by every possible means. For it says, “The Lord disciplines those He loves.” So when we prosper while living wickedly, that is when we should grieve most of all. We should always be afraid when we sin, but especially when we suffer no harm. When God makes us pay our penalties little by little, He makes it easy for us to pay for these things. But when He patiently bears with each of our acts of negligence, He is storing us up for great punishment if we continue in them. For if affliction is necessary for those who do good, it is much more necessary for those who sin. See, for example, how patiently Pharaoh was treated, and how afterward he suffered the most extreme punishment for everything. See how many offenses Nebuchadnezzar committed, yet in the end paid for them all. And the rich man became miserable chiefly for this very reason: he had suffered no great harm here. Having lived in luxury in the present life, he departed to pay the penalty for all these things there, where he could obtain nothing at all to ease his misery. Yet despite all this, some people are so cold and senseless that they always seek only the things here and make those absurd remarks: “Let me enjoy everything in the present for a while, and then I will think about things out of sight. I will satisfy my belly, be a slave to pleasures, and make full use of the present life. Give me today, and take tomorrow.” What extreme foolishness! How do people who talk this way differ from goats and pigs? If the prophet does not allow those who “neigh after their neighbor’s wife” to be counted as human, who can blame us for considering these people goats and pigs, more senseless than donkeys, when they regard as uncertain things that are more evident than what we see? If you believe nothing else, pay attention to the demons when they are being whipped, those whose aim in everything they say and do has been to harm us. I am sure you will not dispute that they do everything to increase our false sense of security, remove our fear of hell, and produce disbelief in the tribunals of the world to come. Yet even with these intentions, they often proclaim the torments there through cries and wailing. Why then do they speak this way and say things against their own wishes? Only because a stronger force compels them. Of their own accord, they would never choose to confess either that dead people torment them or that they suffer anything terrible at all. Why have I said this now? Because evil demons, who would gladly have people disbelieve in hell, confess that it exists. Yet you, who enjoy such great honor and have shared in unspeakable mysteries, do not even imitate them, but have become more hardened than they are. 8. “But who,” someone will say, “has come from those in hell and told us these things?” Well, who has come here from heaven and told us that there is a God who created everything? And how is it clear that we have a soul? Plainly, if you are going to believe only what you can see, you will have doubts about God and angels, mind and soul, and in this way you will find that all the teachings of the truth have disappeared. Yet surely, if you are willing to believe what is evident, you should believe invisible things more readily than visible ones. Although what I say may sound like a paradox, it is nevertheless true and fully acknowledged by people of understanding. The eyes are often deceived even about things people think they actually see—not merely unable to perceive unseen things, of which they have no awareness at all. Distance, the atmosphere, distraction, anger, worry, and countless other things interfere with their accuracy. But the soul’s power of reasoning, if it receives the light of the divine Scriptures, will prove a more accurate, unerring standard of reality. Let us not deceive ourselves pointlessly. Let us not, in addition to the carelessness of our lives that grows from teachings like these, pile up a more terrible fire for ourselves because of the teachings themselves. For if there is no judgment and we will not have to give an account of our deeds, we will not receive rewards for our labors either. See where your blasphemies lead when you say that God, who is righteous, loving, and gentle, overlooks such great labor and hardship. How can that be reasonable? If nothing else will persuade you, I ask you to consider these things in light of your own household, and then you will see the absurdity. Even if you were immeasurably savage and inhuman, wilder than wild beasts themselves, you would not choose to die without honoring a servant who had been devoted to you. You would reward him with both freedom and a gift of money. And since, after your departure, you would no longer be able to help him yourself, you would leave instructions about him to those who would inherit your property, pleading, urging, and doing everything you could to make sure he did not go unrewarded. So you, who are evil, are this kind and loving toward your servant. Will Infinite Goodness—that is, God, the Unspeakable Love for humanity, kindness so vast—overlook His own servants and leave them uncrowned: Peter and Paul, James and John, who every day for His sake suffered hunger, were bound, were whipped, were drowned in the sea, were handed over to wild beasts, were dying, and were suffering more terrible things than we can even count? The Olympic judge proclaims and crowns the victor; the master rewards the servant; the king rewards the soldier; and everyone in general rewards those who have served him with whatever good things he can. Will God alone, after such great hardships and labors, repay them with nothing good, great or small? Will those righteous and devout men, who practiced every virtue, lie in the same state as adulterers, murderers of parents, killers, and robbers of tombs? How can this be reasonable? If there is nothing after our departure from here, and our concerns extend no further than the present, those men are in the same condition as these—or rather, not even in the same condition. For even if, as you say, they fare alike afterward, throughout this life the wicked have been at ease and the righteous under discipline. What tyrant, what savage and ruthless man, ever devised such treatment for his own servants and subjects? Do you see how enormously absurd this is, and where this argument leads? If nothing else will teach you, let these arguments teach you to rid yourself of this wicked thought, flee from vice, and devote yourself to the labors that lead to virtue. Then you will know for certain that our concerns are not limited to the present life. And if someone asks you, “Who has come from there and told us what is there?” say to him, “No human being; for such a person would surely often have been disbelieved as boasting and exaggerating. But the Lord of the angels has given an exact account of all these things. What need do we have of any human being, when He who will demand an account from us cries out every day that He has both made ready a hell and prepared a kingdom, and gives us clear proofs of these things? For if He were not going to judge us afterward, He would not have imposed any penalty here either.” 9. “But how can this very point be reasonable: that some of the wicked are punished and others are not? I mean, if God shows no favoritism, as surely He does not, why does He make one person pay a penalty but let another go unpunished? This is even harder to explain than the previous point.” Yet if you are willing to listen fairly to what we say, we will resolve this difficulty too. What is the answer, then? He does not make everyone pay a penalty here, so that you will not give up hope of the resurrection and lose all expectation of the judgment, as though everyone were to give an account here. Nor does He let everyone go unpunished, so that you will not think everything lies outside His providence. Instead, He both punishes and refrains from punishing. Through those He punishes, He shows that in that world too He will make those who go unpunished here pay a penalty. Through those He does not punish, He leads you to believe that there is a fearful trial after our departure from here. If He were completely indifferent to our past deeds, He would neither have punished anyone here nor have given blessings. But now you see Him, for your sake, stretching out heaven, kindling the sun, laying the earth’s foundations, pouring out the sea, spreading out the air, appointing the moon’s courses, setting unchanging laws for the seasons of the year, and making everything else follow its own course precisely at His signal. For both our nature and the nature of creatures without reason—those that crawl, walk, fly, and swim, in marshes, springs, rivers, mountains, forests, houses, the air, and plains—as well as plants, seeds, and trees, wild and cultivated, fruitful and unfruitful, and all things in general, moved by that tireless Hand, provide for our life. They themselves serve us, both to meet our needs and to give us a sense of our high standing. When you see such great and beautiful order (and we have not mentioned even the smallest part of it), do you dare to say that He who has made so many great things for your sake will overlook you in the most critical matters and let you lie with donkeys and pigs when you are dead? That, after honoring you with so great a gift as godliness, through which He has even made you equal to the angels, He will overlook you after your countless labors and hardships? How can this be reasonable? Why, if we remain silent about these things, “the stones will immediately cry out.” They are that plain and evident, clearer than the sunbeam itself. Having considered all these things and convinced our own souls that after our departure from here we will stand before the fearful judgment seat and give an account of everything we have done; that if we continue in our negligence, we will bear our penalty and submit to our sentence; and that if we are willing to pay a little attention to ourselves, we will receive crowns and unspeakable blessings, let us both silence those who deny these things and choose the way of virtue ourselves. Then we may go to that tribunal with the confidence we should have and attain the good things promised to us, by the grace and love for humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion, now and always, forever and ever. Amen.