Homily 13 — Matthew 4, verses 1 to 11

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil.” [a]

“Then.” When? After the Spirit came down, after the voice that came from above and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And what is wonderful, it was the Holy Spirit who did this, for the evangelist says here that the Spirit led him up. Since he did and underwent everything for our instruction, he also submits to being led up there and to wrestling with the devil. He did this so that anyone who is baptized, if after his baptism he has to endure greater trials, may not be troubled as though something unexpected had happened, but may go on bearing everything nobly, as if it were all taking place in the natural course of things. Yes, that is why you took up arms: not to sit idle, but to fight.

That is also why God does not stop the trials as they come. First, to teach you that you have become much stronger. Next, so that you may stay humble and not be carried away even by the greatness of your gifts, since trials have the power to hold you down. Third, so that the wicked demon, who is for a while unsure whether you have really deserted him, may be fully convinced by the touchstone of trials that you have utterly forsaken him and fallen away from him. Fourth, so that in this way you may be made stronger, and better tempered than any steel. Fifth, so that you may receive 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 from the beginning: he saw him enjoying great dignity. That is why he drew up his forces against Job: he saw him crowned and proclaimed by the God of all.

How, then, does he say, “Pray that you do not enter into temptation”? This is why the evangelist does not show you Jesus simply going up, but “led up,” in keeping with the plan of salvation. By this he hints that we must not leap into it of our own accord, but when we are dragged into it, we must stand firm like men.

And see where the Spirit led him up when he had taken him: not into a city and its marketplace, but into a wilderness. That is, since he meant to draw the devil on, he gives him a hold not only by his hunger but also by the place. For the devil attacks most of all when he sees people left alone and by themselves. That is how he set upon the woman in the beginning too: he caught her alone and found her apart from her husband. But when he sees us with others and joined together, he is not so confident, and he does not attack. That is why, for this very reason, we have the greatest need to keep flocking together constantly, so that we may not lie open to the devil’s attacks.

So he found him in the wilderness, and a pathless wilderness at that; Mark has shown that it was such when he said that he “was with the wild beasts.” Now see with how much cunning and wickedness the devil comes near, and what kind of moment he watches for. He does not approach him while he is fasting, but when he is hungry. This is to teach you how great a good fasting is, and what a powerful shield it is against the devil; and that after the font people should give themselves up not to luxury and drunkenness and a loaded table, but to fasting. That is why he too fasted: not because he needed it himself, but to teach us. [e]

Our sins before the font came in through serving the belly. So, just as someone who had made a sick man well would forbid him the things that caused the illness, we see that here too, after the font, he brought in fasting. For it was through the belly’s lack of self-control that Adam was thrown out of paradise; this is what brought about the flood in Noah’s time; and this brought down the thunderbolts on Sodom. For although there was also the charge of sexual immorality, still this was the root from which each of those punishments grew. Ezekiel pointed to this too when he said, “But this was the wickedness of Sodom: she ran riot in pride, in fullness of bread, and in abundance of luxury.” In the same way the Jews also committed their greatest wickedness when drunkenness and soft living drove them into breaking the law.

That is why he too fasts forty days, showing us the medicines for our salvation. Yet he goes no further, so that, on the other hand, the reality of the plan of salvation would not be doubted because the miracle was too great. As it is, that cannot happen, since Moses and Elijah before him were able to hold out that long, strengthened by the power of God. But if he had gone further, then among other things his taking on of our flesh would have seemed unbelievable to many.

So when he had fasted forty days and as many nights, “he was afterward hungry.” He gave the devil something to grab hold of and a way to approach, so that by an actual contest he might show how to prevail and win. Wrestlers do the same. When they are teaching their pupils how to prevail and overcome, they take on others in the ring of their own accord, so that the pupils may see and learn, on the bodies of their opponents, how victory is won. That is what happened here too. Because he wanted to draw the devil on that far, he let him know of his hunger and waited for his approach; and as he waited for him, so he threw him to the ground, once, twice, and three times, with the ease that became him.

But so that we do not spoil your benefit by hurrying past these victories, let us begin from the first assault and examine each one with careful precision. After he was hungry, it says, “The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’” [h]

He had heard a voice coming from above that said, “This is my beloved Son,” and he had also heard John bearing such great witness about him; and after that he saw him hungry. From then on he was at a loss. He could not believe that he was a mere man, because of the things said about him; nor, on the other hand, could he accept that he was the Son of God, seeing him hungry as he did. So, being at a loss, he speaks ambiguously. When he came to Adam at the beginning, he pretended things that were not so, in order to learn the things that were. In much the same way here too, not knowing clearly the mystery of the plan of salvation, which is beyond words, nor who this might be who had come, he tries to weave other nets, by which he thought he could come to know what was hidden and obscure.

And what does he say? “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” He did not say, “Because you are hungry,” but, “If you are the Son of God,” thinking to trick him with compliments. That is also why he said nothing about the hunger: so that he would not seem to be pointing to it and taunting him with it. Since he did not know the greatness of the plan of salvation that was being carried out, he supposed the hunger was a disgrace to him. So he flatters him craftily and mentions only his dignity.

What, then, does Christ say? To put down the devil’s pride, and to show that there was nothing shameful in what had happened, nothing unworthy of his wisdom, he brings forward and sets out the very thing the other had passed over in silence to flatter him. He says, “Man will not live by bread alone.”

So he begins with the need of the belly. But notice, I beg you, the craft of that wicked demon: where he begins his wrestling, and how he does not forget his own trade. The means by which he threw out the first man too, and surrounded him with countless other evils, are the very means by which he weaves his deceit here as well; I mean the belly’s lack of self-control. Even now you can hear many foolish people say countless wicked things because of the belly. But Christ, to show that a person of virtue is not forced even by this tyranny to do anything unseemly, first goes hungry and then does not submit to what he is told to do, teaching us to obey the devil in nothing. The first man offended God and broke the law by this very thing; so Christ teaches you this, and more: even when what the devil commands is no transgression, do not obey him even then.

And why do I say “transgression”? He says: “Even if the demons suggest something useful, do not listen to them even then.” For example, he stopped the mouths of those demons too when they proclaimed him the Son of God. And Paul again rebuked them when they cried out this very same thing. What they said was useful; but to dishonor them all the more, and to block their plot against us, he drove them away even while they were proclaiming the teachings of salvation, shutting their mouths and ordering them to be silent.

So here too he did not consent to what was said. But what does he say? “Man will not live by bread alone.” His meaning is something like this: “God is able to feed the hungry man even by a word.” He brings him a testimony from the ancient Scripture, and teaches us that even when we are hungry, whatever we suffer, we must never fall away from our Lord.

But if someone says: “Still, he should have shown who he was.” I would ask him: with what intent, and for what reason? The devil did not speak this way so that he might believe, but so that, as he thought, he might out-argue him into unbelief. For the first human beings were deceived and out-argued by him in this very way, because they did not put earnest faith in God. He promised them the opposite of what God had said, puffed them up with empty hopes, brought them to unbelief, and so threw them out of the blessings they already had. But Christ shows that he did not give in, either to the devil then or later to the Jews who took the devil’s part, when they demanded signs. He always teaches us that whatever we may have the power to do, we should do nothing for no purpose and at random, and should not obey the devil even when need presses us.

What, then, does this accursed one do? He is beaten; he cannot persuade him to do his bidding, and that when he was pressed by such fierce hunger. So he moves on to something else and says, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will give his angels charge concerning you, and in their hands they will bear you up.’” [k]

Why does he add this at every temptation: “If you are the Son of God”? He is doing much the same as he did in that earlier case. Then he slandered God, saying, “On the day you eat, your eyes will be opened,” meaning to suggest that they had been deceived and cheated and had received no benefit. In the same way here too he hints at the same thing, as if to say: “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 have that power.” Then, because Christ had reasoned with him from Scripture, he too brings in a testimony from the prophet.

What does Christ do, then? He is not indignant or provoked. With that extreme gentleness he reasons with him again from the Scriptures, saying, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” He teaches us that we must overcome the devil not by miracles, but by forbearance and patience, 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. The testimonies the Lord cited were both spoken with perfect fitness; his, on the other hand, were chance sayings picked at random, and he did not bring forward on his side anything that applied to the matter in hand. For the words “He will give his angels charge concerning you” are surely not advice to hurl yourself down headlong; and besides, this was not even spoken about the Lord. For the moment, though, he did not expose this, even though there was insult in the way the devil spoke, and great inconsistency. No one asks such things of God’s Son. To throw oneself down is the part of the devil and of demons; God’s part is to raise up even those who are down. And if he had needed to show his own power, it would not have been by throwing himself down at random, but by saving others. But to throw ourselves over cliffs and into pits belongs properly to the devil’s band. The conjurer among them, for example, does this everywhere.

But Christ, even when these things are said, does not yet reveal himself; for the time being he talks with him as a man. For the sayings “Man will not live by bread alone” and “You shall not tempt the Lord your God” suited someone who was not revealing much of himself, but presenting himself as one of the many.

And do not be surprised if, in arguing with Christ, he keeps twisting this way and that. Boxers who have taken deadly blows reel about, drenched in blood and blinded. In the same way the devil too, his sight darkened by the first and the second blow, says at random whatever comes into his head, and moves on to his third assault.

“And he takes him up into a high mountain, and shows him all the kingdoms, and says, ‘All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Then he says, ‘Get behind me, Satan; for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” The devil had now gone as far as sinning against the Father, claiming that all that is the Father’s was his own, and trying to make himself out to be God, as though he were the maker of the universe. So then Christ rebuked him; yet not even then with vehemence, but simply, “Get away, Satan,” which itself had more of a command in it than a rebuke. For as soon as he said to him, “Get away,” he put him to flight, since the devil brought no other temptations against him. [m]

How, then, does Luke say that “he ended every temptation”? It seems to me that in mentioning the chief temptations he spoke of all of them, as though the rest were included in these. For these are the things that make up the substance of countless evils: to be a slave to the belly, to do anything for empty glory, to be subject to the madness for riches. That accursed one had considered this, and so he put the most powerful of all last; I mean the desire for more. From the very beginning he had been straining to come to this, yet he kept it for last, as being stronger than the rest. For this is how he wrestles: he brings to bear last the things that seem most likely to throw a man. He did the same with Job too. So here also, having begun with the motives that seem baser and weaker, he goes on to the ones that have more power.

How, then, are we to get the better of him? In the way Christ taught us: by fleeing to God for refuge. We must not lose heart in famine, since we believe in God, who is able to feed us even with a word. We must not, among whatever good things we receive, put to the test the one who gave them. We must be content with the glory that comes from above, making no account of the glory that comes from people, and on every occasion despise what is beyond our need. For nothing so brings us under the devil’s power as longing for more and loving greed. And we can see this even from what goes on now. For even now there are those who say, “All these things we will give you, if you will fall down and worship.” By nature they are human beings, but they have become his instruments. For at that time too he approached him not by himself alone, but through others as well. Luke too was pointing to this when he said that “he departed from him for a season,” showing that afterward he approached him through his own instruments.

“And behold, angels came and served him.” While the assault was going on, he did not let them appear, so as not to scare away the prey. But after he had refuted the devil on every point and put him to flight, then they appear. This is so that you too may learn that after your victories, modeled on his, angels will welcome you too, applauding you and standing guard over you in everything. Angels, for example, carry Lazarus away with them after the furnace of poverty and hunger and every distress. For, as I have already said, on this occasion Christ displays many things that we ourselves are to enjoy.

Since all these things have been done for you, then, strive to match and imitate his victory. Someone may come to you from among the servants of that evil spirit, whose minds are set on his things, taunting you and saying, “If you are so wonderful and great, move the mountain.” Do not be troubled or confused. Answer gently, and say something like what you have heard your Lord say: “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” [p]

Or if he offers glory and power and endless wealth and orders you to worship him, stand firm again, like a man. The devil did not deal this way only with the Lord we all have in common. Every day he brings these schemes of his to bear on each of his servants too: not only on mountains and in wildernesses, and not only by himself, but in cities too, in marketplaces and in law courts, and through people of our own kind. What, then, must we do? Disbelieve him completely, stop our ears against him, hate him when he flatters, and when he offers more, shun him all the more. For in Eve’s case too, when he was lifting her up highest with hopes, that was when he threw her down and did her the greatest harm. Yes, he is an enemy who cannot be appeased, and he has taken up a war against us that admits of no treaty. And we are not as eager for our own salvation as he is for our ruin.

Let us, then, shun him not only in word but also in action, not only in mind but also in deed, and let us do none of the things he approves; for that is how we will do all the things God approves. For he makes many promises too, not in order to give but in order to take. His promises are a kind of robbery: he makes them to strip us of the kingdom and of righteousness. He lays treasures in the earth like snares or traps, to rob us both of these and of the treasures in heaven. He would have us rich here, so that we may not be rich there.

And if he cannot throw us out of our portion there by wealth, he comes by another road, the road of poverty, as he did with Job. When he saw that wealth did Job no harm, he weaves his nets out of poverty, expecting to get the better of him from that side. But what could be more foolish than this? Anyone who has been able to bear wealth with moderation will bear poverty with courage all the more; and one who does not desire riches when he has them will not go looking for them when they are gone. That blessed man did not; on the contrary, his poverty made him more glorious still. That wicked demon did have power to strip him of his possessions, but his love for God he not only could not take away, he made it stronger. When he had stripped him of everything, he made him overflow with more blessings; which is why the devil was at a loss. The more plagues he brought on him, the mightier he saw him become.

So, as you know, when he had gone through everything and tested him thoroughly, like metal, and was getting nowhere, he ran to his old weapon, the woman. He puts on a mask of concern, paints Job’s disasters as a tragedy in the most pitiful tones, and pretends that he is offering that deadly advice to put an end to Job’s misery. But even so he did not win. That wonderful man saw through the bait, and with great wisdom stopped the mouth of the woman who was speaking at the devil’s prompting.

We must act in just the same way. Whether it is a brother, a trusted friend, a wife, or anyone you like of those closest to us, whom he has entered and who says something improper, we must not accept the advice because of who is speaking; rather, because of the deadly advice, we must turn away from the speaker. For even now he does many such things. He holds up a mask of sympathy in front of himself, and while he seems friendly, he drips in his ruinous words, which are worse than poison. For as it is his part to flatter us for our harm, so it is God’s part to discipline us for our good.

So let us not be deceived, and let us not chase after an easy life by every possible means. For “whom the Lord loves,” it says, “he disciplines.” That is why, when we are prospering while living in wickedness, that is the very time we should grieve most. We ought always to be afraid while we sin, but most of all when we suffer nothing bad. When God exacts our penalties little by little, he makes the payment for them easy for us. But when he is patient with every one of our careless acts, he is storing us up for a great punishment, if we go on in such things. For if affliction is a necessary thing for those who do right, much more is it for those who sin. [s]

Look, for instance, at how much patience Pharaoh met with, and afterward he suffered the most extreme punishment for it all. Look at how many ways Nebuchadnezzar offended, yet in the end he paid for everything. And the rich man became wretched chiefly for this very reason, that he had suffered nothing much here. Because he had lived in luxury in the present life, he went away to pay the penalty for all of it there, where he could find nothing at all to ease his misery.

And yet for all this some people are so cold and senseless that they are always looking only for the things of this world, and saying those absurd things: “Let me enjoy everything that is here for a while, and then I will think about the things out of sight. I will indulge my belly, I will be a slave to pleasures, I will make full use of the present life. Give me today, and you can have tomorrow.” What utter folly! How are people who talk like this any different from goats and pigs? If the prophet does not allow those who “neigh after their neighbor’s wife” to be counted as human beings, who will blame us for counting these people as goats and pigs, and more senseless than donkeys, when they treat as uncertain the things that are plainer than what we see with our eyes?

If you believe nothing else, then pay attention to the demons when they are being scourged — the demons whose whole business, in word and deed, is to do us harm. You will not deny this, I am sure: that they do everything to make us careless, to take away the fear of hell, and to breed disbelief in the courts of the other world. And yet these very demons often proclaim, with shrieks and wailing, the torments that are there. Why, then, do they speak this way, saying things against their own will? For no other reason than that they are under the pressure of a stronger compulsion. Left to themselves, they would never have been willing to admit that they are tormented by dead men, or that they suffer anything terrible at all.

Why have I said this? Because evil demons, who would love to have hell disbelieved, confess that there is a hell. But you, who enjoy such great honor and have shared in mysteries beyond words, do not even imitate them. You have become harder than they are.

But someone will say: “Who has come back 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 all things? And how is it clear that we have a soul? Plainly, if you are going to believe only the things you can see, then God and angels, mind and soul, will all be in doubt for you, and in this way you will find every teaching of the truth gone. [w]

And yet, if you are willing to believe what is evident, you ought to believe the invisible things even more than the things that are seen. What I am saying may sound like a paradox, but it is true, and among people of understanding it is fully acknowledged. The eyes are often deceived — not only about things unseen, which they do not even perceive, but even about the things people think they actually see, since distance and the air, absent-mindedness, anger, worry, and ten thousand other things get in the way of their accuracy. But the reasoning power of the soul, if it receives the light of the divine Scriptures, will prove a more accurate measure of what is real, one that never errs.

So let us not deceive ourselves for nothing. Our careless way of life is already the offspring of teachings like these; let us not heap up for ourselves, on top of it, a heavier fire for the teachings themselves. For if there is no judgment, and we are not to give an account of our deeds, then neither will we receive rewards for our labors. Look where your blasphemies lead, when you say that God, who is righteous and loving and gentle, overlooks such great labors and toils. How can this be reasonable?

If by nothing else, then weigh these things by what goes on in your own house, and you will see. Even if you were savage and inhuman beyond measure, wilder than the wild beasts themselves, you would not choose at your death to leave the servant who had been devoted to you without honor. You repay him with his freedom and a gift of money. And since, once you have departed, you will not be able to do him any good in person, you give instructions about him to those who will inherit your property, pleading, urging, doing everything so that he will not be left unrewarded. So you, who are evil, are so kind and loving toward your servant. And will the Infinite Goodness — God, the Love for humankind beyond words, the kindness so vast — overlook his own servants Peter and Paul, James and John, and leave them without a crown? For his sake they went hungry every day; they were bound, they were flogged, they were plunged into the sea, they were given up to wild beasts, they were dying; they suffered more than we can even count.

The judge at the Olympic games proclaims the winner and crowns him; the master rewards his servant, and the king his soldier; and in general everyone rewards whoever has served him, with whatever good things he can. Will God alone, after such great toils and labors, repay them with nothing good, great or small? Will those righteous and devout men, who have walked in every virtue, lie in the same state as adulterers, those who murder their fathers, killers, and grave robbers? How can this be reasonable? For if there is nothing after we depart from here, and our interests reach no further than the present, then the two are not even on equal terms. Suppose, as you say, they fare alike hereafter. Still, here the wicked have been at ease their whole lives, and the righteous afflicted. What tyrant, what savage and relentless man, ever arranged such a thing for his own servants and subjects?

Do you see how enormous the absurdity is, and where this argument ends? So if you will not learn any other way, then let these reasonings teach you to rid yourself of this wicked thought, to flee from vice, and to hold fast to the toils that end in virtue. Then you will know for certain that our concerns are not bounded by the present life. And if anyone asks you, “Who has come from there and brought word of what is there?” tell him: “Not one human being. Such a man would surely have been disbelieved again and again, as boasting and exaggerating. But the Lord of the angels has brought word of all those things exactly.” What need do we have, then, of any man, when he who will demand an account from us cries aloud every day that he has made ready a hell and prepared a kingdom, and gives us great proofs of these things? For if he were not going to judge hereafter, he would not have exacted any penalty here either.

“Well, but on this very point, how can it be reasonable that some of the wicked are punished and others are not? I mean, if God shows no partiality, as surely he does not, how can it be that he exacts a penalty from one and lets another go away unpunished? Why, this is even harder to explain than the first thing.” Yet if you are willing to hear what we say fairly, we will solve this difficulty too. [z]

What, then, is the solution? He does not exact the penalty from everyone here, so that you will not despair of the resurrection and lose all expectation of the judgment, as though everyone were to give account here. Nor does he let everyone go away unpunished, so that you will not, on the other hand, think that everything goes on without his providence. He both punishes and holds back from punishing. By those he punishes, he shows that in the other world too he will exact a penalty from those who go unpunished here. By those he does not punish, he moves you to believe that there is some fearful trial after we depart from here.

But if he were wholly indifferent to what we have done, he would neither have punished anyone here nor have done us good. As it is, you see him, for your sake, stretching out the heavens, kindling the sun, founding the earth, pouring out the sea, spreading out the air, appointing the moon her courses, setting unchanging laws for the seasons of the year, and all other things too running their own courses exactly at a sign from him. Our own nature, and that of the creatures without reason — those that creep, that walk, that fly, that swim, in marshes, in springs, in rivers, in mountains, in forests, in houses, in the air, on the plains — plants too, and seeds, and trees, wild and cultivated, fruitful and unfruitful, and all things in general, moved by that tireless Hand, provide for our life. Of their own accord they offer us their service, not only for our need, but also for our sense of our own high rank.

Seeing, then, an order so great and so beautiful — and we have not mentioned even the smallest part of it — do you dare to say that he who has done so many great things for your sake will overlook you at the most critical point, and let you lie dead with the donkeys and the pigs? That after honoring you with so great a gift, the gift of godliness, by which he has even made you equal with the angels, he will overlook you after your countless labors and toils? How can this be reasonable? Why, if we kept silent, “the stones would immediately cry out” these things, so plain and obvious are they, clearer than the sunbeam itself.

So, having considered all these things, let us convince our own souls that after we depart from here we will stand before that fearful judgment seat and give an account of everything we have done: that we will bear our penalty and submit to our sentence if we go on in our carelessness, and will receive crowns and blessings beyond words if we are willing to pay even a little attention to ourselves. Then let us both stop the mouths of those who deny these things and choose the way of virtue ourselves, so that, departing to that court with the confidence that befits us, we may obtain the good things promised to us, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and power, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.