The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” Satan, in today’s gospel, doesn’t know what to make of Jesus. He seems uncertain of who Jesus is or his relationship with God. And so he twice challenges the Lord, “If you are the Son of God….” Jesus stands before Satan as an ordinary human being who has inexplicably placed himself in an intolerably helpless position. He is famished after fasting for forty days and forty nights. As Saint Matthew tells the story, Jesus was not proving to himself how strong he might be. He would not be the master of his fate or the captain of his soul. Rather, the Spirit led him into the desert to be tempted by the devil. This would be their first meeting, an encounter of hell and heaven. The contest between Jesus and Satan concerned power, but it was not a mighty struggle between two powerful parties. Rather, it was an apocalyptic contest between power and no power; or power and authority. The mysterious word of God had come to the wilderness to meet the chaotic, lawless, undisciplined power of this world. Satan could not quite imagine what was happening. He apparently thought this was the moment to challenge the Son of God – if he was the Son of God – for governance of this world and everything that happens within it. It might be the same contest Satan had won when he found a gullible, young couple in the Garden of Eden; and the same for every human being who must make a moral choice. Will Jesus trust God, and wait upon God as Adam and Eve had not; or will he allow unanswered questions and a leering face rush him into an unwise, premature decision? But Jesus, almost prostrate with hunger, like a child answering catechism questions, answered Satan with nothing more than memorized Bible verses:
"The Lord, your God, shall you worship
and him alone shall you serve.”
Satan offered Jesus economic power if he would turn rocks into bread. Jesus refused. He offered him religious authority if he would leap off the parapet of the temple and be lowered gently to earth by angels. People would see his astonishing descent and believe in him. Despite what secular authorities say, religion does have very real power in this world. Again, Jesus refused. Finally, Satan offered him royal power — all the kingdoms of the earth – if he would only worship Satan. Jesus refused. Jesus seemed to want nothing; he had no apparent purpose or goal. What did he want? Why was he fasting for forty days and forty nights? Saint Matthew says, “Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.” That was just the beginning, their first encounter. And we’re left to wonder what comes next. How will this story end? Remember that the contest is about our salvation; it’s about the Earth and its ownership. Does the World belong to Satan as he claims, or does it belong to God, who seems to be so quiet, and distant, and removed from our anxious concerns? Nations governed by democracies want more power; as do those nations governed by autocrats, dictators, and kings. They believe they cannot survive without the power to defend themselves against other nations, and that means the power to threaten other nations – or at least to make their presence felt. They develop conventional weapons and nuclear weapons, biological and chemical weapons, cyber weapons and militarized drones, espionage, conspiracies, covert operations, PSYOPs, and assassinations. Only when they run out of every other option do they talk about compromise, and then they must negotiate from strength. There in the desert Jesus had nothing but his hunger and a few Bible verses. We might have hoped he'd be stronger when they met again, but that doesn’t appear to be what happened. He was even weaker after his trial before the Sanhedrin, Pontius Pilate, Herod, the mob, and the Roman scourge. But there he was again reciting Bible verses, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” He had nothing more than his faith in God. Ever since 1945 people have wondered if you might stop a hurricane with an atomic bomb. Is it possible you might find just the right moment and just the right place, where you could detonate an atomic or hydrogen device and frustrate the enormous energy of a hurricane? Can you stop overwhelming power with the clever use of less power? But people who study these things have replied, “You might as well throw a firecracker at the hurricane. It will have the same effect.” Other than his hunger and a few bible verses, Jesus had there in the desert one thing more powerful than power. He had obedience. The Spirit had led an obedient son of Adam and Eve into the desert. He knew he could not worship Satan, and so he obediently waited for God his Father who would not to lead him into temptation and would deliver him from evil, Saint Matthew finished his Gospel with Jesus' quiet words to his disciples, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Saint Paul would add to “heaven and earth,” that Satan in hell, would worship him:
Because of (his obedience), God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father.
At Easter Christians celebrate the victory Jesus won for us over the powers of this world. His victory is the hurricane; Satan’s power and all the world’s resistance are nothing more than firecrackers.
