Mt 4:1-11
Dear Friends, One of the many blessings of Vatican II was a return to the importance of the Word of God in the Bible. This led to a deeper appreciation of the Old Testament. In turn, we have learned the dependence of the New Testament, and particularly the Gospels, on the Jewish Scriptures.
Today’s temptation stories are rooted in the universal challenge of sin in the human heart. Here we find sin flowing steadily from the disoriented appetites, the ever-present pride and the excessive pull of vanities and self-importance. Mattew’s portrayal of the temptations is built on the temptations and failures of the Jewsish people in their sojourn in the desert before their arrival in the Promised Land.
In contrast to the unfaithfulness of the newly-liberated exiles from Egypt, Jesus is faithful to God in rejecting the deceits of Satan. The Golden Calf story is intimately connected to today’s story of Jesus’ temptations. His encounter with Satan is modeled after the Chosen People’s time in the desert and their infidelity most clearly expressed in the Golden Calf.
The Jewish stay in the desert betrayed God’s call for reliance and faithfulness. Their failure to trust in God is contrasted with Jesus’ fidelity in rejecting Satan’s deceits. As it was for Isreal, so it was for Jesus. Each temptation is a test to embrace a fundamental trust in God.
Jesus, the New Israel in the eyes of Matthew, discards all the pleas of Satan. Each temptation, and each responding Scripture quote by Jesus, is taken from chapters six to eight in the Book of Deuteronomy where the story of the Golden Calf holds center stage. In each of the three temptation stories, the appeal to Jesus is to be a Messiah not rooted in faithfulness to the Father. He is being tempted to be a Messiah of worldly values: of power, prestige, privilege and wealth. All these values are contrary to the Father’s plan of salvation. Jesus rejected Satan’s ploys. It was the Suffering Messiah of Isaiah that Jesus embraced. He was determined to proclaim the Kingdom from a position of simplicity and vulnerability, not power and dominance, not wealth but poverty, not exclusiveness but inclusiveness, not personal indulgence but service for others, not stressing the rich and powerful but the special option for the poor and marginalized. In the end, Jesus knew it was love not the law that was the source of victory over all evil, even death!
Jesus refused to let anything or any person replace God in his life. In this effort, he relied on the Word of God. This is where he found the strength to stare down evil both in the desert temptations and in his crescendoing battle with injustice, lies and pride that led to the Cross.
The failures of Moses’ folks in the desert mirror our failures today. These rejections of God’s plan are rooted in a divided heart. The modern day version of the Golden Calf comes in many forms. The human heart has a seemingly inexhaustible ability to create new idols that basically give us a false sense of security. We replace God as the center of reality. This process is called sin. Money, sex, drink, drugs, prejudices, false science, hostilities along with the ever-growing hunger for more control and possessions are simply today’s upgraded model of the Golden Calf.
The human heart simply finds that the new idols are more comfortable than the demanding love of the God revealed in Jesus. We loath the insecurity of being creatures. Much of our life is a quest for personal security seemingly guaranteed in wealth, power, reputation and indulgence. These are all expressions of the essential elements of sin: disoriented appetites, disproportionate pride and exaggerated vanity and self-importance. Through these ventures we are trying make smaller gods that we can control. The end product places ourselves at the center of reality.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus shows us the true model of faithfulness in the midst of the devil’s slick deceptions and illusions. Jesus will not accept the version of the Kingdom according to the standards of Hollywood or Wall Street or Main Street. Only the Word of God will reveal the true Kingdom. Jesus shows us the way of faithful acceptance of the Father’s call where there is no space for the false security and the deception of the Golden Calf.
With the beginning of Lent, the Church invites us to search our soul, to discover our Golden Calves. Now is the time to clean our house of all the idols. Now, at the beginning of Lent and throughout these six weeks, we are being invited to present an empty and longing heart to Jesus and to walk with Him to Jerusalem so to share with him the death that leads to life now and for all eternity.
