Беседа 13

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” (Matt. 4:1) Exposition 4:1–11. Why did Christ endure temptations in the desert? - The benefits of temptation. – You shouldn’t look for temptations yourself. – Fasting is a weapon against the devil. – Why Christ fasted for 40 days. – The meaning and significance of the three temptations. – By His example, Christ teaches how to defeat the devil. – A variety of means used by the devil for deception. – You shouldn’t search hard for a quiet life. – Prosperous sinners will be subjected to the most severe punishment. – Certainty of future judgment and retribution; evidence of this. 1. “Then”: when is this? After the descent of the Holy Spirit, after the voice that came from above and announced: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”! And here’s what’s amazing: Jesus, as the evangelist says, was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. Since Christ did and endured everything for our teaching, even now He allows Himself to be taken into the wilderness and put into battle with the devil so that none of those who were baptized, if after baptism he happened to endure even more previous temptations, would not be embarrassed by them, as if something unexpected, but would courageously endure every temptation, as if it were an ordinary thing. You did not receive weapons to be idle, but to fight. That is why God does not prevent temptations from visiting you. Firstly, He allows them so that you will know that you have become much stronger; secondly, so that you remain in humility and do not exalt yourself with the greatness of the gifts, seeing that temptations can humble you; thirdly, so that the evil spirit, still doubting your departure from him, seeing your patience in temptations, will be convinced that you have completely abandoned him and retreated from him; fourthly, so that through this you become harder and stronger than any iron; fifthly, so that you receive clear evidence of the treasures entrusted to you. Indeed, the devil would not have approached you if he had not seen you at the highest level of honor. That is why he himself and at the beginning rebelled against Adam, because he saw him adorned with high dignity. That is why he armed himself against Job when he saw him crowned and glorified by the Lord of all. How, you will object, is it said: “Pray so that you do not fall into temptation” (Matthew 26:41)? But this is why the evangelist tells you that Jesus did not come on his own, but was led into the wilderness by divine providence, which shows that we ourselves should not fall into temptation, but when we are involved in them, we must stand courageously. And look where the Spirit led Him; not to the city, not to the square, but to the desert. He seemed to want to attract the devil, giving him the opportunity to tempt him not only with hunger, but also with the solitary place itself, because the devil then especially attacks us when he sees that we are in solitude - only with ourselves. So at the beginning he approached his wife, finding her alone, without a husband. When he sees us in community with others, he is not so bold and does not dare to attack. And for this reason, therefore, we all need to gather together more often, so that the devil cannot conveniently ensnare us. So, the devil found Christ in the desert - and in the impassable desert (that such was the desert, Mark testifies to this, saying: “he was with the beasts” - (Mark 1:13). Look with what cunning, with what cunning he approaches, and what time he waits. He begins not when Jesus was fasting, but when he was hungry. From here know how great a blessing and how powerful a weapon against the devil is fasting; know and learn that, having washed yourself in the waters of baptism, you should not indulge in pleasures, drunkenness and rich foods, but observe fasting. That is why Christ himself fasted - not because He needed fasting, but for our teaching. Serving the womb was the guilt of sins that existed before baptism. Therefore, just as a doctor, having cured a sick person, forbids him to do what caused the disease, so here Christ established fasting after baptism. And Adam was driven out of paradise by gluttony; it was also the cause of the flood in the time of Noah; it also brought down fire on the Sodomites. Although their crime was sensuality, the root of both executions came from gluttony, which Ezekiel points out when he says: “this was the iniquity” of the Sodomites, that they were in pride and “satiety and idleness” (Ezekiel 16:49). So the Jews, having begun to drink and overeat, gave themselves over to lawlessness and committed the greatest crimes. 2. That is why Christ fasted for forty days, showing us saving medicine. He does not extend beyond this, so as not to make the very truth of the Incarnation doubtful by the excessive greatness of the miracle. Now this cannot be, because even before Him, Moses and Elijah, strengthened by divine power, were able to endure the same long fast. And if Christ had fasted longer, then this could have served as a reason for many to doubt the truth of the Incarnation. So, having fasted for forty days and nights, “he was finally hungry” (Matthew 4:2), thus giving the devil an opportunity to approach Him, in order to show by His struggle with him how he must overcome and win. This is what wrestlers do, wanting to teach their students to overcome and defeat those who fight them; They deliberately grapple with others in the palaestra 7 so that the students notice the body movements of the fighters and learn the art of victory. The same was done there. Desiring to attract the devil to the fight, Christ discovered His hunger before him, and when he approached, He took him, and then once, twice, and a third time he overthrew him with His characteristic ease. But, so that a too cursory glance at these victories does not reduce your benefit, we will consider each struggle in detail, starting with the first. When, it is said, Jesus was hungry, “the tempter came to Him and said, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread” (Matthew 4:3). After having already heard a voice come from heaven and testify: “This is My beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17), heard John’s equally glorious testimony about Him, the tempter suddenly sees Him hungry. This perplexes him: remembering what was said about Jesus, he cannot believe that this was a simple man; on the other hand, seeing Him hungry, he cannot admit that it was the Son of God. Being in such perplexity, he approaches Him with words of doubt. And, just as once upon a time, having approached Adam, he invented something that did not exist at all in order to find out the truth, so now, not knowing clearly the inexpressible mystery of the incarnation, and the one who is in front of him, insidiously weaves new nets, in order to thus find out the hidden and remained in the unknown. What is he saying? “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” He did not say: if you are hungry; but: “if you are the Son of God,” thinking to deceive Him with praises. He keeps silent about hunger so that it does not seem that he is putting it on display for Him and wants to humiliate Him. Not comprehending the greatness of the actions related to the economy of salvation, he considered this shameful for Jesus. Therefore, he flatters Him and insidiously reminds only of His dignity. What about Christ? Deposing the arrogance of the devil and showing that what happened was not at all shameful and not unworthy of His wisdom, He Himself expresses and reveals what the tempter kept silent about out of flattery, and says: “Man cannot live by bread alone.” So the tempter begins with the needs of the womb. Look at the cunning of the evil spirit, where he begins the fight, and how he remains true to his cunning: by which he cast out the first man from paradise and subjected him to countless disasters, this is where his seduction begins, that is, by incontinence of the womb. And now you will hear from many madmen that the womb for them was the cause of countless evils. But Christ, wanting to show that even the cruelest violence cannot force a virtuous person to do anything inappropriate, he hungers, and yet does not obey the devil’s suggestions, teaching us not to obey him in anything. Since the first person, having listened to the devil, angered God and broke the law, the Lord in every possible way inspires you not to listen to the devil, even when what he demands is not a violation of the law. But what am I saying – a crime? At least the demons suggested something useful, and then the Lord forbids listening to them. So He commanded the demons to be silent even when they proclaimed that He was the Son of God. So Paul forbade them to shout, although what they said was useful; but in order to completely disgrace them and block all their malicious intent against us, despite the fact that they preached saving truths, he drove them away, stopped their mouths and commanded them to remain silent (Acts 16:18). That is why Christ did not agree to the words of the devil even now, but what did he say? He answered him with the words of the Old Testament: “Man cannot live by bread alone.” These words mean that God can feed the hungry with his words. By this Christ teaches us, despite hunger or any other suffering, never to depart from the Lord. 3. If someone says that the Savior should have shown His power, then I will ask him: for what and why? The devil said this not in order to believe himself, but in order, as he thought, to convict Christ of unbelief, since he deceived his first parents in the same way, and discovered that they had little faith in God. Having promised them something completely contrary to what God said, and having puffed them up with empty hopes, he plunged them into unbelief, and through this deprived them of the benefits that they possessed. But Christ does not express His consent to him, just as he later did to the Jews, who, led by his spirit, asked for signs, in both cases teaching us that, if we can do anything, we should not do anything in vain and without reason, and even in cases of extreme need we would not listen to the devil. What is this vile seducer starting to do now? Defeated by Jesus and finding himself unable to persuade Him, despite His intense hunger, to agree to his demand, the devil proceeds to another means 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, lest You dash Your foot against a stone” (Matthew 4:6). Why does he add to every temptation: “if you are the Son of God”? As he did with his ancestors, so he does now. Just as then with the words: “in the day that you eat of them, your eyes will be opened” (Gen. 3:5) he slandered God, wanting to show by this that they were deceived, deceived and not benefited in the least, so now he tries to instill the same thing, and as if he says: in vain God called You His Son, He led You into deception with this gift, if this is not so, then show us Your divine power. And since the Lord spoke to him in the words of Holy Scripture, he also cites the testimony of the prophet. What about Christ? He was not indignant at this and did not become angry, but with great meekness he answers him again with the words of Holy Scripture: “Do not tempt the Lord your God” (Matthew 4:7). By this, Christ teaches us that we must defeat the devil not with signs, but with gentleness and long-suffering, and that we should not do anything just out of ambition, in order to show ourselves. Further: look how the madness of the tempter is visible in the very presentation of evidence. Both testimonies given by the Lord were given at the most opportune time, and those offered by him were taken indiscriminately, as it happened, and were not at all relevant to the matter, because with the words: “He will command his angels concerning you,” we are not ordered to throw ourselves into the abyss; Moreover, this is not said about the Lord. But the Lord did not denounce his madness, although the devil cited the words of Scripture with offense to Him, and in a completely wrong sense. No one will demand such a thing from the Son of God; It is only natural for the devil and demons to throw themselves down, but it is also natural for God to restore those who lie down. If the Son of God needed to show His power, then, of course, it would not be by recklessly throwing himself from a height, but by saving others. And it is common for the devilish horde to rush into abysses and rapids; This is what the seducer who controls them always does. However, Christ does not reveal Himself even after these words, but still speaks to him as a man; the words: “man shall not live by bread alone,” and: “thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” did not yet clearly reveal who He was, but showed in Him a simple man. Do not be surprised that the devil, speaking with Christ, rushes in one direction or another. Just as fighters, having received a mortal wound and are bleeding, rush unconscious in all directions, so he, struck by the first and second blows, begins to speak indiscriminately, whatever comes to mind, and thus begins to fight for the third time. And taking Him up to a very high mountain, He shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and says to Him: I will give all this to You, if you fall down and worship me. Then Jesus says to him, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:8–10). Since the devil has now sinned against God the Father, calling the universe, which belongs to Him, his own, and dared to pretend to be God, as if he were the creator of the world, Christ finally forbade him, but not with anger, but simply: “go away, Satan.” Yes, and this was more of a command than a prohibition, because as soon as Christ said to him: “go away,” devil, he immediately ran away and did not dare to tempt Him any more. 4. How does Luke say that the devil has finished “all” temptation (Luke 4:13)? It seems to me that, having mentioned the main temptations, he said: “everything,” because these temptations contain all the others. In fact, the sources of all countless evils are the following three vices: serving the belly, vanity, and excessive passion for wealth. Knowing this, the vile tempter saved the strongest temptation, that is, the desire for more, towards the end. He had a painful desire to express this temptation from the very beginning; but, like the strongest of the others, he saved it for the end. This is the law of his struggle: after all, to use what, in his opinion, can most conveniently overthrow the enemy. This is what he did with Job; so here too. Starting with what he considered to be the least important and weakest, he reaches the strongest. How should you defeat him? Just as Christ taught: to run to God, not to lose heart even in hunger, believing in Him who can feed us with words; and if we receive any blessings, do not tempt the Giver with them, but, being content with the glory of heaven, do not worry in the least about human things, and avoid excesses in everything. Truly, nothing exposes us to the power of the devil so much as the desire for more and covetousness. This can be seen even from what is happening now. And now there are those who say: “We will give all this to you if, when you fall, you worship us”; Although they are human by nature, they became instruments of the devil. So even then he not only attacked Christ himself, but also used others to help, as the Evangelist Luke shows, saying: “he departed from Him for a time” (Luke 4:13); With these words he makes it clear that the devil continued to attack Christ with his weapons. “And behold, angels came and ministered to Him” (Matthew 4:11). While the battle was taking place, Christ did not allow the angels to appear, so as not to drive away the one who was to be caught. But when He exposed the devil in everything and forced him to flee, then the angels also appear. Know from here that after your victories over the devil, the angels will receive you with applause and will protect you in all cases. So they accepted and carried into Abraham's bosom Lazarus, who was tempted in the furnace of poverty, hunger and all kinds of sorrows. Christ, as I said before, revealed many things here that should happen to us too. So, since all this has happened for you, be jealous and imitate the victory of the Savior. If one of the demon’s servants or one of his like-minded people comes to you and, mocking you, says: “Move the mountain if you are a miracle worker and a great man!” - Do not be indignant at this, do not express indignation, but answer with meekness, as your Master answered: “Do not tempt the Lord your God.” If he offers you glory, power and countless treasures, and demands worship for it, again stand courageously. Not only did the devil do this to the Master of us all, but against each of His servants he daily builds the same feats, not only in the mountains and deserts, but also in cities, in squares and in courts - not only by himself, but also through people, our brothers. So what should we do? Do not believe him at all, block your hearing, hate him when he flatters, and the more he promises, the more you turn away from him. After all, he cast down Eve and subjected her to the greatest disasters by inflating her spirit with too high hopes. He is our implacable enemy, and wages an irreconcilable war with us. We are not trying so much for our salvation as he is for our destruction. So, let us turn away from him not only in words, but also in reality, not only in thought, but also in deeds, and we will not do anything pleasing to him. By doing this, we will fulfill everything that God wants. The devil promises us a lot, but not in order to give, but in order to take from us. He promises to deliver wealth through theft, in order to take away the kingdom and righteousness from us; spreads treasures across the earth, like snares and nets, in order to deprive both these treasures and heavenly ones; wants to enrich us here so that we will not have wealth there. When he cannot deprive us of the heavenly inheritance through wealth, he chooses another path - the path of poverty, as he did with Job. When he saw that wealth did not harm Job in any way, he tied a net of poverty, thus hoping to gain victory over him. What could be crazier than this? He who knew how to use wealth wisely will be all the more courageous in enduring poverty. He who did not have an addiction to wealth when he possessed it will not seek it when it is no longer there, just as blessed Job indeed did not seek it; on the contrary, in poverty he became even more glorious. Although the evil demon could have deprived him of his wealth, he not only did not deprive him of his love for God, but even strengthened it even more and, having taken everything from him, made Job enriched with even greater blessings, so that the devil did not even know what else to do. The more he amazed him, the more he saw strength in him. And when, having tried all means, he did not receive any success, he finally resorted to an ancient weapon - his wife, and, putting on the mask of compassion, very vividly and touchingly depicts his misfortunes and, as if hoping to deliver him from disasters, gives disastrous advice. But with this he did not defeat Job; this amazing husband noticed his cunning, and with great prudence blocked the lips of his wife, who, at the suggestion of the devil, offered advice. 5. This is what we must do. Even if in the person of a brother, or a sincere friend, or a wife, or one of the people closest to us, the devil inspired us with something inappropriate, we should not judge words by face and accept advice, but also by disastrous advice we should conclude about the one who offers advice and turn away from him. Even now, the devil often acts in a similar way: he takes on the guise of compassion, and, pretending to be benevolent, gives us advice that is more destructive and harmful than any poison. His business is to flatter us, to our detriment; and God’s business is to punish us, for our good. So, let us not be deceived, let us not strive intensely for a quiet life: “Whom the Lord loves, he punishes” (Prov. 3:12), says Scripture. If we enjoy prosperity while living viciously, then all the more should we lament. When serving sin, we should always be afraid, but especially when we do not suffer any misfortune. When God sends us punishments, so to speak, in parts, he thereby facilitates the execution for sins; on the contrary, when he is patient about all our sins, he thereby preserves us for greater punishment if we remain in sins. If suffering is necessary for the righteous, then much more so for sinners. Look how great God's forbearance Pharaoh experienced and, finally, how cruelly he was executed for all his atrocities! How many crimes did Nebuchadnezzar commit until he finally suffered execution for everything! In the same way, the rich man of the Gospel, for the very fact that he did not suffer any disaster here, later became the most unfortunate. Having enjoyed the pleasures of this life, he passed into the next world to suffer execution for everything, and there he could no longer find any consolation in his suffering. Despite this, there are such cold and crazy people who always seek only the present and say such laughable words: “I will now enjoy all the real blessings, and then I will think about what is unknown; I will please the belly, I will be a slave of pleasures, I will not value real life much: give me today, and take tomorrow for yourself! What incredible madness! How do such people differ from goats and pigs (Jer. 5:8)? If the prophet does not want to consider as people those who rage against their neighbor’s wife, then who will condemn you when we say that those people are crazier than goats, pigs, and donkeys - people who consider unknown what is clearer than the obvious? If you no longer believe in anything else, then look at the torment of the demons, who try to harm us in everything, both in words and in deeds. You will not contradict the fact that they use all means to increase our carelessness, destroy the fear of Gehenna in us and make sure that we do not believe in the future judgment; but despite all this, they often shout and scream about the torments of hell. Why do they say the opposite of what they want? Of course, the cruelty of the torment they endure forces them to do this. They would never voluntarily admit that they were being tormented by dead people, or that they were suffering any kind of torment in general. Why did I say this? In order to show that demons also testify to Gehenna, although they do not want people to believe Gehenna; and you, having been awarded such a high honor, and having partaken of the ineffable mysteries, do not imitate the demons, but even they have become crazier. You will say: who came from hell and announced the torment there? But I ask: who came from heaven and proclaimed that there is a God who created everything? Likewise, how do we know that we have a soul? If you want to believe only what you see, then you will doubt God, and the angels, and the mind, and the soul, and thus all the teachings of truth will disappear for you. However, if you want to believe only what is clear, then you should believe the invisible more than the visible. Although this is strange, it is nevertheless true and is recognized as undeniable by all people who have intelligence. And indeed, the eyes are often deceived not only in the invisible (which they do not know at all), but even in those things that we seem to see, because distance, and air, and the focus of thought on another object, and anger, and care, and thousands of other reasons prevent them from seeing correctly. But the reflection of the soul, enlightened by the light of divine Scripture, represents the most accurate and not deceptive judgment about things. So, let us not vainly deceive ourselves, lest, with the carelessness of life that comes from such a teaching, we gather for ourselves the fiercest fire for the teaching itself. If there is no judgment, if we do not give an account of our deeds and do not receive a reward for our labors, then look where your blasphemy is taking you when you say that a righteous, man-loving and merciful God will despise such labors and exploits. And is this possible? If nothing else enlightens you, then just look at your home life, and you will see all the absurdity of your thoughts. In fact, suppose that you were immeasurably cruel and inhuman, surpassing even the animals in your ferocity; but, being on the verge of death, you, of course, would not want to leave your zealous servant without a reward, but would set him free and reward him with money; and if you yourself, dying, can no longer do anything in his favor, then at least bequeath it to your heirs, ask them, convince them, try in every possible way so that he does not remain without a reward. If, being evil, you turn out to be so kind and philanthropic towards your servant, then God, infinite goodness, inexpressible philanthropy and kindness, will really despise and leave His servants uncrowned - Peter and Paul, James and John, who every day for His sake languished with hunger, were imprisoned, tortured, drowned, given over to beasts, every day died and endured countless sufferings? The chairman of the Olympic Games proclaims the name of the winner and crowns him; the master rewards the slave, the king the warrior; and in general, everyone pays his good servant as much as he can: is God alone, after how many labors and exploits, will he not give them either a small or a great reward? Will these righteous and pious men, who labored in every virtue, be in the same place as the adulterers, parricides, murderers and grave robbers? Is this conceivable? If there is nothing beyond the grave, if our existence is limited only by this life, then, indeed, the fate of both is the same. However, even in this case it is not the same. Suppose, as you think, that after death they will be in the same state, but here some of them spent all their time in peace, while others suffered. But what kind of tyrant, what kind of cruel and ferocious person would want to do this to slaves obedient to him? Do you see what excessive absurdity, and what is the end of such speculation? So, if you do not want to believe anything else, then come to your senses at least with this reasoning, leave your wicked thoughts, run away from vice, begin to work for virtue - and then you will clearly see that our fate is not limited to the boundaries of this life. And if someone asks you: who came from the other world and announced what was happening there? - answer him this way: none of the people (and even if someone came from there, most of the people would not believe him, thinking that he was bragging and exaggerating what he was talking about); but the Lord of the angels announced all this to us with full certification. So, what need do we have for human testimony, when He Himself, who will demand an answer from us, preaches daily that He has prepared both Gehenna and the kingdom, and provides us with clear evidence of all this? In fact, if He did not have to judge us, He would not send punishment here either. Further, how can we explain the fact that some of the evil people are punished here, while others are not? If God is impartial—which He really is—then why does He punish one and allow another to die without punishment? This is even more incomprehensible than what was said before. But if you kindly wish to listen to me, then I will resolve this bewilderment. How? God does not punish everyone here so that you do not despair of the resurrection, and do not stop expecting judgment, in view of the fact that everyone has already received reward here; Nor does he leave everyone unpunished, lest you again think that the universe is not governed by providence. He both punishes and does not punish. When He punishes, He makes it clear that from those who were not punished here, He will demand an account there; when he doesn’t punish, he makes you believe that after leaving this life there will be a terrible judgment. If He did not want to give everyone their due, then here too he would neither punish nor reward anyone. And now you see that He stretched out the sky for you, and kindled the sun, and founded the earth, poured out the sea and the air, established the course of the moon, assigned unchangeable laws to the seasons, and everything else makes His wave steadily complete its course. And our nature, and the nature of unreasonable creatures, reptiles, walking, flying, swimming, located in lakes, springs, rivers, in mountains, forests, houses, in the air, in fields - plants, seeds, trees of the forest and growing in gardens, fruitful and not fruitful, in a word, everything, being moved by His never-tiring hand, contributes to the preservation of our life, and serves not only to satisfy our needs, but also to abundance. So, seeing such a beautiful order in the world - although we have not shown even the slightest part of it - do you dare to say that the One who arranged so many good things for you will despise you at the end of his life, and at death will leave you defeated along with donkeys and pigs? Having honored you with the priceless gift of piety, and through it making you equal to the angels, will He really despise you after your countless labors and exploits? Is this possible? Obviously not. It is clearer than the very rays of the sun; and if we remain silent, the stones will cry out about it. So, having realized all this, we will believe that after leaving this life we ​​will appear at the Last Judgment, we will give an account of all our deeds and, if we remain in sins, we will be subjected to torture and execution, and if we decide to pay even a little attention to ourselves, we will be rewarded with crowns and unspeakable blessings; Having established ourselves in this faith, let us silence those who dissent, and let us ourselves enter the path of virtue, so that with appropriate boldness we may stand before that judgment and receive the blessings promised to us, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: