Беседа 16

Spoken to the people in the Church of St. John, called Constantinian, on the forty-first week. Reading the Holy Gospel: Matthew 4.1–11. Matthew 4.1–11. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and, having fasted forty days and forty nights, at last he became hungry. And the tempter came to Him and said: If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. He answered and said to him, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Then the devil takes Him to the holy city and places Him on the wing of the church, and says to Him: 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. Jesus said to him, “It is also written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Again the devil takes Him to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he 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: Worship the Lord thy God, and serve him only. Then the devil left Him, and behold, the angels came and served Him. 1. Some usually doubt by what spirit Jesus was led into the wilderness, because it further says: “Then the devil takes Him to the holy city”; and again: “the devil takes Him again to a very high mountain.” But it is truly and without any contradiction that it is agreed upon that He was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit so that His own Spirit would lead Him out from where the evil spirit had hitherto found Him to tempt. But when it is said that the God-Man is either elevated to a very high mountain, or is taken to the Holy City by the devil, then the mind becomes confused, human ears are afraid to hear about this. However, we recognize this as not incredible, taking into account other events on Him. It is known that the head of all the wicked is the devil, and the members of this head are all the wicked. Was not Pilate a member of the devil? Were not the Jews who persecuted Christ and the soldiers who crucified Christ members of the devil? So, what is surprising if the One who even allowed his members to crucify Himself allowed him to lead Himself to the mountain? Therefore it is not unworthy of our Redeemer that He deigned to be tempted when He came to be put to death. For it was righteous that He should thus overcome our temptations by His temptations, since He came to overcome our death by His death. But we need to know that temptation is accomplished in three ways: by instigation, pleasure and consent. And we, when we are exposed to temptation, then for the most part fall into pleasure, or even into agreement, because, spread from sinful flesh, we ourselves carry within ourselves the reason why we must withstand the struggle. But God, incarnate in the womb of the Virgin, came into the world without sin and had nothing contradictory in Himself. Therefore, He could be tempted by temptation, but the pleasure of sin did not kill His soul. And therefore all this devilish temptation from the outside did not penetrate inside. 2. But if we survey the very order of His temptation, then let us think about the difficulty with which we free ourselves from temptation. The ancient enemy rebelled against the first man, our ancestor, with three temptations, because he tempted him with gluttony, vain glory and covetousness. But he won through temptation, because he subjugated him through consent. He tempted him with gluttony when he pointed out the forbidden food of the tree, and convinced him to eat it. He also tempted with vain glory when he said: “You will be like gods” (Gen. 3.5). He also tempted with success in covetousness when he said: “those who know good and evil.” For covetousness refers not only to money, but also to exaltation. Therefore, excessive pursuit of eminence is rightly called covetousness. If robbery did not belong to the covetousness of honor, then Paul would not have said about the Only Begotten Son of God: “He, being in the image of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God” (Phil. 2.6). But the devil brought our forefather to pride by inducing him to the covetousness of highness. 3. But by the same means he overthrew the first man, with the same methods he turned to the Second, the tempted Man. For he tempts Him with gluttony when he says: “Command that these stones become bread.” He tempts with vain glory when he says: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.” He tempts with the covetousness of highness when he shows Him all the kingdoms of the world, saying: “I will give all this to You if you fall and worship me.” But from the Second Man he is conquered in the same ways in which he was famous as the conqueror of the first man, so that he comes out of our hearts, being caught at the very entrance into them, by which, let in, he kept us captive. But there is, beloved brethren, something else that we must discuss in this temptation of the Lord. Since the Lord, tempted by the devil, answers him with the commandments of the Holy Scripture, and He who was the Word who could cast his tempter into the abyss does not reveal the strength of His power, but gives only one suggestion from the Holy Scripture. Scripture, He presents us with an example of His patience, so that when we suffer something from wicked people, we will be aroused more to edify ourselves than to take revenge. Weigh what God’s patience is like and what our impatience is. When we are subjected to insults or any kind of insult, then, driven by fury, we either take revenge ourselves as much as we can, or threaten to take revenge if we cannot. - So the Lord suffered an insult from the devil and did not answer him with anything except words of meekness. He endures those whom He could punish, so that His glory would rise the higher through the fact that He defeated His enemy not by destroying him, but by patience. 4. But it is a remarkable addition that, after the retreat of the devil, the Angels served Him. From this event, what else is revealed if not the dual nature in the One Person? - Because He is both a man who is tempted by the devil, and He is God, Whom the Angels serve. So, we recognize our nature in Him because if the devil had not seen Him as a Man, he would not have tempted Him. Let us honor His Divinity in Him because if He were not God above all, then the Angels would not serve Him in any way. 5. But since the reading is appropriate for these days, because we have heard about the abstinence of our Redeemer for forty days, we who are beginning the time of Lent, we need to resolve the question: why is this very abstinence observed for forty days? – For Moses, in order to receive the law a second time, fasted for forty days (Exodus 34.28). Elijah fasted for forty days in the desert (1 Kings 19.8). The culprit of the people himself, coming to the people, absolutely did not take any food for forty days (Matthew 4.2). Let us also try, during the time of Lent, to tame our flesh by abstinence as much as we can. – So, why is the fortieth number observed in abstinence, if not because the power of the Decalogue fills the four books of the Holy Gospel? For ten multiplied by four makes forty; because we fulfill the commandments of the Decalogue when we completely act according to the four books of the Holy Gospel. From this we can understand something else. For in this mortal body we consist of four elements, and by the lust of the same body we violate the commandments of the Lord. And the commandments of the Lord were accepted as the Decalogue. So, since we, through the desires of the flesh, have despised the commandments of the Decalogue, then justice requires that we kill the same flesh forty times. – However, this time of Lent can be judged differently. For from the present day to the joyful Feast of Easter six weeks pass, the days of which are precisely the number forty-two. From these, when we subtract six days of Sunday, which are not subject to abstinence, then no more than thirty-six days remain in abstinence. But since the year consists of three hundred and sixty-five days, and we fast for thirty-six days, then for our year we give, as it were, a tithe to God, so that we have lived for ourselves the whole year given to us, and for our culprit we mortify ourselves by abstinence for a tenth of it. Therefore, most beloved brethren, as the law commanded you to offer tithes to God (Lev. 27.30 et seq.), so try to bring Him the tithe of days. Everyone, as much as he has the strength, must exhaust the flesh, curb its desires, vile desires to kill, so that, in the words of Paul, “the sacrifice may be living” (Rom. 12.1). For the sacrifice is both made and alive when a person does not lag behind this life, and yet mortifies himself for carnal desires. The rejoicing flesh led us to crime, and let the offended flesh lead us to forgiveness. For the author of our death transgressed the commandments of life through the fruit of the forbidden tree. So, we, who have lost the joys of heaven for food, must return them through possible abstinence. 6. But do not think that he can be content with this abstinence alone, when the Lord through the Prophet says: “This is the fast that I have chosen: loose the chains of unrighteousness, untie the bonds of the yoke, and set the oppressed free, and break every yoke; divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the wandering poor into your home; When you see a naked person, clothe him, and do not hide from your half-blood” (Isaiah 58.6, 7). Consequently, God approves of the fast that raises the hands of alms before His eyes, which is carried out with love for one’s neighbor, which is organized out of piety. So, what you take from yourself, give to another, so that from where your flesh suffers a loss, the flesh of your poor neighbor receives profit. That is why the Lord, through the Prophet, says: “Say to all the people of this land and to the priests this: when you fasted and wept in the fifth and seventh month, and for seventy years, did you fast for Me? Is it for me? And when you eat and when you drink, are you not eating for yourself, are you not drinking for yourself?” (Zec 7.5, 6)? For the one who eats and drinks for himself is the one who consumes bodily nourishment, which are the common gifts of the Creator, without the poor. And everyone fasts for himself, if what he temporarily takes from himself is not distributed to the poor, but saved to be offered to the womb after fasting. Therefore, through Joel it is said: “sanctify the fast” (Joel 1.14; Joel 2.15). Because to sanctify fasting means to show abstinence of the flesh worthy of God, with the addition of other good deeds. Let the anger subside, let the strife cease! For the body is exhausted in vain if the soul is not curbed from its unclean pleasures, while the Lord through the Prophet says: “Why do we fast, but You don’t see? We humble our souls, but You don’t know? “Behold, on the day of your fast you do your will and require hard labor from others” (Isaiah 58.3). For not only does one who demands from his debtor what is given to him act unjustly, but it is necessary that everyone who surrenders to contrition in repentance should forbid himself from demanding even what belongs to him in justice. So, so to us, contrite and repentant, God forgives us what we have done unrighteously, if, out of love for Him, we forgive what is rightfully ours. You might be interested in: