Sometimes readings gather around a common theme. Readings clearly about temptation this week.

A few observations:

– Throughout the Bible, from Genesis to the Gospel, people struggle with temptation.

From the first couple, Adam and Eve, to our Redeemer, Jesus, whom Paul qualifies in Romans as a “New Adam”.

Throughout the Gospel, we see Jesus struggling with temptation from the beginning of his ministry (Before it even starts, and it is the passage we have today when Jesus meets the devil in the wilderness) to the end of his ministry and his agony in the garden of Gethsemane (Asking God to be spared from the cross).

Temptation happens all the time in the story of God’s people and interestingly, it does not happen only to notorious sinners. Rather the opposite.

Temptation comes to Adam and Eve in their state of innocence, in a perfect place, when they still have a whole relationships together / an untarnished friendship with God.

Temptation comes to Jesus in his state of holiness, after he has been abundantly blessed, after he received the baptism in the Jordan (That happens right before the passage we have read this morning)

So we need to remember that: Temptation happens to people who are innocent / holy / “good people”. It’s important to notice that because when something happens to Xns they identify as temptation, Xns often wonder:

What’s wrong with me? What did I do / where did I fail that I feel tempted?

But I read once in a book of piety something that I found really useful: “The devil does not bother with people who already belong to him”.

The devil does not bother with people who already belong to him.

It is not that I believe there are people who belong to the devil. To me, the sense of this quotation is first than if you’re in a state of sin, you do not identify temptation. You just do what you do without thinking much about your acts and their consequences or what God wants.

But even more deeper, and this is what we read today, innocence and holiness, in a strange way, attracts the devil who tries to destroy the work of God and God’s people.

There is a poem that says that Satan sheds tears of bitterness when he sees the beauty of the world. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, says that there is something in vulnerability, innocence and goodness that is like a magnet to what is evil, something that provokes jealousy, violence, destruction. We see in our world that it is the innocents and the powerless who suffer the most from violence. They get hurt simply b/c it’s easy to hurt them.

If we encounter strong temptation, it’s not necessarily that we have done something wrong, it could be the devil going out of his way to break our relationships with God.

Once we know that, it makes it easier to deal with temptation. Temptation is not so much about wanting things that are “wrong”, it’s when we are faced with risking being led in a way of living or thinking that will ultimately break our relationship with God.

– How does the Devil break our relationship with God?

Well, we first have to remember that the devil will ALWAYS outsmart people, even the holy and innocent, and especially the holy and innocent because they cannot relate to what the devil has in mind, to evil.

Psychologists use this test to know if a patient has evil tendencies:
A woman is attending the funeral of her mother. At this funeral, she meets a man she likes but he leaves before she can find out who he is and how to be in touch with him. One week later, she kills her sister. Why?

Well, according to the psychologists, most people will never find the answer. The answer is: Because she thinks that the man may attend this funeral as well. People can’t find the answer, not because they’re stupid, but because they’re good.

Evil is something the majority of people can’t even think about. In this way, it’s something that will always outsmart them.

– How does the devil outsmart us, especially Xns? By tempting us with what is the most important to us, by tricking us with our own goodness, our faith and our devotion.

It is worrisome that we always identify temptation with greed and sex. It is often the way we interpret this first reading of Genesis. But if you read Genesis though, after he created Adam and Eve, God commands them to “Be fruitful and multiply”, so it’s not sex that is forbidden when they “eat the apple”.

Of course, there is a lot to say about greed (and sex when it becomes greedy), a lot of our problems in our world are happening because of greed (Greed for money and power). The collapse of ecological systems today is the result of centuries of collective greed.

But that’s not the real work of the devil. People walk down the path of greed by themselves most of the time. The real temptation (and the most dangerous) is the one we don’t see coming. It’s when the devil tempts us with our own goodness and our own faith.

To me, this is the story of Eve. You see how the serpent talks to her? The serpent promises Eve that she will be “Like God”. But you want to become like what you really like, what you really think is good. Eve has this perfect relationships with God, and she wants to become as wise as God, probably not out of rivalry, but out of imitation.

And we see that we Jesus as well. The devil does not tempt Jesus by telling him he should better get out of the wilderness to make lots of money and spend it on partying. The Devil tempts Jesus with proving / testing his relationship with God. The devil tempts Jesus with ways Jesus could become “even closer” or “even more beloved” by God, or carry on a more successful mission.

You know how we say that best is sometimes the enemy of good, or The road that goes to Hell is paved with good intentions. There is some wisdom in that.

If you really love your job, maybe Satan is going to tempt you by working so hard you won’t have time for anything else.

If you really love being a Mom, maybe Satan is going to tempt you by exhausting yourself trying to do such a terrific job, at some point you will start resenting your family for not being more grateful.

If you really love God, maybe Satan is going to tempt you by willing so much to do God’s will, as you carry on your mission you will lose track of your community and your own soul.

– As we exhaust ourselves to measure up, we start to self destroy. The way Satan works always lead to despair and to self destruction. Because Satan is jealous of the work of God and wants to destroy the work of God, us, humans beings, replicas of Adam and Eve, but even more, the replicas of Christ Christians are supposed to be.

And to me, this is the heart of the problem. Doubt in itself is not the enemy of faith. Quite the opposite, it is reasonable to reflect on the articles of faith, and our tradition in the Anglican Church invites us always to question.

The doubt that the devil introduces is the doubt towards God’s goodness. When we hear this voice that says: “See, God does not care, nobody loves you and your life means nothing” – especially in times of weakness, when we are tired, sick, bullied, or isolated.

– We start doubting that God really loves us or desires what is good for us

– We start wondering if goodness is God, if goodness is really this ultimate power / has really the ultimate authority or if we should surrender to other powers (= Satan’s) / wondering if goodness is good enough or if we should add a little more to it.

The work of the devil is to convince us that God does not care about us and that there is no use in being good, and that’s the opposite of what Jesus commanded us to do: Love God and love neighbor. Now that’s the path that leads us not only to sin, but even more, that leads to self destruction, nihilism and despair (Spiritual death – the real problem with sin)

This is where Eve fails the test, and where Jesus passes it.

Eve does not believe that goodness, trust in God and confidence in the fact that she is already created in God’s image, will lead her to be God like / make her already God like. She thinks she needs a shortcut to get what she wants, to get even more b/c maybe God does not want what’s best for her.

Jesus is also tempted to look for proofs that he is indeed the Son of God, that God really cares for him, that God will reward him. But he decides to trust and not use tricks. Jesus believes the goodness and love of God will carry on and see him through his trials and questioning.

In the end, Jesus is the one (and according to Paul, the first one) who truly outsmarted the devil.

Isn’t it interesting to notice that the devil quotes the Scriptures? God can be whoever you want God to be, you can make the Bible say a lot of things. The devil can tempt us with our own faith. The bottom line is to hold on to the truth that God is good and that goodness/ love are not only the ultimate end but the only means / the only way – The way of Love: “Love is the only thing that has ever worked” (Bishop Curry)

The response to the devil: It all comes down to trusting ourselves as being enough, already loved by God and led by God / goodness in spite / through of the difficulties (wilderness).