ACC ~ Matthew 4 v1

READINESS TO FACE TEMPTATIONS

CHRYSOSTOM: The text says “then.” Then when? This was after the descent of the Spirit, after the voice that was borne from above had said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Led by whom? This is marvelous. All of this was led by the Holy Spirit. For it says Jesus was “led up by the Spirit.” All this was for our instruction. The Lord does whatever is necessary for our salvation by both acting and being acted upon. He submitted himself to being led up there to wrestle against the devil. Now we should not be troubled if, after our baptism, we too have to endure great temptations. We should not treat this as if unexpected but continue to endure all things nobly, as though it were happening in the natural course of things. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 13.1. [1]

[1] PG 57:207-8; NPNF 1 10:80**. By submitting himself to being led up by the Spirit to the wilderness to struggle against temptation, he teaches us to face our temptations.

ADAM’S TEMPTATION REVERSED

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: For since Adam met with luxury in paradise and, through deception, deteriorated to what is worse, it was necessary that [the Spirit] lead Christ into the wilderness in order to enfeeble the devil’s force by someone greater in strength. So he fasted for forty nights and days. FRAGMENT 17. [1]

[1] MKGK 102. Adam through deception fell from the luxury of paradise into temptation and the Fall. Hence the Spirit necessarily led Jesus into the wilderness to enfeeble the devil’s force by someone greater in strength.

LED BY THE SPIRIT

ANONYMOUS: With the words the Evangelist added, “to be tempted by the devil,” he shows that Jesus was led by the Spirit, but not as a subordinate on the command of a superior and not as a superior on the encouragement of a subordinate. He is referring not only to one who is led or drawn under another’s power but also to one who acquiesces in someone’s reasonable insistence.

Jesus was led to the devil to be tempted. Note that the devil goes out to people to tempt them, and it is not people who go to the devil in order to be tempted by him. And since the devil could not go against Christ, it was Christ who went against the devil. INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 5. [1]

[1] PG 56:661.

THE DEVIL DEFEATED BY THE SAME FLESH HE HAD MADE MISERABLE

HILARY: The journey into the desert, the forty-day fast, the hunger after the fast, the temptation by Satan and the Lord’s response—all these are full of the effects of the great heavenly counsel. The fact he was led into the desert signifies the freedom of the Holy Spirit to offer his man to the devil and to permit the occasion of temptation and conquest, which the tempter would not have had unless he had been given it. There was in the devil therefore suspicious fear but no knowledge of the true identity of the One suspected. The devil was moved by the forty-day fast. He had knowledge of the poured-out waters of the abyss in just as many days and of the exploration of the promised land, [1] in the Mosaic law written by God. [2] He also knew that this number of years was fulfilled when the people remained in the desert with the life and condition as it were of angels. [3] Apprehensive of that time therefore in tempting him whom he considered to be a man, he acted rashly. He had enticed Adam and by deceiving him led him to death. But it was fitting, because of his wickedness and evil deed, that he be defeated by that same humanity in whose death and misfortunes he gloried. It was the devil who envied God’s gifts to humanity before the temptation of Adam, who was now unable to understand God’s being present in a human being. The Lord was therefore tempted immediately after being baptized. His temptation indicates how sinister are the devil’s attempts especially against those who have been sanctified, for he eagerly desires victory over the saints.

Jesus did not hunger for human food but for human salvation. It was after forty days and not during forty days that he hungered. Moses and Elijah were not hungry during the same period of fasting. [4] Therefore, when the Lord hungered, the work of abstinence did not creep up on him. His strength was not depleted by his forty days of fasting. He did not abandon his nature as a man. The devil was not to be defeated by God but by the flesh, which he surely would not have dared to tempt, except in those things which he recognized were proper human needs because of the pangs of hunger. ON MATTHEW 3.1-2. [5]

[1] See Num 13:25.

[2] Ex 24:18.

[3] Ex 16:35.

[4] Cf. Ex 34:28.

[5] SC 254:110-14.