Sunday of the Mirror
This is a collaborative essay between 2 Efmevi writers.
The 2nd Sunday of the Great Fast, the Temptation on the Mount, seems to be the New Testament completion of the Old Testament failure. The Israelites fell in face of temptation in the wilderness and indulged in sin. Scripture speaks to us about their idolatory, backbiting, rebellion, and their tempting the character of God. It is humbling to see their temptation mirrored in the Gospel reading of today. Our Lord went into the wilderness to restore the lost character to God's obedience; and as he upheld the commandment to fast on behalf of humanity as part of his ministry, he also sanctified the praxis (act) of fasting. The Israelities prayed, fasted, offered sacrifices, but all these availed to little. These facets of living out the faith in God needed to be healed again.
Jesus Christ, as the man-God, had to accept upon himself all the aspects of humanity if he was to be the savior of that very humanity. The saving act of Christ is not just the oft-mentioned event of a crucified God that rose from the dead three days after. While this great act of sacrifice is at the center of Orthodox faith, I want to draw attention here to the importance of saving by example; that is, in his very temptation, Christ encompassed and experienced everything that humans experience, and by prevailing, he proved that victory is indeed possible.
With Adam & Eve, man no longer knew how to deal with temptation. The same tactics used on them, then recycled on the Israelites, were used again on the Lord Christ by the Devil. Christ reversed the pattern and finally showed us how to fight, respond to, and conquer temptation. It is amazing and humbling to see Scripture show us the same pattern through the temptations in the struggle of Israelites in the wilderness.
1st temptation
"The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at." (Num. 11:4-6)
Here was God sending the Israelites manna straight from heaven. And all they desired was the food they remember from their time in bondage in Egypt. They forgot all about the struggle, the pain, the death, the back-breaking toil. All that mattered was the memory and lure of the food in Egypt. God was providing directly and they were not satisfied.
Hegumen Athanasius Iskander (Kitchener, Canada) duly points out that the temptation happened continually over the 40 days of fasting, not just at one point in time and then stopped. So, given our father's clarification, Scripture records for us the moment where Satan approached Jesus, that is when he became hungry. It is also interesting to note the three levels of temptation; each one happened at a higher summit than the previous one. When Christ resisted and defeated Satan on one level, the Devil stepped up to the next.
Never does the Devil approach me without first observing what it is that I desire and want to enjoy. Do I have an inherent desire for sexual gratification, a product of my specific gender, age, and a healthy endocrine system? The devil can clearly see this desire, as can anyone that spends time observing my uncontrolled glances and stealthy peeks at members of the opposite sex. He will therefore exploit this inherent drive and my weakness in regulating this drive. Giving into the murmurs, I then start slowly noticing how sexualized our culture is and how futile it is to feign innocence. Because in reality, I would like to be nice to my inner demon.
Christ had the free will and the supernatural ability to create bread, not just from stone but even from nothing at all. However, He gives Satan the radical response "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." (Lk. 4:4). My initial reaction to this would be: "Amen, Jesus! Man cannot live on bread alone, but on juicy steak and sumptuous poultry, and why not copious amounts of wine to go with it all?!" Humor aside, what is meant by his famous statement? If man shall not live by bread alone but also by the word of God, would that not imply that man lives both by the carnal and the spiritual? If so, then why did Jesus not create some bread at the suggestion of Satan, take a break from prayer and intercession, and resume later after having eaten? In the same vein, why is it a bad idea for me to satisfy my carnal desires, since man does live on bread as well as the word of God?
The answers to these open-ended, difficult questions may lie in this. Christ became hungry. The Devil challenged him to make bread out of stones. He also challenged him to reconsider what sustained him all those days and nights in the desert. Was dietary abstinence enough? Really, holy man, is it enough? Do something in your power - you can do it I presume - just cut a corner and get something better to feed on. Christ does not condemn here the carnal part of our nourishment. He does outline though that in times of fasting, we are to rely in faith on the power of abstinence.
2nd temptation
"Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. Thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them; thus you shall provide drink for the congregation and their livestock. So Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he had commanded him. Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?" Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank. But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them." (Num. 20:8-12)
Christ's words echoed the Lord's decree: "By your distrust, you test my faithfulness and commitment to your providence." Couldn't Christ do it? Can't Christ change my life, lift the dark cloud of failure and struggle from my life, and spare me this agony of living? I'll put myself in the place of Satan and repeat his demand to throw himself off the top of the Temple. Surely, it's a valid question. Can't you, Mr. manager, get rid of that aggressive and manipulative colleague? Why are you taking so long?
3rd temptation
"While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people began to have sexual relations with the women of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. Thus Israel yoked itself to the Baal of Peor, and the LORD's anger was kindled against Israel. The LORD said to Moses, 'Take all the chiefs of the people, and impale them in the sun before the LORD, in order that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel." (Num. 25:1-4)
Eve fell with her eyes and then she consummated it through a bodily action. Adam fell through one of his senses, his ears and did nothing to counteract Eve's dangerous statements. He also sealed his choice through a bodily action. The Israelites manifested and completed their doubt in fornication and adultery, and then became idol worshippers.
One statement from Christ's mouth desisted Satan and confirmed truth by echoing the Decalogue (Ten Commandments): "You shall not worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve." (Ex. 34:28)
Jesus' outrage over materialism (implicating capitalist rat-racing for our modern eyes) is much more clear. When offered all the worldly possessions and opulent kingdoms in existence, His call is neither a mere unrealistic call for self-inflicted poverty nor an anachronistic praise of future monastic ideals. For a young man in a capitalist world faced with the decision of either a fulfilling intellectual career or a lucrative one mired in toil, this divine angry outburst is as relevant as my own medical school applications. The orders are very simple; we are to worship God only, not money, not high acclaim, not corporate ladders; and not even economic stability in the form of the American suburban dream.
Admittedly, the idea of abandoning the worship of the idol of capitalism is difficult and may even appear unattainable. However, just like Abraham managed to worship the true God in a city of idol-worshippers, we are called upon to do the same. Though our idols may vary and our stories may differ, Christ's strong stand against pursuing possessions gives all of us a clear sense of direction. For you workaholics and those who pursue careers in the thicket of the rat race, it may be time to reconsider your priorities and even your true religious affiliation. Who is your God?
The fall from each level of temptation is more devastating than the previous. It is so easy to think that the Devil can't beat us on a 'low-level' temptation. Christ treated all temptation as one. He didn't quantify, categorize, or tag different levels. He didn't even expend cognitive effort to figure out what can be dealt with, even entertained on some level, and what can be labelled with a big red marker,"Off limits".
Believers fall in a variety of ways. Some of us may not even try to justify or rationalize our predicaments; we just succumb to them. And when we finally become aware of wake up to the blindness of our heart, we realize we have fallen from such a great height and we look up to see our hearts shattered and our souls wounded, we think, beyond recognition.
The fuel on which temptation loves to feast is despair. I despair as I pass through this prototype for temptation and fail. At the very heart of both Adam, Eve, and Israelite's failures laid doubt. Is he truly God? Really? He's silent and I'm roaring, trying to get answers from him. When will temptation have no power over us? I'm not like those who don't even think that there is temptation and it's all mental mind-play. Isn't that the greatest temptation of all? I'm just human, acknowledging I'm powerless.
At that mount, Christ has shown us that, contrary to our own doubts and failures, there is strength and purpose inherent to prayer and fasting. As the Desert Fathers likened prayer and fasting like two wings of an eagle, it has been made implicit that the third, crucial aspect is faith: the feet of the eagle. If you can't lift off on steady ground, your muscles made strong from experience in the pursuit of theosis, how will you fly? How will I fly?
There is hope for all of us.
It's been assumed all these years that faith is key. But this key has been lost and de-emphasized while looking at this passage in the Gospel of Luke. If we don't have faith in God's core, that he is God, that he is sovereign, that he is ours as we are his, what will our prayer and fasting come to? It would be hasty to assume that Adam, Eve, or the Israelites did not believe. They must have believed. But it could be that their doubt, a seed planted by the Devil and watered by their reasoning, could have grown stronger and more furtive than their faith, regardless of its original fervor.
As mentioned before, we could transplant the Devil out of the story and graft ourselves in there. It's no longer about good versus evil, fighting a war on chronological and soteirological levels; the entire atmosphere changes from a battle between Christ and his enemy to a difficult conversation between a hurting believer and his Wounded Healer. Do you really have power over matter, Lord? Can you do what you say you do? Are you powerful? Can something constrict or constrain you?
Can you be everything to me, can you bring me to satiety?
We can rename this Sunday of Temptation as the Sunday of the Mirror. For we look into this story and see this difficult conversation unravel between people like you and me, and Christ.
Speak to the mirror, don't strike it, I hear Scripture say.
