The Devil Made Me Do It
Adapted from a sermon by Fr Samuel Fanous
Matthew 4:1-11
As we start losing motivation to sustain our spiritual goals, an important reminder is the story of Christ’s temptation from the devil after He had fasted 40 days and nights.
Christ was baptised in the Jordan immediately before this encounter. A voice came from heaven and said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). This was the glory that proceeded this passage. After the glory, immediately, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).
In any spiritual life, progress is typically accompanied by temptation and difficulties. The devil looks upon our progress and ensures we are stopped us in our tracks.
All too commonly with those on the cusp of their spiritual life, as they are about to make a commitment to Christ, things begin to fall apart. Everything goes wrong. How can someone be making a lifelong commitment before Christ and then see everything around them falling apart?
God allows this to happen for our benefit if we overcome. If we don’t make it through, then we are not worthy of the prize. If we do get through, then it demonstrates our zeal for the prize and this is how we achieve it.
We can expect life to become harder if we are trying our hardest spiritually during lent. The typical temptations faced by humanity are the same in which the devil tempted Christ with.
After fasting for 40 days, we can expect Christ to be hungry. The devil comes to Him, tempting Him with food. He says, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
In Lent, that can mean breaking our fast. It can mean concluding that fasting is too hard with so many commitments. We can also break the fast in other ways despite maintaining the right food. We can live life to satisfy the pleasures of the body. We can live life for the lust of the flesh. Temptation during this time comes from things that I thought were long dead are revived in me when I try to engage in my spiritual life.
If we give in to these pleasures, our spiritual progress is halted. Now is the time to increase our fasting, our abstinence. Fasting is not abstinence from food only, but from the life of the flesh and the pleasures of the flesh.
Now is the time to reduce the amount of television I watch, to reduce my time spent on Netflix, on social media. We can unwind my watching television, or we can unwind by spending quiet time with the Lord. I can give what little free time I have on something mindless, or I can attempt to make use of it spiritually.
We all have thousands of excuses to demand me-time. This can develop into a pattern over years and becomes difficult to break. During Lent, we can devote me-time to time with God. Me-time can be prayer time.
The second temptation involves power. The devil takes Christ upon a very high mountain and says, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
You can have it all, if you just sell your soul to the devil. The modern day translation would be, you can have it all, if you sacrifice your Sundays, or you can have it all, if you work hard enough, sacrificing your time in prayer. Forgot all your spiritual goals, because you cannot do both. You cannot achieve everything spiritually while achieving the status you want on earth. You can have all the money you want, if you lie and cheat and steal your way there. You have to sell your soul to the world to achieve what you want. This is a never-ending temptation and so, the question we must ask ourselves is, “What am I giving up to achieve the things I want in this life?”
If we devout our entire lives to anything of this world, what will we have to show for it in the end times? Jesus asks a similar question when He tells His disciples of the second coming; “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:36-37).
For us, we need to be careful not go along with the flow of life. Lent is a good time to take note of my goals in life? Good family, good house, good status? Sometimes we don’t even know our goals. Think of a normal day in the last week, how much of your mental and physical time were spent on things of the world? Maybe 10-12 hours. Think on that same day, did I spend thinking about God, the Bible, my spiritual life? Maybe 10-12 minutes if we’re lucky.
If this is the truth, then this is our answer. If we spend all day in the world, and one minute is given to God throughout the day, you know where your goals lie. If you are forced to spend most of your time at work, contemplate on Him while you are there. Find a church in your lunch break, pray there. If you spend your time looking after young children, find God while your feeding, bathing, playing. Whatever you’re doing, take God with you. Your goal will still be God and spiritual things.
The final temptation is the one where I do not need God. I don’t need God to be a good person, I don’t need to go to church for that. If I convince myself that I am a good person, that is all I need. If I throw myself down from a pinnacle then I will be saved by my good deeds. This is the hardest thing to breakthrough – the awareness of my own sinfulness. The one that confesses of murder has a much greater chance of going to heaven then the one that confesses that they are a good person.
The lack of insight into ourselves is the biggest problem, and this is nothing short of pride. The woman caught in adultery was not condemned by Christ, but the Pharisees who never did anything wrong were condemned; they were called snakes and brood of vipers! They did not understand themselves.
Think to yourself- have you ever shed tears of repentance? Have you ever felt remorse for your sins? Have you ever felt joy at the undeserved grace on the Cross? If this does not mean anything, then it makes the heart further from Christ than the worst of all sinners. Only by contrasting myself with the glory of God will I know who I am.
In the presence of God, you will know who you are. Only in the presence of God that we can describe ourselves as St Paul does as, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15), but also, “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:17).
Let us remain steadfast and work harder that in all tribulation we are glorified in Christ.