The Temptation of Jesus, the Desert Journey of Israel, and Ours – 1st Sunday of Lent – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; March 9, 2025

God has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to sum up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Eph 1:9-10)

To sum up or recapitulate or renew all things in Christ; this is why the Holy Spirit led him into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Jesus renews the story, sets it now on the right path, by going into the desert and coming out victorious where our first parents were vanquished. Adam was vanquished in the garden, but Jesus was victorious in the desert.

The story of Adam is not the only story that Jesus recapitulates; he also recapitulates, with a better outcome, the story of the Israelites in the desert. Indeed, each of the three temptations has a reference to the failure of the Israelites in the desert. Jesus’ forty days in the desert and our forty days of Lent recapitulate the Israelites forty years in the desert.

After their deliverance from Egypt, the Israelites quickly murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. (Ex 16:2) In response, God gave to the people the miraculous manna to eat, but they needed to follow the instructions God gave, arising early in the morning to gather the manna for each day and, on Friday, gathering enough for two days. After sunrise the manna melted away; nor could it be stored for a second day (except on Friday). In order to eat the manna, they needed to listen to and obey God’s word. Later, when Moses reviewed the events of the desert journey in a discourse to the whole people, he commented, The Lord your God humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives be every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Dt 8:3)

So, when the devil tempted Jesus with hunger, he replied, It is written: Man does not live on bread alone.

When Moses went up on the mountain for forty days and forty nights to receive the commandments of God, the Israelites fell away into idolatry, worshiping the golden calf. (cf. Ex 32) In Moses’ farewell discourse before their entrance into the promised land he warned them against forgetting God in the midst of their prosperity, saying, Take heed lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve him alone, and swear by his name. You shall not go after other gods, or the gods of the peoples who are round about you. (Dt 6:13-14)

When the devil offered Jesus the prosperity of the kingdoms of the world in return for worshiping him, he replied, It is written: You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.

When the people found fault with Moses, and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ And Moses said to them, ‘Why do you find fault with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test? (Ex 17:2-3) God’s response was to command Moses to strike the rock with his staff so that water would come forth from the rock. The place was named Massah (which means “testing”) because of the faultfinding of the children of Israel, and because they put the Lord to the test by saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’ (Ex 17:7) Again, Moses, when he reviewed the events of the desert journey, before their entrance into the promised land, said, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord you God, and his testimonies, and his statutes which he has commanded you.  (Dt 6:16-17)

When the devil took Jesus to the parapet of the temple and solicited him to put God to the test by casting himself down, Jesus replied, It also says: You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.

Jesus did battle one on one with the devil; the devil directly challenged Jesus’ relationship to God.

With the Israelites in the desert, in the face of adversity, they complained against Moses, whom God had set in charge over them. They might have justified themselves, saying, “We are only complaining against Moses, not against God.” Of course, by complaining against Moses they imply that Moses had deceived them, merely pretending to be God’s messenger, when he led them into the desert. So their complaint is really against God who sent Moses and God takes it that way and Moses rightly interprets it that way. This helps us to apply the example of Jesus to our own life; the devil does not usually directly challenge our relation to God, but with the authority structure that God has established in his Church: Pope, bishop, and priest.

I have heard people say that they left the Church because they were “not being fed”; the reference is to the food of the word of God. Or because of the hypocrisy of bishops or priests. Jesus said with respect to the Pharisees, the religious teachers of his time, The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. (Mt 23:3)

Now, in the Church, there is a greater teaching authority than that of Moses, the authority of the Pope and bishops, which derives from the Apostles, chosen by Jesus Christ, the very Word made flesh.

I will say this, the teachers in the Church may sometimes fall down on the job, but for those who seek it the food is there to be found in the Church. That is my experience of more than 40 years, having been baptized at age 20.

The food is there but often the temptation is to seek food in the wrong places, listening to the voice of Dame Folly, Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. (Pr 9:17) Or to seek food after our own fancy because we are not satisfied with the food that God gives. In the desert journey of Israel the people reached the point of despising the miraculous manna, saying, we loathe this worthless food. (Nm 21:5) We are not satisfied with what has been handed down by the Church’s tradition, but, in the spirit of modernity, we long to discover the secret never known before, the secret that will explain it all, what really happened.

The word of Christ gives us something greater than the manna; the word of Christ give us the true food of eternal life when he says, whether at the Last Supper or through his priests: This is my Body; This is the chalice of my Blood. This is the food we must seek, for which we must hunger, but to eat we must believe in his word and obey.

Next, Christ demands that we worship him and be subject to the authority that he has established in his Church. Well, it is always easy to find fault with human beings, especially those in positions of authority.

The spirit of democracy, the spirit of every man for himself, every man, supposedly with an equal voice – whether he knows anything or not, whether he is upright or not – has taught us that no one has the right to tell us what to do.

So today the devil does not offer us the kingdoms of the world, but whispers in our ears that we do not have to listen to anyone, do not have to obey anyone, especially not in the Church.

Well, we cannot worship Christ without obeying him, who said to the Apostles, entrusting them with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the true worship: do this in memory of me. Nor can we obey Christ unless we submit ourselves to the authority structure of the Church he established. We know that he gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven to St. Peter saying, Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Mt 16:19) This authority was also shared with the other Apostles. (cf. Mt 18:18)

Now, both Matthew and Luke report the same three temptations but in a different order. The different order given by the evangelists involves a difference of emphasis.

St. Luke gives us the temptation at the temple as the last and leaves us with the suggestive, the devil … departed from him for a time. Until when? Until the Cross. St. Luke thereby emphasizes the temptation at the temple while showing that the definitive victory over Satan only comes through Christ’s death on the Cross.

The temptation at the temple is perhaps the most perplexing. What would be the point of Jesus casting himself from the parapet of the temple?

Let us consider that when the Israelites put God to the test, they declared ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’ (Ex 17:7). This temptation then seems to involve forcing God’s hand, making him to show his power, in public fashion no less; in this case it would mean drawing people’s attention to Jesus and his being born up and saved by God.

The temptation was renewed when Jesus hung upon the Cross and heard the chief priests, scribes, and elders mock him, saying, Let him come down now from the Cross and we will believe in him. (Mt 27:42)

We are tempted in the same way when we want God to prove his presence and his love by some dramatic intervention through which he solves our problems and gives us what we want. We in effect say to God, “Show yourself, or I will not believe in you.”

The Church is a visible reality in this world, but not a very impressive one these days. Nevertheless, belonging to the Church we belong to the continuous historical reality of Christianity since the time of the Apostles. The line of Popes from Peter to Francis is probably one of the few certain facts of history over the course of the past 2,000 years. Moreover, in the Church, we have the teaching of Jesus and we have his Body and Blood offered in sacrifice and received in communion.

There are miracles still – indeed for almost every saint canonized during the last 800 years there are at least two rigorously investigated and verified miracles – nevertheless, full on miracles are not widespread, not part of our day-to-day life. The Church herself, however, is a continuous miracle for those who have eyes to see, but too often we are blind.

So faced with what seems to be the hum-drum day to day reality of the Church, with all the human faults and failings of her members, we are tempted to seek something more, tempted to ask like the Israelites in the desert, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’ (Ex 17:7).

When the Israelites put the Lord to the test they had seen the Lord’s marvels when he delivered them from Egypt and led them across the Red Sea; that was not enough; they wanted more proof.

So many people today want entertainment, emotion, and miracles, otherwise they will not believe. They do not want the desert journey that God gives us. Yes, just as the Israelites were led into the desert after crossing the Red Sea, just as the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert, Christians are led into the desert journey of this life through their baptism. Yet, there are those few who will embrace what Fr. Frederick Faber called the long slow patient perseverance in the humbling practices of solid virtue. Yet, the way through the desert is the way to the promised land, the way of the Cross is the way to eternal life. Jesus has gone before us to show us the way.

Send forth your light and your truth; let them lead me to your holy mountain and to your dwelling place. (Ps 43[42]:3)