In our Gospel today, the fencing match between Jesus and the devil is purely verbal: a clash of verses drawn from the book of Deuteronomy and the Psalms. Jesus has withdrawn into the wilderness for forty days of fasting, and to be tempted by the devil. He’s been led there by the Spirit, so in some sense it’s a set-piece battle, whose date and place have been arranged by God long ago.
In the course of Jesus’ temptation, all his responses are drawn from Deuteronomy. This book comprises the great sermon that Moses preached after Israel’s own forty years of wandering in the wilderness. The People are about to enter the promised land, and Moses reminds them of all that has happened to them, and commends them to God’s keeping. He has some choice words for them. Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy when he says, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone… Do not put the Lord your God to the test… Worship the Lord your God and serve only him’” (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10). Where it’s written is Deuteronomy, so the script is an old one.
It’s verbal fencing, but more than a matter of clever declension and conjugation: a rhetorical jousting in the desert. The French poet Charles Péguy wrote, “Jesus Christ, my child, did not come to tell us tales/ …To come recount anecdotes for us / and jokes. / There’s no time for fooling around… / He didn’t make such an expense… / In order to come give us… / Riddles / To figure out / Like a magician. / Pretending to be clever” (The Portal of the Mystery of Hope).
Salvation is serious business. “There’s no time for fooling around,” as Péguy says in the poem. Jesus’ reclaiming of Moses’ words on the edge of the wilderness is a sign that one greater than Moses is here. Jesus is bringing the word of God; a critical message; words that we are supposed to pay attention to. As he says in his first response to the devil, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4; cf. Deut. 8:3). Not jokes, not anecdotes, not riddles, but words from God to us.
Remember what Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word… for the words that you gave to me I have given them… I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves” (Jo. 17:6, 8, 13). The word of salvation is meant to come to rest within us, and be shared with others as Jesus shared it with us.
Again, the poet Péguy, “No, no, my child, and Jesus did not give us dead words either / for us to seal up into little boxes… / And for us to preserve in (some) rancid oil… / Jesus Christ, my child, didn’t give us canned words / To keep; / Rather, he gave us living words / To nourish… / Words of life, living words cannot be preserved except alive, / Nourished alive, / Nourished, carried, warmed, warm in a living heart. / As Jesus was forced to take a body, to take on flesh… / So he could pronounce them.”
The word that Jesus shares with us, and which he expects us to share with others, is part and parcel of the Word made flesh that he himself is. The messenger is himself the message. He gives us his Body and Blood in this Eucharist so that by eating and drinking he may abide in us, and we in him. The word of God is no longer simply the word heard with the ear but the Word that lives within us. Not a word that is artificially preserved; a canned word that is kept; but a living word in a living heart. In fact, it’s Jesus himself.
Today a number of members of the community are receiving the laying on of hands by the bishop in confirmation and reception. Salvation is serious business, and no joking matter: the reaffirmation of our baptismal vows that is part of this sacramental rite represents a profound turning away from the devil and a turning to Christ. As part of our liturgy, our candidates will reaffirm their renunciation of evil, which the devil personifies. Have you tried resisting evil recently? Not easy work.
Take heart: today the community is praying for you, including about 15,000 Episcopalians in the Diocese of Tennessee, and countless other friends and supporters. God himself has supplied the words of response and affirmation you’ll employ. In this rite you are receiving God’s grace through prayer and the laying on of hands: grace that will help you persevere and follow through. This season of Lent will help prepare all of us for the celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In him, God has spoken the Word that cannot be broken; the Word that even now lives within you!