Tempting the Lord . . . .

"Tempting the Lord . . ."

by Fr. Todd Bragg

September 28th, 2014

If we open up St. Matthew's Gospel and turn to the fourth chapter, we will hear St. Matthew recounting for us when Our Lord went out into the wilderness.  There, St. Matthew reminds us, that Our Lord was "tempted of the devil." (V. 1)  Now, of course, we have read this account many times over the course of our lives.  And it always struck me, personally, while reading this account that the devil was certainly very bold.  I mean, let's face it, the devil knew whom he was dealing with or else he would not have gone to the effort of doing what he did in the first place.  But that being said, it still was very bold of him to tempt Our Lord like he did.  You know the story, Our Lord went out into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights and then the devil tempted Him not once, not twice, but three separate times:  first, he tempted Him by telling Him to turn stones into bread; next, he tempted Him by daring Him to cast Himself from off the Temple; and, finally, the devil tempted Him by offering Him all the kingdoms of the world.  The bottom line is that Our Lord did not give in to any of these temptations and ultimately put the devil in his place:  "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!" (V. 7)

Now, of course, this is exactly what we would expect the response to be from Our Lord.  There was really not ever any doubt that He would give in to any of these temptations.  But, we still go back to our original premise:  the devil was very bold to tempt Our Lord those three times.  We say to ourselves, "Devil, do you know who you are dealing with?"  "Surely, you don't or else you would not even try."  "Why would you even dare to tempt Our Blessed Saviour?!?!?"  "That doesn't make any sense . . . . "

No, it doesn't make sense.  But, on the other hand, do we ever tempt Our Lord?  I mean, when you think about it, have we ever gone back on our word with God?  What do you mean, Fr. Todd?  What are you talking about?  What I mean is this:  How many times have we sinned and we came to our senses and swore never to do it again.  But, then over time, we went back and committed the same exact sin all over again.  Just to go through the whole process again.  It's the same pattern all over again:  1) Commit Sin; 2) Come to our senses; 3) Repent of sin; 4) Ask God forgiveness;  5) Go back to step one . . . . Does this process sound familiar?  Have you ever gone through these steps in your life?  I know that I have.  It really doesn't matter what the sin is, the point is still the same.  There are things in life which we have a problem with and, yet, we persist in these behaviours over and over and over again.  And over and over, we also ask for forgiveness each and every time.  Only to, ultimately, go back and commit the sin all over again.  It's a frustrating pattern, to be sure.  And I am sure that the vast majority of those reading this know exactly what I'm talking about.  

But when you think about it in this light, aren't we tempting the Lord as well each and every time we commit a sin and then go back and do the same sin all over again after we have repented and asked forgiveness?  But, Fr. Todd, it's really NOT that easy!   I know it's not!  It's very hard!   I know from personal experience.  And, yet, we are called to true repentance.  God truly forgives us when we come to Him with true contrition  But we should do everything we should to keep from going to God and asking Him to forgive us for the same sins over and over and over again.  You see, each and every time, we commit the same sin over again . . . and each and every time we turn to the Lord for forgiveness . .. . . it becomes a little easier to commit the sin the next time, doesn't it?  "What the heck," you tell yourself, "God will forgive me . . . .  He always does."  And we give in to the temptation because we know deep down inside that God will forgive us "no matter what."  And, you know what?  God will forgive us "no matter what." But that is not the point.

The best way to stop the pattern described above and repeating the same exact sin over and over and over again . . . . is to change yourself from the inside out.  Give your hearts to God.  Transform your hearts and give them to God.  "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord Thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord Thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord Thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul." (Deuteronomy 10: 12)   We need to walk in His ways, love Him, and serve Him with all our heart and all our soul!  We need also stop "tempting" the Lord by seeing how many times He will forgive us for the same exact sin.  Instead of tempting, let's start transforming!  Difficult?  Most certainly but well worth the efforts!