I. THE FASTING OF CHRIST.
I. This Gospel is read today at the beginning of Lent in order to picture
before Christians the example of Christ, that they may rightly observe
Lent, which has become mere mockery: first, because no one can follow this
example and fast forty days and nights as Christ did without eating any
food. Christ rather followed the example of Moses, who fasted also forty
days and nights, when he received the law of God on mount Sinai. Thus Christ
also wished to fast when he was about to bring to us, and give expression
to, the new law. In the second place, Lent has become mere mockery because
our fasting is a perversion and an institution of man. For although Christ
did fast forty days, yet there is no word of his that he requires us to
do the same and fast as he did. Indeed he did many other things, which
he wishes us not to do; but whatever he calls us to do or leave undone,
we should see to it that we have his Word to support our actions.
2. But the worst of all is that we have adopted and practiced fasting
as a good work: not to bring our flesh into subjection; but, as a meritorious
work before God, to atone for our sins and obtain grace. And it is this
that has made our fasting a stench and so blasphemous and shameful, so
that no drinking and eating, no gluttony and drunkenness, could have been
as bad and foul. It would have been better had people been drunk day and
night than to fast thus. Moreover, even if all had gone well and right,
so that their fasting had been applied to the mortification of the flesh;
but since it was not voluntary it was not left to each to do according
to their own free will, but was compulsory by virtue of human commandment,
and they did it unwillingly, it was all lost and to no purpose. I will
not mention the many other evils as the consequences, as that pregnant
mothers and their offspring, the sick and the weak, were thereby ruined,
so that it might be called a fasting of Satan instead of a fasting unto
holiness. Therefore we will carefully consider how this Gospel teaches
us by the example of Christ what true fasting is.
3. The Scriptures present to us two kinds of true fasting: one, by which
we try to bring the flesh into subjection to the spirit, of which St. Paul
speaks in 2 Cor 6,5: "In labors, in watchings, in fastings." The other
is that which we must bear patiently, and yet receive willingly because
of our need and poverty, of which St. Paul speaks in 1 Cor 4, 11: "Even
unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst," and Christ in Mt 9,15:
"When the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, then will they fast."
This kind of fasting Christ teaches us here while in the wilderness alone
without anything to eat, and while he suffers his penury without murmuring.
The first kind of fasting, one can end whenever he wills, and can satisfy
it by food; but the other kind we must observe and bear until God himself
changes it and satisfies us. Hence it is much more precious than the first,
because it moves in greater faith.
4. This is also the reason that the Evangelist with great care places
it first: Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, that
be might there fast and be tempted, so that no one might imitate his example
of their own choice and make of it a selfish, arbitrary, and pleasant fasting;
but instead wait for the Spirit, who will send him enough fastings and
temptations. For whoever, without being led by the Spirit, wantonly resorts
to the danger of hunger or to any temptation, when it is truly a blessing
of God that he can eat and drink and have other comforts, tempts God. We
should not seek want and temptation, they will surely come of themselves;
we ought then do our best and act honestly. The text reads: Jesus was led
up of the Spirit into the wilderness; and not: Jesus himself chose to go
into the wilderness. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these
are sons of God." Rom 8, 14. God gives his blessings for the purpose that
we may use them with thanksgiving, and not that we may let them lie idle,
and thus tempt him; for he wishes it, and forces us to fast by the Spirit
or by a need which we cannot avoid.
5. This narrative, however, is written both for our instruction and
admonition. First, for instruction, that we should know how Christ has
served and helped us by his fasting, hunger, temptation and victory; also
that whoever believes on Christ shall never suffer need, and that temptation
shall never harm him; but we shall have enough in the midst of want and
be safe in the midst of temptation; because his Lord and Head triumphed
over these all in his behalf, and of this he is assured, as Christ says
in John 16,33: "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." God, who
was able to nourish Christ forty days without any food, can nourish also
his Christians.
6. Secondly, this is written for our admonition, that we may in the
light of this example also cheerfully suffer want and temptation for the
service of God and the good of our neighbor, like Christ did for us, as
often as necessity requires it; which is surely accomplished if we learn
and confess God's Word. Therefore this Gospel is sweet consolation and
power against the unbelief and infamy of the stomach, to awaken and strengthen
the conscience, that we may not be anxious about the nourishment of our
bodies, but be assured that he can and will give us our daily bread.
II. THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST.
7. But as to how temptation takes place and how it is overcome, is all
very beautifully pictured to us here in Christ. First, that he is led up
into the wilderness, that is, he is left solitary and alone by God, angels
and men, by all creatures. What kind of a temptation would it be, if we
were not forsaken and stood not alone? It is, however, painful when we
do not feel anything that presents its back to us; as for example, that
I should support myself and have not a nickel, not a thread, not a twig,
and I experience no help from others, and no advice is offered. That means
to be led into the desert and to be left alone. There I am in the true
school, and I learn what I am, how weak my faith is, how great and rare
true faith is, and how deeply unbelief is entrenched in the hearts of all
men. But whoever has his purse, cellar and fields full, is not yet led
into the desert, neither is he left alone; therefore he is not conscious
of temptation.
8. Secondly, the tempter came forward and attacked Christ with these
very same cares of food for the body and with the unbelief in the goodness
of God, and said: "If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones
become bread," as if he should say: Yes, trust thou in God and bake and
cook nothing; only wait patiently until a roasted fowl flies into your
mouth; do you now say that you have a God who cares for you; where is now
your heavenly Father, who has charge of you? Yea, it seems to me he lets
you in a fine condition; eat now and drink from your faith, let us see
how you will satisfy your hunger; yea, when you have stones for bread.
What a fine Son of God you are! How fatherly he is disposed toward you
in that he fails to send you a slice of bread and permits you to be so
poor and needy; do you now continue to believe that you are his son and
he is your father? With like thoughts he truly attacks all the children
of God. And Christ surely felt this temptation, for he was no stock nor
stone; although he was and remained pure and without sin, as we cannot
do.
9. That Satan attacked Christ with the cares for daily food or with
unbelief and avarice, Christ's answer proves, in that he says: "Man shall
not live by bread alone;" that sounds as if he said: thou wilt direct me
to bread alone and dost treat me as though I thought of nothing but the
sustenance of my body. This temptation is very common also among pious
people, and they especially feel it keenly who have children and a family,
and have nothing to eat. Therefore St. Paul says in I Tim 6, 10 that avarice
is a root of all kind of evil; for it is a fruit of unbelief. Do you not
think that unbelief, care and avarice are the reasons people are afraid
to enter married life? Why do people avoid it and live in unchastity, unless
it be the fear that they must die of hunger and suffer want? But here we
should consider Christ's work and example, who suffered want forty days
and nights, and finally was not forsaken, but was ministered to even by
angels.
10. Thirdly, behold how Christ resists this temptation of bread, and
overcomes; he sees nothing but stones and what is uneatable then he approaches
and clings to the Word of God, strengthens himself by it and strikes the
devil to the ground with it. This saying all Christians should lay hold
of when they see that there is lack and want and everything has become
stones, so that courage trembles, and they should say: What were it if
the whole world were full of bread, still man does not live by bread alone,
but more belongs to life, namely, the Word of God. The words, however,
are so beautiful and powerful that we must not pass over them lightly,
but carefully explain them.
11. These words Christ quotes from Deut. 8,3, where Moses says: "Thy
God humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna,
which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make
thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by everything that
proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live." That is as much
as to say: Since God permits you to hunger and you still continue to live,
you ought indeed to grasp the thought that God nourishes you without bread
through his Word; for if you should live and sustain yourself by bread
alone then you must continually be full of bread. But the Word, that nourishes
us is, that he promises us and causes it to be published that he is our
God and desires to be our God.
12. Thus now, the meaning of Moses and of Christ is: Whoever has here
God's Word and believes, has both blessings; the first, where he is in
want and has nothing, but must suffer hunger, that Word will sustain him,
so that he will not die of hunger nor perish, just as well as if he had
abundance to eat; for the Word he has in his heart nourishes and sustains
him without eating and drinking. But has he little to eat, then a bite
or slice of bread will feed and nourish him like a kingly meal; for not
only bread but the Word of God also nourishes the body naturally, as it
creates and upholds all things, Heb 1, 3. The other blessing he will also
enjoy, namely, that finally bread will surely be at hand, come whence it
will, and should it rain from heaven like manna where none grows and none
can grow. In these two thoughts every person can freely trust, namely,
that he must in time of hunger receive bread or something to eat, or if
not, then his hunger must become so moderate and bearable that it will,
nourish him even as well as bread does.
13. What has been said of eating and feeding the body he understood
also of drinking, clothing, house, and all our needs: namely that although
he still permits us to become naked and suffer want for clothing, house
etc., clothing must finally be at hand, and before it fails the leaves
of the trees must become coats and mantles; or if not, then the coats and
garments that we wear must never grow old; just as happened to the Children
of Israel in the desert Deut. 8, 2-4, whose clothing and shoes never wore
out. Likewise the wild wilderness must become their houses, and there must
be a way where there is no way; and water, where there is no water; stones
must become water. For here stands God's Word, which says: "He cares for
you;" and St. Paul in 1 Tim 6, 17: "God giveth us richly all things to
enjoy;" and Mt. 6,33-34: "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore
anxious for the morrow." These and like words must continue true and stand
forever firm.
14. All this one may indeed learn from his own daily experiences. For
it is held, and I almost believe it, that there are not as many sheaves
of wheat grown as there are people living on the earth; but God daily blesses
and increases the wheat in the sack, the flour in the tray, the bread on
the table and in the mouth, as Christ did. John 6, 12 f. It is also noticeable
that as a rule poor people and their children are fatter and their food
reaches farther and agrees with them better than is the case among the
rich with all their provisions. However that the godless at times suffer
need, or in times of famine many die of hunger, is caused by a special
plague as pestilence, war etc. In other ways we see that in all things
it is not the food, but the Word of God that nourishes every human being.
15. Now that God sustains all mankind by bread, and not by the Word
alone, without bread, is done to the end, that he conceals his work in
the world in order to exercise believers; just as he commanded the children
of Israel to arm themselves and to fight, and yet it was not his pleasure
that victory should come through their own sword and deeds; but he himself
was to slay their enemies and triumph with their swords and through their
deeds. Here it might also be said: The warrior was not victorious through
his sword alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God,
as David sings, Ps 44,6: "For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall
my sword save me." Also Ps 147, 10 and 33, 16-17: "He taketh no pleasure
in the legs of a man. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
A horse is a vain thing for safety." Yet he uses man and the horse, the
sword and bow: but not because of the strength and power of man and of
the horse, but under the veil and covering of man and the horse he fights
and does all. This he proves in that he often did and daily does the same
without man and the horse, where there is need and he is not tempted.
16. Thus he does also with the bread; since it is at hand, he nourishes
us. through it and by means of it, so that we do not see it and we think
the bread does it; but where it is not at hand, there he nourishes us without
the bread, only through the Word, as he does by means of the bread; so
that thus bread is God's helper, as Paul says in 1 Cor 3,9: "We are God's
fellow workers," that is, through and under our outward ministerial office
he gives inwardly his grace, which he also could give and does give indeed
without our office; but since the office is at hand, one should not despise
it nor tempt God. Thus God sustains us outwardly by bread; but only inwardly
he gives that growth and permanency, which the bread cannot give. And the
summary is: All creatures are God's larva and mummery, which he permits
to work with him and to help to do everything that he can do and does do
otherwise without their cooperation, in order that we may cleave alone
to his Word. Thus, if bread is at hand, that we do not therefore trust
the more; or if there is no bread present, that we do not therefore despair
the more; but use it when it is at hand, and do without it, when there
is none; being assured that we shall still live and be sustained at both
times by God's Word, whether there be bread or no bread. With such faith
one overcomes avarice and temporal care for daily bread in the right way.
17. Christ's second temptation is opposed to the first and is repugnant
to common sense. Its substance is that the devil teaches us to tempt God;
as he here calls to Christ to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the
temple, which was not at all necessary, since there were surely good steps
upon which he could descend. And that this temptation was for the purpose
of tempting or making trial of God, the answer of Christ also clearly proves,
when he says: "Thou shalt not make trial of the Lord thy God." By this
he shows that the devil wished to lead him into temptation.
18. And this very appropriately follows the first temptation. For where
the devil feels a heart trusts God in times of want and need, he soon ceases
his temptation of bread and avarice and thinks: Wait, wilt thou be very
spiritual and believing, I will assist you: He approaches and attacks on
the other side, that we might believe where God has not commanded us to
believe, nor wills that we should believe. For example, if God gave you
bread in your homes, as he does yearly everywhere in the world, and you
would not use it, but instead you would cause need and want yourselves,
and say: Why, we are to believe God; I will not eat the bread, but will
patiently wait until God sends me manna from heaven. See, that would be
tempting God; for that is not believing where all is at hand that we need
and should have. How can one believe that he will receive what he already
has?
19. Thus you see here that Satan held before Christ want and need where
there was neither want nor need; but where there was already good means
by which to descend from the temple without such a newly devised and unnecessary
way of descending. For this purpose Satan led Christ to the top of the
temple, in the holy city, says the Evangelist, and placed him in a holy
place. For he creates such precious thoughts in man that he thinks he is
filled with faith and is on the true way of holiness; and yet he does not
stand in the temple, but is only on the outside of the temple, that is,
he is not in the true holy mind or life of faith; and yet he is in the
holy city; that is, such persons are found only in Christendom and among
true Christians, who bear a great deal of preaching about faith. To these
persons he applies the sayings of Scripture. For such persons learn Scripture
also by daily hearing it; but not farther than they can apply it to their
erroneous opinions and their false faith. For Satan here quotes from the
Psalter, Ps 91, 11-12, that God commanded the angels that they should protect
the children of God and carry them on their hands. But Satan like a rogue
and cheat fails to quote what follows, namely, that the angels shall protect
of God in all their ways. For the Psalm reads thus,: "For he will give
his angels charge over thee to keep thy ways. They shall bear thee up in
their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone;" hence the protection
of the angels does not reach farther, according to the command of God,
than the ways in which God has commanded us to walk. When we walk in these
ways of God, his angels take care of us. But the devil omits to quote "the
ways of God" and interprets and applies the protection of the angels to
all things, also to that which God has not commanded; then it fails and
we tempt God.
20. Now, this temptation seldom takes place in outward things as bread,
clothing, house, etc. For we find many foolhardy people, who risk and endanger
life, their property and honor, without any need of doing so; as those
do who wilfully enter into battle or jump into the water, or gamble for
money, or in other ways venture into danger, of whom the wise man says
in Sirach 3, 27: "Whoever takes pleasure in danger, will thereby be overcome;"
for in the degree one struggles to get a thing, will he succeed in obtaining
it; swimmers are likely to drown and good climbers likely to fall. Yet
it is seldom that those of false faith in God abstain from bread, clothing
and other necessities of life when they are at hand. As we read of two
hermits, who would not accept bread from the people, but thought God should
send it to them directly from heaven; so the consequence was that one died
and went to his father, the devil, who taught him such faith and left him
fall from the pinnacle.
21. But in spiritual matters this temptation is powerful when one has
to do with the nourishment not of the body but of the soul. Here God has
held before us the person and way, by which the soul can be forever nourished
in the richest manner possible without any want, namely Christ, our Saviour.
But this way, this treasure, this provision no one desires. Everybody seeks
another way, other provisions to help their souls. The real guilty ones
are those who would be saved through their own work; these the devil sets
conspicuously on the top of the temple. They follow him and go down where
there is no stairway; they believe and trust in their own work where there
is no faith nor trust, no way nor bridge, and break their necks. But Satan
makes use of and persuades them through the Scriptures to believe that
the angels will protect them, and that their way, works and faith are pleasing
to God, and who called them through the Scriptures to do good works; but
they do not care how falsely they explain the Scriptures.
22. Who these are, we have identified often enough and very fully, namely,
work righteous persons and unbelieving hypocrites under the name of being
Christians and among the congregation of Christian people. For the temptation
must take place in the holy city and one temptation is seldom against another.
In the first temptation want and hunger are the reasons that we should
not believe; and by which we become anxious to have a full sufficiency,
so that there is no chance for us to believe. In the second temptation,
however, the abundance and the full sufficiency are the reasons that we
do not believe, by which we become tired of the common treasure, and every
one tries to do something through his own powers to provide for his soul.
So we do; if we have nothing, then we doubt God and believe not; if we
have abundance, then we become tired of it and wish to have something different,
and again we fail to believe. There we flee and turn against want and seek
abundance: here we seek want and flee from the
abundance we have. No, whatever God does for us, is never right. Such
is the bottomless, wickedness of our unbelief.
23. Christ's third temptation consists in temporal honor and power;
as the words of the devil clearly teach, when Satan shows and offers Christ
all the kingdoms of the world if he would worship him. To this class those
belong who fall from their faith for the sake of honor and power, that
they may enjoy good days, or not believe further than their honor and power
extend. Such are also the heretics who start sects and factions in matters
of faith among Christians, that they may make a great parade before the
world and soar aloft in their own honor. Hence one may place this third
temptation on the right, and the first on the left side. The first is the
temptation of misfortune, by which man is stirred to anger, impatience
and unbelief; the third and last, the temptation of prosperity, by which
man is enticed to lust, honor, joy, and whatever is high. The second or
middle temptation is spiritual and deals with the blind tricks and errors
that mislead reason from faith.
24. For whom the devil cannot overcome with poverty, want, need and
misery, he attacks with riches, favor, honor, pleasure, power and the like,
and contends on both sides against us; yea, "he walketh about," says St.
Peter in 1 Pet 5,8, so that if he cannot overthrow us either with suffering
or love, that is, with the first temptation on the left or the third on
the right, he retires to a higher and different method and attacks us with
error, blindness and a false understanding of the Scripture. If he wins
there, we fare ill on all sides and in all things; and whether one suffers
poverty or has abundance, whether he fights or surrenders, all is lost.
For when one is in error, neither patience in misfortune nor firmness in
prosperity helps him; seeing that in both heretics are often powerful and
the devil deliberately acts as if he were overcome in the first and last
temptations, although he is not, if he has only won in the middle or second
temptation. For he lets his own children suffer much and be patient, even
at times to spurn the world; but never with a true and honest heart.
25. Now these three temptations taken together are heavy and hard; but
the middle one is the greatest; for it attacks the doctrine of faith itself
in the soul, and is spiritual and in spiritual matters. The other two attack
faith in outward things, in fortune and misfortune, in pleasure and pain
etc., although both severely try us. For it is sad that one should lay
hold of heaven and ever be in want and eat stones where there is no bread.
Again, it is sad to despise favors, honor and possessions, friends and
associates, and let go what one already has. But faith, rooted in God's
Word, is able to do all things; is faith strong, then it is also easy for
the believer to do this.
26. The order of these temptations, as they met Christ, one cannot absolutely
determine; for the Evangelists give them in different order. The temptation
Matthew places as the middle one, Luke places last, Luke 4,4 f.; and again,
the temptation Luke places in the middle, Matthew places last, as if little
depended on the order. But if one wished to preach or speak of them, the
order of Luke would be the better. For it is a fine opportunity to repeat
and relate that the devil began with want and misfortune; when that did
not work, then he began with prosperity and honor; and last, when all fails,
that he wantonly and wickedly springs forth and strikes people with terror,
lies and other spiritual tricks. And since they have no order in practice
and experience, but as it happens that a Christian may be attacked at one
time with the last, and another time with the first etc., Matthew gave
little attention to the order for a preacher to observe in speaking of
this theme. And perhaps it was also the same with Christ through the forty
days that the devil held to no order, but today attacked him with this
and tomorrow with another temptation, and again in ten days with the first
and so on, just as occasion was given.
27. At last angels approached and served him. This must have taken place
in a literal sense, that they appeared in a bodily form and gave him to
eat and drink, and just as at a table, they ministered to all his wants.
For the service is offered outwardly to his body, just like, no doubt,
the devil, his tempter, also appeared in a bodily form, perhaps like an
angel. For, seeing that he places him on the pinnacle of the temple and
shows him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment, he must have been
a higher being than a man, since he represents himself as a higher being,
in that he offers him all the kingdoms of the world and permits himself
to be worshiped. But he surely did not bear the form of the devil, for
he desires to be beautiful when he lies and deceives, as St. Paul says
of him in 2 Cor 11, 14: "For even Satan fashioneth himself into an angel
of light."
28. This however is written for our comfort, that we may know that many
angels minister also to us, where one devil attacks us; if we fight with
a knightly spirit and firmly stand, God will not let us suffer want, the
angels of heaven would sooner appear and be our bakers, waiters and cooks
and minister to all our wants. This is not written for Christ's sake for
he does not need it. Did the angels serve him, then they may also serve
us.
