ST. CATHARINES CONCORDIA - Brock University

Matvm M Mcit7 THE KTUGDOM OURS REMAINFTH 5 1
live by the Word that proceeds from the mouth of thc Lord, that is, wc live by the
gracious will of our God, who leads us, even when we do not see Him. Jesus is not so
much pointing to Script~lre in these verses as rather showing Himself ay the One who
will trust in God and do the will of the Father in all circumstances. Even when that
will seems to be hunger, seems to be abandonnienl. . . In this confsontatiorl betweer1
Christ and Satan, we see a foretaste of that final abandonment by thc Fathcr of the Son
that would take place upon the cross. And as our Lord Jesus holds in faith to the will
of the Father in spite ol'all the evidence of His hurnan senses, He wins approval from
God for all humankind. For it is for us that Hc suffers, and it is for us that IIe submits
Himself to the will of God in every deep and dark circumstance. Jesus meets the
attempt of Satan to launch Him into despair by clinging to the will of the Fathcr. Wc
begin to see and understand the action of Cod in the world, or the seeming nonaction
of God in the world, only by looking to our Lord Christ and how lie acts here in our
tcxt with Satan, how Hc acts at thc inomcnt that He offers Himself upon the trcc of
the cross.
Asaph, the psalmist, a man not too different from ourselves, says in Psalm 73 that
he became full of despair and doubt as he saw the evil and violence in the world. When
he looked and saw [.he ease and the good I'urlune OS the wicked in the world, he began
to doubt and hc could not understand it, it made no scnsc to him, until hc wcnt into
the House of the Lord. Then he undesstood, and thenhe saw the doomed slippery paths
of the wicked, how (heir lime in this world passes like a dream, and eternal destruction
is their fate. Are wc not liltcwisc to scc and understand? Only as we stand inside this
House of God looking out can we begin to understand anything at all of what happened
to Kristen French. Only from inside the House of God can we understand anything at
all of what is happening in our world. For as we stand at the altar of God and look out
upon the world we begin 10 see Irom God's perspective. As we stand before Lhe altar
of God at the moment when He givcs His Body brokcn for thc world, as we stand
before the altar at the moment when He gives His Blood shed for the world, then do
we begin 10 understand things from God's pelxpeclive. This Jesus whom we adore:
this Jesus whom we worship, this Jesus whom we receive with our lips and hearts is
the One who gave Himself into death so that the evil one might be clelealecl, su that
Satan and all his seeming power would come to naught.
This Jesus is well familiar with Satan. He has heard the same voice speaking to
Him that comes arid speaks to us in the night, and that comes and speaks to us in our
day to day living. This Jcsus who hung upon thc cross heard Satan's voice behind the
curses and oaths of the soldiers who gambled for His gasments. He heard Satan's voice
and saw Satan's I'ace staring al Him horn the crowd that gathered beneath His cross
and jeered at Him with blasphemy and rage, "If You are the Son of God, why do You
not save yourself'? You saved others, You camlot save Yoursell'."
But Satnn twists it all around. God is not helpless, nor is Hc indiffcrcnt. Jesus
could have saved Himself, but He does not; so that we might we saved. He does not
save Himsell'; so that we might be rescued. He allows Himself to be taken, to be beaten,