Читать книгу Deliver us from the Evil one - Bernardo Olivera - Страница 9

Jesus Christ, who “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Heb 5:8), took on all human wounds, was tempted by the Devil and experienced the Evil One’s fallacies. Even at the very start of Christ’s life on earth, an agent of Satan named Herod wanted to get rid of him and ordered the slaughter of many innocent young children.

Temptations in the Desert

The Bible’s history of salvation lets us see that Jesus’ temptations in the desert at the beginning of his public life were announced well beforehand: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gn 3:15). Just as in Eve’s original seduction, in Christ’s temptations there was an enticing offer for the future, but Jesus would not be seduced, since he is the woman’s “offspring” referred to here. In him, there is no complicity with evil.

The writers of the Gospels stylized Jesus’ temptations in way similar to what they did in many other episodes appearing in the Gospels, so that there are different ways to interpret them. The Gospels give us three ways, the first of which is to see them as moral exhortations, similar to what we often hear in sermons and homilies. In this case, Jesus faced the typical human temptations of self-satisfaction, pride and vanity in order to give us an example of how to struggle against them.

A second possible interpretation is doctrinal and sees Jesus as affirming his divine Sonship, which the Father had just revealed in Jesus’ baptism. His reaction to the temptations shows his docility to the Word of God. He conquers Satan through that Word and confirms his relationship to the Father by obeying the Scriptures.

The third possibility is messianic and seems to be the most likely interpretation. It is that the Devil is trying to block Jesus’ mission of saving humanity through his life of sacrifice. Satan suggests other means to do it, such as working miracles by turning stones into bread, worshipping Satan in order to gain his power, or as an exhibitionist, to attract attention to himself.

In other words, the temptations go against the messianic road of salvation by the Cross, with its suffering, humiliation and human rejection.10 They are different trials of Jesus’ fidelity to the mission his Father had given him, that of saving the world from within our ordinary human condition and not through some spectacular performance. It is only through true humility that Jesus frees us from serving evil.

This is why each temptation begins by the Devil saying, “If you are the Son of God…” and continues with a false way to fulfill his mission, but Jesus conquers each temptation by the Word of God, so that Satan “departed from him until an opportune time” (Lk 4:13): “Then angels came and waited on him” (Mt 4:11).

We have said that the gospel stories have been interpreted. To what extent is this true? Do they really come from Jesus? Or do they originate from the Apostles and the first Christian communities?

It is best to understand the accounts of the temptations as coming from Jesus himself rather than from the first Christians. The fact that the three temptations appear with very similar terminology in all three Synoptic Gospels is a strong indication of their historical basis. Jesus spoke from his own personal experience, but perhaps used figurative language in some element for the sake of his listeners. We can imagine him telling his disciples about these temptations during his ministry in Galilee, in his journey with them to Jerusalem, or perhaps in relation to the episode with Peter at Caesarea Philippi, when Peter wants to keep Jesus from going to Jerusalem where they are plotting to kill him. Jesus sternly rebukes Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me” (Mt 16:23).

Plots against Jesus

In the Gospel of John, we find a long discourse of Jesus to a group of Jews who have tentatively believed in him. There is a heated discussion concerning Jesus’ own witness to himself and at one point he tells them, “You are from your father the Devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44). The tense scene ends with them seizing “stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple” (8:59).

A simple reading of the Gospels shows the frequency of such schemes by Jesus’ enemies. Sometimes they even influenced the members of his own family: “When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’” (Mk 3:21).

Who is hidden behind all this? John’s Gospel is clear on the point: it is Satan, the assassin. Here is a short list of some of the episodes:

~ The Pharisees and Herodians unite in their desire to kill Jesus (Mk 2:24).

~ The scribes accuse him of being possessed by Beelzebul (Mk 3:22-30).

~ Family members try to dissuade him, because they think he has gone crazy (Mk 3:21).

~ The Gerasenes beg him to leave their territory, since he expelled an evil spirit (Mk 5:17).

~ Jesus’ enemies accuse him of being possessed by a demon (Jn 7:20; 8:48; 10:19).

~ His enemies try to kill him (Jn 8:37, 44, 59).

After his discourse on the Bread of Life, most of his disciples left him,11 but the case of Peter is particularly enlightening. Peter, the Rock, had confessed his faith12 and Jesus turns him into the foundation stone of his work, but behold, soon Peter falls into temptation and wants to block the Master’s mission, just like Satan.

At the Last Supper, Jesus warns Peter again, “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers,” to which Peter replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death!” (Lk 22:31-33). Unfortunately, Peter could not even stay awake in the garden of Gethsemane and shortly afterwards openly denied his Master, but he did not despair, and simply wept for his sin. He had learned lesson.

Peter had indeed been sifted like wheat by Satan, but turned back and strengthened his brothers at that time and for all times. He warned them and us, “Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the Devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering” (1 Pet 5:8-9).

In Judas Iscariot we pass from tragedy to catastrophe. Although at some point Judas left everything to follow Jesus, who chose him as one of his twelve apostles, at the end, hounded by the Devil, he betrays his Master and takes his own life. He had stayed with Jesus even after the long discourse on the Bread of Life, when most of Jesus’ disciples left him, but Judas had lost heart. Jesus perceived what was going on in the heart of his disciples: “‘Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.’ He was speaking of Judas son of Simon Iscariot, for he, though one of the twelve, was going to betray him” (Jn 6:70-71).

It seems that Satan had been tempting Judas with avarice even before the Last Supper, using the fact that he was commissioned to help the poor. The result was that “he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it” (Jn 6:70-71). Even at the beginning of the Last Supper. Jesus “knew who was to betray him. For this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean’” (Jn 13:10), even though Jesus had washed the feet of Judas, and Judas had accepted being washed.

Shortly afterwards, Jesus declared, “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me” (13:21), yet despite knowing what was going to happen, Jesus offers Judas another sign of friendship by giving him a piece of bread dipped in the dish of spices, which Judas accepts. “After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, ‘Do quickly what you are going to do’” (13:26-30).

Towards the end of his final supper with his apostles, Jesus explains why all this is happening, “The ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father” (Jn 14:30-31).

Defeat and Victory

In the final stage of Jesus’s combat against the Evil One, “the ruler of this world” arrives, hiding himself in the supreme temptation that takes place on the Cross. To all appearances, Satan is winning and Jesus experiences being abandoned by his heavenly Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mk 15:34). Many years later, Saint Paul explained what this cry of abandonment meant: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).

The serpent’s original bite on man’s heel, as described in Genesis, did its work in Christ Crucified, but Satan’s apparent victory eventually turned against him and he became an eternally defeated little spirit. Jesus overcomes death in his Resurrection and can say, “I have conquered the world!” (Jn 16:33). The Stronger one has overpowered Beelzebul! “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them” (Col 2:15). His victory is also ours. We, too, have “have overcome the evil one” (1 Jn 2:13) and “will win the crown of glory that never fades away” (1 Pet 5:4).

10 See Is 42:1-2: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street.”

11 See Jn 6:14-15, 60-67.

12 In Jn 6:68; Mt 16-16; Lk 9:20.