Why didn’t Satan tempt him before his thirtieth year? He tempted Jesus because a definite sign of Christ’s divinity had not yet been given from heaven. He appeared modest like others, and he had not received any obvious homage in the presence of his people. Satan refrained from tempting him until the beginning of this event. When he heard, Now, behold the Lamb of God is coming, and This is he who takes away the sins of the world,^[1] Satan was astonished. Yet he waited until Jesus was baptized to see if he would be baptized as if he needed to be baptized.

Then he saw the splendor of the light that appeared on the water, the voice that came from heaven. Then Satan knew that he who fulfills every need had gone down into the water and that he had not come to baptism as if he needed to be baptized. Satan reflected and said to himself, As long as I have not tested him by combat through temptation I will not be able to identify him. But it was not fitting that the Benefactor should resist the will of him who had come to tempt him. For, not knowing how to tempt him, Satan did not dare approach him.

He was led, therefore, it says, in the Spirit in the wilderness forty days, being tempted of the devil. What is the meaning of the word led? It signifies not so much that he was led there as that he dwelt and continued there. . . .

He dwelt therefore in the wilderness in the Spirit, that is, spiritually. He fasted, granting no food whatsoever to the necessities of the body. I imagine someone may immediately object to this: And what harm, then, did it do Jesus to dwell in cities constantly? And in what way could it benefit him to choose to inhabit the wilderness? He did not lack one good thing. And why, too, did he fast also? Why was it necessary for him to labor? He does not know what it means to have a depraved desire. For we adopt the practice of fasting as a very useful expedient, by which we kill pleasure and attack the law of sin that is in our bodies^[1] and completely destroy those emotions which lead on to fleshly lust. But why did Christ need to fast? The Father slays the sin in the flesh by his body. He kills the motions of the flesh in us. He has abolished sin in miserable beings—in us. What kind of fasting could he need in anything that concerns himself? He is holy, undefiled by nature, wholly pure and without blemish. He cannot experience even the shadow of a change.

It is fitting that it be recorded that the first Adam was cast out of Paradise into the desert,^[1] that you may observe how the second Adam returned from the desert to Paradise. . . . Adam brought death through the tree. Christ brought life through the cross. Adam, naked of spiritual things, covered himself with the foliage of a tree.^[2] Christ, naked of worldly things, did not desire the trappings of the body. Adam lived in the desert. Christ lived in the desert, for he knew where he could find the lost. With their error canceled, he could recall them to Paradise. . . .

So Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, is led into the desert for a purpose, in order to challenge the devil. If he had not fought, he would not have conquered him for me.

Mark and Luke say that Jesus was tempted for forty days. It is clear that during those days the devil first tempted him from a distance to sleep, apathy, cowardice, and other such sins. Then, since he knew that Christ was hungry, the devil came closer to him and attacked him openly. Notice what he does. He had heard, both from John and from the voice that came from above, that this man is a son of God.^[1] He did not know that the Son of God had become man, for God concealed the inexpressible incarnation from him. So he assumed that Christ was a man who was pleasing to God because of his virtues. He was also jealous of him because of this honor just as he had been jealous of the old Adam. He was eager to cast this man down, just as he had cast Adam down. So he approaches Jesus and introduces the first temptation, that of gluttony, through which he had also captured the first Adam. Since there was no food anywhere, because the whole region was a desert, he knew that bread would satisfy Christ’s hunger. He himself does not produce bread, because Christ was not going to take it from the enemy. But he commands him to make bread from the stones that he points to. Look at Satan’s wiles and great wickedness—he tried to keep Christ from knowing his plot. He did not simply say, Turn the stones into loaves of bread, but he prefixed it with, If you are a son of God. He did this to show that he wanted this act done to prove that Christ is a son of God. For he was thinking that Christ would be provoked by his words and offended by the suggestion that he was not a son of God. He thought that Christ would not recognize the deception and, as a man who has power from God, turn the stones into bread. Then, when he saw the bread, he would yield to his stomach, since he was very hungry. But the devil did not escape the notice of him who catches the wise in their craftiness.^[2] Christ answered him and said, It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,’ and the rest, because he knew the devil’s villainy. He did not perform the sign that the devil sought, because he worked his signs to help those who saw them.

Satan said, If you are the Son of God, bid this stone become bread. He approaches him, therefore, as an ordinary man and as one of the saints, yet he had a suspicion that possibly he might be the Christ. How, then, did he hope to learn if this was the case? He reasoned that to change the nature of any thing into that which it was not would be the act and deed of a divine power. For it is God who makes these things and transforms them. If he does this, said the devil, certainly it is he who is expected to subvert my power. But if he refuses to work this change, I am dealing with a man. I will set aside my fear. I am delivered from danger. Therefore it was that Christ, knowing the monster’s plan, neither made the change nor said that he was either unable or unwilling to make it. Rather, the Lord shakes him off as annoying and meddlesome, saying, Man shall not live by bread alone. He means this: If God grants a man the ability, he can survive without eating and live as Moses and Elijah, who by the Word of the Lord passed forty days without taking food. If, therefore, it is possible to live without bread, why should I make the stone bread? He purposely does not say, I cannot, that he may not deny his own power. Nor does he say, I can, lest the devil, knowing that he is God, for whom alone such things are possible, should depart from him. Observe, I beg you, how the nature of man in Christ casts off the faults of Adam’s gluttony. By eating we were conquered in Adam, by abstinence we conquered in Christ.

So, look at the arms of Christ with which he conquered for you, not for himself. For he who showed that stones could, through his majesty, be changed into bread by the transformation into a different nature, teaches that you must do nothing at the devil’s behalf nor for the purpose of manifesting virtue. At the same time, learn from the temptation itself the ingenious cunning of the devil. The devil tempts that he may test. He tests that he may tempt. In contrast, the Lord deceives that he may conquer. He conquers that he may deceive. For if he had changed nature, he would have betrayed its Creator. Thus he responded neutrally, saying, It is written, ‘That man lives not by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ You see what kind of arms he wields, to defend humanity, surrounded and protected against the inducements of appetite, against the assault of spiritual wickedness.^[1] For he does not wield power as God—for what good would that be to me? So, as man, he summons common help for himself, so that eager for the food of the divine Word, he neglects the body’s hunger and obtains the nourishment of the heavenly Word. Eager for this, Moses did not desire bread.^[2] Eager for this, Elijah did not feel the hunger of a long fast.^[3] For he who follows the Word cannot desire earthly bread when he receives the essence of the heavenly Bread.^[4] There is no doubt that the divine surpasses the human, as the spiritual the physical. Therefore he who desires true life awaits that Bread which through its intangible substance strengthens human hearts.^[5] At the same time, when he says, Man lives not by bread alone, he shows that the man is tempted, that is, his acceptance of our flesh, not his divinity.

We should not think that when the devil showed Jesus the kingdoms of the world, he showed him, for example, the kingdom of the Persians and of the Indians. He showed him all the kingdoms of the world, that is, his own kingdom, how he reigned in the world.

Did you think to have him as your worshiper at whom all things tremble, while the seraphim and all the angelic powers sing hymns to his glory? It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.^[1] It is fitting that he made mention of this commandment, striking as it were at his very heart. Before his advent, Satan had deceived all under heaven and was himself worshiped everywhere. But the law of God, ejecting him from the dominion he had usurped by fraud, has commanded people to worship him only who by nature and in truth is God and to offer service to him alone.

[Satan] set [Jesus] up on the pinnacle of the temple. Satan wanted him to suppose that he who was a man could become God, by means of the godly house, just as Satan had once made Adam suppose that he could become God by means of that tree.^[1] He brought him up to the mountain,^[2] as though he were in need. To you will I give the kingdoms, if you will adore me.^[3] When he changed his mode of cunning, he did not change the true One with it. In the beginning God made him, and, when complete, he was in need and a worshiper.^[4] But Satan became blind in the arrogance of his worship, because of all that he had acquired, and for this reason he was punished even more. Because Satan did not recognize the One who knew him intimately, our Lord addressed him by his name, Satan.^[5] But he did not know how he should address our Lord.

Therefore he said to him, Fall down from here, for it is written, ‘They will guard you lest you stumble.’ Tempter, if it is concerning him that the psalm is fulfilled, is it not also written there, With his wings, that he may deliver you?^[6] It is not possible for a bird to fall, for the air beneath its wings is like the earth. Is it not also written, You will tread on the serpent and the lion?^[7] Satan studied only those passages from Scriptures that were convenient to him and omitted those which were harmful to him. The heretics are like this too. They appropriate from Scripture those passages that suit their erroneous teaching and omit those that refute their errors, thereby demonstrating that they are disciples of this master.

You see, ancient errors are undone in Christ’s footprints, and the snares, first of the stomach, second of sexual sin, and third of ambition, are loosed. For Adam was enticed by food. Because he willingly transgressed in the matter of the forbidden tree, he also was charged with heedless ambition, for he desired to be like the Godhead.^[1] Therefore the Lord first remitted the debt of the ancient wrong, in order that, having shaken off the yoke of captivity, we may learn to overcome our faults with the help of the Scriptures. . . . The devil shakes the whole world with cunning deceit, in order to corrupt people, and fights with all the enticements of this age. You must beware of his flattery all the more. Food had not persuaded Eve, nor had the forgetfulness of the commands deprived her. If she had been willing to worship the Lord alone, she would not have sought what was not due to her. So a remedy is given, which blunts the dart of ambition, so that we serve the Lord alone. Pious devotion lacks ambition.

Therefore let us see what the devil says to the Lord from the Scriptures. Scripture says, ‘He gave his angels a command concerning you that they should raise you up in their hands, lest perhaps you strike your foot against a stone.’ See how crafty he is, even in the texts he quotes. For he wishes to diminish the Savior’s glory, as if the Savior needed the help of angels. It is as if he would strike his foot unless he were supported by their hands. The devil takes his verse from Scripture and applies it to Christ. Yet it is written not of Christ but about the saints in general. Freely and in total confidence I contradict the devil. This passage cannot be applied to the person of Christ, for Christ does not need the help of angels. He is greater than the angels and obtained a better name than they by inheritance. God never said to any of the angels, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.’^[1]

Still the pinnacle stands, outlasting the temple’s destruction,

For the corner raised up from that stone which the builders rejected^[1]

Will remain throughout all ages forever and ever.

Now it is head of the temple and holds the new stones together. SCENES ^[1]

When the Lord had been tempted with this triple temptation—because in all the allurements of the world these three are to be found, either pleasure or curiosity or pride—what did the Evangelist say? After the devil had concluded every temptation—every kind, but of the alluring sort—there remained the other sort of temptation, by harsh and hard treatment, savage treatment, atrocious and ferocious treatment. Yes, there remained the other sort of temptation. The Evangelist knew this, knew what had been carried out, what remained, and so he said, After the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him until the time. He departed from him in the form, that is, of the insidious serpent.^[1] He is going to come in the form of the roaring lion.^[2] The one who will trample on the lion and the cobra^[3] will conquer him. Satan will return. He will enter Judas and will make him betray his master. He will bring along the Jews, not flattering now, but raging. Taking possession of his own instruments, he will cry out with the tongues of all of them, Crucify him, crucify him!^[4] That Christ was the conqueror there, why should we be surprised? He was almighty God.

First of all, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days. When Jesus was being tempted by the devil, the word spirit is put down twice without any qualification since the Lord still had to struggle against him. See what is written about the Spirit emphatically and carefully, after he had fought and had overcame the three temptations that Scripture mentions. The passage says, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit. Power has been added, because he had trodden down the dragon and conquered the tempter in hand-to-hand combat. So Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to the land of Galilee, and reports about him went out to the whole surrounding region. He was teaching in their synagogues, and was glorified by all.

What was the custom of him who had come just now? He had come to Galilee and had begun to teach, not outside of the synagogue but within it. Since the matter was known through their worship service, he came to talk to them about their God. Otherwise it would have been in order for him to proclaim to them outside their synagogue.

After he mightily defeated Satan—after he crowned human nature in his own person with the spoils won by the victory over Satan—he returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, both exercising might and authority. He performed very many miracles and greatly astonished his people. He performed miracles, because he is by nature and in truth the Son of God the Father, not because he received the grace of the Spirit from the outside as a gift, as the company of the saints do. He took what was his as his own proper inheritance. Yes, he said to the Father, All that is mine is yours, and yours mine, and I am glorified in them.^[1] He is glorified therefore by exercising as his own might and power the power of the Spirit who shares his substance.

It was no accident that he opens the scroll and finds the chapter of the reading that prophesies about him. This too was an act of God’s providence. . . . Precisely the book of Isaiah was found, and the reading was no other but this one, which spoke about the mystery of Christ.

Now it was necessary that he should manifest himself to the Israelites and that the mystery of his incarnation should now shine forth to those who did not know him. Now that God the Father had anointed him to save the world, he very wisely orders this also [that his fame should now spread widely]. This favor he grants first to the people of Nazareth, because, humanly speaking, he had grown up among them. Having entered the synagogue, therefore, he takes the book to read. Having opened it, he selects a passage in the Prophets which declares the mystery concerning him. By these words he himself tells us very clearly by the voice of the prophet that he would both be made man and come to save the world. For we affirm that the Son was anointed in no other way than by having become like us according to the flesh and taking our nature. Being at once God and man, he both gives the Spirit to the creation in his divine nature and receives it from God the Father in his human nature. It is he who sanctifies the whole creation, both by shining forth from the Holy Father and by bestowing the Spirit. He himself pours forth his own Spirit on the powers above and on those who recognized his appearing.

Jesus plainly shows by these words that he took upon himself both the very name of Christ and its reality for our sakes. He humbled himself and submitted to the emptying of his glory for our sakes. For the Spirit, he says, which by nature is in me by the sameness of our substance and deity, also descended upon me from outside of me. In the Jordan it came upon me in the form of a dove, not because it was not in me but in order to anoint me. Why did he choose to be anointed? Because an ancient denunciation made us destitute of the Spirit. It said, My Spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh.^[1]

Scripture speaks of Jesus himself as God and man, perfect in both natures. It speaks of the Father and the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is shown as Christ’s partner when he descends in bodily shape as a dove on Christ, when the Son of God was baptized in the river, and when the Father spoke from heaven.^[1] So what greater testimony to us who are weak than that Christ signified with his own voice that he himself spoke by the prophets?^[2]

Our Savior, after reading this prophecy through in the synagogue one day to a multitude of Jews, shut the book and said, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. He began his own teaching from that point. He began to preach the gospel to the poor, putting in the forefront of his blessings: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.^[1] Yes, he proclaimed forgiveness to those who were hampered by evil spirits and bound for a long time like slaves by demons. He invited all to be free and to escape from the bonds of sin, when he said, Come to me, all you that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.^[2]

To the blind he gave sight, giving the power of seeing to those whose bodily vision was destroyed. He showered those in ancient times who were blind in their minds to the truth with the vision of the light of true religion. The prophecy before us shows it to be essential that Christ himself should be the originator and leader of the gospel activity. The same prophet foretells that after him his own disciples should be ministers of the same system: How beautiful are the feet of them that bring good tidings of good things, and of those that bring good tidings of peace.^[3]

Here he says very particularly that it is the feet of those who publish the good news of Christ that are beautiful. For how could they not be beautiful, which in so small, so short a time have run over the whole earth and filled every place with the holy teaching about the Savior of the world?

He says, He sent me to preach the gospel to the poor. The poor stand for the Gentiles, for they are indeed poor. They possess nothing at all: neither God, nor the law, nor the prophets, nor justice and the rest of the virtues. For what reason did God send him to preach to the poor? To preach release to captives. We were the captives. For many years Satan had bound us and held us captive and subject to himself. Jesus has come to proclaim release to captives and sight to the blind. By his word and the proclamation of his teaching the blind see. Therefore his proclamation should be understood not only of the captives but also of the blind.

To send broken men forth into freedom . . . What being was so broken and crushed as man, whom Jesus healed and sent away? To preach an acceptable year to the Lord. . . . But all of this has been proclaimed so that we may come to the acceptable year of the Lord, when we see after blindness, when we are free from our chains, and when we have been healed of our wounds.

What does preaching the acceptable year of the Lord mean? It signifies the joyful tidings of his own advent, that the time of the Lord—yes, the Son—had arrived. For that was the acceptable year in which Christ was crucified on our behalf, because we then were made acceptable to God the Father as the fruit borne by him. That is why the Lord said, When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.^[1] Truly he returned to life the third day, having trampled on the power of death. After that resurrection he said to his disciples, All power has been given to me.^[2] That too is in every respect an acceptable year. In it we were received into his family and were admitted to him, having washed away sin by holy baptism, and been made partakers of his divine nature by the communion of the Holy Spirit. That too is an acceptable year, in which he manifested his glory by inexpressible miracles.

When Jesus had read this passage, he rolled up the scroll, gave it to the servant, and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Now too, if you want it, your eyes can be fixed on the Savior in this synagogue, here in this assembly. When you direct the principal power of seeing in your heart to wisdom and truth and to contemplating God’s Only-Begotten, your eyes gaze on Jesus. Blessed is that congregation of which Scripture testifies that the eyes of all were fixed on him! How much would I wish that this assembly gave such testimony. I wish that the eyes of all (of catechumens and faithful, of women, men and children)—not the eyes of the body, but the eyes of the soul—would gaze upon Jesus. When you look to him, your faces will be shining from the light of his gaze. You will be able to say, The light of your face, Lord, has made its mark upon us.^[1]

These words having been read to the assembled people, all eyes focused on Jesus, wondering perhaps how he could read without having been taught. The Israelites used to say that the prophecies concerning Christ were fulfilled, either in the persons of some of their more glorious kings or at least in the holy prophets. They did not correctly understand what was written about him, so they missed the true direction and traveled down another path. He carefully guards against error by saying, This day is this prophecy fulfilled in your ears, that they might not again misinterpret the present prophecy. He expressly set himself before them in these words, as the person spoken of in the prophecy. It was he who preached the kingdom of heaven to the heathen. They were poor, having nothing—not God, not law, not prophets. Rather, he preached it to all who were without spiritual riches. He set the captives free; having overthrown the apostate tyrant Satan, he shed the divine and spiritual light on those whose heart was darkened. This is why he said, I come as a light in this world.^[1] It was he who took the chains of sin off of those whose heart was crushed by them. He clearly showed that there is a life to come, and sinners denounced in just judgment. Finally, it was he who preached the acceptable year of the Lord, the year in which the Savior’s proclamation was made. By the acceptable year I think is meant his first coming, and by the day of restitution the day of judgment.

Since they did not understand Christ who had been anointed and sent by God, who was the Author of such wonderful works, they returned to their usual ways and said foolish and useless things about him. They wondered at the words of grace that he spoke. Yet they treated these words as worthless. They said, Isn’t this Joseph’s son? But how does this diminish the glory of the Worker of the miracles? What prevents him from being both venerated and admired, even had he been, as was supposed, Joseph’s son? Don’t you see the miracles? Satan is fallen, the herds of devils are vanquished, and multitudes are set free from various kinds of sicknesses. You praise the grace that was present in his teachings. Do you, then, in Jewish fashion, think lightly of him, because you thought Joseph was his father? How absurd! Truly is it said about them, See! They are a foolish people. They are without understanding! They have eyes and don’t see, ears, and do not hear.^[1]

The Savior deliberately explains why he performed no miracles of virtue in his own country, to prevent someone from thinking that we should value affection for our country very little. He who loved all could not but love his fellow citizens. But those who envy his country deprive themselves of love, for love does not envy, it is not puffed up.^[1] Yet his country does not lack divine blessings. Isn’t it a greater miracle that Christ was born there? So, you see what measure of evil envy brings. His country is found unworthy because of envy, the country in which he toiled as a citizen, which was worthy that the Son of God be born there.

Jesus rebuked them, therefore, for asking so foolishly, Isn’t this Joseph’s son? Keeping to the goal of his teaching, he says, Truly, I tell you, that no prophet is acceptable in his country. As I have mentioned, certain Jews affirmed that the prophecies relating to Christ had been fulfilled in the holy prophets or in certain of their own more distinguished men. For their good, he draws them away from such a supposition. He said that Elijah had been sent to a single widow and that the prophet Elisha had healed but one leper, Naaman the Syrian. By these he refers to the church of the heathen, who were about to accept him and be healed of their leprosy, by reason of Israel’s remaining impenitent.

So they threw him out of their city, pronouncing by their action their own condemnation. So they confirmed what the Savior had said. They themselves were banished from the city that is above, for not having received Christ. That he might not convict them only of impiety in words, he permitted their disrespect of him to proceed to deeds. Their violence was irrational and their envy untamed. Leading him to the brow of the hill, they sought to throw him from the cliff. But he went through the midst of them without taking any notice, so to say, of their attempt. He did not refuse to suffer—he had come to do that very thing—but to wait for a suitable time. Now at the beginning of his preaching, it would have been the wrong time to have suffered before he had proclaimed the word of truth.

Jesus speaks about the sacrileges of the Jews, which the Lord had foretold long ago through the prophet. These sacrileges were predicted in the verse of a psalm which declares that he would suffer when in the body. It says, They repaid me with evil things for good.^[1] These are fulfilled in the Gospel. For when he himself spread blessings among the peoples, they inflicted injuries. No wonder they who threw the Savior out of their nation lost salvation.^[2]

At the same time, understand that he was not forced to suffer the passion of his body. It was voluntary. He was not taken by the Jews but given by himself. Indeed, he is taken when he wants to be. He glides away when he wants to.^[3] He is hung when he wants to be. He is not held when he does not wish it. Here he goes up to the summit of the hill to be thrown down. But, behold, the minds of the furious men were suddenly changed or confused. He descended through their midst, for the hour of his passion had not yet come.^[4] Indeed, he still preferred to heal the Jews, rather than destroy them, so that through the unsuccessful outcome of their frenzy, they would cease to want what they could not attain.