The third place the devil takes Jesus is the pinnacle of the temple (Luke 4:1-13). We are not sure exactly where that was in one of the ancient world’s seven wonders, but it seems to be a place where everyone in the temple could see you. There, the devil suggested that if Jesus would simply throw himself off that high, visible place, God’s angels would save him from his own folly, wooing the crowd with a miracle like no other. Jesus’ response is timeless: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” With that admonition, the devil “departed from him until” what Luke tells us would be “an opportune time.”
Times are, we think the goal of our relationship with God is living in such faith that God will smile on us, favor us, and whisk away all the unpleasantness and suffering of the human experience. And we use this place created for worship as if the building, the institution, the space is the reason we live and move and have our being. The temptation to confuse things with meaning, style with substance, space with faith will always be with us. We respect the church and are grateful to have such a beautiful place to offer God our worship, but tempting God to do our bidding, impress us and others with God’s power is a temptation we best resist.
- Deacon Robert
“After the example of St. Antony, my children, let us be
always ready for the combat…”
~ Thoughts of the Cure D’Ars
