“INVOCAVIT 2024”
Saint Matthew 4: 1-11
Invocavit: 18 February Anno Domini 2024
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
The Psalter, the heart of many faithful Lutheran’s daily prayers. As well it should be. I urge and exhort you to sing the Psalms especially now during Lententide.
When asked his opinion on what he thought of the ancient legend, or thought as I view and believe it, of Christ praying the entire Psalter while He hung on the cross, Seminary Professor Boyle said he thought not. But I do. And I think also during the forty days in the wilderness, your Lord prayed and chanted the Psalter numerous times. Not only does the Word of The Lord endure forever but it protects, strengthens, fortifies, and feeds. It even fed He Who was The Living Bread of God.
Thus Psalm 91, the Psalm appointed for today. It’s our Introit and the bulletin cover text “He shall call upon Me and I will answer Him.” This most definitely applies to all of you. Call upon The Lord. Entreat His intercession and aid for all that weighs you down and pummels you. This sentiment, Christ The Son prayed to His heavenly Father as His stomach was in pain from fasting; and when His sunbaked head and freezing nighttime skin beckoned Him to “crack,” to “give in,” and to relent.
And then the old evil foe, the wicked great dragon from of old, Satan shows up. But you brothers and sisters have been warned about this serpent. You know the story. Jesus has told you that the devil is both a liar, and a murderer—FROM THE BEGINNING [Jn. 8. 43-44]. Start acting like it. Start fighting like a man by letting The God/Man’s Person and Work be in you daily, hourly, by the minute. This is Lent. This is warfare. The Spirit wishes to arm you mightily in Christ.
Jesus said “from the beginning” [Jn. 8. 44b]. Ah!
Eden. Paradise and not yet wilderness, not yet desert with heat and thorns, and sweat, and tired muscles. The wily foe came to the woman; came to Adam. “Command that these stones be made bread.” Wow. Satan acknowledges that Jesus has the power of cosmic transmutation and all creative force. This is almost a confession of Jesus’ divinity. Well, the devil wants Christ not be the second perfect Adam. He wants Jesus to doubt Father and to deny God’s will. You know, “if” “Thou be The Son of God” you can do it. Satan knew Jesus was Messiah. He simply tempted, and cruelly tried our Lord’s human nature that was literally dying for food. And you say you can’t fast in Lent—a bit? The devil comes every day to you and tempts you to doubt God’s love and mercy. If He really forgives you; if He really loves you; why did your child die or leave the faith; why do you have painful symptoms and chronic diseases; why do you suffer if Jesus is truly your Brother and His Father is your Father?
Close your ears to this aural sewage and speak (sing) the Word of God—speak Jesus: “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” That is, you live by the foodstuff that God gives you, yes, but you live by The Eternal Word made Flesh, The only-begotten Son, and His Gospel which proceeds from His incarnate mouth—recorded in Scripture—and by His Sacramental Word washed + onto to you and fed you.
Yes, the enemy did not stop with one twisting and misuse of Psalm 91. This Psalm which we know as the “Soldier’s Psalm” has that marvelous passage that even a demon can speak: “He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time thou dash Thy foot against a stone.” From Satan to Arius to Mohammed, to Joel Osteen—the Word of God taken so far out of context as to crucify The Lord.
No, whether you are being tempted to do something that God has not commanded you to do, nor desires you to do, or whether you are tried with the allure of great wealth, power, and comfort, resist in/with/by Jesus the temptation. Resist the devil as Saint James says. Resist with Christ’s own retort: “thou shalt not tempt The Lord thy God.” And as the roaring lion is always stung by Jesus’ Words; terminally wounded by Christ’s actions of obedience to fulfill Adam’s failure, Moses and The Israelites failure, and your most sinful daily failure, he will drop the leonine roar and slither away to his hole awaiting the lake of fire and his eternal punishment.
“Get thee hence!” Say it loud and proud “I am + Baptized. I belong to Christ. Jesus lives the victory’s won, death (and Satan and hell) no longer can appal me.”
N.B. The snake was right however, ironically so from his moronic view. The Father’s angels did bear Messiah up. They protected Him from the wild beasts that Mark mentions. They did nourish and feed Him and succor Him with the emotional comfort food of support, and with actual food for His stomach after the 40-day Lenten fast was ended.
The angelic ones even did, on Good Friday kept Jesus from dashing His foot against the permanent stone of a grave forever sealed. The heals were pierce, but the Cherubim and Seraphim were there with golden chalices to collect the flowing Blood more precious than gold or silver. For you. For now, that Blood shed, and that Body given, all worked by your Desert Ranger, your Gideon, your Perfect Adam, comes to you. This morning Christ through His angels, minister to you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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