Homilies on Luke — Homily 31 (Luke 4:9–13)
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Luke, surviving only in Jerome's Latin translation (c. 391), from the reading text of M. Rauer (ed.), Origenes Werke IX (GCS 35, Leipzig, 1930). This English translation is released into the public domain.On the third temptation of the Savior.
Search the Scriptures, so that even in those things which are thought to be simple you may discover mysteries that are by no means small. Let us search the beginning of the Gospel reading which we have heard today, and let what was hidden come forth into the open. "He brought," it says, that is, the devil brought Jesus "into Jerusalem." This is incredible, that the devil should lead the Son of God and that he should follow. Yet he clearly followed, like an athlete going of his own accord to the contest. He did not dread the tempter, nor was he afraid of the snares of the craftiest of enemies, and in a certain manner he was saying: lead where you wish, tempt as you please, of my own accord I give myself over to be tempted, I endure whatever you may suggest, I offer myself in whatever you may try: you will find me stronger in all things. "He brought him therefore into Jerusalem, and set him upon the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him: if you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here." He brought him up to the top, to the summit of the temple, and urges him to throw himself down from there. And when the devil deceitfully proposed this and, under the show of glory, was striving after something else, the Savior said: "It is written: you shall not tempt the Lord your God." And at the same time consider how the devil tempts. He does not dare to tempt from any other source than from the divine books, and taking a testimony from the Psalms he says: "If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down. For it is written: that he has commanded his angels concerning you, and in their hands they will lift you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone." Whence do you know, O devil, that these things are written? Have you perhaps read the prophets or come to know the divine utterances? Though you be silent, I will answer for you. You have read, not that you yourself might become better from the reading of the holy things, but that from the bare letter you might slay those who are friends of the letter. You know that, if you should wish to speak to him from other volumes, you will not deceive, nor will your assertions be able to have any authority. Thus Marcion reads the Scriptures like the devil, thus Basilides, thus Valentinus, so that with the devil they might say to the Savior: "It is written, that he has commanded his angels concerning you, and in their hands they will lift you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone." Whenever you hear testimonies drawn from the Scriptures, see that you do not at once give assent to the one speaking, but consider the man—of what life, of what opinion, of what will he is—lest perhaps he feign himself to be holy, which he is not, and, infected with the poisons of heresy, lie hidden as a wolf under the sheep's skin, lest perhaps the devil speak in him from the Scriptures. But just as the devil, according to the occasion of the times, speaks from the Scriptures, so, on the contrary, Paul, for the benefit of those who hear, takes a testimony not only from the Scriptures but even from secular books, and says: "The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies," and again from another: "for we are also his offspring," and likewise from the comic poet: "evil conversations corrupt good morals." But neither, if the devil has spoken from the Scriptures, will he be able by this occasion to deceive me, nor, if Paul has taken some example from Gentile writings, will he deter me from his own discourse. For Paul takes up words even from those things which are outside, in order to sanctify them. Let us see, then, what the devil speaks to the Lord from the Scriptures: "For it is written, that he has commanded his angels concerning you, and in their hands they will lift you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone." See how, even in the testimonies themselves, he is shifty. For he wishes to diminish the glory of the Savior, as though he needed the help of the angels, being about to dash his foot unless he were lifted up by their hands. He takes up a testimony and interprets of Christ that which was written not of Christ, but of the saints generally. For freely and with all confidence I contradict the devil, that this cannot be understood of the person of Christ. For he does not need the help of the angels, who is greater than the angels and has obtained by inheritance a name better than they. To none of the angels did God ever say: "You are my Son, this day have I begotten you." To none of them did he speak as to a son, "he who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire," but to his own proper Son, of whom he speaks innumerable things in the prophets. He does not need, I say, the help of the angels, the Son of God. Nay rather, learn, O devil, that, unless Jesus should help the angels, they dash their own foot. And if any of the angels has seemed to dash his foot—of whom it was read a little while ago: "that we shall judge angels"—he dashes it for this reason, that he did not stretch out his hand to Jesus, so that, being grasped by him, he might not dash it. For when anyone, trusting in his own strength, does not call upon the protection of Jesus, he dashes his foot and falls. And you too, O devil, fell for this reason "like lightning from heaven," because you were unwilling to believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God. But that you may know that you have interpreted wrongly, and that what follows is to be understood not of Christ but of the saints, listen. "From ruin and the noonday demon" God delivers not Jesus Christ, but the saints. Read the ninetieth Psalm, whose beginning is: "He who dwells in the help of the Most High shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven," and you will find that these things befit rather a just man than the Son of God: "a thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you; nevertheless with your eyes you shall behold, and you shall look upon the requital of sinners," and the rest, interpreting it of the person of the just. But even thus, perversely taking up the testimonies so as to assert that the things which were said of the just are to be understood of the Savior, the devil is silent and passes over the little verses which are written against himself. For when he had said: "he has commanded his angels concerning you, and in their hands they will lift you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone," he was silent about that which follows: "you shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample down the lion and the dragon." Why are you silent about these things, O devil, unless because you are the "basilisk," you are the little king of all serpents, having more harmful poisons than the rest, who slay someone the moment you see him? You know too that there is another opposing power, an associate of yours, which is called the "asp" and is made subject to the just man, and for that reason you keep silent about all these things. You are the "dragon," you are the "lion," of whom it is written: "you shall tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample down the lion and the dragon." But though you be silent, we who read the Scriptures more rightly know that we have the power of trampling upon you and that this dominion has been given to us—for I speak not only in the Old Testament, as is now sung in the Psalm, but also in the New, the Savior saying: "behold, I give you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you." Let us take up arms, strengthened by so great a power, and let us do all things, so that through our manner of life we may trample down the lion and the dragon. Furthermore, that you may know how "the lion is trampled down" and "the dragon crushed," read Paul's epistle, in which he asserts that the Son of God is trampled upon by the sinner. As therefore he who is a sinner tramples upon the Son of God, so on the contrary he who is just "tramples upon the lion and the dragon," and tramples down "all the power of the enemy" in the name of Jesus Christ: to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.