This gospel reading, this brief conversation between Jesus and the evil spirit, always helps me to understand how evil operates, how evil is tempting us to do something wrong. This conversation between Jesus and evil, teaches me how and when to stop the temptations that come my way. If you read the gospel today, you will notice that the demons try to trap the Lord into its own way of thinking. They try to drag Jesus into the conversation: “what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” And at first this doesn’t seem like something that is bad. But this is exactly what evil does. It tries to make us think that its temptation is innocent, but in fact it will always lead us to do something against God’s will. But Jesus knows better. Jesus doesn’t go into any conversations. Jesus is brief and strong and commands the evil demons to “Be quiet! Come out of him!" That’s it. No more words, no more thinking, no long conversation. Evil knowing that can’t win, so it obeys Jesus right away and leaves. We all are tempted by the evil one, but in those moments of temptations we should look to Jesus and say firmly - Be quiet and leave me alone!
Comments