Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, that he might be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he hungered.
After the baptism of Christ, in which he was called and had received the public testimony through the word of the Father that he should be the teacher, he is now sent out to carry out the ministry which he had taken upon himself. But first he is tried and tested, as if he first had to be instructed (as an example to us), so that he would not go into such a great matter as a newcomer and untried (as Paul writes [1 Tim. 3, 6. 10.]) and would not be stable in his faith in God afterwards; as newcomers are used to be bold and to presume great things, but soon fall and leave their office. But he is tried and proven in three ways:
V. 3. 4. And the tempter came unto him, and said, If thou be the Son of God, let these stones be made bread. And he answered and said, It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
2. first, whether he can suffer hunger or poverty for God's sake, or whether he rather values bread or the Word more highly and
because it is necessary for a Christian, especially a teacher, to suffer the danger of poverty and the loss of his property.
3 Here Christ overcomes and teaches [us] to overcome, because GOD is preferable to food. For he is not a GOD of the belly, but a GOD of life, as he proves from Moses, "that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that passes through the mouth of GOD." Therefore, man has life, not only the bodily life from bread, but also this life and the life to come in the word or in GOtte. This is the temptation to avarice and care for this life, that one should disregard God's word.
V.5-7. Then the devil brought him with him into the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. And said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, let thee down: for it is written: He shall command his angels concerning thee, and they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Then said JEsus unto him, Again, it is also written: Thou shalt not tempt thy Lord God.
4. the second is a spiritual temptation, that one should tempt God; this is very high.
and the common man cannot understand them, so I touch on them here only briefly. Here one can speak of the gross temptation of God, namely, that one should not do anything that God has neither commanded nor given the ability to do, and yet pretend that all things are possible to him who believes.
(5) For as in the first temptation he challenged the faith with distrust through lack of bread and other necessities, so here he challenges the faith through presumption in such things as one does not have and which God has not commanded; as when you would have your food and not work for your living, but in faith expect an income (fruges); when in faith you would expect a house without work, and so also in all other things. Just as the monks wanted to live chastely, believing that God would give it to them, and despising the married state. If one (without being commanded by God) were to wage war in faith, without forces, without an army, and wanted to gain victory.
V. 8-10. Again the devil took him up into a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then said JEsus unto him, Remove thyself from me, Satan: for it is written: Thou shalt worship God, one Lord, and serve him only.
The third temptation is the temptation of vain honor and worldly power; if someone could gain wealth and power, whether he would rather let go of honor and rule than the word. For here nature seeks honor, praise, and great name no less than in the first temptation it is anxiously concerned about the belly.
(7) This is a great temptation, as is clearly evident in the case of the pope, bishops, princes, kings, people who boast of the spirit (spirituosis), enthusiasts, and all who seek honor and power before the world and abhor the shame of the cross, and want to enter into the glory of heaven with the glory of the world.
V.11. Then the devil left him, and behold, the angels came to him and ministered to him.
8. after these temptations are overcome, the consolation follows that the angels assist and serve these fighters, making them understand that they assist us in such battles and rejoice in our victory.
V. 12-16. When Jesus heard that John had been delivered up, he went into the Galilean country, and left the city of Nazareth, and came and dwelt at Capernaum, which is by the sea, on the borders of Zabulon and Naphtalim, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Esaias, saying: The land of Zabulon, and the land of Naphtalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, and Gentile Galilee, the people that sat in darkness, hath seen a great light; and they that sat in the place and shadow of death, unto them hath a light dawned.
(9) Then he began his ministry. For here Christ first chose a certain place to begin his preaching, Capernaum in Galilee. From there his preaching went to all other parts of the people of Israel.
(10) For this reason, Matthew embellishes this beginning of the sermon in such a way with many words, and draws on the prophet Isaiah to make known the place of the beginning, where Christ began the gospel, as Peter also says in the Acts of the Apostles (Cap. 10:37): "For the sermon began in Galilee.): "For the preaching began in Galilee", so that none of the Jews could claim that he did not know about the preaching of Christ, since it had such a well-known (claro) beginning in a place that had been made known [by God] and was filled with miraculous works.
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
11) Then follows the sermon itself, what and how it was. And it is the short epitome of the gospel, namely: "Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand-".
come." The first part of the sermon is that it punishes all men for sin. This is truly a great sermon, which John the Baptist also preached. The other part is that salvation, life, forgiveness of sins is now here; the Scriptures are fulfilled, Christ has come. This is actually the voice of the Gospel, namely, that Christ has already come and is present, and fulfills what was promised, namely, redemption from death and eternal life to those who believe. Therefore Marcus speaks of it in these words [Marc. 1, 15.]: "Repent and believe in the gospel."
V.18-22. As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, whose name was Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting their nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Soon they left their nets and followed him. And as he passed away from thence, he saw two other brethren, Jacob the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called unto them. Soon they left the ship and their father, and followed him.
Finally, he chooses the apostles as disciples and successors in the service of the kingdom in this life, and now it is necessary that Christ be spread and his kingdom be established.
V. 23-25 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went out into all the country of Syria. And they brought to him all kinds of sick people, afflicted with all kinds of pestilences and torments, the possessed, the moonstruck and the gout-ridden; and he healed them all. And there followed him many people from Galilee, from the ten cities, from Jerusalem, from the land of Judah, and from beyond Jordan.
In the end, he summarizes, as it were, in a summa and in a short sentence, what Christ wanted to do when he came into the world, namely, to teach men and set them free, not to rule over them, so that his kingdom might be distinguished from the kingdom of the world, in which it does not happen that men are taught or set free from the power of the devil. And he says that many followed him and heard him, because God's word does not remain without fruit and does not come back to him empty.