First Sunday in Lent

The recent rediscovery of Lent in many Protestant churches has left many scattered ideas about its purpose. The real theme is preparation to celebrate the great mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection at Easter. This was the period when catechumens and notorious sinners were joined by the whole congregation in fasting and preparation for baptism and reconciliation at the great Easter Vigil.

In the Lectionary, the Old Testament readings recount the salvation history of Yahweh and Israel, while the Gospels give Jesus’ perfect fulfillment of these past acts, linked together by the theology of the New Testament authors in the New Testament readings.

Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is always the first reading in Lent. In Matthew, it is possible to reflect on the virtuous example he sets in contrast to Adam’s and Israel’s past faithlessness. The “wilderness” here is an allusion to the wilderness into which humanity was cast after being expelled from the Garden by Adam’s sin of grasping at godlikeness. Jesus is our pioneer, charting the path out of this wilderness back to the Garden by succeeding where Adam failed.

The original temptation in the Garden and Satan’s tempting of Jesus follows the same pattern: Dividing our will from the Father’s by grasping at what God has already promised. The serpent suggests to Eve an alternative path to godlikeness, when that likeness had already been granted by God (Gen. 1:26). So too, Jesus’ divine sonship is questioned (“If you are the Son of God …”) but Jesus proves that status by submitting to the Father’s will instead of grasping at it himself (Phil. 2:6-8). And whereas Israel grumbled for bread in its 40-year wandering, Jesus remains faithful to the Father in his 40 day fast by refusing Satan’s temptation of bread.

The preacher should connect the Gospel passage to our 40 days in Lent as a special time to become alert to our ongoing walk of obedience throughout our lives and how temptation and testing is part of the program, not an obstacle to spiritual comfort.

Jesus’ duel of exegesis with Satan is also a good opportunity to comment on how—in our time as in our Lord’s—the letter of Scripture may be learned and accurately quoted, but deprived of its spirit of obedience toward God, it can be twisted by the devil in order to detract from its intent. As Paul emphasizes in the Romans passage, Christ succeeds where Adam fails, bringing life to the world to reverse the curse brought about by our Fall.