In Lent, turn toward Jesus, away from sin

1st Sunday of Lent (A)

Our annual journey toward Easter has begun. The great season of Lent is upon us, for Lent is, above all else, an opportunity to prepare for Easter. For those who seek Baptism, Lent is a final period of intense preparation for full, sacramental participation in the life of Christ. For those already baptized, Lent is an especially graced opportunity to renew our seeking after the Lord, to once again unite ourselves with Christ’s suffering and self-giving so that we might also share in his glorious victory over sin and death.

Our Gospel reading this first Sunday of Lent is St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ Temptations in the Desert. This text has been attached to the First Sunday of Lent in a tradition dating back more than over 1,500 years. The Gospel highlights the profound reality of both Jesus’ divinity and his humanity, and, in so doing, calls us back to the realities of sin and temptation as well as to our ability to overcome them by our reliance on the power of Jesus working through us.

Our first and second readings this Sunday provide an interesting Good News-Bad News context in which to consider the message of St. Matthew’s Gospel. Our first reading, taken from the Book of Genesis, is the story both of human creation as well as the first sin. Adam and Eve lived in perfect paradise, and yet yielded to the human temptation to go against God. Rather than trusting the path God had laid out for them, Adam and Eve, tempted by the Evil One, chose to put their own plans and desires ahead of God’s. The bad news is that sin entered the world when humanity sought to substitute its own ways for God’s ways.

Our second reading, taken from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, presents the good news. The good news is that “just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all” (Rom 5:18). The story of Adam and Eve shows the disaster and ruination that befalls humanity through sin, but the story of Jesus Christ gives us the supreme hope that our fallen condition can be overcome. That is the choice this Lenten season places before us — the path of sin or the path of Christ, death or life, the curse or the blessing.

Illustrating that we all must face this choice, St. Matthew presents Jesus himself as being tempted by the Evil One. Having fasted for 40 days and nights in the desert, Jesus faces allures of Satan’s power.

Jesus’ hunger became the opportunity for Satan’s first temptation. The devil appeared and prompted Jesus to satisfy his hunger by changing the stones on the desert floor into bread. He was tempted to use his power for his own purposes, rather than for his Father’s plan. Jesus answered Satan, quoting a verse from the Book of Deuteronomy highlighting God’s protective care, “Not on bread alone shall man live, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Dt 8:3).

In a second temptation, the devil led Jesus to the parapet of the Temple in Jerusalem. Satan challenged Jesus to jump off the tower and make God send angels to rescue him. He was being tempted to test God rather than to trust him. Jesus replied to the devil, again using the words of Deuteronomy to resist the temptations, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Dt 6:16). Jesus’ answer here calls to mind the People of Israel who failed God by testing him at Meribah (see Exodus 17:1-7). Jesus would remain faithful where the Old Testament people had succumbed to their temptations.

In a final temptation, Satan called upon Jesus to worship him in return for earthly power and prestige. In doing so, Satan was tempting Jesus to offer him the adoration due to God alone. Jesus replied, again citing a verse from the Book of Deuteronomy, “You shall do homage to the Lord your God; him alone shall you endure” (Dt 6:13). Jesus’ mission was precisely to build up the Kingdom of God, to extend God’s dynamic Lordship over all. This was a temptation to entirely abandon the main point of his entire ministry.

This Sunday’s Gospel should convince us, at the beginning of this Lenten season, of both the power of temptation in our lives, as well as the power we have in Christ to resist that temptation. This Gospel is a call for all people to turn toward God, to turn away from our sins, to abandon any undue reliance on things of the earth, and to strive after the fruits of God’s goodness. May this Gospel inspire us to improve our likeness to Jesus, a likeness that can be marred by sin, but a likeness which can become quite radiant the more closely we mimic the Risen Christ.

Msgr. Fell is a Scripture scholar and director, diocesan Office for Priest Personnel