FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT (2025)
Readings:
Deuteronomy 26:4-10
Psalm 91:1-2, 10-15
Romans 10:8-13
Luke 4:1-13
The Temptation of Jesus by Satan appears in all three synoptic gospels, giving us great cofidence that the story was firmly embedded in the tradition surrounding Jesus of Nazareth. It is not recounted to indicate any weakness or sinfulness in the humanity of God’s Son. On the contrary, the story highlights Jesus’ conquering of sin, and His dominance over the devil. As are most things in Mark, the temptation account is briefer, and Matthew and Luke’s versions are so similar that they must have been using the same tradition that was circulating. But as close as the Matthew and Luke versions are, Luke’s version seems to betray a slightly different understanding.
Luke’s gospel is often referred to as the ‘Gospel of the Holy Spirit.’ Especially with the accompanying volume of Acts, the Holy Spirit plays a dominant role in all of Luke. Luke clearly wishes to show who is in charge, and it is the Holy Spirit, who descended on Jesus in the previous chapter at His baptism, and who now leads Jesus “into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil.” The ‘forty days’ reference is meant to remind the reader of the forty years the Israelites spent in the desert after being freed from their bondage in Egypt. Indeed, you will recall, that the forty years of Israel’s roaming (Golden Calf, pleas for bread, the rock at Meribah) was replete with temptations, many of which the Israelites were not successful in overcoming. Jesus, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, is well-equipped to overcome any temptation that comes His way.
It’s worthy of note, that there are two genealogies in the gospels. They appear in Matthew and Luke, and they are considerably different from one another. Matthew traces Jesus’ lineage from Abraham to Jesus. Luke, on the other hand, traces Jesus lineage, which follows immediately after His baptism, from Jesus back to Adam. For Adam the temptation by the devil did not go well, with he and his wife Eve being thrown out of the Garden into the wilderness. It is that vague wilderness where Jesus finds Himself being tempted by the same devil that Adam and Eve just could not resist. Jesus is the new Adam who gets lead by the Holy Spirit into the desert where He is completely successful at resisting whatever the devil could throw at Him. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Jesus went into the wilderness to face the devil so that He might bring humanity back to the Garden.
All three temptations in today’s gospel were driving at the same point: Would Jesus act independently of God? Jesus was obviously hungry, for He had been fasting for forty days. The devil was well aware of this vulnerable weak spot in Jesus, but Jesus too was aware of His intense hunger, and His Jewish faith held fast, seeing His Father as the one who provides for all our needs, just as the Israelites were meant to know (first reading) how God has always provided for them.
The devil then offers Jesus power and glory. The devil does not understand that Jesus already knows that God has invested Him with all the power and glory anyone could hope to ask for, for at His baptism the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit came down and empowered, with a voice from heaven confirming that power: “You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.”
Lastly, the devil wants Jesus to do some empty, performative action of throwing Himself off the roof of the Temple. Jesus was surely aware that He would suffer no harm were He to do that, for even our psalm response makes that clear. Even the devil can quote Scripture and does, but we are meant to ‘consider the source’ and not be lead astray, even by those who can quote Scripture.
It should be obvious why the Church begins her Lenten journey with this account of Jesus’ temptation by the devil. We are entering into the wilderness of Lent, and like any other day in an entire year, the devil knows exactly where we are standing. Indeed, the devil may catch us at our weakest spot, when we are distracted by the things of this world, or held prisoner by our own passions. If our hearts and minds are empowered by the Holy Spirit who came down on us at our baptisms, we need not fear the attacks of the devil. What Jesus teaches us today is that we have nothing to fear when temptations want to take over our lives. Jesus has put the enemy under His feet, and with Jesus at our side we have nothing to fear. As Paul says to the Roman community: “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart – that is, the word of faith that we preach – for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved…. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How much assurance of our salvation do we possibly need?
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