The gospel for the first Sunday of Lent (Matt 4:1-11) opens with the word Then. The word links prior events to what happened in the gospel. Here is what went on immediately before.

… when Jesus had been baptized, as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ (Matt 3:13-17)

(The voice from heaven spoke these identical words…‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased’…in last week’s gospel at the Transfiguration. In that gospel they affirmed the fullness of Jesus’ identity as the Christ.) 

When Jesus heard these words at his baptism they confirmed his way of living, and ordained Jesus for a new stage in his life. They gave him a new identity and set him on a new path. 

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The gospel for the first Sunday of Lent reads,

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 

The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ 

But he answered, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you”,  and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’

Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’

 Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”’ Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

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Several elements of this story grab our attention: the Spirit’s call, the forty days of fasting, the temptations to eat, to test God, and to exercise power. The symbolism of the forty days and the specific temptations also intrigue us.  

The New Revised Standard Version bible translates the first verse… Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. This mutes the true sense. "Being led" suggests some hesitancy or uncertainty on Jesus’ part. Yet the context shows that Jesus embraced the call as an opportunity to explore a deeper understanding of his identity as the Son of God. A clearer sense of the words is that the Spirit invited or beckoned Jesus. Think of athletes invited to training camp where their strength and skills are tested to the limits and they learn new techniques in preparation for matches. Athletes embrace the tests, trials and opportunities of training camp. So did Jesus.

In the Old Testament, people used fasting in different ways. Ahab fasted in atonement for sins (1 Kings 21: 25-28). David fasted to beg for the life of his bastard child (2 Samuel 12:15-17). There are many examples of others doing the same.

Jesus may have fasted, not for his own sins but for those of humanity. He may have also used fasting to ask for blessings on the world. However, Jesus’ fasting may have been an incidental side-effect of his intense reflection on the life-changing event of his baptism and the voice from heaven declaring him the beloved Son. He may have focused so intently on the Father’s will for him, his reciprocal love and the implications of his Father’s words that he did not want to spend more than minimal time searching for food. His answer to the devil’s first temptation… One does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God…reflects that priority.

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The devil, or tempter, in this morning’s gospel is sly. He didn’t attack Jesus’ meditations directly but noted that Jesus was famished. So the devil urged him to use his sonship for self-service. The rationalization would have been easy. 

The devil’s suggestion that Jesus throw himself from the top of the temple might appear ridiculous. But it is nuanced. In these first days after his baptism Jesus, himself, may have wondered how the Father would bless his work. The devil tried to goad him into testing the relationship with a frivolous, dramatic sign. The devil may have thought that such a test would have been more likely to succeed when Jesus’ sense of himself and the Father’s support was still emerging. 

Tempting Jesus with the world’s power and splendor was similarly sophisticated. It was not just a temptation to self-aggrandizement. Such glory aligned with people’s expectation of a Messiah. The richness and fame would have enchanted many and made elements of Jesus’ work easier. Jesus could have used the power to remove the Roman oppression and suffering for the Jewish people. These would have been significant accomplishments and fulfilled people’s expectations.

But easy living was not part of sonship! Nor was Jesus preparing to do the expected. 

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A less obvious reflection on this gospel is ‘how do we know that these things happened?’ Aside from the devil and the angels at the end, no one else accompanied Jesus into the wilderness. 

The most obvious answer is that Jesus, himself, told the story. But this begs other questions. What were the circumstances? To whom did he tell the story? What did he want to teach? 

Other parts of the gospels hint at how this might have come about. Jesus’ disciples were curious about him, his compelling teaching, his stunning miracles and his personality (John 7:3-29). They may have quizzed him about the events of his life that led to his transformation from a virtually invisible carpenter from Galilee… recall Nathaniel saying Can anything good come from Nazareth (John 1:46)…to a public figure followed by thousands. Jesus may have told them about his baptism, and his realization that his true father was God and how that reshaped his life. 

As he told them this story, he was not only answering the question of his personal history but teaching them about their own profound relationship to their father. A chapter later he would say, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. The prayer he taught them began Our Father… This morning’s gospel may well have emerged as he told them about how the relationship could be tarnished, damaged or broken.  His experience of temptation was a cautionary tale about how the tempter might try to interfere in the parent/child connection.

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  • Have you ever felt invited to a challenging event or work that you knew would test your endurance and wits? It could have been marriage or a job that would benefit others but at a personal cost. At the same time it would develop you. Can you relate that to Jesus’ discernment in the wilderness? 
  • Do you rationalize some behaviors? Maybe you persuade yourself that the good outweighs the evil in some specific acts. Do you “test” God?... “I’ve been good, generous, prayerful and needy, isn’t it time for a small reward?” 
  • When have you been so focused on something that you either forgot to or didn’t have time to eat? Could this Lent, with a focus on becoming more conscious of your role as a beloved child of God, be such a time for you?

Peace
Michael