This coming Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent and the gospel is the temptation/testing of Jesus in the desert. From the mundane of concerns about daily bread, we are taken to loft heights. 

⁵ Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. ⁶ The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and their glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. ⁷ All this will be yours, if you worship me.” ⁸ Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: ‘You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him alone shall you serve.’”

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent and the gospel is the temptation/testing of Jesus in the desert.  Jesus has been fasting for forty days. He is hungry and vulnerable – and in a weakened physical and mental state.

¹ Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert ² for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. ³ The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” ⁴ Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent and the gospel is the temptation/testing of Jesus in the desert.  Before immersing ourselves in the details of the three temptations, perhaps an overview of their OT background would help locate our gospel in context. 

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent and the gospel is the temptation/testing of Jesus in the desert. An earlier post today addressed the background of testing/temptation in a broad Scriptural way. This second post narrows that thread to consider the NT witness to the temptation from the four gospels. As well there is a short section on temptation and the human will.

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent and the gospel is the temptation/testing of Jesus in the desert. This is the first of two posts today – both dealing with the scriptural idea and basis of testing and temptation – whether there is a difference and what that says about the intersection of the divine intention and human will.

As often noted, Luke writes with a narrative intent. This is true also for the account of the temptations. Luke 4:1–13 presents a number of key elements linking it to surrounding material, helping to ensure its interpretation as a bridge scene moving Jesus from his reception of the Spirit at his baptism to his public ministry. The most obvious such bridges include references to the other worldly (3:21–22; 4:5), the setting of the wilderness in the vicinity of the Jordan (3:2–3, 4, 21; 4:1, 14), the Holy Spirit (3:22; 4:1, 1, 14, 16), Jesus’ sonship (3:22, 38; 4:3, 9, 41 – If you are the Son of God), the attention to the meaning of Jesus’ mission, and Jesus’ encounter with hostile forces – human and spiritual (4:2–13, 22–30, 33–36).

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday in Lent, Lectionary Cycle C. The season of Lent has its own end and purpose, so we should not expect continuity from the previous week that was part of Ordinary Time. Depending on the year and the date of Easter, Ordinary Time might end following the 4th Sunday, the 8th Sunday, or somewhere in between. This year (2025) we will have spent three Sundays with Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain. But here on this first Sunday in Lent we “drop back” to the events immediately following Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River at the hands of John the Baptist. Fresh from his baptism we find Jesus “filled with the Spirit.” 

Let’s get our bearings with Luke’s promised “orderly sequence” (Luke 1:3).