First Sunday in Lent Year A 26th February 2023
Lectionary Readings: Genesis 2 v15-17, 3 v1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5 v12-19; Matthew 4 v1-11.
We are no longer alone.
The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert so that the devil could test him. (Matthew 4v1). And when the test was completed, The devil left Jesus and angels came to help him. (v11).
Matthew’s story of Jesus in the desert follows on from his account of the baptism of Jesus. At that time, the Spirit of God was seen to descend upon Jesus, like a ‘dove’. Jesus was accompanied by the Holy Spirit throughout his time in the desert.
Adam and Eve’s time of testing was different. They were asked by God to look after the garden of Eden and instructed not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. God said they would die if they did so.
Adam and Eve were trusted to make their own decisions, (no mention of the Holy Spirit to guide their thinking). When tested by the snake, they chose to disobey God. The writers of Genesis call this the first sin. The snake was right, in the sense that Adam and Eve did not die a physical death. They died a spiritual death (separation from God) caused by disobedience.
Bible scholars suggest that the book of Genesis was written during the time of exile in Babylon, when the various strands of Israel’s oral history were collated and their understanding of their relationship with God was first developed. In the story of ‘the garden of Eden’, the writers were trying to explain how we became estranged from God, and our need, therefore, to obey the ‘The Law of Moses’ in order to be reconciled with God.
The apostle Paul was, until his encounter with the risen Christ, a zealous Pharisee, convinced of the need to obey every part of the Law of Moses. But now, with the benefit of a mind guided by God’s Holy Spirit, he explains to his readers that God has made it possible for everyone to be reconciled with himself by virtue of his ‘gift’ alone. Jesus is God’s gift to us, the means whereby our sins are forgiven and our relationship with God is restored. (see Romans 5 v12-19).
God blesses us with his Holy Spirit that resides within us, guiding our thinking and our actions. As with Jesus in the desert, we are no longer alone, God is with us.
Hymn writer Herman Stuempfle, reflects on the temptation of Jesus in the desert and our response to times of testing. (Singing the Faith 237 v1,4.)
Jesus, tempted in the desert, lonely, hungry, filled with dread:
‘use your power,’ the tempter tells him; ‘turn these barren rocks to bread!’
‘Not alone by bread,’ he answers, ‘can the human heart be be filled.
Only by the Word that calls us is our deepest hunger stilled!’
When we face temptation’s power, lonely, struggling, filled with dread,
Christ, who knew the tempter’s hour, come and be our living bread.
By your grace, protect, preserve us lest we fall, your trust betray.
Yours, above all other voices, be the Word we hear, obey.
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version.