First Sunday of Lent 2025/
Reflection on Sunday Readings
In our gospel this weekend, Jesus goes
into the desert following his baptism by St. John the Baptist. The desert is a place for reflection on one’s
life and its mission. In the desert, there
are no distracting noises of the culture yelling for our attention. No, in the desert there are only the quiet
whispers of the wind ( i.e., the Spirit) inviting us to be quiet and enter into
the silence of our souls to hear God speaking to us.
Jesus’ journey in the desert reflects in many ways the journeys of the
Israelites throughout the Old Testament toward the Promised Land. (see book of Exodus
and Numbers) Those journeys and
encounters with the divine were often precipitated by a failure to trust in the ways of God. But in Jesus, those moments are re-enacted
with trust in the divine presence in his life.
For example, in Jesus’ first temptation- “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread…,”
mirrors in many ways the complaints of the Israelites to Moses about why he had
led them into the dessert to die of hunger (Exodus 16:2-3). God hearing their complaint about their need
for food, supplies them with a flake-like pieces of bread each morning when the dew evaporates
from the desert floor (Exodus 16:14). Moses tells them they are to gather up the
bread but only enough for that day. They are to gather no more than a day’s worth
of bread or it will show they do not trust in God’s providence to fulfill the
need of food each day. Jesus in the
gospel this first Sunday of Lent, does not complain to God or use his power to
create bread but rather through and in his humanity, he relies on God to sustain him each day throughout
his forty days in the desert. He
surrenders to the power and compassion of God, rather than challenging God.
In the second temptation, the devil tempts
Jesus’s to yield to the worship of the devil and then the devil will give him
all manner of power and influence for as the devil says- “ for it has been
handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours
if you worship me.” In this temptation
it is reminiscent of when in the Old Testament the Israelites were waiting for Moses
to come down from the top of Mt. Sinai where he had gone to commune with God
and where he was to receive the Ten commandments. But the Israelites grew impatient with his
delay and in-spite of the miraculous ways in which God had rescued them from
the hand of Pharoah, they still returned to the worshiping the Gods of Egypt. And in that decision they are tempted and
build a representation of God for themselves, and they fashion it in the form
of a golden calf (Exodus 32:1-6). How often
do we too supplant the presence of God in our lives and put are sole trust in
other things or other people. Jesus in
this second temptation tells the devil, it is God alone that man should
worship. It is God alone that we must
trust. No other substitute will do, no
matter how powerful or great they may appear, they can never equal who God is. Nothing in our lives can equal what God can
do in our lives. For
the Israelites, the journey through the desert was in order to prepare them for
the promised land, but first they needed to trust in the God solely and believe
that He alone would care for them. This trust and reliance of the Lord and the
breaking of that reliance and trust on the Lord would be a constant theme in
the Old Testament.
Finally, the devil tempts Jesus with the third
and ultimate temptation of forcing God’s hand by having Jesus throw himself off
of the top of the temple because, as the devil says to Jeus: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down
from here,…….”. This temptation mirrors
the account in the Old Testament where during the journey of the Israelites, they finally reach a place in desert called Horeb. There, tired, hungry, and with great thirst from
all their wanderings, they complained to Moses
about why God has taken them through this desert to only let them die
from thirst and so “they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to
drink.” Moses replied to them,: “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the
LORD to a test?” So, Moses cried out to the LORD,
“What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!” The LORD answered Moses: Go on ahead of the people,…….
holding in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile. I will be standing there in front of you on
the rock in Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the
people to drink. Moses did this……,”
and the waters flowed out in great abundance. (Exodus 6:3-7) Jesus in his response to the
devil, in this third temptation, tells the devil that “It also says, You,
shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” And in
that moment Jesus refuses to accept the dare
of the devil to challenge God’s degree of faithfulness.
And so, Jesus, is faithful in facing the same temptations as the Israelites
experienced in the Old Testament.
Temptations where they failed in trusting in God’s care for them. These temptations of Jesus’ and his response to each are the same that
each of us face in our own spiritual journey towards our “promised land.” Lent is a time to remember the ways we too have
failed to be faithful to follow the ways of God as taught to us through Christ
life and his sacrifice. We are called in
Lent to remember the times in our lives when we have forgotten or not trusted
in the faithfulness of our God or in His great compassion for us. At times we can take our relationship with
God for granted and in doing such we do not seek out those ways in which we can
grow closer to God. Lent is a time in which
we can reflect on what in our lives, our values, or our behavior does not image
the belief we profess to have in the faithfulness of God? Is God a loving presence in our lives or has
our trust in a loving God become something that is absent in our lives? Do we believe as Jesus did, that God has
been and will always be faithful to his children? And trusting in that great faithfulness, can we
reach out, even in the limitations of our own humanity, to believe in His mercy
and in His providence for us. Both of
which are always flowing toward us, as the waters of Meribh flowed toward the
Israelites in the desert and fulfilled their thirst. Waters that not only
filled their human thirst but, also waters that filled their thirst to believe
and their thirst to trust in the love and faithfulness of our God.
“He
shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in distress.
I
will deliver him and glorify him.” (Psalm 91:15)
Lord increase, our trust in you alone
