1 Lent Year A 2/22/2026
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Today marks the first Sunday in Lent.
And our Gospel reading points toward one of the major themes of Lent – Temptation.
We all face temptation…
We face it daily…
Sometimes hourly…
To be sure, temptation is not sin…
But certainly, what we do with temptation can become sin.
As St. James writes in his letter to the early church:
…each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin;
and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
(James 1.14-15)
So temptation is the pathway toward sin…
and sin leads to death.
Our Gospel reading today is found at the beginning of the fourth chapter of Matthew.
Now, one of the things to remember about New Testament writings is that they were not necessarily written like most of us study the Bible.
We tend to read the Bible in sections…
Short chapters…
And because of this study strategy, we can easily lose sight of the big picture of the writing.
We can tend to pull out the section or chapter away from its larger context…
To remove it from where it fits in the bigger story of the Gospel book.
In the big picture of Matthew’s Gospel, the backdrop to this story is the Magi in chapter 2 and the baptism of Jesus in chapter 3.
We would be wise to read the temptation story in Matthew 4 with the context of the stories that came before it.
That would be the author’s intention.
The baptism narrative is to help us understand that Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit for the ministry and work he was sent to do.
God was with him in this journey.
The Magi narrative (the three wisemen story) is there to help us see that he is the savior and king of the world… both for Jews and Gentiles.
But a whole story line connected to the Magi narrative is the information on King Herod.
While God was sending his Son, Jesus Christ into this world…
While he was empowering him with the Holy Spirit at Baptism…
The enemy of this world was at work…
The ancient evil one, the devil, was stirring things up.
King Herod goes crazy when he finds out the Magi had tricked him…
Matthew tells us:
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi,
he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under,
in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
(Matthew 2.16)
This murder of the young boys is now known as the Slaughter of the Innocents…
And we remember this event in the church every December 28th during the 12 days of Christmas.
This is the devil at work through the power-hungry-leadership of King Herod. It is pure evil.
And this is the backdrop of the temptation story we have today.
Episcopal Priest, Fleming Rutledge writes:
… [in the telling of] the Slaughter of the Innocents [Matthew is telling us that it is] symptomatic of the operations of the primeval adversary whose temptations Jesus will resist for forty days in the wilderness two chapter later. [1]
What we see the enemy of our Lord doing through the rage and anger of King Herod is precisely who is behind the temptations of our Lord.
Matthew tells us:
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And after he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights the great adversary came to tempt our Lord.
The devil has been at work all along…
This time he goes face to face with Jesus.
Now each of the three temptations is a threat to the ministry, work, and calling that Jesus came to do.
He came to seek and save the lost and dying world…
He came to make himself a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.
The devil came to destroy this mission.
Each of the temptations promises something that the sinful action cannot meet…
The first temptation was to satisfy Jesus’ natural need to eat…
The devil said:
…command these stones to become loaves of bread…
In the first temptation – comfort is promised.
The second temptation was to believe that he did not need to suffer.
The devil said:
…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.’”
In the second temptation – safety is promised.
The third temptation was to change the plan of God.
The devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.
In the third temptation – power is promised.
In all three of these temptations…
The devil makes a promise…
You will receive comfort.
You will be safe.
You will have ultimate power.
But the temptations never live up to their promises.
As Jesus said in the Gospel of John 10.10:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…
Sin always costs…
It always has a price.
Sin will take you farther than you want to go,
keep you longer than you want to stay,
and it cost you more than you want to pay.
King Herod did more evil in his day than he ever originally sought to do.
In contrast, King Jesus overcame the evil one, resisting temptation, and he did not sin.
Jesus did not fall for the false promises that the temptations promised.
And thanks be to God!
Because Jesus overcame these temptations…
Going to the cross…
Taking our sins to the cross…
So that we can be forgiven.
Even when we fall to the temptations in our life.
When our temptation leads to sin…
We find forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
As the refrain of the 19th c. gospel hymn says it so well:
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
The promise we have today is that Jesus overcame the temptations of his life… and in his suffering, death, and resurrection he overcame sin, death, and the grave.
This is the good news in our Romans reading…
It says:
…just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all,
so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
And the more we understand the great forgiveness that Christ graciously redeems us with…
We rejoice with the psalmist in our psalm…
The first two verses proclaim:
Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven,
and whose sin is put away!
Happy are they to whom the Lord imputes no guilt,
and in whose spirit there is no guile!
Take courage today in the promise of Jesus Christ…
Be happy and blessed in the goodness of our Lord.
And when that temptation comes your way…
Pray the collect of today:
Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations;
and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us,
let each one find you mighty to save…
Praise be to God!
For Jesus is mighty to save.
Amen.
[1] Fleming Rutledge, Epiphany (Downers Grove: IVP, 2023), 63-64.
