Year A Lent I Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Matthew 4:1-11

Once again, it is Lent. It is the time when the Church calls us to reflect on our shortcomings, our sins, and weaknesses. It is a time for facing up to our temptations in whatever form they take, and to struggle to set them aside.

In a world filled with evil, in our country today there are a number of 12-Step programs which exist to help people who struggle to overcome the temptations of addiction. In our society it is so easy to become addicted to what kills both body and soul. These programs teach that the only way to give up something successfully is to replace it with something else. Thus, members of 12-Step programs face their temptations and replace their addictions with a dependence on a Higher Power, with dependence on the Person who people of faith call God.

Lent is a time for us to replace whatever causes us to stray from the path of righteousness, and to put all our faith and trust in our Lord.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

Our first lesson begins in that place we’ve all heard about from the beautiful creation story in the Old Testament, the Garden of Eden. God has watered and planted the garden and has placed in it three kinds of trees – those that are “good for food”, the tree of life, and one tree that is dangerous. God calls the humans He has created to share in the creative endeavor, to “till and keep” the garden, to look after it, to maintain and enhance it. Thus, interestingly, the first work of humanity is that of gardening, and like everything God has created, it is good.

God wants His human creatures to love and serve Him - but to be true, love must be freely given, so God has endowed humans with free will, with the ability to choose. So there they are, the man and the woman, in this glorious, fruitful garden, filled with trees, ones that provide food, one that is the tree of life and righteousness, and one tree that is forbidden.

How tempting that forbidden one must be. The man and the woman can eat freely of all the other trees, but there sits that one they must not touch. We all know what happens. Tempted to exert their will against the will of God, the humans make a choice, and they choose to disobey God.

As punishment, they are ousted by God from the glorious garden, and now we must walk the face of the earth, the barren desert, searching for that calm, that peace that they discarded, searching for the Garden of Eden, for the joy of living in total harmony with God.

Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Jesus, who is sometimes called “the second Adam”, is led out into the exact opposite of the Garden of Eden. Where the first Adam was surrounded by abundance, Jesus has nothing. Alone, without provisions, He is hungry, so the very first temptation is to assuage His hunger by using His power to turn the stones into bread. The mere mention of bread was probably difficult for Him to handle given how hungry He was. But Jesus says “No”. We see Jesus deny a desire of the flesh, but for what reason? Jesus does this to strengthen His focus on God.

Even during Lent, when abstinence is requested of us, is it difficult for us to keep our focus and resist temptation. Often we set Lenten goals, only to rationalize our decisions. Just a little bit of this or that can’t hurt – even if we had told God we would refrain from “this or that” during Lent. Our focus is easily turned back to worldly things – unless we really work to keep it centered on God.

In the second temptation Jesus is taken to the pinnacle of the Temple and invited to throw Himself down in order that the angels may save Him. Now this might seem like an easier one to resist, until we take into account how isolated Jesus must have felt. Before coming to us on earth, He had dwelt in light with the angels surrounding Him. How strengthening it would have been for Him to experience their support in the midst of this difficult time of temptation. Jesus again says “No”, and in so doing, He rejects the need to be at the center of a throng of supporters. His faith in God is enough, and He refuses to put God to the test.

We know how it feels to have to face something difficult alone. We plead with friends and family to come with us to see the doctor, to support us in a court case, to visit a sick relative. We need to be important to others and to have them there to back us up. During Lent, we might think about how to in difficult times develop that sort of relationship with Jesus, remembering that in stressful situations our Lord stands always by our side – that we are never truly alone. During Lent, it would be good to consider how we can make a deeper connection with Jesus, how we can accept the Truth of His Presence always with us, and with Him make it through the times when we must, as the world sees it, “go it alone”.

Finally, Jesus is shown all the kingdoms of the world, which are offered to Him in exchange for worship. Jesus, on the precipice of embarking on His ministry and building His movement could have much more easily taught and influenced the world from such a position of power, but instead He again says “No”, affirming the need to worship God and only God.

Offer us the world? Oh yes! Let me have the best bargain, have the best car, the biggest house, the finest wardrobe, the richest jewels. Let me win the lottery! Or perhaps it is, let me be the popular one, the adored, the person everyone wants to know. I want to fit in, to live in comfort, to have no worries and no cares. I want to be successful. We forget we are not called to be rich, popular and successful. We are called to be faithful.

Jesus denied the desires of the flesh, the need for personal support and affirmation, and the acquisition of personal power, so He could continue to be faithful to and embrace God. Humility and abstinence, the resistance of temptation, did not relieve His hunger or build His pride, but ultimately it saved our world.

Jesus said, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

This past Wednesday, we stepped into the wilderness that is Lent. There are so many temptations, but we know the ones that beckon to us, the ones that try to lure us away, the ones that tug at us and tell us that it will be all right if we follow. Our best hope for resisting is to, especially during Lent, improve our life of prayer. For best results we ought to pray both morning and evening, and we can also pray while we work. Keeping ourselves open to God supports and helps us as we resist the temptations that call us to choose the forbidden fruit in whatever form that fruit may take.

Our work in this world is to rejuvenate the desert. Remember, the man’s and woman’s the first job in the Garden of Eden was gardening. We who prefer the sweet, the rich, the shining offerings of the world, would prefer to be excused from this work, but God has said, “No!” We are the gardeners who are called to plant and establish the Kingdom of God, to help others; to bring back the fruits of love and joy through our lives lived toward God.

Far down the road, in the distance, is another tree. Before embracing this tree, Jesus will ask to be excused – but God will say, “No!” Jesus will hang upon the tree, and there, in obedience to God’s will, He will procure for us – salvation!

Let us pray:

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to You, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly Yours, utterly dedicated to You; and then use us, we pray you, as you wish, and always to Your glory and the welfare of Your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.