First Sunday of Lent Luke 4:1-13 Romans 10:8b-13

‘Forty days and forty nights’, it says in the hymn, ‘thou wast fasting in the wild; forty days and forty nights, tempted and yet undefiled.’ On Ash Wednesday, just passed, we entered the season of Lent, with the traditional Bible passages, and the reminder that we are a community of faith only by God’s grace. It was Jesus who paved the way to salvation, who is our salvation, and that we get hold of it by faith. For all of that to happen, Jesus had to walk a specific journey; a journey that took him to some challenging places, including an encounter with Satan! It is interesting to note that Jesus’ time in the desert or wilderness began when he returned from his baptism in the river Jordan. That had been the moment when God’s voice spoke from heaven, declaring, ‘You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ And then Luke 4 begins with: ‘Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.’ Full of the Holy Spirit, and led by the Spirit. How extraordinary! Why would the third member of the Holy Trinity do that? Why would God the Father first affirm Jesus as the Son, only to have the Holy Spirit to lead him to a lonely place, full of temptation? You could also wonder why Jesus fasted. Could he not have had somebody to bring him food? Well, of course, he could have, but he chose not to. It reminds me of Jesus’ own teaching later in what we call the Beatitudes, when he says: ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.’ Not because of the physical hunger that people may feel, but because of the spiritual hunger that all have, for love, peace and righteousness. As usual, Satan can’t see beyond the end of his nose. He interprets everything from his own perspective, which is faulty. And Jesus doesn’t give in to the attempts to push him off track – he successfully thwarts all the arrows that Satan fires at him by resting on God himself and his word in Scripture, and so in the end, Satan leaves him, as it says, ‘until an opportune time’.

Have you sometimes wondered why you should read the Bible? Well, here is your answer: so that you grow in knowledge and maturity in your faith. As Paul writes in his letter to the Romans: ‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart. That is, the word of faith that we proclaim.’ But how can you have the word near you, if you don’t know it, and how can you know it, if you don’t read it (or hear it read). That is why we have home groups and Bible study groups, and why the Church puts together a Lectionary – a list of Bible readings for each day of the year. This list doesn’t necessarily cover the whole of the Bible front to back – but it covers most of it in the most important accounts of salvation and God’s journey with his people. That journey began a long time even before Jesus appeared on the earth, and was set in motion because of God’s love for the world. Jesus came to perform the work of salvation and as we have just entered the season of Lent, this work is the focus for this time of year as we follow the events that led up to the cross on Good Friday and the resurrection on Easter Day. It is good news! It is a story of hope and love and one that we can call our own, as we ‘journey’ with Jesus. As Paul writes, quoting Scripture: ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame. For, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ Jesus was able to face evil and win the victory. Not just for forty days and forty nights, but for ever and for all of us.

It was important that he had heard God’s voice speak at his baptism and that the Holy Spirit empowered him. It helped him know who he was and affirmed him in his mission. He could have pulled out, but he didn’t, because of love. For he did it for our sake, on our behalf, so that we may live through faith. Amen.