The Season of Lent
Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
In this reading, we have a story that grapples with the origins of sin and death.
The genre of this reading is “myth.” Myth can mean “a widely held but false belief or idea.” While this may be the current cultural use of “myth,” the word primarily means “a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.”
The myth of creation is a story rooted in oral culture, told throughout the ages by a people trying to make sense of life. Is God one who loves and gives lavishly? If so, why does he withhold what appears good to us? Deciding that God is not one who loves and gives lavishly but rather is one who withholds good things, we violate trust in God and that is where sin originates. The concept of “original sin” tells us that this tendency in us to doubt God and trust ourselves is deep-rooted within us. As St. Paul says, “what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15). It sometimes creates a war within us that only faith in God can win.
Adam and Eve were seduced into believing that God could not be trusted. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus also is seduced but he does not give way. He believes in God’s loving goodness through all testings and temptations. Because of Jesus’ choices, we too may choose good, love, and trust in God.
We might expect this reading to be followed by a Psalm of lament and mourning for all that was lost in Eve’s choices. But it’s not! It’s followed by Psalm 51 – a psalm of repentance and a confession of the Lord’s merciful love. Even within an acknowledgement of our sin, there is hope and trust and faith in God’s unfailing love for us.
Romans 5:12-19
The shorter version for this reading is 12, 17-19 – in this case I think it is a better option for liturgy. This is a reading that is difficult to grasp when we’re studying it, let alone hearing it proclaimed!
Here’s a brief summary of the passage to help make sense of it:
- Verse 12 says that Adam left us a legacy of sin and death. Sin and death are personifications. Sin is an active force at work in the world, as is death; sin is the twin of death. Adam landed us in this dilemma where our lives are controlled by these malevolent powers.
- Verses 13 and 14 are a clarification on the role of the Law. At this point, Paul’s opponents might well say that you can’t go back to Adam because there was no law until Moses. But Paul says that even without the Mosaic law, there were still these malevolent powers influencing human life, even if we couldn’t name it “sin.” And Death comes to all on the basis of the legacy of sin. Why does he belabor this point? Because he’s talking primarily to Gentiles – people who might think that they don’t have to worry about these malevolent powers because they’re not subject to the Law of Moses. Paul wants to make sure they understand that they are, in fact, governed by these same forces.
- Verses 15-17 say that Adam and Christ are both alike and unalike in many ways. Of course, even in the likenesses, Christ is superior to Adam. Adam’s sin brought death to all, just as Christ’s death brings life to all.
- Verses 17, 18 and 19 all say basically the same thing in different ways: Adam brought these powers into the world upon everyone. That’s pretty powerful. But Christ’s gift is way more powerful. It brings abundance and life to all.
Matthew 4:1-11
Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, the Gospel reading is the Temptation of Jesus. Matthew, Mark and Luke all have this story.
Mark (written around 70AD) gives the story with a mere two verses, which probably accurately reflects what the disciples knew of the event. In the decades following Mark’s gospel, oral stories probably began to circulate speculating on exactly what Jesus underwent in the temptations. Matthew and Luke both draw on this oral tradition to expand on the story for teaching purposes.
All of Jesus’ quotes come from Deuteronomy 6-8. Jesus responds with quotes from the scriptures he knew so well. A good Jew would have memorized entire portions of the Torah such that a single verse would evoke the whole passage. Because we are not so trained, it’s a good idea to read the entire Deuteronomy passage in order to appreciate the fuller dimensions of Jesus’ single quotes.
All the temptations are ways to sin against the great commandment to love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might, found in Deuteronomy 6:5. According to early rabbinic interpretation, the heart = impulses towards good and evil; soul = life; might = wealth, property, external possessions. The temptations touch on needs of the body, dependence on God, and our desire for glory and power. All of these temptations are to depend more on self than on God.
The Greek word “tempted” is translated in other New Testament uses as “test.” Temptation means “the desire to do something, especially something wrong.” Test means “an event or situation that reveals the strength or quality of someone or something by putting them under strain.” Surely Jesus was tempted to do something wrong in this story. But ultimately, it was a test to reveal his strength and quality of character. The same word is used in the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation/testing.”
Even Jesus had to withdraw into solitude in order to hear the call of God. How much more do we need to do so in our hectic, noisy world! How often do you make important decisions without appropriate solitude and time to consider and pray?
In verse 2, 40 days evokes the 40 years of desert wandering of the freed Israelites: free but not quite there yet.
The first temptation is to turn stones to bread. In the Exodus story, the people grumble against Moses because they are hungry, so God sends manna and quail. The temptation is for Jesus to provide for himself and not rely on God’s providential care. In verse 4 he quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 to say the word of God is our chief nourishment.
The second temptation is to throw himself off the temple to test God’s protection. The devil quotes Psalm 91:11-12, but he conveniently leaves out verse 13:
You can tread upon the asp and the viper,
trample the lion and the dragon.
Jesus responds with Deuteronomy 6:16 to say that God should not be tested in this sort of way.
The third temptation is for Jesus to worship the devil and thereby gain all the kingdoms of the world. Remember that Jesus is in the wilderness to explore in solitude his call to redeem the world. A high Christology (such as we find in the gospel of John) says that Jesus’ divinity was primary and that he always knew everything. A low Christology (particularly found in Mark’s gospel) pictures a very human Jesus who had to figure things out. Perhaps the temptation here was figuring out – was this the way that God’s plan would be fulfilled? But then he remembers Deuteronomy 6:13: worshiping Satan can’t be the way because God alone is to be worshiped.
Verse 11 is full of such hope: Jesus has withstood the time of testing; the devil leaves him alone and angels come and refresh him. We can take heart from this in our own times of testing: if we persevere in trusting God’s love for us, God himself will come and restore us. Many times God does this through concrete “angels” in our lives. Who are some of the angels that have refreshed and encouraged you in difficult times?
Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
© 2023 Kelly Sollinger