Sunday Meditation: The Struggle in the Desert

We are now into the First Sunday in Lent in this Year A of the lectionary.  Jesus has been baptized by His cousin John, and the Spirit leads Him into the desert.  I’m rather intrigued by the differences between the Gospel narratives on the forty days in the desert.  First there is no mention by the account in John’s Gospel, although there are indirect references to the three temptations (see Jn 6:26, 31, 2:18, and 6:15).  Mark’s Gospel is only two verses long (1:12-13), has no mention to the specific temptations, and interestingly is the only one who mentions Jesus among wild beasts.  Both Matthew’s and Luke’s (Lk 4:1-13) Gospels have full and similar accounts but they switch the order of the second and third temptations.  At the end of the temptations, Matthew mentions angels ministering to Jesus with a sense that Jesus has defeated the devil while at the end of Luke’s the devil departs to abide his time.

 

 

Here is today’s Gospel reading.

 

 

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert

to be tempted by the devil.

He fasted for forty days and forty nights,

and afterwards he was hungry.

The tempter approached and said to him,

“If you are the Son of God,

command that these stones become loaves of bread.”

He said in reply,

“It is written:

One does not live on bread alone,

but on every word that comes forth

from the mouth of God.”

 

Then the devil took him to the holy city,

and made him stand on the parapet of the temple,

and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.

For it is written:

He will command his angels concerning you

and with their hands they will support you,

lest you dash your foot against a stone.”

Jesus answered him,

“Again it is written,

You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”

Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain,

and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, ""All these I shall give to you,

if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”

At this, Jesus said to him,

“Get away, Satan!

It is written:

The Lord, your God, shall you worship

and him alone shall you serve.”

 

Then the devil left him and, behold,

angels came and ministered to him.

~Mt: 4: 1-11

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant gives a full explanation of Matthew’s passage.

 

Fr. Geoffrey goes into great detail on the differences between Matthew’s and Mark’s versions.

Fr. Geoffrey:

“The Gospels of Matthew and Mark both make a striking claim about how Jesus

enters the desert.

Matthew tells us that Jesus “was led by the Spirit.” He uses the verb ἀνάγω

(anagō).

But Mark puts it far more strongly: “the Spirit drives him out into the wilderness.”

The verb Mark uses is ἐκβάλλω (ekballō). It is a word that normally means “to cast

out,” “to force out,” even “to expel.” It is the same verb Mark later uses for driving

out demons.

Mark wants us to feel the urgency — the Spirit thrusting Jesus into a place of

testing.

But Matthew wants us to see something different: He chooses a gentler verb,

ἀνάγω (anagō), which means he “was led up,” and he does this for a purpose.

He portrays Jesus entering the desert in calm, deliberate obedience. He shows

us a Lord who does not resist God’s call, nor hesitate before hardship, but

freely steps onto the path the Father has set for him. By softening Mark’s

forceful language, Matthew is not contradicting him; he is revealing another

facet of the mystery. Jesus is not pushed into the wilderness against his will.

He goes there willingly — with the same steadfast trust that once led Israel

through the desert. Matthew’s Gospel consistently presents Jesus as

composed, sovereign, and guided rather than driven. And that is why this

moment matters: the journey into the desert is not a detour but a chosen path,

embraced freely, as the beginning of his mission for our salvation.”

 

I think it’s important to note that Matthew’s account shows Jesus in full deliberative choice.

 

Cardinal Blasé Cupich gave a simple but yet insightful pastoral homily.

 

Cardinal Cupich:

“Notice that each one of these temptations begins with the word “if.”  If you are the son of God, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me, it is the way the evil one works to create doubt in us about God. the kind of doubt that was given to our first parents in the garden that in fac God really wasn't being straight with us, wasn't being honest with us. And so in each on of these temptations, there is a corresponding conversion that we're called to.”

 

“And so today, as we begin this Lenton season, let us not allow the evil one to create doubt in us by that if question, but rather have a conversion that allows our lives to be bred for others that gives us the patience to let God work in us and others by God's own time. and that rejects an illusion of

happiness and security by possessions, realizing that the Lord has always been with us and everything he has is ours.”

 

 

Sunday Meditation: “Get away, Satan!  It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”

 

What better Lenten hymn than “Lord, Who throughout These Forty Days” performed by the Holy Childhood Schola Cantorum at the Church of the Holy Childhood, wherever that is.

 

Lord, who throughout these forty days

for us didst fast and pray,

teach us with Thee to mourn our sins

and close by Thee to stay.