Lent: Temptation of Jesus
Matthew 4:1-11 CEB
4 Then the Spirit led Jesus up into the wilderness so that the devil might tempt him. 2 After Jesus had fasted for forty days and forty nights, he was starving. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “Since you are God’s Son, command these stones to become bread.”
4 Jesus replied, “It’s written, People won’t live only by bread, but by every word spoken by God.”[a]
5 After that the devil brought him into the holy city and stood him at the highest point of the temple. He said to him, 6 “Since you are God’s Son, throw yourself down; for it is written, I will command my angels concerning you, and they will take you up in their hands so that you won’t hit your foot on a stone.”[b]
7 Jesus replied, “Again it’s written, Don’t test the Lord your God.”[c]
8 Then the devil brought him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 He said, “I’ll give you all these if you bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus responded, “Go away, Satan, because it’s written,You will worship the Lord your God and serve only him.”[d] 11 The devil left him, and angels came and took care of him.
Genesis 2:4-9,15-17,25-3:7 CEB
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
World’s creation in the garden
On the day the Lord God made earth and sky— 5 before any wild plants appeared on the earth, and before any field crops grew, because the Lord God hadn’t yet sent rain on the earth and there was still no human being[a] to farm the fertile land, 6 though a stream rose from the earth and watered all of the fertile land— 7 the Lord God formed the human[b] from the topsoil of the fertile land[c] and blew life’s breath into his nostrils. The human came to life. 8 The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and put there the human he had formed. 9 In the fertile land, the Lord God grew every beautiful tree with edible fruit, and also he grew the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
15 The Lord God took the human and settled him in the garden of Eden to farm it and to take care of it. 16 The Lord God commanded the human, “Eat your fill from all of the garden’s trees; 17 but don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day you eat from it, you will die!”
25 The two of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they weren’t embarrassed.
Knowledge, not eternal life
3 The snake was the most intelligent[a] of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat from any tree in the garden?”
2 The woman said to the snake, “We may eat the fruit of the garden’s trees 3 but not the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘Don’t eat from it, and don’t touch it, or you will die.’”
4 The snake said to the woman, “You won’t die! 5 God knows that on the day you eat from it, you will see clearly and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 The woman saw that the tree was beautiful with delicious food and that the tree would provide wisdom, so she took some of its fruit and ate it, and also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then they both saw clearly and knew that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made garments for themselves.
GATHERING FOR SUNDAY
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As Lent kicks off, today’s scripture takes us on a journey from Adam to Jesus. These verses bring to mind the “found family” stories we’ve all heard. I bet we each know someone who feels a deep disconnect from their family, and the struggles that come with it. Safety, belonging, and nurture can feel complicated or incomplete.
So, when people in these situations find their family, it really makes a difference. These families choose those who need them, and those who need them choose the families. Even if those in the found families never feel broken by their past family, something feels right about the new arrangement.
This Sunday, we’ll dive into our first family and identity with Adam, and our primordial and found family/identity of Jesus. We’ll explore the home we needed, the shelter we sought, and the abundance we’ve been striving to find since the beginning.
We’ll see you soon,
Zach