GOSPEL OF LUKE 4:1-13 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT The Context of this Scripture Passage: Jesus has not yet begun his public ministry. He was just baptized by St John the Baptist in the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove and they all heard God the Father speak from heaven saying: “This is my beloved Son in Whom I Am Well Pleased!” What you are about to read is what followed Jesus’ baptism.

GOSPEL OF LUKE 4:1-13 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT Jesus is Tempted in the Wilderness: Gospel LK 4:1-13 Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, One does not live on bread alone.” Then he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant. The devil said to him, “I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It is written: You shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve.” Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and: With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus said to him in reply, “It also says, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” When the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

GOSPEL OF LUKE 4:1-13 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT Jesus is Tempted in the Wilderness: Question 1: Gospel LK 4:1-13 What struck your Heart? -How did God speak to you in this passage? -What did you see in these words or this story? -What bothered you? And what are you curious about?

GOSPEL OF LUKE 4:1-13 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT Jesus is Tempted in the Wilderness: Question 2: Gospel LK 4:1-13 Why do you think the Holy Spirit sent Jesus into the Desert? Answer: “To be tempted by the devil” and so prepare himself for his public ministry. Also Jesus is sent to fulfill everything that happened in the Old Testament. So just as the Israelites spent 40 years in the desert to prepare them, purify them, for entering into the promised land, Jesus had to experience such an intense physical purification so as to prepare his body as a pleasing sacrifice to God; and so win for all of humanity the eternal promised land: Heaven!

GOSPEL OF LUKE 4:1-13 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT Jesus is Tempted in the Wilderness: Question 3: Gospel LK 4:1-13 The first temptation was, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Why do you suppose this was a temptation for Jesus? How and why did he respond as he did? Answer: Jesus is fully human and fully God, so the temptation of making a rock into bread was tempting for his humanity - because he would become hungry after even a few days - and his Divinity was tempted because as God he is creator and can change the physical world. So the temptation was trying to save himself, help himself rather than lose himself for others, and in so doing he would be failing in his ultimate mission: to save the whole World! And how does he save the world? By dying on the Cross and then becoming the “Bread of Life” for all of humanity in the Eucharist. In short, Jesus is the Word made Flesh and so “man does not live on bread alone…but on every Word that comes from the mouth of God,” Jesus did not give himself bread in the desert but in our journey through this life he is our food and our life!

GOSPEL OF LUKE 4:1-13 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT Jesus is Tempted in the Wilderness: Question 4: Gospel LK 4:1-13 The second temptation was, “I shall give to you all this power and glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I may give it to whomever I wish. All this will be yours, if you worship me.” Why do you think the devil tempted Jesus with this temptation? And what was Jesus’s response? Answer: Jesus is sent as the Messiah, which is Hebrew for King. The prophesies of the Messiah is that he will be ‘King of Kings', or king over all the nations of the earth. The devil, when Adam sinned, was given a kind of evil power over the world by which he could offer it to Jesus. He is tempting Jesus by offering Him what He came here to be, again the easy way out, king of kings in a worldly sense. But rather than doing it the way God the Father sent him to do, by worshiping the Father in his (Jesus’s) humanity on our behalf, the devil wants Jesus to worship him (the devil). The devil seems to want to help Jesus to fulfill his mission with humanity, if only the devil can win his battle against God. Jesus’s response was therefore, “You shall worship the Lord your God alone and He alone shall you serve."

GOSPEL OF LUKE 4:1-13 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT Jesus is Tempted in the Wilderness: Question 5: Gospel LK 4:1-13 The third temptation says, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you, and: With their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Why do you think the devil tempted Jesus with this? And what was Jesus’s response? Answer: Again the devil is tempting Jesus to essentially betray himself and his mision, by taking the easy way out for accomplishing his mission. The devil doesn’t fully understand Jesus’s mission but he perhaps understands enough that Jesus needs to offer himself as a kind of sacrifice and wants, again, for him to take the easy way out…which would ultimately mean the devil wins. Jesus is not on a suicide mission but rather must offer himself as a sacrifice, not unto death, but unto eternal life, not only for himself, for his glory, but for the Fathers glory and for the whole world!

GOSPEL OF LUKE 4:1-13 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT Jesus is Tempted in the Wilderness: Question 6: Gospel LK 4:1-13 How did this Gospel Contemplation change your mindset about Jesus’s dual nature (human and divine: God and Man) specifically in regard to his suffering of temptations? How did this change your mindset about your own Temptations? How might you respond to the temptations in your life now having seen Jesus’s mindset in the face of temptation? Answer: Here, like the first question, they are to answer as they please. But the goal is to promote a new mindset where in they are not alone in temptations, but that Jesus is right there with them, helping them, strengthening them in the midst of life’s biggest trials and temptations. It is also perhaps very important to note that Jesus responded not relying on himself but on the Word of God. He did speak directly to the tempter…we should rather let Jesus handle the devil and we learn from Him go to the Word of God in the face of every temptation.

GOSPEL OF LUKE 4:1-13 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT Lesson from Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness:  Jesus went into the desert to prepare himself to be a perfect sacrifice.  We are entering into the desert of Lent to more perfectly accept the Mercy of His sacrifice for us. - Sacrifice then leads to Joy - Desolation become Consolation for those who are in Christ!

TAKEAWAY: WHEN WITH JESUS, DESOLATION BECOMES CONSOLATION Lent 2016 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

“I AM HERE WITH YOU IN YOUR DESOLATION… I CHOSE YOU … WILL YOU CHOOSE ME?” JESUS CHRIST - LENT 2016