Walking with Jesus: First Sunday of Lent C

For Sunday, March 9, 2025

Deuteronomy 26:4-10, Romans 10:8-13, Luke 4:1-13


One of the fallacies of Lent is that it is a time when I have to do something … I have to restore my relationship with God. It’s all about me, and God is watching and hopefully affirming what I am doing. What I am giving up? Well, what is God doing? Is my life and living my life all about me? OR: Do I live my life in gratitude for all God has done for me as He keeps me on the “straight and narrow” — while leading me and helping me get to heaven, which is totally impossible if I'm left to my own initiatives?

In the Deuteronomy text, the Israelites have been wandering in the desert for 40 years and they stand at the edge of the promised land, ready to enter. They are to observe all the regulations of the Covenant as to what to pray ... and how to tithe a portion of the first fruits of the harvests in gratitude for God’s role in rescuing them from their years of slavery at the hands of the Pharaohs and the Egyptian people.

Paul is emphasizing to the Romans that the conditions of the Covenant with God are all possible. God’s commandments are not burdensome if the people in mind that they are forms of returning love to God by loving God’s creation and themselves.

Luke shows how no one is exempt from temptations and disruptions from the devil — Satan — Lucifer. These have been known through the ages as “temptations,” whereas the Greek signifies that a “testing” takes place, which I think better reflects what happens.

So am I trying to come to a deeper knowledge and belief that God is always with me, helping and leading me to heaven — that I am special in His eyes and am totally needed to share His love through me to others to continue His plan. Love is never a burden when we look at all Jesus taught, lived and proved in His miracles, and when we consider His death to be the culmination of this Love, and heaven our promised home forever. Can I conform my Lent to God’s plan that He taught you and me?

The two essential attitudes of all religions are gratitude and sacrifice — the expression of true gratitude. We sacrifice our self-centeredness, selfishness and personal needs; we deny our pride and need to be important; and we surrender ourselves in love to the God who loves us forever.

Moses is explaining that the profession of faith — that God is our God — is of stupendous importance.  The offering of the first fruits of the harvest acknowledged that the land itself was a gift from God. Moses tells the Israelites that this has been a part of their long association with God … it has shaped their faith. It acknowledges their human beginnings, their oppression in Egypt and God’s deliverance, and now fulfills His arrival at the Promised Land and Jesus’ promise of our return to be with God forever. This is a promise. How often do I look at heaven as promised to me — that it is forever — that it’s being with God — Love — forever, in love with love, totally experiencing love each moment forever? Lent is my grateful acceptance of this.

Paul incorporates three important themes: the importance of my faith, which is the basis of my salvation; the purpose of all scripture, which is the centrality of Jesus as our savior and redeemer; and that all things happened through Christ. It is God’s promise to us through Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, guaranteeing our salvation to heaven if we believe and live the faith and love. So faith is the heart of this message. Justification comes NOT through works of obedience or devotion, but through FAITH. God raised Jesus from the dead, and belief in the Resurrection is the basis of salvation. To Paul, it’s not being a Jew or a member of the promised people: It is FAITH in JESUS, a faith that justifies and saves and can be PROFESSED by ANYONE.

So Jesus was tested, just like each of us is TESTED each day. We can choose to love or not to love; each choice of love steers us away from selfishness and pride. Lent is not a season for us to concentrate on what we are doing … what we are doing to be saved. What happens to us during this season comes out of the goodness of God. The wanderings of the promised people — the coming of Jesus — the resurrection of Jesus, which is God’s seal on the ministry of Jesus in the Holy Spirit. Lent is LESS a time for us to be doing religious “things” than it is for us to be OPEN to the transformative “THINGS” God wishes to do for us. This is the basis of our faith and getting to know God through Jesus. It is only through God that this can be accomplished. This is a time for a reminder on how we started Lent — remembering that we are dust, and to dust we will return — as well as remembering that this is accomplished by repenting and believing in the Good News: the news that God loves us and has redeemed us, and that we have received the promise of heaven forever if we believe, love, and live.

So I reflect on:

• Moses tells the entire story of Israel in five sentences. Can we write our own ancestral journey in five sentences? It could be so revealing, helping us to live in gratitude for the rest of Lent.
• How do my personal experiences in loving and caring deepen my daily, communal understanding of thanksgiving for God’s great deeds on my behalf?

Sacred Space 2025 states:

“After His baptism Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, is led into a place of solitude for His final preparation for His mission. We read that Jesus invited His apostles to come apart into a quiet place, which was to be with Himself. It is helpful for us regularly to go aside from the busyness of life into a quiet place for reflection and prayer.

“Temptation is always a question of self-identity. We are defined by what we do rather than what we say. As followers of Christ we try to live a certain moral code but there are certain things we still fail to do. Let us pray for the grace to seek and to do always the will of God for us.”