Time for turning around

As we embark upon the first Sunday of Lent, we begin with the second reading, from Paul’s letter to the Romans. Though his rhetoric is somewhat oblique, he outlines two choices set before humanity and concludes with a clarifying summary. “For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:19). The first reading from Genesis narrates the familiar story of the creation and the fall, given humanity’s choice for disobedience. This Sunday’s passage from Matthew’s Gospel recounts the well-known story of Jesus facing temptations in the wilderness, setting forth the contrasting choice of obedience. 

Story, unlike any argument, heated discussion, or contested debate, has a way of disclosing truth and making points with real staying power. In the opening chapters of Genesis, humans are made, enlivened with the divine breath, and granted everything in a garden for their continued existence, except for the fruit of one tree, which they are forbidden to eat. Still, when given the choice to avoid eating from that tree, they believe the lies of the serpent that this fruit will render them “like gods knowing good from evil” (Gn 3:5). Thus, the man and the woman opt for disobedience and eat the fruit. Though they are created for relationship with God, they decide to try and transcend their status as humans and choose to become “like gods.”

Matthew’s account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness narrates the alternative story. Jesus, the incarnate reality of God made flesh, enters our humanity in all its finiteness. He, too, is tempted to transcend human status, to turn stones to bread, to defy human physical vulnerability, and to show his potential to have world power over all. He, too, is enticed by an evil one to be god-like despite his humanity. Jesus, however, opts for obedience. 

In the garden story, humans’ disobedience yields a self-deception that discloses how pathetic, vulnerable, and lost we ultimately are when we are separated from God. That Adam and Eve hurry to hide their nakedness suggests how sinfulness results in an alienation from self and from others. Moreover, the incumbent guilt associated with such choices also encourages the pair to hide from God. Yet, in their story and in our own stories of sin and regret, God, with an abundance of divine mercy, comes looking for us.  

Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness offers us a meditation on “turning around,” that opportunity for conversion that the season of Lent provides. Jesus, like the first humans, is tempted to transcend his humanity. Three times he is urged by Satan to perform superhuman feats that surpass human limitations, tempting him to exercise god-like powers. Three times, his response to Satan instructs us how our own conversion this Lent can take place. Each time, as Jesus rejects Satan’s invitations with citations from Deuteronomy, he is providing us with a blueprint for how to restore that right relationship with God. 

To the first temptation, Jesus’s response invites us to live according to every word of God. This could involve daily reading and study of God’s word in Scripture during these holy weeks.  Second, he refutes Satan’s dangerous invitation by inviting us to refuse to “put God to the test” (Mt 4:7). To move away from iniquitous enslavements, we must do more than ask and expect God to rescue us. Whether they be our tendencies toward jealousy, bitterness, harsh judgments of others, or a failure to forgive, Lent offers us the opportunity to do penance, a kind atonement that restores right relationship with others as the means to achieving the same with God. The opportunity for Lenten disciplines is not so much about giving up as it is about giving of ourselves, making us worthy of the divine gift of deliverance. Finally, Jesus’ third response to the evil one’s invitation to exercise worldly power that subordinates all, offers a reminder to us that only God is worthy of such service. Again, Lent offers us the opportunity, not only to do penance, but to enhance that relationship with the Holy One by practicing Christ-like service to others through expressions of compassion, care, understanding, and forgiveness as Jesus has shown us. 

Indeed, the season of Lent invites us daily to recite the response to today’s Psalm, “Be merciful, O Lord, for we/I have sinned.” But Lent also occasions a time for us to recognize that, even as we confess that we are lost and are striving to “turn around,” we can be assured God is already seeking us out with gifts of grace that will restore us.