The readings for the first Sunday in Lent are taken from Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Romans 10:8-13; and Luke 4:1-13.
Deuteronomy records the genius of God’s law as an antidote for the corruption of Adam in us. Israel’s history, like all of human history and our own life, reveals the pride and greed that ruins our relationship with each other and with God. Lent is a season to face the magnitude of that truth about our condition. God’s antidote commanded the people to bring a portion of the first of the produce of that Promised Land (a land that provided abundantly for the people through no effort on their part) WITH a rather comprehensive confession of how God had provided for their redemption. Rather than giving up something for Lent, maybe try this practice of an offering of gratitude in deed and word?
In Romans, Paul quotes Deuteronomy 30:14. As in ALL things, God provides. Faith, belief, and trust are all the same thing, a single word in the Hebrew OT and Greek NT—it means “coming to rest in honesty about dependence.” God’s own Word and Spirit in our heart brings us to rest, like floating in salt water, and God’s own Word comes to expression through our mouth. God’s Word and Spirit in us produces the fruit of offering and confession referred to in Deuteronomy.
No surprise that the Sundays in Lent begin with the temptations of Jesus, recorded here by Luke. The 40-day duration of Lent comes from Jesus’ own time in the wilderness where He was in the most disadvantaged of conditions (alone without food or water) in order to accomplish perfection on behalf of all people. Jesus would do what was right during that time in the wilderness, in bold contrast with Israel’s horrid conduct during their wilderness wanderings, and in contrast just as stark with our own sinful ways during our time in this world. Jesus overcame every temptation by the same means – the Word of God, which gives expression to the truth. The three examples of temptations give insight into the nature of temptation. As with Adam and the devil himself, all temptation begins with dismissing the significance of what God so abundantly and faithfully gives in order to take what is not ours. So we see again how the practice commanded in Deuteronomy plus gratitude for Jesus’ redeeming work are means by which God restores us to life and to a joyful communion with Him and one another.