THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS THE CHRIST IN THE DESERT.
THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS IN THE DESERT.
"At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
to be tempted by the devil.
He fasted for forty days and forty nights,
and afterwards he was hungry.
The tempter approached and said to him,
“If you are the Son of God,
command that these stones become loaves of bread.”
He said in reply,
“It is written:.
One does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes forth
from the mouth of God.”
Then the devil took him to the holy city,
and made him stand on the parapet of the temple,
and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.
For it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you
and with their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
Jesus answered him,
“Again it is written,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain,.
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence,
and he said to him,
""All these I shall give to you,
if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”
At this, Jesus said to him,
“Get away, Satan!
It is written:
The Lord, your God, shall you worship
and him alone shall you serve.”
Then the devil left him and, behold,
angels came and ministered to him." ( Matthew 4: 1 - 11)
Sunday, 22nd February 2026, 1st Sunday of Lent.
Matthew 4: 1 - 11 is the Temptation of Jesus the Christ.
After His Baptism, the Devil whisked Him off to the Desert for His Baptism of fire.
What is the Desert?
Where is your Desert?
#1 The Desert is the place of spiritual combat.
#2 The Desert is the place of preparation for our life's work.
#3 The Desert is the period of 'Closed' Door' experience.
'Closed Doors' means no opportunities in:
Health, job, finance, etc.
A law of the marketplace says:
No preparation, no performance.
A Desert Experience can be very painful to human nature. I had a little taste of it.
Recently, there was news of a young lady, a mayor of one of our large cities sentenced to three years in a federal penitentiary for financial impropriety.
Was she prepared by a desert experience before her big job? Probably not.
The Desert is the place where we confront our demons, discover who we are and develop plans to deal
with the wiles of the enemy of mankind.
No preparation. No performance.
Starting from Abraham and Jacob, David to Jesus, John the Baptist and Paul, all of our Bible heroes spent time in the Desert.
See how the Apostle James in his letter describes what the Desert does for us:
"Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (James 1: 2 - 4).
The Desert Experience is an institution of Christianity. A necessary 'Right of Passage'. No Desert, no genuine Christian experience.
On the Desert Experience of Jesus Christ, the Church teaches in CCC 539–540:
“Jesus fulfils Israel's vocation perfectly: in contrast to those who had once provoked God during forty years in the desert,
Christ reveals himself as God's Servant, totally obedient to the divine will.
In this, Jesus is the devil's conqueror:
he ‘binds the strong man’ to take back his plunder.
Jesus' victory over the tempter in the desert anticipates victory at the Passion, the supreme act of obedience of his filial love for the Father.
Jesus' temptation reveals the way in which the Son of God is Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him
and the way men wish to attribute to him.
This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us…
By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.”
The Church also teaches that we can overcome evil in our lives through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. (Cf CCC 1434).
Lent is a great time to start to learn what the Desert can do for you in your Journey of life.
"O that today you listen to the Lord, harden not your hearts."
The Holy Catholic Church honors the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in February.
For Devotional prayer and prayer intentions to the Holy Family, click the link below:
for prayer intentions, etc
No comments:
Post a Comment
23-Psalm1to2