As I've mentioned in past years, the Gospel reading for the first Sunday of Lent is always one of the accounts of the temptation of Jesus. This year, St. Luke's account of the temptation is paired with the instructions God gives through Moses regarding the profession of faith that God's people are to make when they have settled in the promised land and gathered their first harvest there. We are thus invited to remember, in times of temptation, how God cared for his people by bringing them out of slavery and through the desert and then into their own fertile land, and so to have faith in God during times of temptation as Jesus had faith in his Father. And our second reading tomorrow focuses even more directly on the saving importance of faith. Furthermore, I proposed a few days ago that Lent - our time with Jesus in the desert - should be a time of growth in our Christian faith. So I would like to offer a few comments on the reading from Romans, considering what the faith of which St. Paul speaks has to do with temptation, followed then by a few further comments on the conclusion of the Gospel reading, considering again what the temptation Jesus experiences has to do with faith.

One should note what exactly it is that Paul says we must believe and confess: "that Jesus is Lord," and "that God raised him from the dead." Both of these things have to do, not only with who Jesus is in himself, but also with what he does for us. Certainly, to say that he "is Lord" is to say something about who he "is" - namely, that he is a divine Person, that he is one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, that he is God. We might recall in this connection that in many of the places where we find the word "Lord" in a typical translation of the Old Testament - in particular, where it is printed in capital letters, as in several places in our first reading - it actually represents the proper name by which God had made himself known to his chosen people, "Yahweh." To say that "Jesus is Lord," is therefore, in the context of that Old Testament background, to identify him with that one and only God. But we must recall also that God revealed himself by that sacred name especially and precisely in the act of calling to himself and saving that chosen people. That name indicates God's saving and sanctifying actions as well as his identity. And to say that "Jesus is Lord" likewise recalls those actions and indicates that Jesus is the God who performed them, and who performs even greater ones - like dying and rising.

This is, of course, relevant to dealing with all the sorts of temptation that we encounter in this world. Whenever the devil encourages us to abuse something God has created for his glory and for our benefit, or even to make it a substitute for God, it is especially our faith in God's saving and sanctifying actions in Jesus our Lord that can and should encourage and strengthen us. Of course, this implies, as I have probably said multiple times before, that the saving faith of which Paul speaks is not only an intellectual act; it is a total commitment to the God who makes himself known to us by intervening in our life to save us.

What more can we learn about this faith by considering Luke's account of the devil's temptation of Jesus? We might consider what Luke is emphasizing by comparing and contrasting his account with the others. St. Mark's, which we heard last year, is very brief; it mentions only that Jesus was "tempted by Satan." St. Matthew's, which we heard two years ago and will hear again next year, is more like Luke's.  Matthew tells us of the three temptations, but places the temptation to Jesus to throw himself from the temple second, and the temptation to worship the devil third, and tells us that Jesus' concluding response begins with, "Get away, Satan!" Luke, by contrast, places these last two of the three temptations in the opposite order (and hence does not have the response to the temptation to worship the devil begin with "Get away, Satan!").

I would like to suggest that this gives added meaning to Jesus' response to the (here, last) temptation to throw himself down, "You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test." It seems clear from both Matthew's and Luke's accounts that Jesus is rejecting the idea of tempting God his Father to save him, and so living and acting in faith in the Father. But we can also read Jesus' words in light of our faith that he is not only "the Son of God," as the devil says, but therefore also himself "the Lord, [our] God," in perfect union with the Father. Jesus is not only telling the devil not to propose that the Son tempt the Father. He is also telling the devil not to tempt him, Jesus, the Lord. In other words, Jesus' reply, when understood in its full meaning, functions as, among other things, an equivalent of, "Get away, Satan!" And in so doing, it reminds us that in Jesus, the Lord himself who is not to be tempted has come to be tempted for us, and so save us from temptation. By our union with Jesus, and so also with the Father, through faith, we will accept that salvation.

We are reminded anew of the importance of this by the words with which Luke concludes his account. Luke tells us that "the devil ... departed from him for a time." This "for a time" foreshadows the devil's involvement, mentioned several times later in the Gospel, in Jesus' betrayal and death - and in the disciples' fearful denial and flight when Jesus is tried and put to death. Jesus will then, of course, and in an even greater way, triumph over the devil for us. And the Apostles, except for Judas, will return to Jesus after his resurrection, and then preach his Gospel and die for him. But the devil will, throughout the remainder of history, continue to try to defeat God's saving plan, Jesus' saving work, by tempting us, by "sifting all of us like wheat." Yes, we do and will undergo temptation. But let us put our faith in Jesus our Lord, and in this way, the only way, come to know triumph over temptation, and eternal life and happiness.