First Sunday in Lent
Worship the Lord Your God
Every time we pray using the Lord’s Prayer, we pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” It was a prayer on Jesus’ lips, as we read today’s text from Matthew (Matthew 4:1–11).
Jesus is hungry as he sits, fasting in the desert, and the tempter comes and sits down next to him. Picking up a stone, he says, “See all these stones around here? The ground is full of them. Just change one of these stones into bread, and you won’t be hungry.” Jesus responds with a verse from Deuteronomy 8:3: “People don’t live by bread alone, but by God’s word that feeds us.”
Then the tempter takes Jesus to a high place and says, “Just throw yourself down from this high place, and if you are who you say you are, angels will protect you.” Jesus uses another text from Deuteronomy 6:16: “Don’t put the Lord to the test.”
Then the tempter shows him all the kingdoms of the world, and says, “Just worship me, and this will all be yours.” Jesus responds with these powerful words: “Worship the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 6:13).
Jesus’ temptations are our temptations, as well. The temptations are cunning and seem so innocent. We hunger for the wrong things, things that don’t fill our souls. We bargain with God when we are impatient in prayer. We worship the wrong things. When we hunger, bargain, and worship things that aren’t God, we can fall to temptation.
We pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” Help us to worship the Lord our God.
Kay Ward, bishop, retired pastor, Watertown, Wisconsin