Sunday, February 22, 2026
First Sunday in Lent
Text: Matthew 1:1-11
Sermon Audio
As we gather… Temptation is all around us in this world. It is fitting that we begin the season of Lent looking at the temptation of Christ. This season is marked with reflection on our own mortality and our need for a Savior. The devil first tempted Adam and Eve in the garden and it worked like a charm. He has been tempting sinful men ever since. In Christ, the tempter of the world met his greater. Satan used his same old trick, “did God really say?” on our Lord, but Jesus responds with faith, trust in the Father, and Scripture. In Christ, temptation has been defeated. The same Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted for our sake has been given to you in your baptism. Through the Holy Spirit you are joined to Christ’s resistance of temptation. Even when we stumble into temptation, Christ will always lift up the repentant who leans on His victory over temptation. Through the Holy Spirit you are given the power to say with Jesus, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
We are certainly no strangers to hunger. Our lives seemingly revolve around our stomachs. We hate to go even a few hours without a snack. Snickers even capitalized on this with the slogan, “hungry, why wait,” as if we needed any incentive to satisfy our sweet tooth. Hunger, impatience, and self-indulgence have always been the temptations that haunt us, even from creation. We may be tempted to think that if God told us to eat from any tree except this one tree, we would have no problem avoiding it. The rest are delicious, who cares about that one. I tell you what though, if God would set me down at an endless Chinese buffet and say you can eat every dish except for the crab rangoons, I certainly would want a taste. Even if I didn’t like them, the rumor that these are the best rangoons ever would make me want to at least try them. It is easy to doubt what God says, especially when the tempter is whispering in our ear that nothing bad will happen. He may even say that these rangoons will change my life forever, who could blame me for giving it a shot? Hunger, “did God really say,” and the desire to be our own gods are the tricks of the devil that were from the beginning. His message hasn’t changed, he just says it in different ways. Did God really say we can’t satisfy our every hunger? Can I trust Him when I know I can take care of my wants right now?
Martin Luther quipped once that he doesn’t think that Adam and Eve made it to noon on Sunday before falling. They went to church and they wanted a bite to eat and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was right there and man did it look tasty. Whether or not they made it longer than their first tummy rumble doesn’t matter, the point still stands. When an earthly need or desire becomes urgent the devil is there to strike. Did God really say you can’t eat from this tree? It will make you as knowledgeable as Him. He must not love you if He won’t let you eat what you want. This trick worked on two perfect humans. How can we who have been born into original sin resist? Well, we don’t. At least not without God’s help. Left to our own devices we will indulge in our heart’s desire at every turn. After the fall, we naturally don’t even want to try to listen to God or trust in Him to provide for us. We don’t even need to be tempted because we are naturally dead, blind, and enemies to God in our inbred sin. Lucky for us, God’s love goes beyond our ability to listen to His Word. After the fall, God led Adam and Eve to repentance and clothed them. He didn’t crush them as they deserved, He covered them. He provided them a way to salvation through the promised Seed. In faith, they clung to His promise.
God’s promise of a Seed would come true in the person, Jesus Christ. But why was it so important for Jesus to be tempted like He was in our Gospel reading from Matthew? We see in Hebrews part of that purpose. “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” We can trust that we can go to God in Christ because He truly sympathizes with us in our weakness to temptation. Our advocate with the Father is like us in every way except He is without sin. He pleads with the Father for us even as we are still in the weakness of our sin tainted flesh. We also see in our reading from Romans, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” The obedience of Christ makes the many righteous. His obedience becomes our obedience. But how? We don’t live a perfect life of obedience to God. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
Do you recall what happened directly before the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted? He was baptized by John in the Jordan to fulfill all righteousness. The sinless Son of God didn’t need to be baptized for His sake, but for ours. When you were baptized you were baptized into Him. His baptism is your baptism. The first thing Jesus does is go to battle with the great tempter for your sake. The similarities between His temptation and that of Adam and Eve is uncanny. Hunger, “did God really say,” and power to be His own god. Jesus fasted for 40 days and only then did Satan strike. That is far more than a few hours, yet he chose not to take matters into His own hands. He trusted that God would provide for Him despite what His belly was wanting. When the devil tempted Him by twisting God’s Word, He didn’t doubt, He used God’s Word rightly and refused to test God by disobeying His Word. When the tempter promised to give Him the whole world, which is kind of silly when you think about the fact that the world was created through Him, He simply clung to the Scripture again. He would have no other gods but the one true God. He didn’t assert His own authority, even though He could have. He was tempted just as we are yet without sin. He relied on Holy Scripture and trusted that God would lead Him through temptation. Christ’s resistance to temptation is your resistance. You have been united to Him in your baptism. Everything that He did in His life is yours by the grace of God. His perfect life is yours. His death as the propitiation for sin is your death. His defeat of death and the devil is your defeat of death and the devil in His resurrection. You have been given His Holy Spirit and are forever united to Him in every way. You cling to this as you are tempted in this wilderness.
Since you have His Spirit and are united to His resistance of temptation, you can also resist the devil. You resist him the same way that Christ did, by clinging to God’s Word of truth. When you are hungry, you know that God loves you even more than the birds of the air and He will feed you. You can wait on Him to do so without worry. It may not be the food that you want, but it will be food to sustain you.
The devil, the world, and our sinful flesh often work on us far beyond the hunger of bodily needs. The world around us entices us to feast on the lusts of the flesh. Our youth are being taught from a young age to embrace the sexual depravity of the world. “Didn’t God say He is love” is the question of “did God really say” as the devil whispers in our ears twisted Scripture. We resist this temptation by clinging to God’s good institution of marriage between man and wife as an image of Christ and the church and a gift of contentment in these desires between husband and wife. We embody this as one in Christ and instruct our children in the same. We ensure them of their identity in Christ in their baptism, despite what the world says about identity.
When our elderly feel like they are no longer of use in this world, “what good are you to the church in this state” is the “did God really say.” Here we know that it is God that gives life and takes it away. We trust that as long as He gives breath we have a purpose in Him. You are still united to His church in His Word and in Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. This is a union that goes far beyond the walls you may be confined to. You can pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ and be in God’s Word continuously, giving no heed to the devil’s tricks. No matter what temptation befalls us sinners in this world, we cling to God’s Word and feast on His body and blood to withstand the attacks of the evil one as we go throughout this wilderness. Whenever we fail in our flesh, we come to Christ in repentance and He continues to cover us in Him. He keeps us in His Spirit and constantly reminds us that His life, death, and resurrection are ours. He will continue to minister to us with His messengers and holy angels so we do not fall into temptation.
In this time of Lent, we are reminded of the frailty of our sinful flesh. Temptation surrounds us at every turn and it is so easy for us to lose sight of God’s Word while we are being assaulted by the devil. Even when we are unfaithful, God remains faithful. He will keep you in Him. You, who believe and are baptized, have been given assurance that He will lead you through this wilderness of temptation. You have been united to the sinless Christ and He has defeated the devil and fulfilled all righteousness. You can cling to Him and faithfully await the time when the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh will no longer threaten you. You have hope in Christ’s resurrection and eternal life. This hope does not disappoint. This is yours through our sinless Savior who bore all things so you can forever be covered in His robe of righteousness. Your hunger will forever be satisfied in the marriage feast of the Lamb that has no end that Christ is preparing for you right now. There you will freely eat of the Tree of Life in Christ in His everlasting Eden. Thanks be to God!
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard and keep you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.