Temptations - First Sunday in Lent
Author: Pastor Scott Schul
February 22, 2026
What we pray for often divulges our
greatest hopes and most dire fears; our most urgent needs and our deepest desires,
even those we keep most secret. We
experienced this in the raw honesty of today’s Prayer of the Day. “Lord God… the struggle between good and evil
rages within and around us, and the devil and all the forces that defy you
tempt us with empty promises.” If there
is anything universal in the human experience, there it is. We are encircled by a world of temptations.
On this First Sunday in Lent,
temptations take center stage. We see
that even Jesus had to grapple with them. Why was that necessary? Did Jesus
need to prove himself? Did God question Jesus’s
worthiness to be the Messiah? No. Everything Jesus did, he did for us,
not for himself. An ancient
church father, Gregory of Nazianzus, famously wrote, “That which is not assumed
is not healed.” In other words, for
Jesus to heal our sins, he needed to enter the presence of every aspect of
human brokenness. Think of it like
nursing a skin rash. Only the parts where
you apply the medicinal cream will heal. Similarly, Jesus walks amidst all the frightening shadows of our world
so he can be holy medicine for our sin-sick hearts.
An especially helpful part of
today’s Gospel is that in it, Jesus reveals the devil’s playbook. It hasn’t changed in 2,000 years. And why should it? It’s horrifyingly effective. The three temptations in our Gospel are all
aimed at elevating the desires of the individual (in this case Jesus)
above the will of God and the needs of our neighbors. It’s the same for us, isn’t it? We hear the whispers every day, the devious
encouragements to satisfy: our bodily appetites and passions; our insatiable
need to be noticed and praised; and our unquenchable appetite for power,
prestige, comfort, and security. Greed,
arrogance, power, ego- they’re all wrapped up in this toxic stew and ultimately
push us to break the two great commandments of loving God and loving our
neighbor by prioritizing our love for ourselves.
It’s noteworthy that Jesus’s
temptations took place immediately after his baptism. Isn’t that how it is for us too? Even before the water dries on our heads, we
enter the swirl of temptation. It was
true for Jesus, it was true for each of us, and it will be true of Adrian, who
I will baptize today. Elsewhere in
Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus affirms this truth, saying that the “things that cause
sin” are bound to come. Temptations are
inevitable.1
Now, If you’re anything like me,
this is when you ask some questions. “Why
does it have to be this way? Wouldn’t we
and our world be so much better if God would simply put an end to all these
temptations?” Fair questions that I too
have pondered. A Coptic priest friend of
mine in California recently wrote about this topic, and he addressed it in a
most helpful way. Drawing upon the
wisdom of the ancient church and its saints, he notes that temptations can
actually be useful to us. Here’s
why.
First, temptations can strengthen
our faith, because they give us the opportunity to align our will with God’s
will. Second, temptations give us
self-knowledge, because they reveal our weaknesses and growing edges, and
therefore draw us into God’s greater wisdom. Third, temptations give us the chance to experience God’s grace and
consolation. A fourth benefit of
temptations is that they cause us to remember God and stir us to prayer. Fifth: temptations humble us by exposing to
us our inclination to be self-righteous and judge others. Finally, through temptations, we come to a
realization of our weakness and that drives us to our sole hope and only
consolation as we learn to abandon ourselves completely to God.2
This understanding offers us a way
to approach Lent as a gift rather than a burden. Envision yourself entering the wilderness
alongside Jesus for these 40 days. There, just like him, we face worldly temptations, overcome them, and gain
spiritual strength, which enables us to love God more fervently and love our neighbor more completely. What a wonderful way to prepare for the Good
News of Easter and, even more importantly, Christ’s promise of resurrection and
offer of new life. Lent thus becomes for
us a symbol of our life’s walk through a valley of temptations that have the
capacity to strengthen us and carry us to the very threshold of heaven.
Sounds great, right? But there’s a problem. There’s no guarantee we will always overcome
those temptations. It’s sort of like
exercise; the strain of running or lifting weights can helpfully break
us down in order to build us up, until we exceed our limits and
run too far or lift too much and suffer a serious injury. So if we must navigate a world of temptations,
how do we avoid getting captured and even destroyed by them? The short answer is that this is why
we come to church. Church is the place
where, among other things, we are trained and fortified to resist our
temptations.
Christ’s Church offers us a vast
range of tools to equip us for that lifelong struggle. But given the limitations of time today, I will
briefly lift up just two of those tools. Neither will surprise you. The
first one is a prayer we pray every time we worship; a prayer many of us say
daily. That prayer is of course our Lord’s
Prayer. It never fails to amaze me
how that simple, compact prayer manages to address nearly every aspect and need
of life.
In that prayer, we pray, “Lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” What does that mean? Well, although
the world’s many Christian denominations disagree on a vast array of topics,
they are remarkably uniform in their understanding of this prayer
petition. We’re not asking God to
stop tempting us; God doesn’t tempt us in the sense of trying to trick or
persuade us to sin or do evil. God might
offer tests designed to help us learn, grow, and thrive in this life , but
that’s a very different thing from a temptation, which is only aimed at hurting
us. God won’t tempt us.
But given that harmful temptations
are an inevitable aspect of life, we can and should pray for God to help us resist
them. “God, don’t let me be
overcome. Strengthen me. Help me see through the deception and the
lies. Give me an escape route, and the
courage and wisdom to seize it.” God will do just that. And so I encourage you
every day, perhaps even multiple times a day, to pray our Lord’s Prayer. Pray it slowly. Chew on every word. Embrace it as a life preserver in a sea of
danger.
The second tool I will briefly lift
up to you is your baptism. It is the
ultimate gift of grace, one God gives you without any merit on your part. That’s one of the reasons why we baptize
children. A child like Adrian has no
resume full of accomplishments or a heavenly list of good deeds he has already
performed and for which God is rewarding him. At this stage, he eats, sleeps, and fills his diaper. And yet this is the time when God publicly
states what has been eternally true from the beginning of time: “I love you, I
claim you, and I will never let you go.” That’s true for you too. Pure
grace!
Friends, many things identify us,
like our names, professions, and social security numbers. But your ultimate identity is rooted
in your baptism. You are a beloved child
of God. Forever. And that’s important, because when temptation does overcome you, as it sometimes does to all of us, the devil’s
ultimate weapon is to try to convince you that you are beyond the capacity of
God to be forgiven or to be loved. That’s a lie. Don’t believe
it. Don’t despair. Instead, when you stumble, dust yourself off,
get back up, and resume your journey, eyes always on the cross. You can do it. We aren’t alone; we have each other, and most
importantly, we have Jesus. Yes, you can
do it! Because you are a beloved child
of God. “Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.” Amen.
© 2026 Rev. Scott E. Schul, all rights reserved
Citations
1 Matthew 18:6-7.
2 All That I Have is Yours, by Father Kyrillos Ibrahim, pp. 64-65 (2021 ACTS Press).
Gospel
Text: Matthew 4:1-11
1 Jesus
was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. 2 He
fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. 3 The
tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones
to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
‘One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on
the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the
Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your
God to the test.’ ”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and
showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, 9 and
he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship
me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it
is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’ ”
11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on
him.
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