First Sunday in Lent: February 22, 2026
Matthew 4: 1-1
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,
‘One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 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.’”
Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’”
Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
In the gospel of Matthew just before today’s reading, Jesus was affirmed by God with the words, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And then he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he was tempted.
All of us, at one time or another, go through a wilderness experience in our lives, where we feel separated from the familiar and comfortable, and are isolated and alone. Whether we are going through a divorce, or financial or health problems, or family issues, being in the wilderness is scary.
I wonder if one of the reasons why Jesus was “led by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Mt. 4: 1) was so he could fully experience what it’s like to be human. To be alone. To be prey to the voices or darkness. To have to place His trust in God despite being pushed to the limits of human endurance.
I am in the midst of a wilderness experience right now, and have been for some time – where the things I thought to be true are not, and my reality is no longer safe or predictable. It is, to put it mildly, an extremely uncomfortable experience, one that I wish I didn’t have to go through. I know, however, that I am called to trust, just as Jesus did when he was in the wilderness, and that I will be led to come out on the other side, though I cannot see the other side right now.
Most of all, I am called to love, and to be grounded in love, though to love in ways I could never have imagined stretches me to my limits sometimes. But I can look to Jesus as an example of how to trust “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me” (Psalm 23:4), believing that God is leading me and that I am not alone.
Are you in the wilderness? May you be strengthened, just as Jesus was, by knowing you are God’s beloved child.