February 22, 2026, Year A, First Sunday in Lent

Matthew 4:1-11, Psalm 51:1-12, Romans 5:12-21

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you, on this First Sunday in Lent.

Ash Wednesday marked the beginning of our forty-day journey toward the cross and the empty tomb. Many of us came forward to receive ashes on our foreheads, hearing those ancient words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Those ashes are not meant to burden us with despair, but to ground us in reality—the reality of our mortality, the reality of our sin, and most importantly, the reality of God's mercy offered in Jesus Christ.

Lent is the Church's invitation to walk with Jesus into the wilderness. For forty days we fast, pray, give, examine our hearts, and prepare for the great feast of Easter. The season's color is purple, signaling both penitence and royalty—we bow low before God while never forgetting that we are children of the King.

Our Gospel reading this morning is Matthew 4, verses 1 through 11, which will be our primary text, though we will tie in our Psalm and Epistle reading as well. This passage begins Jesus' public ministry with a test—not a gentle introduction, but a fierce spiritual battle in the harshest terrain imaginable.

Matthew tells us plainly in verse 1: "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" (Matthew 4:1, ESV).Notice carefully who does the leading here. Not the devil. The Holy Spirit himself drives Jesus into this confrontation. This was God the Father's plan from eternity. The wilderness was not a mistake or a failure of protection—it was the appointed place of testing. God himself initiated this encounter because the second Adam must face the tempter and succeed where the first Adam failed.

Sometimes we think that if we're in a difficult place, if we're being tested or tempted, it means we've done something wrong or God has abandoned us. We see that God led his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased, directly into the wilderness to be tempted. The testing is part of God's purpose, not evidence of his absence.

Jesus fasts for forty days and forty nights, and at the end he is hungry. Into that physical weakness, the tempter comes. Three times he strikes, and three times Jesus answers with Scripture alone.

The first temptation appeals to appetite and self-preservation. The devil says in verse 3: "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread" (Matthew 4:3, ESV). The tactic is subtle. He weaponizes Jesus' identity. "If you really are who you claim to be, prove it. You're starving—surely it's reasonable to take care of yourself."

But there's something deeper happening. The devil is questioning whether the Father can be trusted to provide. It's the same strategy he used in the garden with Eve: "Did God actually say? Surely God is holding out on you. Take matters into your own hands."

We face this wilderness daily. The single mother wondering if she should fudge the numbers on her tax return to help make budget in the present year. The employee pressured to falsify a report. The father who hasn't found work in months and considers a job that would compromise his conscience. In each case, the whisper is the same: "God hasn't provided. You're on your own."

Jesus answers in verse 4 with Deuteronomy 8:3: "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God'" (Matthew 4:4, ESV). This is an affirmation of priority. Life comes from God, not from what we can produce or manipulate for ourselves. Jesus will not seize autonomy; he will trust the Father even when hunger gnaws at his belly.

The second temptation shifts from appetite to presumption. The devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and says in verse 6: "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, lest you strike your foot against a stone'" (Matthew 4:6, ESV).

Now watch what happens. The devil quotes Psalm 91. He knows Scripture too. But he twists it, rips it from its context. This is exactly what he did in Eden. He took God's word—"You shall surely die"—and twisted it into "You will not surely die." He's been in the business of misquoting and misapplying Scripture from the beginning.

Bishop J.C. Ryle reminds us in his book, Holiness: "We are too apt to forget that temptation to sin will rarely present itself to us in its true colours, saying, 'I am your deadly enemy, and I want to ruin you for ever in hell.' Oh, no! Sin comes to us, like Judas, with a kiss.” Be on guard my friends.

And notice what the devil is really asking Jesus to do: invoke God's name, claim God's promise, demand God's protection—all for a purpose God never authorized. This is taking the Lord's name in vain in its deepest sense. We heard the commandment read this morning: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." That commandment isn't just about using God's name as a curse word. It's about invoking God's authority or demanding God act according to our will rather than his. The person who refuses medical treatment because "God will heal me if I just have enough faith" is invoking God's name for presumption. The Christian who makes foolish decisions and expects God to miraculously cover the shortfall is claiming God's promise while ignoring God's wisdom.

Jesus answers in verse 7 with Deuteronomy 6:16: "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test'" (Matthew 4:7, ESV). Notice he says, "Again it is written." One verse of Scripture must be balanced against the whole counsel of God's word. To claim a promise while violating God's will is not faith; it is manipulation. It is taking God's name in vain.

The third temptation is the most brazen. The devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Then he makes his offer in verse 9: "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me" (Matthew 4:9, ESV).

Here, the mask drops. This is what the devil has wanted from the beginning—worship, the glory that belongs to God alone. And notice what he's offering: everything Jesus came to win. The nations are promised to the Messiah. But the devil offers a shortcut: the crown without the cross.

This is perhaps the most seductive wilderness we face. The pastor who grows his church by compromising the gospel, or by failing to preach the “hard” sayings of Scripture. The businessman who cuts ethical corners because "I can do so much good with that money." The parent who pushes their child toward the prestigious career path rather than God's call. The professional who accepts the promotion requiring eighty-hour weeks and missing Sunday worship out of exhaustion for "financial security." In each case, the kingdoms glitter. The offer is real. But the price is always the same: bow down.

Jesus' answer is swift and final in verse 10: "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve'" (Matthew 4:10, ESV). There is no negotiation. No compromise. Worship belongs to God alone, and the path to glory runs through Gethsemane and Golgotha.

Matthew tells us in verse 11: "Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him" (Matthew 4:11, ESV). The test is over. Jesus has won.

Why does this matter? Because Jesus is the second Adam, entering the arena where the first Adam fell, and he's winning the victory that Adam lost. Paul makes this connection explicit in Romans 5. He writes in verse 12: "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned" (Romans 5:12, ESV). Adam's failure was representative. When he fell, he dragged the whole human race down with him.

But Paul continues with glorious news in verse 19: "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" (Romans 5:19, ESV). Where Adam's disobedience brought condemnation, Christ's obedience brings justification. Where Adam's failure unleashed death, Christ's victory unleashes life.

This is where Psalm 51 meets us in our need. David wrote this psalm after Nathan confronted him about his sin. He begins: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions" (Psalm 51:1, ESV). David knows he cannot clean himself. Then comes his confession in verse 5: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5, ESV). He's acknowledging what Paul describes—that he, like all of us, inherited a sinful nature from Adam. This is why David cries out in verse 10: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10, ESV).

Shortly, we will pray the Great Litany together, taking us through layer after layer of our need. We will plead, "Good Lord, deliver us." And then, when we come to the Table, we will hear the Exhortation calling us to examine ourselves according to Saint Paul's warning.

All of this might seem overwhelming. But here's the glorious truth: what David could only plead for, Jesus has secured. The clean heart David begged God to create, Christ makes possible through his obedience. Jesus stands where we cannot stand. He obeys where we fail. And then he offers us his righteousness as a gift. Paul says it plainly in Romans 5:17: those who "receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness" will "reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” We don't earn this. We receive it.

What does this mean for us as we walk through these forty days? Really, all the the days of the year?

First, we must recognize the pattern of temptation and arm ourselves with Scripture. When anxiety tempts us to seize control—that's stones to bread. The answer is: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." When we claim grace while ignoring obedience, invoking God's name for purposes he hasn't sanctioned—that's the temple leap, taking the Lord's name in vain. The answer is: "We shall not put the Lord our God to the test." When success or comfort compete with wholehearted devotion to Christ—that's bowing to Satan for the kingdoms. The answer is: "We shall worship the Lord our God and him only shall we serve."

This Lent, really all year, let us commit to reading the Bible daily. When temptation comes, we need Scripture ready on our lips.

Second, we must reject shortcuts. There is no crown without the cross. Jesus refused the shortcut because he knew the Father's path, though harder, was the only way to true victory. Let us reject superficial religion without genuine repentance. Let us reject selective obedience. The way of Jesus is the long obedience in the same direction.

C.S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, reminds us through the demon Screwtape: "Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." The devil doesn't need spectacular falls—just gradual drift away from the Light. Be on guard my friends.

Third, we can face our failures with hope. We have fallen where Jesus stood. We have twisted Scripture to justify what we wanted. We are sons and daughters of Adam, born in iniquity. But Jesus is the second Adam, and his obedience covers our disobedience. When we've compromised and the guilt is crushing us, let us confess it honestly and receive his forgiveness. When we've bowed to an idol, let us turn from it and know that God welcomes us home.

When we pray the Great Litany today, we pray as people who know our need but also know our Savior. When we hear the Exhortation, we approach the table confidently, not because we are worthy but because Christ is.

Let us not fear the wilderness. God himself led Jesus into the wilderness because testing was necessary for victory. Our wilderness is not evidence of God's absence but often the very place where he is most powerfully at work.

Jesus has gone before us. He has faced every temptation we will face and overcome it. Let us trust him. Let us follow him. Let us worship him alone.

And when Easter morning dawns, we will discover that the wilderness was not the end of the story. It was the beginning. That the ashes were the seed of resurrection. That the second Adam has undone the curse of the first and is making all things new.

I want to close by praying our Collect of the Day once more: Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.