February 22, 2026 ☩ The First Sunday of Lent

on
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19;
& Matthew 4:1-11
“Preparing Within and Together”

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Everything was perfect for Eve and Adam.  They, newly formed experienced all things with the joy and revelation of a small child savoring new experiences with marvel in their eyes.  Eden provided all they needed to live.  What more could they need?  Need no longer became the question that could heard over the inner desire of what more could they want?

Sin slithered its way in the minds of the inhabitants of this perfect garden.  They sought to be their own God, placing themselves beside God and outside of needing God.  Their sin brought them into a state of feeling shame, not just about their poor decision to eat of the forbidden fruit, but it bled into other, seemingly unconnected, aspects of their lives – even to physical shame.

We commence Lent on Ash Wednesday knowing the need we have for God’s mercy in our lives.  Upholding the first commandment, we place no other gods, nor ourselves, before the Lord God.  We simply acknowledge our imperfect state, our inability to remain on guard against those sins which slowly creep into our purview and lead us into temptation.  We yearn to be stronger and wiser in the face of these temptations.

Jesus, in Matthew’s Gospel faced temptation head on.  Not in a garden like Eden, where all needs are readily supplied for, Jesus walks out into the barrenness of the wilderness where even survival is difficult.  Jesus shows us that by embracing periods of struggle, we can more easily identify the temptations in our lives as their voices become louder. 

Jesus was tempted.  Jesus felt the desire to accept the easier path and earn the quick benefits by the devil.  Yet, our Messiah demonstrated what it means to not yield or submit to the easy path when it leads away from God.  Jesus, in the struggles of the wilderness shows us what faith means in difficult times.  Choosing the right path rarely is choosing the easy path. 

These experiences of Eve choosing to eat the fruit and Jesus choosing to only worship God were personal experiences that reached into their social lives.  Eve desired to share in the journey with Adam and together they gained a wisdom of understanding what it means to be naked, to be without God, to be vulnerable.  Jesus sought not to gain earthly power, to be the head of an empire by overthrowing the Roman occupying forces.  Jesus’ fast leads him to develop a practice of persistently acknowledging the temptations of the world, and to never yield to the easy path, but to adhere to the righteous path.  Spiritual training is as important to those of the Christian faith as physical training is to an Olympic athlete.

Saint Paul creates a bridge for us from the personal temptations and sin into the communal and societal sins.  Using an archetype, a pattern of how similar things come about in one generation, he connects Adam and Jesus.  Adam, as a single person, brought into the world sin.  He experienced sin that transmitted the generations, leading to a multitude of people.  Jesus, also a single person, brings forth the gift of grace and mercy from God for all.  Saint Paul shares this theology with the Romans with exuberance.  How much more did Jesus’ gift spread to all of humanity!

The analogy grows on in Saint Paul’s epistle.  He connects sin with death, for when we turn away from God, the source of life, there is nothing – no life, nothing.  Life, living, sharing in the eternal is only found on our path to God.  By God’s goodness and grace are we made worthy through Jesus Christ.  Saint Paul writes that if death come to many because of one (Adam), then “the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many.”  [Romans 5:15] 

Through Adam, came sin, death, judgment to many.  Through Jesus comes grace, forgiveness, and life.  For those who have ever played the game Othello, we can appreciate how the subsequent gift offers a greater impact than the initial.  In this game of black and white discs, when a player places their color disk down, all the opposite-colored discs between two of their own discs are flipped to match their color.  The latter move often provides a much larger impact. 

The grace of God that abounds in our Savior offers a greater impact of salvation than sin could ever cause destruction, since salvation even restores what was once though of as destroyed.  We remain in hope, and in life, through faith in Jesus Christ.  Grace abounds!  Thanks be to God.