Matthew’s Gospel firmly roots the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Jewish history and tradition to show that in his person he sums up and brings to perfection all God’s saving works of the past as well as the total human response to what God has done. Thus he is the new Moses, both as leader of God’s people undergoing the forty-day fast (see Ex 34:28; Dt 9:9-18) and as representative of the people being tempted during their desert wandering.

The temptation to turn stones into bread recalls the Israelites’ demand for food (Ex 16:1-3; Dt 8:2-5). In both instances, the real temptation is to settle for something less than the authentic nourishment found in the word and will of God.

The second temptation calls to mind the demands of the Israelites in the desert for a sign in Ex 17:1-7 (see also Dt 6:16; Num 14:22; Ps 95:9). In overcoming this temptation, Jesus shows that true confidence in God rises above the need for marvelous signs.

The third temptation is to replace the true God with earthly gods — that is, to settle for anything less than God himself. Read the injunctions against false worship in Ex 23:20-33; 34:11-14; Dt 6:12-15. These had to be repeated so often because the Israelites were continually compromising their worship of God by paying allegiance to the gods of their neighbors as well. Jesus rises above this, and reinstates the proper order of all reality — the Lord God is supreme above all.

These temptations represent all possible obstacles to Jesus’ ministry, and show that through his life he was eminently successful in overcoming them. Lent is the time in which we prepare to welcome new life into the Christian community — the catechumens who today in the rite of election enter their final stage of preparation for baptism, confirmation, and eucharist at the Easter Vigil. Through our own renewal of life in penance, we join with the elect in appropriating this same victory over temptation and obstacles in our own lives.

The basic temptation and sin of humankind, represented in the serpent and forbidden fruit, is attempting to achieve by one’s own effort what is reserved to God, and thus setting oneself up as one’s own god in opposition to him.

A fundamental pattern of human growth is reflected here: adolescent innocence passes to adult knowledge at the cost of transgression. This human predicament is at the heart of what we call original sin. In the pattern of salvation, we see God’s action more as calling us back to a restoration of goodness rather than as simply preserving original innocence.

This is David’s song of repentance after he had sinned by the adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah (see 2 Sam 11-12) — a sinful act followed by a deceitful and violent cover-up, which reflects the pattern of the Genesis sin. Response: "Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned."

The effect of the primal sin is that we humans cannot break the hold of sin by our own efforts alone. Innocence lost cannot be restored except by God’s intervention. We are chained and held captive by sin — our own and that of others — and we are powerless to break out. Jesus, in his own human life, did break this pattern by submission to the power of his Father, and he became the source of our ability to follow him in this submission and so to share in the same power. Adam, in his pride, represents our own impotence to overcome prideful self-centeredness. But Christ, as the new Adam, overcame temptation and thereby enables us to do the same.

1. Even religious people are tempted to use God for their own ends. How can we recognize this tendency and overcome it?

2. Discuss what is meant by "reign of sin" and "reign of grace."