The First Sunday in Lent Year A
A sermon based on Romans 5:12-19 and Matthew 4:1-11
In the name of Jesus; amen.
The First Sunday in Lent always begins with the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil and this year is no exception. Jesus is baptized and the Holy Spirit leads him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan and in preparation for the challenge he is about to face he fasts for 40 days and 40 nights.
Matthew tells us that after his fast he is famished.
Statistics show that of the 6 ½ billion people in the world 854 million people suffer from hunger.
• In the U. S., 12.4 million children are hungry.
• In the developing world, 20 million low-birth-weight babies are born each year. They are at risk of dying in infancy or suffering lifelong physical or cognitive disabilities.
• 3/4 of all deaths in children under age 5 in the developing world are caused by malnutrition or related diseases.
• Each day in the developing world, 16,000 children die from hunger or preventable diseases such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, or malaria. Malnutrition is associated with over half of those deaths. That is equal to 1 child every 5.4 seconds.
The thing about hunger is that it will make a person do what they might not otherwise do.
A man will steal in order to feed himself and his family; a woman will turn to prostitution to make money to feed herself and her children when there is no other way to get food. Hunger places the best of people in precarious moral positions. The need to eat and be able to feed one’s self and one’s children will drive a person to do what they might not otherwise be tempted to do.
Jesus is lead out into the wilderness and fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. He is hungry, so hungry that he is famished from being deprived of food and this is just the moment when the devil appears to tempt him with bread and power.
Jesus resists. He doesn’t give in to the offers for bread and power and the tempter leaves and angels appear and wait on him.
We are not Jesus. The fact that Jesus does not give in to the temptations of the devil does not mean that we will always be able to resist the temptations that are put in our way.
Even though the temptation of Jesus happens at the beginning of his ministry we read about it on this First Sunday of Lent when we remember his journey to the cross at the end of his ministry. This is done for a purpose. The 40 days of Lent coincide with the 40 days and nights of his fast and we are reminded that even though Jesus is tempted by the devil he fulfills his purpose by going to the cross.
Jesus goes to the cross so that we might have forgiveness when we are tempted and succumb to sin. Jesus goes to the cross so that we might be made righteous. As Paul writes, death, and disobedience, and sin came into the world through Adam, but we are justified through Jesus’ righteousness and obedience to God.
This frees us, not to sin more, but to live new lives in service to God.
Because we are fed with bread that is the Word of God we are called to feed others.
The statistics of hunger in the world do not represent numbers, but people; human beings out in the wilderness who are literally famished who face the temptations and the torments of the devil each and every day.
They aren’t just people across the seas, but in our own neighborhoods.
Lent is typically a time when people choose to give something up to remember Christ’s fast for their personal piety. But we are not just called to care for our own selves, but for others. So I want to challenge us this season to give up hunger for Lent. I want to challenge us to look the devil in the face and tell him that we will not be tempted away from what God has called us to do: to feed others in the name of the one who is our bread.
Amen.
A sermon based on Romans 5:12-19 and Matthew 4:1-11
In the name of Jesus; amen.
The First Sunday in Lent always begins with the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil and this year is no exception. Jesus is baptized and the Holy Spirit leads him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan and in preparation for the challenge he is about to face he fasts for 40 days and 40 nights.
Matthew tells us that after his fast he is famished.
Statistics show that of the 6 ½ billion people in the world 854 million people suffer from hunger.
• In the U. S., 12.4 million children are hungry.
• In the developing world, 20 million low-birth-weight babies are born each year. They are at risk of dying in infancy or suffering lifelong physical or cognitive disabilities.
• 3/4 of all deaths in children under age 5 in the developing world are caused by malnutrition or related diseases.
• Each day in the developing world, 16,000 children die from hunger or preventable diseases such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, or malaria. Malnutrition is associated with over half of those deaths. That is equal to 1 child every 5.4 seconds.
The thing about hunger is that it will make a person do what they might not otherwise do.
A man will steal in order to feed himself and his family; a woman will turn to prostitution to make money to feed herself and her children when there is no other way to get food. Hunger places the best of people in precarious moral positions. The need to eat and be able to feed one’s self and one’s children will drive a person to do what they might not otherwise be tempted to do.
Jesus is lead out into the wilderness and fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. He is hungry, so hungry that he is famished from being deprived of food and this is just the moment when the devil appears to tempt him with bread and power.
Jesus resists. He doesn’t give in to the offers for bread and power and the tempter leaves and angels appear and wait on him.
We are not Jesus. The fact that Jesus does not give in to the temptations of the devil does not mean that we will always be able to resist the temptations that are put in our way.
Even though the temptation of Jesus happens at the beginning of his ministry we read about it on this First Sunday of Lent when we remember his journey to the cross at the end of his ministry. This is done for a purpose. The 40 days of Lent coincide with the 40 days and nights of his fast and we are reminded that even though Jesus is tempted by the devil he fulfills his purpose by going to the cross.
Jesus goes to the cross so that we might have forgiveness when we are tempted and succumb to sin. Jesus goes to the cross so that we might be made righteous. As Paul writes, death, and disobedience, and sin came into the world through Adam, but we are justified through Jesus’ righteousness and obedience to God.
This frees us, not to sin more, but to live new lives in service to God.
Because we are fed with bread that is the Word of God we are called to feed others.
The statistics of hunger in the world do not represent numbers, but people; human beings out in the wilderness who are literally famished who face the temptations and the torments of the devil each and every day.
They aren’t just people across the seas, but in our own neighborhoods.
Lent is typically a time when people choose to give something up to remember Christ’s fast for their personal piety. But we are not just called to care for our own selves, but for others. So I want to challenge us this season to give up hunger for Lent. I want to challenge us to look the devil in the face and tell him that we will not be tempted away from what God has called us to do: to feed others in the name of the one who is our bread.
Amen.
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