Theme for the First Sunday of Lent

Not too surprisingly, it’s not hard to find a common theme through the lectionary passages for February 10. This makes a second week in a row, as the Transfiguration texts also displayed many common themes.

The texts are:

Genesis 2:15-17 (the command about the tree in the midst of the garden), 3:1-7 (Temptation and Fall). Putting these two texts together brings up some interesting possibilities in looking at the command and how it was shaped in the discussion with the snake. I also found a note in The Jewish Study Bible that mentions the difference in the Genesis 1 view of the first couple (dominion) and the view in chapters 2 and 3 where they are seeking dominion, to be like gods.

In this connection I have mentioned previously that the priestly source (P) in Genesis doesn’t mention the fall directly until Genesis 6:11, if that is indeed a reference. Evil appears in the world without the detailed story. One could ask whether there are two ways of viewing the fall, one involving a single incident, and one involving a slower deterioration. Since we have no hint of any priestly comment on the arrival of sin, we don’t know, but it’s interesting to read the stories separately.

Turning to the gospel (Matthew 4:1-11) next, because of its theme, we have the temptation of Jesus. The Spirit takes Jesus into the desert where he is tempted. If you combine the context of Matthew, in which Jesus comes from the “high” of his baptism and moves on to the “low” of the temptation with last week’s transfiguration texts which are a high heading into the crucifixion, there is a theme of the mountaintop experience followed by the time of testing. One could easily see the mountaintop as the preparation for the valley.

What should we take from the mountaintop? That is the question for most of us. We attend various retreats and have a wonderful time spiritually, but then we get home and the world crashes back in and we lose the high. I think Jesus took a sense of peace and a sense of his Father’s approval and presence with him. That is something to strive for.

Sin and redemption are the focus of Romans 5:12-19. If one preached or taught from this passage, the focus can be on the plan of redemption, the one man Jesus who undoes the work of the enemy over millenia.

Psalm 32 makes it personal. It isn’t about the world, or long term plans. It’s about individual people and their sin. What can be done about it? That’s where you bring in the broad sweep. There is a way for God to forgive sin, so we can confess and expect to be forgiven.