1st
Sunday of Lent – Feb. 22, 2026
Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
Theme:
We Are Called to Overcome the Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of Glory, and the
Lust of the Eyes Each Day
A. A Brief Exegetical Analysis of Matthew 4:1-11
1. Historical
and Literary Contexts
Matthew places our Gospel text immediately
after the story of Jesus' baptism (3:13-17) and before the beginning of Jesus’
ministry in Galilee (4:12-25). With the story of Jesus’ baptism, Matthew
prepares his readers to understand that Jesus, who is about to begin the
ministry of building the kingdom of heaven, is equipped by the Holy Spirit and
is the Son of God. Moreover, his baptism was not for repentance (since he is
sinless) but to empathize with humanity. Now, the evangelist uses our Gospel
passage to inform his audience that Jesus’s victory over Satan signifies that
the kingdom of heaven he is about to establish involves restoring the
relationship between God and his people, which Adam and Eve lost through their
disobedience to God when they were tempted by the same Satan.
2. Form,
Structure, and Movement
Our Gospel text is a narrative in dialogue
form. Vv. 1-2 serve as an introduction, and v. 11 as a conclusion. The body of
the text (vv. 3-10) is divided into three movements based on the three
temptations: the turning of the stone into bread (vv. 3-4), the throwing down
from the parapet of the temple (vv. 5-7), and the temptation to worship the
devil in exchange for the earthly kingdoms (vv. 8-10).
Vv. 1-2. “The Spirit led Jesus into the
desert to be tempted by the devil” (Mt 4:1). Temptation is not merely a
circumstance but the purpose of Jesus’ sojourn in the desert. This Spirit is
the same who descended upon Jesus during his baptism (see Mt 3:16). In his
baptism, Jesus was declared “Son of God.” The hallmark of true sonship is
obedience to the Father. Now, his obedience to God the Father is put to the
test. Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights. The number “forty”
primarily recalls the forty years of the people of Israel’s long journey from
Egypt to the promised land, during which God tested them (see Dt 8:2). Here,
Matthew depicts Jesus as a new Israel and shows that, unlike the old Israel,
which disobeyed God on several occasions and failed to prove its sonship,
Jesus, the new Israel, overcame all tests and remained obedient to God the
Father. This number “forty” also refers to the forty days and forty nights
Moses spent on Sinai in a meeting with God to receive God’s commandments, symbolizing
their covenant with God (see Exodus 24:18). Here, Matthew presents Jesus as a
new Moses. He spends forty days and forty nights in prayer with God before he
begins his public ministry of inviting people to a new covenant through him.
[Jesus] was hungry: In its literal sense, this shows Jesus’ human nature; in
its spiritual sense, it means Jesus was hungry for the beginning of the kingdom
of heaven on earth, which will end the devil’s reign.
The devil employs a series of three
temptations. In Matthew, the sequence is: first, the desert; then, Jerusalem;
and finally, the world's kingdoms. Luke places Jerusalem at the end to show
that it is where Jesus’ ministry will culminate and where he will face his
greatest temptation and triumph (see Lk 22:39-46; 23:44-49; 24).[1]
The devil knows very well that Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus’s mission
to build the kingdom of heaven will challenge the devil’s reign and cause him
to lose members under his control. The devil also knows that the key to
stopping Jesus from fulfilling this mission is to push him to disobey God. This
is the goal he pursues through all three of his temptations. He already
employed this strategy with Adam and Eve, successfully pushing them to disobey
God (see Gen 3:1-7).
The
three temptations of the devil correspond to the three lusts of human beings.
The first, turning the stones into bread, represents the lust of the flesh. The
second, performing a spectacle by throwing himself from the parapet of the
temple, is the lust for glory. The third, the world’s kingdoms, stands for the
lust of the eyes, the desire for power and possessions.
Vv. 3-4: The devil begins his series of temptations with the lust of the
flesh. He urges Jesus to use his divinity to turn a stone into bread to satisfy
his human hunger. There are two traps here. First, the tempter aims to push
Jesus to focus on his physical hunger and forget his “spiritual hunger,"
which is establishing God’s kingdom. Second, he seeks to remove Jesus from the
most basic human experience, thereby weakening him in fulfilling his mission.
The devil used this temptation before with Adam and Eve and succeeded (see Gn
3:1-7), but here, with Jesus, he failed. Quoting Scripture (Dt 8:3), Jesus
answered, “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth
from the mouth of God” (V. 4). While the devil wants Jesus to concentrate on
his physical hunger, which only bread can satisfy, Jesus focuses instead on the
spiritual hunger, which only the Word of God can fulfill. He also refuses to
use his divinity to avoid human suffering.
Vv. 5-7. After failing in the first
temptation, the devil employs a second strategy: the lust of glory or worldly
recognition. He urges Jesus to throw himself down from the Temple’s parapet as
a spectacle to prove that he is the Son of God. Citing Ps 91:11-12, he
reassures him that God will command his angels to protect him. The trap is to
push Jesus to focus on earthly glory and forget his mission to build the
kingdom of heaven. With this strategy, the devil had already succeeded in
separating Eve and Adam from their God. He deceived them into believing that if
they ate the fruit of the tree, their eyes would be opened and they would be
“like God” (Gn 3:5, NRSVCE). Adam and Eve ate the fruit because they wanted the
divine glory: to be equal to God. In our Gospel, Jesus’ response to the devil,
“You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test” (v. 7), is a quote from Dt
6:16. Jesus affirms that he is God. The expression “your God” (v. 7) means he
is the God of the entire universe, including the devil.
Vv. 8-10.
The third temptation concerns the lust of the eyes, or avarice, the
desire for possessions. He took Jesus up to a very high mountain and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence (or riches). He promised to
give them all to Jesus on one condition: that Jesus prostrate himself and
worship him. He used this tactic with Adam and Eve and succeeded in deceiving
them. Unlike Eve, who saw that the tree pleased her eyes (Gn 3:6), Jesus does not
let the lust of the eyes prevent him from fulfilling his mission. Quoting Dt
6:13, he tells the devil that God is the only one people should worship and
serve (v. 10).
V. 11. The devil used all three
temptations he prepared to push Jesus to disobey God, attempting to make Jesus
abandon his mission of building the kingdom of heaven on earth, but ultimately,
he failed. The narrator notes that he left Jesus, and the angels came to
minister to him.
4.
Synthesis
Jesus is the new Israel. Unlike the Old
Israel, which repeatedly disobeyed God, Jesus, the New Israel, overcame all
temptations and remained obedient to God. Jesus is also the new Moses. The Old
Moses spent forty days and forty nights on the mountain with God, where he
received God’s commandments, symbolizing the covenant between God and the
Israelites. Similarly, Jesus spent forty days and forty nights in the desert
with God before beginning his public mission to call the people to a new and
final covenant with God through him. Jesus is also the new Adam. The first Adam
succumbed to the devil's temptations and disobeyed God. As a result, sin
entered the world and brought condemnation. Jesus, the new Adam, resisted all
the devil's temptations and continued to obey God. Consequently, he restored
the relationship between humanity and God and brought salvation.
The Scripture readings today told us, on
the one hand, that our first ancestors (Adam and Eve) failed to resist the
devil's temptation. Consequently, sin entered the world and brought
condemnation (the first and second readings). On the other hand, we heard how
Jesus overcame the devil’s temptations. As a result, he restored our original
alliance with God and brought us salvation (the Gospel and the second reading).
2. 2. What
the Church Teaches Us Today
The Church wants us to know that, as
Baptized, we continue Jesus’s mission to build God’s kingdom wherever we live.
This mission entails ministering to the people of God and, thus, delivering
them from the power of the devil. Recognizing that our mission threatens to
lose the souls under his control, the devil continues to tempt us, as he did
with Jesus, using the same strategies: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the lust for glory. This threefold lust is known as threefold
concupiscence. All sins we commit fall into these three categories. The devil’s
goal is to push us to disobey God and abandon our crucial mission. To overcome
these temptations, the Church calls us to observe the three Lenten disciplines:
Fasting for the lust of the flesh, Prayer for the lust for glory, and
Almsgiving for the lust of the eyes.
First, the devil employs the lust of the
flesh, or bodily appetite. By urging Jesus to use his divine power to turn a
stone into bread to satisfy his hunger, the devil set two traps. (1) He wanted
Jesus to prioritize his physical hunger over his spiritual hunger. (2) He
sought to remove Jesus from the most basic human experience, thereby weakening
him in fulfilling his mission. He employed these two traps with Adam and Eve
before and succeeded (see Gn 3:1-7), but with Jesus he failed. How about us
today? Satan pushes us to prioritize our physical hunger over our spiritual
hunger. Although our physical bodies need food to survive, let us remember that
our souls also need spiritual food. To resist this temptation, the Church
encourages us to observe the first Lenten discipline: Fasting. When we fast, we
respond to the devil by quoting Jesus, “One does not live on bread alone, but
on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). Fasting also
helps us recognize that the way our physical bodies grow weak and need food
immediately is the same way our souls experience and need spiritual food. Let
us observe fasting during this Lent and make it a habit in our Christian lives.
Second, the devil employs the lust for
glory or worldly recognition. By inciting Jesus to throw himself down from the
Temple’s parapet as a spectacle to prove he is the Son of God, the devil’s trap
is to shift Jesus’ focus to earthly glory, thereby causing him to forget his
mission. He succeeded with Adam and Eve, using this trap. He deceived them into
believing that if they ate the fruit of the tree, their eyes would be opened
and they would be “like God” (Gn 3:5, NRSVCE). Adam and Eve ate the fruit because
they wanted the divine glory: to be equal to God. How about us today? Whenever
we seek public recognition while neglecting our primary mission of ministering
to the people of God, we fail like Adam and Eve. Here, the Church exhorts us to
observe the Lenten discipline of Prayer to resist this temptation. Prayer is an
act of humility, recognizing that we are nothing without God. When we pray to
God, we confess that he is the Creator and that we are his creatures;
therefore, we do not seek to equal him.
Third, the devil uses the lust of the
eyes, which is avarice or the desire for possession. He displayed all the
kingdoms of the world in their magnificence before Jesus and promised to give
them all to him on one condition: Jesus must worship him. Note that he had
already succeeded in trapping Adam and Eve with this temptation. Unlike Eve,
who saw that the tree pleased her eyes (Gn 3:6), Jesus does not let the lust of
the eyes turn him away from his mission. Quoting Dt 6:13, he tells the devil
that God is the only one people should worship and serve (v. 10). How about us
today? Satan continues to display the magnificence of our world, with all its
technologies, before our eyes. His trap is to make us focus on possessing them
and to forget our dependence on God. To resist this temptation, our Holy Mother
Church urges us to observe the Lenten discipline of almsgiving regularly. When
we share what we have with others, we respond to the devil by showing that we
do not depend on material possessions but on God alone.
In the liturgy of this Mass, we ask for
God’s grace so that we continue to detach ourselves from the lust of the flesh,
the lust of glory, and the lust of the eyes. We want to focus on our baptismal
mission to save people from the devil’s grasp. Amen.
Rev. Leon Ngandu, SVD
Pastor of Holy Family Church in Jackson,
MS &
SVD USS Biblical Apostolate
Coordinator
[1]
Michael F. Patella, The Gospel According to Luke, (Collegeville,
Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2005), 28.
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