A look at the gaps in the lectionary.
This week: the gap between the Last Sunday after Epiphany A and Lent 1A.
The text: back from Matthew 17 to 4.
As we saw last time, what the disciples experience before heading up the mountain to see Moses and Elijah chilling with Jesus is essential. We had the return of Satan.
In this first Sunday in Lent, we have the arrival of Satan. Yes, it’s backwards. Which makes it less than convenient. But perhaps we can think of it like a flashback…
Anyway, what we’ll be wrestling with here is a story we get in Lent every year, that informs a lot of our thinking, but without fully enriching it. Not because it lacks that power, but because I think we ignore its power.
We all know what happens before this moment: Jesus’s baptism.
And we know what happens in this story: Jesus is tempted by the Adversary.
But why does this matter?
It only matters if we acknowledge what the temptation is about.
It might get tiring for some to hear or preach, but this is a story about power. The power the Adversary offers Jesus and the power Jesus refuses. Also, the idea that the Adversary has power or that Jesus doesn’t. The idea that power can be given, taken, or stolen.
There is no point in talking about temptation if we don’t acknowledge that any temptation is ultimately about power.
The Connections
This story is the connector between the baptism and the call stories. And its echoes are found throughout the journey to Jerusalem.
The funny thing for the church is that we read about the baptism and the call stories in early January, this story now, the journey into Jerusalem in Holy Week, and Peter’s embodying Satan in Ordinary Time.
In other words, this essential element gets lost.
Recognizing that these questions of power and how it relates to the world matches an essential theme in Matthew: the contrast between the Kingdom of Heaven and the kingdoms of Earth.