FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT: Contending with Satan

 
First Sunday in Lent - Feb 26, 2023; Feb 18, 2024; Mar 9, 2025

And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. -Mark 1:10-13

The assigned reading from the Revised Common Lectionary for the First Sunday in Lent each year is the temptation of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all agree that this happens immediately following the baptism of Jesus. And in Matthew and Luke where we get more details about these temptations, we find that Satan especially goads Jesus with the words “If you are the Son of God…” He right away seeks to chip away at what has just taken place at his baptism when God the Father spoke plainly “You are my beloved Son”. Additionally, we can see that the minute Jesus enters into his baptism, he has begun to contest with Satan. The gospel of our salvation is well under way.

The same thing happens in your baptism. Baptism is a consecration: we are consecrated to God. You are God’s child in baptism. And you will have to believe this against every effort the Devil makes to get you to cast that identity aside. Additionally, you are consecrated into the fight against sin. You must live a life of repentance and put off the old self. You must die every day to sin. This is your life-long calling.

But we must never forget that Christ took on this calling first and won it for us. The way to put aside every doubt that questions if you really are God’s child is to listen to the words about Jesus at his baptism and hold fast to him as God’s Son, because as God’s Son he has shared with you in baptism his own sonship. Jesus’ victory over Satan and temptation was meant to help you in your weakness (Hebrews 2:18). You are therefore not simply called to put off the old self by your own powers, or repent in your own strength. You are to die with Christ, be buried with him, and rise with him. Baptism is a consecration to the struggle precisely because it joins you with Jesus who entered into this struggle for your sake.

Lead me not into temptation, Heavenly Father, but deliver me from the Evil One. Let me believe that I am what you have made me to be. Give me the victory your Son won over Satan, and let me die to sin today that I might rise in the strength of him who loved me and gave himself up for me. What life could I more fully live than the one you give me? I ask, therefore, for this life today. Amen.

This post is a part of my daily Lenten devotional on Baptism. You can read more about it here.