Every year, on the First Sunday of Lent, the Church gently leads us into the wilderness with Jesus. Not because the desert is easy or comfortable, but because it is honest.

The wilderness strips away illusions. It reveals what truly sustains us and what does not.

Today’s Gospel tells us, “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and was tempted by the devil.”

Jesus did not enter the wilderness unwillingly. He was not pushed by the Spirit but led freely, deliberately. As Saint Basil beautifully says, Christ chooses the battlefield. He confronts the enemy not with loud words or displays of power, but through obedience, fasting, and complete trust in the Father.

Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit and still He is tempted.

This is an important word for us. Holiness does not mean the absence of struggle. Being tempted does not mean God has abandoned us. Often, it means we are moving in the right direction.

The first temptation is strikingly ordinary:

“If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

It begins with hunger, with appetite, with desire. The devil begins where he has always succeeded—with Adam, and often with us. There is nothing sinful about hunger. Jesus Himself is hungry. But the temptation is not really about food. It is about control. Turn stones into bread. “Use your power for yourself. Satisfy your desire on your own terms.”

How familiar does that sound? Is this not the quiet voice we hear so often?

• “You deserve this.”
• “Take care of yourself first.”
• “God will understand.”

Jesus responds not with a miracle, but with Scripture:

“Man does not live by bread alone.”

He refuses to turn stones into bread because the devil always offers us stones disguised as nourishment: pleasure without truth, comfort without obedience, religion without conversion. False values and false teachings are stones that look like bread, but they cannot feed the soul.

Lent gently exposes this deception. It helps us see that many of the things we consume endlessly; noise, entertainment, approval, indulgence do not truly give life. They distract us, numb us, and leave us empty.

Christ reminds us that the human heart is fed by something greater:

by the Word of God,

by wisdom,

by freedom from disordered desire,

by trust in the Father.

When appetite fails to deceive Him, the devil changes tactics. He always does. He now appeals to the deeper hunger of the heart, the desire for power, control, and recognition. He shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and says, “I will give you all this power and glory.” The devil displays the splendor of worldly power and its illusion.

It is a dangerous lie. The devil has nothing to give. All authority comes from God alone. The enemy rules only where hearts surrender to sin where greed, pride, lust, and injustice enslave us. He offers power, but at the cost of freedom.

Origen gives us a profound insight: the devil is not showing Christ political kingdoms, but his own kingdom the reign of sin over human hearts. Some are enslaved by greed, others by impurity, others by pride. The message is clear:

“Rule the world my way. Compromise. Take shortcuts. Accept sin as the price of success.”

For us, this temptation is deeply relevant during Lent. This is not merely about bowing down physically. It is about reordering allegiance, placing success above truth, influence above integrity, ambition above obedience. The devil does not mind if we are religious, as long as God is not first. The devil is content if we kneel inwardly—even while standing outwardly.

Jesus refuses not because He does not desire to reign, but because He will not reign through sin. He will conquer not by domination, but by the Cross. Not by forcing worship, but by awakening love.

His answer is firm and freeing:

“You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve.”

This command strikes the devil to the heart. Before Christ, the enemy received worship everywhere—through idols, false gods, and disordered lives.

Now, the true worship of the Father restores the right order of creation. Worship determines identity. What we worship shapes who we become.

If we worship power, we become anxious or cruel.

If we worship success, we become restless and empty.

If we worship God alone, we become free.

The devil’s final attempt is the most subtle and the most dangerous. He leads Jesus not into a place of sin, but into Jerusalem, to the pinnacle of the Temple. Temptation does not always come through evil things; very often it comes through holy settings misused.

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.”

This is not trust. It is presumption. It is pride asking God to prove Himself. Saint Ambrose warns us that pride is most dangerous when virtue has already begun. When prayer deepens, when discipline grows, pride whispers: “You are safe now, you are above the danger.”

Saint Ambrose is clear: the devil cannot cast us down unless we first cast ourselves down. Pride always precedes the fall. When a person abandons humility, even their virtues become dangerous. Boasting makes us step off the solid ground of obedience and leap into self-reliance.

And now the devil does something shocking: he quotes Scripture.

“It is written: He will command His angels concerning you…”

Satan knows the Scriptures, but not in order to obey them but only to manipulate them. He knows the words but not the Spirit. He quotes selectively, leaving out the very verse that condemns him: “You shall tread upon the lion and the dragon.” He twists God’s Word to serve his own ends.

How often we hear this temptation:

“God will forgive me anyway.”

“If God loves me, nothing bad will happen. He will protect me no matter what I do.”

This is not trust. This is pride dressed as faith.

Jesus answers simply:

“You shall not tempt the Lord your God.”

This is a crucial Lenten lesson for us. When tempted by pride, the answer is not argument, not display, not self-defense but humble fidelity to God’s Word.

The Gospel ends quietly: “The devil departed from Him for a time.”

Temptation does not disappear, it changes form. It will return at the Cross, not with pleasure, but with sorrow, not with pride, but with despair. And still, Christ remains faithful, because love not pride governs His heart.

Saint Ambrose tells us that these three temptations contain the seed of every sin:

the delight of the flesh,

the pride of life,

the hunger for power.

Christ overcomes them all—not as God, but as man.

Christ does not defeat the devil as God, but as man. He does not use divine power, but trust in the Father and obedience to the Word. That is how we are meant to fight.

And so, Jesus shows us the true weapons of Lent:

– The Sacrament: He enters the desert after baptism.

– The Wilderness: He accepts silence, solitude, and simplicity.

– Fasting: He disciplines the body to awaken the soul.

Wilderness is not a punishment. It is a place of truth.

And when we walk there with Christ, we do not walk alone.

✍ Fr James Abraham