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Lectionary for Feb. 22, 2026
First Sunday in Lent
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Psalm 32;
Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
I grew up in a church culture that made frequent reference to Philip Yancey and his bestselling books The Jesus I Never Knew, What’s So Amazing about Grace? and Disappointment with God. This popular Christian author, in his 70s, just confessed to an eight-year affair. He subsequently resigned all his roles, canceled his speaking engagements and deleted his social media accounts. In his email to Christianity Today, he wrote: “I realize that my actions will disillusion readers who have previously trusted in my writing. Worst of all, my sin has brought dishonor to God.”
Failing in temptation is awful for so many reasons. It hurts everyone involved, it hurts innocent bystanders and it hurts God. The lectionary readings this week have two examples of humans facing temptation with differing results.
In the Genesis text, God commanded the not-yet-divided human to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (2:15-17). But then the serpent approached the divided woman and man (Adam was with Eve in Genesis 3:6) to invite them to disobey God’s instructions. The serpent tempted the humans with a bit of truth mixed in with some lies. No, they would not literally drop dead upon eating the fruit. Moreover, they would instantly know good and evil—ironically, not just philosophically but through deep embodied knowledge of evil and abandoned good.
Then the as-yet-unnamed woman did her own investigation. The fruit was beautiful. It was good for food. It was desirable for making one knowledgeable. Learning this, she took some fruit, gave it to her man, and they both ate. And they knew that they were naked, so they took leaves from the same tree (BT Berakhot 40a) to cover themselves.
This failure at temptation had massive ripple effects. Eve and Adam were barred from Eden, their productivity and reproductivity would become difficult and painful, and they would eventually die. And, as Paul tells us, sin entered the world through one man (Adam), affecting all subsequent humans (Romans 5:12). The communion and daily walks that humans enjoyed with God became few and far in-between.
Failing in temptation is awful for so many reasons. It hurts everyone involved, it hurts innocent bystanders and it hurts God.
But at just the right time, God’s son began to walk among people again. Jesus was baptized and then was immediately sent out into the wilderness to be tempted. After fasting 40 days, the devil tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread. Jesus certainly wasn’t opposed to the miraculous production of bread (Matthew 14:13-21), but he was opposed to obeying the devil. Jesus emphasized partaking of God’s word over the importance of eating (Deuteronomy 8:3). When the tempter told Jesus to put himself in danger so that God could rescue him (quoting Psalm 91:11-12), he said testing God was wrong (Deuteronomy 6:16). When the devil offered him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory if he would only worship him, Jesus insisted that all worship directed to someone/something that isn’t God is idolatry (13).
It shouldn’t need to be said, but acquiring kingdoms or countries for the glory of it, making great shows of deliverance from death, worshiping power or generally listening to the devil when he tells you to do something are all bad ideas. Jesus resisted temptation. In the process, he spared himself from being ensnared, retained the ability to rescue us from sin and pleased God.
We have some good information about how humans process temptation. Researcher and author Sheila Wray Gregoire points out that data show that humans are much more likely to cave to temptation if two factors are in play: 1) they feel a sense of entitlement—I should have this; and 2) they feel strongly—positively or negatively—about the object of temptation. It was only after Eve saw that the fruit was good for eating and desirous for gaining knowledge that she and Adam ate it. Jesus’ resistance to the temptation in the wilderness pushed away the desirability and appropriateness of the object of temptation for himself.
Jesus models how to avoid temptation. Words are life, not just bread. Testing God isn’t for humans. The glory and ownership of kingdoms is not safe or desirable for humans who worship God alone. Resisting temptation is a blessing for us, for all the innocent folks who would be hurt in the process, and even for God. Let us follow the second Adam, refusing temptation and choosing the ways of the kingdom of heaven (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
