Lent is from lencten, the Anglo-Saxon word for spring. Although Lent is celebrated as a time of repentance, the Sundays in Lent are always a celebration of Easter, though also touching on some aspect of repentance.
Our texts this year are a treasury for us who seek to live as Christians – in faith toward God and in love toward our fellow man. They clearly lay out the fact that Jesus is the One who came from heaven to serve as our substitute, and so to accomplish our salvation. You won’t want to miss a single episode.
Today, we witness The Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness. Not only does Jesus show us how to deal with the temptations of the flesh, we see that He has accomplished an obedience that is ours by faith.
Next Sunday, we witness The Faith of the Canaanite Woman, by which we are assured that our relationship to God is defined by faith in Christ, and not by some status in life or arbitrary factor in our birth.
The third Sunday in Lent considers The Great Spiritual Conflict in which all are involved, and in which there is no neutrality. The issue arises when Jesus is accused of doing miracles by demonic power.
Following that The Feeding of the Five Thousand as recorded by the Apostle John both confirms that the kingdom of God has come, and what kind of kingdom it is.
That text is logically followed by the account of John 8, where Jesus Clearly Proclaims His Divine Nature.
Finally, on Palm Sunday, we have the climax of the Lenten Season with Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Here we see the Passover Lamb come to the place of sacrifice, to take away the sins of the world. This sets the stage for Passion Week, and turns our hearts and minds to the question, “How shall we greet Him?”