Lent

4
Lent

Exploring the text

One of the major themes of Lent is, of course, temptation – or, more accurately, resistance to temptation. This theme arises from Jesus’ temptations but also challenges us to reflect upon our need to resist temptation in all its forms. One of the intriguing features of Luke’s Gospel, however, is that temptation is not restricted to Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. In Luke it is a much bigger theme than for the other Gospel writers. In Matthew and Mark, Jesus’ temptations are focused almost entirely on the one narrative of his temptation by the devil in the wilderness, an event which is described only very briefly by Mark but in much more detail by Matthew (Mark 1.12–13; Matthew 4.1–11)...