The First Sunday of Lent Year B

The First Sunday of Lent
Genesis 9.8–17, 1 Peter 3.18–22, Mark 1.9–15

Noah is conspicuously absent from much of the New Testament. When he does appear, as in 1 Peter 3, it isn’t immediately obvious why. Who were those ‘spirits in prison’ from Noah’s day? In what sense did Jesus preach to them? How can Noah’s ark help us understand baptism (apart from the obvious sense of coming through water to salvation)? And how does all this relate to what Peter is saying?

He is explaining why it is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong. Jesus’ innocent suffering, as elsewhere in the letter, is the model for that of Christians. And those who, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, belong to the one true God are assured that, since Jesus is already sovereign over all spiritual and temporal powers, they must not be afraid of what those powers can do to them...

Taken from Twelve Months of Sundays Year B by N T Wright