It takes no theological subtlety to identify the unifying themes of this week's readings. We are presented with the account of Adam's temptation and fall in Genesis and then Jesus' temptation and victory in the Gospel of Matthew. King David, himself no stranger to temptation, vividly describes in Psalm 32 the blessing of forgiveness for those who confess their sins and turn to God. In Romans 5, Paul shows the cosmic significance of Jesus' resistance to temptation and obedience to his Father.

We learn in these passages that temptation is inevitable. Even in the perfect Garden of Eden, the enemy was there with his deception. Even the perfect Son of God had to endure the temptor's lies. We also learn that temptation takes the form of desire for truly good things, but at the wrong time or in the wrong way. It is good to want food. It is good to want wisdom. In the case of Jesus, it was good to want all the nations of the Earth. But those good things must be subordinate to the one great thing: God himself. The lie of Satan is to promise us the good things God has made apart from Him.

Because Jesus rejected that lie and obeyed his father, even to the point of death, he was given all things. Including us. And since he has made us his own, he will not let temptation or sin or anything else separate us from himself, who is the source of all the good things we could ever want. Praise be to God. IL