Overcomers

First Sunday in Lent

February 22, 2026

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

Matthew 4:1-11

Overcomers

Who here has been on a camping trip?

Mary and I camped out when we first married. A tent and two sleeping bags is a lot cheaper than staying in a hotel room.

Our son Dan and I went camping regularly with his Boy Scout troop.

I’ve gone on two trips, one to Cleveland, and another to Cincinnati to see baseball games, and on both trips I camped in an Ohio State Park.

It doesn’t take a lot to go camping. A tent, a sleeping bag, a hammer is good for driving in tent pegs. It’s also good to have a light of some sort for nightime and early morning. It’s wise to have a first aid kit. You never know what could happen, even in a State Park. It takes a little preparation to go on a camping trip, and so does our journey toward Easter Day.

Lent carries us to the most glorious day of every year, but, like camping, it can be a bit rough along the way. Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, a fast day. Further along is Good Friday, another fast day. While fasting on these days is not required in our Lutheran tradition, it has been a regular practice for these days for centuries in the church.

Sundays in Lent remain remembrances of our Lord’s resurrection, but they are more somber in this penitential season. Even so, the hope of Easter still shines, even in Lent.

On this first Sunday in Lent, we are in the wilderness with Jesus, far from His empty tomb.

vv. 1-2 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where He would be tested by the devil. This was likely the desert west of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. The same Spirit of God that descended upon Jesus at His baptism almost immediately sends Him into the wilderness. Just as God led Israel for forty years after the Exodus, do does the Spirit lead Jesus. God tested Israel in the wilderness to see whether they would “keep his commandments or not” (Dt. 8:2). Too often, they did not.

Like Moses and Elijah, Jesus fasts for forty days and nights. After forty days of fasting, He was hungry.

v. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

Does Jesus need to prove that He is the Son of God” Did not God the Father just declare when Jesus was baptized that Jesus is His Son, His “beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17)? Will Jesus use His divine power to alleviate His hunger? Or, will Jesus remain in the suffering of His forty day fast?

v. 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Jesus addresses His tempter with Scripture, Deuteronomy 8:3. The context for the Scripture that Jesus uses is Israel’s wilderness wanderings after their Exodus from Egypt. Unlike Israel, Jesus is victorious over His testing as He recognizes that obedience to God His Father is paramount. He chooses to live by the Word of God. He chooses to accept suffering over the quick fix that the Devil suggests.

How about us? Are you sufficiently grounded in God’s Word that when you are tempted to deviate from God’s way, His Word directs you back to God?

vv. 5-6 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

Again, the Devil challenges Jesus, “If you are the Son of God…” This time, the test is whether Jesus will force God His Father to rescue Him. The Devil even quotes Scripture, Psalm 91, verses 11 and 12. In effect, the Devil says to Jesus, go ahead and jump, God will save you.

v. 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Jesus has moral clarity because He knows the Scriptures better than the Devil does. Jesus trumps the Devil’s Scripture with Deuteronomy 6:16. Again, Jesus reaches back to Scripture that pertains to Israel’s wilderness wanderings. Israel failed their testing in the wilderness over and over again. Jesus does not.

Jesus will not test God His Father. Instead, Jesus will trust and obey God, the same God who led Him into this wilderness experience. Jesus trusts God and God’s power to provide.