Today is the first Sunday in Lent as we make our annual journey with Christ to the cross. Though the Sundays in Lent are not technically part of this somber season, they do reflect the same penitential theme that characterizes our forty days of prayerful devotion and repentance. Today we watch as Jesus faces the slick lies of the tempter. he does not face them on His own but in the strength and power of God’s Word and truth. When the devil hands Jesus the opportunity to doubt or fear or deny Himself and His Father in heaven. Jesus responds with the stronger Word. He does this not to prove Himself, but for us, that we who live in Him by Baptism and faith may also be made strong in the Word of the Lord before the devil’s wiles and lies.