Lent is a time of paring down—a time spent in the desert, if you will—as exemplified by Jesus’ forty days of fasting in these arid, barren lands. He was tempted three times by Satan, and rejected each attempt, giving glory to God at every turn. This is the lesson for us: that we make God the center of our lives and not test him. We are here to do his will, which is clarified through our own Lenten sacrifices.

Today’s Gospel presents the dramatic scene of the Lord Jesus’ confrontation with the evil one. The evil one attempts to frustrate the Lord’s mission by tempting him to become a “false” messiah by succumbing to sensual desire, exercising worldly power, and using the power of God for ego driven purposes. These temptations are intended, not just to frustrate the Lord in his mission, but our own mission as well.

As we once again commence the penitential season of Lent, it is good to get back to basics. We journey with Jesus into the desert, and with him, we confront the three basic temptations: sensual pleasure, power, and glory. Only when we set aside our obsessions with these three things can we be free to serve the Lord.

Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the desert in order to be tempted by the devil. The three temptations–to sensual pleasure, to power, and to pride–respresent three fundamental ways that all of us can be distracted from the path that God wants us to walk. It is therefore a salutary Lenten exercise to attend carefully to the texture of Jesus’ responses.