First Sunday of Lent Yr A 2026

Title

Life is a choice against anxiety

Outline

Sin creates anxiety and it is contagious

The human beings are living persons, able to have relationship with God as a gift from God, and unlike any other created entities. The have been give freedom to eat from the garden, for all is good and looks good and tastes good. What separates the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is that God said do not eat of it. a boundary needed for the exercise of choice, for the “I will serve” or the angels versus the “I will not serve” of the demons. The snake creates anxiety, the woman accepts the anxiety, and chooses the fruit to allay her anxiety for the “I will not serve” seems good. The rest of the chapter and on through Gen ch 11 is the transmission, multiplication, and outworking of the anxiety. The results are not pretty.

Jesus by his life calls us to the counter choice

Jesus was the son of a woman who had chosen to serve over against the anxiety that the choice provoked. After all, Joseph did come close to divorcing her. Jesus chose to obey the call of God through John to be baptized. The result is Spirit-life and a Trinity of involvement: the Father speaking to the Son and the Spirit descending. But instead of rest and joy, the Spirit sends him into the wilderness to expose him to what the devil can do. He is Moses on the mountain but Jesus is not sent to be with God but with the devil. He fasts, but he does not receive manna; instead he is hungry . (He will later give himself as manna). The devil follows the snake’s playbook: cast doubt on God and call the person not to serve God but to meet his needs by other means. Jesus needs bread, but God’s word to him had been to fast. Jesus chooses to reject his legitimate desire and its fulfillment by calling on the relationship with the Father pronounced at his baptism and instead submit to the divine word. Well, what about honor and security? The devil can also quote scripture. Jesus refuses to catch the anxiety and instead chooses trust in God, i.e. obedience or service, that will lead to mock honor before Pilate and a cross that has no angels showing up. He trusts God’s way of death and resurrection. The devil proposes power or authority, an easy resolution of Jesus way if only Jesus will recognize him as the emperor in the other world over all in this world. And, of course, Jesus refuses, for he has continually chosen to serve, obey, and worship his Father alone. It is only then, when all seems dark in this world, when Jesus has refuses every this worldly way forward, that the angels appear. This is our contrast with Genesis ch 3.

Our choice is always the same

The devil tries to point to a real good and raise the anxiety of not receiving it if we follow God and suggest a better way, an effective coping mechanism. We can follow Jesus in saying I will serve and seemingly reject the good we need, handing the anxiety to Jesus, trusting him even though we seem to be embracing the cross. And that process repeats constantly through life and as we repent for the times we listened to the devil (as Evagrius would say), and choose to follow the way of Jesus’ cross, we grow more and more one with him and we find ourselves in the company of angels.