Today, the first Sunday of Lent, we begin by knowing we must choose. Religion can be "used" for our own benefits - protecting ourselves from becoming what we were born to be. We can either obey the Word of God, with Jesus, accepting suffering and death, trusting our God is God of life who will never let us be lost or choose our own destructive paths.

In Jesus, we have a model who lived His role as Son of God entirely pleasing to His Father. Only God is worthy of our worship, (cf Deut. 6:5). The temptation of Jesus has universal significance. Jesus, the new Israel, is the beginning of a new people, a new humanity. The basic temptation that we all face is not to love God with a unified heart, at the risk of life, at the cost of wealth. The tests and Jesus' responses to them show what kind of Messiah and Son of God Jesus really is.

His conduct during the tests makes it clear that He does not seek to satisfy His own material needs to make a miraculous display of His status and power or to enter into partnership with the devil for the sake of political authority. He emerges totally obedient to His Father and the Scriptures (Deut. 8:3; 6:16; 6:13). Having personally withstood the assaults of Satan Jesus is able to free others from their tyranny.