On the First Sunday in Lent

2 Corinthians 6.1-10, Matthew 4.1-11

With this Sunday’s lessons, we enter Lent proper. The ‘Gesima-tide’ mini-season of Lent preparation, of thinking about perseverance and grace, suffering and faith, love and mercy, has ended. Starting with last Wednesday, we are well and truly in the season of Lent. And indeed, the readings for the First Sunday in Lent provide a helpful introduction to the season. As John Boys puts it in his Exposition, “it is ordered by the Church at the beginning of Lent aptly, that Paul in the Epistle should teach us how to fast by lesson, and Christ in the Gospel how to fast by example.”