Jesus Goes to Battle with the Devil

About this episode

This episode discusses Jesus's battle with the Devil in the desert as a precursor to his public ministry and the significance of this event in the context of Lent.

In this Sunday's "Greatest Hits" of Scripture readings presented to us, we hear the story of how man and woman fell pray to the Devil's temptation and were exiled to the desert wilderness. In today's Gospel, where does Jesus go immediately before beginning his public ministry? He goes precisely into the desert wilderness, in search of the exiled Adam and Eve, but first he must contend with the Devil. Jesus does not waver or cower in fear before the Devil like our first parents did, but he goes forth as a Warrior going into Battle, and he triumphs over the Devil's temptations! Jesus will continue to win each battle against Satan until our Enemy is definitively defeated in the Cross and Resurrection. This is why we begin our Lenten journey with Jesus's first battle against the Devil, and we'll end it with His final one: Jesus's victory over sin and death on Easter Sunday of the Resurrection.

Topics covered

• temptation
• spiritual warfare
• Lent
• Gospel
• Jesus
• Devil

Keywords

• battle
• victory
• sin
• death
• Resurrection

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Greatest Hits, Scripture, Gospel

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