PREACHING MATTHEW'S GOSPEL
The Gospel text appointed for this week has allusions to many, many stories throughout the Bible. We will not be able to do justice to them all. The Spirit who has just alighted on Jesus in the baptismal scene now leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for forty days and forty nights. The wilderness, of course, was the arena of temptation of Israel of old. Even the numbers match up: Israel was in the wilderness for forty years. Moses is also attested to have spent forty days and forty nights being tested by God: Deuteronomy 9:6-12, Exodus 34:27-28.
