Lent I Invocabit

Today's Gospel finds Jesus in the wilderness replying three times to the devil, citing Deuteronomy. It's informative that the three references are to words given to the children of those who perished in the wilderness, who had failed to learn the three lessons here: that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, that you should not tempt the Lord your God, and that you should have no other Gods. All three are manifest failures when the first law was given. Moses broke the tablets, in token that they have broken the law. Then he went back up the mountain to receive the law a second time, a deutero-nomy. But it was not Moses who led the Israelites' children into the promised land; it was one coming after Moses, namely Joshua; or, according to the New Testament name, Jesus. For Jesus is the greater Joshua, and the Great Israelite who perfectly kept all things the Israelites were supposed to keep. And Jesus leads his baptized children into the eternal promised land, through his own keeping of the law. The sermon.