Lent is a forty–day journey that invites us to slow down, examine our hearts, and walk intentionally toward the cross. It is a season of repentance, reflection, and renewed focus on Christ. There is no better way to do that than by watching what happens when people encounter Jesus face to face.
In the Gospels, no one meets Jesus and walks away unchanged. The sick are healed. The ashamed are restored. The proud are unsettled. Every encounter reveals something about who He is and something about who we are.
This week, we begin at the start of Jesus’ public ministry in Gospel of Matthew 3-4. And we begin with two radically different encounters: one with John the Baptist, whom Jesus calls more than a prophet, and one with Satan himself.
First, the baptism.
Jesus comes to be baptized, and John is stunned. He knows who stands before him. Yet Jesus insists: “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” As Jesus comes up from the water, heaven opens, the Spirit descends like a dove, and the Father speaks: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Notice the timing. This declaration comes before a single miracle. Before a sermon is preached. Before a demon is cast out. Jesus is loved prior to performance. His identity is declared before His ministry begins.
Then immediately… the wilderness.
Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted. Forty days of fasting. Hunger. Isolation. And then Satan’s whisper: “If you are the Son of God…”
The strategy is clear. The temptation is not merely about bread, spectacle, or power. It is about identity. Will Jesus trust what the Father has just said about Him?
Each temptation presses that question. Turn stones to bread; meet your needs on your own terms. Throw yourself down; prove who you are through spectacle. Bow and receive the kingdoms; take the crown without the cross.
And each time, Jesus responds with Scripture, quoting Deuteronomy. Where Israel failed in the wilderness, He succeeds. He does not defeat temptation by flexing divine power, but as a Spirit-filled, Scripture-saturated human. He stands firm in His identity as the beloved Son.
This pattern should feel familiar.
Have you ever noticed how spiritual highs are often followed by spiritual lows? A moment of clarity is followed by confusion. A breakthrough in obedience is followed by insecurity. Affirmation is followed by accusation.
Why? Because when your identity becomes clear, that is precisely where the enemy attacks.
Some of us are in a wilderness right now. Spiritually dry. Emotionally fatigued. Facing subtle compromises: take control instead of trusting God’s timing. Seek approval instead of resting in His love. Shortcut obedience for comfort or influence. At the heart of every temptation is the same question: Will you trust what God says about you?
The good news is this: because Jesus stood firm, we are not fighting for identity. Instead, we are fighting from it. Through Him, we are adopted as God’s children. We are loved before performance. The Spirit who descended on Him dwells in us. The Word that sustained Him sustains us.
The wilderness is not a sign of abandonment. It is often a place of preparation. Your obedience does not earn the Father’s approval, it expresses your trust in the approval already given through Christ.
Imagine what our churches would look like if we truly lived from that reality. Not scrambling to prove ourselves. Not chasing applause. Not grasping for shortcuts. But steady, grounded, courageous.
This Lent, let us walk together as people who know who we are. When the whisper comes, “If you are really God’s child…” we answer with confidence: We are, because of Jesus.