This week’s gospel tells of Jesus’ temptation in the desert. His forty-day fast becomes the basis of our Lenten pilgrimage. In the early church Lent was a time of intense preparation for those to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. This focus on the meaning of faith is at the heart of our Lenten journey to the baptismal waters of Easter. Hungry for God’s grace, we receive the bread of life to nourish us for the temptations that face us in the days ahead.
Lent is a season of grace, but it is undoubtedly a Costly Grace. Lent calls us to take God’s grace seriously and reminds us of its full cost. Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined the phrases “costly grace” and “cheap grace,” encouraging Christians to a life of costly discipleship in response to the great cost of Christ’s death on Good Friday. Throughout the forty days of Lent, we are invited into Costly Grace: “Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ” (Bonhoeffer).
title image: Fresco of the temptation of Jesus, (19th century), Altlerchenfelder Kirche, Vienna, Austria. Photo by jozef sedmak. Copyright © Alamy Stock Photo. Used by permission.