Lord of the Streets, Houston
February 22, 2026
1 Lent
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Psalm 32
Matthew 4:1-11
Can you imagine if an Olympic athlete was so excited at having made it to the Olympics that they said, “Yea, I made it! Now I think I’ll rest up until my event and stop all preparation. I mean, I’m really good, so I’ll just go out there and assume it’ll be fine.” Yeah, probably not going to work out all that great. The athletes for the Olympics, or any great athletes train for years to master their sport. Even if they have huge natural talent, they gotta practice and learn, hone their skills, train their bodies, and discipline their minds to be able to compete at an elite level. Take the most naturally talented skater in the world with very little training, and throw them into the Olympics against lesser talents who have trained for years, and the natural talent guy is gonna come in last.
So, when “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, [and] fasted forty days and forty nights,” it wasn’t the first time that he had fasted or resisted temptation. We’re not told of other times that he fasted or resisted temptation throughout his life, but we know he did so because that’s how human beings work. Jesus’ natural talent at resisting temptation was through the roof, being God and all, but he was also human, so he still had to train his body and discipline his mind to be able to make it through those 40 days. If you’ve never fasted before or resisted any great temptation, and then you try it out for the first time for forty days, you ain’t gonna make it.
That would be like a 30-year-old, out of shape, non-athlete strapping on a pair of skis or ice skates and trying to win gold at the Olympics. It’s not gonna happen. You’d crash out, embarrass yourself, and possibly die. Winning the Olympics, or even getting to the Olympics, again takes years of training, years of dedication to your sport, years of controlling and conditioning your body, years of discipline.
Jesus won the gold in that forty day fast and resisting temptation, and to do so, he needed years of training, years of controlling his body and mind, years of discipline. He grew up learning Torah, the Jewish scriptures, and he grew up learning the ways of life of the Jewish people. He grew up with a life of prayer. Jesus lived a life of walking with God throughout his days. He followed the law, followed God’s commandments, and grew into the way of love though his childhood and into his adulthood. Jesus also grew up following the way of repentance. He chose to be baptized when John was baptizing people in the river Jordan, and he followed the way of repentance in the yearly Jewish Day of Atonement. Whether he needed it or not, Jesus followed the way of repentance, looking at your life and seeing how you might change to more fully walk in the way of love.
We are now in the Christian season of repentance, Lent, a season of discipline, a season of penitence, a season of fasting.
I was asked last week, “Why do we fast? What’s the purpose?” Well, there are several reasons why someone might fast. With a traditional fast, you simply don’t eat from sunup to sundown. So, you have and early breakfast, then you don’t eat again until a late dinner, after the sun has set.
Why in the world would someone do something so crazy? It teaches us discipline. When we’re hungry during the day, we discipline our bodies and discipline our minds to overcome that hunger and wait to eat until after sundown. Fasting teaches us control over our bodies and our desires. Fasting also teaches us to trust in God as we remember that even as we hunger for food, we also hunger for unity with God, unity with one another. Our food is not only the physical food we eat, but also to follow in the way of love. Fasting is meant to remind us to feed ourselves on the way of loving God and loving others.
So, there are other fasts we can choose. Rather than the traditional daily fast from food, we can choose to fast from some particular thing, as you hear people giving up something for Lent. Whatever it is you give up, the point is the same. We’re teaching ourselves to discipline our bodies and minds, to overcome our desires, and to live more fully the way of love.
Then, with the discipline of fasting, we’re more prepared to give up things that actually matter. Following the way of Jesus, we give up things like punching people in the face when they bothered us, shouting at others, stealing, lying. What about a fast from taking advantage of others? What about a fast from assuming the worst in other people? What about a fast from letting anger guide us?
Jesus fasted and disciplined his body and mind over his whole life. He fasted from things like over-charging folks for what he made in his carpenter shop. He fasted from deciding that prayer and committing himself to the way of love was getting boring and he wanted to just stop working at it for a few months. Jesus fasted from assuming that because he was God, he didn’t have to work that hard at repentance and being kind and loving toward others. “Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself…” (Philippians 2:6-7). Jesus disciplined himself, fasting, working hard at living a life in which he honored others, controlling his own desires and emotions.
That is why we fast during the season of Lent.
We fast to discipline our bodies during the season of penitence. Now, penitence is a form of prayer in which we confess our sins, we make things right with others when possible, and we work to change our lives so we stop harming others. Penitence is a prayer that Jesus practiced, whether he needed to or not.
More than saying “sorry” when we mess up, Penitence is a form of prayer which requires discipline, dedication, and practice. Penitence is a prayer that is done all the time, day in and day out. Sometimes you’re going to be voicing a prayer to God, confessing to God ways that you’ve harmed others. Other times, no one’s going to know that you’re praying, such when you tell someone you were wrong for how you treated them, and you see if you can do something to make it right. That’s just making amends to people, and that’s part of the prayer of repentance.
That prayer takes practice. Likely our first response when we do something wrong to someone is to deny it, try to minimize it, blame someone else, or just hope don’t get caught. Well, that’s the easy way, no work required, and it works out about as well as a thirty-year-old, out of shape, non-athlete throwing on a pair of skates and jumping into the Olympics. You get hurt. Others get hurt. No one wins.
Penitence requires practice, making a habit out of admitting our faults and trying to make things right with other people. We practice that over and over, making it our way of life, and every time we do, that is part of the prayer of penitence. Through discipline, dedication, and practice, penitence becomes a way of life, and the results are healing and love.
Now, one man said that he couldn’t admit to people when he wronged them because if he told this one guy that he had stollen from him, then he’d get his ass beat. “Ok,” I said, “so get your ass beat.” Then keep on doing the right thing. Keep on praying the prayer of penitence. If you know you’re going to fess up when you wrong someone and you know you’re going to get your ass beat when you do, then you might stop stealing from people. Then you might have more people on your side, and you won’t be at odds with everyone around you. You wouldn’t have to worry constantly about someone wanting to beat your ass.
It sounds like a lot of work. It is, and it’s also freedom. Eliod Kipchoge, Olympic gold medalist and world champion marathon runner said, “Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions.” Only the disciplined ones are free. The undisciplined ones are slaves to moods and passions.
You can’t just strap on a pair of skates or skis and compete in the Olympics. Jesus didn’t just decide one day it would be a really good idea to go hungry for a month. He practiced disciplining his body for years so that he wasn’t a slave to his moods and his passions. Jesus disciplined his body and mind and dedicated his life to the way of love so that when the devil’s temptations came, he was free. Jesus was free to be more powerful than the temptations of the devil. Rather than be a slave to his passions and a slave to his moods, Jesus was free because of his discipline, dedication, and practice, and so can we be.
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