First Sunday of Lent, cycle A

Matthew 4:1 - 11
You can never tell what a person really feels like inside, but if the inside is anything like the outside, my ten year old grandson has a well developed sense of who he is.  He isn't at all shy, and will engage anyone in conversation, and hold his own.  Even though he is the youngest of five boys, he hasn’t got a trace of an inferiority complex.  He goes door to door to his neighbors to see if they might have a dog that he could walk, for a fee of course; he’s an entrepreneur..  It’s a good thing to know who you are, to be comfortable in your own skin, as they say.  And a lot of us aren’t.  We worry about how we look, about making mistakes in the way we speak, about being looked down on by people we respect.  There are whole sections of book stores devoted to helping us get to know ourselves better.
The gospel we’ve just heard is sometimes seen as an example of how clever Jesus is, as he matches the devil quote for quote, from scripture.  It’s also sometimes seen as a model for how we should resist temptation.  But remember, just before going out into the desert Jesus was being baptized, and heard the voice of the Father saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”:  And that is the real temptation Jesus faces.
If you are God’s beloved son, why are you hungry?  God wouldn't want his son to starve, would he?  Change these stones into bread.
If you are God’s beloved son, what are you doing out in the desert?  Show the world that you are His son, jump off that tower and let the angels catch you.  After all, God wouldn’t let anything happen to his beloved Son, right?
If you are God’s beloved son, take your rightful place and rule over the world.  That’s what God would want for his son, right?  And I can make it happen, just ask. 
In other words, Jesus is being tempted just like Adam and Eve were tempted.  If you are really God’s friends, if he really created you in his image and likeness, why did he tell you not to eat the fruit of that tree?  I bet he’s afraid you will become gods like Him. 
Our sense of self is fragile; most of us can think of a lot of things about us we’d like to change.  I could stand growing some hair on my head.  More seriously, I don’t really like getting old and knowing that there is much less life ahead of me than behind me.  I don’t like losing loved ones or being separated from my children and grandchildren.  And I really don’t like the fact that I keep confessing the same things every time I receive the sacrament of reconciliation. And you probably can think of a lot of things in your own life that you wish were different, that threaten your sense of self. 
But here’s the thing.  When God told Jesus that he was His beloved son, Jesus hadn’t really done anything except be baptized.  And when God gave Adam and Eve life, when He created them in his own image, when he gave them each other and Paradise to live in, They hadn’t really done anything to deserve all this.  And when we are baptized, whether as babies or adults, we haven't done anything to deserve what we become, which is to become a son or daughter of God the Father.  And at that moment he says to us, as he said to JEsus, and probably to Adam and Eve, “You are my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”
But from that moment on, the world, the devil, and even our own minds and bodies begin to question that. If I am God’s beloved, why am I living paycheck to paycheck?  If I am God’s beloved, why did He take my husband, my wife, my child, my parents from me?  If I am God’s beloved,  why do I have chronic pain that no doctor seems to be able to do anything about? 
And even Jesus, there for a moment on the cross, seemed to say, “If I am God’s beloved, why has God forsaken me?”  And of course, moments later, Jesus knows that even death can’t change the fact that He is God’s beloved: “Father”, he says, because he is God’s Son, “into your hands I commend my spirit.” 
On this first Sunday of Lent, let us recognize that despite everything, despite our failure, our sins, our shaky sense of self, we remain God’s beloved son, His beloved daughter; and that doesn’t change even if we decide we want nothing to do with Him.  When Adam and Eve left the garden, lost their Paradise, it says in the book of Genesis that God himself made clothing for them.  Justice demanded that they become mortal, that they take on all the failings of being human.  Mercy gave them clothing to wear; Mercy sent a savior, because they remained God’s beloved son and daughter.  And so do we, every day, every hour.