There is a reliable familiarity about the first Sunday in Lent. It is always a day on which we have proclaimed the Gospel of the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness.

Our understanding of sin is bound to be complex because we are complex. The heart of sin is that we so change our relationship with God that we are cut adrift from our right road and lose sight of our proper relationship with the Lord and each other.

This is most powerfully portrayed by the most famous sin story in the world: a man, a woman, a serpent and an apple!

It is worth noticing that the beautiful harmonious relationship between God and us is shattered, not by God but by our attempt to take over God’s place in creation.

The involvement of a man and a woman and a tempter captures some of the complexity of sin, but the outcome is the same – we get it very badly wrong. And some crucially important relationships are destroyed or damaged.

As Jesus sets out on his ministry – which is to reverse the damage of sin – he goes to be tested. His temptations are worth noting: the first (about bread); the second who is the central figure in my life (a display on the temple heights) and the third we as God (up the mountain).

Jesus encounters each temptation by in effect saying only God and his will can do. The antidote to sin is to acknowledge the priority of God and to seek to assume again our right relationship with him. Only the way of the cross will take us there.