Lent is a journey of six weeks, from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday and Easter. It is a pilgrimage for those who want to renew their lives. I have been on tours where the tour leader, at the beginning of the journey, gives an outline of what you can expect to see and how to prepare for it. That is what I want to do as we begin the Lenten journey this morning.

The story of Jesus' temptations is to be read on this Sunday, because it provides for us the pattern for Lent. Jesus went to the desert for forty days and forty nights, to be tempted by the devil. The forty days and nights Jesus spent in the wilderness is the pattern for Lent. Lent lasts for forty days and nights, with the exception of Sundays.

That is a fact worth noting. It is instructive to know why Sundays are excepted from the se…