w/c 27th February

Our reading this week is Matthew 4:1-11

The Temptation of Jesus

4 Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert. He was taken there to be tempted by the devil. ² Jesus ate nothing for 40 days and nights. After this, he was very hungry. ³ The devil came to tempt him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these rocks to become bread.”

⁴ Jesus answered him, “The Scriptures say,

‘It is not just bread that keeps people alive.
    Their lives depend on what God says.’”

⁵ Then the devil led Jesus to the holy city of Jerusalem and put him on a high place at the edge of the Temple area. ⁶ He said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, jump off, because the Scriptures say,

‘God will command his angels to help you,
    and their hands will catch you,
so that you will not hit your foot on a rock.’”

⁷ Jesus answered, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”

⁸ Then the devil led Jesus to the top of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all the wonderful things in them. ⁹ The devil said, “If you will bow down and worship me, I will give you all these things.”

¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “Get away from me, Satan! The Scriptures say,

‘You must worship the Lord your God.
    Serve only him!’”

¹¹ So the devil left him. Then some angels came to Jesus and helped him.

Prayer for the week:

Dear God,

Help us to be the best we can be,

To be wise in the worst of times,

To endure through the struggle,

Amen

In school:

In school this week we have thought about Lent and Jesus in the wilderness. 

We reminded ourselves that Jesus was Baptised By John and the Holy Spirit visited him in the form of a dove. 

 ‘The Baptism of Christ’ by Pheoris West, an artist in America. 

We watched a video about the temptation of Jesus. 

The three temptations presented to Jesus helped to explain his identity:

- Jesus refused the first temptation of turning stones into bread because he knew that he should only use his power to help others, not himself.
- By refusing the second temptation of jumping off a high point, Jesus was demonstrating that he knew that God loved him and that he shouldn’t test his father in heaven in this way.
- Jesus turned down the third temptation of worshipping the devil because he knew that he should only worship and obey God.

Jesus knew that his strength, talents, skills, patience, kindness and love all came God. When we think about our own identity, we can reflect on all the things that we are good at and the different roles that we play in people’s lives.

We thought about what makes us special and how we could use our talents to help others. 

Questions to think about at home:

Have you ever fasted or given up something either for Lent or some other time? What were the challenges and temptations you faced?

When you are tempted to do something or say something you shouldn’t how do you overcome that temptation?

Jesus used words of scripture to resist temptation. How can the Bible help you?