Been there, experienced that.

Lent lasts forty days excluding Sundays, because as celebrations of the Resurrection of Jesus they are always feast days and never fast days.

These forty days recall Christ’s fasting and temptation in the wilderness following his baptism by John in the Jordan River. And because we’re in Year B of the three-year Sunday Lectionary cycle, this Sunday’s Gospel comes from Mark (Matthew is Year A, Luke is Year C). As opposed to Matthew and Luke, who give a lot more detail, Marks account is astoundingly brief. The entire forty days take up only two quick sentences in Mark 1. That’s it. We get the specific content of the three temptations Jesus faced in Matthew and Luke.

But still, even in Mark’s brevity, the stunning point is clear: we have a God who knows by experience what it’s like to be tempted and tried. He’s been in the wilderness...and knows—truly knows—what we face every day.