Mark 1:9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." 12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. 14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!"
Mark's version of the wilderness temptation account is interesting both for what it says and for what it doesn't say. To begin with, Mark wants us to see the dual activity of the Spirit. On the one hand, the Spirit falls out of heaven and onto Jesus at his baptism. This is the Spirit of anointing; of power; of 'Messiaship.' The anointing of the Spirit is accompanied by the heavenly voice which completely affirms Jesus in what he's doing.
And then... it might seem.... that the Spirit does something strange, the Spirit "throws" or "casts" Jesus out into the wilderness. The above rendition from the TNIV is ok... At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness; but I don't think it fully captures the nuance of the Greek "ekballo"--which literally means to "drive out" or "cast out." Jesus was thrown out into the wilderness by the Spirit, the way John Wayne throws the little boy into the pond in "Hondo." And in Mark's gospel, this leads to more questions than answers. Why? How long did he have to stay? Did he have any choice in this? We're not told. We're not even told of the very interesting dialog that occurs between Satan and Jesus (these details are in Matthew & Luke). All we're told is that he was "tried" or "tested" by Satan.
One side-note on the temptation of Satan in Jesus life: Hebrews 4:15 is very applicable, where it says: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin. Occasionally a debate will start regarding the 'reality' of Jesus' temptation. If he's divine, the argument goes, then it's really impossible that he could've been tempted in any meaningful way to do something that would go against his nature. On the other hand, biblical Christology presents Jesus as both fully HUMAN and fully DIVINE. As a human, temptation would've had to have been real or else we could never say that Jesus "lived our life," or truly "walked our walk." Hebrews 4:15 does a nice job of holding these realities in tension. We can rest assured that Jesus knew precisely what it meant to be tempted. Further, we can rest assured that Satan never threw him any softballs. Just as Satan knows EXACTLY which of your buttons to push and when, the same can be said of his temptation of Jesus--the most pointed example of which was probably during the crucifixion when the satanic temptation came from the voice of the crowd, if you are the son of God, come down from the cross (Mt 27:40). Further, these insults during the crucifixion (and other times) indicate that Satan was more active in Jesus' life than simply during the wilderness experience. Back to Hebrews... while we can say with certainty that Jesus was tempted in every way just like us, we can also say with just as much certainty that he was VICTORIOUS. He perfectly did what we could never perfectly do. He never gave in to temptation.
The image Mark presents us with in this account is, to my mind, very vivid. It's as though Jesus has been thrown out into a Garden of Eden in reverse....or, if you will, the Garden of Eden as ruined (from the Genesis account). Satan is still there, animals are still there, but now they're wild/brute beasts; and it's no longer a garden, it's now a wilderness. It's the 'paradise' that sin created. And Jesus goes back there to do battle with Satan with the difference being that this time Satan loses. In the end, rather than Cherubim and flaming swords threatening the man, angels come and minister to him.
So what's the point? There's an obviously Lenten focus where we talk about contending against the powers of evil just as Jesus did--though of course we want to be sure not to give the misperception that we only bother doing this during the season of Lent (as if the rest of the year we are free to cave-in). But there's more. Mark in his typical succinct manner is presenting the whole of the life of faith. It begins with Baptism; and while baptism is EVERYTHING...it rescues from death and the devil; it is our adoption as children of God; it bestows everlasting life... it is also true to say that it is our baptism that enlists us in the great spiritual war of the ages. And, just as in the life of Christ, we find ourselves often engaged in this battle at some level. In the Markan narrative, it seems pretty linear: Baptism-->wilderness-->mission, although in real life, any christian can attest to the fact that the line between wilderness and mission is often blurred--and real life is anything but linear.
A good Lenten lesson here is always to come back to our Baptism. Even if the work of the mission or the foray into the wilderness has taken its toll, we are STILL BAPTIZED. No one can take that away from us. May we learn to treasure this gift of gifts and thank God daily for claiming us as his own.
Cheers,
TM
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