Understanding Jesus' Temptations (1)
| At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. (Mark1:12-13) |
Immediately after the baptism ("at once") Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit to a place of solitude. This place of isolation would become a place of testing. Mark doesn't go into the temptation in detail... His quick handling of this is his way of assuring us that there is no way that Jesus' identification with our brokenness meant that He would give in to temptation.
Traditionally this period of 40 is a time of preparation. The Spirit brought Jesus to the wilderness as preparation for the ministry He had embraced. Now it would be tested...
Remember that God doesn't tempt - Satan did the tempting and sometimes God will allow that to happen to us too. The Father knew that Jesus would resist temptation and with the power of the Spirit working in us, so should we.
When we commit ourselves to serious ministry, we will often be prompted by the Spirit to draw aside for preparation. During that time of preparation, we may be tempted to take shortcuts, grasp for power or try to be "impressive."
It is not the Spirit tempting us - it is our own sinful nature that provides the window of opportunity that the devil tries to wriggle through. The Spirit may take us to a lonely place of preparation and there we may well be tempted. It is through the Spirit's power that we must overcome.
He will send His angels to attend us too...
(For the rest of the week we'll dig into the temptations in more detail...)
CHALLENGE: Mark presents temptation as a wild and primal event. Temptations often catch us in the wildernis - when things are wild and we're off balance. Think back on your life when it has been like this... How will you handle the next time?
