Prepared in the Wilderness

Observe. Mark 1:9-13 is compressed. Jesus is baptized, the Spirit descends like a dove, the Father speaks, and then the same Spirit sends Jesus out into the wilderness. Mark's verb is strong; the Spirit drives him. He is there forty days, tempted by Satan, with the wild animals, and angels attend him. Mark gives none of the three temptations Matthew and Luke record. He only tells us it happened and that it was hard.

Interpret. The wilderness in Scripture is the place of testing and of meeting God. Israel spent forty years there after the exodus, and failed many of its tests. Jesus spends forty days there and does not fail. Mark is quietly showing that the story of God's people is being lived again by one who will get it right. The Spirit's leading is not only toward comfort; sometimes it is straight into the hard place, because that is where faithfulness is proven and where the Father's word is held onto in the dark.

Apply. Christians sometimes assume that difficulty means they have wandered off course. This passage suggests that it can mean the opposite. The one whom God had just called beloved was led directly into trial, and was not abandoned there. Where in your life does the wilderness feel like a sign of God's absence, when it might be the place he is forming you? What does it mean that angels attended Jesus, and that you also are not alone? How might you hold onto the Father's word about you when the testing comes?