[Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash.]
At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. [Mark 1:12-13 NIV]
We have already observed two interesting features about Mark's Gospel which are both illustrated here. Firstly, he uses the word 'immediately' or 'at once' [Greek - eutheos] and this is a favourite word with the writer of the second Gospel. [See Day Share entitled, 'Mark is in a hurry' 08/01/2022] We are given a very important lesson for this word. Jesus has just been given prominence with the voice from heaven proclaiming that the Son whom the Father loves and with whom He is well pleased. The Holy Spirit has just taken residence on his human body at His baptism. The Satan strikes. When we are on a high and things are going well for us, is Satan's opportunity to strike. There was no pride inherent in Jesus to be influenced by these events but we are so easily impressed with sudden elevation and Satan knows our weaknesses.
The other feature is the brevity of this description in Mark's Gospel compared to the other Gospels. It only takes up two verses in Mark compared to 11 verses in Matthew's Gospel and 13 verses in Luke's Gospel. If we go further and compare the number of words used in these three Gospels this reinforces the point. Matthew uses 219 words; Luke takes 242 words but Mark completes the account of the temptation in only 32 words [Comparison from the New International Version]. Maybe you would prefer if I could take a leaf out of Mark's book in Day Share!
And yet Mark covers the salient points
Role of the Holy Spirit in driving Jesus into the desert place
Scene of the temptation - wilderness
Duration of the temptation - 40 days
Activity of Satan
Presence of wild animals (to be expected in such an inhospitable place)
Angels in attendance
This was a very real experience for Jesus. He had an encounter with the Prince of this World. In the first book of the Old Testament, it was prophesied that there would be a battle between Satan and Jesus:
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” [Genesis 3:15 NIV]
This is God speaking to Satan after he had tempted Adam and Eve to sin in the Garden of Eden. This is only stage one in the battle - the real battle took place at Calvary. Notice that Jesus delivered a fatal blow to Satan - a blow to the head. He is already defeated. However, in the course of this battle, our Saviour suffered injury which left its mark on Him - 'you (Satan) will strike his heel.' The other Gospels record that Satan tried to tempt Jesus to avoid the cross and go for the glory without the suffering.
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” [Matthew 4:8-10 NIV]
When Satan tempts us to sin, we need to respond in the same way as Jesus, "Away from me." Also, Jesus showed how well versed He was in the Scriptures. Satan knows the Bible and he will misquote and take the Scripture out of its context. Only recently, I felt that Satan was doing that with me. We need to be vigilant and prayerful because Satan is powerful and active. However, we can rejoice that we are on the victory side because he has been defeated. Satan is powerful but the captain of our salvation is all-powerful.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to recognise that when things appear to be going well in my life, then I need to be on my guard and not get complacent and eventually let my defences down!
After years of being involved in large engineering projects, I became very much aware that no matter how well we planned for what we believed was every potential unforeseen circumstance, there was always something unexpected that would happen. And although it may have been something relatively minor, it could have major negative consequences on the the progression and eventual success of the project. The same scenario can apply to our individual lives.
1 Peter 5:8-9 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the…
Have no answers myself but had these questions for a while
Question on this Robert - from the 40 days in the wilderness, does Jesus then actually go in the flesh to the places in the 3 Temptations, or is he always in the wilderness and in fact what Mt and Lk describe are not actual physical events but instead all take place in a vision/in the spirit? E.g. was he actually on the temple corner height where others would have seen him (and it was always under guard) or was this in a visionary encounter. If vision then what does 'jump of the edge' then actually mean? Either way, how does either scenario then have a bearing on what is actually taking place?