Revisiting the Wilderness

Scripture:

Mark 1:12   And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. ¹³ He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Observation:

Mark’s version of the temptation of Christ is extremely short compared to other gospel writers. The tendency is to try and put Mark into the framework of the others, but instead, it’s good to simply take it for what he says. There is something significant about the immediacy of the event of the Spirit driving Jesus into the wilderness from the moment of his baptism. It’s in the moment, when Jesus says “yes” to the call of the Father, that he is sent out into the wilderness. 

This wilderness can represent several different journeys, from that of Adam, to Moses to Elijah. What if, however, Mark wants us to revisit Genesis 3 in this wilderness scene?  Kent Brower puts it this way, “Adam was tempted and yielded; Jesus (it is implied) did not. Thus, the story of Jesus and the conflict on which he is about to embark is far beyond the level of the mundane. The opposition to God is cosmic in scale; the battle is far greater than that perceived by those who thought the Romans were the only issue. They turn out to be ciphers for the wider opposition to God’s big purposes, his announcement of the good news of the kingdom. And that is precisely what happens next. (Brower, Kent. NBBC, Mark: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition . Nazarene Publishing House. Kindle Edition.) What Adam failed to do, Jesus will conquer by his successful journey through the wilderness. 

Application:

Our Daily Homily by F. B. Meyer speaks powerfully on this revisiting of the wilderness. The following is my paraphrase: 

In what different circumstances does the last Adam become the first! The first Adam began in a garden which the Lord God had planted; but his great Antitype, Jesus, is found in a wilderness, where he encountered the thorns that were the result of that original sin. Whereas the first Adam transformed the garden into a wilderness, the last will convert all desert places into gardens- whether those gardens are found in the heart, or the world around — so that they shall blossom as the rose.

To the first Adam the beasts came, that he might name them; but at the coming of the last Adam they were wild. “He was with the wild beasts.” Yet these beats were tame to the pure manhood of the first Adam, “He had dominion over the works of God’s hands.” God had placed on the first Adam’s head a crown of royalty, to rule over all the other creatures of the earth. While Adam lost this crown, isn’t it true that we have seen a relationship of beauty with the creatures in the lives of holy people such as St. Francis of Assisi. Isn’t it true that someday, in God’s new heaven and earth, children will play, unhurt by the wild beasts of the forest? 

So now, dear children of our Lord, we live between the wild beasts and the angels. On the one side of our lives we touche the lower beasts, and on the other we are able to reach up to the heavens. At every moment we are asked to choose between the two. Your body may call you one way and your spirit another. Be sure to deny the lower appetites; rule them; and allow your soul to be the king and lord of the decisions you make in your life. Make those temptations stand at a distance, crouched low, just like the lions in the den with Daniel. Ask Jesus, your Lord, to help you master these temptations, or else you will miss out on the angels of God who are near, coming to encamp around you and minister to you, as an heir of salvation. 

It was here in Jesus’ wilderness that all things began to be set anew. The wilderness had to be revisited to begin the great reversal. Jesus, through his actions would set everything right again and create a pathway for us to be in eternal fellowship with him. There are times when we go through our own wilderness experiences. It may be helpful to remember the journey on which Christ found himself, and the ways in which we can also learn and grow through our wildernesses. He was able to come out without succumbing to temptation, and so can we, when we follow closely after him, living our lives in the power of his Spirit. 

Prayer:

Lord. Lead me through the wilderness. Amen.