The Temptation of Jesus
Mark 1:12-13
Every time I read about the temptation of Jesus, I cannot help but picture my time in Turkana Kenya.
I was there in the summer of 2011 to help drill wells for an internship with CMFI. Every week we would take enough food and water to go out into the bush for a week. There was always a sense of urgency in our minds. We had to get a well dug before our supplies ran out. That wasn’t the only concern in the back of our minds. The summer prior, the interns and drilling team had run into a hyena. We heard stories about the interns being up in a tree, while the drilling team killed the hyena with their spears. While we slept on our mats each night in proximity to others, the mental dance of self-talk would start about being safe when my eyes would close. I had plenty of dreams and visions of spirits attempting to coerce my mind to let them in. The two tactics I employed which seemed to ease my soul and send myself to sleep were quoting 1 John 4:9 and singing Amazing Grace.
In Sunday’s teaching at Generations Church, Kyle used the imagery of ‘dance’ to describe how The Father, Son, and Spirit move dynamically together. Like the other gospel accounts of Jesus’s life, Mark describes the event that comes next—Jesus being driven into the desert by the Spirit. Mark’s account is direct.
12 Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving him.
Within these few short sentences, Mark packs a powerful punch to remind us of a simple truth—even in the midst of difficulty we aren’t alone. You aren’t alone.
First, it was the Holy Spirit who took Jesus into the wilderness. It may seem odd that the Spirit would take Jesus to a place of desolation. It is within the wilderness that we truly understand what or whom we are dependent on. Jesus had heard that Father was well pleased with him and loved him and had encountered the Spirit. Now, Jesus was forced to depend on it in order to not give into sin.
Second, Mark meant this to be an encouragement for Roman Christians. Likely, Christians were being thrown to wild animals. Many Christians were being tempted to recant their beliefs. Mark’s words were a kind reminder that Jesus sympathizes with us.
Tim Keller in Jesus the King says, “You see, the wilderness isn’t just a random detour into trouble—it’s a battleground. Temptation isn’t impersonal—there is an actual enemy doing the tempting. Mark treats Satan as a reality, not a myth. This is certainly jarring in contemporary cultures that are skeptical of the existence of the supernatural, let alone the demonic. To us, Satan is a personification of evil left over from a pre-scientific, superstitious society. He’s just a symbol now, an ironic way to deflect personal responsibility for evil. But if you believe in God, in a good personal supernatural being, it is perfectly reasonable to believe that there are evil personal supernatural beings. The Bible says that in the world, there are very real forces of evil, and these forces are tremendously complex and intelligent. Satan, the chief of these forces, is tempting us away from the dance. That’s what we see with Adam in the Garden of Eden, and again with Jesus in the wilderness.”
When you face a terrain that seemingly provides no way forward, be reminded of God’s promise. It’s within the wilderness we have to cling to the words that are dear to our hearts, “This is my beloved child. In them, I am well pleased.”
Looking forward… On the other side of the wilderness, opportunity for ministry begins as we see in Mark. Your impact always stems from dependency on God, rather than yourself.