At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness … - Mark 1:12

 Today's Scripture Reading (October 21, 2020): Mark 1

Have you ever had something that you felt that you just had to do? A moment when to not act was unthinkable. In my senior year in High School, I watched as a teacher publicly berated a student in class for something that I knew she didn't do. (Admittedly, I knew she didn't do it because I was also aware of the offender's identity.) As the girl ran from the class in tears, I stood up and started to make my way toward the teacher's desk. Alarm sprang up within my circle of friends as they implored me to sit back down, but at that moment, that did not seem to be a possible response. Something inside of me compelled me to confront a teacher that I had seen as no different from any of the other bullies in the school for the past couple of years. I did not like bullies when they were my peers, and I was not any more enamored with them when the bullies turned into teachers. And on this day, the bully that sat behind the teacher's desk in my Chemistry class was going to get what I felt he deserved, a tongue lashing like the ones he liked to deal out. I would get kicked out of the class for my trouble, but I was okay with that. (As an aside, years later, I would become somewhat reconciled with the teacher, and I think as adults we developed a begrudging respect for the challenges and abilities we both possessed.) But at the moment, I seemed to be driven toward the confrontation with my teacher.

The NIV says that the Spirit "sent" Jesus into the wilderness. But the word is a little too gentle. Some other translations argue that the Spirit "drove" him into the wilderness, which is understandable since the word that Mark uses here is the same as the one used when Jesus "drove" demons out of possessed people. Jesus was compelled by the Spirit to go into the wilderness, or maybe it might be appropriate to say that the Spirit "cast him out" of the public eye and into the seclusion of the desert. It was something that Jesus simply felt that he had to do. The forty days that he would spend in the wilderness would be when he would experience his moments of temptation, and likely more than just the three that we celebrate in the biblical text. Those were probably the highlights of the temptation Jesus experienced during this time alone. But the purpose of the solitary experience was to allow Jesus to consider the months that now lie before him. Here, the plan for the coming ministry was laid out and considered. It was in the wilderness that the coming battle was evaluated. And in the process, Satan tried and failed to deflect Jesus from the purpose of his incarnation.

All of this was something that Jesus was just "driven" or compelled to do.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Luke 3