Tempted as we are but without sin.

In my journey through the Gospel of Mark the statements of verses 12 and 13 of chapter one caused me to hit a mental pause button. These verses declare that following His baptism, Jesus was driven "immediately" into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, and it was in the wilderness that Jesus was tempted by Satan.

Mark's account of Jesus' temptation by Satan is brief compared to the other two synoptic Gospels. Matthew and Luke both offer us more information in their account of Jesus’ experience in the wilderness by mentioning three temptations each followed by the means in which Jesus overcame those temptations. Mark's account does not give us that information. In fact, Mark’s account is so brief that it would be easy for us to read over it and move on without allowing what he tells us to sink into our minds.

Take a moment to read again those two verses. Don’t be like me by “speed reading” over these verses and thereby miss the vast truths they contain.

When I intentionally read and reread these verses over and over again, three things began to stand out in my mind as important truths for me to consider:
(1) Jesus was "driven" out from where He was into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit;
(2) Jesus was continuously tempted by Satan during the forty days in the wilderness; and
(3) Jesus received divine assistance in the midst of His temptations.

The language of the New Testament suggests a dramatic scene that at first seems to be a paradox in my normal thoughts about God and the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit intentionally “drove, compel, or expelled by force” Jesus into the wilderness whereby He was thus tempted by Satan.

At first, that seems problematic to me because it suggests that the Holy Spirit purposefully put Jesus in harms way to be tempted by the prince of evil himself – i.e., Satan. Not just to be tempted three times but the wording of the text suggests that Jesus underwent a continuous bombardment of temptations. I think the other two synoptic Gospels mention three specific temptations which serve most likely to be a representative sample of what Jesus endured on my behalf rather than a definitive list. Satan no doubt tried every trick in the book to tempt Jesus to sin – but he failed in every attempt.

Satan’s failure was not because Jesus was incapable of sinning. I believe Jesus could have sinned but instead His resisted Satan’s temptations.

At first, that thought seemed almost to be blasphemous until I remembered the passage in Hebrews 4:14-16 about Jesus being my Great High Priest – “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” The temptations that Jesus resisted in the wilderness and during His earthly ministry were real temptations otherwise He could not “sympathize” or relate to my human struggle. I personally find comfort in knowing that I have a Great High Priest who experienced the everyday temptations of life just like me. The only difference being that He did so without sinning. His ability to overcome temptations gives me hope.

We are not told by Mark the kind of divine assistants that Jesus received during this concentrated period of temptations but the text does mention the presence of “angels” who ministered to Him. Now as I reflect on the hope that Jesus’ victory over temptations is for me, I don’t believe He received any special assistance or special favors that aren’t also available to me in my daily human journey.

Again I’m reminded that His temptations were real and He could have sinned but He didn’t. Why? What made the difference? Why is it that most often I chose to yield to the temptations? How can I experience the same kind of victory over temptations like Jesus?

I will explore this more as the journey continues.

Awesome Video

I encourage you to take a moment and watch this video. We live in a great county, and I love this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ETrr-XHBjE

Affirmation

I must do better updating my blog. For those who actually check it occasionally I apologize; it would be helpful I suppose if you are a faithful reader of anyone's blogs to drop a comment from time to time to stay in touch or to acknowledge you read their blog. For me personally I would consider it an encouragement that someone out there in cyber-space took a moment of their time to read along with me.

I'm reading through the Gospel of Mark as my previous posts have mentioned. One of the things that I trying to do is learn to read through a book of the Bible in a single setting several times before trying to examine it on a verse by verse basis. You might try it; let me know if you find it helpful grasping the overall sense of the author's purpose.

Another helpful tip in study the Gospel of Mark that I'm currently working on is identifying the paragraphs throughout the whole Gospel, and writing a single sentence to describe the theme or purpose of that paragraph. Too often in the past, I practiced like many of you poor Bible Study skills by picking verses and words out without understanding their proper context and meaning in the overall purpose for the writing of the Gospel.

One of those paragraphs is Mark 1:9-11. This paragraph deals with the baptism of Jesus. It would be important to keep in mind that this baptism was not what we understand today as "Christian" or "Believer's" baptism. This was an Jewish baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (v. 1:4). Jesus' participation in this baptism was not because He needed to repent or be forgiven, but His baptism was sign of identification with the need of all sinful humanity who needed to repent and be forgiven; His baptism certainly agreed with the overall purpose of His incarnation. Jesus' baptism seems to mark the inauguration of Jesus' public ministry.

What I found to be intriguing was the two fold affirmation that Jesus received. As Jesus came up out of the water (a baptism of immersion), immediately the heavens tore open and the Holy Spirit in the likeness of a dove descended upon Jesus, and the voice of God audibly spoke. Trying to grasp what it must have been like to personally witness this event as one standing on the banks of the Jordon River intrigues me, everyone present saw the dove and heard the voice, but I imagine the only person who fully understood in that moment the significance of their meaning was Jesus Himself.

I believe the Spirit's anointing and the voice of God the Father was an important moment for Jesus. It was an affirmation of His life and His purpose for coming. NOW, if the Son of God needed affirmation, how much more you and I.

We live in a culture where people are quick to tear you down with their words and actions. We all know what it's like. I was reminded in the passage of the importance of affirmation. Maybe you can relate to that as well. Join me in working on being a person who affirms someone today. I realize for some you might have to look real hard, but find something today to affirm your spouse, children or grandchildren, neighbor, and co-workers, etc. Be genuine in your affirmation.

I want to become a person who is quick to authentically affirm others. How about you?