Thrown into the Wilderness

Mark 1:9-15
January 7, 2023
Baptism of the Lord
William G. Carter

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”


I hope you didn’t blink during the reading of the text. A lot happens in seven short verses. Jesus walks eighty miles to the Jordan River, John baptizes Jesus, God reveals the identity of Jesus, the Spirit descends upon him, Satan tempts him, angels wait on him, John is arrested, and Jesus begins to preach.

In breathless fashion, Mark introduces the Main Character of his story. In seven verses, we make a round trip from Galilee to the Jordan River, and back to the province of Galilee, and we go by way of forty days in the wilderness. When Jesus arrives home, he begins to preach, “God’s dominion is at hand.”

That's the Good News of the Gospel of Mark, announced on page 1. The signs of God's presence are inescapable. The sky is ripped open, presumably by somebody on the other side. The Spirit swoops down. The Voice that spoke the world into being begins to speak to Jesus: "You are my Son, the Beloved." No doubt about it: God has broken in.

Don Juel was a New Testament scholar. He wrote a lot of books on the Gospel of Mark, so someone thought he might be qualified to lead a Bible study with Junior High kids. He told them to open their Bibles to the first chapter of Mark, and they read this story. Dr. Juel began to tell those sleepy-eyed students how this passage can help us understand prayer. "The heavens have been parted," he said, "and so whenever we say something to God, God will hear us."

Suddenly a young student who had said a word throughout the class, began to challenge him. “That's not what the passage means,” he said. “It isn't that we have access to God, it's that God has access to us. The protection is gone. God is here among us, on the loose.”

Dr. Juel said, "The moment the words were out of his mouth, I knew he was right - - and something invaded my imagination that has reshaped my experience of Mark’s Gospel, the Christian message, God, and the world. A curtain has been torn, never to be repaired. I find myself dangerously vulnerable to the presence of God[1]

God is at hand. Advent is over, so I don't have to say, "God is on the way." And the Christmas decorations are coming down, so I cannot point to the Christ candle and merely say, "Jesus has been born." The Gospel of Mark wants us to see something else. The sky had been ripped open. It has not been stitched back together. The dome between heaven and earth has been breached.

We often hear this Bible story in the season of Lent, especially if we hear the variations that come in the books of Matthew or Luke. In those books, Jesus encounters three representative temptations. Use your power for your own self-interest, turn stones into bread. Win over the crowds by having the angels catch you when you swan dive from the tower of the temple. Kneel before the Accuser so you can gain the power and glory without going through the suffering on the cross. Those are sinister temptations. They come at the point of his strength. You see, temptation does not merely attack us at a point of weakness. If you or I had the power to turn stones to bread, we’d be tempted to use that power for ourselves.

But Mark has something else to tell us. There’s something else he wants us to see. Mark sees the power of God slicing through the clouds and falling like a dove on Jesus. Like a dove, not a hawk. It is real power, legitimate power, heavenly power – and it comes down here to make a difference. And if that Holy Spirit Dove power has come to make a difference, it is going to run up against some opposition. That’s what Mark wants us to see.

This will be one of the great themes of Mark’s book. The power of God has come upon Jesus – and there’s another player on the field. Call it “Satan,” call it “evil,” call it “hardened privilege,” call it “the status quo,” call it “the way things are always done around here,” call it whatever you want – Jesus comes to make a transformative difference for the Kingdom of God, so he’s going to get some pushback. As we move through Mark’s book this winter, this summer, and through the fall, we’re going to see that again and again.

To use Mark’s language, “the Strong Man of God has come to plunder the house of evil,”[2] and the house of evil isn’t going to like it. Not one bit. And all of this is announced today, as the sky is ripped open from the other side, the Voice says, “You’re my Beloved,” and the Holy Spirit Power descended like a dove – and hurls Jesus into the wilderness.

That’s the verb Mark uses: the Spirit hurls him, throws him, propels him. It is an intentional word, an aggressive word. In fact, that is the same verb for those occasions later in the Gospel story when Jesus “casts out” the demonic powers that harm human life. There is a good bit of force in that verb. The Spirit casts him into the wilderness and he is tested.

I’ve often wondered about this. Is this like the internship where the boss throws the young hotshot into a tangled situation and says, “Let’s see what you are made of.” Could be, don’t know. God says, “You’re my Son. You please me.” And what now? Will we throw him into the deep end and see if he can swim? Mark says there were wild beasts there.

When my older daughter was little, I took her to a wildlife preserve in Florida where she met her first alligator. It was feeding time. She looked at the big teeth. That snapper was fierce. We were impressed. In the noon sun at Sanibel Island, we stood a hundred feet away and took our safe photos. We could do that behind a fence, at high noon, on dry ground. I wouldn’t be interested in meeting that gator in a warm pool at midnight.

Why would the Spirit, God’s Own Spirit, throw Jesus into a treacherous situation? The land around the lower part of the Jordan River is barren and dry. There’s no food. Precious little drinking water. It’s near the lowest altitude on the planet. People would wander out there and get lost. Or worse.

In September 1969, the Most Rev. James Pike, former Episcopal bishop of California rented a car from Bethlehem of Judea and drove south of Jericho toward that wilderness. The road was washed out, so he and his wife had to turn around. The tires got stuck in a rut. They didn’t know what to do. They thought they knew way back to Jericho, so they started to climb the canyon walls.

Soon Bishop Pike fell exhausted. His wife Diana found some shade for him, declaring, “I’m getting us some help.” Fourteen hours later, she stumbled out of the desert, got some help, and led them back to her vehicle. But alas, her husband had wandered off. After three days of 100-degree heat, the search was called off. Somebody found his body two days after that.[3] There was evidence he had grown delirious and confused. Cast into the wilderness, and the wilderness won.

What does Mark want us to see when he says, “The Spirit of God cast Jesus into the wilderness”? Forty days is a long time to ramble around a place like that, especially if there are wild beasts out there, to say nothing of Satan. Certainly, Mark wants us to take stock of the angels. He says there were angels out there, taking care of him. It’s the only time angels appear in his book.[4]

We are to see that Jesus had heavenly help, especially under such dire circumstances. Since heaven has been ripped open, the angels could come freely at the direction of God. They could help Jesus. Mark wants to know that, too. There is a cosmic battle going on, good against evil. Jesus has been thrown into it and has been provided the support he needed. If you’re going up against Satan and the wild beasts, and the Holy Spirit has come upon you like a gentle dove, you may need to backup.

But here’s what I believe Mark also wants us to see: the baptism is only the beginning. When somebody is baptized, they are not finished. They are only beginning a journey. The message at the baptism of Jesus is an analogy of God’s message at our baptisms, namely, we are God’s Beloved children. God’s good pleasure, his grace, is sufficient to claim us as his own. But we still have a way to go. A long way.

The baptized life is a life of continuing formation. Let’s not forget that. The Holy Spirit calls us to keep working out the implications of God’s hand on our lives. For Jesus, it was quite dramatic. Forty days in the desert. Seeking clarity to discern a temptation and avoid it. Asking for strength when thrown into a wilderness situation. Imagine – and it should not be hard – being stuck in a snowstorm for days and nights, with no power. After a few days, you would discover what you’re made of. And you also might discover where your help is coming from.

So, welcome to a year with the Gospel of Mark. Jesus goes immediately here, and immediately there, all the time casting out demons and preaching that everything belongs to God. Those who encountered him found him to be both comforting and disruptive, which is the way the Gospel works. God ripped open the sky and has come in Jesus of Nazareth. The tired old status quo has broken. It’s time for everything to change.

And God’s good story goes on.

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(c) William G. Carter. All rights reserved.

[1] Donald H. Juel, “Your Word is Truth: Some Reflections on a Hard Saying, Princeton Seminary Bulletin XVII/1 (February 1996) 20-22.

[2] From the enigmatic parable of Mark 3:27.

[3] The sad story is told online at https://www.itsgila.com/headlinersbishoppike.htm

[4] Angels are mentioned a few times in Mark’s Gospel. This is the only time they appear.