Mark 1:12-13 The Victory in the Desert

 

Mark 1:12-13 is Mark’s account of the temptation of Jesus in the desert. It is quite brief since in Mark’s gospel, the main concern is to lead to reader to Jesus’ ministry. This thumbnail-like presentation of the temptation, however, anticipates many of the episodes in Jesus’ ministry and his convictions regarding his own mission.

1. The temptation that Jesus undergoes in the desert will be continued in his confrontation with the scribes and the Pharisees who will be testing him (8:11, 10:2, 12:15).

2. Satan tempts Jesus continually here for forty days, yet the interlocutors of Jesus will identify Satan as the one who gives Jesus the power to cast out demons (3:20f). Finally, Peter himself takes on the guise of Satan to dissuade Jesus from completing his mission as the Suffering Messiah (8:33)

3. The desert is the place of demons and wild animals. But Jesus would go there to pray (1:35) and when he got known in the towns, he was forced to stay there (1:45). He would even ask his disciples to retire to desert places (6:31.32). In was in the desert where he multiplied loaves and fishes to feed the hungry crowd that followed him (6:35).

4. The Spirit that drives Jesus into the desert is the same one that had descended upon him like a dove during his baptism (1:10). Jesus, the Baptist had said, will baptize in the power of this Spirit (1:8) in allussion to Joel 2:28ff, a prophecy of the last days. In a controversy about the source of his power to cast out demons, Jesus challenges his listeners to recognize the Spirit as that source (3:29 and context). Finally, Jesus even assures his disciples that the same Spirit who has been with him will also accompany them in their trial (13:11).

The account of the temptation is so brief that we can describe it thus:

The Protagonists

Three protagonists are named here acting on Jesus (here, a pronoun, “him”): the Spirit, Satan, and the angels

The Action

Three verbs — two active and one participle — ared used to describe what happens to Jesus: the Spirit drives him (12), the angels were serving him (13b), he was being tempted (13a). The participle leads us to understand that the temptation lasted throughout the forty days.

Where and With Whom

The verb “to be” is used to describe the state of Jesus after the Spirit drives him into the desert. He was in the desert and he was with the wild animals.

Jesus is tested in the desert as Israel was. After he is presented as “The Son, the Beloved” (1:11), he shows this by passing the test that Israel God’s “first born” and “beloved” underwent for forty years.

We are not told by Mark how Satan tempted Jesus. Matthew and Luke (Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13, resp.) do that. We get a hint of Satan’s temptation from Mark 8:33.

Jesus had just predicted the passion he was to undergo and was talking openly about it when Peter drew him aside and rebuked him. Jesus responds saying: “Get behind me, Satan!” Why does Jesus address Peter as Satan? My answer is this: in Peter’s rebuke, Jesus recognized the suggestions of Satan.

We know that Jesus emerged victorious from the temptation not only because of the mastery he shows in desert places, the abode of demons, afterwards, but also because of the presence of angels (13b). The picture of angels succouring jesus reminds us of the prophet Elijah being assisted by these heavenly beings (1 Kgs. 19:3f) or the way God takes care of those who take refuge in Him (Psalm 91:11). In Mark’s account, it is as if heaven has invaded the territory of demons. And we know why this is so, since Jesus himself tells us:

No one can enter a strong man’s house
and carry off his belongings
unless he first ties up the strong man.
Then he can rob his house (3:27)

It is from this victory in the desert that Jesus begins his ministry as the Servant Messiah.