This coming Sunday is the 1st Sunday of Lent in Lectionary Cycle B. The Gospel of Mark is noted for its brevity and perhaps no better example exists than the narrative of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness: 12 At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert, 13 and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him. 14 After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: 15 “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Compare these two verses with the more descriptive versions in Matthew or Luke. Was Mark not aware of the details? Did Mark have other narrative intentions for making these two verses a divide between the prologue (1:1-11) and the beginning of the Galilean ministry (1:16 and following)? The scholars have a plethora of possibilities, but as a reader I am struck by the transition from the “Baptism of Jesus” (all of three verses): “It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” (Mark 1:9-11)

And then the next verse: “At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert” (v.12) Jesus’ “exile” into the wilderness seems to a direct consequence of the action of the Spirit descending upon him – the same Spirit that demands Jesus move more deeply to the wilderness, geographically and into the human condition.

The motif of the wilderness dominated the prologue beginning with the voice of one crying out in the desert (v.3) that introduced John the Baptist whose arrest is simply noted in v.14 – yet the connection to the Hebrew prophets has been set. In accordance with that prophetic tradition, Jesus appears in the wilderness of Judea, drawn by the ministry of the Baptist.

Our gospel text lies between the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus’ Galilean ministry. Its opening scene finds Jesus in the wilderness. There are also a number of Old Testament scriptures which provide the context to this very short Markan passage: “in the desert for forty days.” There are a group of scholars that prefer the more narrow reference to the expression “forty days” rather than the broader numerological reference to “forty.” They argue that Jesus stays in the wilderness for forty days, a fixed time of symbolic significance. The reference to the forty days recalls Moses’ stay on Mount Sinai and Elijah’s wandering through the wilderness to Mount Horeb – both times of personal testing. In their case the time of the forty days concentrates into one crucial period the innermost quality of their mission. Moses and Elijah are men of the wilderness, both prior to this period as well as after it. So too with Jesus – the 40 days is the wilderness experience and serves to mark the milieu of Jesus’ earthly ministry. And of course, others would argue that the more foundational texts are those that describe the testing of Israel via the 40 years of the Exodus. There are merits to both arguments.

In the end we simply have that the Spirit leads Jesus into the desert. Tempted and tested there by Satan for forty days, as the people of Israel were tested before him, Jesus is protected by God via angels. The text simply states that Jesus withstood the test and is ready for his service to God and humanity. With John’s arrest (v. 14), Jesus’ work begins. Mark’s “gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” began at v.1. Now the “gospel of God” begins, as Jesus’ first words are heard: “This is the time of fulfillment” (v. 15).

Image credit: Christ in the Wilderness | Moretto da Brescia (Alessandro Bonvicino) Italian ca. 1515–20 | Metropolitan Museum of Art | PD-US