Mark 1:12-13

October 4, 2008 at 10:13 pm · Filed under Holy Spirit, Mark

Jesus has just been baptised by John:

1:12 Immediately the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness. 1:13 He was there in the wilderness forty days tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals; and the angels were serving him.

(World English Bible)

I have a few questions about this passage, some of which I’ll probably have to defer, but I’ll list them all here anyway:

1. I think of Jesus as a kind of perfection of the human. How should I think of the Holy Spirit?
2. Why did the Spirit drive Jesus out into the wilderness? Matthew 4:1 says explicitly that it was in order to be tempted. But the question just comes back: why did the Spirit drive Jesus out to be tempted?
3. Jesus was tempted by Satan. What does it mean for Jesus — a perfection of the human — to be tempted? That even he hears these voices, and must struggle against them?

I think I can try to work on (3). The others will have to wait.

I welcome comments from readers too of course!

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