Worthy To Be Feared

Jesus, at the beginning of his earthly ministry, needed to defeat humanity's greatest enemy. That's why Mark’s account of his baptism is followed by Jesus entering into temptation in the wilderness:

Immediately the Holy Spirit compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness. He was there for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him. (Mark 1:12-13)

The baptism and the temptation are inseparable, and it’s no mistake that the Spirit compelled Jesus into the desert to be tempted by Satan.

We should have seen the clues even before the baptism. We should have known it would come to this, because Mark told us that Jesus traveled from Nazareth to Jordan to be baptized by John. Nazareth. A town so obscure that it's never mentioned in any part of the Old Testament, never referred to even by the famous Jewish historian of the first century, Josephus. It doesn't come up in the multi-volume Jewish Talmud. A nothing town, a zero. That's where Jesus came from. That's the place the Father chose to have him raised.

Should we have expected that, when his Father made him king, he would suddenly find himself in a magnificent palace with servants to attend to his every wish? Should we have expected that he’d be surrounded by toys and banquets and the 3 Ws (wine, women, etc)?
There was nothing like that. Instead he was driven into the desert where wild animals lurked and angels looked after him, though likely only after he'd completed his forty days of suffering. He went hungry, his body slowly feeding on itself until the pounds dropped off him and the bones started showing.

Then the devil taunted him – Why don’t you turn these stones into loaves of bread? Why don’t you jump off the temple and prove who you are? Worship me, and I’ll give you everything. But Jesus resisted him, teeth gritted, body screaming at him. He resisted until the Devil walked away, confused and defeated.

What did he accomplish there in the desert alone for 40 days and nights? Just everything that was important for the mission he’d come to accomplish. Let's try a comparison: In the Old Testament, Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the law of God. He stayed forty days, the same amount of time that Jesus was tempted in the desert. While he was there, his people abandoned the very God who had brought them out of Egypt and worshipped a golden calf in his place. Moses was so upset by all this that he smashed the law tablets he’d been given and had to go back to God for replacements.

Jesus had his own exodus to lead, out of a land of slavery and into the land of promise. He, like the Israelites at Mount Sinai, was tempted in the desert for forty days and forty nights. If, during that awful time, he’d slipped, even for a moment, and had given in to the traps that Satan had laid for him, his exodus would have crumbled to dust and merged with the desert sand he walked on.

This was no fancy prince flaunting his power. This was a King on trial, with the destiny of the whole world resting on the verdict. Ever since humanity had given in to the Satanic call to walk away from God, we’d left a trail of misery and failure that made us a disgrace to the skin we live in. Jesus had to be the first man since Adam to be tempted and not give in.
Jesus had to confront Satan on his own turf and win. He had to defy all the powers of darkness that sought to bring him down, or nothing would come of his kingship.

The Kingdom, you see, is not some creation of Disney, where the prince comes bounding in to save the day and the glass slipper always fits. It's an epic full of blood and pain and humiliation on the way to a victory that can’t be won any other way. Before the King could wage his war, he had to be tested in every part of his being - physical, psychological, spiritual. He had to prove to his greatest enemy that he was an champion worthy of battle, worthy to be feared.

Into the Jaws of Hell

The good news about Jesus, according to the Gospel of Mark, starts in the water with Jesus being baptized by John. Baptized? The word spells controversy. Do we dip, pour or dunk? Is a sprinkling OK? Even given that we get it right, what in the world does baptism mean?

Strangely, for Mark, questions like these held no interest. The baptism of Jesus told the world only one thing - that the greatest king who ever lived was being crowned. Forget that it was the Jordan River or that it happened under the reign of Tiberius Caesar or that the circumstances there in the desert were about as far from royal protocol as you could imagine. This was the greatest coronation ever.

Here’s what Mark had to say about it:

One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and he was baptized by John in the Jordan River. And when Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens split open and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven saying, "You are my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with you."

Immediately the Holy Spirit compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness. He was there for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him. (Mark 1:9-13)

Mark tells us that as soon as Jesus came up out of the water the Holy Spirit of God descended on him and the voice of the Father declared Jesus to be his beloved Son. Did others see it? Hear it? None of the Gospel writers give us a clue. It's not important that we know every detail, because Jesus both saw and heard it. Later he was to describe the event as his anointing, like that of the kings of old, only more so, because this was the anointing of the eternal Son.

What did it mean? First, that Jesus was recognized for who he was after being unknown for twenty-seven years or more – God in human flesh. His baptism didn't turn him into God, because he already was that. But now his Father could reveal who he was, say it flat out.

Second, his baptism sent him straight into the jaws of hell. It put him into conflict with the worst evil forces that could be found anywhere. There's a big contradiction here. Jesus had just been crowned, crowned like no king ever before – with a voice from Heaven. He'd just been declared very Son of the eternal Father, thus himself God along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. How could the same scenario throw him into battle with the powers of evil?

The answer is that his Kingdom is like nothing else on earth. The kings of this world wallow in their power. They flaunt their authority and use it and take every advantage to buy or steal the best that life has to offer. But when Ruler of the eternal Kingdom, Jesus, comes to do fierce and painful battle with the forces of darkness, he is wounded by them, killed by them, because this is the only way to triumph over them