Mark uses the most forceful of images: the Spirit hurls Jesus (ekballo) into the desert. [Here] we understand the spirit of God to be God’s dynamic presence and power, sovereignly pushing, pulling, lifting and driving people here, there and everywhere. It becomes clear that the affirmation that Jesus has been given by the heavenly voice is not for his comfort and ease, but to prepare him for what is to come. And sonship is less about privilege and more about unflinching obedience in the face of trial and challenge.
Jesus has undone the failures of both Israel and Adam; when we are incorporated into Jesus, we are incorporated into this victory, and we share in it by grace rather than by our own efforts. Mark’s account, by omitting the details of the threefold temptations recorded in Matthew and Luke, encourages us to read in this way.
That does not mean, as we face temptations and challenges this Lent, we can avoid the challenge of discipline and effort. But we face these things knowing that Jesus conquered them, in the power of the Spirit, and that the same Spirit is God’s gift to us, and it is his presence that brings victory.
--Ian Paul
Image source (with quotation from same site): Stanley Spencer, Christ in the Desert,
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