“Was Jesus Really Tested?”

Mark 1:12-13

Today we listen to just a couple of verses from the gospel of Mark. It would be tempting for us to jump over to the gospel of Matthew or Luke and fill out the details of this story, but we must resist that temptation.

We must listen to Mark’s account. We must listen to its brevity. We must listen to its power. We must listen to its message for us. . . today!

[Read Mark 1:12-13]

There are a number of things about this familiar passage that strike me as I read it again. One of those things is that Mark says that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. Your translation may not use that word. It may say “sent” or something else that is a little more mild, but the word is stronger than that. Matthew and Luke both say that Jesus was “led” into the wilderness. Mark says that Jesus was driven out to the place of temptation. It sounds to me like Jesus didn’t want to go. . . that Jesus didn’t enjoy battling the forces of evil.

Would you? Do you blame him?

One of our problems is that we don’t take the temptation of Jesus seriously. We don’t want to believe that it was really real. . . that Jesus was ever in danger. . . that sin was even a possibility for Jesus. We want to think like that because we know and confess that Jesus was unique. He was like no other. He was without sin.

Hebrews 4:15 says: “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin” [NIV].

You see, if sin had not been a possibility then the temptation of Jesus would not have meant anything. . .to us! It may have made for a good story. It may have illustrated that Jesus was all-powerful. . . that Jesus could defeat and overcome evil. . .but it would not mean anything for you and me. . . because sin is a possibility for us! Sin. . .and yielding to temptation is a real possibility and experience in our lives. It’s not some staged struggle to illustrate some ambiguous point.

If I was on the basketball court trying to teach my four-year-old daughter how to shoot and the basket that I’m shooting at is only seven feet off the ground . . .and the rim is about six feet in diameter . . .and I’m standing right next to the basket . . . If all that is true, and my little girl is shooting at a regulation hoop that’s ten feet off the ground and she’s standing at half court . . . then my example . . .my success at making a basket . . . my defeat of temptation . . . means absolutely nothing for my “pupil” who will struggle . . .and try . . . and attempt, but will undoubtedly fail and “miss the mark” and get discouraged.

My example would mean nothing because my inability to fail would mock her inability to succeed.

If the temptation of Jesus was not real . . .If the wilderness that Jesus entered was not dangerous . . . then the story means absolutely nothing for us!

Mark emphasizes the dangerous place that Jesus was entering by referring to the “wild beasts” that were there. The wilderness . . .the desert . . . the place of temptation was not somewhere that Jesus wanted to go . . .and to underline that fact, Mark says that the Spirit “drove” Jesus into the wilderness.

Have you known people who, by their own choice, placed themselves on purpose in situations of temptation? They must think, “if I can resist doing whatever it is right in the middle of a place where that very thing is done, then I can really resist it.”

Nonsense!

Temptation was not something that Jesus looked forward to or sought out. Temptation is not something to go looking for . . . as if to be tempted is synonymous with being spiritual.

The Spirit drove Jesus into the desert. His temptation was real. His testing was difficult. If it had not been, then it would be meaningless for you and me.
Listen again to the first part of verse 13 from our text. It says: “and he was in the wilderness forty days.”

Imagine the scene. Jesus goes out to the Jordan and is baptized by John. He is identified as God’s Son and Servant and then immediately is driven into the desert for a time of testing and trial for forty days.

Does that sequence of events bring any other biblical stories to mind? What happened to the people of Israel when they left Egypt? Remember?

They passed through the Red Sea. It was like a baptism for them. They entered the wilderness where they were tested . . . not for forty days . . . but for forty years! The similarities are not accidental. The Apostle Paul saw the same thing. Listen to what he wrote to the church at Corinth: “I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea . . . No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” [1 Corinthians 10:1-2,13 (NIV)].

The “way out” . . . the “way of escape” . . .and the ability to endure temptation is . . .like it was for Jesus . . .the Spirit of God resting upon and filling your life! Just like it was the Spirit that drove Jesus into the wilderness, it was the Spirit that delivered Jesus as well. Mark tells us that during Jesus’ temptation that “the angels ministered to him.” The Spirit of God was empowering . . . sustaining . . .and bringing deliverance to Jesus as he battled the forces of evil.

The story of Jesus’ temptation is a story of Spirit driven-ness and Spirit deliverance!
Don’t you think that same thing will be true for you and me? God will choose and God will use our times of testing and trial. We won’t need to choose our own temptations . . . set ourselves up for failure . . . seek after situations in which we can flex our spiritual muscles. That’s crazy! If you . . . on your own . . . go looking for temptation, let me assure you that you will find it. And in the end you will find that you were inadequate to meet it . . .to face it . . .and to overcome it!

Our times of testing and temptation will come . . .and it will be in those times that we will discover that our deliverance will come from the Lord! The temptation of Jesus is just a glimpse . . .a precursor and preview of the rest of his life.

In Mark 1, Jesus spends time in a place of desolation. Not far in time and space from where Jesus was baptized, there is another place of isolation and solitude and temptation. In this “wilderness” at the beginning of Mark, we must catch a glimpse of another “wilderness” where Jesus battled evil and doubt and temptation. It was a place called Gethsemane. It was there near the end of Jesus’ mission of service and sacrifice that he again conquered. Only . . . on this occasion . . . victory and deliverance meant being driven . . . not from the place of temptation . . . but onto a Roman cross!

Deliverance . . . not for him . . . but for us!

In a sense, all of life is a God-directed test. If we rely on our own strength . . .our own skill . . . our own ingenuity . . . our own resources, then we fail the test. But if we live in the Spirit . . . walk “in the light as He is in the light” . . . allow God to bury our old selves in the waters of baptism and raise us to newness of life . . . If we face temptation and trial with the presence of Christ living in and through us, then and only then, will we pass the spiritual test of life.

In the Book of Revelation . . . in that vivid portrayal of God and the forces of good defeating the forces of evil, the source of the martyr’s victory is described. “I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” [Revelation 12:10-11 (NIV)].

Victory was “through the blood of the Lamb.” Jesus laid down his life for them and they responded by doing the same through the power of his indwelling presence in their lives.
The temptation of Jesus was Spirit-driven. It was real. It was difficult. Jesus identifies with us in the trials and tests that we face. And it was by the power of God’s Spirit resting upon His life that he was delivered from temptation . . .that he conquered . . .that he overcame. The wilderness on the other side of the Jordan was just a preview of the wilderness of Gethsemane where Jesus once again faced the test . . . and it was on the mountain of Calvary where that wilderness led that Jesus won the ultimate and complete victory.

It’s through “the blood of the Lamb” . . . through the battle that he fought and won . . . through the power of the Spirit resting upon your life . . .and no other way, that you will overcome . . . be victorious . . . pass the spiritual test of life.

As the old hymn says: Some go through the water. Some through the flood. Some through the fire . . .but to be victorious . . .all must go through the Savior’s blood! There’s victory for you and me through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!