In on the Secret

DAY 1

Mark 1:2-13

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. (Mark 1:12)

I’m going to ask you to do something today that I’d like you to do every day during this retreat: read the passage. Read it slowly, prayerfully, carefully. We can be so familiar with the stories in the Gospels that we dive right into the commentary looking for the meat of the message. But I promise you, the best I can offer you are a couple of side dishes. Of course, I hope they’ll be good side dishes and that they will complement the main course well. But just as creamy mashed potatoes are just a lump of white . . . stuff . . . without a fine cut of rib eye, the commentaries here won’t give you the full experience. You need to read the passage!

An Intimate Message

Okay, now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s take a look at these verses. Did you notice how Mark seems to skim over the stories of Jesus’ baptism and his temptation in the desert—especially when compared to Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts? He doesn’t tell us what John the Baptist actually said, as Luke does. And he doesn’t relate the details of the devil’s temptations, as both Matthew and Luke do. But he does let us in on a secret:

Just as [Jesus] was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” (1:10-11)

Notice the wording: Jesus saw the heavens torn open; Jesus saw the Spirit coming like a dove; and Jesus heard a voice addressed specifically to him: “You are my Son.” No one else is in view here. Not the crowds of people—who aren’t even mentioned—and not even John the Baptist. This is a moment of intimate revelation for Jesus, not a public announcement to all the world. And Mark lets you witness it.

This is a crucial part of Mark’s message: you, the reader, are in on a secret that no one else in his Gospel seems to grasp. You know for certain that Jesus is the Son of God and that he bears God’s seal of approval. In fact, as we read through this Gospel, we’ll see Mark telling us how careful Jesus is not to let anyone around him know his true identity. But you do.

Driven Immediately

Mark next makes a quick pivot:

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. (1:12-13)

Immediately. Not a second passes between Jesus’ baptism and his temptation in the wilderness. That moment of intimacy with God that Jesus enjoys is broken, and the revelation we receive is set aside, as Jesus is “driven” by the Spirit into the desert.

It might seem as if Mark is giving us no time to savor Jesus’ experience of the Spirit or to ponder the meaning of God’s words to his Son. But with a little Old Testament background, we can see that Mark is telling us something important about the ministry Jesus is about to undertake.

Driven. By telling us that the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert, Mark is pointing back to the holiest day in the Jewish calendar: the Day of Atonement, when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple and made atonement for all the people’s sins. (You can read about the rite of atonement in Leviticus 16.)

At one point during the rite, the high priest would bring out a goat before the people, lay his hands on the goat, and confess over it “all the iniquities of the people of Israel” (Leviticus 16:21). Then the goat—what we now call the scapegoat— would be driven into the desert, taking the people’s sins with

it. It’s an elaborate ritual in which the people would clear a path and strike the goat with tree branches and throw stones at it as it went out to the wilderness.

Try to imagine this scene. Jesus had just been plunged into the Jordan River—the same river that “people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem” had come to for cleansing (Mark 1:5). They came to be washed clean of their sins, and the waters of the Jordan accepted their offering. Then came Jesus. When he plunged into the water, all the sins that had accumulated there clung to him. All the impurities and iniquities of his fellow Jews came upon him. At that moment, he became “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). As they were on the sacrificial goat, our sins were placed on Jesus, and he bore them into the desert.

Here at the very start, Mark is telling us something that everyone in his Gospel struggles to recognize: not only is Jesus the Son of God, but central to his life as God’s Son is his humble acceptance of our sins. This isn’t a Son of God who flaunts his power or lords it over his Father’s creation. This isn’t a Son who demands our subservience or who stands above his people.

No, Jesus’ sonship is all about service, humility, and self-giving. It’s about offering himself in sacrifice so that we—sinners though we are—can be reconciled with God and released from all of our sin and guilt.

For Reflection

1. Try to picture Jesus coming up out of the water after being baptized. Consider the expression on his face at this moment when he hears God’s words of affirmation.

How do you think he looks? Joyful? Puzzled? Worried?

Why do you think he looks that way?

2. “With you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). Why do you think God the Father was so pleased with Jesus at this moment?

3. How does the driving-out ritual of the Day of Atonement help us understand Jesus’ role? Aside from the crucifixion, can you think of another time in Jesus’ life when he was treated the same way that the scapegoat was treated?

4. How does it feel when you hear about Jesus taking on the role of the scapegoat for you?