“The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.” (Mk 1:12)
The action of today’s gospel may be easily summarized in two phases. First, Jesus is driven, or we could say snatched up and taken into the desert, and second, he goes forth to bring the good news to the people. We may be startled, even disturbed by the violent implication of this vocabulary. Why would God do this to his Beloved Son? And yet Jesus is not the first to be so snatched, or the last.
Remember the prophet Ezekiel, who was carried off from Babylon to Jerusalem to witness God’s action in the temple:
“He stretched out the form of a hand and seized me by the hair of my head. The spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in divine vision to Jerusalem to the entrance of the inner gate facing north where the statue of jealousy that provokes jealousy stood.” (Ezekiel 8:3)
Remember how the prophet Habakkuk was taken from Judah to Babylon to bring a meal to Daniel in the lion’s den:
“An angel of the Lord told him, ‘Take the meal you have to Daniel in the lions’ den at Babylon.’ But Habakkuk answered, ‘Sir, I have never seen Babylon, and I do not know the den!’ The angel of the Lord seized him by the crown of his head and carried him by the hair; with the speed of the wind, he set him down in Babylon above the den.” (Daniel 14:34-36)
Later, we will hear of the apostle Philip being snatched away immediately after having baptized the Ethiopian eunuch:
“When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but continued on his way rejoicing.” (Acts 8:39)
We might also consider those spirited away who were not seen again: the enigmatic Enoch, who “walked with God, and he was no longer here, for God took him” (Gen 5:24), and about whom later tradition would elaborate that he was “taken up bodily” (Sir 49:14) “so that he should not see death” (Heb 11:5), and of course Elijah, carried up to heaven in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:11).
These examples give us some context in which to consider what happened to Jesus after his baptism. He was led, driven, taken, snatched, carried off, by the Spirit of God who had come to rest upon him in the form of a dove. We could say that, like the prophets before him and the apostles after him, he was claimed unequivocally as God’s own and brought by the most direct way to the place he needed to be to fulfill God’s mission for him. That place was the desert. There he would face the pull of self-interested resistance and the allure of an easier way, in preparation to proclaim with undivided heart the inrush of God’s kingdom.
We may feel that we too have been driven into the desert, that we have been snatched up, grasped by the hair, and put down again in a new place, a place of uncertainty, a place we would rather not be. As Pope Francis reminds in his Message for Lent, our Scriptures describe the desert as a place of freedom from slavery and hope for new life, but also of discomfort, struggle, and resistance. It is the place where we face ourselves in truth, where we stand before reality. In the absence of comfortable distractions, that numbing illusion of security, we cannot fail to see our inner ambivalence, our idols, our attachments, and our nostalgia for slavery. Egypt means the easy way through life, if not without toil and limitation, then at least without fearful responsibility for the use of our freedom and our gifts. In the desert, we recognize our unqualified need for God to remedy the deficit of hope which keeps us bound.
We, like Jesus, carry with us our deep-down identity as beloved son or daughter. We remember the fierce longing to be grasped by God that led us here in the first place. We reflect on how many times we have asked him to do with us according to his will, for his glory and the benefit of all. Now it is happening. God is reaching out his hand to grasp us. Christophe Lebreton expressed the experience of his community of Atlas, that in their situation of extreme insecurity and danger, the Holy Spirit had come upon them:
“We are in a situation of epiclesis…. We have been uprooted and led to a place where we could never have gone despite all our religious training.” (How Far to Follow, p. 58)
The challenge for us is to see this abrupt relocation as a gift of God and not a curse. He is taking us at our word. He is bringing us to where we can live our vocation and our mission more fully and fruitfully. He is offering us the opportunity this Lent to offer him our whole selves. As St Benedict puts it:
“So that each of us will have something above the assigned measure to offer God of his own will with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (RB 49.6).
So let us take this to heart. Let us grasp the opportunity offered us, both by the season of Lent, and by our current circumstances, to live our vocation more deeply, to be converted, to be shaped for mission.
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mk 1:15)
Image: Icon of the Temptation of Christ, by Greta Lesko