Withdrawal of Jesus to the Wilderness

10. Withdrawal of Jesus to the Wilderness

Jesus had a profound experience of some kind in the baptism – he saw something he had not seen before, and it led to a total shift in his identity. The questions before him then became: What does this experience mean, and what shall I do with it? Shall I use my insight to serve my own ambition and power drive ? Does my insight somehow confer upon me supernatural abilities? Or shall I simply use it to amass great personal wealth? These are the three temptations Jesus confronts during his time in the wilderness, symbolically presented as a conversation with the devil.

The first temptation is that of the political messiah: “And he led Jesus up, and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: if thou wilt worship before me, it shall all be thine.”

Jesus was keenly aware that his people were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the one who would re-establish the Jewish Kingdom as it was in its heyday under David. He also knew he could play into that expectation and amass considerable personal power. He rejected that as a possibility, saying: “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Jesus concluded that the expectation of a political messiah was not the will of God, but rather a dangerous illusion with potentially disastrous consequences. He understood that there was simply no way the Jews could rise up against the Romans and win. The Romans had already shown how they deal with insurgency: They massacre all the insurgents. It was clear to Jesus that such a fate awaited the Jews if they continued to resist Roman rule.

The second of Jesus’ temptations was to play to the peoples’ desire for an apocalyptic messiah: “And he led Jesus to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou are the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to guard thee: And on their hands they shall bear thee up, Lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone.” The apocalyptic vision can be thought of as a magical belief – where the physical laws of reality are turned on their heads. Earth comes to an end; evil doers are cast into fire, and the good and righteous rise up to Heaven. Jesus’ answer to this temptation was: “It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” In other words, don’t expect God to suddenly change all the rules. We have been given the structure of reality, it has been dependable, and to expect that structure to be suddenly violated is completely unrealistic.

So, if Jesus is not going to try and fulfill either the political or apocalyptic visions, a third alternative is presented to him: Use the insight to gain material wealth. This is the symbolism of turning stone into bread. Jesus’ answer – that man does not live by bread alone – is a statement that material well-being is not the primary focus of life. First and foremost is a complete commitment to the will of God.

We will see in the next section that, having thus sorted out the options available to him, Jesus makes a decision: He takes on the mission of teacher to pass on the knowledge he has gained – not just so that his people can avoid the catastrophe to which rebellion against the Romans ultimately leads, but so that they can fulfill their higher destiny of bringing this new knowledge to the rest of humankind.

The rest of Jesus’ short life is dedicated to that purpose.