The walk into the Desert

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness (Luke 4:1).

After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, he proceeded out into the uncompassionate wilderness[1] being led by the Spirit. Jesus was not being forced into the desert by the demons, nor led astray by the world into the desert, nor was it the deceptions of the Devil that made the Lord leave his comfortable home to enter an alien land. Jesus was led out in to this harsh, dry, unforgiving environment by none other than the Holy Spirit. Why would the Spirit led Jesus into the wasteland? Could it be the things Jesus learned and experienced in these forty days molded and formed the rest of Jesus’ ministry?[2] Was God testing Jesus? Was God testing himself? Was God demonstrating to the Devil the strength and perseverance of the miraculous ability of Jesus, the God-Man incarnate who would save the world? Was God, was Jesus trying to live in solidarity with man-kind?

For many of us we have went through times of our lives where we were pushed to our limits, tried, and refined by the harshness of the world around us. Yes, refined. Do you remember a time when you were in the desert, a time that has already passed and that has made you a better person, a time when you were so low that you could taste the dirt? You know the time when you felt like you hit rock bottom, and there was only one way to go, UP? The time when your faith walk no longer looked like a walk, but a crawl, and in fact the word “crawl” was an over exaggeration. Do you remember this? Looking back, many situations that the dirt of our lives still tastes like raw earth, however other events this taste of dirt stops being the surplus of dry dirty earth and starts to become the preamble of honey.

In the Grace of Christ Almighty,

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[1] The word for wilderness is the Greek word ἔρημος (eremos). According to Strongs’ Concordance ἔρημος (eremos) means lonesome, waste, desert, desolate, solitary, and/or wilderness.

[2] Could it have been that Jesus had to let Satan know who he was? Could it have been that Jesus needed to allow God to see who is? Could it have been that Jesus had to prove to himself who he was going to be?