A
afthomercy
Guest
At appropriate stages in his growing up years, Joseph and Mary would undoubtedly have informed Our Lord about the unique circumstances surrounding his conception and birth and He too would have been receiving direct revelations from God corresponding to his maturity. By the time he came to the Jordan to be baptized by John, we can presume that He had a good idea of where He stood in the Heavenly Father’s scheme of things. The Baptism event was a public declaration of confidence by the Father in him and indicated that the He now considered him mature enough to take the plunge. The evangelists Mathew and Luke tell us that immediately after the Baptism, He was “led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil”. Significantly, evangelist Mark, who is very economical with his words, phrases it as “At once the Spirit drove him into the desert…” (Mk. 1:12). This term “drove” implies urgency, almost a sense of compulsion, and becomes the starting point of this reflection…
Faith, first and foremost, requires intellectual assent. Jesus (in his human nature) was not exempted from this and needed to mentally accept that He, in reality, was none other than the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. His “buy-in” was crucial to the success of the whole salvation plan and it warranted a serious and detailed induction session/retreat. We are not told much of what exactly transpired in the desert. Any new Head of Government, immediately after being installed, is taken aside by responsible officials and shown the top secret files to acquaint him with critical matters of State. My spiritual guess is that the same thing happened here. Jesus’ self-concept needed to be built up from zero, since Philippians 2:7 tells us that He “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men…” In his human mind, He needed to be convincingly educated about who exactly He was and what it entailed (viz. passion-death-resurrection). As it was such a big thing, the Father did not rush it and spent full 40-days on it.
As is usually the case with us humans, after we have done a course, we are put through a test to find out how much we have absorbed. In this case, the Father exposed him to the severest tester of all, viz. Satan himself. We can imagine Satan salivating at the prospect of bagging the Son of God himself…but being held at bay by the angelic hosts till the induction was completed. Now, we mustn’t underestimate Satan. After all, he is ex-archangel and hence would be one of the most intelligent of creatures. He concentrates his efforts on getting Jesus to doubt His own divinity because that doubt would give him a foothold into His life. That’s why he cunningly prefixes two out of his three challenges with “If you are the Son of God”. The point is that if Jesus falls for it, it would mean that he still needs physical proof! Fortunately, Jesus sees through the ruse and sends him packing. All Heaven heaves a huge sigh of relief – their man had come through with flying colours. This was His tipping point and thenceforth there would be no stopping Him!
Faith, first and foremost, requires intellectual assent. Jesus (in his human nature) was not exempted from this and needed to mentally accept that He, in reality, was none other than the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. His “buy-in” was crucial to the success of the whole salvation plan and it warranted a serious and detailed induction session/retreat. We are not told much of what exactly transpired in the desert. Any new Head of Government, immediately after being installed, is taken aside by responsible officials and shown the top secret files to acquaint him with critical matters of State. My spiritual guess is that the same thing happened here. Jesus’ self-concept needed to be built up from zero, since Philippians 2:7 tells us that He “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men…” In his human mind, He needed to be convincingly educated about who exactly He was and what it entailed (viz. passion-death-resurrection). As it was such a big thing, the Father did not rush it and spent full 40-days on it.
As is usually the case with us humans, after we have done a course, we are put through a test to find out how much we have absorbed. In this case, the Father exposed him to the severest tester of all, viz. Satan himself. We can imagine Satan salivating at the prospect of bagging the Son of God himself…but being held at bay by the angelic hosts till the induction was completed. Now, we mustn’t underestimate Satan. After all, he is ex-archangel and hence would be one of the most intelligent of creatures. He concentrates his efforts on getting Jesus to doubt His own divinity because that doubt would give him a foothold into His life. That’s why he cunningly prefixes two out of his three challenges with “If you are the Son of God”. The point is that if Jesus falls for it, it would mean that he still needs physical proof! Fortunately, Jesus sees through the ruse and sends him packing. All Heaven heaves a huge sigh of relief – their man had come through with flying colours. This was His tipping point and thenceforth there would be no stopping Him!
