Divine Presence in the Wilderness

/Dr. Tan Ee Yan | STM Faculty

During the season of Lent, we often reflect on the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. The spiritual practice of fasting during Lent is connected with Jesus’ 40-day wilderness experience during which he fasted and endured Satan’s temptations. For churches who follow the Revised Common Lectionary,[1] we are now in Year B, when we read the Gospel of Mark. It would be timely to reflect and meditate on Mark’s account of Jesus’ temptation.

While Matthew and Luke record the three temptations of the devil with Jesus’ scriptural response to each, Mark gives us one succinct sentence: Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days and was tested by Satan, then he was with the wild beast and angels attended to him (Mark 1:13). This terse account forces us to truly meditate on this verse with care to unearth Mark’s message to us.

The thought of wilderness brings up many memories for those who are familiar with biblical tradition, and especially for the people of God. The ancient Israelites were famously wandering in the wilderness for forty years. The wilderness is a place of desolation, a harsh and barren place; or it could be a wild place with overgrown bush, thorns and thistles. It is a place of hardship, suffering and testing.

Just like in the days of wandering where God was present, in today’s text, the divine was present in the wilderness. Jesus’ presence in the wilderness demonstrates divine solidarity with humanity. If we ever find ourselves in the wilderness in our life’s journey, we can be confident that God knows our life’s struggles and difficulty, and that God is present with us, just as God was with the Israelites.

Now Mark resolves Christ’s testing quickly, as if to show us that without question and with no difficulty, Jesus triumphs over evil. We can almost imagine that Jesus refuted and defeated Satan in one divine swipe, and ushered in the kingdom of God. There is no question about Jesus’ identity as God.

In Mark’s one-sentence report of the testing, two negative images are juxtaposed against two positive images: the wilderness and Satan are quickly nullified by the image of Jesus safe among wild beast while the angels were attending to him. The latter is a depiction of a new creation or paradise; a peaceable kingdom, where there is no strife. The wolf and lamb can lie together, and all can live in peace in the universe without threat to our existence.

Only divine power and presence can bring such transformation. Jesus transformed the wilderness from a place of fear, chaos and strife into a peaceable kingdom, where there is no strife, where evil has been defeated, the wild is tamed and God reigns.

Let us be reminded to hold on to God in our walk through the wilderness, in times of need, of grief, or of other difficulty. God is always in the wilderness with us. In God, there is victory, and there will be divine peace and transformation even as God reigns in our lives.

[1] The Revised Common Lectionary is a three-year cycle (Years A, B, and C). of weekly assigned Scripture texts, selected according to the seasons and feast days of the church year. In Year A, gospel readings are taken from the Gospel of Matthew; Year B, the Gospel of Mark and Year C, the Gospel of Luke.