The Spirit sent Jesus out toward the desert. He stayed in the wasteland forty days, put to the test there by Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and angels waited on him.

After John's arrest, Jesus appeared in Galilee proclaiming God's good news: "This is the time of fulfillment. The reign of God is at hand. Reform your lives and believe in the good news!" Mark 1:12-15

Now to approach this question and to answer it, we have to go back to a point in a homily on the baptism of Jesus in January, about a month ago, and I'm sure that everyone remembers what I said a month ago about the baptism of Jesus. We were talking then about narrators, and the fact that Mark is what we call an omniscient narrator, he is an all-knowing narrator, he knows the whole story. He knows inside and out, perfectly and completely, every character in the story. He knows exactly how they're going to act or react in certain positions or situations, how they're going to conduct themselves, and how they are going to show themselves. And one of the characters that Mark knows, then, is God. Also, as an omniscient narrator, knows the character God, because God is always behind the scenes in Mark's Gospel as that Baptismal account indicates: "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." And the fact that at that baptism you have a trinity scene--The Father speaking, the Son being baptized, the Spirit hovering--Mark tells us that his whole story is from the point of view of God. So what we get in Mark's Gospel, which we do not get in any other Gospel, is that we get Jesus through Mark from the eyes of God. We see Jesus and how God looks at Jesus. Then what develops in the Gospel as a result of that is how other people come (or do not come) to know Jesus as Mark knows Jesus, which means as God knows Jesus.

So we always have to keep that in mind. It's one of the, what you might call the basic assumptions that we have to take with us as we read the Gospel of Mark.

Now another thing we have to keep in mind as we read the accounts of the temptations is that there are two ways that I can look at the temptation accounts of Jesus. i can look at them in what we call an exilic way, from the point of view of the exile and the Israelites in exile. Or I can look at them from the point o view of Paradise, of Eden, from what we call the Edenic point of view. If I am going to look at the temptations of Jesus from the point of view of Israel in the desert who is being tempted and tempting God, then I'm going to enter into specific temptations, to food, to power, to affirmation, because those were the things that Israel was concerned about as they traversed through the desert to the promised land.

But if I'm going to look at the temptations of Jesus from the point of view of Eden, then I[m going to look at it from the point of view of Adam, and what happens to Adam, and that begins to tell me a bit about what Mark is trying to do in these two very short verses, to describe Jesus' sojourn in the desert. Now one of the first things that we can notice in these two short verses is that they are full of people or characters. Notice that in two very short verses you have the spirit, you have Jesus, you have wild beasts, you have Satan, and you have the angels. And the only one that we're told specifically that's doing anything is the spirit and Satan, who is putting Jesus to the test, just as Israel put God to test in the desert. But it's chuck full of characters.

Now let us look at the characters for a moment. Our translation, and I've said this before, is not a terribly good translation. Don't report me to the Bishops, because they hold the copyright, but it isn't a good translation. "The Spirit sent Jesus out into the desert." That's kind of gentle, that's kind of like saying you sent your son or daughter out to mail a letter. "Please, will you go." But in the Greek--and the Greek is the oldest text we have--it's not gentle at all. To put it in the vernacular, the Spirit kicked Jesus out into the desert. And there's a great deal of difference between sending or leading, kind of gentle-like, and kicking someone out. Think of a spouse who decides to kick the other spouse out of the home. It's a lot more forceful than just saying "I invited my spouse to leave."

So first of all, Mark wants us to know that Jesus is in the desert under the umbrella, the aegis, the shadow, of the Spirit. And whatever is going to happen in the desert in Mark's gospel in relation to Jesus, is done under the authority, the guidance, of the Holy Spirit. Now what happens there?

Another thing that we should keep in mind, which should trigger something, is the phrase "forty days." Whenever you hear that in the New Testament, the mind should begin to click, sort of like a computer that can associate with other data in the bank. Where have we heard "forty" before? In particular, where have we heard forty days or years in the wilderness before? Noah is in the Ark forty days and forty nights because of the flood. Moses is on Mt. Sinai for forty days and forty nights. Elijah is traveling from the desert place where he is fed by the angel to Mt. Horeb where has an epiphany or an experience with God. He travels forty days and forty nights. And Israel is in the desert, going from bondage to freedom to the Promised Land, from Egypt to Canaan, forty years--days and nights. And so what Mark is saying, just by saying that Jesus stayed in the wasteland for forty days, he's putting Jesus back into the framework of Noah, of Elijah, of Israel, and of Moses. And what is he doing by that, but what happens at the end of that sojourn for Noah? Creation is destroyed. New creation is brought about, symbolized by the dove going out and bringing the olive branch back to Noah. Vegetation, life once again exists on earth. Moses on the mountain of Sinai for forty days--what happens there? He communes with God and God gives him the Decalogue, the new Commandment, which begins a new way of life, a new way of conducting itself for Israel. And Elijah goes from the desert, where he has flown because he's afraid for his life, because of the wrath of Jezebel, and he goes to Mt. Horeb and he has his experience of God there and he is given a commission by God. "All is not lost, Elijah. Go back and anoint so-and-so and anoint Elisha as your successor, and there will be a new stage, there will be a new point in the people of God and in my being with the people of God." And of course Israel in the desert, going from bondage into freedom, into liberation, new life.

So what Mark tells us, just by that phrase "He stayed in the wilderness for forty days"--he tells us that this is a new Creation, this is a new beginning, this is a new Covenant, a new contract, this is a new stage in God's intervention, or God's concern for his people. You see how suddenly rich that concept of Mark becomes. And what we are dealing with here is Jesus, who is initiating a New Deal, so to speak (if I may borrow a Roosevelt term), with humanity. It's a new beginning, a new creation.

Now He's put to the test there by Satan. A very simple phrase, but who else has been put to the test by Satan? Adam. Who was tempted by the Devil with beasts and failed the test? Adam. Who is put to the test with beasts and passes the test? Jesus. So what Mark wants us to see there is that what is happening in that wilderness and Jesus being put to the test by Satan, is a reversal of what happened in the Garden of Paradise. What was lost by Adam, Mark is now very subtly saying, is restored, and we will learn that it is restored to an even greater degree, like Paul will say in his epistle to the Romans, "Oh, felix culpa, [happy fault], that we are now better off after the Fall than we were before the Fall." All of this is implied by the clause, "put to the test there by Satan." He was in with wild beasts. Adam was with wild beasts. But he had control over them until he sinned. Jesus was with wild beasts, but they are no threat to him, so Jesus is the new Adam, the new restoration. It is the fulfillment of what Isaiah says, in Chapter 11 of his prophecy, that the lion will lie down with the kid, and they will be at peace. The lamb and the lion. So it's universal peace, it's a restoration, the old order no longer exists, the order that was brought about because of Adam's sin is replaced by the one brought by Jesus.

And notice that it's only for Mark that Jesus begins to proclaim the Good News. That is the New Creation. That is the new beginning. And as we saw from the middle of january, what is the Good News? That Jesus goes down into the Jordan, is baptized into the Jordan, dies, and rises, a new creation. The Good News from Mark is that Jesus through his baptism has conquered the fear of death. That we can never look on life again in the same way because Jesus has been there before, and Jesus has conquered it, and he shows us by his action what life is all about.

A very rich, what we would call, Christological, theological passage, but very important to Mark's Gospel.