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Tuesday 5 November 2024

Mark 1:12-14 - The Spirit sent Him out into the wilderness

1:12,13

We are then told that the Spirit sent Jesus out into the wilderness. There He was tempted for forty days. Again, Mark gives the briefest account possible, with no mention whatsoever of the specific temptations. When we are tempted the root usually lies with our own sinful desires, this was not the case with Jesus. Mark doesn’t even say that Jesus successfully resisted the temptation! Though we can take that as read.


1:14

This is consistent with Matt 4:12. Jesus begins His ministry when John’s ministry has essentially ended. The messenger has proclaimed the coming of the Messiah, and the Messiah has now come. Jesus’s early ministry was mostly carried out in Galilee. “Good news of God” could be read as “good news about God”, or “good news sent by God”. In actual fact, both are true. It is about God, it is about God’s mercy and salvation for us through Jesus Christ, and it is the good news sent by God. Man did not make the message up or discover the message, rather God sent it to us.


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