One Made Ready

When the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness after His baptism at the Jordan River, it was an intentional and purposeful act on the part of the Father God.  It was not a moment of rambling, or meandering.  He was not there to observe the climatic conditions, or to check out the animal population.  There was some holy work which needed doing in those forty days and forty nights.  The mechanism of the work was being tempted by Satan.  Matthew says, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wildnerness to be tempted by the devil..."(Matthew 4:1)    

It seems to be a moment necessary for the work about to be undertaken by Jesus.  What happened during that long season of temptation and fasting was something designed to make ready the servant Son of the Father who would walk the divine plan to completion.  While it might seem to us that He would be One pre-programmed for what was to come, it would appear that some element of that programming had to be done through a flesh and blood experience which would be common to all those for whom He would die.  

In Hebrews the Word of God reads, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who in every respect has been tested, (or tempted) as we are, yet without sin."  (Hebrews 4:15)  Of course, this moment in the wilderness would not be the only moment of being tempted.  It would not be His only encounter with the evil one.  Even as late as the cross, Satan was present in the voice of one of those on another cross who challenged him to come down from the cross and save Himself.  As surely as the baptism of Jesus at the Jordan marked Him as ready for the work of the Kingdom, so did those moments in the wilderness.  In some mysterious way they signaled that He was ready for the redemptive work to be done on the center stage of human history.