GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
MARK 1:12
The Devil Made Me Do It
“The devil made me do it” has become a cliché for inadvertent or, perhaps, intentional, events. A husband, for example, brings home a new tool. “Oh, the devil made me do it” might be his excuse for the extravagant indulgence. Or students might toilet-paper a teacher’s car after an unusually difficult assignment—“Oh, the devil made us do it” might be their excuse, while they stand before the principal.
I had a serious accident, and someone said, “The devil must be after you.” “No,” I said, “let’s not bring him into it when there’s a simpler explanation. I was careless.”
St. Mark said that after Jesus came out of the Jordan River following his baptism, the receipt of the Spirit and the Father’s confirmation, “And then the Spirit compelled him to go into the wilderness.” (1:12) Often, the moments after a victory are dangerous—soldiers win a battle, then relax only to be attacked while unprepared; after hard work, an employee receives a promotion and relaxes to savor the moment, allowing an important assignment to run amuck; or a football team wins an important game and relaxes its training schedule only to be badly beaten during the next game.
Jesus’ experience marked the inauguration of a new part of the divine plan. The gospel writers often collapse time, so there may have been a space between the baptism and the wilderness. Matthew (4:1) and Luke (4:1) said that Jesus was “led” into the wilderness; Mark wrote that he was compelled. Mark’s word is often rendered as “drove,” “impelled,” or “put forth” by various translators. This was not a time to relax, so the Spirit led him to the wilderness.
At least one lesson from Jesus’ experience is that not all wilderness experiences are devil inspired. Grapes are pressed to make wine; apples are pressed to make cider; steel is pressed to make bumpers; believers are often pressed in the wilderness to make spiritual soldiers. Mark and the other writers state that the devil did not do this; Jesus’ wilderness experience was a work of the Spirit, and often so too are those wilderness experiences of believers.
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