When Jesus leaves the Jordan river, He is filled with the glory of God’s Holy Spirit. He has been anointed with that Spirit, endowed with all grace for His mission in this world. He looks like any other man, yet His daily encounters over the next three years will reveal the greatness in Him more and more. But at this moment, as He leaves the Jordan, with the Father’s affirmation ringing in His ears, He is led out into the wilderness, where His mettle will be tested. The temptations that we read about in today’s Gospel are expressed in a highly dramatized form. It could be a dream sequence. But the reality of it was true enough. Jesus found himself, all through His public life, tempted to take an easier, more popular route. His preaching of a new kingdom of God was uncomfortable, and many did not want to know. Those who wanted simply to see a better material world would be disappointed: “Man does not live on bread alone.†Those who looked for a political revolutionary would have to look elsewhere. Jesus did not intend to rule the world in that way. Those people would later shout: “Not this man, but Barabbas.â€
The man who emerges from the desert, and from that encounter with evil, heads up to His home country of Galilee to begin the most glorious chapter in the story of the world. He will show by word and deed, how glorious is God, and the glory that awaits God’s children. As for all temptations, Jesus will turn them of their head. When it comes to bread, He will feed the hungry crowds, and He will give himself to us as the “bread of life†in the Eucharist, teaching us to pray for our daily bread. When it comes to the kingdoms of this world, Jesus will gather His disciples on a mountainside, and will tell them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations.†Our human life is about glory. Our little journey from cradle to grave is so much more. “My father was a wandering Aramaean,†the old Jewish proclamation of faith says. I was nothing, but now I am settled and happy, and it is all God’s doing. Glory be to God.