Right after his baptism, Jesus is led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. We read about this in Luke 4:1-13. Jesus is in the wilderness for forty days and near the end of that time, the devil tempts him. Today I’m looking at one aspect of this journey—the commitment to a complete incarnation.
One aspect of the incarnation is the act of God experiencing our lived reality. When the spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness for 40 days of fasting, this is another way in which Jesus walks a mile in the shoes of his ancestors. I have written about how the work of Jesus is a kind of grand Exodus story. Here we see Jesus wandering in the wilderness for 40 days, and that echoes the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.
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