“And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.”
At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness — Mark's characteristic immediately (euthys) appears here for the first of many times. The Spirit that descended at the baptism immediately drives Jesus into the wilderness for testing. The word translated sent out (ekballō) is the same word used for casting out demons — the Spirit's propulsion is forceful, not gentle. The testing immediately follows the divine declaration of sonship: the tempter's strategy will be to subvert the identity just declared. The wilderness is the theologically laden space — Israel was tested in the wilderness for forty years; Jesus is tested for forty days in the same arena, recapitulating Israel's history to succeed where Israel failed.
Church Fathers on Mark 1:12
And that no one might doubt, by what spirit he said that Christ was driven into the wilderness, Luke has on purpose premised, that 'Jesus being full of the Spirit returned from Jordan, ' and then has added, 'and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness;' lest the evil spirit should be thought to have any power over Him, who, being full of the Holy Spirit, departed whither He was willing to go, and did what He was willing to do.
Or then the beasts dwell with us in peace, as in the ark clean animals with the unclean, when the flesh lusts not against the spirit. After this, ministering Angels are sent to us, that they may give answers and comforts to hearts that watch.
Read all 4 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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