Mark 1: 12-15 – First Sunday of Lent (Year B) | King James Audio Bible | KJV | King James Version
12 And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.
13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.
14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
The temptations of Christ in the wilderness follow immediately upon his baptism by John, the descent of the Spirit upon him and the declaration of Christ as the Son of God. Jesus has offered himself to perform what is now our first act of Christian initiation, to be baptized. When we are baptized, we are born again in Christ, and we recall the rite practised by John as we imitate Christ. As we embark upon Lent, once more following Christ’s example, we are called to renew our baptismal promises through the acts of penitence we make, once more following Christ’s example.
When Jesus goes into the wilderness he is truly tempted by Satan. The Bible account in the Gospel of Mark does not detail these temptations. St Matthew and St Luke give greater detail. There are the temptation of bread, the temptation of prestige and the temptation of power, which are the same temptations faced by the people of Israel in the desert after they went out of Egypt. Temptation is whatever draws someone away from the path toward God and instead toward sin. Jesus confronts temptation and yet remains true to God. He is tested in this way in the wilderness and he is proven. When we pray to and with Jesus, we may be confident that Jesus has confronted temptation just as we do. He has shared in this aspect of our humanity.
When Jesus is tempted by Satan we might think also of the Book of Job, which may be the clearest Old Testament expression in the Bible of the threat of the accuser, who is too in Job something like a game player with God, testing the faithful, to seek to reduce the good man to see if his faith in God survives. God grants Satan the right to test Job. Through the story of Job, we may come to see more clearly the redemption Christ gives to us.
Our understanding of Satan develops as we move from the Old Testament into the New Testament of the Bible. It might be said that it develops in parallel to our understanding of the redemption Christ brings to us. In other words, as we follow Christ’s teaching, in moving from the old to the new – indeed, in rejoicing as the new transforms the old – this is part of our ever growing knowledge of God.
Do we know what Christ experienced in the wilderness? Probably, in part, yes. We know in part our temptations. We know some of the stuff of life that clogs our communion with Jesus. If we look closely and honestly enough, we know our sins.
We try to be like Christ. There will always be ways in which we fall short. But as we try to be akin to Christ we can move closer and closer and closer to being like him. In this respect, our focus on our faith through Lent is a great opportunity. We declare a certain poverty of soul. We hunger for God, rather than immersing ourselves within the temporary pleasures of this world.
It is through the long forty days of temptations and penitence and abstinence that Christ becomes fully empowered to perform his ministry, and it is also following the imprisonment of John the Baptist and the repentance which he offered. It is when John the Baptist is imprisoned that Jesus returns to Galilee to preach. This is of great significance. As John himself says, he has shown the way; now the Messiah is here.
This is a time of completion. Through the forty days of penance and fasting in the wilderness, the time is now at hand; the kingdom of God is at hand. ‘Repent ye, and believe the Gospel.’
We are now just beginning our journey through Lent. We think of Christ and his holy journey through his time in the wilderness, and we look within ourselves to find everything that separates us from true and full communion with Christ.
‘Our pilgrim life here on earth cannot be without temptation for it is through temptation that we make progress and it is only by being tempted that we come to know ourselves.’ St Augustine
King James Audio Bible | Endnotes
Who Is The Devil In The Bible – In Christianity?
In the Old Testament, the devil is referred to as Satan, which means ‘adversary’ or ‘accuser’. Satan is depicted as a being who challenges God and seeks to lead people astray from Him. In the book of Job, Satan is portrayed as a being who challenges God to test the faith of Job, a faithful servant of God. Satan accuses Job of only being faithful because of his prosperity, and suggests that if God were to take away his wealth and health, Job would curse God. God allows Satan to afflict Job with various trials, but Job remains faithful to God throughout.
In Zechariah 3:1-2, Satan is described as an accuser who stands before God and accuses Joshua the high priest: ‘And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’
In the New Testament, the devil is also referred to as Satan, but is also called the devil, the evil one, and the prince of this world. The devil is depicted as a tempter who seeks to lead people astray from God. In the Gospel of Matthew, the devil tempts Jesus in the wilderness with offers of power and glory, but Jesus resists his temptations. In Matthew 4:8-10, the devil takes Jesus to a high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world, offering to give them to him if he will bow down and worship him. But Jesus responds, ‘Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.’
In John 8:44, Jesus refers to the devil as a liar and the father of lies: ‘Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.’
In the book of Genesis, the devil is understood to be portrayed as the serpent who tempts Adam and Eve to disobey God and eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This act of disobedience leads to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the introduction of sin into the world. In Genesis 3:1-5, the serpent says to Eve, ‘Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’
Where In The Bible Does The Devil Challenge God – And So Is Cast Out Of Heaven?
The story of the devil’s rebellion against God and his subsequent fall from heaven is not described in detail in any single passage of the Bible. However, there are several verses in the Bible that are commonly interpreted as referring to this event.
One of the most well-known passages is found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 14, verses 12-15. In this passage, the King of Babylon is being mocked by the prophet Isaiah, who describes his fall from power and greatness. Many Christians interpret this passage as having a deeper spiritual meaning, referring to the fall of Satan:
‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.’
In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 10, verse 18, Jesus speaks to his disciples after they return from a mission:
‘And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.’
The book of Revelation also refers to a war in heaven, in which Michael and his angels fight against the dragon (interpreted as Satan) and his angels. In Revelation 12:7-9, it is written:
‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.’
Three further passages concerning the fall of Satan/the devil are:
- Ezekiel 28:12-19: ‘Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.’
- Jude 1:6: ‘And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.’
- 2 Peter 2:4: ‘For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.’
Traditionally ascribed to King David, upon the discovery of his adultery, this psalm represents and enacts a perfect act of contrition, from the awareness and acknowledgement of sin, through acknowledgement of God, to celebration and renewal in faith with God [ … ]
Christian Art | A Boy At Prayer Receives Communion | Eucharist | Jesus Saves Office Of Readings | Easter Saturday | A Reading From The Instructions To The Newly Baptized At Jerusalem | The Bread of Heaven and the Cup of Salvation ‘The bread of heaven and the cup of salvation.’ Commentary on the Jerusalem Catechesis | The Instructions To The Newly Baptized At Jerusalem The Bread of Heaven and the Cup of Salvation The reading from the Jerusalem Catecheses offers a luminous and powerful reflection on the mystery of the Eucharist, the sacrament at the very heart of Christian life. Attributed traditionally to Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, these catecheses were designed to unfold the hidden mysteries of the faith to those who had newly received baptism and first communion at the Easter Vigil. The context is important: these were not casual theological musings, but careful, pastoral teachings meant to anchor the newly-initiated in the life-giving truths they had just entered into. The heart of this passage is the unwavering assertion of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Cyril does not argue cautiously; he proclaims boldly: ‘Since Christ himself has declared the bread to be his body, who can have any further doubt?’ In an era where some were tempted to interpret Christ’s words metaphorically, Cyril insists on a straightforward, literal faith. Christ’s own words — ‘This is my body… this is my blood’ — are treated as sufficient warrant for full-hearted belief. There is no room for skepticism: to doubt the Eucharist is, by implication, to doubt Christ himself. This teaching reflects a deep continuity with the apostolic faith. Already in the New Testament, St. Paul affirms, ‘The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?’ (1 Corinthians 10:16) The Eucharist is not a mere symbol among symbols, but a sacramental participation in the living Christ. Saint Cyril continues this tradition, reinforcing that the Eucharistic elements, though appearing to human senses as bread and wine, are indeed the body and blood of the Lord. This appeals directly to the primacy of faith over sight, recalling Paul’s teaching that Christians ‘walk by faith, not by sight’ (2 Corinthians 5:7). Moreover, the catechesis emphasizes the transformative power of the Eucharist. In receiving Christ’s body and blood, the believer is made a ‘bearer of Christ’ — a Christophoros. Here, the early Church’s mystical understanding of the sacraments is beautifully clear: to receive the Eucharist is not only to commemorate Christ, but to be conformed to him, to be transfigured into his likeness. Saint Peter’s phrase that Christians are made ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4) finds vivid application here: the Eucharist draws us into the very life of God. Cyril is also careful to explain how the Old Testament prefigurations — the showbread in the Temple, the manna in the desert — point to the fullness of the Eucharist. The showbread, which had meaning under the old covenant, gave way before the true ‘bread from heaven’ that Christ provides (John 6:32-35). This biblical typology strengthens the catechesis, showing that the Eucharist was not a novelty, but the culmination of God’s long preparation of his people. What was hinted at in figures has now been given in fullness. The dual effect of the Eucharist — sanctifying both body and soul — is also beautifully emphasized. The bread sanctifies the body; the Word sanctifies the soul. This integrated vision of human nature, so typical of patristic thought, avoids any dualism that would prize the soul over the body. Salvation in Christ is for the whole person. The Eucharist thus nourishes human beings at every level, preparing them not just for a spiritual existence, but for the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. The passage ends with a tender exhortation to interior purity. Echoing Paul’s words that Christians should examine themselves before receiving the body and blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:28), Cyril urges his hearers to cleanse their consciences. Only with a pure heart can the Christian ‘be transformed from glory to glory’ — an allusion to 2 Corinthians 3:18 — contemplating the Lord’s glory and being conformed more and more to his image. This Holy Saturday reading, poised on the edge of the Easter Vigil, is profoundly fitting. The catechumen, freshly baptized and anointed, stands ready to partake of the Eucharist for the first time. The reading calls him or her — and by extension, all of us — to approach the altar with wonder, reverence, and firm faith, recognizing that in the humble forms of bread and wine is contained the infinite love and life of God. As the Church sings at every Mass: ‘Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.’ In the Eucharist, the word has been spoken; the healing has been given; the divine life has been offered. To Christ Jesus, true bread from heaven, be all glory and praise, now and forever. Amen. Living Memory | Pope Francis And The Eucharistic Mystery The spirit of the Jerusalem Catecheses finds a vibrant echo in the teaching of Pope Francis, who often returns to the centrality of the Eucharist in Christian life. In his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (2013), Francis calls the Eucharist ‘not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak’ (§47). This insight harmonizes deeply with the tone of the early Church’s catechesis: the Eucharist is offered not as a reward for the righteous but as the necessary food for pilgrims on the journey of faith — those who, like the neophytes of Jerusalem, are continually being transformed by grace. Moreover, Pope Francis stresses that the Eucharist is an encounter with Christ that transforms the believer into a living member of his Body. In a 2018 homily on the Feast of Corpus Christi, he spoke these striking words: ‘The Eucharist is simple food, like […]
Jesus once more contrasts the gift of his own body with the manna given to the Israelites to eat during the Exodus, which bread of heaven they ate and yet they still went on to die. Christ is the living bread. He is the bread that has come from heaven. Christ’s origin in heaven is, as John tells us, what sets him apart and enables our redemption. Jesus explains: just as he lives because of the Father, so we live through Christ. We are called to share in his supper and so to have life eternal [ … ]
