Jesus grew in spiritual maturity the same way we do; through experience, exploration, doubting, questioning, disappointment, all the ways we learn.

torahJesus spent his boyhood like every other boy in his town. He went to the temple to learn from the rabbis about Jewish history and legend and law, all from the books of law, history, prophecy, poetry and wisdom; the books we know as the Old Testament. In short, he learned how to be a good Jew by acquiring the knowledge and adopting the ideas of his teachers and elders. And he like most boys his age hoped that he would be alive to see the Messiah come and liberate his people from the domination of Rome and would once again make God’s chosen people the dominant culture.

But as Jesus grew into his adulthood, as he learned more about himself, his religion, and his world, he began to realize that his life was about something more than being a devout Jew. The real turning point came when he encountered John the Baptist. John’s message was radical, and it also made perfect sense for the young adult with a growing vision of what his life was about.

It was after his baptism by John, essentially joining the band of John’s followers, that Jesus then went into the wilderness to be alone and make sense of the enormous changes that were happening inside him.

This is where we find Jesus, alone in the wilderness, and where we have this remarkable story of his struggle. A significant part of the struggle, if his experience is like most people’s, involved confronting the limitations of the knowledge and preconceived ideas he had adopted. While those had served him well in his growing up, he discovered their inadequacy to help him through what he saw was ahead.

What he was about to do would put him in the cross hairs of the Roman Empire and the Jewish leaders. He knew from history what happened to people who claimed the role of Messiah. If they couldn’t be silenced or marginalized, they were eventually executed for heresy or treason. It had happened many times.

He was embarking on a mission that he suspected would cost him his life. Doing so would require much more than being able to simply quote scripture or recite doctrine or mouth the phrases his parents and rabbis taught him. Those had been fine up until that point, but for a mature faith that could stand up to what was ahead, he needed something transformative, not comforting.

The temptations were about settling for comfort, not transformation. That’s what he had to get past. That’s what we have to get past.