Jesus Goes Back to the Wilderness

No point in arguing.

Quick Note: Thank you for joining me each day in this journey through the gospels. It means a lot to know you’re reading along. - J

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The confrontation had escalated again.

The religious leaders picked up stones, ready to kill him. Jesus had made claims they could not accept—claims about his relationship with the Father, about his authority, about his works. And yet, rather than retreat immediately, we see him engage them one last time.

If I’m not doing my Father’s works, don’t believe me. But if I am doing them, even if you don’t believe me, believe the works…

His argument was simple but sharp. You don’t have to take me at my word. Just look at what’s happening. The fruit should speak for itself.

Yet, as often happens when people are confronted with truth, they hardened themselves further. Instead of taking a moment to consider, they doubled down. Some Many just won’t be convinced. They are too steeped in other people or things that they have allowed to disciple them over the years - a particular interpretation, politics, media, or even something as strong as cultural or familial influence.

So after the threat to his life, Jesus withdrew again. He does this sometimes. Usually it’s for a short amount of time - the early morning on the mountain or the late evening in the garden. But this retreat was likely longer because of the distance to where John is talking about. Only in John’s gospel do we see this later-in-life retreat to the wilderness - an example worth consideration.

Jesus didn’t stay in the cycle of pointless arguing. He didn’t force them to see what they refused to see. Instead, he went back to the wilderness, back to the place where his ministry had begun, back to where John had baptized.

And there, people still came. And they believed.

Jesus wasn’t running away. He was re-centering. Before stepping into the final stretch of his journey, he stepped into a place of preparation and reception—a place where his works were recognized, where truth was received.

John 10:31-42

Again the Jewish opposition picked up stones in order to stone him. Jesus responded, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of those works do you stone me?”

The Jewish opposition answered, “We don’t stone you for a good work but for insulting God. You are human, yet you make yourself out to be God.”

Jesus replied, “Isn’t it written in your Law, I have said, you are gods? Scripture calls those to whom God’s word came gods, and scripture can’t be abolished. So how can you say that the one whom the Father has made holy and sent into the world insults God because he said, ‘I am God’s Son’? If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me. But if I do them, and you don’t believe me, believe the works so that you can know and recognize that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Again, they wanted to arrest him, but he escaped from them.

Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had baptized at first, and he stayed there. Many people came to him. “John didn’t do any miraculous signs,” they said, “but everything John said about this man was true.” Many believed in Jesus there.

Psalm 27:1-5

The Lord is my light and my salvation. Should I fear anyone?

The Lord is a fortress protecting my life. Should I be frightened of anything? When evildoers come at me trying to eat me up—it’s they, my foes and my enemies, who stumble and fall! If an army camps against me, my heart won’t be afraid. If war comes up against me, I will continue to trust in this:

I have asked one thing from the Lord—it’s all I seek: to live in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, seeing the Lord’s beauty and constantly adoring his temple. Because he will shelter me in his own dwelling during troubling times; he will hide me in a secret place in his own tent; he will set me up high, safe on a rock.

Prayer

God,

Thank you for showing me, through Christ, that retreating is not weakness, failure, or giving up. Jesus stepped away—not out of fear, but with purpose. I imagine him in the wilderness: eating, watching, resting, perhaps even speaking with others who had, for their own reasons, chosen the wilderness as refuge.

How long did he stay? Didn’t he worry about what was going on in Jerusalem? Did Jesus know FOMO?

I also recognize he, at some point, knew it was right to go back to the fray. Lord, give me such wisdom of timing.

By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.