This is what the Baptism of the Lord tells us: we must understand what podvig is in it, what love for us. And the question before us is posed – not for the first time, but again and again, insistently: how are we going to answer this?..

After the Savior is baptized, the Spirit leads Christ into the wilderness:

Immediately after that, the Spirit leads Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the beasts. And angels ministered to Him (Mark 1:12-13).

This is again an extremely concise description of the event, which, including as many as forty days, was, of course, much richer in content. But we must remember that the Evangelist Mark wrote at a time when the preaching of the Gospel was very widespread, and therefore he speaks briefly about what many had already spoken about before him. In addition to this text, I will read to you from the Gospel of Luke the first fourteen verses of the fourth chapter:

Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. There He was tempted by the devil for forty days, and ate nothing during those days; and after they had passed, he hungered for the end. And the devil said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, then command this stone to become bread." Jesus answered and said to them, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God' (Deuteronomy 8:3).And having led Him up to a high mountain, the devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, "Unto thee will I give power over all these kingdoms, and their glory; for she is devoted to me, and I give her to whomsoever I will. Therefore, if you worship me, then everything will be yours. Jesus answered and said to him, "Get thee behind me, Satan; It is written, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Deuteronomy 6:13). And He led Him to Jerusalem, and set Him on the wing of the temple, and said to Him, "If Thou art the Son of God, throw thyself down from hence; for it is written: "He commands His angels concerning Thee to preserve Thee; and they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone" (Psalm 90:11-12). Jesus answered and said to him, "It is said, 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God' (Deuteronomy 6:16).And having finished all the temptation, the devil departed from Him for the time being. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee; and the fame of him spread throughout all the country round about.

I think that we need to think carefully about what this temptation is, because what happened to Christ in the wilderness happens to each of us at times. Of course, not in such an environment, not with such a convexity, not so sharply, but nevertheless it happens. Each of us at some moments suddenly feels that a depth has opened up in him, which he did not suspect, that such forces have opened up in him of which he had no idea, that the sea is knee-deep for him, that everything is possible to him, that he is ready to fight all the evil of the world, that he is ready to build only good. And at this moment, we, like Christ, are facing the temptation of power. The devil said to Him: "If You are the Son of God..." – that is: "Prove that You are the Son of God! You feel such tremendous power in Yourself, the Holy Spirit has descended upon You, Your entire humanity trembles with the fullness of its being — prove it. You're hungry. Thou hast fasted for forty days, hast thou not now power over all created things? Look, there are stones lying around You, take at least one of them, order it to become bread and be satisfied..." Is this not what happens to us when we feel within ourselves a certain uplift of strength, and yet we are in some kind of need; Is it not possible to use this force, which is purely spiritual, to satisfy a real, urgent need? Should I really die of hunger when I have the opportunity to do something with this power?.. Jesus answers, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." And the word of God is not a commandment, it is the life-giving word that God pronounces when every person is called from non-existence into existence, it is the word that holds us, thanks to which we exist, thanks to which we are alive and can grow to the full measure of our being. Christ rejected the humiliation of this Divine power in Himself for the sake of the miserable satisfaction of His need: such power cannot be used less than to serve God, less than to serve people.

And the defeated devil turns to Him with another temptation. "Thou didst not wish to use this power for Thyself alone, — come with me, behold a high mountain; from this mountain I will show Thee all the kingdoms of the world, Thou shalt survey them with one glance and see them all; and I will give Thee power over all these kingdoms, all their glory. She is devoted to me, to whom I will, I give them; Just worship me, and everything will be Yours..." Is this not a temptation that comes to us too? No one offers us a kingdom, no one offers us special glory, but how often does it creep into our thoughts: "If you are what you now feel yourself to be, do you not have the right to power over other people, do you not have the right to dispose of them? Why don't you use this tremendous power for good?.." This is the temptation of the Antichrist, and Christ renounced this temptation: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, Him only shalt thou serve." This is the temptation of power: the power to enslave others, that is, to become what the Antichrist will become: a servant of Satan, turning into slaves by his power all those who do not stand before him like Christ and say: "Thou shalt worship thy God, Him only shalt thou serve!"

And the third temptation: the devil took Christ on the wing of the temple, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; after all, the Holy Scriptures promise that angels will support You, that nothing will happen to You – amaze people with a miracle, prove to them that You are the Son of God, that You can do what no one can do..." How often we would like to perform a miracle — not to bribe people, not to make them fall on their knees before us, but for good: if only I could perform a miracle, heal the person I love! If only I could work a miracle and save my homeland from enslavement.. And here we also need to say, like Christ: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

So these temptations, which seem to relate only to Christ, apply directly to us. Temptation by force: you are hungry, you are in need, use your power to get rid of it... The temptation of power: Do you not have the opportunity to be the master of everything and everyone and everyone? And finally, the temptation of a miracle

I want to draw your attention to one circumstance. The Gospel says that Satan departed from Christ for a time. Until when?

Everything that is described here is a temptation of force. When will the temptation of powerlessness, weakness, and fear come? We will see this later, I will only mention it now. When Christ first began to tell His disciples that He had to die in order to fulfill His calling, the Apostle Peter approached Him and said: "Do not let this happen, have pity on Yourself, have pity, agree to power, surrender, only remain alive..." This is the temptation of weakness. This is the last temptation that Christ had to overcome, because such a temptation can only be overcome in the face of extreme horror, rejection by people, loss of unity (I am talking about His humanity, about His psychological state) with God: My God, My God, why did You forsake Me! (Mark 15:34) — and the real death of Him Who is Eternal Life, as if the taking away of life itself by Him Who is Life itself. This was His ultimate and terrible temptation.

Then, in the middle of the first chapter, we read:

After John had been betrayed, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying that the time was fulfilled and the kingdom of God was at hand. repent and believe in the gospel (vv. 14-15).

I want to focus your attention on this little excerpt. The first question that arises is what happened to John the Baptist. We have seen him in previous conversations in full force, proclaiming repentance, turning sinners into people who, if not righteous, then want righteousness, seek it, renounce evil. Now we see that he was betrayed. What happened to him? What happened was that his preaching offended the powers that be, the local ruler. John reproached him that his life was immoral, that he had no right to live as he lived, and John was taken to prison. Doesn't this happen every day to people who rebel against those who have power and who don't want to hear the voices of their conscience? Do we not act, each of us in our own measure, even in a small way, with our conscience, as we did with John the Baptist? He was taken to prison, he was condemned to death and destroyed.