Immediately after his baptism, Jesus withdrew to the wilderness to fast and pray. That’s why he probably thought he was going there, anyway. Scripture says the Holy Spirit led him there explicitly to be tempted by the devil.

Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness prepared him for his ministry. In this post, I’d like to explore how they prepared him for the events of Holy Week.

A friend of mine once counted all the verses in the gospels and determined that 40% of them deal with Holy Week. That is, the gospels describe the period between the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his appearances to his disciples on Easter in more detail than any other part of Jesus’ life.… Read the rest