Mark 1:12 uses a remarkable verb. It says that the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness. (In the Old Testament ekballein is common for driving out, removing, while in the New Testament it is often used for the casting out of demons, or the sending away of people.) While all the people were led out of the wilderness to the Jordan, so that, after confessing their sins, they could return to their place of origin filled with expectation, Jesus is immediately (euthus) banished by the Spirit, as though he lacked permission to remain. This banishment of him who was just identified as the mightier one, who was to come for the forgiveness of sins, has to do with the atonement. It is as though the sins confessed by the people (Mark 1:5) are now already added to Jesus’ account. And he who had committed no sin (Mark 1:10), so that he could rise up out of the water immediately, is now immediately driven out of the country and into the wilderness. That place is important in the context of general confession of sins. Through John’s appearance, the people came to an attitude of repentance, such as is prescribed for the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29, Leviticus 16:31). Once a year a living being was sent into the wilderness for the collective sins of the people (Leviticus 16:20–22). Aaron placed all the iniquities of the Israelites on the head of the goat and sent it away into unfruitful land, the wilderness, where it was set free. Does the historical context of a collective repentance and the expectation of someone who will carry away the sins, in combination with the chosen verb, drive out, not remind us of a banishment because of the sins of all the people?¹