Crossing the First Threshold
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.
Luke 4:1-2
After meeting with the Mentor and finally accepting the Call to Adventure, the Hero must leave the Ordinary World and enter the Special World. Doing so means crossing a clear line from one world to the next. The Fellowship of the Ring shows it beautifully. When Frodo and Sam are leaving the Shire, the countryside actually changes color as Sam pauses and says, "If I take one more step, it'll be the farthest away from home I've ever been." In screenwriting terms, this marks the end of act one.
Crossing the First Threshold can take a moment, just a beat of acknowledgment, or several minutes, depending of the needs of the story. Sometimes we'll see another archetype: the Threshold Guardian. In the nearly forgotten fantasy film Stardust, the threshold is a literal wall, and the Threshold Guardian is a literal guard. Getting past him and into the Special World requires effort and cunning. Nothing worthwhile ever comes easily, and our heroes must earn every step. Even Sam's reluctance to leave the Shire acts as its own sort of the Threshold Guardian.
While it only took Frodo and Sam minutes to cross their threshold, it took Jesus forty days. And while the most difficult guardian Tristan had to face in Stardust was an old man with a stick, Jesus had to contend with Satan himself. Nothing worthwhile ever comes easily, and Jesus' mission was the most important mission in history.
Mark tells us that after Jesus's baptizm "the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness." In the wilderness Jesus had no food. Satan suggested that he turn the stones to bread. If all Jesus had wanted was food, it would be easier for him to do that than to walk out of the wilderness and buy or bake some. But Jesus quoted scripture, saying "Man shall not live by bread alone." Satan promised Jesus authority over all the kingdoms of the world if he would just bow and worship him. If all Jesus was after was authority, it would have been the quickest and easiest way to get there. But Jesus quoted scripture, saying, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve."
Finally, Satan suggested Jesus throw himself off the top of the temple and let his angels catch him. This time, even Satan used scripture to support his idea, "He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you." If all Jesus wanted was to establish his deity, it would have been the easiest, most painless way to do it. But Jesus shut him down. "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."
So what changed? How is this the threshold?
Humanity needed to be saved. So God became human. We are told that in this world we will have many troubles. Jesus himself was described as a man of sorrow. Through baptism, he declared himself one of us. In the garden of Eden man was tempted by Satan with a shortcut, and gave into temptation. In the wilderness, Jesus was tempted by Satan three times over the course of six lonely, hungry weeks with shortcuts. Jesus did not fail. As we see over and over again, Jesus took every opportunity to lay the foundation for a relationship between God and man different from every rule-based religion that ever was, or ever would be. By not falling to temptation where Adam and Eve had, Jesus proved himself worthy to do everything that followed.
At what threshold do you find yourself standing? New opportunities present themselves every day. But some are more life altering than others. And what are the Threshold Guardians keeping you from crossing? It may not be a person. Like Sam, our Threshold Guardians are more often in our minds. And like Jesus, we find that the best way to confront our Threshold Guardians is with Truth. In his prayer for his followers, Jesus said:
Sanctify them in truth: your word is truth.
John 17:17
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