Wealth, Power, Freedom

These three temptations we read about this time of year and have known about for so long, what are they all about? We know what they are in the narrative sense. It’s pretty clear what the deceiver is doing. He is trying to pull Jesus to the dark side, to his side.

• Turn stones into bread.
• Worship me and be given all that you see.
• Throw yourself down and you’ll be saved.

Jesus sees through the play, the ploy, the plot!

• Bread alone doesn’t a good life make.
• Idols of any kind leads nowhere; only the way of God is worthy.
• Testing God means the test-maker failing every time.

But is there something deeper going on here than meets the eye? Are these 3 temptations as simple as they seem?

Of course not. The Bible has been a bestseller for centuries for a reason. There’s so much nuance, so much depth, so much going on beneath the surface, all of which makes great literature great and meaningful. Such depth is good for the spirit as well.

So let’s go through each of the temptations, look deeply, and see what we find. Consider it a scuba dive into the depths of this story.

Stones into bread.

Do any of you know a baker? Maybe you’ve done some baking yourself. A good baker can make a good living! The hours are hard. It can be hard on the waistline. I think about Fred the Baker, the pudgy, mustachioed man who woke bright and early with those famous words, “time to make the donuts.”

Imagine Jesus was able to turn stones into bread. Bread was a staple to the Mediterranean diet then, too. And, indeed, there were professional bakers in cities like Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem. Jesus easy work would make Jesus a lot of money and put folks like Fred the Baker out of business!

A free way to make bread meant money in your pocket!

There’s another layer here. There’s a scene in the movie Taxi Driver where Robert DeNiro is robbing a bodega. What are the words he uses, “give me the bread!” Bread as slang for money is a bit dated in English. But the idea is there.

Manna from heaven gets at the same connection. Manna from heaven means a windfall of cash come your way.

All of this is to say, the temptation is not just about eating bread and removing hunger. It’s about easy money. It’s about easy material wealth. If Jesus could turn stone into bread, he’d be seen as the easy money, miracle man. 

Jesus resists. You can’t live by bread alone. Or as he put it elsewhere, you can’t serve two masters, God and material wealth. You can’t serve the kingdom of heaven and manna from heaven.

The second temptation is more straightforward. It is what it is. Satan offers worldly power, authority over the world’s kingdom. An empire is being offered here. All Jesus has to do is worship the one in power, the one handed authority over all the world, the Deceiving One in front of him.

The temptation of worldly power! What greater a temptation is there than this? With this kind of power, you have access to all the wealth of the world. With this kind of power, you hold people’s fate in your hands. With this kind of power, those with little to no worldly power, will submit, bow, kowtow in deference.

Jesus, the one most due this kind of power, what does he do in the face of this?

He resists!

Worship only God and serve only God.

Jesus will, for now, stay in his lane, the divine lane that is God’s, knowing in the end all lanes, all worldly empires and powers, must end at the gate of God’s kingdom, the end that is God who is Love. Spiritual power, the power of love, a power that begins with humility, in the end will overcome worldly power.

Okay, the last temptation. Throw yourself down, give your life away, knowing that God will save you. Don’t worry. God will save you. You believe that, don’ you?

Jesus says this is an unrighteous test that he will not put before God. Do not test God!

What is this temptation all about?

It’s about immortality and the freedom that comes with it.

A couple months ago I watched the new Dead Pool movie with Corey. It was great. The character, Wade Wilson, aka Dead Pool, his superpower is that nothing kills him. His body heals at lightning speed, and not even a gun’s bullet has time to end his life, his healing power faster than a bullet. This kind of power does a number of the psyche, as the character development of Wade Wilson shows. The sense of freedom that comes with being invincible and close to immortal ruins him and his mental health.

It's not immortality that his problem. It’s the freedom that comes with it – that’s the issue. That Kris Kristofferson lyric comes to mind – freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose. If you can throw yourself down off a mountaintop and not die, what can’t you do? What can stop you from doing what you want to do? If you have nothing left to lose, who cares if you throw it all away?

Individual freedom, freedom not limited by physical limitations, freedom that doesn’t consider other’s freedom, selfish freedom - that is a temptation that can quickly lead to ruin.

There must be limits to individual freedom. Without limitations, we too easily ruin not just ourselves but those around us in it’s wake.

Collective freedom? Well, there must be self-imposed limits there, too. But that’s another discussion for another day.

Jesus resists unlimited freedom.

I’d like to close with a verse I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. As I face the world, and see all the chaos and division, I ask myself, what am I to do with all of this? How am I supposed to lead and pastor God’s people? What is expected of me as a follower of Jesus and a teacher of his way?

This verse gives as clear an answer for all of us. It’s a well-known verse, but one we too often forget about.

Micah 6:8:

[The Lord] has told you, O mortal, what is good,
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
    and to walk humbly with your God?

Each of these basic requirements – justice, kindness, humility are the antidote to the temptations Jesus was tempted with and we are tempted with too.

In the face of the temptation of materialism and wealth, do justice.

In the face of the temptation of power and authoritarianism, love kindness, compassion, love Love.

In the face of the temptation of selfish freedom, walk humbly with God, letting go of selfishness, emptying self to be filled by Christ’s love.

Doing justice, loving kindness, walking in humility. This is the way.