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| Lively discussion |
The Power and the Glory
In the second temptation Jesus is conveyed to the pinnacle of the
Temple. This most magnificent of many buildings that arose under the governance
of Herod the Great, stood on a plateau. There was a corner at which the portico
of Solomon met the Royal Gate and from there was a sheer drop of 450 feet into
the Kedron valley. This might well have been the location for the spectacular
stunt suggested by Satan. Quoting psalm 91, which was intimately connected with
the Temple as a place where protection is assured to the believer, Jesus is to
demonstrate the veracity of that prayer in an obvious and unmistakable
manner. He responds by a biblical
dispute with the Devil. Pope Benedict, in his scholarly way sees a contemporary
resonance in this outcome. The interpretation of scripture is ultimately one
about the image of God that it demonstrates. And that image is formed by how
Christ is interpreted. What kind of Messiah is he? We apparently have so many
from which to choose. But only one is genuine; the one that recognises his
complete identification with the will of his heavenly Father on the one hand,
and the other, the trusting abandonment of his bodily survival to the extremes
of physical destruction.
For Benedict, the issue at stake in the second
temptation is one of “bread and circuses” that after the first has been
provided a spectacle must follow. This is the replacement of religious awe with
glamourous and exciting substitutes. How does Jesus deal with it? The reply to
the tempter quoted by him (from Dt. 6:16) alludes to an event described in Ex.
17:7, in the wandering history of the Israelites when they rebelled against God
and Moses complaining of thirst. “They put the Lord to the proof by saying, is
the Lord among us or not”. The issue then is that God has to submit to
experiment. He is “tested”, as products are tested. He must submit to the
conditions that we say are necessary if we are to reach certainty. The devil
challenged God to answer then and there the prayer expressed in psalm 91. It is
a challenge repeated many times in our contemporary religious debate.
Laboratory conditions are imposed on the quest or discussion of God as though
he could be subject in any way to that kind of confirmation. The God for whom
Jesus stands and in whom he is present at all times, evokes a higher and
altogether more dignified response from humanity. It is one that exalts our
nature above the experimental and empirical and invites us to seek and know by
an intellect moved and inspired by love and interior listening. The humility
that opens the door to the highest form of mysticism as that echoed in the
phrase from Mother Julian of Norwich, “By love he may be gotten and holden, by
thought never. “
Jesus did eventually, in a sense, jump into an abyss. But it was one
that subjected him to the abandonment of himself into the hands of his Father,
on the Cross: the death he had to undergo to achieve true victory and glory for
fallen humanity. Instead of the reckless defiance of God suggested by Satan he
submits to the obedience which could only led to the cross. The spectacle of
personal and public humiliation by which alone the victory of human nature
could be won; which brings us to the third temptation. From the top of a high
mountain, Jesus is shown in spirit an empire of wealth, glory and dominion. We
must consider this more in terms of a vision than of a physical reality. The
temptation is to reach out and grab earthly power, just there for the taking.
To achieve rapidly by physical control a universal dominion utterly opposed to
service, which could only be won by a long and laborious and risky strategy of
conversion, dependent on the unpredictable and the uncontrollable forces ranged
against it. This is the temptation to use undiluted power to secure the faith
so that our religion is identified exclusively with political control. Pope
Benedict’s commentary on this temptation observes that the fusion of faith and
political power always comes at a price: faith becomes the servant of power and
must bend to its criteria. The temptation to succumb to such an experiment has
been a constant in the history of Christianity. In its latest form it sought to
identify the faith as a radical force for social and political change with
selective interpretations from scripture to support it. He proposes a clear example of Jesus
representing just the opposite in his trial before Pontius Pilate. The governor
offers a choice between two prisoners, Barabbas and Jesus. John’s Gospel
describing Barabbas is translated as “a robber”. But the original Greek word is
more precise. At that time it had come to be synonymous with “freedom fighter”.
He is likely to have been the ringleader of an uprising. In that sense, he was
a messianic figure, whose name Barabbas, son of the father, makes the irony of
the choice even more acute. The crowds were faced with a choice between a
messianic leader of an armed struggle, promising an earthly kingdom of freedom,
and this mysterious Jesus who proclaims that the way to life is letting go of
all pretensions to earthly power, claiming as justification the virtues of
truth, justice and the fulfilment of the divine will.
Relating further this epic instance of temptation to the
contemporary situation, Benedict writes that today the devil would not be so crude
as to propose that we should worship him. He would rather suggest that we opt for
the reasonable decision; that we choose to give priority to a planned and
thoroughly organized world, where God may have his place as a private concern
but must not interfere in our essential purposes. In this scenario, Antichrist
does not appear as an apocalyptic foe but as one whose message is the worship
of well-being and rational planning. The interpretation of Christianity as a
recipe for progress and the proclamation of universal prosperity as the real
goal of all religions is a modern temptation. So often it takes the form of a
religious populism, demanding that the Church steps into line with current
thinking on human welfare and accepted variants of human identity and behaviour
instead of risking failure and rejection by defending outdated Judaeo-
Christian morality. The prophetic character of our religion is such that it
must always stand in opposition to the temptation to yield to pressure or
succumb to the lies of contemporary movements that promote a vision of humanity that is
purely mechanised and material. This is a world where all that matters is that
physical and emotional needs of every kind are met and provided regardless of the
moral or material cost to society. Everything is justifiable that is possible,
scientifically, medically and socially.
We can all so easily be swept along on this tide of
progress towards a utopia of human fulfilment utterly distant from any reliance
or reverence for divine revelation or its moral imperatives. In a haste to
procure a better world the slow-moving tempo of divine intervention becomes a
bore and a nuisance. God’s power works quietly in this world, but it is the
true and lasting power. Again and again the death throes of our religion have
been predicted. Yet over and over again it has endured and saved. The earthly
kingdoms shown by Satan to Jesus have all past away. Their glory held
generations in thrall for a time. They have not been without their benefits to
civilization but they could not answer or offer hope for anything beyond what
is tangible, physical or destructible. Jesus bequeathed a legacy and a
spiritual kingdom of genuine freedom and ultimate security that effectively
releases mankind from subjection to worldly dependence and inescapable
mortality. To the invitation to worship power, the Lord answers with the
ancient text of Dt 6:23; “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only
shall you serve”. The command to Israel is the same as that for Christians: God
alone is to be worshipped. In the midst of so many temptations to sideline this
religious absolute we must steel ourselves to stand our ground and like our
divine Master, be ready and willing to accept humiliation for a time and send
the tempter packing.
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