Denice K. Leslie
February 13, 2005
Lent 1, Year A
Matthew 4: 1-ll
“In the First Person: The Tempter”
DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT THE Methodists in hell? The devil kicked them out! No sooner had they arrived than they took stock of the situation, organized everybody and put in air conditioning! 
Two boys were walking home from church and sharing their reflection on the lesson. They had been studying the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. Little Peter said to his friend John, “Do you believe that stuff about the devil? Do you think there really is a devil?” John looked at him and said, “Naah, it’s just like Santa Claus — it’s your dad.”
	Hmmm. What does the devil look like? How DOES the devil work? IS there a devil?? The operation of evil in the world is no small consideration. Today’s gospel account of Jesus Temptation in the wilderness in Matthew’s gospel raises all of these questions. Here’s one contemporary scenario from the film “Jesus of Montreal.” “This is a film that is so rich it could illustrate any number of themes: discipleship, temptation, redemption, etc. 
	Jesus of Montreal tells the story of an actor hired to help update a Catholic cathedral’s annual Passion Play. He gathers a group of actors around him and in interesting ways the actors’ lives mirror the stories of Jesus and his followers from the gospels. 
	Especially the actor—who not only directs the play but plays Jesus. He begins to absorb the gospel and finds his own heart desiring for himself and for the world what he finds in Jesus. And like Jesus, he has his time of temptation. He abhors the sleazy side of the media scene and has up until now refused to do any adds or give his name to any products—and in fact has only recently returned to acting as a profession. 
	 In this scene we see a very sophisticated, rich lawyer trying to get the actor to further his cause with the power he could have at his disposal through fame –all he has to do is sign a contract—put his future into the hands of this man—a contemporary metaphor for The Temptation of Jesus. Let’s watch:
(Brief video clip from French film, “Jesus of Montreal.” Scene picks up after the girl leaves the lawyer’s side as he says, “She’s 17.”)
	You know, your mother was right: “Even the devil wears a gray flannel suit and cleans his fingernails.” Evil is a pretty deceitful, wily, and likeable character! Allow me to step into the first person, incarnate evil for you and introduce myself: 	
	 I am the Tempter. There are many names for me: Diobolos—the Devil, Beelzebub, the Evil One, Satan, the Destroyer, the Great Seducer, the Great Persuader, the Adversary and the Prince of This World. That last one—that is the one I like the best. It describes me the best because it encompasses all of the others. There is another I’ll add here—the Shape Shifter. Yes that one is quite descriptive.
	In today’s account from the Gospel of Matthew I am simply referred to as the devil—very prosaic if I do say so. 
You call this account The Temptation. I call it the Great Refusal. 
	But I don’t want to talk about that just yet. I want to talk about me. You don’t take me seriously enough. That’s why I’m here this morning. You make two mistakes: you assume that being saved has solved all your problems with temptation, sin and evil in general and that I’m no longer a serious threat to you - OR you assume I’m a myth and that the real devil resides solely in the dark side of human nature: in a nutshell, your attitude is, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” While I won’t deny that is the case I will say it is simplistic, people, simplistic! As simplistic as those who assume I am a real being dressed in a red suit with a barbed tail, pointy ears and carrying a pitch fork!
	 But I must say, since I planted both of these ideas in your heads, I think my strategy has worked pretty well at keeping you from a true understanding of my abilities, strategies and goals. Even though you read the bible—you do read your scriptures I presume?—I have managed to lull you into a false sense of security about the power of evil among you. Of course, these views you hold are biblically ignorant—its truly amazing to me how you do such a magnificent job of ignoring scripture, I must compliment you on this-- but it is also the case that your scriptures take evil seriously. Very seriously. 
	The whole sweep of salvation history is built on rectifying the consequences of evil in the world. You do realize that don’t you?? After all this is why Jesus came and …I won’t go into what he accomplished. Your pastor can take that up with you….
	 But I think your modern world view is probably my best shield. You dismiss any anthropomorphic view of evil as outdated and in the process you also naively dismiss the reality of evil as a force among you that is larger than you are, bigger than you are; a force independent of you with a vicious life of its own –one that is fully capable of systemic, repetitive havoc among you as a species. 
	What does that mean? Let me give you some examples. First of all, as the Prince of this World—I am not simply a destroying force. No, no, no! I am actually a force for order in this world. It is one of the great myths that I come only to destroy. Just look around you—you see civilization everywhere, you see progress and technology and the majority of the people obeying the law and you assume that the majority of people are law abiding, decent folk and that the order you observe and appreciate is for the best. Yes! And No! 	Your naivete makes you perfect pawns in my hands. For you see the most effective weapon in my arsenal is to get you to believe evil isn’t much of a real problem in every day life and if it does raise its ugly head it is simply a matter of getting people to behave correctly and if they don’t then doing what is necessary to see to it they do behave. It always helps if you are righteous in your cause! Especially when you believe it will maintain order for the common good. Now there are true righteous causes-don’t get me wrong-most are---but it is my strategy to take and twist them.
	 Yes! There is nothing like a twisted righteous cause to allow me to keep up my power. As the Prince of this World –I have no desire to allow you to destroy my kingdom—I must maintain order! I actually bring order into your world so I can stay in power. Yes, in deedy, I do! How?? Well, when you are on the verge of destroying each other—whenever society is on the verge of either unraveling OR succeeding in overcoming evil, I rally you together with a scapegoat: a victim. This tactic has worked well down through history! And it works—having a scapegoat-- to help, in your deluded rationalizations—to maintain order and decency in the world—civilization as we know it. The WE being you and me, that is. 
 You do remember the Inquisition? Or closer to home, the Salem Witch trials? And in the last century the persecution of the Jews? My greatest achievement was the genocidal effort of the Nazis in the Holocaust of World War II to exterminate them. Yes, they were the perfect scapegoat! The perfect way to victimize you in victimizing them. It all started off with a great, innocent, rationale within German society—a very modern, progressive idea: ridding society of the mentally ill, the incompetent, the developmentally disabled, the frail elderly, the incurably ill and then the deviant—and finally the Jew. Jews became the symbol for everything that was wrong. You—yes YOUR kind-- concluded that all the sins and problems of that nation were the result of their doing. The fault was theirs and they deserved their fate! Less than human, dogs, scum—it was a service to true humanity to do away with them and would solve all of Germany’s problems as well! Just punishment. 
	I’ve had to rerun this scenario in a little different way in more recent history: “ethnic cleansing,” in Bosnia worked pretty well. Well –you have your civil rights but racism still has its power. After 9/11 many Middle Eastern Americans were targeted here weren’t they—some right here in Fresno County as I recall. 
	 I have to confess it works best when I can generate mass hysteria—like during the Salem Witch trials. This was such an effective victimization and such a great way to maintain the order of my kingdom because the good people of Massachusetts believed sincerely that God was on their side! Ha! 
	If you have no idea what I’m talking about, Arthur Miller’s play does a good job of exploring the dynamics of this. He wrote his play, The Crucible during the McCarthy era of your nation. Many of you here were alive during the blacklisting of those suspected of being communists or commie sympathizers! All I needed was a little minded man with a big ego to whip good, patriotic Americans into a hysterical frenzy of fear—and voila! A new scapegoat! A new category of victim! I heard on CNN that Arthur Miller was called before the House un-American Activities Commission—I didn’t know that. I must have missed him or I would have seen to it that his play had never seen the light of day. 
	How many careers were ruined! How many lives destroyed! And yet how much order and power I retained among you because you thought you were doing the right thing—you were victims as much as any. Yes this is how I work best—through you. You HAVE met the enemy and he/she is the dark side of fallen humanity—That’s why I’m called the Shape Shifter. Look in the mirror—when you think you have humility and goodness reflected there your visage immediately reflects back self-congratulatory grandiosity and self-deceit! But don’t look too hard, please.
 The result of all this righteous action is that I get you to engage in quelling the perceived enemy among you! You do my work for me. In the process, I retain my power. Pure and simple. I AM the Prince of this World!
	Another tactic I have is I make you the oppressor and then I turn the oppressed against you: The seeds of your own destruction lie in your false belief that in using righteous force you are bringing about an end to an evil thing. Under MY reign the means do NOT have to justify the ends! My desire is to stay in control and the best way to do that is to make use of your ability to rationalize. One great contemporary example is keeping the Palestinians down for several generations so their sore need for redress festers until it spills over into despair and suicidal violence expressed in terrorism. Add a few religious zealots to the plot—on both sides I just might add—wasn’t it some protestant American pastor who said that 9/11 was God’s judgment on an ungodly America and that Moslems worshiped me?? Yes! One zealot deserves another, I must say! Osama and Jerry—cut from the same religious cloth!
	Great for the mass righteous cause strategy! And helps a lot with mass hysteria—because of course—they are convinced God is on THEIR SIDE!! (Osama had to raise an army and Jerry just had to encourage the use of one!)
	Well, I think I’ve bragged enough. Time to talk about this little fiasco in the desert with Jesus. Yes, he was very human. As human as you are. And very hungry, weak after his 40 day fast. So why didn’t he succumb? Was it just pure strength of will power? No, or he would not have been truly human. His temptations were real—as real as any the world has to offer today: an opportunity to rid the world of hunger and poverty, all the political and financial power he could ever need to set things to right—all he had to do was sign a contract….. 	Everything his heart desired and he turned me down cold! Silly man, I could have spared him all that unpleasantness –even if he did win in the end. I mean I have my pride you know! Why do you think I’m here today! I really do need to talk to that media lawyer—my image has suffered of late.
	That time in the wilderness—well, I didn’t come out into the desert on my own you know. The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and then I got my marching orders—to test him. 
	 No, my powers are not as great as God’s power. I am not God’s equal. I only gain my power when you chose death dealing ways instead of life dealing ways. I only live—much like a vampire—on the blood of my victims—only as long as you chose to live in the darkness do you permit me to remain as the Prince of this world. 
	Only as long as your heart desires what I have to offer more than what God has to offer. You see, unlike me, God believes the means MUST justify the ends. Therefore God never succumbs to using force. The power of God is the power of love. Fortunately for me, the power of love in the immediate moment just doesn’t make much sense to you human beings when you are caught up in a crisis—you can see no way out and you resort to my old tried and true ways. But in the long range of history—in the scope of eternity-- it is the only power that has ever worked. And it is the only power that is worth desiring more than what I have to offer you. THIS is what people like Ghandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa and countless nameless disciples understood and understand today. 	
	This is what Jesus understood. The desire of Jesus’ heart was to do the will of God. It was that simple, and that powerful. 	His desire was so great he surrendered his will to the will of God. That was how he overcame the temptations I offered him. All temptation is in the final analysis nothing more than true, justifiable desire for real needs twisted by fallen human rationalization into an expedient choice. —A choice that is a trap you don’t see until you have fallen into it. 
	What can I say? My best hope is that you will not desire to do the will of God more than you desire to follow your own ways….a gratifying thought. Because that’s what keeps me the Prince of this World. Your refusal to surrender to the love of God and succumb to the overwhelming desire to do God’s will gives me power over you. 
	The choice is yours—his way or my way. Which is it going to be in your life? I would prefer… well just take my advice—don’t look to Jesus for the answer!