Matthew 4:7-11: a reflection

In the last of the wilderness temptations, the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and offers them: All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. It is an offer of the very thing Jesus came for, the kingdoms of the world, dominion, glory, but by a shortcut that bypassed the cross and required worshiping the tempter. Jesus refuses without hesitation: Away with you, Satan! You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. He will not take the crown by the shortcut that skips the cross.

Notice the shape of this temptation: a shortcut to a good end by a compromising means. Jesus did come to receive all the kingdoms of the world; that was, in a sense, his rightful destiny. But the tempter offered it now, without the cross, at the price of a single act of worship. It was the offer of the right end by a wrong means, the good goal reached by compromise. And Jesus refused, choosing the long, costly road of the cross over the shortcut of compromise.

That is a temptation we face in our own forms. We are often offered good ends, success, security, influence, even good things, by compromising means, a shortcut that requires bending our integrity, a little worship at the wrong altar. The temptation is subtle because the end is good; only the means is corrupt. Jesus shows us to refuse the shortcut that compromises, to choose the costly right path over the easy wrong one, even when the prize is real. When you are offered a good end by a compromising means, remember Jesus in the wilderness. Serve God only, and take the costly path of integrity rather than the shortcut that would have you worship at the wrong altar.