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1.3 THE SECOND TEMPTATION:

GIVE THEM A SHOW AND THEY WILL FOLLOW

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”36

The Second Temptation

Having failed to influence the direction of Jesus’ ministry and leadership via the first temptation in the wilderness, the wise and dread spirit now tries a different tack. From Dostoyevsky’s perspective, what Satan is really saying here is, If you, Jesus, really want people to notice and follow you, then give them a show! Do something spectacular to attract their attention and something mysterious, defying explanation, to pique their curiosity and something seemingly miraculous to win them over. Come here to the highest point of the temple in Jerusalem where everybody can see you. Call out, “Look at me! Look at me!” until every eye and every camera is fixed upon you. Then hurl yourself down, and just before you hit the pavement stones, have your Father’s angels swoop down and catch you. (In support of this argument, Satan even quotes Scripture, Psalm 91.) Do that, Jesus, and you will make the evening news on every television network and the headlines in every newspaper. The scene will go viral on YouTube. People will be attracted to you by the millions. But whatever you do, Jesus, don’t go about trying to win the masses by asking them to choose to follow you by the uncoerced and unsupported exercise of their free will. They can’t do it. They won’t do it. Instead, they’ll go running after whoever gives them the show that you refuse to give them.

Jesus’ Response to the Second Temptation

What was Jesus’ response to this second temptation? Note that he did not deny that there was a role for the miraculous in his public ministry. But most often he performed miracles in response to faith, not as a means of generating it.37 In fact, he rebuked those who followed him only to see or experience a miracle and who were constantly looking for “signs” that would compel them to believe.38

Therefore, Jesus rejects Satan’s invitation to leap from the pinnacle of the temple and to demonstrate his deity through a spectacular deliverance. Jesus does so by again quoting Scripture: “It is also written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”39 Caesar and the political leaders of the Roman Empire might win the temporary allegiance of the masses by offering them bread and circuses, but Jesus rejects both of these as illegitimate and unacceptable means to acquire a following.

Again the Grand Inquisitor strongly rebukes him: “Thou didst crave for free love [i.e., love freely given] and not the base raptures of the slave before the might that has overawed him forever.”40 “Is the nature of men such, that they can reject miracles and at the great moments of their life, the moments of their deepest, most agonizing spiritual difficulties, cling only to the free verdict of the heart?”41 Of course not!

“There are three powers, three powers alone, able to conquer and to hold captive forever the conscience of these impotent rebels for their happiness—those forces are miracle, mystery and authority. Thou hast rejected all three and hast [regrettably, in the opinion of the Grand Inquisitor] set the example for doing so.”42

Implications for Us

What are the contemporary equivalents of this second temptation for leaders today, and how would we—how should we—respond to it?

In our day, is much of so-called televangelism—the Hollywood-style entertainment excesses of many of the television preachers—anything other than succumbing to this second temptation? Are we not also succumbing to this temptation when we attempt to fill our churches by substituting religious entertainment for worship and substantive communication of the gospel with its demands for service and self-sacrificial love?

Similarly, with respect to public and political life, is not this the temptation to put image ahead of substance, to substitute appearances for reality, and to employ all of the techniques and stratagems of image politics to win support for our cause or candidacy?

This is a theme that Malcolm Muggeridge, a famous British correspondent and one-time editor of Punch, elaborated on under the heading of “The Fourth Temptation.”43 Muggeridge imagines that a wealthy Roman tycoon passing through Galilee happens to hear Jesus speaking and teaching and concludes that there would be a public appetite for his message. He proposes to “puff” Jesus using all the techniques of modern communications and employing the highly respected public relations firm of Lucifer Inc. to put on the Jesus Show and make him a superstar. But Jesus turns him down, for the same reasons that he resisted this second temptation in the wilderness.

Again, like with most powerful temptations, there is an element of truth to it. Effective and influential leadership requires powerful communications, and there was no public communicator more powerful than Jesus Christ. The work of God in the world is both miraculous and mysterious, and Jesus understood and used both miracle and mystery in conducting that work.

Yet, what was his response to this temptation to use the spectacular, the marvellous, and the mysterious to capture and entertain the masses of his day and sweep them into his kingdom camp on an emotional flood of temporary euphoria?

He resisted it! He used miracles to reward faith but not to create it. He said it was a wicked and adulterous generation that sought after a sign. He also quoted the scriptural prohibitions against tempting God by asking him to bless and honour spiritual circuses.

How then do we—how should we—respond to this temptation? The Grand Inquisitor says, Accept as offered the advice of the wise and dread spirit to win men’s allegiance by employing the spectacular, the marvellous, the mysterious. Jesus says, Reject it—do not put the Lord your God to the test.

36 Matthew 4:5–6.

37 Two examples of this can be read in Matthew 9:20–22 and 27–29.

38 John 6:26–27. Matthew 12:39 states, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a [miraculous] sign!”

39 Matthew 4:7.

40 Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 249.

41 Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 248.

42 Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, 248.

43 Malcolm Muggeridge, Christ and the Media (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1979), 39–41.