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.
1.4 THE THIRD TEMPTATION:
COMPEL THEM TO FOLLOW BY SEIZING POLITICAL POWER
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,”
he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”44
The Third Temptation
Twice rebuffed by Jesus, the wise and dread spirit still persists and comes yet a third time with his most powerful and persuasive temptation.
On one level this temptation can be interpreted as the temptation to accept power and influence whenever it is offered, no matter by whom, no matter on what terms. In this case, Jesus is offered such power at the very outset of his public life from the hand of the wise and dread spirit on the condition that he bow down and give his allegiance to the one offering it.
To Dostoyevsky this temptation is much more diabolical than that. It is the temptation to exercise spiritual leadership—to bring about obedience to God’s laws and standards, to bring about the kingdom of heaven on earth—not by grace, not by inviting men and women to freely choose to follow and serve Christ, but by seizing the authority and powers of the state and using them to compel obedience to the spiritual agenda.
What an awe-inspiring and irresistible temptation! The wise and dread spirit of this world, whom Jesus himself three times referred to in his later ministry as the prince of this world, takes Jesus up to the top of a high mountain—the symbol in the Scriptures of political authority.45 Then in a flash, in a moment of time, he shows him the kingdoms of this world—all of them:
From the absolute power and authority of the Egyptian pharaohs and the ancient Chinese emperors to the cumulative power and authority of the British Empire at its peak. From the power and authority of Prussia and the kaiser to the Third Reich; from the Kremlin and the Soviet Empire to the United States Senate and Congress to the Asian superpowers of the 21st century …
From the power and authority of the Greek city states to the vast empires of the valley of the Euphrates; from the court of Alexander the Great to the ancient kingdoms of the Mayas and Incas and Aztecs and the Khmer people of Angkor Wat; from the great colonial empires of Spain, Portugal, France, and England to the great democracies of today …
From the power and authority of the theocratic kingdom of David and Solomon to the popes of the Holy Roman Empire; from the power and authority of the princes of the Reformation to that of the princes and caliphs of Islam. From the military camps of Attila the Hun to those of the Vikings and the Gauls, to the Roman Senate and the household of Caesar himself …
And then, having shown Jesus all these kingdoms and governments of the world—from the dawn of time to the ends of the ages—Satan says, All this power and authority I will give you so that you can compel people everywhere to follow and obey your teachings. The one condition is that you bow down and worship the spirit of this world, the spirit that says the key to achieving the peace and universal happiness of humanity is the holding and exercise of political power and authority.
Jesus’ Response to the Third Temptation
So what was Jesus’ response to this temptation? It was, again, clearly and emphatically to reject it, saying, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”46
Note that in this case, he names the source of his temptation—Satan, evil personified—and that, whereas Satan offers power and authority, Jesus commands service. And as we will see, it is this rejection by Jesus of worldly power that most infuriates the Grand Inquisitor.
Implications for Us: Should We Seek political Power in Order to Compel Allegiance to Christ?
Does this temptation have a familiar ring? Of course it does. This temptation has been presented to, and has often been embraced by, Christian leadership in every century from Jesus’ time right down to our own.
Have you not heard the following argument advanced by well-meaning Christian leaders and their supporters in the public arena?
The atheists, agnostics, materialists, and secularists have got hold of the levers of political power and have used those levers to impose a non-Christian and even anti-Christian agenda on our nation. They have promoted and legalized abortion. They have curtailed prayer in the schools. They have made secular humanism the governing philosophy of the education system. They are redefining marriage to obliterate its traditional and spiritual meaning and promoting state-sanctioned euthanasia. They pursue social and taxation policies that weaken the traditional family. They have replaced the God of the Scriptures with the gods
