Beware the Deal-Maker

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. “All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” (Matthew 4:8–10)

The very scale of the temptation of Jesus has always impressed me. If the Adversary wants to knock me off my little spiritual path, all he has to do is dangle a shiny object to my left or right and I’ll usually, stupidly, go right after it. With Jesus, however, the Evil One has to ramp things up: ultimately (in Matthew’s account) offering him the entire world of human society and culture.

Jesus did want all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. Jesus was, is, and always will be the Lord, and all that is belongs to him. Of course he wants the world—back from our current state of alienation and antagonism, and enjoying shalom as he created us to enjoy. Indeed, Isaiah prophesied that in the Messianic kingdom “the people [will] bring you the wealth of the nations—their kings led in triumphal procession” (60:11).

Jesus knew, however, that what he was due would come properly from the hand of God—in God’s time, in God’s way. Meanwhile, the Son of Man was to show the rest of us humans how to rely on and offer service to God in whatever we must face now, even as we hope for all things to be made right in the future.

Still, the grand scale of Jesus’ temptation may hide its implication for me and perhaps also for you.

“Give me just a little worship, then,” Satan might say, “and I’ll give you this little treat in return.”

“Just follow my rules in your professional life and I’ll help you triumph there.”

“Just ignore God’s commandments in your romantic life, do what I tell you instead, and you’ll be so much happier.”

“Give me just a little attention, a little deference, a little honour. You won’t get what you need, but you’ll get what you want.”

The Christian prudently acknowledges the presence and power of sin in the world and tries to live wisely in that reality. None of our leaders will be wholly innocent. None of the powerful will be motivated entirely by justice, let alone charity. No policy will work perfectly, no organization will avoid waste and injury, no technology will improve things without making other things worse.

Compromise—settling, at least for now, for less than the best—therefore is inevitable. We have to compromise not only in governmental politics but in the politics of business, family life, romance, and everywhere else fallen and fallible humans try to live together.

Realistically and regretfully accepting compromise while still striving to promote maximal shalom in a given situation, however, is one thing. It is not the same thing as gladly cooperating with the world, the flesh, and the devil to get what you (improperly and unhealthily) want. It isn’t the slothful acceptance of “the way it is” such that one protests nothing, improves nothing, complies fully, and feathers one’s own nest because, after all, “What can you do?”

Yes, you pay your taxes, as Jesus did—even to the Roman Empire. Yes, you honour, obey, and even pray for those in authority, as the Apostles taught—even the Roman Empire. You might even work within the halls of power to preserve life and otherwise promote shalom as best you can, as Joseph and Daniel did—even in the Egyptian or Babylonian Empires.

Like Jesus, the Apostles, Joseph, and Daniel, however, the faithful child of God refuses to obey unjust commands. He or she particularly refuses to endorse and cooperate with megalomaniacs—of whom Satan is only the most notorious—who seek only their own glory to the cost of those dependent upon them.

This principle holds, of course, for politics on a national level. But it also holds for our politics at lower levels, too, and in every social domain: the oppressive boss, the arrogant pastor, the abusive parent, the manipulative friend, the narcissistic spouse.

Moreover, it holds not only for identifiably bad superiors or partners but for systems that seek to pull us off the path of life and into their field of force instead. Businesses focused wholly on profit. Professions focused wholly on wealth and status. Institutions focused wholly on growth (or, in dire straits, just survival). Unions focused wholly on job security. Leisure activities (and the major corporations seeking to dominate and direct our leisure hours) focused wholly on immediate pleasure.

The WINS news radio station in New York City had the famous tagline, “You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world.” What are you being asked to pay, to give, to give up, to conform to, to support, to worship in order to get what you want—regardless of God and God’s commands? Who stands in the shadows behind that offer and badly wants you to make that deal?

The Zeitgeist in America these days is moving strongly also in Europe, in Russia, in China, in most of Africa and Latin America, and here in Canada, too. The world, the flesh, and the devil were actively recruiting before, of course, and with the usual success. But as the cultural weather systems are changing, we are wise to note, and respond to, which way the wind is now blowing—and what it will take to avoid getting carried away. “Just give me this, and I’ll give you that.”

Closer to home, we must ask God to show us who and what else—at work, at home, at play, and even at church—wants just a piece of us, wants just a little more than we ought to give, in exchange for what we foolishly, suicidally, imagine we want.