"All these kingdoms I bestow on you if you prostrate yourself in homage to me." 

(Matthew 4:10)

 

Jesus' last temptation was to trade worship for power. Satan is shown as a power broker. His message: "Center your life on the prince of worldly power, and I will let you share in this power."

 

Making the border crossing into Lent is an opportunity to leave the centers of power behind and to surrender powerful ambitions. At first glance, it seems like opting for weakness. Satan shows Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence" - an impressive, vast, dazzling vision. But the problem with long distance viewing is that the huge swallows up the tiny. From the top of the Empire State Building, human beings look like ants. From the height of a satellite, a city looks like an ant hill. Human beings are lost in the dust.

 

In the life of Jesus, human beings aren't ants. They are ordinary people with names and faces, some with withered limbs and unseeing eyes, some with dead children, some with half-dead consciences, all wounded, all needing forgiveness. But limbs can't be strengthened, eyes can't be healed, children can't be raised, and sins can't be forgiven from a mountaintop or space station....

 

To read the entire reflection, click here.