The Prince of Spam

If you have a cell phone, if you have any phone, you know about spam calls. These are offers for things you aren’t thinking about and don’t care to have. Products and services that will not improve your life (but will make someone else just a little richer) are coming for you all the time. Do you have those days when two or three of them buzz in on your phone in a matter of minutes? Yes, I do too.

Jesus had a visit from the prince of spam. Below is a passage from Matthew’s Gospel containing the spammer’s three offers:

Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward, he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,

‘One does not live by bread alone,
          but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and
‘On their hands they will bear you up,
   so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,

‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.  (Matthew 4:1-11)

What might have caught someone else did not trip up Jesus. It did not entice Jesus when the devil came at him thusly: “Wouldn’t you look cool and powerful if you turned these stones into bread, or if you forced the Almighty into saving you with some sure-handed angels breaking your fall? And just think, you could be the first one on your block to own all the kingdoms in the world.” Jesus responded utilizing the following passages from the Torah, namely, Deuteronomy:

He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deut. 8:3)

Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. (Deut. 6:6)

The Lord your God you shall fear, him you shall serve, and by his name alone you shall swear. (Deut. 6:13)

Let’s train our egos so that empty offers have less pull on us. None of us are Jesus, but bit by bit, he is shaping us into his likeness. Lean on him and by Holy Week we’ll be closer.