As Christians, there is one group of people found in the Bible we like to pick on more than any other. They are the quintessential picture of blind ignorance leading to destruction. Or at least that is how we preachers like to talk about them. Despite their glaring failures, many of the Pharisees and other religious leaders had a noble purpose for their fanatical insistence upon keeping all of the rules and a few extras too. They desired the nation to turn back to God. There were seeking the holiness of God’s people and the restoration of the nation to better times. But their impassioned commitment to righteousness would cause them to be tempted make a most unholy alliance.
In Matthew 4, Jesus is taken by Satan high up on a mountain and shown “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (vs. 8). The vision of the kingdoms came with an offer. If Jesus would simply bow down to Satan and worship him, then all these kingdoms and their splendor could be his. Of course, for Jesus to accept this offer would be to try and achieve God’s purposes and plans for the world through a means other than God intended.
For us today, this second testing of Jesus strikes at the heart of any attempt we might make to use the power of the kingdoms of this world to achieve the ends of the Kingdom of God. The kingdoms of this world, yes even our great country, are inherently selfish and focused on their own self-preservation through the accumulation of power, prestige, and splendor.
The Pharisees, in their zeal for God, would attempt to harness the power of Rome to purge the nation of Jesus and his followers. It would be a confederation doomed from the very beginning. But before, we are too hard on them, we must ask ourselves, how often have we failed to learn the lesson of Jesus’ testing and the Pharisees’ failure? How often have we looked to kingdoms of this world to be our savior rather than God alone? Maybe we are not so different after all.
Blessings,
Stephen