Lent: Getting Rid of the Idols

There is that intriguing story of temptation that both Matthew and Luke treat with some detail, and Mark simply acknowledges that it happened. Jesus Himself is facing the wrath of Satan, apparently because Satan understands well that this is the final showdown. If he loses the battle with Jesus (not just this particular incident, but the whole Jesus story) he loses it all.

One of Satan’s efforts with Jesus (third in Matthew’s account, second in Luke’s) is to show Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and say, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” (Matthew 4:9, NASB) Jesus is quick to reply, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord you God, and serve Him only.’” (4:10)

Embedded in that exchange of course is the reality that at some level, Satan is tempting Jesus to be the kind of Messiah the people of Israel want. It seems that most important in the minds of Israel’s leaders was a Messiah who would not merely run the Romans out of Judea, but that the world would finally be focused on the power that exuded out of Jerusalem. Satan is putting it all in front of Jesus – and it is His for a mere bit of idolatry.

Think about how much “easier” it would have been for Jesus had He given in! I’m guessing that would have eliminated the whole cross event – and He could have the world just for the worshipping, to modify our “just for the asking” routines a bit. Just a little idolatry is all Satan is asking.

But . . . God demands that we worship Him, and serve only Him. Jesus avoids doing what religious people wanted out of Him by reminding the enemy that the exclusive worship of God meant that He couldn’t be that in any way. He took the road of the cross rather than the road of fame – and His sense of what it means to worship God is a key ingredient.

Most of the time when you and I are tempted – well, actually all the time – we aren’t quite faced with the stark realities that are before Jesus. So there is a sense in which if the worship of God was an answer for Jesus, just imagine what it could do for us.

In Small Faith – Great God, N.T. Wright says “idolatry knows no cultural or temporal barriers. We have four-wheeled idols whose worshipers spend all their effort and money polishing them and driving them faster and faster. We have three-bedroom idols, whose devotees have to keep them spotlessly clean in case visitors should come. We have square idols with silver screens. Some of us have well-bound idols with pages and dust jackets. And like all idols, we worship them because we get pride out of them. We put ourselves into them, in fact or in imagination, and then worship what we see.” (page 28)

Jesus was offered “all these things” if only He would worship the wrong thing. Somewhere in all that there seems to be a reminder that we find answers to much of what causes us to struggle by learning what Jesus knew and modeled “you shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”

So the question for me during this season of Lent, as I’m trying to be clearer and clearer about “how things ought to be” is “What things am I worshiping that might ‘offer the whole world’ but tear me away from God?’”

We are way too sophisticated for little statues made of gold and silver – but that hardly suggests we don’t have some idolatry issues. For me, it’s time to get rid of the idols!