Lenten Perspective: Whom Are We Following?

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The following perspective contains spoilers for the television mini series Devil in Ohio.

Whom Are We Following?

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Ephesians 5:1-2 (NRSV)

Well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

From "Gotta Serve Somebody" by Bob Dylan

As I noted previously, Lent is the time of the year when Christians figuratively follow Christ into the wilderness in order to draw closer to God.  This roughly forty-day season of self-denial, penitence, and looking inward is based on Jesus' time in the wilderness.  In three of the Gospels, we read that, before Jesus begins His public ministry, He spends forty days fasting in the wilderness, where He is tempted by Satan.¹

In two of the Gospels, we read that, in the wilderness, Jesus has the opportunity to make a deal with the devil.  At one point, Satan shows Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world, and, according to the Gospel of Matthew, he says, "I'll give you all these if you bow down and worship me."²

It has been suggested that what Jesus is being tempted to do is to take up the sword and conquer the kingdoms of the world.³  Looking back over the history of this world, we can see a repeating cycle of violence.  Nations are established through violent revolutions, and they are defended with violent force, until they violently fall in the same way that they were founded.  Perhaps, for Jesus, bowing to Satan would mean playing the devil's game and becoming the latest in a long line of violent conquerors.

Perhaps, more generally speaking, serving Satan means sacrificing other people in order to achieve one's own goals.

I recently watched the mini series Devil in Ohio,⁴ which tells the story of a teenage girl named Mae.  Mae was born and raised in a Satanic cult, but she flees when she discovers that she has been chosen by the cult to be sacrificed to the one they worship.  Her community has fallen on hard times, and the cult believes that if she is sacrificed, they will be rewarded with prosperity.  Over the course of the series, as the cult tries to get Mae to return to them, she proves that she is no innocent lamb.  Like the cult that raised her, she is willing to sacrifice other people figuratively or even literally in order to get what she wants.

Jesus rejects the devil's bargain, saying, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"⁵  The path Jesus has chosen will involve taking up a cross as opposed to a sword.

Later on, when it becomes clear to Jesus that His disciples are starting to believe that He is their people's long-awaited liberator, He begins to warn them that, upon reaching their destination, He will be rejected, killed, and resurrected.  One disciple, who undoubtedly expects Jesus to be a militant conqueror, takes Him aside and attempts to set Him straight.  Remembering the devil's bargain in the wilderness, Jesus says to him, "Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."⁶

Jesus then announces to His disciples,
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?  Or what will they give in return for their life?⁷

When it comes to serving Satan, things like grimoires and upside-down crosses and pentagrams are nothing but a bunch of creepy nonsense.  What is truly Satanic is doing whatever it takes to get what one wants, no matter how much one has to hurt other people in the process.

Christ came to give of Himself for the sake of others, but, in the wilderness, Satan tried to get Him to do the opposite.  Perhaps the season of Lent, when we follow Christ into the wilderness, is the perfect time for us to consider whose way we are following.  Are we following Christ's example and taking up our own crosses, or are we laying crosses on other people's shoulders?  Are we giving of ourselves to make the lives of other people better, or are we taking from other people to make our own lives better?

The way of Christ is the way of sacrificial love.  The way of Satan is a trail of corpses.


Notes:

1. Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13
2. Matthew 4:8-9 (NRSV)
3. Brian Zahnd.  "The Third Temptation."  Word of Life Church, 02/26/2023.
4. IMDB: Devil in Ohio
5. Matthew 4:10 (NRSV)
6. Matthew 16:13-23 (NRSV)
7. Matthew 16:24-26 (NRSV)

The Temptation of Christ by the Devil was painted by Félix Joseph Barrias in 1860.