The Devil Made Me Do It
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was temptedby the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. – Luke 4:1-13
When the devil tempted Jesus, what do you think Jesus saw?
During Halloween, when I was growing up, I’d see other kids dress up like the devil with the red mask and plastic body suit and it would freak me out! I knew it wasn’t real, but still, you have to wonder what kind of kid picks Satan as his costume of choice. Probably someone you want to avoid. Of course, if the devil showed up in person, I don’t think that’s what he would look like. Too obvious. I like the way Aaron described the devil in the film Broadcast News. “What do you think the devil’s going to look like if he’s around? Come on, no one is going to be taken in by a guy with a long, red pointy tail… He will be attractive. He’ll be nice and helpful. He’ll get a job where he’ll influence a great, God-fearing nation. He’ll never do an evil thing, he’ll never deliberately hurt a living thing. He’ll just bit by little bit lower our standards where they’re important. Just a tiny little bit. Just coax along. Flash over substance. Just a tiny little bit…and he’ll get all the great women.” So, what do you think Jesus saw in the desert during those forty days?
Would it surprise you to know the devil is never described in the Bible?
At least not in a physical sense. There’s no mention anywhere of what Satan looks like in any of the times he pops up. But I think that’s on purpose. Because evil can take many different forms. Like a chocolate chip cookie. Certainly, THAT’S evil. At least to my stomach. But seriously, evil can appear in many ways – temptation, gossip, slander, abuse. Sure, a guy with red skin, horns and a tail might be scary, but scary and evil are two different things. It would make more sense if the devil were just as Aaron described, someone attractive and charismatic who would catch you off guard and compromise your morals.
And does the devil even exist?
Some believe the devil is a physical being. Some believe the devil is a spiritual being. And some believe the devil is the personification of evil in the world. There are a ton of references in the Bible to evil but surprisingly very few specifically about Satan or the devil or any of the other names we’ve come to associate with him. And none of them actually tell us if these different incarnations of evil are the same. But maybe that doesn’t matter. No matter what form you believe the devil takes, we can all agree evil exists and we are called to resist and fight it wherever it crops up. When Jesus was tempted in the desert by the devil, he was challenged in many ways – and none of them by what we would probably think of as “evil.” The devil didn’t torture Jesus. He didn’t attack him. He simply tempted him with rational arguments and promises of an easier life. That is the real trick of the devil – not to come at us directly, but to tempt us in our weakest areas.
Sometimes I think it’s better if we don’t believe in the devil.
At least not as some sort of physical being like we read about in this passage. Not that he does or doesn’t exist. Not that he might be a physical or spiritual being. But for us to stand up to evil in the world, we are better off not believing there is one being orchestrating all of it. Because when we believe in the devil, it becomes too easy for us to relinquish any personal responsibility for the horrors we either allow to happen or don’t do anything to prevent. It is so easy for us to say “the devil made me do it” when (let’s face it) you did it. Or I did it. Or someone else did it. The devil didn’t make you do it. In fact, the devil doesn’t hold any power over any of us. The only way the devil succeeds in his schemes is because we give him the power to do so – either by our actions or inactions. We can justify it any way we want, but it amounts to the same thing – we are complicit in the evil around us.
Humanity loves to avoid responsibility.
Just turn on the news any day of the week and you can watch the circus of blame as people keep pointing fingers at one another. Whether the issue is healthcare, homelessness, or racism, everyone is blaming someone, but no one is getting anything done. It’s like that poem about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done (insert your favorite cause here) and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
Every time there’s a mass shooting, I think of this story.
“Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.” The number of mass shootings since the pandemic has remained extremely high. Last year was the lowest in five years and there were still over 500 events in America alone.[1] A study done in 2023 shows Americans in are in favor of still stricter gun control laws (58% although some as high as 64%) even after the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act which enacted significant gun control legislation for the first time in three decades.[2] And while there is disagreement about how it should get done, there are a couple of issues where there is wide agreement – banning gun sales to those with mental illness and raising the minimum age to 21.[3] And nearly two-thirds of all Americans are in favor of banning high-capacity magazines (66%) and assault-style weapons (64%).[4] Yet it took three decades to pass something meaningful because Congress was afraid. Afraid of the NRA. Afraid of losing power. Afraid of losing funding. Fear has held them back from doing the right thing for thirty years, and even then we did not have the courage to do more when Americans were crying out for more. The words of Jesus echo loudly in my ears, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? (Matthew 16:26)”
Is that the devil’s fault?
Did the devil make them water down legislation that could have done more? Or is evil as simple as good men doing nothing? John Stuart Mill said it in 1867, “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”[5] We have to be better. We have to do better. For evil to thrive in the world doesn’t have to be the machinations of some evil being manipulating the world from behind. For evil to thrive is simply good men looking on and doing nothing. We all get caught in situations where it would be easier, simpler, less problematic, less hassle, and less headache for us to do nothing. We’ve all been there when we would rather call in sick, skip church, relax and watch a football game. Challenge yourself the next time you are tempted to sit idly by when you could or should do something, to do it. When you think about the injustice in the world, just remember, we can do something about it. The devil only has power over us when we allow it. The devil’s greatest power is in the willfulness of humankind sitting idly by when we could be doing something to stop the evil in the world.
[1] https://www.cnn.com/us/mass-shootings-fast-facts/index.html (A mass shooting is defined as a gun incident where 4 or more people are either injured or killed as a result of the use of a firearm)
[2] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/24/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/ and https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/26/politics/cnn-poll-gun-laws/index.html ; Bipartisan Safer Communities Act – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipartisan_Safer_Communities_Act
[3] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/24/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/
[4] Ibid.
[5] https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/top-10-misattributed-quotations-a7910361.html
