bread & circus

Thursday February 25th, Luke 4: 1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by 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 does not live on bread alone.'" The Romans knew the secret of calming the masses, it was called “bread and circus.” Give them a little something to eat and the first century version of reality TV in the arena and with this little bit of distraction, the government can get away with murder, literally. Not much different from our cry for more tax cuts (for which only the truly wealthy prosper) lack of regulation (for which only the truly wealthy prosper) and war (for which only the truly wealthy prosper and the rest of us offer the lives of our sons and daughters) at our tea party meetings (which the truly wealthy never attend unless they are paid). As long as the war machine and lack of regulation turns a good profit on Wall Street for those at the top, and the rest of us can buy the illusion that we too can get there someday if only these other little people don’t take it away from us, the world goes on and the devil remains in control of the conversation. Jesus’ refusal to turn the stones into bread is a call for us also to return to the Word of God for our sustenance and in the process break the stranglehold of the one who tempts us all.