fifteen minutes of fame

Friday March 18^th, Matthew 4: 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:”‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"  7 Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"  We can justify almost anything with scripture if that is what we are after.  I once wrote a paper justifying racial prejudice on Biblical grounds just to see if I could justify the very antithesis of what I believe scripture says.  I was shocked at how easy it was to do.  Jesus is here tempted to do the same.  Put on a show and entertain the headless and heedless masses as they do in the magnificent coliseum.  Death and show before them and bread in their hands, it works every time in the empire.  Oh, Humanity we are so cheaply bought off.  As long as we are not the ones being killed it is of little matter in an empire world.  That is the stuff of the community we left long ago.  Throw yourself down and be king for a day, you will be the talk of the town, the American idol, and your fifteen minutes of fame will last into the sunset before it becomes a flame too bright and burns itself out only to be replace with the next day’s list of martyrs in coliseum.  Do not put the Lord, who is even your God, to the test says the Lord.  And trust what even this humanity knows good as well as evil as the essence of evil indeed.