If You Are the Son of God...

The narratives of today's First Reading and Gospel certainly have a lot in them to unpack. It wouldn't be beyond the realm of reason to have an entire book written about these scripture passages. For all I know, there may be one in existence already, but in either case I don't intend on writing one. Instead, however, I wanted to just offer some reflection on the particular phrase "If you are the Son of God..."

The tempter in today's Gospel (Mt 4:1-11) begins two of his accusations of Jesus with this phrase. I couldn't help but be reminded of the other times that a similar retort was thrown at Jesus in the Gospels. There is, of course, the line from one of the two criminals hung on a cross beside Jesus: "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us" (Lk 23:39) Or even at his trial before the Sanhedrin: "'If you are the Messiah, tell us.' But He said to them, 'If I tell you, you will not believe'" (Lk 22:67).

Jesus has a way of, well, not meeting our expectations of Messiah or Son of God. It's not surprising that nowadays Jesus is reduced by some seekers of the "historical Jesus" to little more than a revolutionary or apocalyptic prophet. I can't argue with the assessment that Jesus was indeed revolutionary in some sense of the word, and a prophet with an apocalyptic message (and I say "apocalyptic" without the connotation that it has unfortunately garnered of  regarding "the end of the world"). Yet if one bases their denial of Jesus as the Messiah or Son of God strictly on the understanding that Jesus did not do any remarkable thing of divine proportions within history, then I think one has regrettably missed Jesus' point. For the record, I'm not criticizing anyone who doesn't hail Jesus as the Christ or Son of God, I'm merely subjectively objecting to this one tiny, little argument.

I reiterate that it appears Jesus is saying that being the Anointed One, even being God, is not what we expect. Being God is not about hurling down a lighting bolt and making a grand appearance. Did not God manifest Godself to Elijah in "the gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:12)? Being God's Anointed doesn't mean changing rocks into food, even when hungry. And it doesn't mean leaping off a building unscathed just because he supposedly can. God's way, as I understand it, is simple, unassuming, and unimposing.

And when it comes to feeding himself by utilizing some kind of extraordinary power, or even gaining all the world back from the grasp of Satan, or especially saving himself from the horrific and humiliating death on the cross, Jesus never takes the easy route. I'm reminded of the line Dumbledore makes at the memorial for Cedric Diggory in the fourth Harry Potter movie: "The time will come to choose between what is right and what is easy" (or however the line goes exactly). Yes, I did just tie in Harry Potter to a reflection on the Gospel. But is it not relevant to note that Jesus always chooses the path that is right, that is in accord with the will of the Father, that is always for the well-being of others rather than himself and not that which is easy?

It's getting late from where I'm sitting, and I quickly wanted to tie in that rich and haunting First Reading of this Sunday: Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7. It is again a story of a tempter, and I just want to draw attention to the serpent's line : "You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil." Here's the thing: Were not the man and woman already made in the image and likeness of God (Gn 1:26)? Could it be that the woman and the man - I'll include him too, even though the text doesn't specify where he was or what he was doing during this little chit-chat with the serpent - missed the point about what it means or doesn't mean to be like God?

I recently learned from one of my professors that the phrase "knowing good and evil" (in Hebrew something like yodey tov v-rah - to the best of my transliteration) is an idiomatic expression for simply knowing everything. I bring this up because it might seem like having moral knowledge would be an innocuous and even laudable quality; whereas knowledge of everything borders that realm of great and awesome power that one can wield this way or that. And in any case, no one likes an insufferable know-it-all. I'm not denying that God has and exercises might and wonder in Sacred Scripture, but isn't one of the messages we receive, particularly in today's Gospel reading, that that is not what being God is about? So sadly, the woman and the man did not see themselves as being in the image and likeness of God. Furthermore, they reached instead to obtain a misconstrued image of God. Oh that they would have seen God - humble and self-giving - already in themselves.

Granted, a door-stop of a book could be written on these multi-faceted and layered texts. These are merely my own musings on the matter, and I don't presume them to be exhaustive or even sound.

I'll end with a line I heard a priest say regarding original sin: "It wasn't the apple in the tree; it was the pair on the ground." *rim shot*

Shalom.