Have you ever seen one of those videos on YouTube that has a person wearing a camera and giving you their POV as they walk around popular tourist locations?
You could be in your living room, swatting away mosquitoes, while seeing the grand mountainous landscapes of the Swiss Alps, or hearing supercars purr, then roar down a Monaco roadway.
“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.”
Matthew 4:8 (NIV)
In a moment of time Jesus was shown everything worth something. I imagine He saw the pomp and pageantry of grand palaces; the wonders of the oceans, proud and unconquered. I imagine He saw what looked like the “glory ahead” [Hebrews 12:2].
All that the tempter required to grant this was for Jesus to fall down and worship him. In today’s parlance, you could say he wanted Jesus to “sell His soul” for all the power and riches this world could provide.
This temptation looks like the most straightforward, but in reality it’s just as intense as the others.
“…trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.”
1 Peter 1:11 (NIV)
Jesus knew that there was a glory ahead, quite alright. But He also knew that the path laid ahead of him was fraught with so much suffering. Here was a chance to cut out all that suffering and lay hold of the glory straight up.
If you consider how easily we sometimes cave in to the easy way, how the troubles we face are nothing compared to what Christ experienced — if you consider that Christ was just as human as much as He was God, you’ll realize just how difficult this must have been.
Before He responded to this temptation, He first told Satan to “be gone from Him”, before responding with scripture (as was His Modus Operandi).
“Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
Matthew 4:10 (NIV)
The “worship and service” here wasn’t just the bowing down to Satan; it was in deciding whose plan He was going to follow. Choosing to follow this alternate route to glory meant He would have been choosing to worship and serve the devil.
This calls for reflection. At almost every point in our lives, we’re confronted with this decision to make: to do things God’s way or to do the things the easy/another way. Whenever we choose not to do things God’s way, we’re bowing to our temptations.
And the more we bow, the easier it gets to bow.
We can only worship God with our lives when we do things God’s way. So, who are you worshipping?
In Plain Sight 
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