As with so many essentials of faith, Scripture
gives more than one response to questions about temptation and evil.
The author of Genesis (thought by many scholars to
have been a woman) provides the best-known myth of how sin and evil entered our
world (Genesis 2:7-9;3:1-7).
According to this theologian, who lived ten
centuries before Jesus, Yahweh created humans without sin's disorder. The last
line of chapter 2 states, "The man and woman were both naked, yet felt no
shame." If evil was to break into our human existence, it had to come from
outside.
Serpent's lure
As this point of salvation history -- more than 500
years before our familiar concepts of a devil began to appear -- the serpent
takes on the role of tempter. After the "fall," evil becomes embedded
in our nature: "The eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they
were naked."
Things will never be the same again. In chapter 4,
Cain doesn't need a serpent to tempt him to kill Abel. Murderous thoughts can
now come from within.
Though our catechism doctrine outlining the precise
transmission of original sin is found nowhere in Scripture -- even the phrase
"original sin" is non-biblical -- many of our sacred authors regard
our first parents' sinful actions as somehow influencing our own weakness in
dealing with temptations.
As a biblically formed Jew,
St. Paul
integrates his belief in the risen Jesus into his prior beliefs about Adam and
Eve's sin, leading him to pen one of his most famous lines: "Just as
through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so through one righteous
act, acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of one
person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one, the many
will be made righteous" (Romans 5:12-19).
Paul is convinced that Jesus' dying and rising
brought us the means to achieve the life our original parents lost. That's why
Matthew begins Jesus' ministry with a temptation narrative (Matthew 4:1-11).
Just as the creation narrative begins with temptation and failure, so Matthew's
new creation narrative begins with temptation and success.
Scholars presume the earliest version of Jesus'
desert temptation -- as found in Mark -- simply describes Him being
"generically" tempted by the devil; it contains no list of specific
enticements.
Jesus is tempted
Since no one seems to have known exactly how the
historical Jesus was tempted on this occasion, another author (thought to be the
common source Mark and Luke relied on) reflected on the second-generation
Christian community's temptations and inserted them into this collection of
Jesus' sayings.
Reflecting on these three specific attractions, we
realize few of us are tempted by them. That wasn't the case 20 centuries ago,
when some of Jesus' followers were inclined to care only for people's physical
needs; to exchange their day-by-day humdrum faithful living for high profile,
spectacular exploits; or to sell out Jesus' values in order to have power over
people and their lives.
Most of us still are bogged down in the same
temptations and sins we confessed a few days before our First Communion. After
all these years, we're not involved enough in Jesus to actually be tempted as He
was.
Perhaps
the inclination to think we're personally unworthy to carry on Jesus' ministry
might be the biggest temptation any of us will face.
(02/07/08)