There's literally nothing more cliche, and by literally, I mean literally, absolutely nothing more cliche than someone in this day and age who talks about the Bible and can't help but bring up the Matrix, the Princess Bride, and the Lord of the Rings. And I've brought up all three of those in the last two weeks, and you know what? I ain't apologizing because there's a reason that these stories always come up. The reason these stories are good and beloved, at least the first matrix, not the second two, is because they evoke the themes that are timeless. They draw on stories and problems and character flaws and hurdles to overcome that everybody can relate to in some way. And everybody's been able to relate to since forever. And when we tell these kind of stories, we really are connecting ourselves and associating with people who've come from generations and generations past in every culture. And they don't just speak to the things that are great about humanity, they speak to the things that are broken about humanity. You remember Kid Icarus, right, on the Nintendo? And you remember original not Kid Icarus, the one who got the wings, and he slapped that wax on there. He's like, I can get closer to the sun, maybe I can own the thing. And he flies up there. And of course, the wax melts and the wings fail, and he crashes to his death. It's like the most concise metaphor for desiring more than is really yours to have. Lord of the Rings, which I'm going right back to right now, that ring is an incredible metaphor for the allure of power. You know what? When I first read those books, when I first watched that movie, I did not get it at all. To me, the ring just seemed like yet another MacGuffin. A MacGuffin, of course, is something that you have to go get or do something with to just move the plot along. And I guess the ring of power, the one ring to rule them all in the Lord of the Rings, does play that role to an extent, but it's more than just a MacGuffin. It symbolizes the human proclivity for desiring power that isn't ours to have and that we couldn't handle even if we did have it. You know, the first time you watch that kind of show, you're like, ah, that guy has arrows and you can slide down elephant trunks and that guy has an axe and he can hit monsters in the face with it. Oh, look at the giant troll. I mean, I don't know, for me, at least it was just action idiocy. But as I have aged with that story, and I don't care about any of that action stuff, I am obsessed with the little nuances of how the ring which embodies the temptation toward power affects each person differently. I thought Frodo had the lamest skill in the entire story back in the day. He's the one who can actually carry this ring of power without being tempted. But now I see he's truly unique and uncorruptible or almost uncorruptible and exceptional in this story. Whereas, I don't know, I think most of us, the way we do politics now, the way we think about government and other people right now, we relate to the character called Boromir who wants to take this ring that is pure power, pure evil, and use it as a weapon against people he thinks are more bad or problematic. We see one of the great heroes of the story, Aragorn, just refuse to even touch it or hold it. He can't even be around that kind of power. So it's hands up, step away anytime it's in his presence. We see another timeless, ageless, wise character be offered this incredible amount of power. And she freaks out in this meltdown, it's like, I would turn pure evil if you gave me this thing. And eventually, we even get a look a little bit at how the corrupting force of that power almost disembodied and entirely dehumanized those who gave in to it. The reason I love the story is that's me. That's what power would do to me. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think Lord Acton is the guy who gets credit for that famous axiom. I think there's actually more to it, but that's the gist. Why did I just take four minutes to talk about a movie or some books that you've maybe never even read or seen before? Well, it's to point out just how timeless the motif of let me offer you all the power in the world is as a temptation to someone who is trying to overcome evil. The first two temptations that Jesus has faced out in the wilderness are, well, they're predictable. One is human weakness. I just need food and shelter and clothing, and I'm starving. I've been, you know, out here for 40 days. And so Jesus is hungry, and the devil goes right after that. Um, you know, just hey, make stones out of these, out of this bread. And of course, Jesus replies, as we've now covered many times, that it's written, man doesn't live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. And then you'll recall the devil took him up to a high place, and okay, then let's do fame. And maybe if the desires of the flesh won't get you, maybe the desire to have everybody just love you and exalt you and for you to be number one and most awesome and most popular, maybe that will do it. And Satan misquotes some scripture to try and trick Jesus into playing ball with that. But Jesus answered him, it is also written, don't put the Lord your God to the test. And then this final test is this timeless one. It's the test of power. Goes like this Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their splendor. All this I'll give you, he said, if you'll bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, Away from me, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Now look, we need to break down a lot of things about the text, what's being alluded to that Jesus is quoting from. He goes right back to Deuteronomy. It's fascinating that he draws all of his rebuttals from within two chapters of each other from the book of Deuteronomy. And that in itself is a big interpretive question. Why not draw from all over the Old Testament? We're gonna break that down in its own episode a little bit later on. But I just want to look at the big picture nuts and bolts here. Check out this progression and consider your own frailties and weaknesses. The temptation of the flesh, most of us don't fully navigate that in our lifetimes. Jesus does. The temptation to fame, most of us are enormously tempted by that. We'd love to imagine that people would think we're awesome and great. And the girl who was mean to us in high school, like, oh, look at me now. I'm the CEO of this thing, or whatever it is that we fantasize about being famous and awesome over. But then ultimately, when all of those fantasies meet all my needs, make me look awesome in front of everybody, even if people get that stuff, the next thing is obvious. It's power. The next control fantasy, the next worship of self that comes down the pike is this one. I just need to be in charge of people. But just being in charge of people isn't enough. Eventually you need to be in charge of everyone to fully control your environment. And this impulse toward power is effectively an impulse toward a rival God, the rival God being self. So you have actual God who exists outside of time, who called existence out of non-existence, who put order and thought to all the things that we just take for granted as raw materials. Those weren't raw materials before, they were nothing. This creative force beyond the physical realm assembled all of these ideas and put it together. But the hubris of humankind is to imagine that if we ascended to his seat, yeah, we could probably do that too. Like I got a bunch of good ideas. Ah, if I was in charge, I'd do this and that and the other thing. And so Satan, he's going for the jugular here. Maybe, maybe the first two would have been easier to catch Jesus in a slip-up on. But but this is the uh the desperation shot, maybe, or maybe this was the coup all the all along, is to present the option to just blow off all of his constraints and do whatever he wants. Well, he doesn't understand Jesus very well, because Jesus' will is completely and absolutely without question aligned with that of his father. I don't even think this was Satan's to give. He had to have known that when he threw out this suggestion. Like, hey, uh, all this I'll give you. If you'll just bow down and worship me. I don't know if it's really yours in the first place. Maybe that doesn't jump out to us quite as much in this day and age because we're, you know, politically and culturally, we're very used to delegating rights we don't actually have and sending people out to do acts of power that aren't actually acts of power we're allowed to do on our own. So maybe it doesn't jump off the page, but to me it's a pretty shocking thing. He's promising stuff that isn't his to give, it's God's to give. He's demanding something that isn't his to receive, it's God's to receive. And Jesus, of course, doesn't even blink away from me. This is the end of the conversation. We're done here. Uh blocked on Twitter, and um, then you know, it wraps up with the devil left him and angels came and attended him. Now look, we've got a lot more conversation we need to have about exactly what's going on here. But for our purposes today, and we don't do this very often, and usually there's no like, hey, think about this, but I'm gonna do it right now. Just consider the way that the temptation to power has affected you or could affect you if you were in a position to even conceivably latch on to it. I think it is a universal temptation. And when the author of Hebrews says that he has been tested, Jesus has been tested in every way, but it's past paraphrases mine. I think he's referring to this very human temptation that we all get. And if we really think about what that temptation feels like when we encounter it, if we really think about our weird power fantasies that we have, when we imagine how things would be if we were running stuff or who we would push the button on because they're just so bad and they have it coming. When we imagine what we would do with immortality or if we were all powerful like Q from Star Trek or heck, just God himself, I think we see some really ugly stuff. And when we understand that, I think we all the more appreciate the gravity of what the text is saying Jesus accomplished right here. If he can pass that test, he is different than us. If he can pass that test, he is rightly positioned to rule. The person you want to rule, the one you want to be king, is the one who can pass that test. We got to gain this out a whole bunch more, and I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. Hey, thank you to everybody who's left ratings and reviews on iTunes or anywhere that you can leave those. I keep track just a little bit, check in every week or so, and it's really cool. More people seem to be listening. And honestly, sharing this with your friends and leaving ratings and reviews, I think is why that is happening. So thanks on that to you guys for being awesome. Can't wait to talk about this more with you soon. I'm Matt. This is a 10-minute bible hour podcast. Catch you in a bit.