There are plenty of hot-button issues to keep us busy in this upcoming week’s Gospel reading. Matthew 4:1-11 is the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness. When I think of all there is to deal with in this passage, I imagine one of those carnival games where another gopher’s head pops up just as you’ve punched one down with your mallet. “The Devil!” “Sin!” “Temptation!”
In the version of Matthew that I read (NRSV), the devil is described alternately as “the tempter,” “the devil,” and “Satan.” The Hebrew idea that lies at the heart of each of these titles is of a figure called ha-satan, which means “the accuser.” The Accuser’s most famous appearance is in Job 1-2, where he (for lack of a better pronoun) is depicted as a member of the heavenly court who challenges human beings in order to test their faith. Ha-satan is unlike our modern notion of the devil in that he is one of God’s councilors, and his duties are something we can’t imagine God condoning.
We’re getting pretty close to opening up a can of worms here, which is a hard thing to undertake in a context like this one. On a blog, we can’t share questions and reflections as we work our way through a theological problem - not ideal. It might be helpful, then, to point to just two things about ha-satan to help spark some thoughts about the figure of devil in Matthew 4.
First, even though it’s hard to understand why a member of the heavenly court would be allowed to run around making life difficult for human beings, notice that nobody imputed this sort of activity to God. In the story of Job, God was ultimately responsible for human well-being, but was not by nature one to test or tempt.
Second, there is something really effective about evil being personified as it is in Satan. “The Devil” shows us that sin is bigger than any one of our individual failings, yet we experience it as individuals (personally). The figure of the devil shows us that sin has a power all its own that one person alone isn’t strong enough to tackle. We may use the terms “structural evil” or “systemic evil” to describe this bigger idea of sin, but my own understanding of “original sin” falls pretty much in line with it. Finally, the devil can influence a person, can engage a person intimately, and can be worshiped (as he suggests to Jesus in verse 9). The figure of the devil is objectifiable and personal, but the devil is not a person. Jesus is, however – and he reveals himself to be very human in this passage of Scripture.
(Danielle Thompson)
