Back in 1988, director Martin Scorsese made a film that caused a furor in this country from coast to coast. It was a film about Jesus, and people were demonstrating against it and picketing and threatening to blow up theaters if they showed it. The name of the film was The Last Temptation of Christ. Maybe some of you have seen it. I couldn’t see it when it first came out because the theaters in Memphis refused to show it.
The film was based on the book of the same name, and when I couldn’t see the picture, I went out and got the book. I liked it. It had some good stuff in it.
After a few years, the furor died down and the film became available on video. So we rented it and watched it to see what all the fuss was about. The film is different. It depicts Jesus as a tortured, frightened man who’s been hearing voices all his life. He feels guilty for everything; he’s afraid of everything and everybody; he earns his living making crosses for the Romans to crucify his fellow Jews and feels guilty about that; and his best friend’s name is Judas.
This Jesus has no concept of being the Messiah. He knows nothing of a virgin birth. Even his mother questions him when he tells her that the voice he’s hearing is God. She wonders if the voice isn’t Satan.
Well, this poor Jesus finally makes his way out into the desert, to try to rid himself of these voices that have been torturing him. After coming across John, who he doesn’t know and who is apparently many years older than he is, Jesus is baptized and goes off to be by himself in the desert. Out there, he’s subjected to temptations by Satan, though they’re different from the traditional ones we read about in the Bible. But Jesus comes through them like a champ, and then he finally realizes that he’s the Messiah.
From that point on his ministry begins, and goes pretty much like it does in the Bible. He’s loved by some and hated by some. He’s betrayed. He’s brought before Pilate. Ultimately he’s crucified, and that’s where the story that caused so much uproar really begins.
Jesus is hanging on the cross, in agony, hearing the cries and yells of the crowd, when he looks down and sees a young girl squatting in front of the cross. The voices of the crowd fade away, all the background noise disappears, and Jesus is aware of only this girl. He asks who she is, and she replies that she’s his guardian angel, sent by God. She goes on to tell Jesus that God loves him, that God is very proud of him, and that God feels he’s suffered enough. He can come down from the cross now.
She removes the nails from his hands and feet, and together they walk away. Jesus asks her, "I don’t have to die?" And she says, "No, you don’t." He asks, "I’m not the Messiah?" And she says, "No, you’re not." When Jesus turns around, she tells him not to look back there, and she takes him by the hand and leads him away.
As they walk along, they see a wedding party; Jesus asks who’s getting married, and the girl says, "You are." As the party gets closer, we see that it’s Mary Magdalene, all decked out in wedding finery. So she and Jesus get married, and the next thing you know, Mary Magdalene is pregnant. One day when Jesus is gone, she’s killed by something we can’t see. When Jesus comes back and is heartbroken, the same girl that was at the cross tells him that God killed Mary. Without missing a beat, she sends Jesus to see Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ sisters.
Well, to make a long story short, Jesus ends up with Mary and Martha and six kids; he’s happy and content, he thinks; and he grows old and finally reaches the time of his death. While he’s on his death bed, the door opens up and in come three of his former disciples, including Judas, who proceeds to read Jesus the riot act for not dying on the cross like he was supposed to. All three men tell Jesus that he has no right to be here with a home and women and children; that he was supposed to die on the cross; that he was indeed the Messiah; and that it’s his fault everything is in such bad shape.
When the girl speaks in the voice of Satan and says, "I told you we would meet again," Jesus realizes that his friends are right, and he crawls from his home back out to Golgotha, where he cries and prays for God to forgive him. He tells God that he wants to be the Messiah; he wants to be God’s son; he wants to die on the cross; he wants to make everything right. So the scene shifts and we’re back at the cross of years before. Jesus is hanging there and when he realizes that he’s back where he belongs, he smiles and says, "It is accomplished." Then he dies, and the movie ends.
I’ve seen this movie several times. In fact, I have a recording of it at home and watch it every now and again. I think it’s a good movie, well done, with a really good message that ties in closely with today’s scripture. At Luke 4, verse 13, we read, "When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time." Christ’s defeat of the devil in the desert was decisive, but not final. And the devil wasn’t going to let Jesus get away that easily.
The Last Temptation of Christ was written by Nikos Kazantzakis, and I can’t help but think that today’s scripture might have given him the idea for the book in the first place. When the devil left Jesus in the desert, he didn’t leave Jesus for good. He didn’t give up and go off to tempt someone else. He left Jesus until an opportune time. He left Jesus until he felt like the time was right to tempt him again, and maybe cause him to fall.
Back when Jesus was alive, in fact all the way back to the time of Abraham, having a family and children was the most important thing for a Jewish man to do. Children were considered a gift from God, so the more children you had, the more blessed you were. They didn’t believe in life after death, so the only way a man could live on after he died was through the memory of his children. If you didn’t have any children, you would be forgotten soon after death, and thus would cease to exist.
So it was very important for a man to have a wife and kids. And that’s what the whole idea in this movie hinges on. When Satan left Jesus until an opportune time, he came back when he thought Jesus was ready to hear him. This time he didn’t tempt him with power and riches and earthly kingdoms, though. This time Satan pulled out all the stops. In this movie, when Satan came back he tempted Jesus with the one thing he knew Jesus would want. He gave him a life with some wives and several kids. The best life a good Jew could every hope for. And this time, Satan thought he’d finally won.
But he didn’t win. Jesus gave in to temptation for a while because he was human, but in the end Satan couldn’t win because Jesus was stronger. Jesus finally came to his senses and realized what was happening and turned from Satan and his temptations and went right straight back to God. That’s the lesson this movie has for us. Even at a time when Jesus was at his most vulnerable, when Satan was at his strongest; even when he tempted Jesus with what he wanted most out of life, Satan could not win. Jesus won, because he went to God and confessed his sin and asked forgiveness. Then God gave him the strength to fight Satan and do what he knew was right. That’s the moral of the story in The Last Temptation of Christ.
I think much of the furor about this movie stemmed from the fact that it portrayed Jesus as completely human. We know that Jesus was completely human when he was here on earth, but do we really understand what that means? We like to think of Jesus as human, yes, but not tempted by good-looking women, not wanting to have kids or any of the things of this life. We want Jesus to be human, but not too human. That’s why people raised such a ruckus. This movie shows Jesus as completely human, absolutely human, 100% human, with the same needs and desires as the rest of us.
And I think that’s a more true-to-life depiction of Jesus than we get anywhere else. The other movies about Jesus show him as somewhat human, but never with any lust or envy or pride. They never show him taking pleasure in food or drink or watching pretty women dance or getting into fistfights or anything. He’s always just a level or two above us, beyond us, somehow higher up than we are. That’s not real. Jesus was human. Completely human. He had to be 100% human when he died on the cross, or his death would have been meaningless.
That’s the way I like my Jesus to be. I like him to have the same weaknesses that I have. I like him to have the same wants and needs that I have. I like him to be tempted the same way I am, because in that way he understands. He knows what happens when I’m tempted. He’s been there. He fought temptation himself, and he won. So now he can give me the strength I need to fight it.
At Hebrews 4, verse 15, we can read, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin." Jesus is like us because he experienced a full range of temptations throughout his life as a human being. We can be comforted knowing that Jesus faced temptation - he can sympathize with us. We can be encouraged knowing that Jesus faced temptation without giving in to sin. He shows that we don’t have to sin when we’re faced with the seductive lure of temptation.
It’s not a sin to be tempted. It only becomes a sin when we give in to temptation. Paul wrote about this in First Corinthians, chapter 10, verses 12 and 13: "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
And in First Peter, verse 8, we read, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." When we’re feeling alone, weak, and helpless, we sometimes become so focused on our troubles that we forget to watch out for danger. At times like these, we become especially vulnerable to temptations. Peter is warning us to be alert to the danger of temptation that comes from Satan.
But God never leaves us to fight Satan alone. He equips us with everything we need to fight temptation. We can read at Ephesians 6, verses 10 and following: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the whole armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."
In the Christian life we battle against rulers and authorities, the powerful evil of fallen angels headed by Satan, who’s a vicious fighter. To withstand their attacks, we have to depend on God’s strength and use every piece of the armor he gives us. Paul’s not only giving this advice to the church as the body of Christ, but to every individual within the church. The whole body needs to be armed. As we do battle against the powers of the dark world, we have to fight in the strength of the church, whose power comes from the Holy Spirit.
Paul says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. We face a powerful army whose goal is to defeat Christ’s church. When we believe in Christ these things become our enemies, and they try every trick to turn us away from Christ and back to sin. This includes temptation. They tempt us with everything they know we want. They know our weaknesses and send temptations to break us down.
Although we’re assured of victory against this evil, we have to engage in a struggle until Christ returns, because Satan is constantly battling against all who are on the Lord’s side. We need supernatural power to defeat Satan, and God has provided this by giving us his Holy Spirit within us and his armor surrounding us.
The Last Temptation of Christ depicts Jesus as completely human. It shows his failings and his weaknesses. It shows his victories, and it shows his strength, which is a strength that comes from God.
God gives us that same strength. He equips us with everything we need to overcome temptation. And we never have to try to overcome temptation alone. Jesus is with us. Jesus understands because he’s been there. He fought the fight and won. And now God expects us to continue fighting the same battle against evil.
The final message for us from The Last Temptation of Christ is this: Jesus’ love for us was so great that he chose to give up everything and die in agony on the cross so we could have eternal life. He confronted the ultimate temptations and persevered. For us.
How many of us could have done the same thing? How many of us would have been able to turn our backs on such temptations and give up everything for the sake of others? Probably not many.
But it can be done. With God’s help. When we put on the whole armor of God and face Satan ready to do battle, God will give us the strength we need to fight. And when Satan is finally defeated we can live eternally with God knowing that we’ve truly resisted our last temptation.
