(The Nationalist, 5 March 2004)
There is a mysterious passage in the Gospel about Jesus being tempted in the desert by Satan. The temptations focus on possessions, power and popularity. In effect, Satan said to Jesus, ‘Assert your power. Renounce your humanity. Affirm your divinity (seen as total power). Then people will follow you. Not by suffering, but by power will you achieve your goal’.
The temptations were real. Jesus was truly a man, not acting out the part of being one. The will to power is one of humanity’s driving-forces. Power in itself is not evil; indeed, being powerless may mean you can do nothing to bring about good and are helpless in the face of evil. But what matters about power is the goals it serves, and the manner in which it is exercised. Everyone has to face that challenge, for example, parents in relation to their children.
The temptation to Jesus was to use power for himself, in a self-seeking way. He resisted that temptation, believing that power was to be used in the service of God.
Many of those whom history calls great leaders were into the power game, and people loved them, followed them and sacrificed themselves for them. Think of Hitler, and the adulation given him at the Nürnberg rallies. People loved it. People crave after status, and fawn over celebrities. We love possessions, power and popularity.
Power has a narcotic effect. It puts people to sleep, so that they don’t see the truth, see that power games lead to division and hatred.
The desire for power may take strange and perverse forms. For example, sexual abuse, whatever its form, is more about power than about sex.
For a follower of Jesus, power is there to serve people, nothing else. It is meant to be exercised in dialogue, not by dictation. Dialogue, a willingness to listen, shows respect for people; dictation tells them they don’t matter.
Those who wish to do the work of Jesus must use only the methods of Jesus. He chose not to inflict pain or to kill, as the powerful often do, but to suffer pain and to die, which is the lot of the powerless. God’s ways are not our ways. Jesus’ way was that of suffering, and death on the cross, a death not only extremely painful but degrading and humiliating. Our response before that mystery is best one of reverent silence and thanks.