The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” – Matthew 4:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 15, 2017): Matthew 4

In 1985, the British Rock Band “Dire Straits” released their most successful single – “Money for Nothing.” The controversial song was sung from the point of view of a working class man watching, what was then, the brand new music video channel, MTV. In keeping with the working class theme, the song uses derogatory and offensive names to describe the musicians who appeared in the music videos the man is watching. The album version of the song lasts an incredible eight minutes and twenty-five seconds and contrasts the fine, high falsetto voice of Sting (Gordon Sumner) with the gruff, baritone voice of Mark Knopfler. The official single of the song was cut almost in half to a mere four minutes and thirty-eight seconds.

The opening lyrics of the song, after the high falsetto voiced Sting singing “I want my MTV,” features these words:

Now look at them yo-yo's that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the M.T.V.
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and chicks (women) for free.

(Decades after the original release of the song, I quoted these lyrics in a conversation with a friend who informed me that I had the lyrics wrong – it was not chicks for free but rather checks for free, keeping the lyric faithful to the money theme of the line. And there may have been versions of the song where that is true, but I am unaware of them. The original lyrics are definitely “money for nothing and chicks for free.”)

It is the dream of a lot of us. If only we could live without working. If somehow someone would only give us the money to make our dreams come true. It is the reason why we play the lottery, and then promptly quit our jobs when we have won. This, in spite of research that indicates that most lottery winners have spent all of their winnings within five years of receiving the money. It is the money, or more precisely the toys that we can buy with that money, that carries meaning for us.

And this is exactly the temptation that was placed in front of Jesus. He could have anything that he wanted, and there was no reason to sacrifice. There were no circumstances that would cause the miracle worker of Galilee to go hungry for forty days and forty nights when he could make the rocks themselves into loaves of bread. Jesus could have whatever he wanted if he would only sacrifice his mission. But in this case, Jesus’s job meant more to him than any wealth that he could acquire from the rocks. And in the end, the salvation of the world would not be gained at no cost to Jesus. His mission could not be achieved “for nothing.”

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 4