Changi Chapel

Is a Faustian bargain worth it?

In Luke 4:5-6, we see the Devil take Jesus up to high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. After showing him all the power and glory of the world, he suggested an interesting trade-off – worship me and I will give you all of this.

The phrase “Faustian bargain” is derived from the German legend of Dr. Faust, a scholar, who was highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.

When the devil tried to make this trade-off with Jesus, he was appealing to his humanity hoping Jesus would succumb to wanting all that power and glory, without having to go through the death on the cross.

Will we too like Easu trade-off our spiritual birthright for some physical gratification? Judas Iscariot, exchanged Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Samson exchanged his God-given super-human power for Delilah.

Are we willing to trade-off with the devil to secure some immediate gratification or wait for God in His time to give us our portion?

Are there any short-cuts to an eternal crown?

The devil was offering Jesus a short cut to world ruler-ship. But the heavenly Father had already granted Jesus “to sit on the right hand of the Father” after his death on the cross at Calvary and his resurrection.

Discipleship is all about denying ourselves daily, taking up our cross and following Jesus. There is no crown without the cross. Only when we give up, we receive. Only when we die, we are resurrected by His divine power.

There are no short-cuts to secure our eternal reward. The short cuts the devil offers us is a bait to get us to deny and defy our God. Eve took up the Devil’s offer to become like God by eating the forbidden fruit and lost her right to live in the Garden of Eden. Was that short-cut worth it?

Does our worship precede our service?

In Luke 4:8, Jesus is quoting Deut 6:13 and giving us a powerful insight about how our worship must always precede our service to Him.

Very often in our zeal to serve the Lord, we forget to sit at His feet and linger in His presence. The Lord wants our sweet worship of Him precede all of our service to Him.

Service that is not infused and enriched by spending time with the Lord may be impressive to others but may have not value in God’s sight. Martha meant well when she wanted to serve Jesus but the Lord rebuked her zeal to serve, asking her to like Mary choose “worship before service”.

Will we too?

John B Samuel