[Matthew 4:8-11]
Binoculars.

That’s what must have been on the top of the mountain. Those binoculars that are at tourist places. You put some quarters in. A shutter opens inside the huge odd-shaped metal blob. You look through the eyepieces and see a portion of the beauty in front of the vantage point. You may hear a soft ticking sound as a timer eats through the money. And then, suddenly, everything goes black.

You don’t end up owning what you see, you just rent a view of it.  You only see what the person installing the binoculars wants you to see. You can’t look behind you.  You can’t pick them up and follow a bird flying or those kids playing.

A limited part of infinity, for a few quarters.

That was the deal the devil was trying to make. There was, from the mountain, a wonderful view. “All the kingdoms of the world and their splendor,” we read. All of that for a mere touching of the knee to the ground. Everything for nothing was the offer. Because worship is cheap. At least that was the claim.

The truth? The offer was nothing for everything. Stuff doesn’t matter, is the claim within the offer. Relationship matters completely. The devil was willing to give up all the stuff for the relationship.

And who you have a relationship with makes all the difference.

And the relationship that Jesus affirms, that Jesus declares with a dismissal, is not with the devil: “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'”

We often are offered binocular views of shiny objects with a similar offer: just touch your knee to the ground. And if worship is cheap enough to us, that deal seems simple.

And wrong