UN/Broken - Day 12

Luke 4:9-11
The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’

There are various ways to interpret the intent of this temptation, one of which would be to immediately reveal Jesus’ divine nature to the Jewish people, which could have made his mission seem much more manageable. The temptation may be a desire for attention, celebrity, and fame. Pargament mentions fame as a common false god (p. 279). 

We all like our share of recognition from people who are important to us, but sometimes it is better to be loved and admired by everyone. At an extreme is histrionic personality disorder, where a person constantly tries to be the center of attention by being entertaining, dramatic, or seductive. However, this comes at a cost as the disorder tends to lead to major depression (van der Wal et al., 2018).

Even when one becomes famous, the experience is not what it would seem. In a study where fifteen well-known U.S. celebrities were interviewed about their fame, the drawbacks mentioned were loss of privacy, demanding expectations, mistrust in people, isolation, concerns about how it impacts their family, being reduced to an entity, and having a split between one’s private and public persona (Rockwell, & Giles, 2009). As Jesus would probably tell us, be careful of what you wish for.

JOURNAL:
How are you tempted to try to be the center of attention and widely admired?