Gandalf & Jesus

I should probably go back to the Lord of the Rings movie and watch this segment again before writing this, but I doubt I'll find the time, so if you recognize an error in this, send a comment to straighten it out.

In the Fellowship of the Ring, near the beginning, I think, either Frodo or Bilbo tries to give Gandalf the ring of power not knowing completely what it is. I think it's Frodo who know's enough to know he doesn't really want to be responsible for it. Anyway, Gandalf get's really angry and says something to the effect of "Do not ever offer me the ring, do Not tempt me to take the power even with the intention of distroying it" I don't think he says it like that because Gandalf seems to always say things with a bit more flare that that, but that's the basic gist of it. The point being that he's forceful in his rejection of the ring and that he sees the power of it at both extremely tempting and extremely dangerous simultaneously.

Flash back, now, to Jesus talking to his disciples about his death. Peter takes him aside and gets on his case for talking about dieing - that's just not the way to lead a revolution and change the world! Jesus very forcefully rejects Peter's statement with the familiar "Get behind me, Satan, for you do not have in mind the things of God but of men!"

I think Jesus' rejection of Peter's idea of how to change the world and Gandalf's rejection of the ring are very similar - both in power and reason. The ring of power in the hands of Gandalf - even if he intended to distroy it - would ultimately bring the distruction of the world because the ring itself was evil. And even in the hands of Jesus, the power would ultimately not work to bring God's kingdom to earth because it would not have been done God's way but satan's. Jesus was being tempted to take over the world (in a worldly sort of manner) right from the beginning of his ministry. Peter's rebuke and Satan's temptation to gain the world if he would worship satan, are the same temptation.

It's our temptation too. Not as strong, perhaps, because we lack the actual power to bring change about quickly in the world, but, still, it's our temptation all the time to pretend we are about God's business of restoring the Earth but trying to do it in the traditions of humanity - by force, coercion, condemnation (all sides of the same coin) rather than God's way of internal transformation of people's hearts and therefore their entire lives and ultimately the world.