How Nothing Ever Changes: Temptation and Mr. Beast

I was plopped down on my couch last night, getting ready for TV time with the wife. Kids were in bed early, tuckered out after a relaxing drive through the neighborhood to see Christmas lights, and I flipped on Hulu to see if any new episodes had populated.

 Hell’s Kitchen still hasn’t come on. It’s been three weeks, Gordon. Jeez.

 So I jump over to Amazon Prime. I see Red One, my sister-in-law hasn’t seen it yet, we watch it. Great movie, lotta fun.

 SIL goes to bed. Wife is executing her eternal task of folding laundry. Having 4 girls (with one more on the way) turns this from a household chore into the labor of Sisyphus.

 I’ve been seeing this commercials for the Beast Games, so I flip it on. Another game show, but watching people drop seems fun.

 Two minutes in, I’m completely engrossed.

 If you don’t know, Mr. Beast made his name off of Youtube. He figured out the system and has made stupid piles of money, but more importantly, he knows people.

 The premise is simple: be the last man standing out of one thousand competitors to win $5,000,000. Or a private island. Or a yacht. Or a Lamborghini.

 You see, Beast offers prizes throughout the show. In fact, the first “game” was just to quit. $1,000,000 went onto a podium, and whoever quit got an equal cut of the money. If only one quits, easy mil. If two, $500k.

 52 people quit, scoring each one $19k. Then the games really started.

 The next game was simple. Your entire column (80 people) would be eliminated straight off UNLESS someone in the column quit. Straight up quit, no prize, no nothing. The last three columns without quitters would be eliminated entirely.

 Next game? Take a bribe to quit (from $20-100k), but your entire row would be eliminated. It was absolute chaos as people made the “right decision for their families” and the unlucky ones who wanted to get to the $5 mil wept on the ground.

 As my wife and I watched the show, I realized what it was all about.

 Human temptation.

 Competitors are tempted to betray one another for a quick sure prize. Mr. Beast (not an apocalyptic moniker AT ALL) created a game where the prize was money, but the incentives to quit were also money, just less of it, along with less risk. Or the incentive was to think of yourself as a good person, sacrificing yourself for the “good of all”.

 It is ingenious. There’s even a part where the audience plays, because he flashes a QR code up on the screen for viewers to enter into a drawing for $250k. I refused to do it on principle.

 Because the only way to win this game is not to play it.

 In the moment, I totally understand where these competitors are coming from. Taking the bribe IS the right thing to do for your family. It’s better than being eliminated for nothing, like the woman next to you who’s crying on the floor now. But also, sacrificing yourself for your “team” is also noble, until you remember that you were there for 5 million dollars in the first place. The pressure is immense.

 It's temptation, the actual oldest game in existence.

 People like to say, “If I had been in the garden, I would not have taken the apple. I would not have brought death into the universe.”

 Then you watch a show where people, knowing what the consequences are for “their fellow man”, take $20k and leave. You really think that Eve, having the chance to become divine, would have batted an eye at the doom of the human race? You think any of us would?

 Satan has played the same game throughout history, with kings and peasants alike. Men cheat on their wives, wives cheat on their husbands, children steal, terrorists strike, politicians scheme and conspire, activists burn and all the while, the same choice is being offered.

 Hang in there for the big prize (God’s gift), or cash out now for the easy, more sure win.

 It was not until Matthew 4, something like FOUR THOUSAND YEARS after Genesis, that someone beat Satan at his game. Jesus Christ went into the wilderness, fasting for 40 days, before the devil came.

 The first temptation was for bread, immediate satisfaction of bodily cravings. Use your power to give yourself what you need. Christ shut him down, because there is more to life than bread.

 The second was for recognition, something God Himself had been denied for thousands of years. Cast yourself down from the temple, force your celestial servants in all their glory to carry you to the earth and receive your deserved adulation. Christ shut him down, because nothing we do can force God’s hand.

 The last was the most insidious. Satan shows Jesus the world, and I see it as that scene from Superman, where he says he can hear all the cries of humans across the globe. Jesus can hear our pain, and then Satan says to him, “I’ll stop. I’ll end it all right here, and they’ll never suffer any more at my hand. Just give me what I want. Let me, just for a moment, without anyone else watching, know what it is like to worshipped by you.”

 And Christ shut him down.

 The only way to win the temptation game is not to play. I don’t need Mr. Beast’s money; I have the Almighty Shepherd who provides for my needs. I don’t need to humiliate myself on TV, or Tiktok, or Youtube, or the Gram, or whatever new avenue is provided for engagement and clicks. I have an eternal Father Who watches after my needs, and I don’t need to betray my fellow man in the game of life when He cares for me.

 Or you can play this other game. Up to you.