The ingenious
work of Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis who also wrote "Zorba the Greek". Even though "The Last Temptation of Christ" has been regarded as heretical and blasphemous, and it had even been included in the Vatican's Index of forbidden books, it carries a profound message that will touch all open-minded
people. It was written with the deepest love and utmost respect for
Jesus Christ and as the author himself has said, he was weeping so profusely while writing it, that his tears drenched the page so that he would have to stop and wait for the
paper to
dry in order to continue. The main premise of N.Kazantzakis is that
Jesus had been tempted by all human temptations and had conqured them all; he was tempted by the devil to eat and drink while fasting but stood strong. However, food and water are only a mere fragment of earthly temptations. One of the strongest human desires is to be able to live comfortably and without pain or deprivation, to raise a nice family, to have your cellar full of wheat and oil and to
die peacefully in your
bed at a very old age. That was the last temptation of Christ (and not copulating with Mary Magdalene as many claim to be the hign point of the book thus undervaluing this spiritual masterpiece). This last temptation came to him in a vision by the devil disguised as an
angel while
Jesus was on the cross. For one split second he experienced a whole lifetime of what could have been if he weren't the Messiah, if the burden of saving the world were not on his shoulders. That
life was
sweet and comfortable, with wives, children and plentiful possessions, and above all, with no excruciating pain from iron nails in his arms and
feet. Anyone could have easily succumbed to that temptation but not Kazantzakis's Christ: He fought the last temptation and implored to go back to the cross and
die there for humanity, acknowledging that this was where he truly belonged. Kazantzakis's Christ was the Messiah and the world was saved.
It was successfully adapted into film by Martin Scorsese with Willem Dafoe as
Jesus.
The title of the movie "The Last Temptation" fleetingly appears in the movie "Donnie Darko" when Donnie is seen coming out of a movie theater.
