V.

_HIS TEMPTATION._

MATT. iv. 1-11.

Much has been written on the possibility of temptation in the

experience of a sinless Being. The difficulties which have been raised

in this region are chiefly of a metaphysical kind, such as it is

possible--for some minds, we might say inevitable--to raise at every

point in that mysterious complexity which we call life. Without

attempting to enter profoundly into the question, may not an appeal be

made to our own experience? Do we not all know what it is to be

"tempted without sin,"--without sin, that is, in reference to the

particular thing to which we are tempted? Are there not desires in our

nature, not only thoroughly innocent, but a necessary part of our

humanity, which, nevertheless, give occasion to temptation? But on its

being recognised that to follow the impulse, however natural, would

lead to wrongdoing, the temptation is instantly repelled and integrity

perfectly preserved. In such a case there is temptation, conflict,

victory--all without sin. Surely then what is possible to us on

occasion was also possible to our Lord on all occasions, all through

His pure and spotless life. His taking our nature indeed involved not

only the possibility, but the necessity, of temptation.

The passage before us records what is known as _the_ Temptation, by

which it is not, of course, meant that it was the only one. Our Lord

was all His life exposed to the assaults of the Tempter, which seem

indeed to have increased in violence as He approached the end of His

life. Why, then, is this attack singled out for special record? The

reason seems obvious. It marks the beginning of the life-work of the

Messiah. In His quiet home at Nazareth Jesus must have had the

ordinary temptations to which childhood and youth are subject. That

was the time of quiet preparation for the great campaign. Now the war

must begin. He must address Himself to the mighty undertaking of

destroying the works of the devil. The great adversary, therefore,

wisely endeavours to mar it at the outset, by a deliberately planned

series of assaults, directed against all the vulnerable points of that

human nature his great antagonist must wear. From this time onward our

Lord's whole life was to be a warfare, not against the rage of wicked

men only, but against the wiles of the unseen adversary, whose

opposition must have been as bitter and relentless as that of his

representatives in flesh and blood. From the nature of the case, the

conflict waged in the spiritual sphere could not appear in the

history. It belonged to that hidden life, of which even the closest

disciples could see but very little. We get a hint of it occasionally

in certain looks and words betokening inward conflict, and in those

frequent retirings to solitary places to pray; but of the actual soul

experience we have no record, except in the case of this first pitched

battle, so to call it, of the lifelong conflict. It is evident that

our Lord Himself must have given His disciples the information on this

deeply interesting subject which enabled them to put it on record,

for the encouragement and comfort of His people in all time to come.

Blessed be His Holy Name, for this unveiling of His hidden life.

The greater portion, indeed, is still veiled. A dark cloud of mystery

hangs over the forty days. Nothing else is told of them in this Gospel

than that Jesus fasted for that time--an indication of sustained

intensity in the life of His spirit. From St. Mark and St. Luke we

learn that the temptation lasted throughout the entire period--a fact

not at all inconsistent with sustained spiritual elevation, for it is

just at such periods that man is most exposed to the assaults of the

enemy. We may not penetrate the darkness of these forty days. Like the

darkness in Gethsemane, and again, from the sixth to the ninth hour on

Calvary, it forbids entrance. These were times when even "the disciple

whom Jesus loved" could not be with Him. These are solitudes that can

never be disturbed. Only this we know: that it was necessary that our

Saviour should pass through these dark "cloud-gates" as He entered on

and as He finished His priestly work on earth.

But though we cannot comprehend what our Lord did for us during these

forty days, when He "recovered Paradise to all mankind," we may,

remembering that He was tempted, not only as our Representative but as

our Exemplar, endeavour with all humility and reverence to enter into

this soul-experience of our Lord, so far as the vivid representation

of its main features in the inspired record warrants.

It is always difficult to tell the story of soul-experience in such a

way as to come home to the common mind and heart of humanity. It will

not do to tell it in the language of philosophy or psychology, which

none but those familiar with such discussions could understand. It

must be addressed to the imagination as well as to the pure reason. If

this had been sufficiently kept in view, it might have saved many a

difficulty on the part of those who have set themselves to discover

exactly what were the outward circumstances of the temptation,

forgetting that here especially it is the inward and spiritual with

which we have to do, not the outward and physical. It is not what

happened to the body of Jesus,--whether it was actually carried to a

pinnacle of the Temple or not,--with which we have any concern in

connection with the subject of temptation; but what happened to His

soul: for it is the soul of man, not his body, which is tempted.

It is above all things necessary to hold firmly to the reality of the

temptation. It was no mere sham fight; it was just as real as any we

have ever had when most fiercely assailed by the tempter. This will,

of course, dispose of the vulgar idea that the devil appeared in

recognisable shape, like one of Doré's fiends. Some people cannot rise

above the folly of imagining that there is nothing real that is not

material, and therefore that our Saviour could have had no conflict

with Satan, if Satan had not assumed some material shape. The power of

temptation consists in its appearance of being suggested without

sinister intent. Our Lord was tempted "like as we are," and therefore

had not the advantage of seeing the tempter in his proper person. He

may have appeared "as an angel of light," or it may have been only as

an invisible spirit that he came. However that may be, it was

unquestionably a spiritual experience; and in that consists its

reality and value.

In order firmly to grasp the reality of the conflict, we must not

only bear in mind that our Lord had to contend with the same invisible

adversary whom we must encounter, but that He had to meet him just as

we have to meet him--not as God, but as man. The man Christ Jesus was

tempted, and in His human nature He triumphed. He had "emptied

Himself" of His divine attributes; and to have had recourse to them

when the battle raged too fiercely for His resources as a man, would

have been to have acknowledged defeat. What need was there to show

that God could triumph over Satan? There needed no Incarnation and no

wilderness contest for that. Had it not been as a man that He

triumphed there had been no victory at all. It is true that He went

into the wilderness in the power of the Spirit; but so may we go into

any wilderness or anywhere. It was through Divine strength He

triumphed, but only in that strength made perfect in human weakness

according to the promise which is valid for us all. Here too "He was

tempted like as we are," with the same ways and means of resisting the

temptation and overcoming it as are available to us. It follows from

all this that we should not look at this temptation scene as something

quite foreign to ourselves, but should endeavour to enter into it,

and, as far as possible, to realise it.

Observe first the close connection with the baptism. This is made

prominent and emphatic in all the three accounts. Evidently, then, it

supplies the key to it. The baptism of Christ was His consecration to

the work of His Messiahship. And let us not imagine that He had any

ready-made plan for the accomplishment of it. His was no stereotyped

life-work, such as that which most of us take up, in which we can

learn from those who have gone before how they set about it, and

proceed accordingly. Even with all that advantage most of us have to

do not a little hard thinking, before we can lay our plans. Could it

be, then, that He who had such a work before Him had no need to think

over it, and plan it, and weigh different methods of procedure, and

face the difficulties which every one who enters on a new enterprise

has to meet? Do not let us forget for a moment that He was a real man,

and that in planning the course He would pursue, as in all other

points, He was tried like as we are.

Accordingly, no sooner is He baptised, than He withdraws by Himself

alone, as Moses and others had done when about to enter on their work,

to commune with God and to take counsel with His own thoughts. Was He

free from all misgiving? Let us not imagine that it was impossible for

Him to doubt. Tempted in all points like as we are, He must have known

this sore temptation. One may well suppose, then, that He was visited

again and again with misgivings during these forty days, so that it

was not at all unnatural that temptation should take the form: "If

Thou be the Son of God----"

Look now at the first temptation, and mark the double human weakness

to which it was addressed. On the one hand _doubt_--"_If_ Thou art the

Son of God;" on the other, _hunger_--for He had fasted long and had as

strong a craving for bread as any of us would have had in the

circumstances. See now the force of the temptation. He is suffering

from hunger; He is tempted to doubt. How can He have relief? "If Thou

be the Son of God, _command that these stones be made bread_." Special

powers are entrusted to Him for His work as Messiah. Should He not use

them now? Why not? So in his subtlety suggests the tempter. In vain.

He had taken His place among His brother-men, and would not separate

Himself from them. They could not command stones to be made bread; and

would He cease to be their Brother? What saith the Law? A well-known

passage leaps into His memory: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but

by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Man must trust

in God, and when he is hungry in the wilderness, as Israel was of old,

must look upwards for his help. So must I; so will I. And He bears the

hunger, repels the doubt, and conquers His subtle foe.

The thought of the doubt that must exist in other minds if not in His

own, gives occasion for a second assault. To have proved His power by

commanding the stones to be made bread would only have gratified a

personal craving. But would it not advance His work to make some

signal display of the powers by which He shall be accredited--do

something that would attract universal attention; not in the desert,

but in Jerusalem;--why not show to all the people that God is with Him

by casting Himself from the pinnacle of the Temple? "If Thou be the

Son of God, cast Thyself down; for it is written, He shall give His

angels charge concerning Thee; and in their hands they shall bear Thee

up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone." One sees at

once the added force of this temptation. The hunger remains, together

with the weakness of body and faintness of spirit which always

accompany it. And the very weapon He used to repel the first assault

is turned against Him now, for His adversary has found a passage of

Scripture, which he uses with great effect. Moreover, the appeal seems

to be to that very spirit of trustfulness which stood Him in such

stead in His first encounter. Is He not hard beset? What then? Does He

in this emergency summon to His aid any ally denied to us in similar

stress of trial? No: He does exactly what we have to do in the same

case: meets Scripture quoted with a bias by other Scripture thought of

without prejudice. He recognises that the Scripture first presented to

His mind is only a part of the truth which bears on the case.

Something more must be had in view, before the path of duty is clear.

To meet the distracting thought, this word occurs, "Thou shalt not

tempt the Lord thy God." It is one thing to trust, another to tempt. I

was trusting when I refused to command the stones to be made bread.

But I should be tempting God were I to cast myself down from a

pinnacle of the Temple. I should be experimenting upon Him, as did the

children of Israel at Meribah and at Massah (for that is the

connection of the words He quotes) when they said, "Is the Lord among

us or not?" I must not experiment, I must not tempt, I must simply

trust. Thus victory is gained a second time.

If it is not right to begin His work by any such display as that which

the tempter has just suggested, how shall it be begun? A question

surely of unexampled difficulty. The air was full of expectancy in

regard to the coming of King Messiah. The whole nation was ready to

hail him. Not only so, but even the heathen nations were more or less

prepared for His coming. Why not take advantage of this favourable

state of things at home and abroad? Why not proclaim a kingdom that

will satisfy these widespread expectations, and gather round itself

all those enthusiasms; and, after having thus won the people, then

proceed to lead them on to higher and better things? Why not? It

would be bowing down to the prince of this world. It is clearly a

temptation of the Evil One. To yield to it would be to fall down

before him and worship him in exchange for the kingdoms of this world

and the glory of them. It would be gaining the allegiance of men by

methods which are not of God, but of the great adversary. He

recognises the device of Satan to lure Him from the path of

self-denial which He sees to be the path of duty; accordingly, with

energy He says, "Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt

worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." In

establishing My kingdom I must show Myself to be a servant and

worshipper of God and of Him only; accordingly, no worldly methods

must be used, however promising they may seem to be; the battle must

be fought with spiritual weapons, the kingdom must be established by

spiritual forces alone, and on truth and love alone must I depend: I

choose the path of the Cross. "Get thee hence, Satan."

The crisis is passed. The path of duty and of sorrow lies plain and

clear before Him. He has refused to turn aside to the right hand or to

the left. The tempter has been foiled at every point, and so must

withdraw, for the time, at least. "Then the devil leaveth Him; and,

behold, angels came and ministered unto Him."