On their hands they shall bear thee up,
Lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone.
12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not
make trial of the Lord thy God. 13 And when the devil had
completed every temptation, he departed from him for a season.
The temptation of Jesus was the last step in the preparation for his
public ministry, and for many of his followers the final discipline for
service consists in such a trial as results in a new determination to live
not for self but for God.
The time of the temptation was significant. It was just after Jesus had
been filled with the Holy Spirit and had been assured anew of his divine
sonship. Under the influence of the Spirit he was brought to the place of
trial, and the temptation consisted, in large part, of the suggestion to
use for selfish ends the divine powers of which he was conscious, and to
forget his filial relation to his Father. While God never tempts us, in
the sense of enticing us to sin, it does seem to be a part of his gracious
purpose to allow us to be tested; these experiences come while we are
guided by his Spirit, and the essence of these temptations usually
consists in some inclination to please self in forgetfulness of our true
relation to God. The place of temptation was the wilderness, and there is
a sense in which the experience of moral struggle is always one of intense
loneliness. On the other hand, to live in a literal desert does not free
one from solicitation to sin. Wherever one may be, he can be certain of
the presence and sympathy of Christ; and victory is possible through faith
in him. This seems to be the supreme message of the story.
In both Matthew and Luke, three temptations are mentioned. They are
probably intended to be symbolic and inclusive; and under one or the other
of these enticements to evil can be grouped all the moral trials of
mankind. It is to be noted, however, that the order of the temptations
given by Luke differs from that of Matthew. In both accounts the first
temptation is to make bread of stone; but Luke mentions as the second
temptation that which is last in the account of Matthew, the temptation
which offered to Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. This was a fitting
climax to the testing of the King. Luke, however, mentions last the
temptation of Jesus to cast himself from the pinnacle of the Temple and
thus to test God. It is the temptation in the sphere of intellectual
desire and comes in the subtle form of presumptuous trust. It forms a true
climax in the testing of the ideal Man. The order given by Matthew is
suggested by the apostle John who mentions “the lust of the flesh and the
lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life.” The order of Luke takes us
back to the story of Eden and to the first human sin, which was due to a
love for that which was “good for food” and “a delight to the eyes” and
“to be desired to make one wise.” As in Eden also, the first temptation is
to doubt the goodness of God, the second to doubt his power, and the third
to distrust his wisdom. The victory of Jesus, however, was secured by the
triumph of his faith, and faith is still “the victory which overcomes the
world.”
The first temptation, then, was in the sphere of bodily appetite; Jesus
was urged by Satan to transform a stone into bread. Why not? His appetite
was innocent; he possessed the ability to gratify it. The sin, however,
would lie in his using divine power to satisfy his human needs. If this
should have been his way of life, there would have been for him no hunger,
no pain, no sorrow, no cross. He would have defeated the very purpose for
which he came into the world; and anyone who makes the gratification of
appetite his supreme purpose is wasting his life. The essence of the
temptation, however, was to doubt the goodness of God, as Jesus showed by
his reply, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” He was quoting from the
Old Testament; he was declaring that as by a miracle God preserved his
people of old, so now he would sustain the life of his Son. Jesus would
not be driven into a panic of fear. He believed that God would supply his
need and that, however strong the demand of appetite might be, the way and
the will of God are certain to secure satisfaction and the truest
enjoyment in life.
The second temptation was in the sphere of earthly ambition. It consisted
in an offer of unlimited human power. Satan would give to Jesus all the
kingdoms of the world on the condition that Jesus should bow down and
worship him. The force of the temptation consisted in the fact that Jesus
expected some day to rule the world. The Tempter suggested that he himself
possessed such power, and that if Jesus would submit to him he would
attain the desired goal of universal rule. It was a temptation to doubt
the power of God and to be disloyal to him, as is shown by the reply of
Jesus, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou
serve.”
This is a familiar form of temptation to-day. The Devil does not ask us to
give up our purposes of ultimate helpfulness to others and service to the
world; he only asks us to compromise with the evil to attain our goal; he
insists that the end will justify the means; he intimates that in the
world of commerce, or society, or politics, evil methods are so much in
vogue that success can be attained only by complicity with evil. He tells
us that this is his world and that we can rule only in so far as we make
terms with him. For Christ the issue was clearly drawn. It was submission
to Satan or loyalty to God. The latter would involve opposition to the
ruler of this world and therefore would mean conflict and toil and tears
and a cross; but the ultimate issue would be universal rule. The same
choice opens for the followers of Christ. Unswerving loyalty is the way of
the cross, but this is the way of the crown.
The last temptation was in the sphere of intellectual curiosity. It
suggested to Jesus that he should see for himself what would be the
experience of one who should cast himself from a great height and then, by
angel hands, be kept from harm. This is the temptation to place oneself
needlessly in a situation of moral peril and then to expect to be
delivered by God’s miraculous power. This is not faith, but presumption.
Satan still seeks by this device to destroy human souls. He urges men to
see for themselves, to increase their knowledge by experiences which
needlessly endanger their credit, their health, and their honor, to place
themselves in moral peril, to live beyond their means, to undertake tasks
beyond their strength. Jesus replied, “Thou shalt not make trial of the
Lord thy God.” In the path of actual duty one need not fear the most
threatening danger; but one who puts himself in unnecessary peril need not
expect divine help. In his own time and way, and in the path of our
appointed service, God will open our eyes and give us such knowledge as we
need. To seek in presumption for such knowledge while endangering our
souls is to doubt the wisdom of God. Real trust preserves us from sinful
presumption.
The story closes with the statement that when Jesus had secured his
victory the Devil “departed from him for a season.” The life of faith is a
life of repeated moral conflicts, but victory is assured to those who
trust in the goodness and power and wisdom of God.