Whether It Was Becoming That Christ Should Be Tempted?
Objection 1: It would seem that it was not becoming for Christ to be
tempted. For to tempt is to make an experiment, which is not done
save in regard to something unknown. But the power of Christ was
known even to the demons; for it is written (Luke 4:41) that "He
suffered them not to speak, for they knew that He was Christ."
Therefore it seems that it was unbecoming for Christ to be tempted.
Obj. 2: Further, Christ was come in order to destroy the works of the
devil, according to 1 John 3:8: "For this purpose the Son of God
appeared, that He might destroy the works of the devil." But it is
not for the same to destroy the works of a certain one and to suffer
them. Therefore it seems unbecoming that Christ should suffer Himself
to be tempted by the devil.
Obj. 3: Further, temptation is from a threefold source--the flesh,
the world, and the devil. But Christ was not tempted either by the
flesh or by the world. Therefore neither should He have been tempted
by the devil.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Matt. 4:1): "Jesus was led by the
Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil."
_I answer that,_ Christ wished to be tempted; first that He might
strengthen us against temptations. Hence Gregory says in a homily
(xvi in Evang.): "It was not unworthy of our Redeemer to wish to be
tempted, who came also to be slain; in order that by His temptations
He might conquer our temptations, just as by His death He overcame
our death."
Secondly, that we might be warned, so that none, however holy, may
think himself safe or free from temptation. Wherefore also He wished
to be tempted after His baptism, because, as Hilary says (Super
Matth., cap. iii.): "The temptations of the devil assail those
principally who are sanctified, for he desires, above all, to
overcome the holy. Hence also it is written (Ecclus. 2): Son, when
thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and
prepare thy soul for temptation."
Thirdly, in order to give us an example: to teach us, to wit, how to
overcome the temptations of the devil. Hence Augustine says (De Trin.
iv) that Christ "allowed Himself to be tempted" by the devil, "that
He might be our Mediator in overcoming temptations, not only by
helping us, but also by giving us an example."
Fourthly, in order to fill us with confidence in His mercy. Hence it
is written (Heb. 4:15): "We have not a high-priest, who cannot have
compassion on our infirmities, but one tempted in all things like as
we are, without sin."
Reply Obj. 1: As Augustine says (De Civ. Dei ix): "Christ was known
to the demons only so far as He willed; not as the Author of eternal
life, but as the cause of certain temporal effects," from which they
formed a certain conjecture that Christ was the Son of God. But since
they also observed in Him certain signs of human frailty, they did
not know for certain that He was the Son of God: wherefore (the
devil) wished to tempt Him. This is implied by the words of Matt.
4:2, 3, saying that, after "He was hungry, the tempter" came "to
Him," because, as Hilary says (Super Matth., cap. iii), "Had not
Christ's weakness in hungering betrayed His human nature, the devil
would not have dared to tempt Him." Moreover, this appears from the
very manner of the temptation, when he said: "If Thou be the Son of
God." Which words Ambrose explains as follows (In Luc. iv): "What
means this way of addressing Him, save that, though he knew that the
Son of God was to come, yet he did not think that He had come in the
weakness of the flesh?"
Reply Obj. 2: Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, not by
powerful deeds, but rather by suffering from him and his members, so
as to conquer the devil by righteousness, not by power; thus
Augustine says (De Trin. xiii) that "the devil was to be overcome,
not by the power of God, but by righteousness." And therefore in
regard to Christ's temptation we must consider what He did of His own
will and what He suffered from the devil. For that He allowed Himself
to be tempted was due to His own will. Wherefore it is written (Matt.
4:1): "Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by
the devil"; and Gregory (Hom. xvi in Evang.) says this is to be
understood of the Holy Ghost, to wit, that "thither did His Spirit
lead Him, where the wicked spirit would find Him and tempt Him." But
He suffered from the devil in being "taken up" on to "the pinnacle of
the Temple" and again "into a very high mountain." Nor is it strange,
as Gregory observes, "that He allowed Himself to be taken by him on
to a mountain, who allowed Himself to be crucified by His members."
And we understand Him to have been taken up by the devil, not, as it
were, by force, but because, as Origen says (Hom. xxi super Luc.),
"He followed Him in the course of His temptation like a wrestler
advancing of his own accord."
Reply Obj. 3: As the Apostle says (Heb. 4:15), Christ wished to be
"tempted in all things, without sin." Now temptation which comes from
an enemy can be without sin: because it comes about by merely outward
suggestion. But temptation which comes from the flesh cannot be
without sin, because such a temptation is caused by pleasure and
concupiscence; and, as Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xix), "it is not
without sin that 'the flesh desireth against the spirit.'" And hence
Christ wished to be tempted by an enemy, but not by the flesh.
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