Intimately connected with the forty days of solitude and fasting is
the mysterious story of the Temptation.
We are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews that our Lord was exposed
to a peculiar severity of trial in order that he might understand
the sufferings and wants of us feeble human beings. "For in that he
himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor those
who are tempted." We are to understand, then, that however divine
was our Lord's nature in his preëxistent state, he chose to assume
our weakness and our limitations, and to meet and overcome the
temptations of Satan by just such means as are left to us--by faith
and prayer and the study of God's Word.
There are many theories respecting this remarkable history of the
temptation. Some suppose the Evil Spirit to have assumed a visible
form, and to have been appreciably present. But if we accept the
statement we have quoted from the Epistle to the Hebrews, that
our Lord was tempted in all respects as we are, it must have been
an invisible and spiritual presence with which he contended. The
temptations must have presented themselves to him, as to us, by
thoughts injected into his mind.
It seems probable that, of many forms of temptation which he passed
through, the three of which we are told are selected as specimens,
and if we notice we shall see that they represent certain great
radical sources of trial to the whole human race.
First comes the temptation from the cravings of animal appetite.
Perhaps hunger--the want of food and the weakness and faintness
resulting from it--brings more temptation to sin than any other
one cause. To supply animal cravings men are driven to theft and
murder, and women to prostitution. The more fortunate of us, who
are brought up in competence and shielded from want, cannot know
the fierceness of this temptation--its driving, maddening power.
But he who came to estimate our trials, and to help the race of
man in their temptations, chose to know what the full force of the
pangs of hunger were, and to know it in the conscious possession of
miraculous power which could at any moment have supplied them. To
have used this power for the supply of his wants would have been at
once to abandon that very condition of trial and dependence which he
came to share with us. It was a sacred trust, not given for himself
but for the world. It was the very work he undertook, to bear the
trials which his brethren bore as they were called to bear them,
with only such helps as it might please the Father to give him in
his own time and way.
So when the invisible tempter suggested that he might at once
relieve this pain and gratify this craving, he answered simply that
there was a higher life than the animal, and that man could be
upborne by faith in God even under the pressure of utmost want. "Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of God." How many poor, suffering followers of Christ,
called to forsake the means of livelihood for conscience' sake,
have been obliged to live as Christ did on the simple promise of
God, and to wait. Such sufferers may feel that they are not called
to this trial by one ignorant of its nature or unsympathetic with
their weakness. And the same consolation applies to all who struggle
with the lower wants of our nature in any form. Christ's pity and
sympathy are for them.
All who struggle with animal desires in any form, which duty forbids
them to gratify, may remember that God has given them an Almighty
Saviour, who, having suffered, is able to succor those that are
tempted.
The second trial was no less universal. It was the temptation to
use his sacred and solemn gifts from God for purposes of personal
ostentation and display. "Why not," suggests the tempter, "descend
from the pinnacle of the temple upborne by angels? How striking
a manifestation of the power of the Son of God!" To this came
the grave answer, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,"--by
needlessly incurring a danger which would make miraculous
deliverance necessary.
Is no one in our day put to this test? Is not the young minister
at God's altar, to whom is given eloquence and power over
the souls of men, in danger of this temptation to theatric
exhibitions--ostentatious display of self--this seeking for what is
dramatic and striking, rather than what is for God's service and
glory? Whoever is intrusted with power of any kind or in any degree
is tempted to use it selfishly rather than divinely. To all such the
Lord's temptation and resistance of it gives assurance of help if
help be sought.
But finally came the last, the most insidious temptation, and its
substance seemed to be this: "Why not use these miraculous gifts
to make a worldly party? Why not flatter the national vanity of
the Jews, excite their martial spirit, lead them to a course of
successful revolt against their masters, and then of brilliant
conquest, and seize upon all the kingdoms of the world and the glory
of them? To be sure, this will require making concession here and
there to the evil passions of men, but when the supreme power is
once gained all shall go right. Why this long, slow path of patience
and self-denial? Why this conflict with the world? Why the cross
and the grave? Why not the direct road of power, using the worldly
forces first, and afterwards the spiritual?" This seems to be a
free version of all that is included in the proposition: "All this
power will I give thee, and the glory of it; for that is delivered
unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it. If, therefore, thou wilt
worship me all shall be thine."
The indignant answer of Jesus shows with what living energy he
repelled every thought of the least concession to evil, the least
advantage to be gained by following or allowing the corrupt courses
of this world. He would not flatter the rich and influential. He
would not conceal offensive truth. He would seek the society of the
poor and despised. He taught love of enemies in the face of a nation
hating their enemies and longing for revenge. He taught forgiveness
and prayer, while they were longing for battle and conquest. He
blessed the meek, the sorrowful, the merciful, the persecuted for
righteousness, instead of the powerful and successful. If he had
been willing to have been such a king as the Scribes and Pharisees
wanted they would have adored him and fought for him. But because
his kingdom was not of this world they cried: "Not this man, but
Barabbas!" It is said that after this temptation the Devil departed
from him "for a season." But all through his life, in one form or
another, that temptation must have been suggested to him.
When he told his Apostles that he was going up to Jerusalem to
suffer and to die, Peter, it is said, rebuked him with earnestness:
"That be far from thee, Lord; such things shall not happen to thee."
Jesus instantly replies, not to Peter, but to the Invisible Enemy
who through Peter's affection and ambition is urging the worldly and
self-seeking course upon him: "Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art
an offence unto me. Thou savorest not the things that be of God but
of man."
We are told that the temptation of Christ was so real that he
suffered, being tempted. He knew that he must disappoint the
expectations of all his friends who had set their hearts on the
temporal kingdom, that he was leading them on step by step to a
season of unutterable darkness and sorrow. The cross was bitter to
him, in prospect as in reality, but never for a moment did he allow
himself to swerve from it. As the time drew near, he said, "Now is
my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this
hour? But, for this cause came I unto this hour;--Father, glorify
thy name!"
Is not this lifelong temptation which Christ overcame one that meets
us all every day and hour? To live an unworldly life; never to seek
place or power or wealth by making the least sacrifice of conscience
or principle; is it easy? is it common? Yet he who chose rather to
die on the cross than to yield in the slightest degree his high
spiritual mission can feel for our temptations and succor us even
here.
The Apostle speaks of life as a _race_ set before us, which we are
to win by laying aside every impediment and looking steadfastly
unto Jesus, who, "for the joy that was set before him, endured the
cross." Our victories over self are to be gained not so much by
self-reproaches and self-conflicts as by the enthusiasm of looking
away from ourselves to Him who has overcome for us. Our Christ is
not dead, but alive forevermore! A living presence, ever near to the
soul that seeks salvation from sin. And to the struggling and the
tempted he still says, "Look unto ME, and be ye saved."
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