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And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Luke 4:1 The temptation of Christ A. M. Fairbairn, D. D. How is the temptation of Christ to be understood? As a history, a parable, a myth, or an undesigned, though not accidental, compound of the three? Let us begin — 1. With what ought to be a self-evident proposition. As Jesus was a moral being, whose nature had to develop under the limitations necessary to humanity, we must conceive Him as a subject of moral probation. He could not escape exposure to its perils. But again — 2. We must here conceive the temptable as the tempted. In the person and life of Jesus there was no seeming, A real humanity cannot escape with a fictitious temptation. Though our narrative may be termed by pre-eminence The Temptation, it was not simply then, but always, that Jesus was tempted. The devil left Him only "for a season"; returned personified now as Peter, now as Judas, and again as the Jews; met Him amid the solitude and agony of Gethsemane, in the clamour, mockery, and desertion of the cross. But — 3. How could Jesus be "tempted in all things, like as we are, yet without sin"? Is not temptation evil? We must consider — I. HOW THE TEMPTED COULD DE THE SINLESS CHRIST. And — 1. What is temptation? Seduction to evil. It stands distinguished from trial thus: trial tests, seeks to discover the man's moral qualities or character; temptation persuades to evil, deludes, that it may ruin. God tries; Satan tempts. 2. The forms of temptation. It may be either sensuous, imaginative, or rational; perhaps it is never so powerful as when its forces approach the mind together, and at once through the senses, the imagination, and the reason. 3. The sources of temptation. It may proceed either (1) from self, or (2) from without self.If the first, the nature must be bad, but not of necessity radically bad; if the second it may be innocent, but must be capable of sinning. If now the temptation comes from without, three things are possible — it may speak either — 1. To still fluid evil desires and make them crystallize into evil action; or — 2. To innocence, and change it into guilt; or — 3. Supply it with the opportunity of rising into holiness. Illustrations: of (1) Macbeth; of (2) Hubert, in "King John"; of (3) Isabella, in "Measure for Measure," the play that so well expounds its own saying — "Tis one thing to be tempted, Esealus, Another thing to fall." Isabella, lovely as pure, most womanly in her unconscious strength, stainless among the stained, loving her doomed brother too well to sin for him, triumphs over his tears and entreaties, the wiles and threats of the Deputy, and emerges from her great temptation chaster, more beautiful in the blossom of her perfect womanhood, than she had been before. 4. We are now in a position to consider the temptation of Christ in relation to His sinlessness. Temptation implies(1) ability in the tempted to sin or not sin. Jesus had, to speak with the schoolmen, the posse non peccare , not the non posse peccare. Had He possessed the latter, He had been intemptable.(2) Evil must be presented to the tempted in a manner disguised, plausible, attractive.(3) The tempter must be sinful, the tempted may be innocent. Our discussion conducts, then, to but one conclusion; temptation was not only possible to the sinlessness, but necessary to the holiness, of Christ. II. THE PLACE WHERE THE TEMPTATION HAPPENED IS NOT WITHOUT SIGNIFICANCE. Into which wilderness Jesus was led we do not know — whether the wild and lonely solitudes watched by the mountains where Moses and Elijah struggled in prayer and conquered in faith, or the steep rock by the side of the Jordan overlooking the Dead Sea, which later tradition has made the arena of this fell conflict. Enough, the place was a desert, waste, barren, shelterless, overhead the hot sun, underfoot the burning sand or blistering rock. No outbranching trees made a cool restful shade; no spring upbursting with a song of gladness came to relieve the thirst; no flowers bloomed, pleasing the eye with colour, and the nostril with fragrance; all was drear desert. Two things may be here noted — the desolation, and the solitude. The desolation must have deepened the shadows on His spirit, increased the burden that made Him almost faint at the opening of His way. And He was in solitude — alone there, without the comfort of a human presence, the fellowship of a kindred soul. Yet the loneliness was a sublime necessity. In His supreme moments society was impossible to Him. Out of loneliness He issued to begin His work; into loneliness tie passed to end it. The moments that made His work Divinest were His own and His Father's. III. BUT MUCH MORE SIGNIFICANT THAN THE SCENE OF THE TEMPTATION IS THE PLACE WHERE IT STANDS IN THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND MIND OF JESUS. Just after the baptism and before the ministry; just after the long silence and before the brief yet eternal speech; just after the years of privacy, and before the few but glorious months of publicity. We must study the temptation through the consciousness of Jesus. The temptation and the assumption by Jesus of the Messianic character and office are essentially relented. The one supplies the other with the condition and occasion of its existence. When He was driven into the wilderness three points must have stood out from the tumult of thought and feeling pre-eminent. 1. The relation of the supernatural to the natural in Himself; or, on the other side, His relation to God as His ideal human Son. 2. The relation of God to the supernatural in His person, and the official in His mission; and 3. The nature of the kingdom He had come to found, and the agencies by which it was to live and extend. And these precisely were the issues that emerged in His several temptations. They thus stood rooted in the then consciousness of Christ, and related in the most essential way to His spirit. ( A. M. Fairbairn, D. D. )

Benson Commentary Luke 4:1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Luke 4:1 . And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, &c., was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, &c. — Supposed by some to have been in Judea; by others to have been the great desert of Horeb, or Sinai, where the children of Israel were tried for forty years, and Moses and Elijah fasted forty days. Here we see that our blessed Lord began his ministry immediately after his baptism, not by going directly to Jerusalem, the seat of power, preceded by the Baptist, and with the divine glory surrounding his head, but by retiring into a wilderness, that, without interruption, he might prepare himself for his work by fasting, meditation, and prayer, and by sustaining temptations. Hence his journey to the wilderness is said to have been undertaken by the direction, or strong impulse, of the Spirit, by which Mark says he was driven. See note on Mark 1:12-13 , and especially on Matthew 4:1 , where the nature and design of our Lord’s temptation are explained at large. Luke 4:2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. Luke 4:2 . Being forty days tempted — According to Luke here, and Mark 1:12 , he was tempted of Satan during the whole of these forty days; but we are favoured with no account of the various subtle arts which that evil spirit used in the course of so long a temptation. Only the three assaults which he made at the expiration of the forty days are recorded; perhaps because they were more violent than the rest, or more for the instruction of mankind. In those days he did eat nothing — And therefore was supported all the time by a miracle; for he found no inconvenience from so long and preternatural a fast. He did not, it seems, even feel the sensation of hunger till the forty days were expired. Moses, who was a type of Jesus, was remarkable for fasts of this kind; for at two different times he was forty days and forty nights with the Lord, Deuteronomy 9:9-25 ; Deuteronomy 10:10 . In like manner Elijah, who was a type of Christ’s forerunner, went in the strength of the meat he had eaten, for forty days and forty nights, unto Horeb, the mount of God. Moreover, as Moses, during his forty days’ fast, received from God the laws which he afterward delivered to the Israelites, and, by continuing so long without food, proved the reality of his intercourse with God; so Jesus, during the whole of his fast, enjoyed continual converse with his heavenly Father, and received the new law, or evangelical doctrine, which he communicated to his first disciples, to be by them transmitted to future ages, John 8:26 ; and John 15:15 ; and by the miracle of a total abstinence from food for so long a time, demonstrated the truth of his mission. And it is probable, that this solemn fast of Christ, like those of Moses and Elias, was intended partly, at least, to prove the divinity of his mission, and to inculcate the necessity of subduing the animal passions and fleshly lusts, and vanquishing the pleasures of sense, before a man takes on himself the high character of an instructer of others in the knowledge of divine things. Luke 4:3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. Luke 4:3-12 . The devil said, If thou be the Son of God, &c. — For an explanation of this whole paragraph, see notes on Matthew 4:3-10 . The devil taketh him up into a high mountain, &c. — This temptation, which stands here as the second, is by Matthew placed the last of the three. To reconcile the evangelists, it may be observed, that Matthew recites the temptations in the order in which they occurred; for he plainly affirms this order by the particle then, Luke 4:5 , and again Luke 4:10 , and at the conclusion of this temptation says, that then the devil left him. In this order they appear to rise progressively in strength one above another; Matthew, therefore, having preserved the true order of the temptations, Luke must be supposed to have neglected it as a thing not very material. And the supposition may be admitted without weakening his authority in the least, for he connects the temptations only by the particle ??? , and, which imports that he was tempted in these several ways, without marking the time or order of the temptations, as Matthew appears to do. Luke 4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Luke 4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Luke 4:6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. Luke 4:7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. Luke 4:8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Luke 4:9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: Luke 4:10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: Luke 4:11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Luke 4:12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Luke 4:13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. Luke 4:13 . When the devil had ended, &c., he departed from him for a season — This implies that he assaulted him afterward, which, if not before, he certainly did in the garden of Gethsemane, Luke 22:53 , where Jesus saith to the Jews, This is your hour, and the power of darkness. When the tempter was gone, a number of good angels came and ministered to Jesus, bringing him every thing he had need of; as appears from the force of the expression, ????????? ???? . See note on Matthew 4:11 . Luke 4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. Luke 4:14-16 . Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee — Being more abundantly strengthened after his conflict; and prepared to exercise his ministry with success, and to confirm his doctrine by miracles. And there went out a fame of him through all the region — Now that he was come, the fame of the miracles which he had performed in Jerusalem at the passover, and in Judea during the course of his ministry there, spread the more through Galilee: for at this time he had done only one miracle there, namely, the turning of water into wine. And he taught in their synagogues — He spent a considerable time in Galilee preaching, for the most part in their synagogues, particularly on the sabbath days, when there was the greatest concourse of people. Being glorified of all — The effect of this first exercise of his ministry in Galilee was, that the excellence of the doctrines which he taught, and the greatness of the miracles which he wrought, caused all the people to admire and applaud him exceedingly. But neither their approbation, nor the outward calm which he enjoyed, continued long. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up — That by his example, says Theophylact, he might teach us especially to instruct and do good to those of our own family and place of abode. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue, &c. — That the synagogue was then loaded with ceremonies of human invention, and that the manners of those who met there were much corrupted, no man, who is acquainted with the Scriptures and the Jewish history, can doubt; and yet Christ, with his disciples, went customarily to these synagogues, as members of the Jewish Church, every sabbath day. And stood up — Showing, by so doing, that he had a desire to read the Scriptures to the congregation, on which the book was given to him. The reading of the Scriptures made an essential part of the Jewish public worship. But this office was not confined to those who were properly the ministers of religion. The rulers of the synagogue assigned it to such persons in the congregation as they knew were capable of it. Nay, they sometimes conferred the honour upon strangers, and incited them to give the people an exhortation on such subjects as were suggested by the passage read; see Acts 13:15 ; wherefore, their now assigning it to Jesus was not contrary to the regulations of their worship. Perhaps the rulers, knowing the reports which went abroad of his miracles, and having heard of the Baptist’s testimony concerning him, were curious to hear him read and expound the Scriptures; and the rather, because it was well known in Nazareth that he had not had the advantage of a learned education. And, as the Hebrew was now a dead language, and Jesus had not been taught to read, his actually reading, and with such facility, the original Hebrew Scriptures, as well as his expounding them, was a clear proof of his divine inspiration, and must have greatly astonished every intelligent and considerate person present. Luke 4:15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. Luke 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. Luke 4:17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, Luke 4:17-19 . There was delivered to him the book of Esaias — A paragraph of the law having, according to custom, been read before. See on Acts 13:15 . When he had opened the book — ????????? , having unrolled the volume of the book. The books of the ancients, as is well known, consisted of one long sheet of paper or parchment, which they rolled up neatly on a round piece of wood. When a book of this kind was to be read, they unrolled it gradually as they read it, and put what was read round another piece of wood of the same sort with the former. He found the place — The expression, ???? ??? ????? , seems to imply, that upon unrolling the book, the passage here mentioned immediately met his eye, by the particular providence of God. Many commentators, however, think, that as the Scriptures were read in order, the passage mentioned was that which fell of course to be read in the synagogue that day. And according to the custom of all the synagogues, this passage was to be read with the fiftieth section of the law, appointed for the last sabbath of the sixth, or the first of the seventh month, answering to our August and September. So that if our Lord read this passage as the ordinary lesson for the day, the chronology of this part of the history is thereby determined. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me — This was said of the prophets, when they were under an immediate afflatus of the Holy Spirit; but it was here, doubtless, primarily meant of the Messiah: because he hath anointed me — That is, hath commissioned me with authority, qualified me with gifts, and set me apart for the important offices here mentioned. The expression is used in allusion to the Jewish prophets, priests, and kings, who were consecrated to their offices by anointing them with oil. The unction of the Messiah was the Holy Spirit, which he had without measure. To preach the gospel to the poor — The reason why I, the Messiah, enjoy so great a degree of inspiration, and am endowed with the power of working such astonishing miracles is, because God hath commissioned me to preach the glad tidings of salvation to the poor, and by so doing, to heal the broken-hearted — That is, to relieve and comfort all those, without distinction, whose hearts are broken by sharp convictions of sin, and fears of future punishment. The passage of Isaiah here quoted, in our translation stands thus: To preach good tidings to the meek — But the word ????? , signifies more properly persons in a low and afflicted condition. It is certainly an unspeakable recommendation of the gospel dispensation, that it offers the pardon of sin, and salvation, to all on the same terms. The rich, here, have no pre- eminence over the poor; as they seem to have had under the law, which prescribed such costly sacrifices for the atonement of sin as were very burdensome to the poor. The Prophet Isaiah, therefore, in describing the happiness of gospel times, very fitly introduces the Messiah mentioning this as one of the many blessings which would accrue to the world from his coming, that the glad tidings of salvation were to be preached by him and his ministers to the poor, and consequently were to be offered to them without money and without price. To preach deliverance to the captives — To proclaim to the captives of sin and Satan liberty from the power of their tyrannical masters, on the terms of repentance toward God, and faith in the Messiah, now manifested: and to confer that liberty on such as complied with these terms. And recovering of sight to the blind — Not merely to confer bodily sight on a few blind individuals, but to open the eyes of the understanding of millions, and cure their spiritual blindness, by imparting to them the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Thus, Isaiah 42:6-7 , the Messiah is said to be given for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes. And the commission given to Paul, as recorded, Acts 26:18 , was, I send thee to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light: in both which passages spiritual illumination is undoubtedly solely intended. To set at liberty them that are bruised — With the heavy load of their fetters and chains; with the guilt and power of their iniquities, and the condemnation and wrath due to them on that account. Here is a beautiful gradation, in comparing the spiritual state of man to the miserable state of those captives who were not only cast into prison, but, like Zedekiah, had their eyes put out, and were laden and bruised with chains of iron. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord — To proclaim that happy period of the divine dispensations toward mankind, in which a full and free remission of all their offences was to be offered to them, and which might be fitly represented in prophecy by the Jewish jubilee, wherein debts were forgiven, slaves released, and inheritances restored to their original owners. For a further explanation of this passage, see the notes on Isaiah 61:1-3 ; and Isaiah 42:6-7 . Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, Luke 4:19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. Luke 4:20-21 . And he closed the book, and gave it again to the minister — ?? ??????? , to the servant, who had brought it to him. “From the manner in which we apply the word minister, in speaking of our churches, the English reader is apt to be led into a mistake by the common version, and to consider the word here as meaning the person who presided in the service; whereas it denotes only a subordinate officer, who attended the minister, and obeyed his orders in what concerned the more servile part of the work. Among other things he had the charge of the sacred books, and delivered them to those to whom he was commanded by his superiors to give them. After the reading was over, he deposited them in their proper place.” — Campbell. And sat down — The Jewish doctors, to show their reverence for the Scriptures, always stood when they read them, but when they taught the people they sat down. See Matthew 23:2 . Thus we here find our Lord sitting down in the synagogue to preach, after he had read the passage in the prophet, which he made the subject of his discourse. The custom of preaching from a text of Scripture, which now prevails throughout all the Christian churches, seems to have derived its origin from the authority of this example. And the eyes of all were fastened on him — They looked on him with great attention, expecting him to explain the passage. And in addressing the congregation on it, he told them, it was that day fulfilled in their ears — Namely, by what they heard him speak; words which imply, that, whatever allusion there might be in the prophecy to the good news of the deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, it was primarily and principally intended to be understood of the spiritual salvation of mankind from ignorance and error, sinfulness and guilt, depravity and misery, by the Messiah, who, and not Isaiah, nor any other prophet, is to be considered as speaking in the passage, as is explained more fully in the notes there. Luke 4:21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Luke 4:22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? Luke 4:22 . And all the congregation bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words, &c. — By this it appears, that our Lord proved and illustrated his assertion, (that the passage he had read was that day fulfilled,) in a discourse of considerable length, the subject of which only is mentioned by Luke. And it seems also, that on this occasion he delivered his thoughts with such strength of reason, clearness of method, and, perhaps also, beauty of expression, that his townsmen, who all knew he had not had the advantage of a liberal education, were so astonished, that in their conversation one with another they could not forbear expressing their admiration. At the same time, however, their carnal and worldly spirit, not to say the malevolence also of their disposition, led them to mingle with their praises a reflection, which they thought sufficiently confuted his pretensions of being the Messiah, and showed the absurdity of the application which he had made of Isaiah’s prophecy to himself, in that character; And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son? &c. Luke 4:23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. Luke 4:23-24 . And he said, Ye will surely say — That is, your approbation now outweighs your prejudices. But it will not be so long. You will soon ask, why my love does not begin at home? why I do not work miracles here, rather than at Capernaum? It is because of your unbelief. Nor is it any new thing for a messenger of God to be despised in his own country. So were both Elijah and Elisha, and thereby driven to work miracles among heathen, rather than in Israel. And he said, Verily, no prophet is accepted in his own country — That is, in his own neighbourhood. It generally holds, that a teacher sent from God is not so acceptable to his neighbours as he is to strangers. The meanness of his family, or lowness of his circumstances, brings his office into contempt: nor can they suffer that he, who was before equal with or below themselves, should now bear a superior character. Luke 4:24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. Luke 4:25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; Luke 4:25-27 . Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, &c. — “By putting them thus in mind of Elijah’s miracle in behalf of the widow of Sarepta, a heathen inhabitant of a heathen city, in a time of famine, while many widows of Israel were suffered to starve; and of Elisha’s miracle on Naaman the Syrian leper, while many lepers in Israel remained uncleansed, he showed them both the sin and punishment of their ancestors, and left it to themselves to make the application.” When the heaven was shut up, &c. — Such a proof had they that God had sent him. Three years and six months — In 1 Kings 18:1 , it is said, The word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year: namely, reckoning, not from the beginning of the drought, but from the time when he began to sojourn with the widow of Sarepta. A year of drought had preceded this, while he dwelt at the brook Cherith. So that the whole time of the drought was (as St. James likewise observes) three years and six months. Luke 4:26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. Luke 4:27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. Luke 4:28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, Luke 4:28-30 . And all they in the synagogue were filled with wrath — The Nazarenes, perceiving the purport of his discourse, namely, that the blessings which they despised would be offered to, and accepted by, the Gentiles, were enraged to such a pitch, that, forgetting the sanctity of the sabbath, they gathered around him tumultuously, forced him out of the synagogue, and rushed with him through the streets to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built; that they might cast him down headlong. So changeable are the hearts of wicked men! So little are their starts of love to be depended on! So unable are they to bear the close application, even of a discourse which they most admire! But he, passing through the midst of them — Probably by making himself invisible; or by overawing them: so that, though they saw, they had not power to touch him. Luke 4:29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. Luke 4:30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way, Luke 4:31 And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. Luke 4:31-32 . And came down to Capernaum — And dwelt there, entirely quitting his abode at Nazareth, in consequence of the rude treatment which he met with from his townsmen. Here let it be observed, that by settling in Capernaum our Lord fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy, Isaiah 9:1 , which elegantly describes the effect of the Messiah’s residence in Galilee. See notes on Matthew 4:13-16 . And he taught them on the sabbath days — Namely, according to Matthew 4:17 , and Mark 1:15 , proclaimed that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and exhorted them to repent and believe the gospel. This was his testimony during the time of his abode at Capernaum, and this he made the subject of his preaching in their synagogue on the sabbath days, not being discouraged by the ill usage that he had met with at Nazareth, upon his bearing the same testimony there. And they were astonished — Powerfully struck, and very much affected; with his doctrine. For his word was with power — With authority and majesty, which incomparably exceeded that low and servile manner of preaching which the scribes and Pharisees commonly used, in retailing their precarious traditions and insipid comments to the people. Our Lord, however, did not confine himself to Capernaum, for he frequently made excursions into the neighbouring country, and on such occasions, no doubt, preached several times every day. Luke 4:32 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power. Luke 4:33 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, Luke 4:33-37 . See this paragraph explained at large in the notes on Mark 1:23-28 . What have we to do with thee — Thy present business is with men, not with devils. I know thee who thou art — But did he, did even the prince of devils know Jesus, some time before, when he dared to say to him, Luke 4:6 , All this power is delivered to me, and to whomsoever I will I give it? The Holy One of God — Either this confession was extorted from him by terror, (for the devils believe and tremble, ) or, he made it with a design to render the character of Christ suspected. And Jesus rebuked him — The Holy One of God was a title of the Messiah, Psalm 16:10 ; but Jesus did not allow the devils to give it him, for the reason mentioned in the notes on Mark 1:25 ; Mark 1:34 . Possibly, however, it was from hence the Pharisees took occasion to say, He casteth out devils by the prince of devils. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst — That is, had cast him down on the ground, the effect of this possession being an epilepsy. Luke 4:34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God. Luke 4:35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not. Luke 4:36 And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. Luke 4:37 And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about. Luke 4:38 And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. Luke 4:38-44 . He entered into Simon’s house — See notes on Matthew 8:14-17 ; and Mark 1:29-35 . When the sun was setting — And consequently the sabbath ended, which they considered as continuing from sunset to sunset; all that had any sick brought them — Fully persuaded that he could and would heal them; which he accordingly did; he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them — Like the Pharisees, they seem to have questioned whether it was lawful for him to do cures on the sabbath day. Reader, he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever: he is still able to do cures, and is he not willing? Try him: bring thy sick soul, or even thy sick body, or that of thy relative or friend, to him in prayer, and have faith in him, that he can and will heal it. Remember, His eyes are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers — None ever trusted in him and were confounded. See note on Mark 11:22-24 . Luke 4:39 And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them. Luke 4:40 Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. Luke 4:41 And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ. Luke 4:42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them. Luke 4:43 And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent. Luke 4:44 And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Luke 4:1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Chapter 7 THE TEMPTATION. THE waters of the Jordan do not more effectually divide the Holy Land than they bisect the Holy Life. The thirty years of Nazareth were quiet enough, amid the seclusions of nature and the attractions of home; but the double baptism by the Jordan now remits that sweet idyll to the past. The I AM of the New Testament moves forward from the passive to the active voice; the long peace is exchanged for the conflict whose consummation will be the Divine Passion. The subject of our Lord’s temptation is mysterious, and therefore difficult. Lying in part within the domain of human consciousness and experience, it stretches far beyond our sight, throwing its dark projections into the realm of spirit, that realm, "dusk with horrid shade," which Reason may not traverse, and which Revelation itself has not illumined, save by occasional lines of light, thrown into, rather than across it. We cannot, perhaps, hope to have a perfect understanding of it, for in a subject so wide and deep there is room for the play of many hypotheses; but inspiration would not have recorded the event so minutely had it not a direct bearing upon the whole of the Divine Life, and were it not full of pregnant lessons for all times. To Him who suffered within it, it was a wilderness indeed; but to us "the wilderness and the solitary place" have become "glad, and the desert blossoms as the rose." Let us, then, seek the wilderness reverently yet hopefully, and in doing so let us carry in our minds these two guiding thoughts-they will prove a silken thread for the labyrinth-first, that Jesus was tempted as man; and second, that Jesus was tempted as the Son of man. Jesus was tempted as man. It is true that in His Person the human and the Divine natures were in some mysterious way united; that in His flesh was the great mystery, the manifestation of God; but now we must regard Him as divested of these dignities and Divinities. They are laid aside, with all other pre-mundane glories; and whatever His miraculous power, for the present it is as if it were not. Jesus takes with Him into the wilderness our manhood, a perfect humanity of flesh and blood, of bone and nerve; no Docetic shadow, but a real body, "made in all things like unto His brethren"; and He goes into the wilderness, to be tempted, not in some unearthly way, as one spirit might be tempted of another, but to be "tempted in all points like as we are," in a fashion perfectly human. Then, too, Jesus was tempted as the Son of man, not only as the perfect Man, but as the representative Man. As the first Adam, by disobedience, fell, and fallen, was driven forth into the wilderness, so the second Adam comes to take the place of the first. Tracking the steps of the first Adam, He too goes out into the wilderness, that He may spoil the spoiler, and that by His perfect obedience He may lead a fallen but redeemed humanity back again to Paradise, reversing the whole drift of the Fall, and turning it into a "rising again for many." And so Jesus goes, as the Representative Man, to do battle for humanity, and to receive in His own Person, not one form of temptation, as the first Adam did, but every form that malignant Evil can devise, or that humanity can know. Bearing these two facts in mind, we will consider- (1) the circumstances of the Temptation, and (2) the nature of the Temptation. 1. The circumstances of the Temptation. "And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness." The Temptation, then, occurred immediately after the twofold baptism; or, as St. Mark expresses it, using his characteristic word, "And straightway the Spirit driveth Him forth into the wilderness," { Mark 1:12 } Evidently there is some connection between the Jordan and the wilderness, and there were Divine reasons why the test should be placed directly after the baptism. Those Jordan waters were the inauguration for His mission-a kind of Beautiful Gate, leading up to the different courts and courses of His public ministry, and then up to the altar of sacrifice. The baptism of the Spirit was His anointing for that ministry, and borrowing our light from the after Pentecostal days, His endowment of power for that ministry. The Divine purpose, which had been gradually shaping itself in His mind, now opens in one vivid revelation. The veil of mist in which that purpose had been enwrapped is swept away by the Spirit’s breath, disclosing to His view the path redeeming Love must take, even the way of the cross. It is probable, too, that He received at the same time, if not the endowment, at least the consciousness of miraculous power; for St. John, with one stroke of his pen, brushes away those glossy webs that later tradition has spun, the miracles of the Childhood. The Scriptures do not represent Jesus as any prodigy. His childhood, youth, and manhood were like the corresponding phases of other lives; and the Gospels certainly put no aureole about His head-that was the afterglow of traditional fancy: Now, however, as He leaves the wilderness, He goes to open His mission at Cans, where He works His first miracle, turning, by a look, the water into wine. The whole Temptation, as we shall see, was one prolonged attack upon His miraculous power, seeking to divert it into unlawful channels; which makes it more than probable that this power was first consciously received at the baptism-the second baptism of fire; it was a part of the anointing of the Lord He then experienced. We read that Jesus now was "full of the Holy Spirit." It is an expression not infrequent in the pages of the New Testament, for we have already met with it in connection with Zacharias and Elisabeth; and St. Luke makes use of it several times in his later treatise on the "Acts." In these cases, however, it generally marked some special and sudden illumination or inspiration, which was more or less temporary, the inspiration passing away when its purpose was served. But whether this "filling of the Spirit" was temporary, or permanent, as in the case of Stephen and Barnabas, the expression always marked the highest elevation of human life, when the human spirit was in entire subordination to the Divine. To Jesus, now, the Holy Spirit is given without measure; and we, who in our far-off experiences can recall moments of Divine baptisms, when our spirits seemed for the time to be caught up into Paradise, hearing voices and beholding visions we might not utter, even we may understand in part-though but in part-what must have been the emotions and ecstasies of that memorable hour by the Jordan. How much the opened heavens would mean to Him, to whom they had been so long and strangely closed! How the Voice that declared His heavenly Sonship, "This is My beloved Son," must have sent its vibrations quivering through soul and spirit, almost causing the tabernacle of His flesh to tremble with new excitements! Mysterious though it may seem to us, who ask impotently, How can these things be? Yet unless we strip the heavenly baptism of all reality, reducing it to a mere play of words, we must suppose that Jesus, who now becomes Jesus Christ, was henceforth more directly and completely than before under the conscious inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What was an atmosphere enswathing the young life, bringing to that life its treasures of grace, beauty, and strength, now becomes a breath, or rather a rushing wind, of God, carrying that life forward upon its mission and upward to its goal. And so we read, He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness." The verb generally implies pressure, constraint; it is the enforced leading of the weaker by the stronger. In this case, however, the pressure was not upon a resisting, but a yielding medium. The will of Jesus swung round instantly and easily, moving like a vane only in the direction of the Higher Will. The narrative would imply that His own thought and purpose had been to return to Galilee; but the Divine Spirit moves upon Him with such clearness and force-"driveth" is St. Mark’s expressive word-that He yields Himself up to the higher impulse, and allows Himself to be carried, not exactly as the heath is swept before the wind, but in a passive-active way, into the wilderness. The wilderness was thus a Divine interjection, thrown across the path of the Son of God and Son of man. Where it was is a point of no great moment. That it was in the Desert of Sinai, as some suppose, is most unlikely. Jesus did not so venerate places; nor was it like Him to make distant excursions to put Himself in the track of Moses or Elijah. He beckons them to Him. He does not go to them, not even to make historical repetitions. There is no reason why we may not accept the traditional site of the Quarantania, the wild, mountainous region, intersected by deep, dark gorges, that sweeps westward from Jericho. It is enough to know that it was a wilderness indeed, a wildness, un-softened by the touch of human strength or skill; a still, vacant solitude, where only the "wild beasts," preying upon each other, or prowling outward to the fringe of civilization, could survive. In the narrative of the Transfiguration we read that Moses and Elias appeared on the holy mount "talking with Jesus"; and that these two only, of all departed saints, should be allowed that privilege-the one representing the Law, and the other the Prophets-shows that there was some intimate connection between their several missions. At any rate, we know that the emancipator and the generator of Israel were specially commissioned to bear Heaven’s salutation to the Redeemer. It would be an interesting study, did it lie within the scope of our subject, to trace out the many resemblances between the three. We may, however, notice how in the three lives the same prolonged fast occurs, in each case covering the same period of forty days; for though the expression of St. Matthew would not of necessity imply a total abstention from food, the more concise statement of St. Luke removes all doubt, for we read, "He did eat nothing in those days." Why there should be this fast is more difficult to answer, and our so-called reasons can be only guesses. We know, however, that the flesh and the spirit, though closely associated, have but few things in common. Like the centripetal and the centrifugal forces in nature, their tendencies and propulsions are in different and opposite directions. The one looks earthward, the other heavenward. Let the flesh prevail, and the life gravitates downwards, the sensual takes the place of the spiritual. Let the flesh be placed under restraint and control, taught its subordinate position, and there is a general uplift to the life, the untrammeled spirit moving upwards toward heaven and God. And so in the Scriptures we find the duty of fasting prescribed; and though the Rabbis have treated it in an ad absurdura fashion, bringing it into disrepute, still the duty has not ceased, though the practice may be well-nigh obsolete. And so we find in Apostolic days that prayer was often joined to fasting, especially when a question of importance was under consideration. The hours of fasting, too, as we may learn from the cases of the centurion and of Peter, were the perihelion of the Christian life, when it swung up in its nearest approaches to heaven, getting amid the circles of the angels and of celestial visions. Possibly in the case before us there was such an absorption of spirit, such rapture (using the word in its etymological, rather than in its derived meaning), that the claims of the body were utterly forgotten, and its ordinary functions were temporarily suspended; for to the spirit caught up into Paradise it matters little whether in the body or out of it. Then, too, the fast was closely related to the temptation; it was the preparation for it. If Jesus is tempted as the Son of man, it must be our humanity, not at its strongest, but at its weakest. It must be under conditions so hard, no other man could have them harder. As an athlete, before the contest, trains up his body, bringing each muscle and nerve to its very best, so Jesus, before meeting the great adversary in single combat, trains dozen Has body, reducing its physical strength, until it touches the lowest point of human weakness. And so, fighting the battle of humanity, He gives the adversary every advantage. He allows him choice of place, of time, of weapons and conditions, so that His victory may be more complete. Alone in the wild, dreary solitude, cut off from all human sympathies, weak and emaciated with the long fast, the Second Adam waits the attack of the tempter, who found the first Adam too easy a prey. 2. The nature of the Temptation. In what form the tempter came to Him, or whether he came in any form at all, we cannot tell. Scripture observes a prudent silence, a silence which has been made the occasion of much speculative and random speech on the part of its would-be interpreters. It will serve no good purpose even to enumerate the different forms the tempter is said to have assumed; for what need can there be for any incarnation of the evil spirit? And why clamor for the supernatural when the natural will suffice? If Jesus was tempted "as we are," will not our experiences throw the truest light on His? We see no shape. The evil one confronts us; he presents thoughts to our minds; he injects some proud or evil imagination; but he himself is masked, unseen, even when we are distinctly conscious of his presence. Just so we may suppose the tempter came to Him. Recalling the declaration made at the baptism, the announcement of His Divine Sonship, the devil says, "If" (or rather "Since," for the tempter is too wary to suggest a doubt as to His relationship to God) "Thou art the Son of God, command this stone that it become bread." It is as if he said, "You are a-hungered, exhausted, Your strength worn away by Your long fast. This desert, as You see, is wild and sterile; it can offer You nothing with which to supply Your physical wants; but You have the remedy in Your own hands. The heavenly Voice proclaimed You as God’s Son-nay, His beloved Son. You were invested, too, not simply with Divine dignities, but with Divine powers, with authority, supreme and absolute, over all creatures. Make use now of this newly given power. Speak in these newly learned tones of Divine authority, and command this stone that it become bread." Such was the thought suddenly suggested to the mind of Jesus, and which would have found a ready response from the shrinking flesh, had it been allowed to speak. And was not the thought fair and reasonable, to our thinking, all innocent of wrong? Suppose Jesus should command the stone into bread, is it any more marvelous than commanding the water into wine? Is not all bread stone, dead earth transformed by the touch of life? If Jesus can make use of His miraculous power for the benefit of others, why should He not use it in the emergencies of His own life? The thought seemed reasonable and specious enough; and at first glance we do not see how the wings of this dove are tipped, not with silver, but with soot from the "pots." But stop. What does this thought of Satan mean? Is it as guileless and guiltless as it seems? Not quite; for it means that Jesus shall be no longer the Son of man. Hitherto His life has been a purely human life. "Made in all things like unto His brethren," from His helpless infancy, through the gleefulness of childhood, the discipline of youth, and the toil of manhood, His life has been nourished from purely human sources. His "brooks in the way" have been no secret springs, flowing for Himself alone; they have been the common brooks, open and free to all, and where any other child of man might drink. But now Satan tempts Him to break with the past, to throw up His Son-of-manhood, and to fall back upon His miraculous power in this, and so in every other emergency of life. Had Satan succeeded, and had Jesus wrought this miracle for Himself, putting around His human nature the shield of His Divinity, then Jesus would have ceased to be man. He would have forsaken the plane of human life for celestial altitudes, with a wide gulf-and oh, how wide!-between Himself and those He had come to redeem. And let the perfect humanity go, and the redemption goes with it; for if Jesus, just by an appeal to His miraculous power, can surmount every difficulty, escape any danger, then you leave no room for the Passion, and no ground on which the cross may rest. Again, the suggestion of Satan was a temptation to distrust. The emphasis lay upon the title, "Son of God." "The Voice proclaimed You, in a peculiar sense, the beloved Son of God; but where have been the marks of that special love? Where are the honors, the heritage of joy, the Son should have? Instead of that, He gives You a wilderness of solitude and privation; and He who rained manna upon Israel, and who sent an angel to prepare a cake for Elias, leaves You to pine and hunger. Why wait longer for help which has already tarried too long? Act now for Yourself. Your resources are ample; use them in commanding the stone into bread." Such was the drift of the tempter’s words; it was to make Jesus doubt the Father’s love and care, to lead Him to act, not in opposition to, but independently of, the Father’s will. It was an artful endeavor to throw the will of Jesus out of gear with the Higher Will, and to set it revolving around its own self-center. It was, in reality, the same temptation, in a slightly altered form, which had been only too successful with the first Adam. The thought, however, was no sooner suggested than it was rejected; for Jesus had a wonderful power of reading thought, of looking into its very heart; and He meets the evil suggestion, not with an answer of His own, but with a singularly apt quotation from the Old Testament: "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone." The reference is to a parallel experience in the history of Israel, a narrative from which doubtless Jesus had drawn both strength and solace during His prolonged desert fast. Had not the Divine Voice adopted Israel to a special relationship and privilege, announcing within the palace of Pharaoh, "Israel is My Son, My firstborn?" { Exodus 4:22 } And yet had not God led Israel for forty years through the desert, suffering him to hunger, that He might humble and prove him, and show him that men are- "Better than sheep and goats, That nourish a blind life within the brain"; that man has a nature, a life, that cannot live on bread, but-as St. Matthew completes the quotation-"by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God?" Some have supposed that by "bread alone" Jesus refers to the manifold provision God has made for man’s physical sustenance; that He is not limited to one course, but that He can just as easily supply flesh, or manna, or a thousand things besides. But evidently such is not the meaning of Jesus. It was not His wont to speak in such literal, commonplace ways. His thought moved in higher circles than His speech, and we must look upward through the letter to find the higher spirit. "I have meat to eat that ye know not of," said Jesus to His disciples; and when He caught the undertone of their literalistic questions He explained His meaning in words that will interpret His answer to the tempter: "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me." So now it is as if He said, "The Will of God is My meat. That Will brought Me hither; that Will detains Me here. Nay, that Will commands Me to fast and hunger, and so abstinence from food is itself My food. I do not fear. This wilderness is but the stone-paved court of My Father’s house, whose many chambers are filled with treasures, ‘bread enough and to spare,’ and can I perish with hunger? I wait His time; I accept His will; nor will I taste of bread that is not of His sending." The tempter was foiled. The specious temptation fell upon the mind of Jesus like a spark in the sea, to be quenched, instantly and utterly; and though Satan found a powerful lever in the pinch of the terrible hunger-one of the sorest pains our human nature can feel-yet even then he could not wrench the will of Jesus from the will of God. The first Adam doubted, and then disobeyed, the Second Adam rests in God’s will and word; "and like the limpet on the rocks, washed by angry waves, the pressure of the outward storm" only unites His will more firmly to the Father’s; nor does it for one moment break in upon that rest of soul. And Jesus never did make use of His miraculous power solely for His own benefit. He would live as a man among men, feeling-probably more intensely than we do-all the weaknesses and pains of humanity, that He might be more truly the Son of man, the sympathizing High Priest, the perfect Savior. He became in all points-sin excepted-one with us, so that we might become one with Him, sharing with Him the Father’s love on earth, and then sharing His heavenly joys. Baffled, but not confessing himself beaten, the tempter returns to the charge. St. Luke here inverts the order of St. Matthew, giving as the second temptation what St. Matthew places last. We prefer the order of St. Luke, not only because in general he is more observant of chronology, but because there is in the three temptations what we might call a certain seriality, which demands the second place for the mountain temptation. It is not necessary that we put a literal stress upon the narrative, supposing that Jesus was transported bodily to the "exceeding high mountain." Not only has such a supposition an air of the incredulous about it, but it is set aside by the terms of the narrative itself; for the expression he "showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time" cannot be forced into a literalistic mould. It is easier and more natural to suppose that this and the succeeding temptation were presented only to the spirit of Jesus, without any physical accessories; for after all, it is not the eye that sees, but the soul. The bodily eye had not seen the "great sheet let down from heaven," but it was a real vision, nevertheless, leading to very practical results-the readjustment of Peter’s views of duty, and the opening of the door of grace and privilege to the Gentiles. It was but a mental picture, as the "man of Macedonia" appeared to Paul, but the vision was intensely real-more real, if that were possible, than the leagues of intervening sea; and louder to him than all the voices of the deep-of winds, and waves, and storm-was the voice, "Come over and help us," the cry which only the ear of the soul had heard. It was in a similar manner, probably, that the second temptation was presented to Jesus. He finds Himself upon a lofty eminence, when suddenly, "in a moment of time," as St. Luke expresses it, the world lies unveiled at His feet. Here are fields white with ripened harvests, vineyards red with clustering grapes, groves of olives shimmering in the sunlight like frosted silver, rivers threading their way through a sea of green; here are cities on cities innumerable, quivering with the tread of uncounted millions, streets set with statues, and adorned with temples, palaces, and parks; here are the flagged Roman roads, all pointing to the world’s great center, thronged with chariots and horsemen, the legions of war, and the caravans of trade. Beyond are seas where a thousand ships are skimming over the blue; while still beyond, all environed with temples, is the palace of the Caesars, the marble pivot around which the world revolves. Such was the splendid scene set before the mind of Jesus. "All this is mine," said Satan, speaking a half-truth which is often but a whole lie; for he was indeed the "prince of the power of the air," ruling, however, not in absolute kingship, but as a pretender, a usurper; "and I give it to whom I will. Only worship me (or rather, ‘do homage to me as Your superior’), and all shall be thine." Amplified, the temptation was this: "You are the Son of God, the Messiah-King, but a King without a retinue, without a throne. I know well all the devious, somewhat slippery ways to royalty; and if You will but assent to my plan, and work on my lines, I can assure You of a throne that is higher, and of a realm that is vaster, than that of Caesar. To begin with: You have powers not given to other mortals, miraculous powers. You can command nature as easily as You can obey her. Trade with these at first, freely. Startle men with prodigies, and so create a name and gain a following. Then, when that is sufficiently large, set up the standard of revolt. The priesthood and the people will flock to it; Pharisees and Sadducees, giving up their paper-chases after phantoms, shadows, will forget their strife in the peace of a common war, and before a united people Rome’s legions must retire. Then, pushing out Your borders, and avoiding reverse and disaster by a continual appeal to Your miraculous powers, one after another You will make the neighboring nations dependent and tributary. So, little by little, You will hem in the might of Rome, until by one desperate struggle You will vanquish the Empire. The lines of history will then be all reversed. Jerusalem will become the mistress, the capital of the world; along all these roads swift messengers shall carry Your decrees; Your word shall be law, and Your will over all human wills shall be supreme." Such was the meaning of the second temptation. It was the chord of ambition Satan sought to strike, a chord whose vibrations are so powerful in the human heart, often drowning or deafening other and sweeter voices. He put before Jesus the highest possible goal, that of universal empire, and showed how that goal was comparatively easy of attainment, if Jesus would only follow his directions and work on his plans. The objective point at which the tempter aimed was, as in the first temptation, to shift Jesus from the Divine purpose, to detach His will from the Father’s will, and to induce Him to set up a sort of independence. The life of Jesus, instead of moving on steadily around its Divine center, striking in with absolute precision to the beat of the Divine purpose, should revolve only around the center of its narrower self, exchanging its grander, heavenlier sweep for certain intermittent, eccentric motions of its own. If Satan could not prevent the founding of "the kingdom," he would, if it were possible, change its character. It should not be the kingdom of heaven, but a kingdom of earth, pure and simple, under earthly conditions and earthly laws. Might should take the place of right, and force the place of love. He would set Jesus after gaining the whole world, that so He might forget that His mission was to save it. Instead of a Savior, they should have a Sovereign, decked with this world’s glory and the pomps of earthly empire. It is easy to see that if Jesus had been merely man the temptation would have been most subtle and most powerful; for how many of the sons of men, alas, have been led astray from the Divine purpose with a far less bait than a whole world! A momentary pleasure, a handful of glittering dust the more, some dream of place or fame-these are more than enough to tempt men to break with God. But while Jesus was man, the Perfect Man, He was more. The Holy Spirit was now given to Him without measure. From the beginning His will had been subordinate to the Father’s, growing up within it and configuring itself to it, even as the ductile metal receives the shape of the mould. The Divine purpose, too, had now been revealed to Him in the vivid enlightenment of the Baptism; for the shadow of the cross was thrown back over His life, at any rate as far as the Jordan. And so the second temptation fell harmless as the first. The chord of ambition Satan sought to strike was not found in the pure soul of Jesus, and all these visions of victory and empire awoke no response in His heart, any more than the flower-wreaths laid upon the breast of the dead can quicken the beat of the now silent heart. The answer of Jesus was prompt and decisive. Not deigning to use any words of His own, or to hold any parley, even the shortest, He meets the word of the tempter with a Divine word: "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." The tempting thought is something foreign to the mind of Jesus, something unwelcome, repulsive, and it is rejected instantly. Instead of allowing Himself to be diverted from the Divine purpose, His will detached from the Father’s will, He turns to that will and word at once. It is His refuge, His home. The thought of Jesus cannot pass beyond the circle of that will, any more than a dove can pass beyond the over-arching sky. He sees the throne that is above all thrones, and gazing upon that, worshipping only the Great King, who is over all and in all, the thrones and crowns of earthly dominions are but as motes of the air. The victory was complete. Quickly as it came, the splendid vision conjured up by the tempter disappeared, and Jesus turned away from the path of earthly glory, where power without measure and honors without number awaited Him, to tread the solitary, lowly path of submission and of sacrifice, the path that had a crucifixion, and not a coronation, as its goal. Twice baffled, the enemy comes once again to the charge, completing the series with the pinnacle temptation, to which St. Luke naturally, and as we think rightly, gives the third place. It follows the other two in orderly sequence, and it cannot well be placed second, as in St. Matthew, without a certain overlapping of thought. If we must adhere to the literalistic interpretation, and Suppose Jesus led up to Jerusalem bodily, then, perhaps, St. Matthew’s order would be more natural, as that would not necessitate a return to the wilderness. But that is an interpretation to which we are not bound. Neither the words of the narrative nor the conditions of the temptation require it; and when art represents Jesus as flying with the tempter through the air it is a representation both grotesque and gratuitous. Thus far, in his temptations, Satan has been foiled by the faith of Jesus, the implicit trust He reposed in the Father; but if he cannot break in upon that trust, causing it to doubt or disobey, may he not push the virtue too far, goading Him "to sin in loving virtue?" If the mind and heart of Jesus are so grooved in with the lines of the Divine will that he cannot throw them off the metals, or make them reverse their wheels, perhaps he may push them forward so fast and so far as to bring about the collision he seeks-the clash of the two wills. It is the only chance left him, a forlorn hope, it is true, but still a hope, and Satan moves forward, if perchance he may realize it. As in the second temptation, the wilderness fades out of sight. Suddenly Jesus finds Himself standing on the pinnacle of the Temple, probably the eastern corner of the royal portico. On the one side, deep below, were the Temple courts, crowded with throngs of worshippers; on the other lay the gorge of the Kedron, a giddy depth, which made the eye of the down-looker to swim, and the brain to reel. "If (or rather ‘Since’) said Satan, Thou art the Son of God, cast Thyself down from hence; for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee, to guard Thee; on their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest haply Thou dash Thy foot against a stone." It is as if he said, "You are the Son of God, in a special, favored sense. You are set in title and authority above the angels; they are Your ministering servants; and reciprocate the trust Heaven reposes in You. The will of God is more to You than life itself; the word of God outweighs with You thrones and empires. And You do well. Continue thus, and no harm can overtake You. And just to show how absolute is Your faith in God, cast Yourself down from this height. You need not fear, for You will but throw Yourself upon the word of God; and You have only to speak, and unseen angels will crowd the air, bearing You up in their hands. Cast Yourself down, and so test and attest Your faith in God; and doing so You will give to these multitudes indubitable proof of Your Sonship and Messiahship." Such was the argument, specious, but fallacious, of the tempter. Misquoting Scripture by omitting its qualifying clause, distorting the truth into a dangerous error, he sought to impale his Victim on the horn of a dilemma. But Jesus was on th