The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 63

Vere. 12, 13. Parallel passages: Matt. iv. 1-11; Luke iv. 1-13.-The temptation. I. THE REALITY OF THE TEMPTATION. The above passage of St. Mark, an<l the parallel passages of the other Gospels, contain the record of one of the most remarkable transactions in the Word of God. It records the temptation of the Son of God. It describes not a fiction but a fact-not a phantom scene, such as a poet's fancy delights to paint, nor a daydream that merely ,p,assed through the imagination of the Saviour, but a literal and historical reality. l'he whole is a narrative of a mysterious yet actual event. It is Satan, personally, that acts the part of the tempter; it is the Saviour, personally, who is tempted; it is the Word of God that is the armoury furnishing the celestial weapons by which the temptation is resisted and the tempter foiled. II. THE FA0T OF TIIE TEMPTATION AND ITS IMPORTANT BEARINGS. 1. Proof of iu reality. That the event here recorded was an actual fact, a real transaction, is proved by the different expressions employed by the evangelists. Thus, St. Luke says he" was led by the Spirit;" St. Matthew, that he" was led. up of the Spirit;" and St. Mark, that " the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness." Similarly Ezekiel, among the captives on the banks of the Chebar, says of himself, "The Spirit lifted me up, and took me away;" so Philip was caught away by the Spirit of the Lord; so also John was'' in the Spirit on the Lord's day." 2. The Saviour's first conflict. The temptation was our Lord's first conflict with that enemy whom he came to contend with and to conquer. It was at the same time the last part of his preparation for his work and warfare. 'It made him aware of the dangerous devices of the adversary; of the mistakes that would certainly mar, and of the mismanagement which might possibly make his undertaking miscarry. His person, his work, his deportment, were all concerned. In his person identified with the human as well as the Divine, he was debarred from using the resources of the latter to raise him above the common wants and sinless weaknesses of the former; and in remembrance thereof he says, "Man shall not live by bread alone." Self-abnegation, not self-gratification, was the law of his life. In his work he behoved to stand aloof from the ways of the world, eschewing the plans and plots, and all those many means of questionable character, by which men have struggled for dominion and grasped at glory. The spirit of his work was non-eon- formity to this world ; the nature of his kingdom Wl\ll spiritual, not of this world; the way to reach it was self-sacrifice ; the crown was to be gained, but only by the cross. In his deportment there was to be no ostentatious display of close kinship with the eternal Father, no proud presuming on that high relationship, no capricious exercise of Divine power. ln due time he would be " declared " the Son of God with power. Accordinglu he repels this assault with the strong language of intense abhorrence, if not indignation, saying, "Thou shalt not tempt out and out ('inre,pcl.am) [to an extreme altogether intolerable] the Lord thy God." 3. The weapon he wielded. Once and again, moreover, the lesson of his childhood-the section of the Jewish Law that was written on the frontlet and thus familiar to every Hebrew youth-he called to his timely aid, and held up to the tempter as the old standing Scripture (-yl-ypan-rw, equivalent to " it stands written"), the ever-abiding truth never to be departed from. 4. The key to the narrative. The key to the entire narrative is contained in the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews, iv. 15, "We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin;" and again in the same Epistle, il. 18, "For in that he himself bath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. n From these Scriptures we learn that the design of Christ's mission to mankind was twofold; it was not only to make an expiatior1 for our sins by his death, but to be a perfect example for our imitation in his life. He was tempted, therefore, in order that he might be an examplo to us when called to encounter temptation. He was tempted, moreover, in order that he might be able to sympathize with and succour us when tried e.nd tempted; u the poet haa be11utifully as well as truly said of him-- " Touched with a sympathy within, He knows our feeble frame ; He knows what sore temptations mean. For he has felt the same. GO THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [OH, L 1-46,