The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 103

known, be could not know, this kind of trial. Now is to come the first dlatinc, experience or the devil's power. God-may we IIO say ?-carried him away ftom the eccne of the baptism and the opened heavens and the Divine voice, and prcsonted him to Sat1m, the prinoe of,~he pow~r of the air:" This.is my beloved Son: put forth thine band, aud touch him. ls this strange? 1. It 18 a very real link of communion betwe<'n the L_ord and .~he life be~et. by sin and evil. " Ily t~y fasting and temptation, good Lllrd, <l,~hver me. 2,- See m 1t a part., and. an ~ssential part, in the making of Je~us to u~ \\ 1sdom, and R1ghteousnesR, and Sanct16cat1on, and Redemption. Let us not overlook that "the Son of God \\'as manifested that he might destroy the works of the de'l"il.'' Now be~ina the ~reat _pitched _ba_ttle between the kingdoms of light and of d1nkness; the wilderness-tune 1s the g1rdmg of the sword on the thigh of the most Mighty. Do not think of the temptation as an isolated experience. At the end of all the temptations the devil departed from him only for a season, or until a season. He had_ been conquered, but hew~ ~ot done with th~ Con_queror j he only bided his oppor- tumty. The whole earthly mm1stry was a conflict with that hell which had all but dominated over the world of man. And the conflict was concluded in victory only when the Head was bowed on the cross. "Through death he destroyed him the.t had the power of death, that is, the devil." Ahl truly there is "an infiuite more behind" all that is recorded, IL TEMPTATION IS NECESSARY To HUMAN PERFECTING, The hour of the lee.din" into the wilderness is striking. St. Luke amplifies the account given by the earlie~ evangelist. The latter connects the event with the baptism and that which accom- panied it; the former tells us of what is subjective-of the conscious plenitude of life and power. Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, is led. When the sense of tbe mighty force is stroD':- within him, when the chords of the heart are vibrating in response to the voice from heaven, when the soul feels straitened until it enters on the great mission given it; when he is ready, lo! this summons to the wilderness, this forcible taking of tbe anointed man, with the anointing fresh and full, to the dreary desert place over whose surface the wild beasts roam. But is not this e. way of God~ Was not Saul of Tarsus, in the morning of his life in Jesus, sent for three years to Arabia? Is not strength gathered, is not character compar,ted, through contact, direct and per- sonal, with the forces alike of good and evil? He who was "me.de in all things like to his brethren'' must have that in hie human history which corresponds to facts and necessities in ours. And the wildernesA, with its struggle, its assaults on faith and obedience, its glimpse into the outer darkness, its resistance of the devil, is a necessity in the education of tbe man as the Son of God. IIL THE TEMPI'ATIONB OF CHRIST BEOOBDED ABE A lllIRROB OF TBE TEMPTATIONS OF me BRETHREN. Mark the word "recorded." St. Luke tells us that Jesus was led during forty days, tempted of the devil What the forty days meant remains untold. Probably it could not be expressed in language intelligible to us. It was only at the_ encl that "the Divine event becomes human enough to be made to appear," Until then the lower wants were in a condition of suspense; tke hunger is "the first sign of bis coming back to us." Then the part of the temptation which we can understand begins. It will be remembered that we are dealin!!; with a narrative of real transactions, It is not a poem, not a parable. \Vbether the acts were purely subjective, consisting only of suMeeiione to the inner spiritual sense, is a doubtfill point; but that there was a verit;ble tempting in the manner described, that we are r8barding "e. chronicle of eveuts," cannot be doubted. Nor is it a mere likeness of temptation that is set before us. The gospel story would be nothing to the heart if we conceived of it as a Beries of viHions wLich in no distinct way touched the citadel of the 'Lord's heart, was not to him what kmptation is to us--the contact of the soul with some hour and power of darknese. If it be asked-How can ti,is be if Jesus was without sin? let it be recol- lected that sin does not consist in an impression of what is evil; it consists in yielding to the impression, in receiving it. The sacred writers are careful to note that a.II sug. geBtions come, not from the soul, but to the soul from a lying spirit outside the per- su11ali ty. v.rben we speak of sinlessness, we do not mean that enticements to 8ia can never present themselvPB or be felt as enticements; we mean that they are never yieldtd to or consented to-that there is a will so perfectly loyal to the Father tliat the wroug and the unchi\Uikc are never in the purpose of Jesua. Nute tho three oe. 1v, 1-44,] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE.