The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 92

doos he, who could transform water into wine for otherH, not smite the slopes of Gerizim, nud cause the running fountain to burst forth for his relief? The fourth evangelist records the alfocting incident that, for hie own refreshment from the misery of thirst, the Son of God asked an alien to supply his need. "He saitb to the woman of Samaria, Give me to drink." The pathos of the position from John's standpoint is almost infinite. 'l'hore is the same physical exhaustion as in the narrative of the other scene in the wilderness, Divine energy is shown to be latent in his will. His personal needs are as great; his self-restraint as sublime. He is content to suITer, and to cast himself on the charity of a Samaritan. This commanclment had he received of the Father. I3y this Word of God the Incarnate Word doth live. Nor are the parallels to the prindple of his victory over the devil completed here; for after a while the disciples return to him from the city Sycbar, with their store of provisions, and " they prayed him, saying, Master, eat;" and his mysterious reply confounded them, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." Thus the fourth evangelist, in luminous fashion, reports a conflict with and a victory over the same class of temptation o.s that recorded in the synoptic Gospels. "He saved others ; himself be cannot save·;" and "Though he was rich" beyond all imagination, "yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich n (2 Cor. viii 9). "It was more blessed," more God-like, "to give than to receive." The second temptation of the devil brought the Divine Lord, either in vision or reality, to the pinnacle of the temple, to the spot whence the priest watched the first gkam of sunrise over the Eastern hills, in order to give the signal for the mornillg sacrifice. He saw the courts of the temple crowded with the early worshippers, and the riot and clamour of the priests' bazaar, and all the busy multitude intent on ritual or on gain. "Cast thyself down,n said the tempter-commit thy way to God, entrnst thyself to the arms of angels, and to the care of thy Father-" thou shalt not dash thy feet against a stone." This was not a covert plea for suicide, but a bid for power. Had Jesns yielded to this temptation, how loud would have been the shout, "Behold, he cometh ill the clouds of heaven I" The temple-throng would have bailed him at once as their Messiah- King; for he would have come "suddenly to his temple," in a manner which would have annihilated his enemies and inflamed his friends with theocratic zeal. The language of our Lord to this temptation of the evil one was another revelation of bis filial reverence for God's holy providence. He protested against all presumptnous trifling with the promises of God. This superhuman method of descent upon the wondering crowd would forfeit all his conscious hold upon the Divine Word. True, it might precipitate a tumultuous rebellion against the power of Rome; but his own people were suffering from a far more terrible bondage and a more hnmiliating yoke. Signs and wonders like these would quicken no conscience, would pnrify no heart. Intent on self-glory, he would have had no grasp on ancient promise, and he replied, "It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." He would not trifle with the letter of the revealing Word. He would not dazzle the eyes of the multitude ill his own interest, and call it faith. Presumption is not dependence, nor is vulgar amazement at the power he wielded the faith in bis claims which would save a single soul from its habitual distrust of God. Now, our Lord is represented, even in John's Gospel, as resisting the forces of nature, and holding them in visible check. He walked upon the wave, but he did this to reassure and save his storm-tossed followers, and to deepen their nascent faith in his Divine claims. The Lord was moved nt Cana and Bethsaida, as he had been tempted in the wilder- ness, to assume the headship and mastery of the old creation. Should a similar marvel be suggested, simply to emancipate his own life from the bard and mysterious limi- tations which he had voluntarily assumed for our salvation, ho would reject the suggestion with indignation; yet, if such acts as these, by change of circumstances, could become occasions for manifesting the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, for making known the royalty of Divine love to men, he never hesitated to feed the multitudes, to hush the tempest, and to raise the dead. So now, it would seem from Jo1,n's Gospel that, though temptation to enter the temple by magical means and self- oii INTRODUCTION TO