The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 93

glorying pride was sternly rC'pudill.tcd, it may hnve suggested a11othe1· wny of" suddenly C'Oming to that temple," ablaze with the mornl earnestness of one whose zeal consumed him. The profanation of the temple-courts by the huge market held thero for sacrificial beasts, nnd also for exchanging foreign coin wiLh the holy shekel, roused hie prophetic "oul. Re R"serted the sanctity of the temple. He drove tho priestly traffickers from the =rod enclosure with words of menace. He provoked the hostility of tha worldly hierarchy. He encountered the first murmur of the storm which gathered evermore in dark and angry clouds, until the temple of his body was riven in the Jiahtning of the wrath which the o.evil's a,frocacy would have tempted him to placate by magical compliances, and subdue by d:i.zzling symbols of his power. The first cleansing of the temple is the true and full response to Satan's ingenious suggestion, "lf thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down." The form and meaning of the third temptation, n.s recorded in the synoptic Gospels, derives much elucidation from the Johannine recognition of the second. "The devil taketh him up into an high mount.a.in," to some Nebo or Gerizim height, "whence he showed to him the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it bath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoc\'er I will I give it." There was too much truth in this boast of the spirit of evil, then hiding himself in the robes of an angel of light. The thrones of the world, from Nimrod to Nebuchadnezzar, from the Pharaohs to the Cmsars, had been builded with blood, defended with ambition and avarice, and often decorously veiled by splendid achfovement. The honours of the world-kingdoms are won still and retained by complicity with moral wrong. Even the scales of justice have been loaded. Antiquity makes respectable what conscience condemns. Those who seek to win and overtop the world have to coincide with it and wink at its evil. The prophets of the Lord, by uncompromising front, have dashed themselves a,,,<>ainst the fortress of the world's sin, and perished in the attempt; have sought to revolntionize the foundations of power and the very material of human authority, and they have failed. The prince of this world has been too strong for them; and the b_ad succession of power passes on from race to race, and from generation to generation. Now, what is the devil's proposal and "temptation"-a temptation which has a side on which the Son of God conld feel it? Outspoken, put into burning words it was, "All this will I give thee, if thou wilt worship me. All shall be thine I" Who is the giver? The object of momentary worship claims to be the source of all earthly power, To worship the devil as such is too terrible a blasphemy and too preposterous an absurdity to be a temptation to any being in whom conscience is not absolutely seared. That the Holy One of God should have regarded it as a temptation shows that by this worship was meant the honour due to possession and stability in human affairs. The temptation must have taken some such shape as this: "Do not commence the warfare with human disobedience by demanding fundamental changes of the ultimate and deepest sources of power. Recognize the authority and power of the world as it is. Utilize its follies. Compromise with existing ideas. Bear with a temple that is profaned; do not attempt to cleanse it. Accept the priesthood as it stands. Accede to the dominant and exacting tradition. Obey the sabbatic law as it has been iuter- preted by eager lecralists. All the powers of the world from Caiaphas to 'l'iberius, all the wealth and all the honours of every state, will be at thy disposal if thou wilt worship me, if thou wilt even allow, or _partially recognize! the 1ivi1!i~y ?f th~ ~orl~- power as it stands." When translated mto any language lil which 1t 1s mtelhg1blc, 1t is but in other words the plausible pantheistic glorification of evil. Subtle as the temptation was, screened behind an effulgence of promise, the Son of God strips it of all diagu.ise. With courage, he calls the accuser of the holiest things by his true name: "Get thee behind me, Satan. It is written, 'l'hou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him cnly sbalt thou serve." Any and every admission on his part of the legitimacy of expedient Bin is resisted. No acceptance of any power but that which is based on righteousness, and no compromise with evil, can be tolerated. Earthly dignity, rank, and kingship are not paesports into the kingdom over which he presided. Whatever be the issue, God's will must be the supreme law of life. Such seems, in brief, to be the lesson of the third temptation, regarded as the devil's masterpiece, aud made at the very commencement of the Lord's ministry,  'l'IIE GOSPEL ACCOHDTNG TO ST. JOHN. ciii ------------- - - - - - -