CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 4:1. Full of the Holy Ghost.—Which had descended upon Him in full measure at His baptism. Led by the Spirit—Or, “in the Spirit” (cf. Luke 2:27); abiding in the Spirit as the element of His life. Into the wilderness.—A better reading is “in the wilderness” (R.V.), and to connect the next clause with it: the leading of the Spirit continued there during forty days. The scene of the Temptation according to a not very ancient tradition is the mountainous region near Jericho—called from this identification Quarantania. There is some probability that the legend is true.
Luke 4:2. Tempted.—The present participle implies that the temptations lasted daring the forty days, though they culminated in the three specific attempts recorded in this and in the first Gospel.
Luke 4:3. And the devil said.—It is impossible to say whether the narrative before us, which Christ Himself must have communicated to His disciples, is literal history, or a symbolical description of an inward struggle. The phrase in the fifth verse, “in a moment of time,” would seem to indicate that the prospect was presented to the spiritual sense and not to the bodily eye; and this would favour the second of the two modes of interpretation above suggested. The phrase used in the Epistle to the Hebrews, “in all points tempted like as we are” (Luke 4:15), inclines the same way. If Thou be the Son of God.—An allusion doubtless to the words spoken from heaven at the time of His baptism. This stone.—Notice the graphic touch. Bread.—Or, “a loaf” (R.V. margin).
Luke 4:4. It is written.—It is somewhat remarkable that the three quotations from the Old Testament which Christ here makes are all from the Book of Deuteronomy (Luke 8:3; Luke 6:13; Luke 6:16). But by every word of God.—Omit these words; omitted in R.V.; probably taken from Matthew 4:4.
Luke 4:5. And the devil.—St. Matthew describes the temptation in Jerusalem as coming before that on the mountain; he evidently follows the order of time, as he indicates in the use of the word “then” (Matthew 4:5; Matthew 4:11). St. Luke may have had the idea in his mind of recording the temptations in the order of their varying degrees of intensity, as addressed respectively to natural appetite, ambition, and spiritual pride. It may be, however, that he simply narrates the two temptations, the scene of which was laid in the wilderness, before passing on to that which took place on the summit of the Temple. The words “the devil” and “into an high mountain” are possibly added from St. Matthew’s Gospel; they are omitted in the R.V. See note on Luke 4:3.
Luke 4:7. Worship.—I.e. do homage. All shall be Thine.—Rather, “it [the world] shall all be thine” (R.V.).
Luke 4:8. Get thee, etc.—The first sentence in this verse is omitted in the R.V.; it was probably taken from St. Matthew’s Gospel.
Luke 4:9. A pinnacle.—Rather, “the pinnacle”; some well-known part of the building. Josephus tells of one called the Royal Porch which overlooked the valley of Hinnom at a dizzy height. There is nothing to indicate that Satan desired Jesus to perform a miracle in the sight of the people by casting Himself down and being preserved from injury.
Luke 4:10. For it is written, etc.—The quotation is from Psalms 91:11, but the words “in all Thy ways” are omitted; these words give the condition on which protection is promised—a condition which Satan would have Christ ignore.
Luke 4:11. In their hands.—Rather, “on their hands” (R.V.).
Luke 4:13. All the temptation.—Rather, “every temptation” (R.V.), i.e. every kind of temptation. For a season.—Or, “until a season” (R.V. margin); though the two renderings are virtually identical in meaning. Temptation was now abandoned, but was to be resumed again on a fitting opportunity. The reference is probably to the closing scenes of our Lord’s life, when the devil would assail Jesus through the treachery of Judas (Luke 22:3; Luke 22:53; John 14:30), and through the malignant opposition of the Jews (John 8:44).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 4:1-13
Temptation and Victory over it.—At first sight one might be inclined to think that He who was Son of God as well as Son of man could not be an example to us in the matter of resistance to evil. We find it hard to believe that He could really feel the pressure of temptation, and we take it almost for granted that He won the victory over evil in virtue of a Divine strength specially His own. Hence this episode in the life of the Saviour is usually regarded as mysterious and inexplicable, and is probably but seldom chosen by Christian preachers for purposes of exhortation. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, however, speaks of the temptation of Christ in terms which bring it near to our experiences: he says, “We have an High Priest, who was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” A reverent study, therefore, of this incident in the history of our Lord should teach us many lessons of great value, both as to the nature of temptation and as to the way in which to overcome it. From it we learn, e.g.—
I. That the holiness which God approves is that which can stand the test which temptation applies.—It was the will of God that Jesus should be subjected to temptation. He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil (cf. Matthew 4:1). It was in accordance with what the word of God tells us of the Divine procedure that He who took upon Him our nature should be put to the test. And the process, painful as it is, is one through which all intelligent, moral beings must pass. Innocence, which is so attractive to us, may be largely ignorance of evil, and therefore be devoid of moral value; and accordingly we can see the wisdom of subjecting it to the process by which alone it can rise into holiness. The angels were put to the test, and some of them fell from their first estate. Our first parents, in like manner, were called to make the choice between obedience and disobedience to a Divine commandment; and every one of their descendants has had to suffer from the consequences of their evil choice. And in the Scriptures we read of the trial to which the faith of some of God’s most eminent servants was specially subjected in the cases of Abraham, Job, David, and Peter. It is of course highly dangerous and presumptuous for us to cast ourselves in the way of temptation, and Christ has taught us to pray to be spared temptation. But that virtue or holiness is alone worthy of the name which has endured and can endure trial; and God is able and willing to impart special grace to us, when in His providence we are placed in circumstances of special danger.
II. That we have to contend against a vigilant and wily spiritual foe.—The doctrine of an evil spirit is unwelcome to many; but both the word of God and the facts of human life attest the existence of a personal tempter. “Assuredly,” says Trench, “this doctrine of an evil spirit, tempting, seducing, deceiving, prompting to rebellion and revolt, so far from casting a deeper gloom on the mysterious destinies of our fallen humanity, is full of consolation, and lights up with a gleam and glimpse of hope regions which would seem utterly dark without it. How should one not despair of oneself, having no choice but to believe that all the strange suggestions of evil which have risen up before one’s own heart had been born there! One might well despair of one’s kind, having no choice but to believe that all its hideous sins and all its monstrous crimes had been self-conceived, bred within its own bosom with no suggester from without. But there is hope, if ‘an enemy have done this’; if, however, the soil in which all these wicked thoughts and wicked works have sprung up has been the heart of man, yet the seed from which they sprang had been there sown by the hand of another.” It lay in the necessity of things that he should come into direct and immediate collision with Him who had one mission in the world, that is to destroy the works of the devil.
III. That temptations are manifold in form.—Some, as this history reveals to us, spring from bodily necessities and weaknesses, others from a love of those things that are earthly and transitory, others from spiritual pride; for under these three heads may the temptations which assailed Christ be classified. They appeal to every side of the being, and no one is in circumstances which place him above the reach of some one or other of them. The poor are tempted by their poverty to distrust God, the rich and successful are tempted to use unlawful means for securing greater wealth and power or to apply what they possess to selfish ends, while those who enjoy God’s favour are tempted to presume upon it. The weakness of the weak, the strength of the strong, and attainments in holiness are made by the tempter the occasion for suggesting evil counsels.
IV. All the forms of sin suggested are found to spring from one root—self-will.—At His incarnation Christ had merged His lot with the lot of His race. The first temptation is that He should separate Himself from them and use the power which had been intrusted to Him for providing a way of escape from the hardship in which He found Himself. The second temptation was that He should refuse to accept the humiliation and suffering by which it was God’s will that He should win His kingdom, and that He should found a kingdom like those of this world—founded on force and policy and surrounded by the pomp and display which the world loves. The third temptation was that He should put the love of His Father to the proof in a way of His own choosing and not of God’s appointing. In all of them the attempt was made to excite self-will, and to urge Christ to depart from what He knew to be the course His Father would have Him follow. This was an attempt of the kind only too successfully employed against our first parents. They, too, were urged to distrust God’s love, and to seize upon that which was attractive in their eyes, even although, in order to do so, they had to transgress a Divine commandment.
V. Victory over temptation is won by steadfast trust in God and obedience to His will.—Christ’s hunger and isolation at this time did not shake His belief in God’s power and willingness to sustain Him. Worldly wealth, and power, and honour which could only be secured by disloyalty to holiness and truth had no charms for Him; and He did not shrink from the toil, and pain, and suffering by which He knew it had been appointed that He should gain His throne. Nor would He abandon that life of faith which He intended to live by tempting God, or putting His loving-kindness and fidelity to the proof. All through He subordinated every feeling and desire to the will of God. In this, then, He affords us the great example of resistance to evil. No temptation can prevail against us if we calmly and fairly consider what God would have us to do, or what commandment He has given us for our guidance in the special circumstances in which we find ourselves, and if we resolutely determine to subject our wills to His will. We can never be at a loss to discover what God’s will is. If we are in the habit of consulting conscience, and if we, like Christ, have our minds stored with the holy precepts of God’s word, we can in an instant decide what is the path of duty, and no tempter can force us against our will to depart from that path. Our danger lies in a conspiracy between our wavering wills, our strong passions, and the counsels of the evil one.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 4:1-13
Luke 4:1-13. The Temptation in Relation to the Baptism.—The temptation followed, and must be viewed in connection with, Christ’s baptism. When God gives armour, He soon puts it to the proof, and so the strength given at the baptism was soon tested in the wilderness.—Nicoll.
A Strange Passage in the Life of Christ.—Jesus had been baptized of John. One would have thought that without further delay He would now have begun His public work. But we are mistaken. The thirty years must have a parallel in the forty days. The Spirit leads not to the battle-field, but to the wilderness. He leads Him out not to attack the enemy, but to sustain the enemy’s attacks on Him. What mythical theory could find a motive for so strange a passage in the life of Christ? The temptations of the devil were all skilfully directed to try the question whether Jesus was so thoroughly one with the Father as He professed to be and as it was necessary He should be—whether His Father’s business was really the one interest of His heart and the great business of His life—whether His delight in doing God’s will was so strong that it could not be overcome by any intenser feeling—whether, under high pressure, some discord might not be revealed between Him and His father.—Blaikie.
The Account of the Temptation given by Christ Himself.—The account of the Temptation can only have come from our Lord Himself. This is the only instance in which our Lord breaks through His reticence as to His personal history on earth. Here, and here only, does He give us a glimpse of what had befallen Him, or of what had passed within His breast.—Latham.
A Solemn Pause.—He who is ever the God, not of haste, but of order, prescribes a solemn pause, memorable in itself, monitory in its doctrine, between the Baptism and the Ministry.—Vaughan.
The Temptations in the Wilderness.—Of this mysterious conflict we see but little, and that dimly. The agony in the wilderness, like the final agony in the garden, is shrouded in darkness. But we see an absolute victory, and a Deliverer proved at the outset “mighty to save.”
I. The preparation, the process, and the issues of our Lord’s temptation exhibit it to us as a necessary element in His redeeming work.
II. In His temptation our Lord is to be regarded as a type and pattern to ourselves.—Pope.
The Purpose of the Temptation in Relation to Christ.
I. That He might bid defiance to Satan, and in His person conquer at the outset the power of sin.
II. That He might approve, in uttermost trial, the spotlessness and perfection of the sacrifice He carried forward to the cross.
III. That He might acquire, by a mystery of experience which we cannot fathom, a perfect sympathy with the infirmities of the nature He came to sanctify and save.—Ibid.
Luke 4:1. “Led by the Spirit.”—It was necessary that Christ who had assumed our nature should be put to the proof—should be subjected to the trial of having to choose between using His gifts and faculties for gratification of self or using them in the service of God. This probation is required in the case of all free and intelligent beings; some angels passed through it successfully, man fell before it. It is noticeable that Jesus did not seek temptation, but was led towards it by a higher will than His own. The fact that temptation came immediately after the baptism in the Jordan, with all its wonderful and supernatural circumstances, is very significant. The time of spiritual exaltation is the time of spiritual danger. “Thus shalt thou be sure to be assaulted, when thou hast received the greatest enlargements from Heaven, either at the sacrament, or in prayer, or in any other way. Then look for an onset. This arch-pirate lets the empty ships pass, but lays wait for them when they return richest laden” (Leighton). Satan knows how to take advantage of the peculiarities of our situation.
“Wilderness.”—The contrast between the temptation of Adam and that of Jesus, the second Adam, both in the scenes in which they were laid and the results which followed from them, has often been drawn.
1. Adam was tempted in a garden, Jesus in the wilderness.
2. Adam fell, Jesus was victorious.
3. Adam’s disobedience brought death, the obedience of Jesus brought life. “Adam fell in paradise, and made it a wilderness; Christ conquered in the wilderness, and made it a paradise, where the beasts lost their savageness (Mark 1:13) and the angels abode” (Olshausen).
Luke 4:2. “Did eat nothing.”—The forty days’ fast seems rather an indication of deep absorption in reverie, during which not even the stings of hunger were felt, than as a religious exercise of the kind the Jews were accustomed to observe in connection with prayer. It scarcely seems to afford ground for the custom of observing an ecclesiastical fast of like duration. For
(1) Christ literally abstained from every kind of food;
(2) He did not deliberately inflict the pain of hunger upon Himself—indeed, He did not feel hunger until the forty days were past; and
(3) He did not periodically observe a like abstinence—this was a unique experience in His life, and His state of ecstasy (like that of Moses and Elijah) is not one into which we can bring ourselves.
“Hungered.”—Christ hungered as man, and fed the hungry as God. He was hungry as man, and yet He is the Bread of Life. He was athirst as man, and yet He says, Let him that is athirst come to Me and drink (Revelation 22:17). He was weary, and is our rest. He pays tribute, and is a King; He is called a devil, and casts out devils; prays, and hears prayer; weeps, and dries our tears; is sold for thirty pieces of silver, and redeems the world; is led as a sheep to the slaughter, and is the Good Shepherd; is mute like a sheep, and is the everlasting Word; is the Man of sorrows, and heals our pains; is nailed to a tree and dies upon it, and by the tree restores us to life; has vinegar to drink, and changes water to wine; lays down His life, and takes it again; dies and gives life, and by dying destroys death.—Greg. Naz.
Luke 4:3-4. The First Temptation.—During the forty days Jesus had been sustained, not by the power of His Divine nature, but by the great rapture of spiritual gladness which upbore Him. When these had passed, He was torn with the pangs of hunger, and here the temptation of Satan comes in.
I. After the manner of the tempter, he makes the truth problematical—“If Thou be.” The stones to the sick eyes of a hungry man had the shape of loaves, and one word from Him would have turned them to food. Why was the word not spoken? Because, if He had spoken it, He would have undone His incarnation, by drawing back from the lot of the race with which He had identified Himself. He would also have shown—
II. A want of trust in the Divine providence that was able to feed Him without using any miraculous energy. “Man shall not live,” etc. He did not care to assert His Godship then. If God pleased, He might make the bare wind of the desert a banquet. Jesus has meat to eat that the tempter knows not of. This first temptation—
III. Is presented to us by the tempter in our own lives.—“I must live.” The answer is—There is no need that a man should live, but there is need that he should be righteous. He will not die if he trusts in God. Man lives by everything that proceeds from God’s mouth.—Nicoll.
The Danger of Starving the Soul.—Man wants no reminding that he lives by bread. There is no fear of his not giving care enough to the needs of his body; but there is danger lest he should think of nothing but these needs, and starve his soul, and become such that eternal life, without a body to care for, would only be a condition of aimless weariness. Jesus resolved therefore to keep His powers apart for spiritual ends. He will not use this power to provide what others win by toil, or to preserve Himself or His followers from the common ills of human life.—Latham.
Luke 4:3. “If Thou be the Son of God.”—Satan contrasts the Divine greatness of Jesus as the Son of God, of which He had been assured at His baptism, with His present condition of destitution and hunger, and urges Him to depart from the condition of humiliation which He had accepted on becoming incarnate. Self-sufficiency and independence of God is the state of spirit Satan would fain excite in Christ. The temptation is a subtle one; for he does not suggest a miraculous provision of luxurious food, but of mere bread to stave off death by hunger. But Christ did not work a miracle for the sake of delivering Himself from that state of dependence upon God which all men should occupy.
“Command this stone.”—This gift of miracles in Christ was in many respects a talent; and it was necessary that He should employ this talent wholly for the purposes for which it was intrusted to Him, viz. to confirm His mission and doctrine, to honour the Father, and to do good to men, and not at all to accommodate and relieve Himself.—Scott.
Luke 4:4. “Written.”—It is not by inward illumination, but by the written word of God, that Christ as man professes to find guidance. His words are a rebuke to those who claim greater honour for what they imagine is inward illumination than they are willing to pay to God’s word.
“Not live by bread alone.”—The passage quoted is a strikingly appropriate answer: “Jehovah suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee to know that man doth not live,” etc. (Deuteronomy 8:3). The whole nation of Israel was fed for forty years in the wilderness: with what confidence may Christ therefore look to God for sustenance during the few days of His sojourn in the desert! God by the ordinary operation of His providence brings forth food for man out of the earth; but He is able to give sustenance in other ways, if He sees fit so to do. Manna and quails were miraculously provided for the Israelites in the wilderness; Elijah was fed by the ravens and by an angel; the multiplication of the loaves of bread and of the fishes by Christ’s power (cf. also the miracle wrought by Elisha, 2 Kings 4:42-44) illustrates this principle. It is right to look to God for extraordinary help in extraordinary circumstance. The fact that we are dependent upon God for food is also implied in the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Christ’s Use of Scripture.
I. For defence.—This is the very first use we find Him making of the word. He answered every suggestion of Satan with, “It is written.” The word was in His hands the sword of the Spirit, and He turned with its edge the onsets of the enemy.
II. For this use of Scripture the practice of committing it to memory is essential.—Often, when temptation comes, there is no time to search for the word to meet it; everything depends on being armed, with sword in hand. This shows how necessary it is to fill the memory while it is plastic with stores of texts.—Stalker.
Christ is our Example in all Things.—Here we see how He met the tempter so as to conquer him. He used His Bible as a quiver, and He drew from it the sharp arrows which He hurled so successfully against His opponent. He drew them from memory. He had used the quiet days at Nazareth to store His mind with the precious words. The lesson lies for us on the surface.—Miller.
“Not by bread alone.”—It was the Saviour’s purpose to give a signal proof, at the very outset of His public career, both of the weakness of His body as man and the perfect control exercised over it by the joint action of His human and Divine will. The appetite for bread was lawful; not so the abuse of His high powers to satisfy His own personal need. Therefore His answer was ready. His heart overflowing with love and confidence in His heavenly Father, and pure from all unclean desires, prompted the reply He clothed in the words of Scripture. There lay the force of His word, strong to baffle the tempter and drive him to another ground of attack. The Lord’s rebuff was no mere quotation got by heart and ready; the thought rose spontaneously out of the pure springs within, and found its readiest expression in the well-studied language of Holy Writ.—Markby.
Our First Duty.—It is never right for us to starve our spiritual nature to get bread for our bodies. It is our first duty to keep God’s commandments, and in obedience is the highest good that we can attain in this world. Sometimes the best thing we can do for our life is to lose it; we had better any day starve to death than commit the smallest sin to get bread. Getting bread should not be our first object in life, and is really not our business at all.—Miller.
Higher Aims than Gratification of Appetite.—It is one of the grandest texts I know. Man has appetite, but appetite is not man. The gratification of appetite is not the main object of man’s existence. Too many live as if they thought it was so. To make bread is the one object for which many live. Jesus Christ protests against this degradation of our nature, and says, “A man has higher aims than to gratify his appetite. He has a soul. Bread-making is not a sufficient object for a redeemed soul.”—Meyer.
Luke 4:5-8. The Second Temptation.
I. The tempter tried Jesus through the mind.—Human nature is ambitious, loves power, thirsts for greatness. To such dispositions did Satan now address himself in Christ. He offered Him universal empire; without delay and without a struggle He proposes, as it were, a short road to redemption. On one condition. He must do homage for His throne to Satan; He must hold His crown, as it were, from him. In short, it was the offer of a great good through a little evil—to save Himself and to save mankind a deluge of blood and tears, by one brief acknowledgment of an enemy’s right, and by one passing homage to a usurper’s crown.
II. Christ discerned the snare and foiled the stratagem.—The gospel so brought in would have been a curse and not a blessing. Never for one moment did His will waver. He seized upon the compromise, and crushed it to atoms in the right hand of obedience. Henceforth there must be war, war to the knife, between the Tempted and the tempter. In that decision lay ten thousand others. Christ will not have Satan lulled. He will have him bound. The lesson, the edict, the declaration of war are for all time.
III. It has a voice for Christian men.—Whenever we do evil that good may come we bend the knee to Satan.—Vaughan.
Luke 4:5. “All the kingdoms of the world.”—Hunger had not terrified, neither does plenty allure, the Saviour from the path of duty. The scourge of poverty is followed by the vision of plenty; but the one is as powerless as the other to overcome His holy will. This teaches us the great lesson that our liability to sin does not depend upon the circumstances in which we are placed so much as upon the disposition or frame of spirit which characterises us. We are apt to think that if the cross were removed or the burden lightened we should find it easier to be holy—that the sin that besets us would lose its power to ensnare us if we were placed in happier circumstances. Yet circumstances only afford us an opportunity of manifesting what is in us. Jesus was superior to all circumstances simply because He was superior to all sin. The sinful heart will betray itself even if the outward conditions on which it lays the blame were all changed; it will be as faithless in prosperity as it was in adversity. The sinless heart is free from danger everywhere; it is not depressed by humiliation, it is not seduced from its allegiance to God by exaltation.
“In a moment of time.”—Perhaps in this phrase we have the clue to the solution of the question as to whether the history of the Temptation is a narrative of external facts or a parabolical description of mental and spiritual experiences. Apart from the consideration that from no mountain on earth could “all the kingdoms of the world be seen,” the phrase “in a moment of time” seems to describe something presented to the mind’s eye rather than to the bodily sense. And if this is the case with one of the temptations, why may it not be so in the case of all of them? In Hebrews 4:15 we read that Christ was “tempted in all points like as we are.” Does not this imply manner of temptation as well as actual fact of temptation? The momentary glimpse of the world’s kingdoms and their glory suggests temptation of a very intense kind. For those temptations are most acute which are presented to us suddenly and unexpectedly. Another thought is suggested by an ancient writer: “It is fitting that all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, should be displayed ‘in a moment of time.’ For here it is not so much the rapid glance of sight which is signified as the frailty of mortal power which is declared. For in a moment all this passes away; and oftentimes the glory of this world has vanished before it has arrived.”
Luke 4:6. A Great Bribe offered to Christ.—The greatness of Christ is implied in the greatness of the bribe here offered to Him. Satan is not accustomed to offer all to those whom he tempts, but gives by little and little. “There be some that will say—They were never tempted with kingdoms. It may well be; for it needs not, when less will serve. It was Christ only who was thus tempted; in Him lay a heroical mind that could not be allured with small matters. But with us it is nothing so, for we esteem far more basely of ourselves. We set our wares at a very easy price; he may buy us even dagger-cheap, as we say. He need never carry us so high as the mount. The pinnacle is high enough; yea, the lowest steeple in all the town would serve the turn. Or let him but carry us to the leads and gutters of our own houses, nay, let us but stand in our windows or our doors, if he will give us but so much as we can there see, he will tempt us throughly; we will accept it, and thank him too. He shall not need to come to us with kingdoms.… A matter of half a crown, or ten groats, a pair of shoes, or some such trifle will bring us on our knees to the devil” (Andrewes).
“Delivered unto me.”—We cannot say this statement is absolutely false. Satan has a certain limited power assigned to him; the world is under his power, not absolutely or permanently, but actually. Hence he is called “the prince of this world” by Christ Himself (John 12:31). Worldly glory is within his power, since he may use it for tempting and ensnaring men. The description of a delegated power possessed by the evil one was calculated to correct the erroneous ideas of many of St. Luke’s Gentile readers. They were accustomed to the dualistic idea of a kingdom of evil, not simply permitted to exist, but independent of the Divine will.
The Tempter’s Promise.—High on the desert mountain, full descried, sits throned the tempter with his old promise—the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them. He still calls you to your labour, as Christ to your rest,—labour and sorrow, base desire and cruel hope. So far as you desire to possess rather than to give; so far as you look for power to command instead of to bless; so far as your own prosperity seems to you to issue out of contest or rivalry of any kind with other men, or other nations; so long as the hope before you is for supremacy instead of love, and your desire is to be greatest instead of least—first instead of last—so long you are serving the lord of all that is last and least—Death—and you shall have death’s crown with the worm coiled in it, and death’s wages with the worm feeding on them; kindred of the earth shall you yourself become; saying to the grave, “Thou art my father,” and to the worm, “Thou art my mother and sister.” I leave you to judge and to choose between this labour and the bequeathed peace; these wages and the gift of the Morning Star; this obedience and the doing of the will which shall enable you to claim another kindred than that of earth, and to hear another voice than that of the grave, saying, “My brother, and sister, and mother.”—Ruskin.
Luke 4:7. “If Thou therefore wilt worship me.”—Worship of Satan means that Christ should acknowledge his delegated power, and make the Messianic kingdom like those of the kingdoms of this world, in accordance with the general expectation and desire of the Jewish people. The word “therefore” shows that this is the sense in which the passage is to be understood. Not by material means or by physical force did Christ intend to found His kingdom, but by spiritual operations. His kingdom was not to be in continuation of anything previously existing, but a new beginning.
Luke 4:8. “Him only shalt thou serve.”—Satan has recourse to that passion whereof men in stricken folly are prone to be proud, and to make silly boast of their own weakness—to ambition, “the last infirmity of noble minds.” But the allegiance of the Son of man was not to be so shaken. Sinless, therefore, was the soul of the Lord as well as His body.—Markby.
Worship due to God alone.—Christ here asserts that worship is due to God and to Him alone. Yet in Hebrews 1:6 we read that worship is to be paid to Christ Himself. What way is there by which to reconcile these two assertions, except by recognition of the Divine nature of Christ? How can Arians and Socinians reconcile them?
Luke 4:9-12. The Third Temptation.
I. Satan prompts Jesus to display His supremacy and confound His adversary by challenging the celestial powers to do Him the homage of their protection.
II. The sublime reliance of Christ’s answer is in His profound submission of obedient humility.—These simple words confounded the assailant, and go to the root of the temptation. Where is the child of God upon earth who is not daily thus tempted to tempt his God? This temptation finds its best and worst comment in the sins which dishonour God in His people; in the spiritual pride which tempts the Lord to withdraw His gifts; in the presumption that trifles with danger, trusting in an unpledged protection; in the spirit, conduct, and lives of those who forget that the privileges of grace belong to the lowly in heart, and are to be maintained only by humble walking with God.—Pope.
Luke 4:9. How to distinguish Faith from Presumption.—The moment trust in God presumes to break any one, even the least of the laws of God, and then expects God to save it from the consequences of its disobedience, it is not trust, but unbelief; it is not faith, but presumption; it is not honouring, it is tempting God.—Barrett.
“Cast Thyself down.”—Experiments upon the Lord our God, whether upon His forbearance, His protection, or His power, are forbidden once and for ever in the sure word of revelation. Thou shalt not put to wilful trial the preserving and protecting Hand. God will keep His servants in lawful paths; but thou shalt neither trifle with danger, and say, “God will preserve,” nor with sin, and say, “God will protect!”—Vaughan.
Use of Supernatural Power.—Though Christ did not intend to have recourse to material means and to the methods and resources of worldly power in founding His kingdom, He yet purposed to make use of the gift of working miracles in accordance with the will of God. He is now urged to use this power capriciously, or in other words to infringe the relationship that existed between Him and the Father.
“Cast Thyself down.”—Observe, Satan may tempt us to fall, but he cannot make us fall. He may persuade us to cast ourselves down, but he cannot cast us down,—Wordsworth.
Luke 4:10-11. “He shall give His angels charge.”—The quotation from Scripture gives additional keenness to this temptation; and it is valuable to notice the nature of the error which underlies the use made of the sacred text. The error consists in ignoring or in keeping out of sight the fact that God’s promises are conditional, while His precepts are absolute. By voluntarily creating a danger for ourselves, we deprive ourselves of the promises of help and deliverance which God will fulfil to those who are in danger while they are pursuing the path of duty. There is nothing in the narrative to imply that Christ was tempted to make an impression upon priests and worshippers in the Temple by miraculously appearing among them, and thus to induce them to accept Him as the Messiah. This idea of theatrical display and wonder-working power would be more in harmony with the second temptation of Luke 4:6, i.e. to use carnal and not spiritual means for founding His kingdom.
Luke 4:12. Temptation to Spiritual Pride.—Finding Jesus to be a man of God, and His body proof against His weapons, Satan turns to a more formidable mode of attack. He tries Him on the quarter of spiritual pride. Doubtless he knew well that this was the most vulnerable point in the armour of the servants of God. Perhaps he had never met with one before who had escaped being wounded there; even Elijah hardly came off scatheless from that assault. Here, however, he was foiled again, and driven off by a like impulse of the pure human heart of Christ, quenching Scripture ill used with Scripture well used.—Markly.
“Thou shalt not tempt.”—In Deuteronomy 6:16 the words are, “Ye shall not tempt.” Perhaps by the change to “thou” Christ implies His own Divine majesty, and forbids Satan to assail Him further. “Thou shalt not tempt Me who am the Lord thy God.” To tempt God is to seek to put Him in the dilemma of either violating His own word, or of doing what we wish Him to do, even though we are conscious that our wish is not in accordance with His will. It is a kind of sin which is often prompted by religious fanaticism.
“It is said.”—Christ does not refute the use made by Satan of Scripture, but, as said above, sets the absolute precept over against the conditional promise. This is more emphatically indicated by St. Matthew (Matthew 4:7).
“It is written again.”—The addition of a second scripture qualifies and interprets the first, but does not contradict it.—Alford.
Clear Guidance in Scripture.—So though thou canst not clear the sense of an obscure scripture, thou shalt always find a sufficient guard in another that is clearer.—Leighton.
Luke 4:13. “All the temptation.”—I.e. every kind of temptation. The Christian may recognise temptations and learn the proper mode of resisting them by studying this narrative of Christ’s experience in the wilderness. On every occasion of danger we may draw help from His example, for few forms of temptation will be found which may not be referred
(1) to distrust of God, or
(2) the desire of perishing things, or
(3) vain ostentation.
“For a season.”—What is the force of these words? It is in accordance with the facts of His life to read them as referring to the continual battle of His life. “My temptations.” That is His own description of His life. There was not a temptation at the beginning (in the wilderness) and at the end (in the garden) with a clear space between, but the battle was fought all through His life. If proof, or rather record, of it be a wanting, that does not make it less terrible, for mortal struggles are often waged in grim silence.—Nicoll.
A Short Lull.—It is a mistake to suppose that He was only tempted during the forty days in the wilderness. Those forty days were a fierce and typical outbreak of new temptations such as He had been incapable of before His baptism; but we are significantly told that, at the close of them, the devil departed from Him “for a season.” It was a short lull, and the storm was but gathering strength to burst on Him again.—Mason.
Enticements and Threats.—As, in the wilderness, by every allurement of pleasure, so in the garden and on the cross, by every avenue of pain, did the devil seek to shake the second Adam from His steadfastness. And this also may teach us what we have to expect; at one time the seductions, at another the threats, of an evil world. “And who is sufficient for these things?”—Burgon.