A False View of Sacrifice

“Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down.” — Matthew IV. 5, 6.

The pinnacle of the temple means the height of religiousness. Can ‘one be tempted in the height of religiousness? Yes. There is a false view of piety — that which values sacrifice for its own sake. The tempter asked Christ to court danger because it was danger. He asked Him to manifest His piety by putting Himself in a miserable condition, by exposing Himself to the hand of death. No man can manifest his piety by his misery; that was a mistake of the tempter. Piety must be based on joy. It is often called to sacrifice, but never for the sake of sacrifice — only for love’s sake, joy’s sake. Christ never made death a goal — not even on His way to Jerusalem. His goal was always life, life eternal, life for evermore. It was for this He endured the cross, it was for this He despised the shame. He never dreamed that He would please His Father by the mere fact of His pain. It was the beauty of life, the joy of life, that made death possible to Him; it was so beautiful that it was worth dying for. Not sacrifice, but jubilee, was His guiding star; only the heights of Olivet could have tempted Him to the steep of Calvary.

Why sayest thou then, my soul, that the child of thy Father should immolate himself, mutilate himself, cast himself down the precipice! Does the parent bird love to see its offspring with a broken wing! Grief is ever a broken wing. Thy sorrow never helps thee to fly — not even thy godly sorrow. There have been sorrowful hearts that have risen up to heaven’s gates — but not by their sorrow. They have risen on the wing that was unbroken. Their power was not the joy lost, but the joy remaining; they mounted on the sunbeam which the cloud had spared. So shall it be with thee. Do not court the

H broken wing! If it come to thee, thou needst not despair. Thou still shalt be able to fly. But thou shalt fly in spite of it, not by reason of it. Thou shalt soar on the wing that remaineth, the rest that remaineth.’* Bless thy Father for that remaining rest! Bless Him for thine unbroken wing! Bless Him for thy sunbeam unextinguished! Bless Him for thy lingering light! Bless Him for the songs in the darkness! Bless Him for the lining in the cloud! Bless Him that in all thy falling thou hast never been cast utterly down! for it is thy distance from the ground that makes the strength of thy faith. Let the pinnacle of thy temple be a pinnacle of joy.