Christ’s First Temptation

‘ When the tempter came to Him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” — Mart. iv. 3.

HEN Satan first tempted Christ he tried

to make Him a pessimist. He pointed to the scarcity of bread in the world. He suggested to Jesus that a Divine Government would require a radical change in human conditions — that the ordinary provision for man’s wants was quite disproportionate to the resources of a benevolent God. Satan always begins by seeking to make us pessimists. It is not in our happy moments that we are most apt to be tempted. It is when the sun is low, when our fortunes are down, when our spirits are depressed. The preliminary step to all temptation is an introduction into the wilderness. And what was this temptation

itself? It was the suggestion to abolish all a74 necessity for work, “Command that these stones be made bread.” There is an equality which men have a right to hope for; they are entitled to ask an equal chance of earning their daily sustenance. But the tempter suggests equality by an opposite method. He proposes that all men alike should lose the need of earning daily sustenance. He would have the common stones of the quarry transmuted into that sustenance so that life through all its borders might become one unstinted feast. “What a benevolent scheme of philanthropy!” you cry; “why should Satan be such a wondrous friend of man!” But was it benevolent? Imagine for a moment that God granted such a prayer to the human race. For one day it would be hailed as the millennium — flags would be waving, banners would be streaming, every Jerusalem would be strewn with palm-leaves. But to-morrow the shouts would be feebler and the songs less tuneful; the day after, there would be silence; in a week, the palms would wither; in a month, the heart would moan; in the fulness of the years, humanity would faint for want of interests. Love would have none to labour for, pity none to provide for, sympathy none to sigh for, tenderness none to toil for, compassion none to care for, benevolence none to bend for, graciousness none to give for, kindness none to kindle for, mercy none to mourn for. To make stones into bread would ere long make hearts into stones.

“Strong Son of God, Immortal Love,” I thank Thee that Thou hast not made void the charities of man to man. I thank Thee that Thou didst not listen to the tempter when he asked Thee to make the stones bread. If Thou hadst it would no more have been communion bread; we should have gathered it like pebbles and thrown much of it in the sea. I bid a friend to a social repast, and he feels the charm of my hospitality; but that is because it has cost me something. He would not feel it if Thou hadst answered the tempter’s prayer — if the bread were as plenteous as stones; for the value of the festive board is the sacrifice which has spread it. I bless Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast left in life doors for me to open. I bless Thee that the stream of manna does not fall from heaven upon our wilderness. I bless Thee that Thou hast caused the stream to flow, not from heaven, but from earth. I praise Thy holy name that Thou hast established human sustenance in man’s humanity to man. I magnify that love which has necessitated love. My love would be useless if the stones were bread; let them rest unchanged in the quarry! But transform my stony hecart,O Lord! Wake me with the cry of the weary! Stir me with the pulse of the struggling! Pain me with the hunger of the poor! Haunt me with the thought of the homeless! Load me with the burdens of the labouring! Bruise me with the scars of the baffled! Freeze me with the cold of the fireless! Crush me with the woes of the unclad! So shall I make my clouds Thy chariots; so shall my love be perfected in stony places.