When I read William Barclay's commentary about Jesus' temptation I couldn't believe how it all tied in with recent conversations about politicians, truth, etc. Its like a manual of how to follow God closely while living a public life.
... At this time Jesus was just about to begin his campaign. Before a man begins a campaign he must choose his methods. The temptation story shows us Jesus choosing once and for all the method by which he proposed to win men to God. It shows him rejecting the way of power and glory and accepting the way of suffering and the cross.
... this is the most sacred of stories, for it can have come from no other source than his own lips. At some time he must have himself told his disciples about this most intimate experience of his soul.
... The first temptation was to turn stones into bread ... The tempter said to Jesus, "If you want people to follow you, use your wonderful powers to give them material things." He was suggesting that Jesus should bribe people into following him.
The task of Christianity is not to produce new conditions, although the weight and voice of the church must be behind all efforts to make life better for men. Its real task is to produce new men; and given the new men, the new conditions will follow.
[The second temptation] is the temptation to compromise. The devil said, "I have got people in my grip. Don't set your standards so high. Strike a bargain with me. Just compromise a little with evil and men will follow you."
It is a constant temptation to seek to win men by compromising with the standards of the world. G.K. Chesterton said that the tendency of the world is to see things in terms of an indeterminate grey; but the duty of the Christian is to see things in terms of black and white. As Carlyle said, "The Christian must be consumed by the conviction of the infinite beauty of holiness and the infinite damnability of sin."
I had never thought before that the only one who could have told that story to anyone was Jesus. The rest of the Gospels are eyewitness accounts but that was from the Lord Himself. Wow!
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