JESUS did not begin his ministry, or do any healing works, until after his victory over evil, in what is called his temptations. It is therefore evident that individual victory over temptation, or the demonstration of man's spiritual purity, is the first essential to success, both in preaching the gospel and in healing the sick. Christian Science does not teach any other way of preaching complete Christianity, or of healing from sin and sickness, than the way of Christ Jesus. His way of overcoming temptation must therefore be our way. Hence the importance of the prayerful study of the Bible record of these temptations, and their spiritual interpretation as found in our textbook. We read in Luke, "Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil." At this point in Jesus' demonstration of the Science of Life, the illumination of his consciousness, or baptism by the Holy Ghost, had become so great that this light of Love and Truth reflected by him became apparent to others, as recorded in the account of his experience with John the Baptist. The Holy Spirit was unfolding in him, the spiritual understanding of the divinity of Life, Truth, and Love, and he now understood the law, or method of demonstrating the power of this Trinity, to overcome sin, sickness, and death.
We should remember that this spiritual power, and his understanding of the method of its demonstration, was first tested by Jesus in demonstrating that the mortal or carnal-mind belief in the reality of evil as an entity and power is no part of man's real consciousness. Jesus' method of enthroning God as the only power which he could acknowledge, or of which he could be really conscious as demonstrably real, is beautiful in its simplicity, and very practical for our guidance. The record indicates that he was alone with God and the would-be tempter. There being no witnesses, the original record may have been obtained from some of his disciples, recalled from the remembrance of the Master's statement to them, when trying to teach them how to overcome their temptations. Their inability to understand spiritual things may have caused them to picture this experience as a personal conflict with a personal devil. Opinions differ as to the possibility of Jesus even being tempted; but we have to deal with the record as we find it, that he was tempted.
Paul taught that it was both possible and practical for men to follow the example of Jesus, and that "in all things it beloved him to be made like unto his brethren," and that by reason of his personality in the flesh, he could be "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Speaking of his corporeal personality, Jesus said, "Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God." We should bear in mind that the temptations, and his complete victory over them, were a part of his demonstration of the Science of Life, the Science of Christianity, teaching us the truth of the basic statement of Christian Science—that evil is unreal, because God did not make it. From this, the Christian Science point of view, the whole question of the possibility of such an experience is simplified, and reduced to a practical and logical demonstration of the unreality of evil by overcoming it—thereby proving its nothingness as a presence or power. It was some time after these temptations that Jesus, speaking of the devil or evil, said he "abode not in the truth [was not true or real] because there is no truth [reality] in him." Jesus' mission was to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, or the belief in the reality, power, and presence of evil in every form. He was to demonstrate the first commandment. It is generally conceded that the word temptation, in the original, conveyed a different meaning from the commonly accepted definition; that it properly means being tried, or put upon probation.
In Christian Science, demonstration is necessary to prove our love for God and our understanding of the Word, and is a benediction of divine Love, given in loving approval of past and present effort, not only to know the truth, but to live it by doing the Christ works in the Christ way. In working out his transfiguration "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," it was necessary that Jesus should make this demonstration of the way of salvation from sin, as the Wayshower for all mankind. God cannot tempt any with evil, for God is good, but loyalty to Truth demands that we shall "prove all things" and "hold fast that which is good." God cannot be tempted, neither can the Christ, the divinity of the man Jesus, which he was demonstrating. Speaking of the Christ, the divine manifestation of Life, Truth, and Love, perfected in him by the power of God and climaxed in his perfect demonstration of man's sonship or unity with the Father, Jesus said, "I and my Father are one"—of one Mind. Jesus is the perfect Exemplar, or model for men in Christian Science—tempted again and again, even upon the cross, and yet "without sin." In these temptations he was indeed sorely tried, but his Christly and scientific victory over them proved that he had no sin in him, that he was the ideal Christian. His conscious unity with God separated him from belief in anything opposed to God. Evil's nothingness is demonstrated by the realization and declaration of truth, through the understanding of the allness of God, good.
Jesus was led by Spirit, and led by his spiritual aspiration and desire to know more of the will of the Father, into the wilderness, the threshold of that experience, where in the silence of the secret place of his uplifted consciousness he had to prove that the mortal or carnal mind has no power to separate man from the love of God. This experience comes to all of us, and can be met in no other way than his way. He was full of the Holy Ghost,—full of that sense of Love divine which is glorious in overcoming evil with good, full of the understanding of the spiritual law or Truth's method of overcoming. "Being forty days tempted of the devil" would indicate that part of this experience was a somewhat prolonged, but none the less effective demonstration, although the victory over each of the three recorded temptations was instantaneous. Conscious only of the beauty of holiness, absorbed in the contemplation of the glorious work made possible by the use of his delegated spiritual power, and hungering to know more of God's will as to the use of this power in His service—the material law's necessity of eating to live became inoperative, for "in those days he did eat nothing," "He afterward hungered;" that is, the universal belief that life is wholly dependent upon materiality tried to tempt him to deny that God alone is Life. Had he yielded by acknowledging that material food, and not God, was his master, he could not thereafter have had the dominion over matter necessary to comply with the second part of this first temptation, even had he wished to. This second part was malicious in the sarcastic insinuation of evil, saying unto him, "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." Jesus knew that he was God's "beloved Son" and that faith in his Father, as well as the understanding of His will, was necessary for the demonstration of spiritual power.
The temptation of evil (the one and only doubter of good) found in him no receptive or doubting thought. Jesus instantly rebuked the tempter with that perfect and exact statement of the Science of being, recalled from the sacred writings, "It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God,"—a denial that life is dependent upon matter and a declaration that God, Truth, is Life. It was this declaration of the word of God that fed him, that ministered unto him. His hunger was for truth, and Truth alone fed him. The first endeavor of evil to tempt us comes under cover of the senses. Jesus' victory was a perfect demonstration of the truth of the scientific statement of being, found in the text-book of Christian Science, "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter" (Science and Health, p. 468).
The second temptation, according to Luke, wherein the tempter is represented as taking Jesus up into an high mountain, to picture to him the allurements of the kingdoms of this world, is indicative of evil's desire and endeavor to drag down our uplifted spiritual ideal, and substitute therefor a counterfeit—even some concept of the prince of this world. The mortal-mind conception of the Messiah, nourished through the centuries by the mass of the Jewish people, embraced the hope and conviction that Jehovah would send them a king, a son of David, of strenuous personality, a victorious warrior, who would again establish, not so much God's kingdom, as the kingdom of the Jews—a poor counterfeit of the true idea of Messiahship.
Jesus' concept embraced the demonstration of man's sonship with God, the Science of Christianity or Christian Science, by a life of self-sacrificing and healing service for mankind. He was to demonstrate the omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience of Life, Truth, and Love, through both precept and example; divine Love was the king to be enthroned in man's consciousness. The immediate problem before him was this: how he could fulfil his God-given idea of perfectly demonstrating the Christ, and at the same time hold fast the love and loyalty of those whose Messianic hope was being centered upon him. He foresaw the wave of malice and hatred sure to break upon him. He read the sensuous mortal thought of the Jewish people, and saw in this second temptation the effort of evil to induce him to use his God-given power to further the selfish desire of his countrymen by establishing a personal kingdom and becoming their worldly king. The beauty and attractiveness of all the kingdoms of this world being displayed before him, the devil said unto him: "All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine;" and none but the father of lies, who has endeavored to crush the truth from the beginning, could construct such a stupendous lie as this.
Jesus knew from experience that God is the only power, and therefore the only one capable of delegating power. He knew that evil had no power of its own, and that God, good, would not, and could not, endow evil with power. He also knew that man obtains spiritual power only by the reflection of God, and that this power could not be used except in God's service. The lie and contradiction in the promise of evil, "If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine," was therefore easily uncovered. The answer of Jesus was an emphatic declaration of the basic statement of Christian Science—that God, being All-in-all, must be the only reality and power, and that therefore the claim of evil as possessing power, presence, or reality is untrue. He met the temptation to acknowledge the reality of evil with a perfect and complete denial of all evil. His brief contemptuous dismissal was that of a Master indeed, of one who positively understood the nothingness and impotency of evil. Error's illegitimate claim to reality and power was forever exposed when Christ Jesus, speaking with authority, said, "Get thee behind me, Satan." His denial of evil, followed instantly with the affirmation of good,—"It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve,"—gave all the glory to God, as does Christian Science. Note the correlative passage in the scientific statement of being, second sentence, "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-In-all" (Science and Health, p. 468). Jesus' method is the rule and method used in all Christian Science demonstrations over sin or sickness.
Inspired and exalted by these victories over evil, it was natural that Jesus should now consider his return to Jerusalem, and the best way to begin work among men to save them from their false beliefs. What form should his first public demonstration of divine power take to merit God's approval? While forming his plans for the future, and perhaps at the very moment when his uplifted consciousness reached the highest pinnacle of his inspiration, wherein he had consecrated himself to a life of humble, unselfed healing service, as the only way to demonstrate perfectly the eternal Christ, the third temptation came to him.
The tempter having failed in his attempts to change Jesus' concept of God, as Life, Truth, and Love, or to turn him from his allegiance to and worship of God as All-in-all, now tries to work upon his absorbing love of and absolute trust in God, in an endeavor to have him put God's love and care for him to a test. This experience depicts the tempter as bringing Jesus to Jerusalem, placing him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saying unto him, "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee."
Jesus knew that God's angels (the inspirations of Truth) had charge over him, and would bear him up, while he was engaged in God's service. He also knew, as part of his inspiration, that God is Spirit and that God's man is spiritual, made in His image and likeness, and that he has no God-given tendency to fall, either spiritually or materially. He had no need of any sign or further assurance of God's protecting care; to harbor such a thought would be to tempt or try his God. Jesus therefore rebuked the hypocritical suggestion of evil, disguised in a quotation from the Scriptures, by the declaration, "It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Had he yielded, it would have meant that it was possible for him first to fall from his high spiritual estate, and his material fall would have followed, in appearance, as a natural result. He did not yield, because God had indeed given His angels charge over him. His uplifted concept of God, of the Christ, and of man remained unchanged, unfallen. If we yield to the temptation to sin or be sick, and believe that this temptation or the conditions which seem to make sin and sickness possible are from God, we accuse and "tempt" our God—put Him on trial.
It is interesting to compare these temptations with the alleged fall of man in the story of the garden of Eden. Jesus' victory demonstrates that God's man has never fallen and cannot fall, because God could not create man in His image and likeness and endow him with any capacity to fall. Evil's claim to have undone God's perfect work and caused man's fall is thus proven to be untrue. Sin and sickness base their claim to reality and power upon the misty mortal-mind concept of God and man as portrayed in the second chapter of Genesis. The demonstration over temptation made by Jesus solved the whole problem of evil. His method of overcoming evil disclosed the spiritual law by which man can overcome every temptation.
Our text-book is, from cover to cover, a complete analysis and elaboration of the Master's way of dealing with the problem of evil. Mrs. Eddy's books, especially Science and Health and "Unity of Good," contain the most emphatic and drastic denunciation and denial of evil, and also the most perfect glorification of God as All-in-all, voiced since the New Testament. The Science of Christianity as taught, lived, and demonstrated by Jesus has been revealed to her, and since the day she gave it to the world she has had to prove every statement made, and overcome every manner of evil which the malice and hatred of mortal mind could devise; but divine Love has given His angels charge over her, and she abides "under the shadow of the Almighty." Thousands who have been healed from sin and sickness through Christian Science, are voicing their love and gratitude to God, for blessings received through her instrumentality. She has placed at the feet of the Master a consecrated life of obedient, successful endeavor to do the Christ works in the Christ way, and to teach mankind to do likewise. The truth of her words and the value of her work is being appreciated more and more each day. Complete recognition and vindication of her work will come, and wherever Christ's gospel "shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her."
