In the fourth chapters of Luke and Matthew it is recorded that "the devil, taking him [Jesus] up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world." It is further recorded that the devil tempted Jesus, saying: "All this power will I give thee.... If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine." To this Jesus answered with the command, "Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." To the student of Christian Science this passage calls for a radical examination of self and purpose. Before going up higher we are all compelled by divine wisdom and Love to confront the temptations of the devil, evil, as Jesus did. Jesus is our Way-shower. It is therefore encouraging to study his attitude in that moment of threatening darkness, which was followed by a supreme spiritual victory.
Jesus was at the beginning of his career. He was gaining the perfect understanding of the omnipresence of omnipotent Mind, and of this one presence and power reflected in man and the universe. He was learning of the infinite power and dominion that rightly belong to man, as reflection, growing into the perfect understanding of the truth and glory of spiritual being and of the unlimited supply of good, which is man's, as God's individualized spiritual idea. It was then that suggestion came and laid before him "all the kingdoms of the world." In the language of to-day, "all the kingdoms of the world" signify the dazzling allurements of a worldly career, where one's personality would be recognized as the dominating figure, exercising personal power and control, gathering personal homage, and delighting in the intoxication of worldly greatness. It would seem as if evil belief, relying on the illusive effect of imitation, chose just the moment when Jesus was gaining the true sense of spiritual dominion. It would give Jesus "all this power," if he but fell down and worshiped it.
On page 584 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy defines "devil," in part, as "animal magnetism or hypnotism." And in the light of Christian Science we know that "all this power," which the devil asserted was delivered unto him, is the self-destructive, illusive effect of hypnotism, suggestion, mesmerism, or will-power. Evidently Jesus had come to the point, on his way from sense to Soul, where he finally and forever uncovered the imitations of power made by evil. He attained to the spiritual discernment of the distance between the power of individualized spiritual understanding or divine reflection and the suppositional opposite thereof, called will-power or personal sense. He gained the understanding of the difference between true individuality and the claim to material selfhood.
