4. Christ’s words are prophetic: they indicate the fact that He Himself was to be the true food of man, He being the Word of God, He to be present as man’s spiritual food and sustenance in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, until the end of time.
5. Christ answered in the words of Scripture, teaching us that in Scripture, as in an armoury, are the weapons of our spiritual warfare. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God.
Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him. Here note—
1. In the first temptation we have Satan coming to our Blessed Lord as a man moved with compassion for His famished condition. In the second, he appears as an angel of light, bearing Him to the holy city, as the angel bore Habakkuk to Babylon, and the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip to Azotus. In the third, he presents himself as a god demanding worship.
2. Christ’s great love is noticeable here, in suffering Himself to be borne hither and thither, whithersoever the tempter listed. So did He afterwards suffer Himself to be dragged by the wicked Jews from the judgment hall to Gabbatha and to Calvary. So too now does He suffer His sacred body to be in the hands and mouths of unworthy priests and lay communicants, and to be offered in the meanest chapel, and to be carried to the filthiest hovel of the sick.
3. Temptation to spiritual pride is severe to those who are leading a high spiritual life; temptation to pride is common to all who are placed in high positions, whether in Church or State.
4. We must not be scandalized at the manner in which Episcopal appointments are made, whether by intrigue, or by State interference; Christ was exalted to a pinnacle of the temple by the devil, and many a holy man may be elevated to the dignity of the Episcopacy by the vilest of means.
Holy city, so called because—
1. In it was the temple of God.