The disciple and his Lord; or, Twenty-six days with Jesus

Front matter

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Book, X?

Copyrighi N°

II Period Of Obscurity

In Judea, March-December A. D. 27.

21. John's testimony to Jesus. John I : 19-34.

22. The first disciples. John I : 35-51.

23. The first miracle. John 2 : I-II.

24. Brief stay at Capernaum. John 2 : 12.

25. His first Passover as Messiah. John 2 : 13.

26. First cleansing of the temple. John 2 : 14-22.

27. His talk with Nicodemus. John 3 : 1-21.

28. Result of his visit. John 2 : 23-25.

29. Quiet ministry in Judea. John 3 : 22.

30. John's tribute to Jesus. John 3 : 25-36.

31. Departure to Galilee. Matt. 4 : 12 ; Mark I :

32. Saving the woman at the well. John 4 : 4-26.

33. Preaching at Sychar. John 4 : 27-42.

34. Arrival in Galilee. Matt. 4 : 17 ; Mark I : 14,

FOURTH DAY

THE DAY OF HIS FIRST DISCIPLES

John i

I. Foretaste of Power. His personal reign on earth has at last begun. He has five or six personal followers, not counting John. Here is the Messianic kingdom, so long expected, consisting of the King and his subjects. The Jews thought it was to be a splendid political and religious kingdom combined; John had a purer and a truer though not a perfect view of its religious and ethical character; Jesus knew perfectly what he meant by it and now here it is — the King and his subjects. The kingdom means the king-dominion, and is found wherever the King has dominion. It is called " kingdom of God " and " kingdom of the heavens," because it comes from God and is perfectly established in the heavens. It is called the Messianic and mediatorial kingdom, because it took a " Messiah," one " anointed," or appointed for that purpose, who becomes a " Mediator," or go-between, to get back this runaway world that had thrown off the yoke of its heavenly King. The Mediator is the Lamb of God, who takes away men's sins before he can get them under his sway. Jesus is here recognized as that sacrificial Lamb and is accepted by some as the King foretold. d 49

They became subjects by yielding to his sway and taking into themselves the principles and ideals embodied in him. All the truths and powers of the kingdom are perfectly alive in the King, all of them are germinal in the subjects. At the battle of Wagram it was written of Marshal Macdonald, " France stood where Macdonald stood." The kingdom of God was there on the Jordan where Jesus and those few followers were. They were in that kingdom because it was first in them.

His purpose was to establish his sway over individuals, rather than over the nation as such, and gradually over the world; to do so, in the spirit of personal love, by personal contact, rather than in the spirit of imperialism and by the mere machinery of government; to use the instrument of truth that could make its appeal to judgment and conscience and faith, rather then empty ceremonial and still more empty traditions. Qualitatively and in its roots his kingdom was then complete. Quantitatively and in its fruits it is not even yet complete. Jesus had that day the joy of his first success, in becoming the King of men, and a foretaste of his wider successes.

2. After His Self-Conquest. He had been out in the wilderness winning himself and becoming his own king. He cannot rule others till he can rule himself, and he cannot be freely trusted till he has been fully tested. He had spent thirty years gaining knowledge of all kinds, developing his manifold

FOURTH DAY 5 I powers in the effort to gain that knowledge and getting possession of himself, with all those powers and that knowledge. In that stage of self-mastery he had come to his baptism. When new endowments of power were given by the descending Spirit, he had a new task in self -conquest. To incorporate that power in himself — assimilate it to his very nature and employ it perfectly in his plans and purposes and actions — can only be done in the heat of intense thought and under the assault of the most artfully conceived and powerfully directed temptation. To misuse this new power is to lose command of himself. When he came out of this experience in the wilderness, he was the man that he was when he was baptized plus the new power, now a vi.al part of himself. " His self-mastery in all circumstances separates Jesus from all ecstatics and fanatics," says Doctor Rhees. Having passed through the severest tests, he has reached " the kingship of self-control " and is ready to rule men.

3. After Sacrificial Suffering. John saw it in his face, as he came back from the wilderness, and he got a completer conception of his character and his mission. He had seen the majesty and purity of the Messianic King when he baptized the marvelous stranger; now he sees in his face the chastened and benignant power that suffering imparts, and remembers that the old prophets called him more than Ruler — called him Sufferer; and John might have recalled Isaiah's words : " He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter." At any rate, he expressed the larger truth he now saw clearly: " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." This fuller conception was due to the revelation which the face of Jesus must have made to John's appreciative soul; to John's own studies and meditations during the forty days since the baptism ; above all, to the Spirit of God, who was teaching him through those studies and through this view of Jesus.

His is to be a sacrificial life, culminating in the supreme act of his death. By giving himself he has gained himself. To rule their spirits he must remedy their sins. To save them, he must suffer for them. He comes to those men with the kingly quality that suffering gives and is ready to rule them by remedying their lives and making them rulable.

4. By His Compelling Personality. He attracted them to himself by a magnetism that appealed resistlessly to their whole nature. It was not by what he said and did, so much as by what he was, that they were drawn to him. His being shone out through his bearing, his worth through his words, and men yielded to him. He attached them to himself and thus established his rule over them. That is the way he continues to rule, and the only way. He rules in person and has never transferred his authority to men or institutions or creeds or ceremonials. All the value they may have is what he, in person, gives them. When he stood among the

FOURTH DAY 53 crowd that day, on his return from the wilderness, his look produced a magical effect, and when two men, Andrew and his companion, timidly accosted him, his words were winged with his own force — that inscrutable something which drew noble souls to him and also drew them away from all that was ignoble in thought and conduct and association. They not only left what was wrong, but put all other worthy things in the place of secondary importance.

He knew his power and relied on it. That day he wanted disciples, and he knew that when they came within the range of his influence they would surrender to him.

5. With His Faultless Skill. In winning them he shows unerring insight and consummate wisdom. We may simply say it was tact — a spiritual sense of touch that discovered the quality, and directed his treatment, of each person. We may note four instances : First, his treatment of John. He knew he could not pay a higher tribute, nor give a greater pleasure, to his heroic forerunner, than to take some of his followers, for John had been preparing his choicest for him. It would be an appreciated recognition of his prophetic calling and his worthy preparatory work. When John said, " Behold the Lamb of God " the second time it was to two of his followers, and he must have indicated by his accent, or a look, or a nod of the head, that they should follow Jesus. Here is tact in the recognition of worth.

Next, his treatment of those two. Andrew was one, and John, who afterward became an apostle and wrote the account of it, is supposed to have been the other. In their case it is tact in meeting the spirit of anxious inquiry and overcoming unwilling ignorance. We cannot but admire the way they did. Intensely aroused and believing him to be what John the Baptist had said he was, they still wanted further information, and wanted it from him. They followed him, on John's hint, half in fear, and nervously stammered out the easiest question that would lead to a further interview. Graciously he helped them to express their desire, and invited them, with such hospitable and winsome accent, that they went along, feeling fully at home with him. In that long interview he patiently answered their questions and told them about himself. It was so precious an experience that one of them remembered the very hour of the day, and, sixty years later, wrote this account of it for us.

Then we have Peter's case. He was known as Simon at that time, and his brother Andrew had just brought him to Jesus. He was an impetuous, hot-tempered, self-confident, autocratic fellow, but in that nature, now in a state of flux, Jesus saw the material that would harden into rock, for the building of his church, when one more ingredient was added and he was exposed to the atmosphere and discipline of trial and struggle. Jesus saw it all at a glance, and changed his name to Peter, which is the Greek for rock, Cephas being the same name in

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Aramaic. Discovering his possibilities, he awakened Simon's ideals and fired his ambition.

Lastly, in Nathanael's case, he overcame marked prejudice. Had Philip simply told him that they had found the Messiah and invited him to come, without saying he was from Nazareth, the devout, sincere soul would have risen from his devotions under the fig tree and gone with him to accept Jesus on the spot, without a question. After seeing and knowing him he would not have cared where he was reared. But when Philip said the Messiah was from Nazareth, Nathanael quoted a saying that no good thing could come out of Nazareth. He may have believed this saying in sheer guilelessness, or he might have had a prejudice against the place because he lived in the neighboring, rival town of Cana. Jesus had seen him at prayer; now he sees him down to his very depths, and discovers him to himself in his simple, unsuspecting devoutness. This word of insight and approval dissipated prejudice and doubt and attached Nathanael to him forever.

6. Through the Personal Method. He began with the method he has been employing ever since — personal work with persons, or as it is often expressed, " individual work for individuals." To John he was probably indebted for all six of them, as they seem to have been his disciples and to have been especially instructed and stimulated by him. The first two were deliberately turned over to Jesus by John.

Then Andrew brought Simon ; no doubt John, the writer, went to get his brother James ; Philip, whom Jesus found, went after his friend Nathanael. Personal conversation brought it all about. After his departure the disciples went everywhere, " talking " the gospel, and that is the way his kingdom is still spreading. He is winning them through his disciples and one at a time.

7. Followed by Personal Training of the Disciples. He has begun the training of his subjects for the duties of citizenship in three ways — making them useful in winning others ; instructing them about himself as the ladder, the connecting link between heaven and earth, the channel for angelic ministry and the unique Son of Man; allowing them, soon after, to go back home to their employments, for thought and prayer. That day was an epoch in their lives and in his life. An immense movement has been inaugurated.

THE DAY OF HIS FIRST MIRACLE John. 2 : 1-11

i. Miracles Inevitable. Those superhuman gifts, bestowed by the Spirit, must be used, and they must be used, sooner or later, in ways as far above the ordinary as the gifts themselves were above mere native human endowments. To us such acts

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would be supernatural, miraculous, because the powers out of which they came would be so. Whether Jesus used them in working changes within men's souls, or on their bodies, or on the various objects of nature, the result would be superhuman in either case, but they would not be so marvelous as the Person who had the power to do such things.

Those gifts were bestowed, not that they themselves might be displayed, but that they might serve his purpose in two ways — by perfecting him in the sources of his life and in his equipment; by manifesting his inner character and powers, " His glory." Not to be mere power, but to give him power; not to show themselves, but to manifest him — such was the double purpose of those gifts of the Spirit. Not to have so used them, he would have been untrue to his trust and would have failed in his work. He had the impulse for self-expression and found joy in it. Miracles were inevitable.

The time to begin using that power in the outer sphere of men's bodies or of nature, as he had already begun in the inner sphere of men's souls, had come. As Professor Bowne says, " God is the everpresent agent in the ongoing of the world, and nature is but the form and product of his ceaseless activity." Endowed with God's power, Jesus was present with the forces of nature, controlling them for his own glorious ends. It was " the third day " after Nathanael joined the ranks of his followers, and it was at a wedding up in Cana of Galilee, a little town close to his old home, Nazareth. It was the best time and place and occasion for the first objective miracle, or he would not have chosen it ; besides, we ourselves can see as we go on in our study some reasons why this was the most fitting occasion. Bearing in mind the double purpose of his superhuman gifts — to empower him for work and manifest him in work — we see how that purpose is being achieved in this miracle.

2. Unique Self-Control Asserting Itself. That is the first revelation the miracle makes to us. He does not perform it under a mere sentimental or social impulse. He takes his own impulses and transforms them into a clear, well-reasoned motive that keeps in mind the purpose he must accomplish. It is safe to say that no man ever loved his mother as wholly, tenderly, wisely and unselfishly as Jesus did. Yet he did not do this miracle merely because she wanted him to do it. She knew his kindly disposition and his former resources ; she had welcomed him home after he entered on his career and was confident he could do marvelous things. That would bring gratification to her and glory to him — and she wanted him to work a miracle.

His assurance to her was conclusive that in using this power in such ways he alone must decide when and how. He was a trustee and must keep in view the purpose for which he was intrusted with it. He and she have had many things in common, but not this. He once belonged to her alone, as son of Mary; he now belongs to the human race, as Son of Man. He is her son; he is also her Saviour. Though the form in which he said it seems somewhat harsh, yet it was entirely respectful and was not an unusual form of address, while his manner and accent won her unquestioning and loving acquiescence. He was establishing a unique relationship to all, and she was one of many. She felt this no doubt — the sword's point was touching her heart. Only he can decide when to put forth this power, and he has the wisdom and the self-command to decide aright.

3. Sympathy for Human Life Uttering Itself. He put his soul into this miracle and every moment he kept his supreme purpose in view. It uncovers his heart and discovers his aim to us.

His central quality is his feeling for human life, which we call sympathy. That was normal to him, for he was the source of life — " in him was life and the life was the light of men," that original life in him having broken into luminosity in all living things; he had come to rectify and perfect life; he was related, as " Son of Man," to human life as such, whatever be the national or social or individual forms that life might take. Of this he was conscious. Not to any class of people, as the diseased, or defeated, or delinquent, or prosperous, or popular, or ruling class, does he belong, and must he give himself, but to all and to human life as such. In the home, and at the wedding, which is the founding of another home, is the one place where he can express his sympathy for life itself — for homes and weddings are for all classes, and there the life of each one centers. This miracle, at the very outset of his career, uncovers the universals for us — his sympathy and purpose for life, as such, and his ministry to its needs. Afterward he did marvelous things for individuals, but this was for the universal human life. He was Son of Man, not a class Man, but man's Man. This miracle could teach its lessons and achieve its work without any political significance, and that was important.

As his mission is to rectify life at its source and complete it through its unfolding, he begins his miracles in the home, the source of life, and rectifies, completes, and ennobles the wedding occasion. Relieving embarrassment caused by error or sin, furnishing needed supplies, and completing the wedding joy — that is what he was doing in the beginning; that is what he is still doing for human life. He was not an ascetic, living apart from people, but the perfect man, living into all life. He saw in the home a type of heaven ; in the marriage relation a symbol of the relation between himself and his people.

4. Deep Relationships Disclosing Themselves. In the presence of the powers of nature he is owned as Lord. He had made, through methods of his own, the elements of hydrogen and oxygen into a liquid which we call water, and without violating any of the laws which he had given nature he turned the sparkling water into the blushing wine. We can make use of the forces of nature in marvelous ways, with wise contrivances, but he had immediate command over them. Nature is immediately dependent on God.

To human life he is source and Saviour, entering into wide and minute relationships with it, either actually or ideally. So that he is capable of experiencing something of all the manifold joys and sorrows of men and women, whatever may be their relationships and personal conditions.

5. Final Assurance Given to All. The miracles of Jesus were called by four different words. The people sometimes called them " works," as if only such deeds were worthy to be called works. They called them " wonders " because of the impression made on their minds. They called them " powers " because of the force that must be in them. Jesus and the inspired writers called them " signs." Their significance was their chief interest. John says, " This beginning of signs."

It was a sign to Jesus himself that the Father had sent him and was with him. Whatever other assurances he had, he needed this also.

It was a sign to the disciples that he whom they had so simply and suddenly taken as Messiah was really he. The old prophets had had some unusual attestation of their prophetic call, and these simpleminded people would think it strange if he had not.

They had been taught to expect such deeds from their Messiah. To them this was a reassuring sign, and it put the crown of completeness on their faith in him.

To the public in general, who were soon discussing it for miles around, it signified at least the appearance of a prophet who might prove to be the Messiah they expected. Neither they nor his disciples, in their state of mind and with their training and history, could have recognized his tremendous claims without such reassuring " signs." Not " to create a mere compulsory consent in minds which had no sympathy with him," but to answer reasonable questions and confirm faith, was his purpose.

This was a sign of what he was and what he could do in the sphere of their inner characters. He can charge the common joys with a new ingredient and make them like rare wine. When he cures blind and deaf and lame and leprous it is a " sign " that he can thus cure blind and deaf and lame and leprous souls. His glory was his character, and this sign manifested his glory as he put himself with limitless and powerful and intelligent and active sympathy into human life, not as a spectator or censor, but as a brother, sanctioning and sanctifying its elemental joys, rectifying its sins, perfecting its experiences. That was his glory then and is to-day. Nature is one form in which the glorious character of God expresses itself; this control of Jesus over nature was a form in which his glory was set forth.

6. A New Career Opened to Him. From this time he is a marked man. He belongs to the public. His course is changed. His character is to be discussed and his claims canvassed by friendly and unfriendly, wise and foolish, tongues.

He could not fail to know some of the consequences, in advance. He must have thought of the relation in which he would stand to his people, as a bridegroom, and of the redemption and perfection of his bride by his blood, to be poured out like wine. Perhaps he thought of the ordinance by which he would fix the tragedy of the shedding of his blood in the memory of his bride forever — the ordinance of the Holy Supper. He has struck the keynote of his career — ministry to human life as such — and upon that career he has started, to meet its perils, endure its pains, and enjoy its pleasures, with undimmed aim and unflinching purpose. He has given them a sign, and much more of ministry in detail is to follow, but always within the broad lines laid down here.

7. The Urgent Lessons Left by Him. Because life is sacred in itself and in all its elemental relationships, he desires that we cherish it and be provident and true ; that we rectify it, at its source, and complete it, as it grows, by inviting him into its sacredest and simplest functions. Desiring his presence, doing his will, accepting his help, trusting his guidance, with intellects that have found rational proof, with hearts that have been fed on consummate sympathy, with wills that feel the reinforcement of his power of purpose, with consciences that have been trained in his righteousness, we may reproduce his life on earth.

THE DAY OF THE INAUGURAL AT JERUSALEM

John 2 : 12 to j :j6

i. The Inaugural Proper. At the Jordan, when he was baptized, Jesus accepted the office of Messiah ; there, after his baptism, he received the endowment of power for the office ; in the wilderness hard by he was tested as to the use he would make of that power, and, in the fierce caldron of temptation it was assimilated to his life; near there he first exerted that power upon the spirits of men and made them personal and permanent followers of his forever ; up at Cana he entered into the publicity of his office, by exerting that power on nature, not in man but for man, at the wedding ; now, during the Passover, he inaugurates his public work at the nation's capital.

2. The Occasion. According to our chronology, it was the Passover of April, a. d. 27. Pie and his mother and disciples had gone from Cana over to Capernaum, the commercial capital of Galilee, where they stopped only a little while. He performed some miracles there, but entered upon no distinct teaching.

They must have fallen in with quite a crowd of pilgrims to the sacred festival and we can imagine that they had an exuberant joy in the journey. Some must have thought he would put himself at the head of the nation and become the sort of Messiah they expected. Probably his mother thought so. They were joyous and expectant.

3. The Place. Why begin at Jerusalem? Because the temple was there and he would start with his Father's message from his Father's house. The life of the nation centered there and he would bring help for the nation to the nation's heart of hearts. Religious and political influences, that controlled the nation, radiated from there, and he would rectify those influences at their source. The men behind those influences lived there and he would offer to them, first of all, the help he brought. There was unspeakable need there and it was his duty to begin at the point of greatest need : from his observations, while attending feasts in years gone by, from his accurate knowledge of the times, the people and their rulers, from what John might have told him in personal and intimate conversations, he knew that the rulers were bad, awfully, shockingly bad. He had been promised to the nation as their Messiah, and he must report at the nation's headquarters. He will be their sacrificial, Passover Lamb, who will bear off their sins in reality, and he will present himself to them as they are offering their Passover sacrifice, which only bears off their sins pictorially. That is the type, he the antitype. Within him are impulses moving him thither — love of his father's home, love of the nation, love of the place, sense of duty, love of sacrifice touched by the Passover occasion, tender memories of the deliverance commemorated by the Passover, solemn, yet glorious, anticipations of the deliverance which he would bring by the sacrifice of himself. Yes, Jerusalem is the one place, and the Passover is the one occasion, for inaugurating his full work. There are three things that will reveal him to us — the signs, or miracles of mercy, the cleansing of the temple, and the interview with Nicodemus. We will study him in the light of these events.

4. His Frank Manifestation of Himself Through His " Signs." He found occasion for deeds of mercy. The afflicted were there in large numbers, a few to get the benefit of the Passover, but most of them to take advantage of the spirit of fellowship and good-will that prevailed, and many to beg. Inquirers were there, whose unchosen ignorance was eagerly seeking enlightenment. He gave out himself, through his kindly deeds, with only the reserve that wisdom commanded. Some looked through the " signs " to that which was signified and partly understood. It is likely that he wrought signs before the cleansing and during his whole visit.

5. His Hot Indignation at Official Corruption. When he came to the temple area, and into the outer courts, he saw things that threw him into a state of feeling he had never experienced before. It was a state of anger, intense and thorough. As Dr. Dawson says, " anger was a rare passion with Jesus." " Anger with Christ was always a moral passion. The things that made him angry were irreverence, hypocrisy, cruelty, meanness, and unkindness."

He was not angry that animals of all kinds were offered for sale, for all had to buy them; nor that they were brought to a spot convenient for all ; nor that men were ready to exchange the home shekel for foreign money, for Jews from afar must pay their temple tax with home money and not with coins that might have images of foreign rulers stamped on them.

He was angry that the priests were dishonoring God's house and taking advantage of ignorance and poverty to enrich themselves. They had created a monopoly and were growing rich. They would not let the worshipers buy from anybody else, for the priests themselves had to inspect their offerings and could throw out what was not bought of them, as being unfit. Thus they crowded out other dealers and made the helpless worshiper pay exorbitant prices. These same priests had their employees sitting at tables with change to accommodate those who had foreign coin. Charging an exchange of four pence on every foreign shekel, they made many thousands of dollars every year. They brought the animals inside the temple area in their sacrilegious greed, and held bazaars for the sale of useful articles and souvenirs for their private benefit. Thus they turned the sacred house into an instrument of robbery. We would call it a case of " graft," pious graft. They secularized the worship, debased themselves, defrauded the poor.