Seeing Jesus

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Seeing Jesus 7

II. Jesus in Bethlehem 26

Dedication

To the children whose pastor I have been, and to those who were children when I was their pastor, this little book is affectionately inscribed, with the sincere prayer that they may all be so happy as to "See Jesus, 1 ' "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

H. A. X.

SEEING JESUS.

II. Jesus In Bethlehem

ETHLEHEM is a large

village, about six miles from the great city Jerusalem. It is " beautifully situated on the brow of a high hill, which commands an extensive view of the surrounding mountainous country, and rises in pastures of vineyards, almond groves and fig plantations, watered by gentle rivulets that murmur through the terraces; and is diversified by towers and wine-presses."

This is the description of it as it is now (given by Dr. Kitto), anjl it is probable that its appearance was not very different when Jesus was born there, and hundreds of years longer ago, when David, a young and ruddycheeked boy, lived there and kept his father's sheep. Perhaps he led them forth sometimes over the very pastures on which the shepherds were keeping their flocks when they saw that strange lio-ht and heard the sweet son 2; of the choir of angels, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will to men."

I would like to go to Bethlehem, not because it is a more beautiful village than many others, but because it is such an interesting Bible-place — the home of young David, who slew Goliath and was afterward Israel's noblest king, and the birth-place of the Son of David, the anointed king of Zion.

If we should go to England to visit the birth-place of her prince, the heir of her throne, we should find it in a splendid palace in the great city of London. But the birth-place of King Jesus was not a palace. It was a stable. If we could have gone there with the shepherds, we should have " found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger."

Can you not "see Jesus" with your mind's eye. You have seen pictures of him as he lay in that manger, the sweet face of his virgin mother close beside him, the grave, good Joseph standing not far away, and the wondering shepherds or the adoring " wise men from the East" gazing reverently on the babe from which Mary gently unlifts the covering.

Who did "see Jesus" in Bethlehem?

We have already answered this question. Let us think over again who they all were.

1. The Shepherds. Humble men in a lowly employment were those to whom Grod saw fit to send down his bright angels, to tell them that his Son had appeared as the world's Redeemer. They went to Bethlehem, found the lowly birth-place of the Saviour, saw the babe with his mother and Joseph, and soon published abroad the wonder.

Were they not happy men, those shepherds ? Surely they were favored men : whether they w r ere truly happy, truly blessed, depends on the question whether they learned to know and trust and love the Saviour whose infant form Mary showed to them.

2. The Wise Men from the JEast

a/

3*

These came from a very distant country — we do not know the precise place — where learned men watched the heavenly bodies very closely, and where probably something was known of the prophecies, and the expectations founded upon them, among the Jews. For our Saviour was "the Desire of all nations. ,: People in many lands besides the land of Judea looked for a wonderful person, a teacher, a deliverer, a Saviour, to come from Grod about that time; and the most thoughtful and wise among them seem to have expected that he would appear among the people of Israel, whose wonderful history showed them to be the peculiar and chosen people of God.

"The wise men" of whom Matthew tells us we may well believe to have

JESUS tN BETHLEHEM. 31

been men who prayed to the true God, r who diligently studied all that they had read of his word, and to w T hora he graciously made known the coming of his Son by a very remarkable star which they saw T in their sky at that time, and the peculiar motions of which led them to Judea, to Bethlehem, and to the very spot where the infant "Kino- of the Jews" was with his virgin mother.

They saw Jesus, and presented unto him gifts such as Eastern people give to kings — "gold and frankincense and myrrh." "They fell down and worshiped him also." Did they worship him as w r e do, as God? Or was it only that homage which in Eastern lands people pay to their human monarchs? Perhaps we cannot certainly know. But it seems to me that Grocl would not bring them so far to see his Son without opening their minds and hearts to the true and saving knowledge of him.

Were these all the persons who saw Jesus in Bethlehem? All, so far as we know, besides the two to whom he was nearest and dearest — his virgin mother and the "just man" to whom she was espoused, and who knew that her babe was "the Son of Grod.' : Strange, solemn and unspeakably delightful must have been the feelings of that good couple as they looked on their wonderful charge, as they watched over him, as thej^ held him, as she dressed and nursed him, and as they talked together or silently sat together, thinking that the Saviour of the world was now cared for, and was to be brought up by them. Blessed among women was Mary ; and although so little is told us of Joseph, I know not another among all the men who have ever lived who is more to be honored than he. Surely God could not put upon a man any higher honor than to appoint him to be the guardian of her whom he would make the mother of the Christ — making him for that purpose such a just and considerate man as the virgin would then need to protect her.

As we see Jesus in this way, children — see him with our minds — think just how Ave should have seen him if we had been there with the shepherds — how ought we to feel toward him?

Do you think that we need to pity him for being so poor? I do not think so. I do not think that a bed of sweet hay, breathed on by innocent kine, and the faithful nursing of such a pure and simple and loving young woman as Mary, and the watchful care of such a prudent and good man as Joseph, were less fit for the infant Immanuel than the more splended provision and more pompous attendance which he might have had in a royal palace.

It was not by becoming the child of such lowly persons, but by becoming a human child at all, that the Son of Grocl showed his amazing condescension. It is no real evil to be poor, if we are not made poor by idleness or by vice, and if in our poverty we are honest and industrious and contented, keeping our homes clean and tidy, and living in them with kindness and love to one another, as w r e are sure that Joseph and Mary did, and the child Jesus, when they had taken him to their home in Nazareth.

Do you not think that we ought to feel thankful to the Son of God for consenting thus to become the Son of man ? I do. I know of nothing more wonderful, nothing else that shows such kindness, as that He w r ho "was in the beginning with God, and who was God, v should consent to become a human babe, born of a human mother. To know that he did that for our sake — to be our brother, that he might save us and raise us up out of all our guilt and misery to his purity and his happiness and his eternal life — to know this ought, it seems to me, to fill our hearts w T ith such thankfulness as no w r ords and no songs can express.

Such thankful and adoring love to the babe of Bethlehem, if God shall

SEEING JESUS.

awaken it in your hearts, will (I am sure) help you to become such children as Jesus loves — such as the child Jesus himself was.

co

cS eg s c3 d s

III. Jesus At Nazareth

" In the green fields of Palestine, By its fountains and its rills, And by the sacred Jordan's stream, And o'er the vine-clad hills,

" Once lived and roved the fairest child That ever blessed the earth — The happiest, the holiest That e'er had human birth.

" How beautiful his childhood was ! Harmless and undefiled ; Oh dear to his young mother's heart Was this pure, sinless child !

" Kindly in all his deeds and words, And gentle as the dove, Obedient, affectionate, His very soul was love. 4 37

SEEING JESUS.

" Oh is it not a blessed thought, Children of human birth, That once the Saviour was a child, And lived upon the earth ?"

OULD you not like to "see Jesus" as he was in Nazareth, while his home was there, in the cottage of Joseph and Mary? It is only a little that the Bible tells us about that holy childhood. We must believe that God did not think it best for us to have much or very particular information about it, else he would have given it to us in his Word. We must be content with what he has given, and must not try to be " wise above what is written.' Yet it is right for us to consider very attentively w r hat is written, and try to learn all that we can from it.

All that we know of Jesus' infancy is the account of his birth and being laid in a manger at Bethlehem, with the visit of the shepherds and the "wise men from the East;' : his circumcision; the presentation of him in the temple, when Simeon and Anna saw him; the carrying of him into Egypt, to save him from Herod's cruelty; and the taking him to his parents' home in Nazareth of Galilee. In this place "he was brought up.' There he spent the years of his childhood and youth, even until he was thirty years of ao*e — old enough to enter upon his public ministry.

We may be quite sure that'he lived in a humble home, a lowly cottage. I do not, by any means, believe that it was a miserable or filthy hovel. There is not the slightest reason to think that Joseph and Mary belonged to that class of poor people. Every allusion to them in the New Testament gives me the impression that they were respectable and intelligent, and that by honest industry they lived comfortably.

I have no doubt that Mary was the kind of virtuous woman whom Solomon praises in the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs — who "layeth her hands to the spindle, and whose hands hold the distaff,'' who could spin and w T eave and sew, as we would express it. I connot think of Jesus as ever going ragged or dirty about the streets of Nazareth, though I can easily think of his mother sitting up and mending his clothes by lamplight after he was asleep; and then I can easily think of her as laying aside the mended gar-

JESUS AT XAZAEETH. 41

raents, and taking down from the shelf the roll of parchment on which the books of the prophets were written, reading perhaps the words, "Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given;' and those other words, "He was led as a lamb to the slaughter;' then leaning her head on her hand to think, remembering Gabriel's visit to her, when he hailed her as "highly favored among women ;" and those solemn words of the aged Simeon, about a sword that should pierce through her soul; then opening her eyes to look on the calm face of the fair young sleeper ; then softly stepping to his bedside, silently kneeling, and tenderly, reverently gazing on him, pondering all these wonderful things in her heart.

We know also that Joseph was a

4* carpenter, a man who "worked for his living,' and probably worked hard. As it was customary for every Jewish boy (even the sons of the rich) to learn a trade, and as in one place Jesus is called a "carpenter' 1 (Mark vi. 3), we may fairly conclude that Jesus learned the same trade and worked at it with Joseph.

I am glad that it was in a humble home, the home of a poor man, that Jesus lived and grew up ; for I think it is easier for all classes of people to think rightly of him as their Saviour than if it had been in a kingly or lordly palace.

We are equally sure that in that home he was always obedient to his parents. One of the very few things that are said of him is, that he "was subject unto them." This was after he had gone to Jerusalem, when he was t\velv r e years old, and had astonished the learned doctors there by his knowledge of the Scriptures. I think it likely that this is mentioned by Luke (ii. 51) on purpose to prevent our supposing that a child of such extraordinary knowledge need not be subject to his parents. The example of Jesus teaches us that the more a boy really knows, the more dutiful and obedient to his parents is he likely to be.

Aside from this particular statement, we might be sure that he who came to honor Grod's law by first perfectly keeping it, and then by dying, an atoning sacrifice, to redeem those who had broken it, would be obedient to the commandment, " Honor thy father and thy mother."

jNTever, then, we may be sure, did Jesus disobey his parents ; never did he speak or act disrespectfully or undutifully toward them.

We may be sure that this was so, not only while he was a little child, but when he grew older and larger, even up to his manhood, and as long as he lived in their house. Even after he became a public teacher and a worker of miracles, and quite down to the hour when he hung on the cross, we find that he was tender and respectful in his treatment of his mother, although he could not permit her, any more than any other human being, to control him in respect to anything belonoino- to his office and work as the Messiah of Grod.

We may also be sure that Jesus diligently studied the Scriptures.

When he was only twelve years of age, you remember, he went up with his parents to Jerusalem ; and when thev had started for home with their neighbors and friends, they found after two or three days that Jesus had stayed behind. They went back and found him in the temple talking with the learned doctors there, and astonishing them by his questions and his answers to their questions. I suppose he showed a better understanding of the prophecies and of all parts of the Scriptures that had then been written than any of those rabbis had. I suppose, too, we are to understand that the child Jesus had learned this wisdom by study, for \ve read that he " increased in wisdom and stature.' He became a real child ; he did not merely have a child's body, but a child's mind. I cannot explain this, cannot understand it, but I believe it, because the Bible so plainly teaches it. I think of Jesus, then, when he was a child at Nazareth, as diligently studying the holy Scriptures.

I have no doubt that he used to go to the synagogue every Sabbath-day with Mary and Joseph, nor that he listened very attentively when the portion of Scripture was read, and to any explanations that were given of it. I have no doubt that he learned to read, either at school or bv his mother's teaching ; and I have no doubt that if we could have looked into that cottage, we might often have seen the little Jesus sitting or standing with the holy parchments unrolled before him, eagerly reading the words written by Moses, and David, and Isaiah,

JESUS AT NAZAEETH. 47

and those other holy men who " spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; 5

He w r as a resolute, strong-spirited boy. The sweet song at the beginning of this discourse speaks of his kindness and gentleness and of his sinless purity. The same is tr.ue of many sweet songs that have been written about the childhood of Jesus ; and I sometimes am afraid that children may think so much of this gentle loveliness as to forget how r it is written that he " waxed strong in spirit" or fail to think what and how much that means.

I do not believe that a braver boy ever climbed the hills of Galilee. I do not believe that a braver boy ever trod the earth than Jesus of Nazareth.

His courage was very different from that which leads a boy to challenge another to fight with him — a truer and nobler courage. Think of it, children. Do you believe that Jesus ever was afraid to do what he knew to be right? Do you think he could ever be kept from obeying his mother, or from doing any kind or right act, by the sneers or the threats of other boys or of girls ?

You remember how resolutely he withstood all the devil's temptations in the wilderness after his baptism ; do you suppose that he was never tempted of Satan while he was a child? We do not know that Satan appeared to him bodily, but I suppose that Jesus was tempted in the same ways that you are ; and we are sure that he never yielded. Oh what a strong, brave spirit was that !

JESUS AT NAZAKETH. 49

Boys, if really you " want to be like Jesus/ you must not only try to be gentle and sweet-tempered, but "strong in spirit" — fearlessly ready to undertake any difficult duty — ready to undergo any self- denial for the sake of doing good, and resolute to resist all manner of persuasions and temptations to sin.

How can you become so? (1) By believing in Jesus, and (2) by then constantly striving to become like him, always praying for the help of his Spirit to make you so.

1. Believe in him. Take him for your real Saviour.

In order to this you have to think of him not merely as a child. Think of him as you know him to be — as the Jjamb of Grod, Son of Glod, the Redeemer of lost souls. Confess your guilt to him. Acknowledge your need of him. Thankfully take him as the Saviour of your soul, just as he kindly offers to be.

Then remember that he became not only a man, but a child, and that he knows just what help you need to follow him — to be his disciple now, while you are a child. Ask him daily for that help ; daily expect to have it; and daily strive to live, with that help, as the child Jesus lived.

He can make you gentle, obedient, truthful and fearless in right-doing, gentle and lovely, and at the same time strong in spirit, and growing more and more like that fairest, happiest, holiest child that ever had human birth.

IV. Jesus At The Jordan

[Matt. iii. ; John i.]

FTER the visit of Jesus to Jerusalem, u when he was twelve vears old,'

mi

we have no account whatever of him until he had grown to full manhood- -until he was about thirty vears of age. Then he was to begin his public ministry, working miracles and preaching the good news of the kingdom of heaven.

To prepare the way for this, John was sent before him. He was a little older than Jesus, and was the son of

Elizabeth, a cousin to Jesus' mother. He was very much like the prophet Elijah of the Old Testament, and was the person intended in the Old Testament prophecy, which said that Elijah should come again. He came " in the spirit and power of Elijah," calling upon the people to repent — that is, to turn from their sins — and so to prepare the way for " the kingdom of heaven, r which was " at hand" — that kingdom of truth and holiness which Jesus, the Christ, was about to establish in the world.

Very many people went out into the wilderness of Juclea, where John preached, to hear him, and to the river Jordan, where he baptized them as the sign of their putting away their sins.

One day, while John was there at

JESUS AT THE JOED AN. 53

the Jordan preaching and baptizing, Jesus came to him to be baptized.

It is not easy for us to understand why Jesus should be baptized, as certainly he had no sins to repent of. Perhaps it was because he "was made sin for us, r or was put in the place of us sinners, that it was proper for him to receive the sign of the washing awav of sins. At anv rate, we may know that it was proper, or it would not have been done. We know from what he said to John, that that was the way " to fulfill all righteousness."

At first, John was unwilling to baptize Jesus. He felt unworthy to do it — unworthy (as he said) even to untie his shoes. But when Jesus assured John that it was right, and was his will, John obeyed. We should never let our sense of unworthiness prevent

5* us from doing anything which Jesus commands.

So John and Jesus went down the bank of Jordan together, or else Jesus came down to John, who was already standing in the river or at its edge, and John baptized him. I do not know how he did it — whether he took hold of his arms, and, leaning him gently backward, plunged his whole body under the water, as baptism is now sometimes administered ; or whether, lifting some of the water in his hands or in a cup, John poured it on the head of Jesus, bowed meeklv before him ; or whether, simply wetting his hand in the water of Jordan, he reverently laid it on the head of Jesus or allowed some drops to drip from his fingers upon him.

I do not see that it is of the least

JESUS AT THE JOBDAST. 55

consequence to know how it was done, any more than to know the size and shape of the loaf at the Last Supper, or of the pieces into which it was broken. In some way Jesus was baptized, or solemnly washed in water of the Jordan by John the Baptist ; and John consented to do this in obedience to Jesus, and on his assurance that that was the way for them "to fulfill all righteousness."

When the baptism was finished, we are told that Jesus " went up straightway out of the w T ater; and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him." - 'And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

So, in the beginning of our Lord's public life, God the Father solemnly and publicly declared him to be his Son, in whom he was well pleased ; and you know, my young readers, that when his life was finished and he had died on the cross, God gave still stronger assurance of being satisfied with his w r hole work by raisins; him from the dead and placing him at his own right hand on high.

Does it seem to you that you would like to have been there at the Jordan when Jesus was baptized, to have seen his holy form coming up the bank of the river, to have seen the heavenly dove descending, and to have heard that voice of God coming down out of the sky?

It seems so to me, and yet, on the whole, I think I would rather be here now than to have been there then.

JESUS AT THE JORDAN. 5

M

With the whole ]\ T ew Testament to read, making us know all that Jesus did and suffered for us after he was baptized, and with all we know of what his religion has done in the world in all the eighteen hundred years since, I think that we can with our minds see Jesus at his baptism, and hear the voice of God declaring him to us, quite as effectually as we could have done if we had stood on the banks of Jordan and heard and seen with our bodily senses. We know that that Divine Spirit that hovered in dove-like form over the head of Jesus, and settled down so beautifully upon him, hovers invisibly over you and settles down as gently on each of your hearts, if you do not by levity, or by obstinacy, or by some kind of sin, drive him away.

I suppose that it must have been not many days after the baptism of Jesus that those things took place of which we are told in the first chapter of the Gospel by John :

" John seeth Jesus coming to him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh awav the sin of the world!"

"Again, the next day after, John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!'

Think what "the Lamb of God' would mean to the Jewish people to whom John was speaking! They had all read the book of Isaiah ; they had all heard many times in the synagogues that solemn passage in which the prophet says, "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as'a sheep

JESUS AT THE JORDAN. 59

before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. ' Probably most of them had seen the shearers seize a sheep and compel her to lie quietly down while they stripped her of her fleece; and probably all of them had seen lambs slaughtered for food and also for sacrifice. They were very familiar with this religious use of them. Thev knew that when the lamb was slain at the altar, when its red blood stained the pavement and its dead flesh was burnt on the altar, this was a part of Grocl's method of forgiving their sins. They had to do this in obedience to God, in order to obtain the forgiveness of their sins.

I do not suppose that they all understood how those sacrifices foreshowed the one great sacrifice of Christ; but now, when Jesus had come and the

60 SEEIXG JESUS.

time was near when that great sacrifice of himself was to be offered on the cross, John made that solemn declaration. "See,' said he, "that holy man from Galilee, whom I baptized the other clay, and on whom the Holy Spirit visibly descended; lo, he is the Lamb of God. It will be the shedding of his blood that is to make the real expiation for your sins, to which the sacrifices of dumb animals have always been pointing forward. He is to be sacrificed for you."

My children, I think this has been made plainer to you than it was to those who heard John speak. You all know that Jesus died to save you, and that he is able and willing to save you just now.

If he were present with you bodily to-day — if a human form more majes-

JESUS AT THE JOED AN. 61

tic than you ever saw before were to come and stand before you — if he were looking upon you with a face of heavenly beauty beaming with grace and truth — if from the sky above a dove-like form, glorious with heavenly light, were to descend and light upon him, and a clear voice from the heaven were to say, " This is my beloved Son" — if then your minister should say to you, " Behold the Lamb of Grod, that taketh away the sins of the world," what would you do? Is there one of you who would not bow before him and cry, u O Lamb of Grod, save me, even me?"

Then is there one of you who will not now bow to him (for he is with you though you see him not) and offer that same earnest prayer?

I do assure you, children, that that

Blessed One is with you now, just as able and just as ready to hear and save as if he were bodily before you.

Behold the Lamb of God! Look unto Jesus. Ask him to save you now — just now — and believe that he does save you. "Only believe.' 1 w$r,