' 
 
 i 
 

THE 
 
 GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN 
 
 ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D. 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 27 PATERNOSTER ROW 
 
 MDCCCXCIII 
 
Printed by Hazelt, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 ^ I ^HESE chapters were written as a commentary 
 on the International Sunday School Lessons 
 for the American Sunday School Times, from which 
 they are reprinted with the concurrence of the 
 proprietors. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. THE WORD IN ETERNITY, TIME, AND FLESH . I 
 St. John i. I-18. 
 
 II. TWO days: John's last, and Christ's first ii 
 
 St. John i. 29-42. 
 
 III. THE first ray OF THE GLORY . . .20 
 
 St. John ii. i-i I. 
 
 IV. " HOW CAN THESE THINGS BE ? " . . -29 
 
 St. John iii. 1-17. 
 
 V. THE THIRSTY GIVER OF LIVING WATER . . 39 
 
 St. John iv. S-26. 
 
 VI. THE LIFE-GIVER AND JUDGE . . . -49 
 
 St. John V. 17-30. 
 
 VII. BREAD ENOUGH, AND TO SPARE . . • 58 
 
 St. John vi. I -14. 
 
 VIII. TRUE WORK FOR TRUE BREAD . . .66 
 
 St. John vi. 26-40. 
 
 IX. " THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST " . . . ■ 1^ 
 
 St. John vii. 31-44. 
 
 X. FREEDOM AND SONSHIP . . . -85 
 
 St. John viii. 31-47. 
 
 XI. JESUS SEEING THE BLIND, AND THE BLIND 
 
 SEEING JESUS 95 
 
 St. John ix. I-Il, 35-38. 
 
 XII. THE SHEPHERD OF MEN .... I03 
 
 St. John X. I -16. 
 
viii Contents 
 
 LESS. PAGE 
 
 XIII. THE CROWNING MIRACLE . . . .112 
 
 St, John xi. 21-44. 
 
 XIV. WHAT JESUS THOUGHT ABOUT THE CROSS . 121 
 
 St. John xii. 20-36. 
 
 XV. THE MASTER-SERVANT 130 
 
 St. John xiii. I- 17 
 
 XVI. THE PRESENT-ABSENT CHRIST AND THE ABID- 
 ING COMFORTER . . . . -139 
 St. John xiv. 1-3, 15-27. 
 
 XVII. THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES . . . I49 
 
 St. John XV, 1-16, 
 
 XVIII, THE SPIRIT CONVINCING THE WORLD AND 
 
 GUIDING THE CHURCH. . . . 158 
 
 St. John xvi. I-15. 
 
 XIX. THE INTERCESSOR 1 69 
 
 St. John xvii. 1-19, 
 
 XX. THE WILLING PRISONER . . . . 180 
 
 St. John xviii. I- 13. 
 
 XXI. THE RELUCTANT JUDGE, THE RESOLVED AC- 
 CUSERS, AND THE PATIENT CHRIST . 189 
 St. John xix. I -16. 
 
 XXII. "it IS finished" . . . . .198 
 
 St, John xix, 17-30, 
 
 XXIII. THE DAWNINGS OF FAITH IN THE RISEN 
 
 LORD . . . . . . .207 
 
 St. John XX. 1-18. 
 
 XXIV. THE SEA AND THE SHORE . . . . 2l6 
 
 St, John xxi. I-14. 
 
 XXV. REVIEW LESSON THOUGHTS . . . -2 23 
 
LESSON I 
 
 The Word in Eternity, Time, and Flesh 
 
 St, John i. i-i8 
 
 1. "In the beginning was the 
 Word, and the Word was with 
 God, and the Word was God. 
 
 2. The same was in the 
 beginning with God. 
 
 3. All things were made by 
 Him ; and without Him was not 
 any thing made that was made. 
 
 4. In Him was life ; and the 
 life was the light of men. 
 
 5. And the light shineth in 
 darkness ; and the darkness 
 comprehended it not. 
 
 6. There was a man sent 
 from God, whose name was 
 John. 
 
 7. The same came for a wit- 
 ness, to bear witness of the 
 Light, that all men through 
 Him might believe. 
 
 8. He was not that Light, but 
 was sent to bear witness of 
 that Light. 
 
 9. That was the true Light, 
 which lighteth every man that 
 Cometh into the world. 
 
 10. He was in the world, 
 and the world was made by 
 Him, and the world knew Him 
 not. 
 
 11. He came unto His own, 
 and His own received Him not. 
 
 12. But as many as received 
 Him, to them gave He power 
 to become the sons of God, 
 even to them that believe on 
 His name : 
 
 13. Which were born, not of 
 blood, nor of the will of the 
 flesh, nor of the will of man, 
 but of God. 
 
 14. And the Word was made 
 flesh, and dwelt among us, 
 (and we beheld His glory, the 
 glory as of the only begotten 
 of the Father,) full of grace and 
 truth. 
 
 15. John bare witness of 
 Him, and cried, saying. This 
 was He of whom I spake. He 
 that Cometh after me is pre- 
 ferred before me : for He was 
 before me. 
 
 16. And of His fulness have 
 all we received, and grace for 
 grace. 
 
 17. For the law was given 
 by Moses, but grace and truth 
 came by Jesus Christ. 
 
 18. No man hath seen God' 
 at any time ; the only begotten 
 Son, which is in the bosom of 
 the Father, He hath declared 
 Him." 
 
 THE simplest words carry the deepest meanings. 
 These brief sentences of this wonderful prologue 
 are as inexhaustible in thought as they are inartificial in 
 
2 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. i. 1-18 
 
 language. They unveil the eternal depths of Deity, and 
 gather all the history of man in time into one long pro- 
 cess of the effluent light warring with darkness, which 
 culminates in the incarnate Word, "the Light," whose 
 name at last is disclosed as Jesus Christ, the fountain of 
 all grace and truth, the only declarer of God. Volumes 
 could not worthily set forth the truths condensed in these 
 verses. Eighteen centuries have but spelled out a little 
 of the meaning of these eighteen verses. Heaven will 
 not exhaust them. 
 
 It is a mistake to try to force the style of John into 
 logical grooves. The great stones with which he builds 
 are laid on each other without mortar. The links of 
 connection are so numerous that each new student finds 
 some fresh one. And they are all there, and more 
 besides ; for the mighty facts which he tells in such 
 childlike, deep speech are all laced together by innu- 
 merable ties. We may, however, note that the two 
 references to the Baptist's testimony, w^hich break in 
 upon the flow of the evangelist's thought, seem to part it 
 into distinct portions, and to be themselves distinct. If 
 we read straight on, omitting John's two sayings, the 
 stream is continuous. We follow, then, this clue to a 
 division of the subject-matter, not, however, laying stress 
 on it. 
 
 I. Verses 1-5, then, begin by carrying us out of time and 
 creation, to unveil to our awestruck vision something of 
 the eternal depths of God, when none but God was, and 
 thence descend to reveal how things came to be, how a 
 universe has life, how what is but life in other creatures 
 rises in man to be light, and how, through all the ages, 
 the uncreated light has striven with the intrusive and 
 
Less. I.] The "Word in Eternity, Time, and Flesh 3 
 
 obstinate darkness. God in Hiaiself, creation, preserva- 
 tion, and the whole history of man as moral, intellectual, 
 and spiritual, are here. " In the beginning God created^^ 
 but " in the beginning the Word was,^^ When creatures 
 began to be, He was there already. That necessarily 
 implies eternal existence. John does not speak as if "^ 
 his terms needed definition. Either they were already 
 familiar to his readers, or he felt that his statements 
 sufficiently explained them. This at least is clear, that 
 the three clauses of the first verse set forth the Word as 
 eternal, as a Person holding communion with God, and 
 as Himself Divine in nature. 
 
 At the close of the prologue he will identify this 
 eternal, Divine, personal Word with his dear Lord and 
 Master, but now he simply affirms, in that strangely 
 assured and yet quiet way of his, as if no proof were 
 needed. If we accept these words, we shall be wiser 
 than all philosophers, and have got nearer the heart of 
 things than they. The second verse forms the transition 
 to the activity of the Word in history. It gathers the 
 three clauses preceding into one, and thus presents that 
 Word as fitted for the work to be next ascribed to Him. 
 
 That work is, first, creation. Mark the contrast of the / 
 ante-temporal " was " of the first verse and the " came to 
 be" ("were made") of the third verse. Observe, too, 
 the universality of the Word's creative energy, as twice 
 signalised in the two clauses. Note the specific form of 
 His action. " Through Him " (not " by ") teaches, as in 
 Colossians i. 16 and other passages, that the Word is 
 the agent of creation, while the Father is the source. 
 Observe also the distinction between " through " and 
 " not apart from," or " without." The one presents Him 
 
y 
 
 4 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. i. 1-18 
 
 as the agent ; the other insists on His presence with His 
 creation as necessary to its existence, and forbids us to 
 think of it as being hke a man's work, capable of subsist- 
 ing away from its maker. It is the same teaching as 
 Paul's in Colossians i. 17 : "In Him all things consist." 
 Observe, too, the difference of tense, " was made " and 
 ^^ hath been made," the former expressing the original 
 creative act, the latter the continuous existence of the 
 things created. 
 
 If we keep to the division of verses in both the 
 Authorised and the Revised Versions, verse four rises in 
 the scale of being, and shows how not only inanimate 
 things came to be, but living things to live. The change 
 of preposition is significant. " Through Him " and " not 
 apart from Him " express a less close and wonderful 
 relation than " in Him." Life is a gift implying a closer 
 resemblance to its source than inanimate matter attains. 
 " With Thee is the fountain of life." Science is baffled 
 to tell what life is, and still more to produce it. John's 
 words go nearer the centre than any biology has reached. 
 
 " In Him was life " — not, of course, meaning that He 
 lives, but that He gives life. Then we rise still higher, 
 to the one creature who has self-conscious life, and can 
 turn himself partly round to catch a glimpse of the 
 source. " Light " is one of John's great, simple words, 
 which open out into unfathomable depths. Physical 
 light divides into three chief sets of beams. " The light 
 of men " does the same ; for we need not ask whether 
 it means purity, knowledge, or joy, since it means all, 
 and these three are really one. All that makes us men, 
 rising above the less conscious forms of life, which are 
 too low for morality or knowledge, and may be happy 
 
Less. I.] The Word in Eternity, Time, and Flesh 5 
 
 but not blessed, and above inanimate being, flows from 
 the same hand which created and sustains. 
 
 May there not be in that singular " was " of the fourth 
 verse some faint gleam of the vanished Eden, where 
 God's idea of manhood was for a moment realised, and, in 
 unbroken communion, life was light ? The abrupt intro- 
 duction, in the next verse, of " darkness," hints at some 
 catastrophe unnamed, to account for its appearance. 
 And so the sad history of humanity is summed" up in 
 verse five as a continual meek shining of the light, side / 
 by side with its opposite, and, if we adopt the rendering 
 in the text of the Revised Version, a continual resistance 
 by the darkness ; or, if we take the margin, a continual 
 shining of the light in spite of resistance. There is a 
 paradox. Light dispels darkness. The two cannot co- 
 exist, but this light and darkness can and do. In these 
 few broad outlines the whole history of man is condensed, /V. 
 up to John Baptist. — 
 
 II. John's mission is regarded in verses 6-8 in its relation 
 to that light which is not yet presented as historically 
 manifested in Jesus. He, like all the prophets whose 
 missions may be summed up in his, was but "a man," 
 who, like " all things," began to be. (Note that the " was " 
 of verse six is the same as " were made " of verse three, 
 and not the same as " was " of verse one.) His office 
 was to witness of it, being himself not light, but lighted ; 
 the scope of his mission was universal, and its purpose 
 the production of " belief." A pregnant contrast is 
 implied throughout. The description of John fits Jesus, 
 unless Jesus is what this Gospel proclaims Him, the 
 incarnate Light. Otherwise He too was but sent to point 
 away from Himself. 
 
6 The Gospel of St. John [Chap, i 1-18 
 
 III. The section between the two utterances of the 
 Baptist deals with the incarnation under the two aspects 
 of the coming of the Light and the becoming flesh of the 
 Word, thus knitting together the two thoughts of the first 
 section. The former representation includes verses nine 
 to thirteen ; the latter, verse fourteen. In the former 
 part, verses nine and ten still retain some reference to 
 the action of the light before the incarnation. Verse 
 nine is ambiguous, but "coming into the world" is a 
 standing expression for the incarnation, and is therefore 
 most naturally referred to " the true light." The exist- 
 ence of the " true light," as distinguished from imperfect 
 realisations or reflections of it, such as John, the universal 
 action of the light on humanity, and the culmination 
 thereof in a historical " coming," are the great truths in 
 the ninth verse. But, before elaborating the last further, 
 the writer pauses for a moment on the same sad thought 
 as in verse five. " I speak of a * coming,' but it is of 
 One who was here before He ' came,' had been here 
 ever since He made this world, and had been moving 
 unrecognised among men, like a king incognito." That 
 was not because He hid Himself, but because the dark- 
 ness would have none of the light. The need for a 
 further coming is laid in the failure of the former, " being 
 in the world," to bring recognition. 
 
 All the preceding has been a majestic flight of stairs 
 from heaven to earth, and now we reach the foot. The 
 Light who was, " came," as John too " came," in so far 
 as both had a historical beginning and appeared among 
 men ; but the Light came, as this whole Gospel teaches, 
 in an altogether unique sense, as by His own will, and 
 from a previous state of being. " His own land " was 
 
Less. I.] The Word in Eternity, Time, and Flesh 7 
 
 the scene of His action, and " His own people " repeated 
 the tragedy of the past, and again darkness rejected Hght. 
 But the mighty expenditure of power and love was not 
 all vain ; for this is the vindication of the new step, His 
 " coming," that some " received Him," and, in Him, new 
 gifts. The broken construction " as many ... to them " 
 puts emphasis on the condition of the gift, which is 
 further underscored, as it were, by its repetition in 
 another form at the end of the verse. To " believe on 
 His name " involves the recognition of His revealed 
 character, as the object not merely of intellectual know- 
 ledge, but of trust, since " believing on " is more than 
 simply believing. Such trustful acceptance of the 
 revealed name is " receiving." That faith is the condi- 
 tion of being entitled to "become sons of God." The 
 relationship thus expressed is not that incident to all 
 men, as deriving natural life from God and being objects 
 of His love and care, but is broadly distinguished from 
 anything belonging to men in virtue of their natural 
 birth, and is the result of another supernatural birth, 
 according to God's will, and dependent on "believing 
 on the name." 
 
 The arrangement of this section and of the first is a 
 case of " inverted parallelism." In the former we have 
 first the Word, then the Light ; in the latter, first the 
 Light, then the Word. So verse fourteen presents the 
 coming of the Light as also the becoming flesh of the 
 Word. Mark how the eternal " was " changes into the 
 temporal " became " ; how the mystery of mysteries is 
 declared in three simple words. The eternal, personal 
 being of the Word, the oneness of that Person before 
 and after incarnation, the reality, completeness, and per- 
 
8 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. i. 1-18 
 
 manence cf the manhood, are affirmed for adoring wonder 
 and faith. "In the beginning was the Word" unveils 
 the depths of Deity. "The Word became flesh" 
 declares the union of God with man, and lays in the 
 depths the sure foundation for thought, love, and faith. 
 Nothing profounder, nothing bearing more directly and 
 closely on daily needs or immortal hopes, can be spoken 
 in the speech of earth. That becoming flesh was no 
 transient appearance. " He tabernacled among us," the 
 eye-witnesses, thus fulfilling the promises of God's dwell- 
 ing among men, and being in that flesh as in the true 
 temple, which tabernacle and temple but faintly shadowed. 
 " The temple of His body " is the meeting-place of God 
 and man, the place of sacrifice and of revelation. John 
 stays his hand for a moment as the remembrances of 
 that blessed time fill his heart, and recalls the " glory," 
 the reality of which the Light that shone between the 
 cherubim was but the emblem, the lustre of the self- 
 manifestation of Divinity, by which the incarnate Word 
 was manifested as, in a unique sense, the Son, pre- 
 eminent among the " children." Then he pursues his 
 thought, and describes Him who dwelt among the group 
 of disciples as possessed, in perfect measure and manner, 
 of all love and all truth. 
 
 Again the Baptist's witness interposes in the stream, 
 and this time is more definitely directed to the historical 
 Person, identifying One standing in his presence with 
 the theme of his former proclamations. The whole dis- 
 course is gradually converging on one head. John 
 recognised, with beautiful self-abnegation, his own in- 
 feriority, and traced it to its cause, in the essential dignity 
 of the Word. Later in time, He is first in place, out- 
 
Less. I.] The Word in Eternity, Time, and Flesh 9 
 
 stripping His forerunner, because He was before he 
 came. 
 
 Finally, verses 16-18 gather up the blessed issues of 
 incarnation, contrast these with previous revelation, and, 
 at last, declare how all the glorious names of Word, Light, 
 and Son meet in the man Jesus Christ. The close con- 
 nection of the first words with those of verse fourteen 
 shows that the stream of thought goes on, overleaping 
 the reference to the Baptist. Christ's " fulness " is the 
 perfect completeness of Divine powers with which He 
 is, so to speak, charged, and that fulness is a communi- 
 cative fulness. The personal experience of the Apostle 
 and his brethren comes in to attest that. Those who 
 can say, "We have received of it," need no arguments 
 beside to prove Him Divine. Those who " receive 
 Him" (ver. 12) do therein "receive" all spiritual gifts. 
 The grace of this moment, if used aright, is ever 
 exchanged for new grace, and that in increasing richness. 
 
 The law was given, in one definite act, as an external 
 and authoritative statute, fixed and rigid ; but what Jesus 
 brings "comes to be through Him," for ever flowing out 
 in a vital process and taking shape in men's hearts. The 
 contents of the law are statutes, those of Christ's gift are 
 love bestowed and bestowing, and truth, even the light 
 from the Light, and speech from the Word. 
 
 So Jesus Christ is disclosed as both Word and Light, 
 is set far above all messengers of God, is the Divine 
 communicator to men of all the Divine fulness, and the 
 source of all grace and truth. In one last sentence this 
 fisherman-apostle transcends all philosophy, and lays the 
 foundation stone of all true theology and of all the satis- 
 faction of the needs of humble souls. The limitations 
 
lo The Gospel of St. John [Chap. i. 1-18 
 
 of our powers make the direct knowledge of God impos- 
 sible for man. The manhood of Him who in and from 
 eternity was the Word, and from the beginning has been 
 the light of men, makes it certain that the invisible God 
 is fully declared in Him, who in timeless union is " in 
 the bosom of the Father," and who yet tabernacled 
 among us, that the eyes which could not see God might 
 calmly and lovingly " behold His glory," and in gazing 
 might not only behold, but possess, the grace and truth 
 of which He is full, and of which the world without Him 
 is empty. 
 
LESSON II 
 
 Two Days : John's Last and Christ's First 
 
 St. John i. 29-42 
 
 29. " The next day John seeth 
 Jesus coming unto him, and 
 saith, Behold the Lamb of God, 
 which taketh away the sin of 
 the world. 
 
 30. This is He of whom I 
 said, After me cometh a man 
 which is preferred before me : 
 for He was before me. 
 
 31. And I knew Him not: 
 but that He should be made 
 manifest to Israel, therefore am 
 I come baptizing with water. 
 
 32. And John bare record, 
 saying, I saw the Spirit descend- 
 ing from heaven like a dove, 
 and it abode upon Him. 
 
 33. And I knew Him not : 
 but He that sent me to baptize 
 with water, the same said unto 
 me, Upon whom thou shalt see 
 the Spirit descending, and re- 
 maining on Him, the same is 
 He which baptizeth with the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 34. And I saw, and bare 
 record that this is the Son of 
 God. 
 
 35. Again the next day after 
 John stood, and two of his 
 disciples ; 
 
 36. And looking upon Jesus 
 
 as He walked, he saith, Behold 
 the Lamb of God ! 
 
 37. And the two disciples 
 heard him speak, and they 
 followed Jesus. 
 
 38. Then Jesus turned, and 
 saw them following, and saith 
 unto them, "What seek ye ? 
 They said unto Him, Rabbi, 
 (which is to say, being inter- 
 preted. Master,) where dwellest 
 Thou ? 
 
 39. He saith unto them, Come 
 and see. They came and saw 
 where He dwelt, and abode 
 with Him that day : for it was 
 about the tenth hour. 
 
 40. One of the two which 
 heard John speak, and followed 
 Him, was Andrew, Simon 
 Peter's brother. 
 
 41. He first findeth his own 
 brother, Simon, and saith unto 
 him, We have found the Messias, 
 which is, being interpreted, the 
 Christ. 
 
 42. And he brought him to 
 Jesus. And when Jesus beheld 
 him, He said, Thou art Simon 
 the son of Jona : thou shalt be 
 called Cephas, which is by in- 
 terpretation, A stone." 
 
 THE careful notes of time in this and the next 
 chapter show that Jesus had returned from the 
 temptation to the place where John was baptizing before 
 
 II 
 
12 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. i. 29-42 
 
 the testimony of the latter here recorded. John i. 26 
 seems to show that Jesus was in the crowd when the 
 deputation from Jerusalem came ; but, at all events, 
 the first part of the lesson deals with John's new witness 
 to Him (vers. 29-34), while the second part gives the 
 effect of that testimony in the transference of the first 
 disciples from John to Jesus. These two days witnessed 
 the beginning of the greatest institution in the world, — 
 the Christian Church, — and the end of prophecy, which 
 reached its goal when its last representative stood in the 
 presence of Jesus, and, with pointing finger, designated 
 Him as the Lamb of God. To outward seeming they 
 were but a little knot of poor Jews. How kings and 
 Caesars would have scoffed, if told that they were the 
 nucleus of a movement which would shatter their thrones 
 and reshape the world ! " The kingdom of God cometh 
 not with observation." 
 
 The testimony of the Baptist, as recorded in this 
 section, is singularly unlike his preaching as reported in 
 the Synoptic Gospels. Here it points specifically to the 
 person of Jesus as the Messiah, and speaks a new 
 insight into His character and work. He is not here 
 the Judge with fan in hand, but the Lamb taking away 
 sin. This difference has been used as an argument 
 against the truth of this Gospel ; but there is nothing 
 suspicious or doubtful about it, if we only remember 
 that the other Gospels give John's preaching as it rang 
 in men's ears before the baptism of Jesus, while this 
 Gospel gives it as it was after that baptism had opened 
 his eyes to the person of the Messiah, and the descent 
 of the dove had taught him the inmost nature of 
 Messiah's rule and power. 
 
Less. II.] Two Days : John's Last and Christ's First 13 
 
 The Baptist himself tells the process of his new 
 vision, in this section, and certainly the cause assigned 
 by him is adequate to the effect. No wonder that, 
 when he beheld " the Spirit descending like a dove and 
 abiding " on the unknown man's head, his heart leaped 
 up to recognise his Lord, and his stern spirit was bowed 
 in lowly adoration. The interval during which Jesus 
 was tempted in the wilderness gave John's new know- 
 ledge time to clear itself. Hence the eager swiftness of 
 his testimony when he saw Jesus coming to him, as 
 if calling on him for homage and witness. It is not 
 addressed to any particular hearer, but is a public 
 proclamation. 
 
 The point of the comparison with " the Lamb " is not 
 in character, but in office. The explanation which takes 
 it to mean innocence, patience, meekness, is miserably 
 shallow, and is negatived by the following clause, which 
 puts all the stress of comparison on taking away the 
 world's sin. Where did John get this comparison ? 
 There are three distinct sources in the Old Testament, 
 all tributary to this saying. There is the lamb of 
 history, when Abraham steadied his voice to answer, 
 " My son, God will provide Himself a lamb." The 
 Lamb of God is God-provided. There is the lamb of 
 ritual, both that offered daily and that of the passover, 
 which feast was near when John spoke. There is the 
 lamb of prophecy, set forth in Isaiah's great prophecy, 
 which is clearly in John's mind. There the ideas of 
 unresisting meekness and of vicarious sacrifice are clearly 
 expressed, and in the light of these we cannot but see 
 that the "taking away the sin of the world" by the 
 sacrifice of Himself is the very purpose for which God 
 
14 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. i. 29-42 
 
 has provided the Lamb. Note the universahty of the 
 power of that sacrifice, — "the world." Note the com- 
 pleteness of its efficacy as dealing with " sin," the whole 
 mass as a whole, and not only with " sins " separately. 
 Note the hint of the manner of its operation in " taketh 
 away," which implies removal by Himself bearing the 
 burden. Note that not only the punishment, but the 
 reality of sin, is removed. How clear the insight of 
 John, then. And yet this is he who could send to ask, 
 " Art Thou He that should come ? " Let us beware 
 lest mists born of our own hearts wrap the brightest 
 stars of truth in a doleful film ! 
 
 Verses thirty and thirty-one glow with thankful triumph 
 and lowly recognition of inferiority. Few prophets have 
 the joy of saying, " This is He of whom I spoke." At 
 such an hour of fulfilment the true prophet recalls with 
 thankfulness his words, spoken when no sign of their 
 accomplishment was visible, and he knew as little as 
 any by whom they were to be brought to pass. Well 
 for those who can thus recall unashamed their faith 
 and testimony w^hen they stand before Christ. Very 
 beautifully does John recall his witness borne when the 
 person of the Messiah was unknown to him, his con- 
 fidence even while thus ignorant that Jesus would be 
 manifested, and the subordinate office which he himself 
 discharged in his baptism by water. 
 
 Verses 32-34 may be a continuation of the preceding 
 testimony, but, as they are separated by the first words 
 of verse thirty-two, they are perhaps rather to be taken as 
 another cognate witness. They differ from the preceding 
 by giving the ground of John's new teaching and confi- 
 dence, in the visible descent of the Spirit like a dove 
 
Less. II.] Two Days : John's Last and Christ's First 15 
 
 on Jesus at His baptism, and its abiding on Him. A 
 Divine message, how or when received we know not, 
 had set John to look for this sign. The abiding is as 
 much a part of it as the descent, for both facts express 
 in visible symbol the Divine operation which fitted the 
 manhood of Jesus for His Messianic work. The Spirit 
 came down, peaceful, tender, upon Him, and abode in 
 Him — not being given by measure, nor at moments of 
 special illumination or power, but in indissoluble union 
 with that pure and perfect manhood, which alone of all 
 men was capable of such perfect reception of the Spirit 
 of God. And the reception of the Spirit by Jesus, in 
 such fashion and measure, is the reason why He is able 
 to "baptize in the Holy Spirit." John gathers all into 
 one great saying, which sums up and concludes his own 
 ministry, and ushers, as it were, the Greater than he on 
 to the scene. For himself, he has seen and borne 
 witness. His work is done. For that other. He is, in 
 the highest sense of that great title, " the Son of God." 
 How much had to be suffered and learned before Christ's 
 disciples could fathom John's words ! That clear vision 
 was clouded to him, and still more to them, and did not 
 shine to be no more dimmed till the empty grave and 
 the parting on Olivet had " declared Him to be the Son 
 of God, with power over the Spirit of holiness." 
 
 Verses 35-42 tell the events of that fateful " morrow," 
 the first day of Christ's ministry. They fall into two 
 parts, — how Jesus drew two souls to Himself, and 
 how these immediately drew others to Him. John's 
 repeated proclamation was a direct invitation to his 
 disciples to transfer their allegiance to the new Teacher, 
 and the obedience of the two was their deliberate 
 
t6 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. i. 29-42 
 
 acceptance of Him. The unnamed one was, no doubt, 
 the evangelist himself Would any other writer have 
 had a motive for omitting one of the two names ? 
 Deeply interesting is the frequent use of the name of 
 " the Lamb " in the Apocalypse, if we remember that it 
 was the name which, long before Patmos, on that never- 
 to-be-forgotten day by the fords of the Jordan, had first 
 directed the young fisherman to Jesus. Well for us if 
 our latest faith is but the deepening of our earliest 
 thoughts of that Lord ! 
 
 The two were following Jesus, as it were, by stealth, 
 when He " turned," as He ever does, to convert secret 
 into open discipleship, and to assure us that He knows 
 unspoken desires. The first words which He speaks are 
 His question to us all, " What seek ye ? " He would 
 have us make clear to ourselves what is our aim and 
 true quest in Hfe. He would have us search our hearts 
 to ascertain what we desire from Him, and what we 
 think that He can do for us. The knowledge of our 
 own motives and conceptions of Him and His work 
 underlies all profitable resort to Him ; and His question 
 is a veiled promise that the measure of our desires will 
 be the measure of His gifts. Note that His question is 
 " What ? " not " Whom ? " and that the two are not to 
 be put oif with a thing, but seek a person. "Where 
 dwellest Thou ? " means " We seek Thee, and to be 
 permanently with Thee." If we can answer Jesus so, 
 we shall be led by Him to secret, sweet converse, and 
 know, as John learned to do, the depth of the word 
 used slightly at first ; for we shall " abide " with and 
 in Him. 
 
 Jesus' second word is as universal and deep as His 
 
Less. II.] Two Days : John's Last and Christ's First 1 7 
 
 first. " Come and see " is His invitation to us all, and 
 it means that faith must precede experience, and also it 
 promises that experience shall certainly and blessedly 
 follow faith. Note the verbal repetition of the words 
 of invitation in the narrative of what the two did. 
 Obedience was precise, immediate, and it was rewarded 
 according to promise. If our deeds accurately repeat 
 Christ's commands, and we fully respond to His invita- 
 tions. He will fully accomplish all hopes held out by 
 Him, and will give us more than we dreamed; for the 
 disciples but asked " where " He dwelt, and they not 
 only saw that, but abode there themselves. 
 
 No word tells what passed in that sacred interview, 
 begun, as it would seem, in the morning hours, and 
 lasting long. The personal revelation of Jesus, His 
 words and self, bound them to Him for ever. They 
 called Him Teacher before He had spoken to them, but 
 before He ceased to speak they were ready to confess 
 Him to be the Messiah ; and from that confession John, 
 at least, never flinched. The attractive force in Christi- 
 anity is Christ Himself. If we gain a glimpse of Him 
 as He really is, and know what we really seek, we shall 
 be drawn to His service. Personal experience is the best 
 evide nce of His divinity. 
 
 The Christian Church was founded that day. It 
 began with two members. Their first impulse was to 
 impart their treasure. Observe how the next step is 
 told. Andrew's action is mentioned in such terms as to 
 suggest an unmentioned similar action by the other ; for 
 if there were a " first " finding " his own " brother, there 
 was probably a second finding of somebody else's brother. 
 It is extremely improbable that when Andrew brought 
 
1 8 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. i. 29-42 
 
 Simon to Jesus, John came back unaccompanied by 
 James. But, however that may be, the natural impulse 
 of every true disciple of Christ is here beautifully illus- 
 trated. To bring others to Jesus will spontaneously 
 suggest itself to us, if we have found Him for ourselves. 
 The natural craving to utter conviction, the sense of 
 loyalty to Christ and of obligation from brotherhood, will 
 operate to that end. The word " shut up in our hearts " 
 will burn there like a fire, till we become weary of for- 
 bearing. If we know nothing of such necessity laid on 
 us from possessing the Gospel, we had better ask our- 
 selves whether we have any firm grasp of it. 
 
 The true weapon for us is here shown us. Andrew 
 did not begin to argue with Simon, or to submit to him 
 a few considerations tending to show the reasonableness 
 of Christianity, or the correspondence of the character 
 of Jesus with prophetic or rabbinic teaching. He did 
 not scold or threaten, and he was not in the least 
 eloquent, or poetic, or profound ; but he brought his 
 own experience in lieu of any other persuasive, " We have 
 found the Messiah." That is the best thing any of us 
 can say, if we would draw men to Jesus. Nothing can 
 refute " Whereas I was blind, now I see," and not much 
 can resist it. The limits of our work are also here. 
 " He brought him to Jesus." That is all we can do. If 
 we can get a man to come into direct relations with the 
 Lord, that Lord will do the rest. 
 
 Christ's treatment of Peter is significant. Christ reads 
 his old character and self; for whether His naming him 
 is supernatural knowledge or not, it implies, and is meant 
 to claim, complete knowledge. He sets in sharp con- 
 trast the present and the future of the man, — "Thou 
 
Less. II.] Two Days : John's Last and Christ's First 19 
 
 art," " Thou shalt be." If the new name be meant 
 to prophesy character, it is a promise that the natural 
 impulsiveness and fitfulness shall be changed into solid 
 steadfastness. If it be intended to set forth office, it is a 
 prophecy that he shall be used for a foundation-stone of 
 the new building of the Church. In either meaning, it 
 at once reveals Christ's knowledge of present and future, 
 and establishes His authority. The imposition of a name 
 was an act of superiority, a designation to office, and a 
 gift of capacity. If we come to Jesus, He will receive 
 us, knowing us altogether in all the weakness of our old 
 selves, and will write upon us a new name, changing by 
 degrees our weakness into calm strength, and haply 
 using us for high service, but, at all events, appointing 
 us such tasks as we can do for and by Him. 
 
 Simon took many years and trials to grow up to be 
 Peter, but his destination was disclosed at first. We 
 know that Christ's servants are meant to be clothed with 
 His likeness. Let us "put off the old man and be re- 
 newed in the spirit of our minds " first, and then, by 
 daily efforts, " put on the new man," which is our destined 
 attire. 
 
LESSON III 
 
 The First Ray of the Glory 
 
 St. John ii. i-ii 
 
 I. "And the third day there 
 was a marriage in Cana of 
 
 mother of 
 
 Jesus was 
 disciples, to 
 
 Gahlee ; and the 
 Jesus was there : 
 
 2. And both 
 called, and His 
 the marriage. 
 
 3. And when they wanted 
 wine, the mother of Jesus 
 saith unto Him, They have no 
 wine. 
 
 4. Jesus saith unto her, 
 Woman, what have I to do 
 with thee ? Mine hour is not 
 yet come. 
 
 5. His mother saith unto the 
 servants, Whatsoever He saith 
 unto you, do it. 
 
 6. And there were set there 
 six waterpots of stone, after the 
 manner of the purifying of the 
 Jews, containing two or three 
 firkins apiece. 
 
 7. Jesus saith unto them, 
 Fill the waterpots with water. 
 
 And they filled them up to the 
 brim. 
 
 8. And He saith unto them, 
 Draw out now, and bear unto 
 the governor of the feast. And 
 they bare it. 
 
 9. When the ruler of the 
 feast had tasted the water 
 that was made wine, and knew 
 not whence it was : (but the 
 servants which drew the water 
 knew;) the governor of the 
 feast called the bridegroom, 
 
 10. And saith unto him, 
 Every man at the beginning 
 doth set forth good wine ; and 
 when men have well drunk, 
 then that which is worse : but 
 thou hast kept the good wine 
 until now. 
 
 11. This beginning of mira- 
 cles did Jesus in Cana of Gali- 
 lee, and manifested forth His 
 glory ; and His disciples be- 
 lieved on Him." 
 
 T 
 
 HIS Gospel records just seven miracles before 
 the resurrection, and it calls them all " signs," or 
 symbolic acts revealing spiritual truth through material 
 things* The eleventh verse gives the point of view from 
 
 20 
 
Less. III.] The First Ray of the Glory 21 
 
 which John regards them, as being manifestations of the 
 "glory as of the only-begotten" Son. They are the 
 sevenfold beams into which that white light is separated. 
 This first of them is, by its place in the series, especially 
 significant. The narrative is vivid, and charged with 
 minute details which speak of an eye-witness, and of 
 communications from Mary, made perhaps in the days 
 when John " took her unto his own home." It tells the 
 preliminaries of the sign, the sign itself, and the effects 
 of the sign. 
 
 I. Cana was the home of Nathanael, whose connec- 
 tion with it may possibly have been the reason why 
 Jesus and His six disciples went there. Mary appears 
 to have preceded them, and the invitation to them to 
 have followed their arrival. " The third day " is counted 
 from that when Philip and Nathanael were called, as 
 the distance from John's place of baptizing requires. 
 The addition of so many guests might naturally make 
 supplies run short, and lead Mary to appeal to Jesus, 
 as the cause of the deficiency, to suggest some way of 
 making it good. Her intimation is more than an intima- 
 tion. It is a request. 
 
 The whole incident is best understood by supposing 
 that Mary recognised in Him, not only her Son, but her 
 Lord, however incomplete her faith. That explains her 
 unspoken hope, His answer, and the else unaccountable 
 effect of it on her as shown in her instructions to the 
 servants. She tells the need and leaves Him to deal 
 with it. True prayer makes known wants, in humble 
 confidence that to tell them is sufficient, and submis- 
 sively refrains from prescribing a course to Him. To 
 speak the need, be it great or small, and to be silent 
 
22 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. ii. i-ti 
 
 about the way of filling it, becomes those who trust His 
 wise and mighty love. 
 
 It need scarcely be said that no trace of sternness 
 or rebuke is in Christ's reply ; but while " woman " is 
 respectful and affectionate, the substance of His words 
 gives emphasis to His independence, and declares that, 
 now that He has begun His public work, the old days 
 of " subjection " are ended. Their ways diverge, and 
 henceforward He must be guided by His own conscious- 
 ness of fitting seasons for His working. Such a declara- 
 tion implies Mary's knowledge of His mission, and that 
 knowledge is still more inevitably implied in her words 
 to the servants. She still trusts to Him, and so implicitly 
 that she leaves everything to His disposal, and bespeaks 
 obedience for whatever He directs. Christ's delays 
 should but strengthen faith and submission. 
 
 No note of time gives the space between Christ's 
 answer and the miracle. It cannot have been long, but 
 He discerned some change in conditions, either material 
 or moral, which in a brief space made much change. 
 Possibly He waited for the deficiency to be apparent to 
 the disciples. Possibly He waited for the voice of 
 His heavenly Father, as well as of His earthly mother. 
 But, at all events, He knew that the right time had come. 
 His clock is not set by ours, and the beats that bring 
 the striking of His hour are not moments, but spiritual 
 conditions. 
 
 II. The miracle is next told, and that in very remark- 
 able fashion. There is not a word about the method, 
 nor even a statement that the miracle was wrought. 
 We are told what preceded and followed, but itself is 
 shrouded in silence. The servants fill the waterpots. 
 
Less. III.] The First Ray of the Glory 23 
 
 then " Draw out now," and they draw, and carry to the 
 superintendent of the revels. We cannot even tell 
 where the miracle came in, or how far it extended. 
 Was all the water in these six great vessels, probably 
 some fifty gallons, changed into wine, or was the change 
 effected as the portion required was drawn, and on that 
 portion only ? It is impossible to say. The conspicuous 
 feature of the miracle is the entire absence of material 
 means. Sometimes our Lord employed material vehicles » 
 as clay, or spittle, or the touch of His hand ; sometimes 
 He wrought by a word. But here there is not even a 
 word. His will silently works with sovereign power on 
 matter which is plastic, as if touched. It is not even 
 " He spake, and it was done," but, more wonderful than 
 even that, He silently willed, and the "conscious water 
 knew its Lord, and blushed." In this beginning of 
 miracles, then, Jesus manifested forth His glory as 
 Creator and Sustainer of all things, without whom was 
 not anything made, and by whom all things consist and 
 change. 
 
 III. The results of the miracle are twofold. The 
 ruler of the feast, ignorant of the miracle, unconsciously 
 attests its reality and completeness ; the glory manifested 
 in it deepens the faith of the disciples. 
 
 The ruler's half-jesting speech compliments the bride- 
 groom's cellar at the expense of his prudence, and, in 
 its intention, is simply a suggestion that he is wasting 
 his best wine in producing it when palates are less 
 sensitive than at the beginning of the entertainment. 
 But it suggests a higher thought. Christ keeps His best 
 till last, whereas the world gives its best first ; and, when 
 palates are dulled and appetite diminished, " then that 
 
24 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. H. i-n 
 
 which is worse." How tragically true that is ! In many 
 lives the early days of hope and vigour, when all was 
 fresh and wondrous, contrast miserably with the dreary 
 close, when habit and failing strength have taken the 
 edge off all delights of sense ; and memory, like a 
 lengthening chain, is dragged along, and, with memory, 
 regrets and remorse. In the weariness and monotony 
 of toilsome middle life, and in the deepening shadows 
 of advancing and solitary old age, worldly men have 
 to drink the dregs of the once foaming cup, which " at 
 the last biteth like a serpent." But Jesus keeps the best 
 for the end. No time can cloy His gifts, but advancing 
 years make them more precious and necessary. In His 
 service, " better is the end of a thing than the beginning 
 thereof." And when life is over here, and we pass into 
 the heavens, this word of the ruler at the humble feast 
 will serve to express our thankful surprise at finding all 
 so much better than our highest hopes and sweetest 
 experiences. "Thou hast kept the good wine until 
 now." 
 
 " The best is yet to be, 
 The last of life, for which the first was planned." 
 
 The wider significance of the sign is given in the 
 eleventh verse. It was a manifestation of Christ's glory, 
 and thereby it was the occasion of new faith to the 
 disciples. The light was His, and yet the Father's. The 
 mystery of His being is that His self-revelation was at 
 once ^'the effulgence of" the Father's "glory," and of 
 His own, as the eternal Light and only-begotten Son. 
 That manifestation (one of John's favourite words) led 
 susceptible hearts to new, deeper faith. It was a sign for 
 those who were already disciples, and had no recorded 
 
Less. Ill,] The First Ray of the Glory 25 
 
 effect on others. Not only the miraculous fact, but the 
 whole revelation of Christ in the incident, is meant. 
 We have already seen that it " manifested forth His 
 glory " as being a creative act ; but there are other 
 gleams from it, which reveal other and gracious aspects 
 of our Lord's character and work. 
 
 It is not without meaning that Jesus began His work 
 by sanctioning and hallowing common, and especially 
 family, life. What a contrast there is between the 
 simple gladness of the rustic wedding and the tempta- 
 tion in the wilderness, from which Jesus had just come ! 
 AVhat a contrast between the sublime heights of the 
 prologue and this opening scene of the ministry ! What 
 a contrast between the rigid, ascetic forerunner and this 
 Son of Man ! How unlike the anticipations of the 
 disciples, who would be all tingling with expectation 
 of the first exhibition of His Messiahship ! Surely the 
 fact that His first act was to hallow marriage and family 
 life has opened a fountain of sacred blessing. So He 
 breaks down that wicked division of life into sacred and 
 secular which has damaged both parts so much. So He 
 teaches that the sphere of religion is this world, not 
 only another. So He claims as the subjects of His 
 sanctifying power every relation of manhood. So He 
 says at the beginning of His career, " I am a man, and 
 nothing that belongs to manhood do I reckon foreign to 
 Myself." Where He has trod is hallowed ground. 
 
 The participation of the prince in the festivities of 
 his people dignifies these. Our King has sat at a 
 wedding feast, and the memory of His presence there 
 adds a new sacredness to the sacredest, and a new 
 sweetness to the sweetest, of human ties. The consecra- 
 
26 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. ii. i-n 
 
 tion of His presence, like some pungent and perennial 
 perfume, lingers yet in the else scentless air of daily life. 
 " Sanctity " is not " singularity." We need not withdraw 
 from any region of activity or interest for affection or 
 intellect, in order to develop the whitest saintliness. 
 Christ's saints are to be " in the world, not of it," like 
 their Master, who went from the wilderness and its 
 fearful conflicts to begin His work amid the homely 
 rejoicings of a village wedding. 
 
 Further, He manifested His glory as the ennobler 
 and heightener of earthly joys. That may be taken, 
 with a possibly permissible play of fancy, as a lesson 
 suggested, if not as a meaning intended, by the change 
 of water into wine. The latter is, in the Old Testament 
 especially, a symbol of gladness. The Man of Sorrows 
 brings the gift of joy. To make men glad is an object 
 not unworthy of Him. If we may so say, it was worth 
 His while to come from heaven and agonise and die, 
 that He might pour everlasting and pure joy into weary 
 and sad hearts. 
 
 We are so much accustomed to draw joys from ignoble 
 sources, that in most of them there is a trace of something 
 not altogether creditable or lofty, and hence we often fail 
 to estimate rightly the importance of joy as an element 
 in Christian life. But Christ came to give the oil of joy 
 for mourning, and He does so in part by transforming 
 the less potent and invigorating draughts from earthen 
 waterpots into the new wine of the kingdom. The 
 commonest joys, if only they are not foul and sinful, 
 are capable of this transformation. If we bring them to 
 Jesus, and are " glad in the Lord," He will ennoble 
 them, and they will tend to ennoble us. A taper 
 
Less. III.] The First Ray of the Glory 27 
 
 plunged into a jar of oxygen blazes more brightly. 
 Without Christ's presence, earth's joys at their best and 
 brightest are like some fair landscape in shadow. When 
 He comes to hallow them — as He always does when 
 He is invited — they are like the same scene when the 
 sun blazes out on it, flashes from every bend of the 
 rippling river, brings beauty into shady corners, opens 
 the flowers, and sets all the birds singing, in the sky. 
 Joys on which He can let the sunshine of His smile fall 
 will be bettered and prolonged thereby ; joys on which 
 He cannot, are not for His servants to meddle with. 
 If we cannot make the sign of the cross over our mirth, 
 and ask Him to bless it, we had better be sorrowful than 
 glad. If we keep Him out of our mirth, " the end of 
 that mirth is heaviness," however jubilant may be its 
 beginning. 
 
 But Christ can not only change the water of human 
 joy into the wine of heavenly gladness, but He can drop 
 an elixir into the cups of sorrow, and change them into 
 cups of blessing and salvation. One drop of that potent 
 influence can sweeten the bitterest draught, even though 
 many a tear has fallen into it. He can make Marah 
 into Elim, and can calm sorrow into a wilHng acquies- 
 cence not wholly unlike happiness. Christian sorrow 
 has a sister's likeness to Christian joy, though com- 
 plexion and dress be different. Jesus will repeat " this 
 beginning of miracles " in every sad heart that trusts 
 to Him. 
 
 Where He is invited as a guest. He brings richer 
 provision than was there before. No man is the poorer 
 by asking Him to accept what He can give. They who 
 bid Him to sup with them shall sup with Him. He 
 
28 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. ii. i-n 
 
 supplies the deficiencies of earthly stores. The gifts He 
 gives do not perish with the using. The more we take, 
 the more we have. The largest waterpots will run dry 
 at last ; but Christ will give us a fountain within 
 springing unto life eternal, and when the world's cups 
 are empty He will satisfy the blessed thirst of every 
 spirit which longs for Him and His gifts. 
 
LESSON IV 
 
 How Can these Things be ? " 
 
 St. John iii. 1-17 
 
 1. " There was a man of the 
 Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a 
 ruler of the Jews : 
 
 2. The same came to Jesus 
 bj'^ night, and said unto Him, 
 Rabbi, we know that Thou art 
 a teacher come from God : for 
 no man can do these miracles 
 that Thou doest, except God be 
 with him. 
 
 3. Jesus answered and said 
 unto him, Verily, verily, I say 
 unto thee. Except a man be 
 born again, he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 4. Nicodemus saith unto Him, 
 How can a man be born when 
 he is old ? can he enter the 
 second time into his mother's 
 womb, and be born ? 
 
 5. Jesus answered. Verily, 
 verily, I say unto thee, Except 
 a man be born of water and of 
 the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
 the kingdom of God. 
 
 6. That which is born of the 
 flesh is flesh ; and that which 
 is born of the Spirit is spirit. 
 
 7. Marvel not that I said unto 
 thee. Ye must be born again. 
 
 8. The wind bloweth where 
 it listeth, and thou hearest the 
 sound thereof, but canst not tell 
 whence it cometh, and whither 
 it goeth : so is every one that 
 is born of the Spirit. 
 
 9. Nicodemus answered and 
 
 said unto Him, How can these 
 things be ? 
 
 10. Jesus answered and said 
 unto him, Art thou a master of 
 Israel, and knowest not these 
 things ? 
 
 11. Verily, verily, I say unto 
 thee. We speak that we do 
 know, and testify that we have 
 seen ; and ye receive not our 
 witness. 
 
 12. If I have told you earthly 
 things, and ye believe not, how 
 shall 3^e believe, if I tell you of 
 heavenly things ? 
 
 13. And no man hath as- 
 cended up to heaven, but He 
 that came down from heaven, 
 even the Son of man which is 
 in heaven. 
 
 14. And as Moses lifted up 
 the serpent in the wilderness, 
 even so must the Son of man 
 be lifted up : 
 
 1 5 . That whosoever believeth 
 in Him should not perish, but 
 have eternal life. 
 
 16. For God so loved the 
 world, that He gave His only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever 
 believeth in Him should not 
 perish, but have everlasting 
 life. 
 
 17. For God sent not His 
 Son into the world to condemn 
 the world ; but that the world 
 through Him might be saved." 
 
 29 
 
30 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. iii. 1-17 
 
 THE designation of Nicodemus as " a man of the 
 Pharisees " connects the narrative with the preced- 
 ing words, and presents it as an instance of our Lord's 
 discernment of character and motives, even when these 
 were unexpressed and dimly seen by the man himself. 
 He knew Nicodemus better than Nicodemus did, and 
 spoke to his unspoken thoughts. He "committed 
 Himself " to this " man " as seeing what was in him. 
 This wonderful disclosure of the very heart of the gospel, 
 made thus early and to a ruler, can only be touched here 
 in the slightest fashion. Volumes would not exhaust it, 
 but it must suffice to try to grasp its main sequence of 
 thought. In general, we may regard it as Christ's way 
 of educating a man who was ready to recognise Him as 
 a teacher to a fuller perception of what was needed for 
 discipleship, and to a loftier conception of His nature 
 and work. The utterances of Nicodemus divide the 
 whole into three parts. 
 
 I. We have the imperfect confession and its reception 
 (vers. 1-3). The nocturnal visit looks like timidity, or, 
 at least, a wish for secrecy and non-committal. The 
 acknowledgment by Nicodemus is made in the name of 
 others. Possibly he was sent by some of his colleagues 
 who shared his conviction, and wished further information 
 as to the programme of this new claimant of INIessiahship, 
 or he may have been speaking the general conclusion of 
 the Sanhedrim. If so, they stifled their first clear convic- 
 tions, and afterwards gave the lie to this confession. 
 Those who said " We know that Thou art a teacher come 
 from God " were not subsequently ashamed to say, with 
 equal confidence and arrogance, " We know that this 
 Man is a sinner," and " we know not from whence He 
 
Less. IV.] "How Can these Things be?" 31 
 
 is." Light resisted is quenched. Wilful ignorance call- 
 ing itself knowledge binds sin on men. 
 
 There is an unpleasant tone of superiority, and almost 
 of patronage, in Nicodemus' testimonial. He conde- 
 scends to recognise in Jesus a " teacher," and calls Him 
 "Rabbi," though He had not graduated in the schools. 
 " From God " is put emphatically first, as if to signalise 
 the irregular inspiration of Jesus ; and the prominence 
 given to " we know " implies the speaker's consciousness 
 of the value of such a certificate to this undistinguished 
 teacher. But Nicodemus' error was mainly in his ■ 
 inadequate conception of Christ's nature and work. If 
 we think of Jesus but as a teacher, even if we admit His 
 miracles as attesting God's presence with Him, His true 
 nature and kingdom are hid from our eyes. All merely 
 humanitarian conceptions of Him are here set aside by 
 His own hand, as unworthy of Him and impotent for us. 
 
 Whom did Nicodemus mean to convince by his argu- 
 ment about miracles ? It was singularly unnecessary as 
 addressed to Jesus, but its introduction suggests that the 
 speaker is reassuring his own somewhat shaky faith, which 
 found difficulty in admitting that a Galilean peasant was 
 a God-made rabbi. He has not said a word about what 
 he came for, and we can only infer it from Christ's 
 answer, which, as so often, replies to thoughts rather 
 than words. He wishes to know more of whether Jesus "^ 
 claims to be the Messiah, and means to carry out the 
 Jewish idea of Messiah's kingdom, which John had 
 shadowed. 
 
 Our Lord's answer glances at his " except," and then 
 grapples directly with his unspoken thought, and tells 
 him that the kingdom of God is not brought into being 
 
32 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. m. 1-17 
 
 through teachers, but requires, as the condition of even 
 beholding it, an entirely new beginning of life. There 
 must be new eyes for new seeing, and new seeing for 
 this new order of things, the kingdom of God. That 
 principle, which will be further developed in the sequel, 
 sweeps away the idea that the bringer of the kingdom is 
 merely to be either a school-trained rabbi or a God-sent 
 teacher. Something infinitely more and altogether 
 different from that is wanted. Human nature does not 
 require culture, but a new life. If Jesus is but a teacher. 
 He is but one of the long series whose teachings have 
 failed to arrest evil or bring the golden age. This 
 generation, with its confidence in the ennobling and 
 purifying effect of education, needs this truth as much 
 as Nicodemus did. 
 
 n. Nicodemus' question is not so foolish as it is 
 often supposed to be. Its second part shows that he 
 recognised the impossibility of the expression " born 
 again " being literally understood ; and its first member 
 asks what, in view of that plain impossibility, is the pro- 
 cess intended. One does not see what better question 
 he could have asked. The cautions founded upon its 
 supposed inappropriateness, to the effect that we should 
 beware of putting away truths because we do not under- 
 stand the manner of their being, seem beside the mark. 
 Was not this question the very one which Jesus desired 
 to evoke ? His answer does not deal with it as either 
 absurd or improper, but as the very thing for which He 
 had been waiting. That answer (vers. 5-8) is an explana- 
 tion of the manner and an enforcement of the necessity of 
 this new birth. In the fifth verse both of these thoughts 
 are stated, and rested on the sole authority of Jesus. 
 
Less. IV.] "How Can these Things be?" ^^ 
 
 The duplicated " verily," which is peculiar to this 
 Gospel, at once claims absolute authority for the teacher, 
 attests the importance of the lesson, and calls for our 
 best attention. We are bound to take His statements 
 on His bare word. What is arrogant presumption in 
 a human teacher is consistent with meekness in Him. 
 The truth thus heralded is all-important. Nicodemus' 
 " how can " is fully answered. 
 
 This new life is communicated " by water and Spirit." 
 Whatever be the meaning of the former factor, " water," 
 its omission in the eighth verse shows that it is not on the 
 same level as the latter, " Spirit." It is generally referred 
 to baptism, and, if so, the relation of the two terms is that 
 of symbol and thing symbolised ; or, it may be, of cleans- 
 ing for the past old life, and impartation of the new. 
 But the explanation, which follows the analogy of John 
 the Baptist's phrase "with the Holy Ghost and with fire," 
 taking water to mean simply the purifying energy of the 
 Spirit, is more in accordance with our Lord's absolute 
 silence, till the last of His words, in reference to the rite, 
 and with the omission in verse eight. 
 
 The necessity of the new birth is still more strongly 
 affirmed as the condition, not only of perceiving, but of 
 entering into, the kingdom of God. Therein is contained 
 the declaration of the spiritual character of that kingdom, 
 which, however it may be manifested on earth in institu- 
 tions, is essentially that order of things in which the will 
 of God reigns supreme. The Sanhedrim's dreams, which 
 Nicodemus shared, are shattered by the words. The 
 necessity of this new birth is enforced in the sixth verse 
 by the consideration that, as a stream cannot rise above 
 its source, the child but repeats the elements belonging 
 
 3 
 
34 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. iii. 1-17 
 
 to the parent. " Flesh," by which is meant the whole of 
 human nature apart from the life-giving Spirit, can but 
 produce flesh. Man cannot find within the limits of his 
 own powers the conditions necessary for entrance into 
 the kingdom. The same law of kinship holds in the 
 higher region. Spiritual birth results in a life like its 
 source. That life, by its spiritual nature, is fit to enter 
 a kingdom which is spiritual. Therefore, these things 
 being so, the stringent demand for a new birth as pre- 
 liminary to becoming a subject of Messiah's (which is 
 God's) kingdom should cause no wonder. 
 
 Mark our Lord's emphatic "ye," corresponding to 
 Nicodemus' " we," but also significantly excepting Him- 
 self from the universal need. 
 
 A symbol lies ready at hand which may lighten the 
 wonder. The word necessarily translated " wind " in 
 verse eight is that used in the rest of the conversation, 
 as always, for " spirit " ; and the operation and effects of 
 the one agent are illustrations of those of the other. 
 The former seems to blow where it listeth, so little do 
 we know even yet of the laws determining its course. 
 It is audible in its effect, though unseen in itself, and its 
 source and its goal are beyond us. Thus free in its 
 working, invisible but manifest in result, coming from 
 hidden depths in God, and passing on to unknown issues, 
 the breath of God is breathed into " flesh," and makes it, 
 too, "spirit." Mark the significance of the apparently 
 irregular comparison attributing all these characteristics, 
 not, as we expect, to the Spirit, but to every one born 
 thereby. The offspring is as the parent. The Christian 
 in his new life has the law of the spirit of life within, and 
 is free thereby. The depths of his hidden life cannot be 
 
Less. IV.] "How Can these Things be?" 35 
 
 tracked by fleshly eyes, but its results are manifest. It 
 has its origin in the secrets of Divine love, and its goal is 
 among things which eye hath not seen. 
 
 So Jesus answers the question, " How can a man be 
 born when he is old ? " A new life, which the Spirit 
 of God will give, is the only possible qualification for 
 entrance into the kingdom of God, either here or in its 
 ultimate perfection. What use would a " teacher " be, 
 if that be so? 
 
 III. Nicodemus' third utterance repeats more curtly, 
 and, as it were, wearily, his former question. Christ's 
 answer has a tone of rebuke at first, implying the presence 
 of something wrong, but soon passes to answer with 
 infinite patience what was good in the question, by un- 
 folding the great work which made it possible that " these 
 things " should " be." The conditions of entrance into 
 the kingdom having been laid down, the means of com- 
 pliance with them are next set forth. The tenth verse 
 has an accent of rebuke, and implies that "these things " 
 — that is, the necessity and reality of a spiritual influence 
 recreating men — were so far taught in the Old Testament 
 that the men whose business was to expound it, and 
 whose boast was that they "knew," should have been 
 familiar with them. Many a psalm (Jer. xxxi. ;^;^ ; 
 Ezek. xxxvi. 26) taught these truths. Ecclesiastics blind 
 to the vital centre of the revelation which they assume 
 to expound are found in all Churches. 
 
 The eleventh verse rebukes Nicodemus on another 
 ground, — that he was putting away strong testimony to the 
 truths in hand. But who are the " we " here associated 
 with Jesus ? The best answer is, the little group of 
 disciples, who, however imperfectly, had in some measure 
 
36 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. iii. 1-17 
 
 accepted Christ's teaching, and begun to know the mys- 
 teries of the kingdom. On the one side are the Pharisees, 
 represented by Nicodemus, with his " we know " ; on the 
 other, the handful of Christ's followers who could say, 
 " We have seen, and we know," with better right. 
 
 The essential distinction of true Christian witnessing 
 is here set forth, in some measure anticipatively, as 
 being the result of personal and immediate knowledge ; 
 and John's first words in his Epistle are an echo. The 
 clearness of the witness and the rehableness of its 
 source make the guilt of rejecting the more deep, 
 and the wonder of it the more wonderful and sad. 
 This tenderly condescending " we " makes the presence 
 of some, at least, of the disciples probable; and that 
 would explain the minute • fulness of narrative, since, if 
 any were there, John would be. 
 
 The twelfth verse warns Nicodemus and us all that the 
 rejection of light given bars the reception of higher light, 
 and saddens the Speaker of it. It may seem strange that 
 the truths just spoken should be called " earthly " ; but 
 the strangeness disappears if we remember that that 
 epithet means having their place of manifestation on earth. 
 The new birth is not earthly in the sense of belonging 
 by nature to earth, but it is in that other of being brought 
 about and operating on earth. So it is capable of verifi- 
 cation through its effects, and therefore should be easier 
 to receive than the next declaration to be made. A 
 solemn lesson as to the connection between our attitude 
 to the first and second stages of Christ's teaching is 
 wrapped up in these words. If we will not learn a^ we 
 stand small chance of learning b. 
 
 The thirteenth verse naturally follows the claim that 
 
Less. IV.] "How Can these Things be?" 37 
 
 Jesus was the trustworthy Revealer of heavenly things. 
 There was a witness to the earthly in which others were 
 united with Him, but in telling the heavenly He stood 
 alone. His sole office therein, and the reliableness of 
 these revelations resting on His word only, depend on 
 that great fact that He came down from heaven, and that, 
 as Son of Man, He is in heaven even while on earth. 
 His pre-existence, incarnation, continual communion with 
 the Father, uniqueness, and, as consequence of all. His 
 right to tell heavenly things, and our obligation to 
 receive them, simply because He has said them, are all 
 included in these few words. 
 
 And what are the heavenly things thus solemnly 
 brought to us for our faith ? The fact of the mission of 
 the Son of God from the heart of the Father. Of course, 
 the incarnation and the crucifixion are earthly things, in 
 so far as they have their fulfilment on earth ; but they 
 are heavenly, inasmuch as all which gives them their 
 value, and distinguishes them from any other birth or 
 death, lies in the heavenly truths unfolded in verses 14- 
 18. The brazen serpent was in the likeness of the cause 
 of the disease. Jesus came in the likeness of sinful 
 flesh. Its elevation was the symbol of the defeat of the 
 evil, and the means of making it conspicuous. Christ 
 was lifted on the cross in order to slay the sin in the 
 likeness of which He, sinless, died. A look brought 
 healing. Faith beholds, and is whole. The shameful 
 elevation of the cross was one stage in the elevation to 
 the throne, and Nicodemus and we are to learn that the 
 victory of the King is in His apparent defeat, and the 
 degradation of the lofty cross the direct path to the 
 height of the throne. 
 
38 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. iii. 1-17 
 
 The sacrificial death of Christ on the cross, as in 
 obedience to a necessity (" must ") arising from the 
 very nature of God, the great gift of eternal life flowing 
 from Him to us, and the condition on which that gift is 
 ours, — namely, faith in Him, — are the heavenly things 
 which Jesus unfolded to Nicodemus as the full answer 
 to his question of how that new birth could be brought 
 about. Clearly, the knowledge which each man may 
 have of his own character, and the experience which he 
 has of men, confirm the earlier declaration that a radical 
 change, comparable to a new birth, is needful before 
 such a mortal creature can enter into the state of perfect 
 obedience to God's perfect will. As clearly, such a 
 change can only be effected by superhuman — that is, by 
 Divine — power. Then comes the great question, Can 
 and will such a power be put forth ; and, if so, where is 
 it, and how may I have it working on me ? The second 
 part of this conversation answers these questions. Jesus 
 Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man, has come from 
 the Father, sent by the Father's love. He has died on 
 the cross for sin-stricken men. The look of faith brings 
 His gifts into our hearts. Eternal life is the fife con- 
 ferred in the new birth. They who believe in His name 
 are born, not of flesh, but of God ; and to them He gives 
 the Spirit, which quickens and changes their sinful selves 
 into its own likeness, and gives them authority to become 
 sons of God. 
 
LESSON V 
 The Thirsty Giver of Living Water 
 
 St. John iv. 5-26 
 
 5. "Then cometh He to a 
 city of Samaria, which is called 
 Sychar, near to the parcel of 
 ground that Jacob gave to his 
 son Joseph. 
 
 6. Now Jacob's well was 
 there. Jesus therefore, being 
 wearied with His journey, sat 
 thus on the well : and it was 
 about the sixth hour. 
 
 7. There cometh a woman of 
 Samaria to draw water : Jesus 
 saith unto her, Give Me to 
 drink. 
 
 8. (For His disciples were 
 gone away unto the city to buy 
 meat.) 
 
 9. Then saith the woman of 
 Samaria unto Him, How is it 
 that Thou, being a Jew, askest 
 drink of me, which am a woman 
 of Samaria ? for the Jews have 
 no dealings with the Samaritans. 
 
 10. Jesus answered and said 
 unto her, If thou knewest the 
 gift of God, and who it is that 
 saith to thee. Give Me to drink ; 
 thou wouldest have asked of 
 Him, and He would have given 
 thee living water. 
 
 11. The woman saith unto 
 Him, Sir, Thou hast nothing to 
 
 draw with, and the well is 
 deep : from whence then hast 
 Thou that living water ? 
 
 12. Art Thou greater than 
 our father Jacob, which gave 
 us the well, and drank thereof 
 himself, and his children, and 
 his cattle ? 
 
 13. Jesus answered and said 
 unto her, Whosoever drinketh 
 of this water shall thirst again : 
 
 14. But whosoever drinketh 
 of the water that I shall give 
 him shall never thirst; but the 
 water that I shall give him 
 shall be in him a well of water 
 springing up into everlasting life. 
 
 15. The woman saith unto 
 Him, Sir, give me this water, 
 that I thirst not, neither come 
 hither to draw. 
 
 16. Jesus saith unto her, Go, 
 call thy husband, and come 
 hither. 
 
 17. The woman answered 
 and said, I have no husband. 
 Jesus said unto her. Thou hast 
 well said, I have no husband : 
 
 18. For thou hast had five 
 husbands ; and he whom thou 
 now hast is not thy husband : 
 in that saidst thou truly. 
 
40 
 
 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. iv. 5-26 
 
 19. The woman saith unto 
 Him, Sir, I perceive that Thou 
 art a prophet. 
 
 20. Our fathers worshipped 
 in this mountain ; and ye say, 
 that in Jerusalem is the place 
 where men ought to worship. 
 
 21. Jesus saith unto her, 
 Woman, believe Me, the hour 
 Cometh, when ye shall neither 
 in this mountain, nor yet at 
 Jerusalem, worship the Father. 
 
 22. Ye worship ye know not 
 what : we know what we wor- 
 ship : for salvation is of the 
 Jews. 
 
 23. But the hour cometh? 
 and now is, when the true 
 worshippers shall worship the 
 Father in spirit and in truth : 
 for the Father seeketh such to 
 worship Him. 
 
 24. God is a Spirit : and they 
 that worship Him must worship 
 Him in spirit and in truth. 
 
 25. The woman saith unto 
 Him, I know that Messias 
 Cometh, which is called Christ : 
 when He is come, He will tell 
 us all things. 
 
 26. Jesus saith unto her, I 
 that speak unto thee am He." 
 
 THERE are seven sayings of our Lord in this con- 
 versation, which may be regarded as the seven 
 rounds of a ladder whose foot is on earth and its top in 
 heaven. The first is the request " Give Me to drink," 
 which reveals a true manhood participant of physical 
 need and dependent on help. The last is the full 
 revelation of His dignity in " I that speak unto thee 
 am He." How wide the distance between these two ! 
 The path from the valley to the height, and the reasons 
 for making a Samaritan woman the recipient of so clear 
 a revelation of the truth veiled from His own people, 
 will appear in studying the narrative. Observe that in 
 the earlier part of the conversation Jesus takes the 
 initiative and the woman answers, while in the latter, 
 after her conscience has been roused, the parts are 
 reversed. The passive recipient becomes the active 
 inquirer. 
 
 We must leave all topography and picturesque treat- 
 ment to others, and simply note the first step in the 
 ladder. Try to see with the woman's eyes a travel-worn 
 
Less. V.J The Thirsty Giver of Living Water 4 1 
 
 Jew sitting alone by the well, and to hear with her ears 
 the request for a draught of water, which He evidently 
 sorely needed. Her question (probably put while she 
 was giving the boon asked for) is the simple expression 
 of wonder, with a little dash of rustic raillery in it, as 
 who should say, "Oh, then, a thirsty Jew is not quite 
 so proud as he would be if He did not want anything ! 
 You can speak to a Samaritan, and that a woman, when 
 she can help you." Her wonder would have been 
 greater if she had known the deepest answer to her 
 question, His elevation above all national distinctions 
 and equal kinship to every human soul. 
 
 But, if we look at this scene with eyes enlightened 
 by fuller knowledge, how wonderful and precious it is, 
 as one pathetic evidence of the true humanity and 
 humiliation of our Lord ! He whose goings forth were 
 of old sat, a weary traveller, too tired to go with the 
 disciples to buy food, which He needed. The blazing 
 sun, His creature, made Him thirst who stills the 
 cravings of souls. Our question should be, " How is it 
 that Thou, being the Son of God, needest and askest 
 drink of one of us ? " The answer carries us deep into 
 the mysteries of God and the heart of the gospel. 
 
 The second step (vers. 10-12) is like a partial opening 
 of a giving hand to show a corner of the gift lying in 
 it, which is met by a half-bewildered answer, through 
 which appears a dawning sense of some deeper meaning 
 than the speaker has grasped. Our Lord does not yet 
 afford any clear indication of the nature of the gift, but 
 simply seeks to awaken a sense of great possibilities to 
 be had for the asking. He links His words on to the 
 woman's expressed wonder that He, being what she sees 
 
42 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. iv. 5-26 
 
 Him, should cross the barrier to her. If she knew who 
 He, the " Jew," was, a deeper wonder would open to 
 her, and it would be she who would -sue to Him. " The 
 gift of God " is not defined, but the very generality of 
 the phrase stirs desires. It is perhaps best left in that 
 generality, as here meaning all that God gives through 
 Christ. 
 
 Two things then are pointed out, in which He would 
 have her feel her ignorance, — the gift of God, and the 
 true nature of Him, the Giver. If men rightly under- 
 stood what God wishes to give them, the knowledge 
 could not but kindle desire. If they understood it was 
 a gift, they would know that asking was the way to get 
 it. If they knew that Christ gave God's gift, they would 
 know to ask Him. That " if thou knewest " is, on 
 Christ's lips, a lament as well as a palliation. This 
 woman's ignorance was innocent. Ours is not. But 
 the knowledge here meant is more than intellectual 
 apprehension ; for, alas ! it is possible to know in that 
 way both of these subjects, and to have no motions of 
 desire towards them. Not only will real knowledge 
 produce desire, but every desire addressed to Jesus will 
 be answered. The sequence is certain. *,^now," "ask,'^, 
 "have," are links soldered fast together. 
 
 What is the " living water " ? Of course, the form of 
 the symbol has reference to the occasion of the whole 
 conversation. But the occurrence of the same metaphor 
 in the words to Nicodemus as to " water and the Spirit," 
 and again in the great scene in the temple court (John 
 vii. 37), suggests that the emblem is here used for the 
 gift of the Holy Spirit. If so, the subsequent teaching 
 of the nature of true worship is based on the promise 
 
Less, v.] The Thirsty Giver of Living Water 43 
 
 in this earlier part of the conversation, and a new hnk 
 between the parts is brought to Hght. But whatever 
 the meaning may be, there is no explanation of it at 
 this stage. Enough if now some longing for the un- 
 known precious gift and some dawnings of trust in its 
 Giver begin to move in the woman. 
 
 Her reply indicates growing seriousness and incipient 
 awe. She addresses Jesus with a title of respect, and 
 her question, pointing out the physical impossibility, is 
 like Nicodemus' parallel one, the first trace of per- 
 ception that more is meant than water. Her second 
 question lays hold of Christ's hint of concealed greatness; 
 and while it puts emphasis on ''Thou," — a wearied, thirsty, 
 solitary wayfarer, — and magnifies, with a touch of national 
 jealousy, " our father Jacob," whom she calls, with dis- 
 tinct reference to Christ's promise to give, the " giver " of 
 " the well," there is a tone of reverence in it which seems 
 to invite fuller disclosure. Thus far Christ's dealing has 
 told as He desired. 
 
 The next step (vers. 13-15) is a fuller explanation of 
 the gift, answered by asking which, however imperfect, 
 is not in vain. Water gives temporary relief to thirst, 
 and so all creatural delights and goods allay desires for 
 a space only. They fail in permanence because they are 
 external. If men are ever to cease to thirst, they must 
 have an inward fountain. Nothing outside of me can 
 permanently still my nature. Jesus does not define His 
 gift, but tells its blessed effects. He has something to 
 give which will pass into the spirit, and, there abiding, 
 will not only quench a moment's thirst, but will be a 
 self-reproducing fountain, — not merely like water in a 
 cup or even in Jacob's well, but " leaping up " towards 
 
44 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. iv. 5-26 
 
 and reaching to the eternal Hfe from which it came. A 
 satisfying gift, an inward gift, a satisfying inward gift, 
 which is itself an active principle and the quickener of 
 action where it dwells, and which ever tends towards the 
 perfect consummation of eternal life, — what can this gift 
 be but that Spirit which He gives, and which is in us the 
 ground of all enduring blessedness, the spring of all glad 
 energy, the inspirer of all Teachings of heart and mind 
 towards the perfect life, of which it is the earnest ? The 
 great words in the seventh chapter, already referred to, 
 are the best commentary on this saying. 
 
 The woman's wonder has deepened into awe, and her 
 glimmering suspicions of something great in this "Jew " 
 pass into longings to possess this gift ; and her petition, 
 though it be spoken as in twilight, bears witness that new 
 desires are beginning. She does not understand, but 
 she feels that somehow this Stranger can give her the 
 cure of two evils, ^unsatisfied thirst and weary toil, the 
 latter being pathetically expressed in the Revised Version's 
 " come all the way hither." Even the dimmest per- 
 ception of His gift, which is strong enough to wing a 
 prayer to Him, is strong enough to bring an answer. 
 Even the desire to have earthly necessities supplied and 
 earthly toil alleviated is acceptable to Him. 
 
 The next step (vers. 16, 17) is the unexpected home- 
 thrust at her sin and the roused conscience. No ex- 
 planation of the startling suddenness of this address 
 is sufficient, if it supposes that Jesus did not know her 
 circumstances, or did not mean it as an assault on her con- 
 science. What other reason could there be for breaking 
 in on the flow of the conversation ? The lesson taught 
 by this sudden demand is that the consciousness of sin 
 
Less, v.] The Thirsty Giver of living Water 45 
 
 must be evoked, and penitence precede the reception of 
 Christ's gift. The direct way to answer the woman's 
 prayer is to rouse her conscience. 
 
 The woman's answer proves that she is under the 
 spell of Christ's influence. There is shame in its brevity, 
 but also the need to tell Him the shameful truth. Per- 
 haps there may be also a shade of doubt whether He 
 could have the mysterious power she was beginning to 
 think He had, since He seemed to err. Did she half 
 think that she had found Him tripping ? If so, the next 
 step sets her right. 
 
 It is (vers. 17, 18) the full disclosure of her sin and 
 the full recognition of His prophetic authority. " He 
 knew all men " (John ii. 24), and His minute knowledge 
 of the foul details drove home the conviction that He 
 was " a prophet." She has got nearer the true con- 
 ception than Nicodemus, with his cold statement of a 
 reasoned conviction. A quickened conscience is a good 
 teacher. She does not resent the Stranger's intrusion 
 into her past, nor make excuses, but, as it were, falls in 
 a heap at His feet, utterly abject before Him. They are 
 not beyond hope who are within reach of conviction of 
 sin. From this point onward the woman takes the 
 mitiative, and Christ answers. That is a sign of growing 
 interest and earnestness. 
 
 So the next step (vers. 20-24) is her reference of the 
 fundamental question between her people and His to His 
 prophetic authority. The supposition that her question 
 was only a diversion, to get away from further allusions 
 to her life, is inconsistent both with her previous attitude 
 of reverence and awe and with the tone of Christ's 
 answer. The question raised by her divided the two 
 
46 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. iv. 5-26 
 
 peoples, was important, and had evidently been seriously 
 thought of by her. She must have been profoundly 
 impressed by Jesus, to think of asking Him, " being a 
 Jew," to decide it for her. She all but offers, in asking 
 His judgment, to become a proselyte. But her notions 
 are those of formal worshippers, to whom the place made 
 worship acceptable, and who were more concerned about 
 the where than the how -ox the whom. She leaves out 
 the name of the object of worship, as if that w^ere less 
 important than the locality. 
 
 Our Lord's great answer lifts her high above half- 
 pagan notions. It deals with a prospect for the future 
 and a privilege for the present. At some hour, which is 
 yet to come and will come, the religion of sacred places 
 will melt away, with all its antagonisms, in a worship 
 which will be universal because it is filial. When that 
 hour strikes, Gerizim and Jerusalem will equally be 
 forsaken shrines. The fatherhood of God is the great 
 truth which Jesus proclaims as determining the externals 
 of worship. 
 
 But He also answers the question as to the relative 
 worth of Samaritan and Jewish worship. The difference 
 does not lie in the place of worship, but in the knowledge 
 of the worshippers. The Samaritans had cut themselves 
 off from God's progressive revelation of Himself in Israel, 
 and therefore their worship was of an unknown some- 
 what. The God to whom men attain by any other path 
 than ^hat of accepting His historical revelation of Him- 
 self, is a dim and colourless abstraction, a peradventure, 
 an object of fear or hope, as may be, but not of know- 
 ledge. Only they who accept and profit by that historical 
 revelation can be said to " know what they worship." 
 
Less, v.] The Thirsty Giver of Living Water 47 
 
 The reason for this knowledge of the object of worship 
 is that, by God's appointment, " the [promised] salva- 
 tion " was to proceed from the Jews, which implies a 
 process of revelation among them. The woman's ques- 
 tion is thus answered, the true prerogative of Israel set 
 forth, even while the universal destination of that salvation 
 is asserted, and the fading away of all national pre- 
 eminence and local sanctity in the universal worship of 
 the Father foretold. 
 
 But the present has its privilege and its duty, as well 
 as the future its glorious, wide prospect. " The hour 
 now is." Because Jesus has come, it has come. His 
 coming is the revelation of the Father, and is the Father's 
 seeking for true worshippers. Such words, though parti- 
 ally understood, would lead the woman to feel more and 
 more the mysterious greatness of the Speaker, and would 
 sound as inviting her to become such a worshipper. The 
 true sanctuary is the worshipper's " spirit," that higher 
 part or aspect of human nature which is capable of 
 communion with God. Worship in spirit is possible 
 only on the basis of Christ's work. It leaves all ques- 
 tions of externals at the foot of the mountain. But that 
 communion in spirit with the Divine Spirit is to be also 
 " in truth." A true, though not full, knowledge is 
 possible on the basis of Christ's revelation, which gives 
 the substance of Jewish ritual shadows and the reality 
 which heathenism had overlaid with errors. True ideas 
 and right feelings are both drawn from Him. 
 
 The last step (vers. 25, 26) is the woman's Messianic 
 hope and Christ's full disclosure of Himself. The alien, 
 heretical Samaritan has a loftier ideal of Messiah than 
 the orthodox Jew. She thinks of a perfect Enlightener ; 
 
48 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. iv. 5-26 
 
 he thought of a temporal prince. The heretic may 
 have in some respects a higher ideal than the orthodox 
 whose orthodoxy is stiffened into form. This soul, 
 though stained with fleshly lusts, and groping in much 
 darkness, was ready to hail Messiah ; and that for the 
 sake of His revealing power, and not for lower gifts. 
 
 Therefore Jesus at last throws back the cloak, of 
 which He had let a fold or two be blown aside, and 
 stands confessed in His full sovereign authority. Docile 
 reception of partial knowledge, and desire for its increase, 
 are ever rewarded. " Whosoever hath, to him shall be 
 given." An alien woman receives the full-orbed truth 
 which was hidden from rabbis and Pharisees. That 
 Christ who comes to give the Spirit which is the water 
 of life, and to reveal the Father, and to make worship in 
 spirit and truth possible for the humblest, will hold 
 familiar converse with outcasts and sinners. The initial 
 wonder of His speaking to an alien pales before the 
 stupendous wonder that the eternal Word becomes flesh 
 and talks, with human lips and Divine condescension, 
 with us. 
 
LESSON VI 
 
 The Life-Giver and Judge 
 
 St. John v. 17-30 
 
 17. "But Jesus answered 
 them, My Father worketh 
 hitherto, and I work. 
 
 18. Therefore the Jews 
 sought the more to kill Him, 
 because He not only had broken 
 the Sabbath, but said also that 
 God was His Father, making 
 Himself equal with God. 
 
 19. Then answered Jesus 
 and said unto them. Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, The Son 
 can do nothing of Himself, but 
 what He seeth the Father do : 
 for what things soever He 
 doeth, these also doeth the Son 
 likewise. 
 
 20. For the Father loveth the 
 Son, and showeth Him all 
 things that Himself doeth : and 
 He will show Him greater 
 works than these, that ye may 
 marvel. 
 
 21. For as the Father raiseth 
 up the dead, and quickeneth 
 them ; even so the Son quick- 
 eneth whom He will. 
 
 22. For the Father judgeth 
 no man, but hath committed all 
 judgment unto the Son. 
 
 23. That all men should 
 honour the Son, even as they 
 honour the Father. He that 
 honoureth not the Son honour- 
 eth not the Father which hath 
 sent Him. 
 
 24. Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you. He that heareth My word, 
 and believeth on Him that sent 
 Me, hath everlasting life, and 
 shall not come into condemna- 
 tion ; but is passed from death 
 unto life. 
 
 25. Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you. The hour is coming, and 
 now is, when the dead shall 
 hear the voice of the Son of 
 God : and they that hear shall 
 live. 
 
 26. For as the Father hath 
 life in Himself; so hath He 
 given to the Son to have life 
 in Himself; 
 
 27. And hath given Him 
 authority to execute judgment 
 also, because He is the Son of 
 man. 
 
 28. Marvel not at this : for 
 the hour is coming, in the 
 which all that are in the graves 
 shall hear His voice, 
 
 29. And shall come forth ; 
 they that have done good, unto 
 the resurrection of life ; and 
 they that have done evil, unto 
 the resurrection of damnation. 
 
 30. I can of Mine own self 
 do nothing: as I hear, I judge: 
 and My judgment is just ; be- 
 cause I seek not Mine own will, 
 but the will of the Father which 
 hath sent Me." 
 
 49 
 
50 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. v. 17-30 
 
 IT was a strange state of mind to admit that Jesus 
 " did these things," — namely, miracles, — and yet to 
 take offence that it was " on the Sabbath day." Our 
 Lord's wonderful answer to these pedantic formalists 
 made one offence into two. Hatred sometimes divines 
 meanings hidden from love. The Jews were right when 
 they interpreted Him as claiming to be the Son of God 
 in a special sense (" His own Father "), and as therein 
 asserting equality with God. That great saying in the 
 seventeenth verse is the germ of all this lesson's remark- 
 able teaching. The Divine rest, which the Sabbath 
 symbolises, is not cessation of action. Both in that pre- 
 servation which is a continual creation, and in redeeming 
 activity, God unceasingly works. And the Son's work is 
 of the same order and conforms to the same law. The 
 rest of the lesson is Christ's defence of that claim, the 
 greatness of which had thrown His original offence of 
 Sabbath-breaking into the shade. Perhaps we may take 
 the triple " Verily, verily," as marking its stages. 
 
 I. Verses 19-23 assert that the work of the Son is 
 absolutely coincident and coextensive with that of the 
 Father, predict still more signal instances of that working 
 of Divine work by the Son, and, as practical consequence 
 of that identity of working, claim identity of reverence 
 for the Son and the Father. Throughout the whole the 
 personality of Jesus is kept subordinate to the exposition 
 of the relation of fatherhood and sonship in its most 
 perfect form. A true son will do as his father does ; a 
 true father will lovingly confide his motives and methods 
 to the son. Such ideal perfectness of paternal confidence 
 and filial following, Jesus declares, though without as yet 
 distinctly presenting His own person, to subsist between 
 
Less. vi.J The Life-Giver and Judge 5 1 
 
 Him and God. The tremendous claim is made first 
 negatively, and then positively, — He does nothing of 
 Himself, but everything which God does, He does. 
 So, entire suppression of the human self, clear vision 
 of the working of God, power to do whatever Divine 
 power can do, and to do all these " in like manner," 
 are the claims made here by Jesus. How can His 
 pretensions to be a meek and lowly pattern and religious 
 teacher be sustained in the face of such tremendous 
 assertions, except we beUeve Him to be Divine ? Surely 
 there is no escaping the conclusion that, if He ever 
 said such things, He is either arrogant to the verge of 
 madness, and undeserving of credit as a teacher and of 
 imitation as a pattern, or else He is the Son of God, able 
 to do Divine works, and worthy of Divine honour. 
 
 The ground of this absolute correspondence is laid 
 (ver. 20) in the Father's love, which implies perfect 
 communication of purposes and deeds. The words give 
 a glimpse into the eternal depths of Deity, and show 
 there the energy of love and the possibility of communion 
 before creatures were. They claim for the incarnate 
 Son the same unbroken share in the love of the Father 
 and undimmed vision of His work. They marvellously 
 unite lowly subordination and sameness of nature, and 
 however little we can read all their depths, they unmis- 
 takably proclaim that He of whom they are true is Divine. 
 
 But the communication is further set forth as being 
 gradual and progressive, and " greater works " are yet 
 to be shown and done. The miracles, of which one had 
 occasioned this whole discourse, are here put below the 
 future work, whether of redemption by the cross, or of 
 rule from the throne, or of resurrection and judgment. 
 
52 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. v. 17-30 
 
 The whole of these are unitedly "the work of Christ," 
 of which the single works are parts. Wonder is not the 
 final aim of any of His works, but the beginning of the 
 path which ends in faith. AVonder may breed attention, 
 and attention may recognise the truth which makes the 
 wonderful natural (" Marvel not^^^ ver. 28). It rouses 
 the soul, but its worth depends on what the roused 
 soul does next. If it beholds and despises, it w^onders 
 and perishes ; if it w^onderingly beholds and cries " My 
 Lord and my God ! " it lives and grows familiar w4th 
 what was once so strange. 
 
 Verses 21 and 22 instance two of these greater works, 
 and give definiteness to the claim of the correspondence 
 of the Son's work with the Father's. He has the Divine 
 power of giving and restoring life, and the awful preroga- 
 tive of judgment. These two are here stated in their 
 most general form, and in a more developed fashion 
 (as is usual in St. John's Gospel and Epistle) in the sub- 
 sequent context. It is God who kills and makes alive, 
 and only a Divine person could exercise that power on 
 " whom He will." Others might and could wield it, 
 as mere channels of Divine will ; but Jesus was not a 
 mere instrument, but the source of power, when He 
 stopped the bier with " I say unto thee. Arise." That 
 is no contradiction of His preceding disavowal of doing 
 anything of Himself, but is the assurance that His wuU 
 ever coincided with the Father's, as w^ell as the claim to 
 be Himself the true raiser from the dead, whether the 
 bodily or spiritually dead. Are we listening to a mere 
 man like ourselves ? If so, shall we call Him saint, sage, 
 or blasphemer ? 
 
 The prerogative of judgment is adduced as the ground, 
 
Less. VI.] The Life-Giver and Judge ■ 53 
 
 or perhaps rather as the proof, of the other of Ufe- 
 giving ; and here for a moment the identity of the action 
 of the Father and the Son seems broken, for the 
 " Father judges no man." But it is still retained in 
 essence ; for it is the Father who has given the authority 
 to judge. Again we have to mark the many-sidedness 
 of the ineffable relation of Father and Son, which, when 
 it is presented in human speech, can only be shadowed 
 by apparent opposites, such as occur throughout this 
 context. They are not contradictions, but indications 
 that the full comprehension of the truth which they 
 complimentarily set forth is beyond us. Note, too, the 
 view here given of the Son's work, present as well as 
 future : He is, not merely will be, the Judge. In one 
 aspect He said, "God sent not His Son . . . to judge 
 the world." In another He said, " For judgment I am 
 come into this world." 
 
 The purpose of all this communication of Divine 
 powers and prerogatives is next stated, in words which 
 one cannot read without a shudder, unless one accepts 
 them as the utterance of a truly Divine consciousness. 
 Jesus declares that He is meant to receive a universal 
 homage, precisely identical with that rendered to God ; 
 and He further dares to assert that to withhold such 
 from Him is to withhold it from God. Yet the claim 
 is the claim of a Son ; and, even in making it, though it 
 surely is the most awful that ever came from sane lips, 
 He does not forget His filial subordination. 
 
 Can any theory of His nature do justice to both sides 
 of these solemn sayings, except that which sees in Him 
 the Word made flesh, who in the beginning was with 
 God and was God ? 
 
54 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. v. 17-30 
 
 II. The second " verily, verily " (ver. 24) further un- 
 folds the bearing of the two great ideas of life-giving and 
 judgment. The personality of Jesus is more prominent 
 (" My word "). The conditions on which men receive 
 life and escape judgment are set forth with majestic 
 absoluteness, and all is commended as sufficiently estab- 
 lished by nothing more than His bare word. A teacher 
 of a new sort this, who makes the most astounding and 
 awful assertions, and never stops to prove them, but 
 simply says, " I tell you so, and that is enough." What 
 must He have thought of His word, who could thus 
 calmly declare that to accept it, and to trust in Him 
 whom it revealed, secures present possession of eternal 
 life and exemption from judgment ? That life is a 
 resurrection ; for every one possessing it passes from 
 death into it. The world is a graveyard. It was spoken 
 of to Nicodemus as a birth, here it is a resurrection. 
 The Son "quickens whom He will"; but that w^ill is 
 neither arbitrary as regards men, nor self-asserting as 
 regards the Father. The law of its harmonies with the 
 latter we do not know, but its conditions as to ourselves 
 we do. He wills to quicken all who receive His word. 
 The reception of that word removes its receivers from 
 the incidence of the judgment w^hich follows future 
 resurrection ; for the possession of eternal Hfe negatives 
 the need and possibility of judgment ; and if Christ's 
 words are daily judging and cleansing us here, and by 
 their light "we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged." 
 These great gifts are present gifts. The eternal life is 
 ours to-day, and the abolition of judgment in all its 
 terrible aspects, while it is active in all its beneficent ones, 
 is the privilege of every believing soul here and now. 
 
Less. VI.] The Life-Giver and Judge 55 
 
 III. The third " verily, verily " introduces the full 
 development of these two great ideas, filling up their 
 contents and discriminating their aspects (vers. 25-27). 
 The first broadly marked feature is the clear separation 
 of two stages or epochs of resurrection and judgment, — 
 one present (" the hour cometh, and now is "), one future 
 (" cometh "). Clearly the former refers to the spiritual 
 quickening which has been spoken of in verse twenty- 
 four, as is established by that remarkable limitation, 
 " They that hear shall live," which is only explicable by 
 supposing that " the dead " are those sunk in the death 
 of sin and self, and that, among these, there are the 
 two classes of " some who believed " and " some who 
 believed not." They can exercise choice though they 
 be dead, and, if they will, can be deaf as well as dead. 
 Our Lord's personality is again veiled ; and while He 
 spoke of His voice in the former verse, here. He speaks 
 of " the voice of the Son of God." The quickening 
 power of that voice is traced (ver. 26) to the Son's 
 possession of " life in Himself," — a Divine prerogative, 
 which yet, by a bold paradox, is declared to be " given." 
 The two expressions "given" and "in Himself" seem 
 mutually exclusive, and can only be reconciled by the 
 recognition of the mysterious relation of Fatherhood and 
 Sonship in the depths of Deity. That Son, being in 
 Himself possessor of life, can impart it, and does do so 
 to all who hear His voice. The prerogative of judgment 
 necessarily resides where the power of life-giving resides, 
 but is here connected with our Lord's manhood, rather 
 than with His Divine Sonship, as it was in verse 22. 
 It is a Divine office, needing omniscience and other 
 purely Divine attributes, and these are presupposed as 
 
56 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. v. 17-30 
 
 included in verse 22 ; but it is a blessed addition to the 
 thought that the Judge of men must be a man, who 
 knows our frame, not only with the knowledge of a God, 
 but by the experience of a man, and, as Judge no less 
 than as priestly Intercessor, " can have compassion on 
 the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way." 
 
 Verses 28 and 29 obviously refer to a future event, 
 the hour of which " comes," but is not " now " ; and 
 that event is unmistakably the universal resurrection of 
 the corporeally dead, as is clear from the unambiguous 
 description of its objects, as " all that are in the graves," 
 and from the addition, as compared with verse 24, of 
 " shall come forth " ; and, yet more solemnly, from the 
 twofold nature of this resurrection, contrasted with the 
 one blessed result of that former. Life-giving is once 
 more connected with judgment ; but now the life given 
 is of such a kind that only a portion of its recipients 
 partake of "the resurrection of life," while others, who 
 also live again, have their resurrection unto "judgment." 
 The true life is the antithesis of the final judgment ; 
 and they who hear the voice of Jesus here and now 
 shall not come into that final judgment, while they who 
 hear it not shall at last hear it, and rise to a life which 
 is not life, but judgment. 
 
 Verse 30 carries us back to the beginning of this 
 wonderful outpouring of Christ's consciousness. His 
 own personality is now put in the foreground, as if 
 insisting on the application of all these great sayings 
 concerning " the Son " to Himself. But while He thus 
 makes the most awful claims, lowly self-abnegation blends 
 in the most unheard-of manner with these. He declares 
 Himself to be the fountain of fife, the Judge of the 
 
Less. VI.] The Life-Giver and Judge 57 
 
 world, the eternal Son of God, capable of doing all 
 Divine acts ; and yet He abjures all independent self- 
 willed activity, and proclaims, in words of which their 
 lowliness and their consciousness of complete and con- 
 tinual conformity with the Father's will are equally 
 unique, that His judgments are always just, because 
 they are always the utterance of the Father's, which He 
 ever hears, because, without the smallest deflection, His 
 human will is conformed and submitted to the Father's. 
 This closing utterance of Christ's self-consciousness is 
 lowly humility in Him. What but the very insanity of 
 self-righteousness and fancied infallibility would it be in 
 any other man that ever lived ? 
 
LESSON VII 
 
 Bread Enough, and to Spare 
 
 St. John vi, 1-14 
 
 1. " After these things Jesus 
 went over the sea of GaHlee, 
 which is the sea of Tiberias. 
 
 2. And a great multitude 
 followed Him, because they 
 saw His miracles which He 
 did on them that were diseased. 
 
 3. And Jesus went up into a 
 mountain, and there He sat 
 with His disciples. 
 
 4. And the passover, a feast 
 of the Jews, was nigh. 
 
 5. When Jesus then lifted 
 up His eyes, and saw a great 
 company come unto Him, He 
 saith unto Philip, Whence 
 shall we buy bread, that these 
 may eat ? 
 
 6. And this He said to prove 
 Him : for He Himself knew 
 what He would do. 
 
 7. Philip answered Him, 
 Two hundred pennyworth of 
 bread is not sufficient for them, 
 that every one of them may 
 take a little. 
 
 8. One of His disciples, 
 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, 
 saith unto Him, 
 
 9. There is a lad here, which 
 
 hath five barley loaves, and 
 two small fishes : but what are 
 they among so many ? 
 
 10. And Jesus said. Make 
 the men sit down. Now there 
 was much grass in the place. 
 So the men sat down, in num- 
 ber about five thousand. 
 
 11. And Jesus took the 
 loaves ; and when He had 
 given thanks, He distributed to 
 the disciples, and the disciples 
 to them that were set down ; 
 and likewise of the fishes as 
 much as they would. 
 
 12. When they were filled, 
 He said unto His disciples, 
 Gather up the fragm.ents that 
 remain, that nothing be lost. 
 
 13. Therefore they gathered 
 them together, and filled twelve 
 baskets with the fragments of 
 the five barley loaves, which 
 remained over and above unto 
 them that had eaten. 
 
 14. Then those men, when 
 they had seen the miracle that 
 Jesus did, said, This is of a 
 truth that prophet that should 
 come into the world." 
 
 A 
 
 FTER these things." What things? Those 
 recorded in the fifth chapter as having occurred 
 in Jerusalem. There must, therefore, be inserted before 
 
 58 
 
Less. VII.] Bread Enough, and to Spare 59 
 
 this narrative a journey from Jerusalem to Galilee ; and, 
 if the preceding incidents took place, as is probable, at 
 the Feast of Purim, several weeks had passed in Galilee. 
 Our narrative omits also our Lord's reasons for this 
 retirement to the eastern shores of the lake. John's 
 attention is fixed on the significance of the miracle, as 
 developed in the subsequent discourse on the bread of 
 life, to which it gave occasion, and on its importance as 
 a turning-point in the people's estimate of Jesus, to 
 whom they at first clung with enthusiastic hope, and 
 from whom they departed when the miracle was followed 
 by His " hard sayings " founded on it. 
 
 The double name for the lake is an indication that 
 this Gospel was not addressed to Jews familiar with the 
 scene. Its readers were more likely to have known the 
 name of Tiberias than the other. Verse 2 describes 
 vividly not merely the circumstances of that one time, 
 but the habitual environment at that period, — a throng 
 of eager gazers, drawn by curiosity more than by any 
 deeper feelings, who pressed on Jesus, regardless of 
 delicacy or of His need for repose and privacy. Part 
 of the reason for crossing the lake was to avoid these 
 intrusive sight-seers, but they came hurrying after, mak- 
 ing their way on foot round the head of the sea, and 
 destroying the seclusion needed both by Him and by 
 the disciples, who had just come back from their trial 
 mission. They had found some quiet spot on the hill- 
 side, and there "He sat with His disciples," glad of this 
 breathing-time. The note of time, in verse 4, explains 
 the crowd, and may also hint at the spiritual significance 
 of the feast, which was a truer passover than that in 
 Jerusalem. 
 
6o The Gospel of St. John [Chap. vi. 1-14 
 
 The first point to observe is Christ's cheerful giving 
 up of repose and quick sympathetic foresight of men's 
 needs. No impatience disturbs His cahii as the vulgar 
 crowd come flocking towards Him. He surrenders the 
 prospect of quiet without a sigh, being ever ready to 
 " please not Himself," and finding His meat in doing 
 the Father's will. Before the mob is at His side. He 
 thinks for them of a want which they had not thought 
 of. They were not hungry yet, and had not troubled 
 themselves about food. But He cared for the careless. 
 His heart foresaw their need, and already knew what 
 He would do to supply it. So is it ever. Before we 
 call, He answers, and prepares to supply necessities as 
 yet unfelt. 
 
 The next point is the question asked by conscious 
 power and answered by practical common sense. In 
 the Synoptics, the question of how to get provision is 
 discussed first among the apostles privately at the close 
 of the day. John not only makes it originate with Jesus, 
 but times it before the people had arrived. It does not 
 seem unreasonable to suppose that the difference in the 
 times is the key that harmonises the accounts. The 
 question suggested by Jesus to Philip alone, and 
 answered by him only, worked in the latter's mind all 
 day ; and, when the evening came on, his answer is 
 again quoted by the disciples. John will then have 
 fused into one the two conversations at the beginning 
 and end of the day. The question was " to prove " 
 Philip ; that is, to see whether he had so grasped Christ's 
 power as to answer, " We need not buy, for Thou canst 
 supply." Does not Christ do with us thus still ? He 
 takes us, as it were, into His confidence, with interroga- 
 
Less. VII.] Bread Enough, and to Spare 6i 
 
 tions that try us, whether we can rise above the level of 
 visible resources, and beheve in His unseen power. 
 
 Philip is always strong in his appreciation of what he 
 can see. When Nathanael said to him, " Can any good 
 thing come out of Nazareth ? " all he had to say was, 
 " Come and see," — the best answer he could have made, 
 but not the less characteristic. He broke in upon the 
 sacred words in the upper room with, " Show us the 
 Father." So here he sticks to the visible, and, running 
 his eye over the crowd, makes a rough-and-ready calcu- 
 lation, the data of which we do not know, that some 
 seven pounds might get a mouthful apiece for them. 
 He was a man of figures, and believed in statistics, and, 
 like some other folk of that sort, he left out one small 
 factor in his calculation, — namely, Jesus Christ. When 
 we have to deal with Christ's working — and when have 
 we not ? — the audacity of a faith that expects great things, 
 though there is nothing visible on which to build, is 
 wiser and more "practical " than the common sense that 
 creeps along the low levels of "fact," and does not see 
 the one all-important fact that we have a Divine Helper 
 at our sides. 
 
 Then comes the exhibition of the poor resources of 
 the disciples. Philip and Andrew were fellow-townsmen, 
 and appear together (John i. 44 ; xii. 22). Note how the 
 greater personality of Peter overshadows his brother, who 
 is known to the readers rather by his relationship than 
 for himself. Barley-loaves were the poor man's food, and 
 one loaf per thousand was little. Two small fishes were 
 still more ludicrously disproportionate to the case. The 
 disciples' own stores seem to have been empty, and they 
 would probably have been hungry though no crowd had 
 
62 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. vi. 1-14 
 
 come. Would Jesus have wrought a miracle to feed 
 Himself? Christ's preparation for making our poor 
 resources adequate is to drive home the consciousness of 
 their insufficiency. When we have gone down into the 
 depths of our own impotence, and seen that the work we 
 have to do is far too great for our own strength, which is 
 weakness, we are fit to receive His with rejoicing and 
 overcoming might. We must be emptied of self if we 
 are to be filled with God. 
 
 The next point is the seating of the hungry multitude. 
 " Make the men sit down " was a test for both disciples 
 and crowd. It would kindle wonder and expectation, 
 and neither would have obeyed, unless some faint germ 
 of faith, at least in His power to spread a table even 
 there, had been quickened in them. At most, they 
 anticipated food, and the measure of their expectation 
 was the measure of His gift. A rudimentary trust 
 brought corporeal blessings. It impelled to obedience, 
 and obedience was rewarded according to its impulse 
 and their need. John remembers still, after all these 
 years, the flush of the spring grass on which the ranks 
 of wondering, waiting people sat by the quiet lake. 
 "Jesus therefore took the loaves." That is one of John's 
 significant " therefores." If we sit down as He bids us, 
 our mouths will not long be empty. If we do what He 
 tells us to do, we shall get the food which we need. 
 Our business is to obey and wait patiently in confidence ; 
 and His is to open His hand, when we are seated, and 
 let the mercy drop on us. " Trust in the Lord, and do 
 good ; . . . verily thou shalt be fed." 
 
 Next comes the miracle itself. Two points only are 
 noticed, — the thanksgiving and the distribution. Accord- 
 
Less. VII.] Bread Enough, and to Spare 63 
 
 ing to the reading of the Revised Version, no mention is 
 made of the disciples' agency as the almoners of Christ's 
 gift, but His solitary figure fills the canvas. His tone or 
 expression must have made that thanksgiving memorable, 
 for, in verse 23, the place is referred to as "where they 
 did eat bread after that the Lord had given thanks." 
 The manner of the miracle and the point at which the 
 multiplication occurred are left obscure. But that allu- 
 sion in verse 23 seems to imply that it took effect at the 
 moment of the prayer, which John calls " thanks " and 
 the Synoptics " blessing." 
 
 What are the lessons of the " sign " ? It teaches 
 Christ's care for all forms of human want. It reveals 
 His continuous working as Sustainer of physical Hfe. In 
 the miracle, some of the links ordinarily present in the 
 chain which binds physical results to the Divine will were 
 absent, but their absence or presence does not affect the 
 reality of the connection between the staple from which 
 it hangs and the last visible effect. The cause of all 
 physical phenomena is the will of God, and that will 
 works in and through Jesus Christ, in whom is life, and 
 without whom nothing created subsists. He is Sustainer 
 as well as Creator. He holds the stars in His hand, and 
 He opens His hand, with the print of the nail in it, and 
 satisfies the desires of every living thing. 
 
 But the great lesson of the miracle is that which our 
 Lord Himself drew from it, in the following discourse on 
 the bread of life, which we have to study in our next 
 lesson, and may therefore leave for the present. 
 
 The result of the miracle is next presented in two 
 ways, — the abundance left over, and the people's excite- 
 ment. As to the former, note that the " broken pieces " 
 
64 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. vi. 1-14 
 
 are not the crumbs that Uttered the grass after the 
 feast was over, but the pieces broken for distribution. 
 John alone records that Christ commanded the gathering. 
 He thereby taught economy in the use and storing of His 
 gifts, and bade the disciples recognise that dependence 
 on His miraculous power does not absolve from the 
 exercise of ordinary prudence. 
 
 But if we regard the whole incident in that symbolic 
 aspect in which He Himself presents it in the subsequent 
 discourse, this abundant overplus and the care taken of 
 it are fruitful of instruction. Men, women, and children, 
 all found enough in the bread from His hands. The 
 world scoffs at the barley-bread which Jesus gives, which 
 seems coarse to palates spoiled by the world's confec- 
 tionery ; but it gives life to the eaters. If any man wants 
 dainties that will tickle his diseased or fastidious appetite, 
 he will have to go elsewhere for them ; but if he wants 
 bread, to stay his hunger, let him go to Jesus, who is 
 "human nature's daily food." 
 
 But not only was there enough for each, but the 
 twelve baskets were filled — one carried by each apostle, 
 probably — with the food that had been prepared, and 
 was not needed. " The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis 
 received." Other goods and possessions perish with 
 using, but this increases with use. The more one eats, 
 the more there is for him to eat. All the world may live 
 on it for ever, and there will be more at the end than at 
 the beginning. In Christ's gift of the bread of life there 
 is always a certain unappropriated overplus, a quality of 
 infinity of resource, which surpasses our present power 
 of reception, and encourages us to hope for larger 
 possession when our faith is enlarged. That unrealised 
 
Less. VII.] Bread Enough, and to Spare 65 
 
 possible attainment is not to be left unheeded, but to be 
 gathered up in the baskets of our growing faith, our more 
 ardent desire and more lowly obedience, that it may be 
 food for to-morrow, when we are able to make it our own. 
 The unwon treasures of His grace should stimulate end- 
 less hope, aspiration, and effort. To-morrow shall be as 
 this day, and much more abundant. That hope is folly, 
 and worse, if cherished in regard to any life but a 
 Christian life. Not to cherish it in regard to the Chris- 
 tian life is to fall beneath our privileges and to lose the 
 unused abundance prepared for us by the Master of the 
 feast. 
 
 The effect of the miracle on the crowd was simply to 
 work them into an unwholesome fever of carnal Messianic 
 hopes. How true to human nature their exclamation 
 is ! "A prophet that can give bread, — that is the sort 
 of prophet for us. We can understand that kind of 
 Messiah. The Samaritan heretic hoped for a Messiah 
 who would teach all things. We do not care for teach- 
 ing ; give us loaves." Alas ! the crowd has not got 
 much further than this even now. They had much 
 rather have some one who would find them bread with- 
 out working for it, than one who would bring God's love 
 and grace to them. Show them how to make money, or 
 put them in the way of increased material comfort or 
 prosperity, and they will hail you as a man of men, and 
 build a monument to you when you die. But how many 
 of us have no reverence for Jesus because we do not 
 care for the gifts He has to bring ! 
 
LESSON VIII 
 True Work for True Bread 
 
 St. John vi. 26-40 
 
 26. "Jesus answered them 
 and said, Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you, Ye seek Me, not be- 
 cause ye saw the miracles, but 
 because ye did eat of the loaves, 
 and were filled. 
 
 27. Labour not for the meat 
 which perisheth, but for that 
 meat which endureth unto 
 everlasting life, which the Son 
 of man shall give unto you : for 
 Him hath God the Father sealed. 
 
 28. Then said the}' unto Him, 
 What shall we do, that we 
 might work the works of God ? 
 
 29. Jesus answered and said 
 unto them, This is the work of 
 God, that ye believe on Him 
 whom He hath sent. 
 
 30. They said therefore unto 
 Him, What sign showest Thou 
 then, that we may see, and be- 
 lieve Thee? what dost Thou 
 work ? 
 
 31. Our fathers did eat manna 
 in the desert ; as it is written. 
 He gave them bread from 
 heaven to eat. 
 
 32. Then Jesus said unto 
 them, Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you, Moses gave you not that 
 bread from heaven ; but My 
 Father giveth you the true bread 
 from heaven. 
 
 33. For the bread of God 
 is He which Cometh down from 
 heaven, and giveth life unto the 
 world. 
 
 34. Then said they unto 
 Him, Lord, evermore give us 
 this bread. 
 
 35. And Jesus said unto them, 
 I am the bread of life : he that 
 Cometh to Me shall never hun- 
 ger ; and he that believeth on 
 Me shall never thirst. 
 
 36. But I said unto you. That 
 ye also have seen Me, and be- 
 lieve not. 
 
 37. All that the Father giveth 
 Me shall come to Me ; and him 
 that Cometh to Me I will in no 
 wise cast out. 
 
 38. For I came down from 
 heaven, not to do Mine own 
 will, but the will of Him that 
 sent Me. 
 
 39. And this is the Father's 
 will which hath sent Me, that 
 of all which He hath given Me 
 I should lose nothing, but should 
 raise it up again at the last day. 
 
 40. And this is the will of 
 Him that sent Me, that every 
 one which seeth the Son, and 
 believeth on Him, maj' have 
 everlasting life, and I will raise 
 him up at the last day." 
 
 IF we take into account the Jews' question to which 
 the beginning of this lesson is an answer, we have 
 in it four pairs of sayings by them, and repHes by Jesus. 
 
 66 
 
Less. VIII.] True Work for True Bread 67 
 
 Theirs are three questions, — "When earnest Thou hither?" 
 "What must we do ? " " What dost Thou work ? "—and 
 a petition, " Give us this bread." His words follow the 
 channel marked by theirs, but yet have a progress of their 
 own, and reach their climax in His full disclosure of 
 Himself as the bread of life (ver. 35). There is then a 
 slight pause in the discourse, and verses 37-40 have 
 neither the metaphor of the bread nor any personal 
 address, but are our Lord's declaration of the great pur- 
 poses and certain issues of His work of lowly obedience 
 to the Father's will, which issues should be reached, 
 whether these men came to Him or no. 
 
 I. We have in verses 26 and 27 Christ's discernment 
 of their low motives and disclosure of the only worthy 
 aim of human effort. The Jews had spoken in their 
 question as if they were surprised and had the right to 
 be aggrieved that He had left them almost by stealth, 
 and so given them the trouble of coming all the way back, 
 across to Capernaum, to find Him. They mean to say, 
 "Surely our eagerness to make Thee a king deserved 
 at least more recognition than this." That surprised 
 " when " really meant an offended " why." 
 
 Jesus, as ever, answers thoughts, not words. The 
 surface of the question needed no answer ; for the miracle 
 had been wrought as evening came on, and now it was 
 morning, and the passage of the lake must have been in 
 the night. The question was inane and superfluous, and 
 is treated as such ; but the spirit which prompted it needs 
 correction. So our Lord first cuts deep into the ques- 
 tioners' hearts, and lays bare the gross, sensuous nature 
 of their admiration for and seeking after Him. They 
 had seen the " sign," but it was no sign to them. All 
 
68 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. vi. 26-40 
 
 they saw or cared for was the loaves. This dissection 
 of motives lays bare a truth concerning a wider circle 
 than that which first heard it. The fatal predominance 
 of earthly tastes and appetites, which dulls perception of 
 and desire after higher good, besets us all. Religion 
 itself is often recommended for the sake of its material 
 advantages, and still more often neglected because we 
 much prefer loaves to signs. ' 
 
 While verse 26 thus sets in clear light the often un- 
 conscious earthward gravitation of tastes and desires, 
 verse 27 points to the one worthy aim of human effort, 
 and in paradoxical form shows the means of attaining it. 
 " The meat which perisheth " is, by its transiency, proved 
 insufficient ; and the life which is full of toil to win it, in 
 any of its forms, sumptuous or coarse, dainties or bare 
 necessaries, is shown to be too low-pitched. They 
 labour for naught who labour for anything short of that 
 which is permanent in its effects and nourishes eternal 
 life. The description of this only sufficing possession as 
 the " meat which abideth unto eternal life " is entirely 
 parallel with that to the Samaritan woman, of the water 
 springing up unto life eternal ; and the whole course of 
 the two dialogues is similar. 
 
 How diffc«:ent men's lives would be if they had clearly 
 before them the only worthy aim ! That being plain, 
 how is it to be secured? Jesus answers by a double 
 word, which sounds contradictory, — " work," " the Son 
 of Man shall give." The solution of the paradox follows 
 presently. Here it is enough to notice that, since it is 
 a gift, the " work " does not earn it, and since there is to 
 be work, it is not an arbitrary gift. The Giver of living 
 water is the Giver of this bread. That claim, however 
 
Less. VIII.] True Work for True Bread 69 
 
 lofty, is advanced in lowliness, and made to depend 
 wholly on the Father's destination and designation of 
 Him. 
 
 II. Verses 28 and 29 give the second turn in the 
 conversation. The questioners do not resent rebuke, 
 nor refuse obedience. It says something for them that 
 their question goes straight to the important point of 
 what they were to do. They are ready to do it, though 
 they understand little about the bread spoken of by Him. 
 But they take the "work," which He has been en- 
 joining, in an entirely external sense, as is shown by that 
 significant plural which they use. They had caught half 
 of Christ's sentence, and the other had passed by them 
 like idle wind. A heap of separate acts, such as God 
 required, seemed to them what He meant ; and now they 
 want direction as to what these are. When some dim 
 glimpses of what it is worth while to live for are caught, 
 men immediately want to set about doing things to secure 
 the aim. Such a state of mind is better than gross earth- 
 liness, but it is only twilight. 
 
 Christ's answer is divinely deep and simple. He sets 
 one " work " against the mass of " works " which they 
 thought would be needful. He declares that the single 
 work which God requires as the condition of the gift is 
 faith in the Son of Man, its Giver. To " believe on " is 
 more than simply " to believe," with which lower act of 
 the mind the Jews presently confound it. Here, then, 
 is set forth in germ the whole truth as to the conditions 
 of eternal life, and as to the relations of faith and works. 
 Not a multitude of meritorious deeds, but the one act of 
 trust ; not the mere credence of His words, but the moral 
 act of reliance on Him, is the way to receive ^His gift. 
 
70 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. vi. 26-40 
 
 That, faith is the seed of all the manifold " works of 
 God " which a man can do ; and they who have that 
 faith will necessarily abound in these, and labour in all 
 that they do to be well-pleasing to Him, and, even when 
 toiling for perishable goods, will have an aim beyond 
 these, and will labour for Him, and, whether they eat or 
 drink, will do it in remembrance of the Giver of their 
 eternal life. 
 
 in. Verses 30-33 give the next stage. The invita- 
 tion to faith meets more opposition than the exhortation 
 to work. So it always does. Twenty-four hours had 
 not passed since they had seen the miracle which had 
 wrought them to the pitch of wishing to make a king of 
 Him, and now they are asking for a sign. Were their 
 memories short ? or was it not rather that they felt that 
 something more was contained in His call for faith than 
 they had thought of as in Him, and that they felt that the 
 loftier claims demanded fuller attestation ? The refer- 
 ence to Moses and the manna is relevant only if some 
 vague idea was in their minds that Jesus was claiming 
 to be at least another Moses, if not something more. 
 But note how they degrade the idea of faith to that of 
 simple credence, and how they make outward signs the 
 only ground of the poor, starved thing they call " belief." 
 Is there not, too, in their reiteration of Christ's own 
 word in their question " What dost Thou work? " almost 
 a scoff, as if they had said : " Work indeed ! Time 
 enough to tell us to work and to believe Thee, when Thou 
 hast done something to warrant belief and to vindicate 
 Thy right to command " ? Evidently they are beginning 
 to resist, and admiration and docility are passing into 
 critical withdrawal. 
 
Less. VIII.] True Work for True Bread 71 
 
 Our Lord's answer is marked as solemn and important 
 by the twofold '*' verily." He, first, with infinite majesty 
 and calm, sets aside the suggested parallel with Moses, 
 which doubly fails in that the latter was not the giver, 
 and in that manna was not truly bread from heaven. 
 Note the contrast between the past gift of the manna 
 and the present (and continuous) gift of the bread. 
 Note the claim of unique relationship between Him who 
 has just called Himself the Giver, and the Father who in 
 and through Him gives. Note the emphatic collocation 
 of words in the original, " the bread out of heaven, the 
 true." That bread is the reality of which all earthly 
 food, even miraculous manna, is but the symbol. It, 
 and only it, truly feeds men. The wondrous charac- 
 teristics of that bread are then set forth in verse ;^^. It 
 is the direct gift of God, it is " that which cometh down 
 out of heaven " in continuous descent to hungry souls, 
 it not only sustains but gives life, and it is meant for the 
 whole world. 
 
 IV. No wonder that such words should stir desire for 
 such a gift. The Samaritan woman's petition for the 
 gift of the water to save her from thirst and toil is on the 
 same level as this cry, " Evermore give us this bread." 
 Deeply tainted with gross material misconceptions of 
 some mysterious outward good, the people are yet 
 touched with longings, and recognise His power to give 
 what they need. That cry never goes to Him in vain, 
 however dense the clouds of ignorance and error through 
 which it rises to Him. Therefore the point is reached 
 at which He can draw back the last veil, and show the 
 truth in its brightness. Some eyes will be dazzled and 
 turn away, but some may look and live. 
 
72 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. vi. 26-40 
 
 At all events, the disclosure is the next step in 
 answering the cry. Jesus gives the bread by declaring 
 Himself to be the bread, and inviting us to Him that we 
 may take it by faith. The full disclosure of Himself, 
 is again a parallel to that to the Samaritan woman. If 
 we keep the immediately preceding description of the 
 characteristics of the bread of God in view, how wonder- 
 ful these words become ! In them Jesus asserts His 
 descent from the Father, His power to give life and to 
 feed, with the only true nourishment, all the wants of 
 every soul. Think of a man saying this to men, and, 
 what is more wonderful still, getting men to believe him, 
 and millions of them to answer, " Yes, we have tasted 
 this bread, and know all that he said is true." He gave 
 Himself to these Jews when He declared who He was, and 
 invited them to come that they might hunger no more. 
 He gives Himself to us, whom He invites to " believe on 
 Him " ; and He teaches us that coming is believing, and 
 access to Him as possible for us as for those who stood 
 by Him. If we exercise that faith which is coming to 
 Him, we shall neither know the weakness of hunger nor 
 the pangs of thirst ; but will be strong with the nourish- 
 ment of our powers, and glad with the satisfaction of our 
 desires, as they only can be who eat the bread of life and 
 drink the living water. 
 
 Verse 35 fully discloses the nature of the bread, the 
 blessed results of possessing it, and the condition of 
 receiving. But the sad fact that the listeners had not 
 exercised that condition, as was obvious from their very 
 petition, which proved them bhnd to the higher meanings 
 of His sayings and to His true character, presses on 
 His spirit, and draws out the lament and indictment 
 
Less. VIII.] True Work for True Bread 73 
 
 which close His direct address. Verse 36 refers to a 
 previous saying, probably that in verse 26, the inner 
 meaning of which is truly preserved in the different 
 form of this verse. The Jews had just asked for a sign, 
 that they might see and believe. He tells them that 
 they had seen Him, the greatest of signs, and that the 
 sight had not led to belief. Sadness, wonder, and blame 
 blend in that saying. That we should see Jesus, and 
 not believe on Him, is the mystery and tragedy of the 
 world, and is, alas ! repeated to-day. 
 
 V. Verses 37-40 are separated from the preceding in 
 tone, by the absence of reference to the bread, and by 
 the cessation of personal address. Probably a pause in 
 Christ's utterance went before them. He seems to be 
 staying Himself, in face of the people's unbelief, by 
 gazing on the certain success of His work, quite as much 
 as to be holding forth yet more attractively the blessed 
 results of coming to Him, in still another attempt to win 
 their faith. Both strains are blended in these wonderful 
 words. Verses 37 and 38 sound principally the former, 
 and verses 39 and 40 mainly the latter, but in neither 
 case exclusively. " What if some did not believe ? " 
 Their unbelief shall not make the "purpose of God 
 without effect." For "all that the Father giveth Me 
 shall come to Me," where the neuter form is to be noted, 
 as presenting the body of believers in all ages and lands 
 as a definite whole, and the stress of the assurance is to 
 be observed, as being shall " reach Me," — not merely 
 come towards, but attain to. 
 
 Then, in the next clause, the individual members of 
 that whole are made prominent, and stress is laid on 
 His welcome of each. Men come to Him, not in a 
 
74 The Gospel of St. Jolin [Chap. vi. 26-40 
 
 mass, but one by one. Faith is intensely personal, and 
 the wicket-gate lets in only one at a time. The blessed 
 assurance of welcome is familiar to us all, but its remark- 
 able connection is often passed by unnoticed. Here it 
 is represented as the result of the perfect docility and 
 submission of the Son to the will of the Father. The 
 fact of a man's coming to Him by faith is the sign to 
 Him that this man is the Father's gift to Him, and 
 therefore He takes him to His heart. In all His earthly 
 and heavenly work of redemption, whether it be His 
 incarnation, life, death, reign in heaven, or reception 
 and perfecting of believers. He is obedient to the Father, 
 and does nothing of Himself. Therefore He was patient 
 and undismayed, when men believed not. Therefore, 
 too, we may go to Him, assured of a welcolhe. 
 
 Verses 39 and 40 present the glorious issues of faith 
 in a double form, of which the similarities and the differ- 
 ences are equally noteworthy. " The will of Him that 
 sent Me " in the true reading in verse 39 becomes in 
 verse 40 "the will of My Father," so that the filial 
 relationship is made emphatic and declared to be unique 
 (" My Father "). In verse 39 the neuter form appears, 
 and the objects of Christ's care are described as " that 
 which He hath given Me " ; the totality being the main 
 thought, and the security of its present protection and 
 certainty of its future life being considered as resting on 
 the Father's gift and the Son's obedience ; while in verse 
 40 the same persons are individualised, and described 
 according to their own act of faith, which ensures His 
 response of eternal life. 
 
 In verse 39 the present blessedness of believers is 
 regarded as being safe keeping ; in verse 40, as being 
 
Less. VIII,] True Work for True Bread 75 
 
 everlasting life. But the two types merge in the final 
 issue, though even there the one reads " it " and the 
 other " him." The resurrection of the body is the neces- 
 sary crown of that safe keeping and communicated life, 
 which are the believer's privilege here. That glorious 
 issue, without which the present experiences of the 
 believer would be futile and the whole of his earthly 
 life a confounding riddle, is wrought by Jesus Himself, 
 as is emphatically claimed by the majestic " I " which 
 the original underscores, so to speak, by its position, in 
 the fortieth verse. He who feeds on the bread of life 
 here cannot die. The resurrection to life must come as 
 the copestone of redemption. Without it the building 
 stands, would stand, a ruin, and the taunt would be 
 justified. This Jesus began to build, and was not able to 
 finish. 
 
LESSON IX 
 "That Rock was Christ 
 
 St. John vii. 31-44 
 
 31. "And many of the people 
 believed on Him, and said, 
 When Christ cometh, will He 
 do more miracles than these 
 which this man hath done? 
 
 32. The Pharisees heard that 
 the people murmured such 
 things concerning Him ; and 
 the Pharisees and the chief 
 priests sent officers to take 
 Him. 
 
 33. Then said Jesus unto 
 them, Yet a little while am I 
 with you, and then I go unto 
 Him that sent Me. 
 
 34. Ye shall seek Me, and 
 shall not find Me : and where I 
 am, thither ye cannot come. 
 
 35. Then said the Jews 
 among themselves. Whither 
 will He go, that we shall not 
 find Him ? will He go unto 
 the dispersed among the Gen- 
 tiles, and teach the Gentiles ? 
 
 36. What manner of saying 
 is this that He said, Ye shall 
 seek Me, and shall not find 
 Me : and where I am, thither ye 
 cannot come ? 
 
 37. In the last day, that 
 great day of the feast, Jesus 
 
 stood and cried, saying. If any 
 man thirst, let him come unto 
 Me, and drink, 
 
 38. He that believeth on Me, 
 as the Scripture hath said, out 
 of his belly shall flow rivers of 
 living water. 
 
 39. (But this spake He of 
 the Spirit, which they that 
 believe on Him should receive : 
 for the Holy Ghost was not yet 
 given ; because that Jesus was 
 not yet glorified.) 
 
 40. Many of the people there- 
 fore, when they heard this 
 saying, said. Of a truth this is 
 the Prophet. 
 
 41. Others said. This is the 
 Christ. But some said, Shall 
 Christ come out of Galilee ? 
 
 42. Hath not the Scripture 
 said, That Christ cometh of the 
 seed of David, and out of the 
 town of Bethlehem, where 
 David was ? 
 
 43. So there was a division 
 among the people because of 
 Him. 
 
 44. And some of them would 
 have taken Him ; but no man 
 laid hands on Him." 
 
 THIS seventh chapter carries us into the midst 
 of the glad stir in Jerusalem at the Feast of 
 Tabernacles, and vividly reproduces the contending 
 
 76 
 
Less. IX.] "That Rock was Christ" 77 
 
 opinions and feelings about Jesus. There were three 
 parties, — the " multitude," or the crowds of pilgrims, 
 who were favourably disposed to Him, but wavering 
 and easily swayed backwards and forwards as crowds 
 are ; the " Jews," the section who clung to carnal 
 Messianic hopes, and could not but be against such a 
 Messiah as Jesus ; and the official class, divided into 
 Pharisees and chief priests, the latter being mostly 
 Sadducees, and violently antagonistic to the former, but 
 one with them in hatred of Jesus. The chapter rings 
 with the Babel of these discordant voices. Our lesson 
 begins in the midst of the clamour, and may be con- 
 sidered with reference to the two sayings of our Lord 
 which it contains. 
 
 I. We note then, first, His prophecy of departure, 
 with its occasion and result (vers. 31-36). The calm 
 boldness of our Lord's teaching in the temple, and the 
 silence of the rulers, had impressed both the floating 
 population of pilgrims and some of the residents in 
 Jerusalem ; but the latter had been alienated by His 
 further declarations, while many of the former had been 
 drawn to Him with a fuller faith thereby. Mark the 
 "believed on Him" in verse 31, which expresses reli- 
 ance, and not mere credence. This faith was real, 
 though imperfect, as being founded on " signs." It was 
 not bold enough nor perhaps certain enough to affirm, 
 but only to whisper a question. 
 
 But those who have reached the point of asking what 
 more the Christ could do than this man does, are not 
 far from answering their own question with a full con- 
 fession. The action of the rulers was precipitated by 
 reports of these " murmurings " ; for any spark might 
 
78 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. vii. 31-44 
 
 set the excited crowds in a blaze. It was humiliating 
 for Jewish officials to have to stifle the national hope 
 in which the Pharisees, at all events, shared ; but that 
 was the price they had to pay for place and power under 
 Rome. The decision to arrest Jesus marked a new 
 stage in the conflict of Divine love with unbelief, and 
 John is careful to note its occasion in the people's 
 ominous question, and its result in our Lord's saying. 
 
 That saying was apparently spoken in public, in the 
 hearing of His would-be captors. If we try to realise 
 the circumstances, the few calm words become majestic 
 and pathetic. We note their recognition that this was 
 the beginning of the end, a further stage in the struggle. 
 The " little while " was but about six months, and this 
 abortive attempt was like a signal-gun which opens a 
 battle. But Christ's consciousness that the term of His 
 continuance depends on Another than them is equally 
 audible in the words. He knows that whatever the 
 rulers may attempt. He will be with them still, and that 
 when He leaves them, it will be His own act. His 
 " hour " will tick out all its minutes before it strikes. 
 He will not leave off" nor be dragged from His work 
 till it is done. The completion of His message is 
 guaranteed to Himself and assured to men by the 
 thought of " Him that sent " Him. 
 
 How eloquent of a unique relation to life and death 
 and the future life is that calm word, " I go " — not I 
 am driven ; for men and death are impotent against 
 Him, unless He wills to die — " to Him that sent Me " 
 as a faithful messenger with an accomplished errand, 
 returning to, not entering for the first time, the land 
 beyond ! It is no human consciousness merely that 
 
Less. IX.] « That Rock was Christ " 79 
 
 fronted the excited crowd and intending captors with 
 such words. They open a ghmpse into the Divine 
 depths of His spirit. 
 
 But even in that hour of peril He thinks less of 
 Himself than of men, and turns to these listeners with 
 almost a wail of sad forecast, through which the tone of 
 beseeching is heard. The incarnate Wisdom laments 
 even while He foretells, as did the personified Wisdom 
 in the Book of Proverbs, " They shall seek Me diligently, 
 but they shall not find Me." The sad prophecy does 
 not refer to penitence, but to the vain longings and 
 futile seekings which have been that strange nation's 
 bitter food ever since. The whole tragedy of its history 
 is condensed into a sentence. Like all prophetic 
 threatenings, it was said that it might not have to be 
 experienced, and mercy shaped His lips to stern speech. 
 
 Why would their seeking be vain ? Because they had 
 not the conditions needful for that place and state of 
 communion with the Father, whither He was going, 
 and to which He only can lead any of us. Earthly- 
 mindedness shuts us out from heaven and from finding 
 Christ here. If we are to be with Him there, we must 
 have sought Him here, with that true desire and seeking 
 which ever finds. Mark that He "is," even when on 
 earth, where He goes when He leaves earth. Mark, 
 too, the tone of invitation to make the best use of the 
 " little while." Conscious security till His work is done, 
 prophetic warning and loving call to present faith, are all 
 contained in these words. 
 
 The gross misunderstanding of them comes from the 
 deafness of prejudice and hate, which left unnoticed the 
 plain declaration "to Him that sent Me," in order to 
 
8o The Gospel of St. John [Ch^. vii. 31-44 
 
 point a gibe at a Messiah who, when found out as an 
 impostor at home, would carry His fooHsh " teaching " 
 to the Gentiles. John is fond of recording sayings of 
 enemies which the irony of Providence fulfilled. Like 
 Caiaphas, these scoffers were wiser than they knew, and 
 their taunt shadowed the actual course of the gospel. 
 " Seeing ye condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal 
 life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." 
 
 II. We have, secondly, the great call on the great day 
 of the feast. The promise to the Samaritan woman is 
 repeated and expanded in the temple-court. The well- 
 known ceremonial of the water-drawing on the seven 
 days of the feast naturally suggested it ; and if, as seems 
 probable, that rite was omitted on the last day, its very 
 omission made Christ's words the more emphatic. They 
 point, however, to the historical fact commemorated by 
 the rite, and not only to the rite itself ; namely, to the 
 miracle in the desert, when the thirsty crowds saw the 
 precious stream pouring from the rock. So here, again 
 Jesus lays His hand on the great facts and thoughts of 
 the old order, and claims to be that which they shadowed. 
 This Gospel of John, which we are sometimes told is 
 anti- Jewish, is really saturated with reminiscences of the 
 earlier revelation ; and in it Jesus claims to be the true 
 temple, the reality of what the serpent typified, the real 
 manna, the water-yielding rock, the pillar of cloud and 
 fire, and the true Paschal Lamb. 
 
 The general idea contained in the emblem here needs 
 no elucidation. Whatever thirst or longing desire is felt 
 by man, Jesus will satisfy it. We stand awed as well as 
 attracted by the majestic and unconditional universality 
 of the promise. Who is this who fronts the whole race 
 
Less. IX.] "That Rock was Christ" 8i 
 
 of men with open arms of invitation and calm confi- 
 dence in His sufficiency for all the wants of every 
 man? What majestic assurance in that "Me"! What 
 wide-stretching, deep-reaching, individualising mercy of 
 invitation in that " any man " ! What universal invita- 
 tion and Divine simplicity of conditions in that " let 
 him come " ! What wealth of promise that no coming 
 can be vain, in that collocation " let him come . . . and 
 drink " ! Coming is believing ; believing is sure to bring 
 partaking ; partaking is sure to still all painful desire. 
 And all this blessedness is offered to every man down 
 the ages and through the world ; for every man thirsts, 
 and may therefore come. 
 
 Nor does the gift stop with the satisfaction of the 
 comer's own needs. He becomes a fountain for the 
 slaking of others' thirst. Note Christ's own explanation 
 of " coming," as synonymous with " believing on " Him. 
 What " Scripture " is here quoted by our Lord ? No 
 Old Testament passage says in so many words, " Out of 
 his belly shall flow," etc. ; but there may be allusions to 
 several, such as Isaiah Iviii. ii. The difficulty of finding 
 words analogous to those apparently quoted may be 
 lightened if we refer to the original incident of the 
 flowing stream from the rock in the wilderness ; for 
 there we read, " There shall come water out of it " 
 (Exod. xvii. 6). 
 
 If this be recognised as the source of the quotation, 
 we have the great thought that they who come to that 
 Rock, and slake their own thirst there, become, in their 
 measure of union with Him, as rocks yielding water for 
 other thirsty souls. The result of real communion with 
 Jesus Christ is not terminated in the rest, as of satisfied 
 
 6 
 
82 The Gospel of St. John [Chap, vU. 31-44 
 
 desires, which it brings, but passes on further to make 
 us the medium of bringing hke blessings to others. The 
 end of personal religion is not personal reception, but 
 communication, for which reception is the indispensable 
 prior requisite. If a professing Christian has no impulse 
 to impart, he had better examine himself whether he 
 has drunk of the water of life. The paradox is true 
 that we slake our own thirst by giving to others to drink. 
 In England we have in some places what we call 
 " swallow-holes," where a river plunges into the ground 
 and is lost. Too many" professing Christians are like 
 those. But we are meant to be water-carriers, not 
 water-drinkers only. 
 
 We have already seen, in the conversation with the 
 woman of Samaria, that the water represents the gift of 
 the Spirit ; and that is the explanation which John gives 
 in a parenthesis. He lays stress on the " shall " in 
 verse 38, and regards it as pointing to a future gift. 
 That thought is even more strongly expressed in the 
 original, which might be read "were going to receive." 
 Some modern critics, who know Christ's meaning better 
 than John, think that he has made a mistake here, and 
 that the "shall" in verse 37 is only the future of 
 promise ; but both the history of the Primitive Church 
 and parallel sayings in this Gospel show that the evan- 
 geHst's comment is right. The promise of satisfaction 
 to individual thirst by coming to Jesus was for the then 
 present as well as for every future ; but that of the 
 transformation of believers into fountains of spiritual 
 influence was for the future only. 
 
 The change effected on the apostles at Pentecost is 
 the best commentary on the words here. The same rela- 
 
Less. IX.] " That Rock was Christ " 83 
 
 tion between the full gift of the Spirit and the glorifying 
 of Jesus (mark the emphasis laid by the name on the 
 humanity of our Lord) which is here indicated, is fully 
 developed in our Lord's words in the upper room. 
 The atoning work of Jesus had to be complete before 
 the Spirit could dwell in men's hearts ; and, since it is 
 His office to apply to the soul that finished work, it 
 evidently must be finished ere the Spirit could possess 
 the material for His work. The " glorifying " of Jesus 
 embraces not only His ascension, but His death. John 
 takes the complementary view to Paul. To the latter, 
 Christ's death is the lowest stage in His humiliation, 
 while to the former it is the first step in His exaltation. 
 Both thoughts are true. The zenith is the nadir. The 
 cross is the throne. There the glory of endless pity, of 
 Divine love, of Almighty power to redeem, shines forth. 
 The solemn calm of Christ's voice is followed by 
 the recurrent jangle of conflicting tongues. The brief 
 utterances in their direct form give a vivid impression of 
 the eager controversies which surged round Jesus, like 
 noisy waves on some steadfast rock. Two opinions were 
 formed by those impressed by Christ's words, according 
 to one of which He was "the Prophet " (Deut. xviii. 15), 
 while others, who had got beyond the " murmurings " 
 of verse 31, boldly acknowledged Him as the Christ. 
 John details the objection to this view which came from 
 some learned authorities, who knew their Old Testament 
 in its letter, and demanded that Messiah should be born 
 in Bethlehem. It did not matter what Divine wisdom, 
 tenderness, purity, and power were in this Jesus. All 
 these could not show Him to be Messiah. Where does 
 He come from, not what He is, is the important point. 
 
$4 The Gospel of St. John [Chap vii. 31-44 
 
 Better the ignorance that discerned His sweetness and 
 bowed to His authority, than the learned bhndness that 
 pottered over the letter and let the spirit slip. Are 
 there not a few Biblical scholars of that breed left yet ? 
 But John is struck again, much as when quoting the 
 sarcasm in verse 35, with the thought that these wise 
 people knew so little, and that the condition, the sup- 
 posed non-fulfilment of which made their belief in this 
 Christ impossible, whatever grace and truth He might 
 disclose, had really been fulfilled, if they had only 
 known it. 
 
 The same thing is continually recurring. Grave 
 objections are made by partial knowledge, especially of 
 the self-conceited and unspiritual sort, which fuller know- 
 ledge converts into arguments for the faith which they 
 were supposed to destroy. Spiritual instincts are better 
 guides to Jesus than microscopic literalism ; and, if a 
 man feels that he is thirsty, and is touched by Christ's 
 gracious and majestic promise of living water, he need 
 not pay much attention to objectors who would rob 
 him of his faith because this or that bit of geography 
 or history seems wrong. Probably it is right after all. 
 Jesus was born in Bethlehem, though these cavillers 
 thought that He was not, and knew that the Christ must 
 be. 
 
LESSON X 
 
 Freedom and Sonship 
 
 St. John viii. 31-47 
 
 31. " Then said Jesus to those 
 Jews which believed on Him, 
 If ye continue in My word, 
 then are ye My disciples in- 
 deed ; 
 
 32. And ye shall know the 
 truth, and the truth shall make 
 you free. 
 
 ^^. They answered Him, We 
 be Abraham's seed, and were 
 never in bondage to any man : 
 how sayest Thou, Ye shall be 
 made free ? 
 
 34. Jesus answered them, 
 Verily, verily, I say unto you. 
 Whosoever committeth sin is 
 the servant of sin. 
 
 35. And the servant abideth 
 not in the house for ever : but 
 the Son abideth ever. 
 
 36. If the Son therefore shall 
 make you free, ye shall be free 
 indeed. 
 
 37. I know that ye are 
 Abraham's seed ; but ye seek 
 to kill Me, because My word 
 hath no place in you. 
 
 38. I speak that which I 
 have seen with My Father : 
 and ye do that which ye have 
 seen with your father. 
 
 39. They answered and said 
 unto Him, Abraham is our 
 father. Jesus saith unto them. 
 If ye were Abraham's children, 
 ye would do the works of 
 Abraham. 
 
 40. But now ye seek to kill 
 Me, a Man that hath told you 
 the truth, which I have heard 
 of God : this did not Abraham. 
 
 41. Ye do the deeds of your 
 father. Then said they to Him, 
 We be not born of fornication ; 
 we have one Father, even God. 
 
 42. Jesus said unto them, If 
 God were your Father, ye 
 would love Me : for I proceeded 
 forth and came from God ; 
 neither came I of Myself, but 
 He sent Me. 
 
 43. Why do ye not under- 
 stand My speech ? even because 
 j"e cannot hear My word. 
 
 44. Ye are of your father the 
 devil, and the lusts of your 
 father ye will do. He was a 
 murderer from the beginning, 
 and abode not in the truth, 
 because there is no truth in 
 him. When he speaketh a lie, 
 he speaketh of his own : for 
 he is a liar, and the father of 
 it. 
 
 45. And because I tell you 
 the truth, ye believe Me not. 
 
 46. Which of you convinceth 
 Me of sin ? And if I say the 
 truth, why do ye not believe 
 Me? 
 
 47. He that is of God hear- 
 eth God's words : ye therefore 
 hear them not, because ye are 
 not of God." 
 
 85 
 
86 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. viii. 31-47 
 
 THE remarkable description of the persons addressed 
 in this conversation seems, at first sight, to blend 
 incongruous characteristics, since John generally uses 
 " Jews " to mean the section of the people who held 
 fast by the hope of an earthly conqueror as Messiah, 
 and were therefore opposed to Jesus. How could such 
 persons "believe Him " ? And how could believers be 
 called " children of the devil," and charged with seeking 
 to kill Jesus ? The observation of the distinction 
 between " believed on " (ver. 30) and " believed " gives 
 the key. The former means reliance ; the latter, mere 
 credence. Such incomplete faith was quite consistent 
 with retaining their carnal expectations, and must neces- 
 sarily issue in falling away, when they understood 
 Christ's true character. They had got to the point of 
 beheving Him the Messiah, but it must be their sort of 
 Messiah. The words of our Lord, in verse 31, imply 
 that these people were not yet " disciples indeed." 
 
 Our Lord's words in verses 31 and 32 are, then, His 
 welcome and warning to very imperfect faith. He is 
 willing to accept the least adequate recognition, and to 
 deepen it. He lays down a condition, and gives a 
 promise. The condition is " abiding in His word," 
 where the singular is to be observed as marking His 
 revelation as a whole, and the expression " abide in " 
 as suggesting that " word " as the atmosphere in which 
 the believer lives and moves. The converse representa- 
 tion of the word as abiding in us is also common in this 
 Gospel. That word is the element in which we should 
 live and the inward root of our lives. Faithful adherence 
 to it develops rudimentary and half-seeing faith into 
 completeness, as the triple promise holds forth. 
 
Less. X.] Freedom and Sonship 87 
 
 True discipleship, in contrast to the crude adhesion 
 given by these Jews ; knowledge of the truth, which 
 surpasses their present position both in respect to the 
 sweep and elevation of that which is known and in 
 regard to the manner of knowledge, which will be not 
 mere head-work, but the fruit of experience and posses- 
 sion ; and freedom brought about by that truth, — are 
 the gifts waiting the disciple who abides in the Word. 
 Intellectual freedom consists in the subjugation of the 
 understanding to the truth which delivers from errors, 
 prejudices, and the babble of human opinion. Moral 
 freedom consists in the submission of the will to duty, 
 which is the practical outcome of truth. To do as we 
 ought is liberty ; to do as we like is slavery. Spiritual 
 freedom consists in the bowing down of the whole man 
 to God, who is revealed by the truth, and to serve whom 
 is to be master of self and things. 
 
 Skin-deep discipleship took offence at a promise in 
 which it detected a view of its present condition which it 
 resented. So it does to-day. Tell men that Jesus will 
 redeem them from their sins, and they fire up at the 
 implication that they are sinners. 
 
 How could these Jews assert that they had never been 
 in bondage, with Egypt and Babylon in their history, and 
 Roman eagles, visible from the temple, flaunting in " the 
 castle " ? They used the same strange power of ignoring 
 disagreeable facts which blinds so many of us to our 
 slavery. Sin's fetters are riveted when the bondsman 
 lifts his manacled hands and protests his freedom. Pride 
 of and trust in their descent, as if it gave them inahen- 
 able rights, and a vain assertion of liberty, were all that 
 Christ's great promise evoked. The veneer of faith was 
 
88 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. viH. 31-47 
 
 very thin, and was already worn through and the baser 
 core presented. 
 
 Our Lord takes up these two pleas in reverse order in 
 His answer (vers. 34-38). First He sets forth the prin- 
 ciples of true freedom ; and, next, of true sonship. The 
 solemn words in verse 34, introduced by that double 
 " verily " which always indicates important and often 
 unwelcome truth, and calls for special docility, tear away 
 the flimsy veil, and disclose the fact which it is so easy 
 and fatal to miss. True freedom or slavery is not an 
 affair of political or social arrangements, but a condition 
 of the spirit. The real bondage is that which enslaves 
 the will and prevents doing right. The perverted state 
 of the sinner, the terrible power of repeating itself which 
 sin possesses, the impotence of the better nature to cast 
 off the chains woven by acts, are all revealed as by a 
 lightning flash in that awful saying, which shatters so 
 much of our boasted independence, and is verified daily 
 in the experience of those who cast off the restraints of 
 virtue only to be tied and bound by the heavier fetters 
 of vice. The stern brevity of the words adds to their 
 force. 
 
 With like condensation, the fate of the slave is set 
 forth in verse 35, and contrasted with that of the son. 
 The boast of the Jews had been that, as sons of Abraham, 
 they possessed inalienable freedom and secure tenure of 
 their land. The answer lies in the difference between 
 the permanency of slave and son, as the old story of 
 Hagar and Ishmael showed it. The " slave " of verse 
 35 is necessarily the ideal of the class, and the reference 
 to sin as the master is dropped. Slaves, whoever their 
 lords, are not permanent dwellers ; sons, whoever their 
 
Less. X.] Freedom and Sonship 89 
 
 fathers, are. This is true in relation to men and God. 
 He who is sin's slave cannot claim the right of per- 
 manent enjoyment of God's blessings which he possesses 
 for a time. Such secure continuance is the prerogative 
 of a son. And the connecting thought implied is that 
 slaves of sin cannot be sons of God. 
 
 The saying rang the knell of the national privileges of 
 the Jews, and it discloses weighty and sad truths applic- 
 able to us ; namely, the essentially transitory character 
 of sinful men's possession of any outward blessings, and 
 the dread sentence of exclusion, which must ultimately 
 sever them from the family of God. There is something 
 very terrible in these swift strokes as of a glittering sword, 
 with which Jesus here so authoritatively shears through 
 the outward shows, and lays bare realities and conse- 
 quences. 
 
 As He passed from the specific idea of slave of sin to 
 the general one of slave, so, with reverse motion. He 
 next passes from the general idea of the sonship to the 
 specific idea of " the Son " — of God, that is. Because 
 the Son is ever in the Father's house. He can give 
 true freedom. He does not yet say, " I am that Son," 
 but He scarcely conceals that He is. What "the 
 truth " does in verse 32 the Son does here, and, since 
 that truth is equivalent to " My word," no doubt as to 
 who this Son was could exist. He abides for ever in the 
 Father's house, as He has told us all through the earlier 
 lessons from this Gospel, being there even while incar- 
 nate. That abiding implies His full carrying out of the 
 Father's will and wielding of the Father's power. There- 
 fore He has power to break every yoke of bondage, and 
 they who let Him show them their slavery and loose 
 
90 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. viii. 31-47 
 
 their chains are set free, and share in the prerogative of 
 sons, and dwell for ever in the Father's house. 
 
 The second part of our Lord's answer deals, in the 
 light of these truths, with the first part of the Jews' boast, 
 and the remainder of the lesson turns on the true idea of 
 fatherhood and sonship. The great truth is brought out, 
 that true sons do the will and possess the likeness of 
 their Father, and that thought is directed to shatter the 
 two boasts of " the Jews " to be the children of Abraham 
 and of God, and to force home to them their true descent. 
 
 In verses 37 and 38 Jesus admits their natural descent, 
 and sets against it their attitude to Himself. Already 
 they had passed from crude faith to hate, which will 
 appear incredible only to those who do not know that 
 no enemies are so embittered as disenchanted and rene- 
 gade admirers. No doubt, Christ's charge drew into 
 consciousness lurking feelings. Mark the reason He 
 assigns for their hate, " My word hath not free course 
 in you." Their beginning of belief did not grow. His 
 truth, as more clearly unveiled, did not advance in them. 
 Standing still is going back. If rudimentary faith does 
 not mature, it rots. Our only safety is in the victorious 
 progress of Christ's whole word in mind, heart, and life. 
 
 Verse 38 gives the reason for their non-acceptance of 
 His word. He speaks what He has seen with His 
 Father ; they do what they have heard of theirs. Note 
 the contrasts of " seen " and " heard," and of " with " and 
 "from." Jesus claims superhuman vision of God and 
 absolute correspondence of His revealing word with the 
 Divine things beheld and revealed. Again, He " speaks " ; 
 they " do." For all His deeds are words in, and parts 
 of, His word. 
 
Less. X.] Freedom and Sonship 91 
 
 Thus far, our Lord keeps to the general thought of 
 sonship as involving likeness, and does not plainly speak 
 the names of the two fathers. We may by our actions 
 make ourselves completely deaf to Christ's words ; and 
 nothing stops the ears of the spirit so surely as the wax 
 of evil deeds consolidated into habits. Conduct betrays 
 parentage. 
 
 Verses 39-41 reiterate the truth more sternly, in answer 
 to the repeated boast of descent from Abraham. They 
 differ from the preceding in saying plainly that there was 
 absolute contradiction between the deeds of the patriarch 
 and these, his descendants, in the designation of Jesus, 
 in which His true manhood. His ministry of truth, and 
 its source in God, are plainly declared, this being an 
 advance on the previous clause, in which the Father was 
 unnamed, and so preparing for the naming of the other 
 " father." 
 
 In verse 41 the Jews show that they partly understood 
 what Father Jesus claimed, and they follow Him on to 
 His own ground, asserting that they too, because legiti- 
 mately descended in the flesh from Abraham, are God's 
 sons. The boast is shivered by the application of the 
 same principle which shattered the former. But the 
 principle is applied with a noticeable difference. Love 
 to Jesus is " the spot of God's children." Think of one 
 of us making men's love to himself the sign of being 
 kindred with God ! 
 
 How deep this saying cuts into the reasons for turning 
 away from Jesus ! Why will God's children necessarily 
 love Jesus ? Because He " came forth " in the past act 
 of incarnation, which was His act, and " is come," stand- 
 ing there while He speaks, and " has not come," a phrase 
 
92 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. viii. 31-47 
 
 including past and present in one continuous whole, and 
 the assertion regarding each being that He is " sent." 
 So he that " loveth Him that begat loveth Him also that 
 is begotten of Him." 
 
 Next, Jesus lays bare the ground of the Jews' failure 
 in understanding as well as in love. " My speech " is 
 less general and comprehensive than "My word." 
 " Understand " is a subsequent process to " hear.' 
 " Cannot " is a self-caused inability, the ground of which 
 is immediately disclosed. Men can make themselves 
 incapable of even hearing the word of Christ ; and that 
 general incapacity which comes from contrariety of moral 
 disposition will prevent their grasping the meaning of 
 His single utterances. A right judgment on His sayings 
 requires spiritual susceptibility for His mission as a 
 whole. 
 
 And now the awful revelation of the true paternity of 
 these degenerate sons of Abraham is flashed forth. The 
 inmost ground of want of love to Christ, and of incapacity 
 to accept His word, is kindred with the great antagonist 
 of God ; and that kinship, it is to be observed, is dis- 
 tinctly declared as voluntary in the emphatic expression, 
 "Ye will to do." Men are members of that family be- 
 cause they choose to be so, and do things contrary to 
 God's will and accordant with Satan's " lusts." What 
 are these lusts? Two are specified, both germane to 
 the Jews' feelings to Jesus, — murderous hate and aver- 
 sion to the truth. 
 
 The distinct reference to the Fall, by which death came 
 on men, is to be noted ; and there seems also a dim 
 glimpse of a previous fall of the Tempter from " the 
 truth." A spiritual being — man or angel — who has not 
 
Less. X.] Freedom and Sonship 93 
 
 " truth " within, — that is, no sincerity, uprightness of 
 will, or affinity with the revelation of God, which is " the 
 truth," — cannot continue in it as his life's atmosphere. 
 He has no lungs fitted to breathe it, and will suifocate 
 there, like a man in water or a fish on land. 
 
 If we adopt the rendering of the difficult closing 
 sentence of verse 44 in the Revised Version and in the 
 Authorised Version, it carries on the allusion to the Fall 
 and the Satanic lie then. " Of his own " points to the 
 true diabolic nature, in contrast to that of the Son, who 
 did and spoke nothing of Himself. Wherever such 
 self-origination and casting off of filial obedience are, 
 there are the " devil's marks," deep stamped. All his 
 words are lies, his promises and his denials of God's 
 threats. Himself a liar, he breeds lies in others. It is 
 hard to beheve that these solemn words of Christ's were 
 only accommodated to Jewish superstition. They open 
 a dread glimpse into the anarchic kingdom of antagonism 
 to God, and press home the alternative, — either children 
 of God or of the Devil. 
 
 The close of the lesson gathers all up to a point. So 
 blinded were the Jews by the glamour cast by Satan's 
 lies, that they rejected Jesus just because He spoke the 
 truth. The highest truth has this for one of its credentials 
 — that sinful men do not accept it. Tongues accus- 
 tomed to the coarse pungency of leeks and garlic do not 
 like manna. The devil's children naturally take to lies, 
 and turn away from truth. Verse 46 in its first part gives 
 as proof that He spoke the truth the unanswerable 
 challenge to convict Him of sin. That glove lies in the 
 lists still, and eighteen hundred years have produced no 
 champion bold enough to lift it and say, " I will." Jesus 
 
94 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. viii. 31-47 
 
 asserts His sinlessness, and the world admits the claim. 
 But does it accept the consequence, that sinlessness in 
 action implies truth in speech ? So He takes for granted 
 here — and surely, if it be true that His manhood was 
 utterly free from sin, the only explanation is to be found 
 in the recognition of His sonship, and involved therein— 
 the vahdity of His claim to be the perfect Revealer of 
 the truth. On the basis of His flawless purity is solidly 
 planted the searching question, " Why do ye not believe 
 Me?" and no less solidly the final crushing unveiling 
 of the ultimate reason for all unbelief, " Ye therefore 
 hear them not, because ye are not of God." 
 
LESSON XI 
 
 Jesus Seeing the Blind, and the Blind Seeing Jesus 
 
 St. John ix. i-ii, 35-38 
 
 1. "And as Jesus passed by, 
 He saw a man which was blind 
 from his birth. 
 
 2. And His disciples asked 
 Him, saying. Master, who did 
 sin, this man, or his parents, 
 that he was born blind ? 
 
 3. Jesus answered, Neither 
 hath this man sinned, nor his 
 parents : but that the works of 
 God should be made manifest 
 in him. 
 
 4. I must work the works of 
 Him that sent Me, while it is 
 day : the night cometh, when 
 no man can work. 
 
 5. As long as I am in the 
 world, I am the light of the 
 world. 
 
 6. When He had thus spoken, 
 He spat on the ground, and 
 made clay of the spittle, and He 
 anointed the eyes of the blind 
 man with the clay. 
 
 7. And said unto him. Go, 
 wash in the pool of Siloam, 
 (which is by interpretation, 
 Sent.) He went his way there- 
 fore, and washed, and came 
 seeing. 
 
 8. The neighbours therefore, 
 
 and they which before had 
 seen him that he was blind, 
 said, Is not this he that sat and 
 begged ? 
 
 9. Some said, This is he : 
 others said. He is like him : but 
 he said, I am he. 
 
 10. Therefore said they unto 
 him. How were thine eyes 
 opened ? 
 
 11. He answered and said, 
 A man that is called Jesus 
 made clay, and anointed mine 
 eyes, and said unto me, Go to 
 the pool of Siloam, and wash : 
 and I went and washed, and I 
 received sight. . . . 
 
 35. Jesus heard that they 
 had cast him out; and when 
 He had found him, He said unto 
 him. Dost thou believe on the 
 Son of God ? 
 
 36. He answered and said, 
 Who is He, Lord, that I might 
 believe on Him ? 
 
 37. And Jesus said unto him, 
 Thou hast both seen Him, and 
 it is He that talketh with thee. 
 
 38. And he said, Lord, I 
 believe. And he worshipped 
 Him." 
 
 IT is remarkable that, while the other evangelists tell 
 of miracles done at the request of others, all but 
 one of those which John records were spontaneous on 
 
 95 
 
96 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. ix. 1-38 
 
 Christ's part. That characteristic is strikingly brought 
 out in this narrative. " He saw " the man. No one 
 interceded for him. The disciples regarded him only as 
 a theological problem. He himself sat silent, waiting 
 for alms, all unconscious of the kind eyes fixed on him. 
 But Jesus saw and pitied, recognised the will of the 
 Father, and was about to intervene with heahng when 
 He was delayed by the question of the disciples. 
 
 Two ways of looking at suffering are suggested by 
 the disciples' inquiry and Christ's answer. The former 
 glanced at the blind man without pity. His was a 
 common calamity, and interested them only as raising a 
 doubt as to the persons to be blamed for it. Perhaps 
 they remembered the saying to another sufferer, " Thou 
 art made whole : sin no more." A commonplace of 
 their religion was the connection between sin and suffer- 
 ing ; and as, in this case, the affliction had been from 
 birth, it strikes them as a curious question whether there 
 had been sin in some previous state of existence, or 
 whether it was a case of the children's expiating the 
 parents' fault. 
 
 Christ's answer falls into three parts (vers. 3-5). First, 
 He teaches the disciples and us how to look at suffering. 
 So far as we are concerned, the chief consideration is 
 that it gives opportunity for manifesting "the works of 
 God" by helping to remedy it. No doubt there is a 
 connection between sin and sorrow, and Jesus recognised 
 it when He pronounced forgiveness to the palsied man 
 before He healed his body. But to study misery as 
 material for theological speculations or for censorious 
 adjudging blame, is to miss its true purpose for us. Not 
 what brought it, but what we can do to remove it, is the 
 
Less. XI.] Jesus Seeing the Blind 97 
 
 question for us. Speculations about "the origin of evil" 
 may ossify the heart so that it throbs with no pity. That 
 question is deeply interesting and important in its own 
 place, but that place is not when we are standing beside 
 the sufferer. Discuss the cause of the fire as much as 
 you like, but try to put it out first and philosophise 
 afterwards. The purpose of the evil around us, in 
 reference to us, is to touch us with pity and summon us 
 to help. " The works of God " are works of alleviation 
 of affliction done by men who, in thus working, are 
 carrying out the Divine purpose and imitating the Divine 
 acts. We are likest God when we strive to reduce the 
 sum of human misery. 
 
 Verse 4 unfolds the secret of Christ's unwearied 
 diligence in His appointed task. The reading adopted 
 in the Revised Version, "we must work," associates 
 us with Him, and sets forth the great " must " which 
 dominated His life as meant to dominate ours. But 
 if that be the true reading, the difference oetween the 
 Master and the servants remains ; for our obligation is 
 consequent on His mission, and His relation to the 
 Father is that of being " sent " in a special manner. 
 Jesus here shows us His inmost heart. That solemn 
 " must " ruled all His life, and, in this Gospel, is often 
 on His lips. But it was no unwelcome necessity re- 
 luctantly obeyed, but was inwoven with His deepest will 
 and the occasion of His continual delight. Because 
 His spirit said, " I delight to do Thy will," He was 
 thereby "anointed with the oil of gladness above His 
 fellows." 
 
 Jesus, too, as well as we, was stimulated to fill the 
 moments with toil by the consciousness that the time 
 
 7 
 
98 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. ix. 1-38 
 
 was short. He, too, must make the most of the oppor- 
 tunities of earthly Hfe ; for, after it, the season for these 
 gentle works of Omnipotence clothed in flesh would be 
 ended. True, the " night " was really day, and the rest 
 which followed earthly toil was to be filled with loftier 
 work than giving this man sight ; but still, the form of 
 work which He then was doing could not be done in a 
 near future. Therefore His course on earth, besides 
 its .grander and more recondite features, is marked by 
 the homely virtue of hard work, and utilising every 
 moment. 
 
 These two characteristics are to be reproduced by us, 
 whether this verse is to be read " we " or " I." The 
 quick response of a shoot of pity and love when we see 
 sorrow; the consciousness of a great necessity, which 
 we rejoice to obey, bidding us help the sufferers, and 
 so do God's works ; the unhasting, unresting diligence 
 which marks the evening shadows lengthening, while so 
 much of the harvest is unreaped, and therefore is a 
 miser of time and prodigal of strength, — these are the 
 signs of a true disciple. Let us leave the question of 
 the cause of the misery to censorious and curious people, 
 except so far as the knowledge of the cause may direct 
 wise effort to cure ; and let us feel that every sorrow 
 which we see has a message and purpose for us, and is 
 God's call to us to soothe and, if possible, remove it. 
 
 Verse 5 is the majestic utterance of His conscious 
 power, which power here is present to His mind, as, if 
 we may so say, the measure of His responsibility. He 
 knows that He is " the Light of the world," and can give 
 the lower light for the eyes, and the higher for the spirit, 
 to this man, as to every man. Therefore He pauses 
 
Less. XI.] Jesus Seeing the Blind 99 
 
 before him, full of pity, of filial obedience, and of 
 consciousness of power. The words are to be taken 
 in their widest and deepest meaning, as declaring what 
 John said in the prologue to the Gospel, that He is the 
 Light of men, in all senses of that word, and to all. He 
 did not cease to be " in the world " when He ascended, 
 any more than He began to be in it when He was born ; 
 but the period of His earthly life had special modes of 
 manifesting Him as the Light, and one of these was such 
 a miracle as this. While, then, in one aspect, the saying 
 is parallel to the preceding, in another it stretches far 
 beyond it, and declares a presence and an influence 
 coeval with creation and coextensive with humanity. 
 Christ is the Light of the world in a sense in which none 
 others are ; but the same condescension which underlies 
 the possible " we " preceding, associates us with Him 
 in the name, and, derived though our radiance be. He 
 calls His servants " the lights of the world." The name 
 should be to us what here it was to Him, a call to let 
 the light shine on darkened eyes. 
 
 The miracle proper is the smallest part of this narra- 
 tive, and is distinguished by the special feature of our 
 Lord's use of means, which was rare with Him, and in 
 each case probably to be accounted for by the spiritual 
 needs of the subjects. It might be a help to feeble 
 faith, to a man who has not seen His gentle face nor 
 marked the pity in His eye. The touch of His hand 
 on the poor sightless eyes, and the clay laid there by it, 
 would aid apprehension, and be a crutch for faith. 
 
 Another peculiarity is the healing at a distance, of 
 which we have another example in the fourth chapter. 
 The significance of the name " Siloam " was the reason 
 
loo The Gospel of St. John [Chap. ix. 1-38 
 
 for its place in the cure. The name refers either to the 
 gushing out of the waters discharged from an underground 
 channel, or, less probably, to their being a gift sent 
 from God. Already in John vii. 37 the water from that 
 spring was taken by our Lord as a type of Himself; and 
 here the emphasis is to be laid, not on the fact that the 
 blind man was " sent " to the fountain, but that He 
 who was " sent from God " was the true agent in his 
 cure. 
 
 Again, the method of cure suspends healing on obedi- 
 ence, as in the other case where the command " Stretch 
 forth thy hand " was addressed to a man who could 
 not stretch it out, but who, trying, became able. Com- 
 pliance with Christ's conditions brings healing. For us 
 the condition is faith. We have to wash in the true 
 Fountain, " sent of God " for sin and uncleanness ; and, 
 if we do, we shall come seeing, and clean. 
 
 The buzz of talk among the neighbours is vividly 
 given, and attests the conspicuous notoriety of the 
 miracle. The blind man's character is strongly marked 
 throughout. He sturdily adheres to facts, will not be 
 tempted one inch beyond them, declines to speculate 
 or to profess to know anything more than he does know ; 
 has a touch of dry sarcasm and quick-wittedness, and, 
 withal, docility very touching when combined with such 
 independence. Therefore he gets the better sight, as 
 told in the closing verses of the lesson. 
 
 His conceptions of Jesus had been steadily rising, 
 from " the man Jesus " to " a prophet," and " from 
 God." Opposition and the floundering of the Pharisees 
 in trying to explain away his cure had led him to pro- 
 gressive preparedness for the fuller revelation. The 
 
Less. XI.] Jesus Seeing the Blind loi 
 
 excommunication left him sad, but unshaken. Jesus 
 went to look for the outcast, as He ever does. The 
 question "Dost thou believe ? " is really an invitation to 
 believe ; and it is to be observed that our Lord here 
 asks for faith in its deepest sense — ^namely, that believ- 
 ing on Him which we have had frequent occasion to 
 distinguish from simply believing Him. It is reliance 
 absolute and firm which He seeks. And the object of 
 that faith is " the Son of God," in the full meaning of 
 that great name, the whole significance of which yet 
 waited to be revealed. How the strong, sturdy man 
 who had held his own with the Sanhedrim, and given 
 back sarcasm for threat, melts and bows in docility 
 before Him whom he had such good cause to trust, 
 and whose greatness had been slowly shining in on his 
 newly seeing soul ! 
 
 It is not bhnd submission which professes its readi- 
 ness to accept further teaching from a teacher who has 
 done so much for him. If Jesus were the prophet 
 which His acts convinced the man that He was, then 
 His words were to be taken as truth, whatever they 
 declared or demanded. The recognition of Him as 
 " from God," honestly followed out, will lead to some- 
 thing more wonderful still. Where there has been true 
 adherence to present measures of light, and willingness 
 to follow that light wherever it leads, Jesus will come 
 and disclose Himself Many a man has found that to 
 be cast out by men is to be found by Christ, and that, 
 when hunted from the fellowship of formalists, his soli- 
 tude has been illumined by the sunshine of that face. 
 
 The answer of our Lord to the man's eager question 
 is very beautiful. He does not say " I am He," but 
 
102 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. ix. 1-38 
 
 describes Himself by two characteristics, the first of 
 which (" thou hast seen Him ") touches deHcately the 
 obHgation under which the man lay to Him, and the 
 proof in the miracle of His love and power. " That 
 thou canst see at all is My gift, and My better gift is 
 that thou dost see Me." The second emphasises the 
 wonderful fact that the Son of God stands in human 
 form before him, and talks in familiar friendship. It is 
 like the word to the Samaritan woman, " I that speak 
 unto thee am He " ; and both lay on our hearts the 
 gracious and astounding mystery of incarnate love, by 
 which the Son of God dwells among us, and men can 
 speak face to face with Him as a man speaketh with his 
 friend. 
 
 Thus flooded with light, the soul of this poor bhnd 
 man bows in lowly adoration, compact of gratitude, awe, 
 and loving trust, and worships the Bringer of sight to his 
 eyeballs and of the better vision to his spirit. If we will 
 listen to Jesus, He will talk with us ; and if we will obey 
 His conditions and go to the fountain " Sent," which is 
 Himself, and wash there, we too shall see, and have for 
 ours the irrefragable argument of experience with which 
 this bhnd beggar pulverised the cavils of the Sanhedrim : 
 " Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not : one thing 
 I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." 
 
LESSON XII 
 
 The Shepherd of Men 
 
 St. John x, i-i6 
 
 1. "Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you, He that entereth not by 
 the door into the sheepfold, but 
 climbeth up some other way, 
 the same is a thief and a robber. 
 
 2. But he that entereth in by 
 the door is the shepherd of the 
 sheep. 
 
 3. To him the porter open- 
 eth ; and the sheep hear his 
 voice : and he calleth his own 
 sheep by name, and leadeth 
 them out. 
 
 4. And when he putteth forth 
 his own sheep, he goeth before 
 them, and the sheep follow him : 
 for they know his voice, 
 
 5. And a stranger will they 
 not follow, but will flee from 
 him : for they know not the 
 voice of strangers. 
 
 6. This parable spake Jesus 
 unto them : but Ihey under- 
 stood not what things they 
 were which He spake unto 
 them. 
 
 7. Then said Jesus unto them 
 again. Verily, verily, I say unto 
 j-ou, I am the Door of the 
 sheep. 
 
 8. All that ever came before 
 Me are thieves and robbers : 
 but the sheep did not hear 
 them. 
 
 9. I am the Door : b}' Me if 
 
 any man enter in, he shall be 
 saved, and shall go in and out, 
 and find pasture. 
 
 10. The thief cometh not, but 
 for to steal, and to kill, and 
 to destroy : I am come that 
 they might have life, and that 
 they might have it more abund- 
 antly. 
 
 11. I am the Good Shepherd : 
 the good shepherd giveth his 
 life for the sheep. 
 
 12. But he that is an hireling, 
 and not the shepherd, whose 
 own the sheep are not, seeth 
 the wolf coming, and leaveth 
 the sheep, and fleeth : and the 
 wolf catcheth them, and scatter- 
 eth the sheep. 
 
 13. The hireling fleeth. be- 
 cause he is an hireling, and 
 careth not for the sheep. 
 
 14. I am the Good Shepherd, 
 and know M3' sheep, and am 
 known of Mine. 
 
 15. As the Father knoweth 
 Me, even so know I the Father : 
 and I lay down My life for the 
 sheep. 
 
 16. And other sheep I have, 
 which are not of this fold : 
 them also I must bring, and 
 they shall hear My voice ; and 
 there shall be one fold, and 
 one Shepherd." 
 
 lO' 
 
I04 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. x. 1-16 
 
 THE Pharisees' treatment of the bhnd man showed 
 what tender shepherds they were, and their 
 indignant " Are we blind ? " betrayed their irritable 
 self-conceit. Therefore Christ assails their consciences 
 in this lesson, which must be taken in close connection 
 with what goes before. We have, first, a picture of a 
 true shepherd, and then the expansion and application 
 of its two principal ideas. 
 
 I. The " parable " (vers. 1-5) sets forth the ideal of a 
 true shepherd ; but, since that ideal is fulfilled in Jesus, 
 it is also His own portrait of Himself, though the 
 personal reference is quite in the background. The 
 picture is meant to rouse the consciences of the un- 
 worthy shepherds by showing them what they should be ; 
 but that application is also in the background. It is 
 not always wise to say, " Thou art the man." It is 
 often better to hold up the portrait of what a man 
 should be, and leave him to say whether it is a likeness 
 of him. 
 
 A true shepherd enters the fold by the door. A fold 
 is an external organisation : in its original meaning here> 
 the Jewish theocracy ; for us, the Christian Church. 
 This Gospel has all along been insisting on the activity 
 of the eternal Word before incarnation ; and therefore 
 we must take it that from the beginning all true shep" 
 herds and guides — lawgivers, prophets, kings — entered 
 on their office through Him. Honest men go in by 
 the door. If we see one getting over the fence, we 
 conclude that he is on no good errand. The unworthy 
 teachers of that day had selfish ends to further, and, 
 whether by stealth like "a thief" or by violence like a 
 " robber," sought their own gain. They are dead and 
 
Less. XII.] The Shepherd of Men 105 
 
 gone, but the warning is much needed by Christian 
 teachers of all degrees. He is no true shepherd who 
 does not derive his office from Jesus, and use it for 
 Him. "Not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; 
 and ourselves your servants," should be our motto. 
 Reliance on one's own powers, entrance on such sacred 
 tasks from one's own self-will, discharge of them for 
 one's own advantage, either as regards money or glory, 
 making anything but Jesus one's theme, are signs of 
 being thieves, not shepherds. These are the dangers 
 besetting all religious teaching. Conceit climbs high ; 
 the door is low-pitched, and a man must stoop to go in. 
 
 "To him the porter openeth." The meaning of this 
 second trait is obscure. To treat it as mere embellish- 
 ment seems scarcely reverent ; to explain it as referring 
 to recognition by ecclesiastical authorities is incongruous 
 — for these are "shepherds." The explanation which 
 sees in it the work of the Divine Spirit furthering Christ- 
 derived and Christ-devoted work seems worthiest. He 
 who enters on his service through the door will find a 
 mighty power clearing away obstacles and prospering his 
 goings. 
 
 Next we see the shepherd in the fold (ver. 3). His 
 only weapon is his voice, and " the sheep " hear it. 
 The presence in the fold of unworthy members is pro- 
 bably lightly indicated ; but the main point is that 
 prepared hearts recognise the truth, and in like manner 
 the selective work of the shepherd may be glanced at, as 
 well as the tenderness of the bond between him and the 
 flock in that sweet phrase, "his own sheep." Each true 
 Christian teacher will find some who will specially 
 respond to his manner of setting forth the truth. 
 
io6 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. x. 1-16 
 
 Diversities of gifts correspond to diversities of needs. 
 Individualising care and tender knowledge of each are 
 marks of the true shepherd. To call by name implies 
 this and more. To a stranger all sheep are alike ; the 
 shepherd knows them apart. It is a beautiful picture of 
 loving intimacy, lowliness, care, and confidence, and one 
 which every teacher should ponder. Contrast with it 
 the Pharisees' treatment of the blind man. 
 
 Having gathered his own sheep, the shepherd " leadeth 
 them out." So we have next the shepherd and flock 
 outside the fold. They are taken out to pasture and 
 exercise, which, in the most wide application, suggests 
 that the activities of Hfe are to be regulated by the truth 
 that religious teaching finds its goal in obedient conduct ; 
 that to do, and not to meditate or rest, is the end of man. 
 But there is, probably, also a hint that the time for the 
 separation between sheep and goats in Israel was at hand, 
 and that Jesus was soon to call His own from the mass, 
 and guide them to new pastures. The hint of the 
 establishment of the Church apart from the synagogue is 
 here. 
 
 But the main point in the sweet picture is the relation 
 of confidence and close companionship between shepherd 
 and sheep, — he going before ; they, drawn by his voice, 
 following, safe in his presence and secure from wandering, 
 when behind him. Lessons for all Christian teachers lie 
 on the surface ; that is the ideal for them. They miser- 
 ably fail if they are not leaders in holy living, just as 
 disciples fail if they merely admire their voices, and do 
 not follow their footsteps. Of course, through this ideal 
 picture of what every true shepherd should be shines the 
 actual realisation of it in Christ, who is Himself the 
 
Less. XII.] The Shepherd of Men 107 
 
 Shepherd whom He drew ; but that is in the back- 
 ground. 
 
 II. The expansion and apphcation to Christ of the 
 figure of the door. Note that new phase of the idea, 
 conveyed in caUing it " the door of the sheep," not 
 merely, as before, for the shepherds to go in by. 
 Observe, too, the pause before developing the meaning 
 of the emblem, to denounce again the " thieves and 
 robbers." Here these must be false mediums of access 
 to whatever the door leads to ; that is to say, pretenders 
 to open the way to God, to safety, and pasture. The 
 omission of " ever " in the Revised Version and the 
 present tense " are " show that the pretenders spoken of 
 are cotemporaries of Jesus, though " before Him " as 
 already exercising their false authority. In fact, He 
 means the existing rulers, whose pretensions to give 
 access to God are as baseless and inspired by the same 
 self-seeking as their claims to be the true shepherds. 
 
 But that is but a momentary flash of lightning. He 
 returns to set forth the wonders to which He admits, in 
 words which only familiarity robs of their sublime self- 
 consciousness. The picture has somewhat shifted. The 
 flock are now outside, and the fold is not so definitely 
 an organisation. It is rather the true home of wander- 
 ing souls, the fold of God. Jesus here stands before the 
 whole world, and, with universal invitation, witnessing to 
 His claim of Divine universality of power, presents Him- 
 self as the medium by which every man may have all that 
 he needs. 
 
 Three things are requisite for vigorous life, — security, 
 a field for exercise of activity, and food. Jesus says that 
 He will supply them all. The condition is entrance 
 
io8 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. x. 1-16. 
 
 through Him, which is plainly tantamount to faith in 
 Him as our sole means of access to God. Then comes 
 security; for the figure of the flock is kept up, and 
 " saved " has probably not so much the full Christian 
 meaning as the general one of safety, — from outward 
 disasters, which will not hurt us if we are in Him ; from 
 inward evil, which will not tempt if we dwell in the fold ; 
 and thus, finally, from everything outward or inward 
 which could sadden, hurt, or stain our souls. The 
 many temporary and partial deliverances are crowned 
 by the final complete salvation. If we keep behind the 
 breakwater, and cast anchor with Jesus between us and 
 the wind, we shall ride out the storms. We shall, further, 
 have the free exercise of powers. " Go in and out " 
 means free, unrestricted activity. Both the contempla- 
 tive and active sides of life are included. Within the 
 fold is repose ; without is healthful exercise. We must 
 go deep into God if we would be blessed, and Jesus 
 leads us into the secret place of the Most High, where 
 we can renew strength and regain calmness. We must 
 go out into the world ; and Jesus gives us a pattern for 
 action, motives for service, and new powers, as none 
 else can. Christians should be complete men. But we 
 must " go in " first, if we are to "go out" charged with 
 blessing for others. 
 
 Further, Jesus gives provision for all true wants, food 
 for all powers, desires, and aspirations, and He makes 
 the desert yield supplies. Without Him, the world is 
 like the burnt-up pastures after drought, where starving 
 sheep mumble some dry stalks that crumble to dust in 
 their mouths ; but, with Him, it is like the same pastures 
 after rain, — green with juicy grass. 
 
Less. XII,] The Shepherd of Men 109 
 
 The transition to the image of the shepherd is pre- 
 pared for in verse 10, in which the persons (" thief," 
 " I ") are contrasted, the general truth appHcable to a 
 class (" Cometh ") set by the side of the single past 
 coming which has abiding presence as result (" am 
 come "), and the effects of the selfish teacher's lessons — 
 which are robbing the true Owner of His sheep by making 
 them partisans of a man, spiritual death and the des- 
 truction of what would nourish life — are presented in 
 contrast with the hfe in its deepest and widest sense 
 which He gives, and the abundance of all that will 
 nourish and increase it. 
 
 in. We have the image of the shepherd applied 
 to Jesus (vers. 11-16). "Good" means "beautiful" as 
 well as " excellent," and suggests the gracious and lovely 
 attractiveness of our Lord's character as Shepherd. 
 Note the strangeness of a man's saying anything like 
 this about himself Is not Jesus harder to understand 
 if we reject His Divinity than if we accept it? 
 
 But what is the one token that He is the Good Shep- 
 herd ? His laying down His life. Here is a prophecy 
 of His death, a claim that He lays down His life volun- 
 tarily as one might put aside a garment, a declaration 
 that His death is " for the sheep," and the plain impli- 
 cation that it is the very centre and heart of His work, 
 establishing His claim to be our Shepherd. True, the 
 whole meaning and power of it are not revealed, but it 
 is set forth as the climax of self-sacrificing care, and as 
 the way of saving the flock from the wolf We shall 
 not understand Jesus, nor see the fairest beauty in Him, 
 till we learn that His voluntary death for us is the 
 keystone of His work. 
 
no The Gospel of St. John [Chap. x. 1-16 
 
 The contrast now is with hirelings, not thieves. The 
 wolf does what the thieves did, — kills and destroys. 
 Whoever fills any office involving the care and guidance 
 of men, and is swayed by mercenary considerations, will 
 have a quick eye to see danger far off, and will look 
 after himself, deserting duty to keep life. There are 
 whole packs of wolves snuffing round every fold, and 
 hirelings always have been, and will be, cowards. 
 " Faithful unto death " he only will be who has caught 
 his inspiration from Jesus, and does his work '' all for 
 love, and nothing for reward." 
 
 Another mark of the Good Shepherd is the per- 
 fect knowledge and sympathy between Him and the 
 flock. " I know Mine own, and Mine own know Me." 
 That throws a bridge across the gulf between us, and 
 likens the humble upward movement of the dependent 
 love, which is knowledge and possession, to the down- 
 ward flow of that love which is Divine. His knowledge 
 of us guarantees our safety and peace. " The Lord 
 knoweth them that are His " is the seal stamped on the 
 foundation, by which it " standeth sure." Ours of Him 
 clings and trusts and grows, and is enriched by experience. 
 But yet, with all differences, the lower is like the higher 
 and the same sympathy and love look out of the eyes 
 of the Shepherd and of the flock. Deep words, which 
 we can only bow before in adoration, declare that the 
 union of knowledge and love between Christ and us has 
 its original in that ineffable union between the Father 
 and the Son. The unknown is made to explain the 
 known ; and it does so if it helps us to feel how sacred, 
 deep, and, in its possibilities, inexhaustible, is the 
 bond which knits the humblest soul that follows the 
 
Less. XII.] The Shepherd of Men. 1 1 1 
 
 Shepherd to Him whom he feebly loves and dimly 
 knows. 
 
 These mysteries of intimacy will not seem impossible 
 if we turn again to gaze on the blessed fact which 
 founds them, even the death of Christ for the sheep. 
 That- sacrifice is the indispensable prerequisite if we are 
 ever to come to this satisfying and wonderful communion 
 of heart and mind with Him. Here Jesus declares that 
 He will do what He has just said that a good shepherd 
 must be ready to do. 
 
 And, as He sees the cross rising before His prophetic 
 eye, the narrow bounds of the " fold " which then was 
 melt away, and He sees the " other sheep " flocking to 
 His call. The thought of the universality of His redemp- 
 tion is very frequently associated with His prevision of 
 the cross, as if, before He suffered, He saw of the travail 
 of His soul, and was satisfied. These triumphant words 
 teach us the spirit in which we should look on the 
 outlying regions as belonging to Christ, as containing 
 some who are His, and as sure to be won for Him. 
 They teach us the Divine necessity which lay on His 
 Spirit, and should press on ours. They assure us that 
 He is now fulfilling that " must," and will help His 
 servants to fulfil it. They bid us lift our eyes beyond 
 the narrow bounds of existing organised Christianity, and 
 rouse our faith and expectations to embrace what He 
 saw then. They set the final state of His Church 
 before us. He shows us a " flock," not a " fold " ; one, 
 not because of a surrounding wall, but because of a 
 central Lord and Leader. If the shepherd be in the 
 midst, the sheep will couch round him, and be one 
 because all are knit to the one Shepherd. 
 
LESSON XIII 
 
 The Crowning Miracle 
 
 St. John xi. 21-44 
 
 21. "Then said Martha unto 
 Jesus, Lord, if Thou hadst been 
 here, my brother had not died. 
 
 22. But I know, that even 
 now, whatsoever Thou wilt ask 
 of God, God will give it Thee. 
 
 23. Jesus saith unto her. Thy 
 brother shall rise again. 
 
 24. Martha said unto Him, I 
 know that he shall rise again in 
 the resurrection at the last day. 
 
 25. Jesus said unto her, I am 
 the resurrection, and the life : 
 he that believeth in Me, though 
 he were dead, yet shall he live : 
 
 26. And whosoever liveth and 
 believeth in Me shall never die. 
 Believest thou this ? 
 
 27. She saith unto Him, Yea, 
 Lord : I believe that Thou art 
 the Christ, the Son of God, 
 which should come into the 
 world. 
 
 28. And when she had so 
 said, she went her way, and 
 called Mary her sister secretly, 
 saying. The Master is come, and 
 calleth for thee. 
 
 29. As soon as she heard 
 that, she arose quickly, and 
 came unto Him. 
 
 30. Now Jesus was not yet 
 
 come into the town, but was in 
 that place where Martha met 
 Him. 
 
 31. The Jews then which 
 were with her in the house, 
 and comforted her, when they 
 saw Mary, that she rose up 
 hastily and went out, followed 
 her, saying, She goeth unto the 
 grave to weep there. 
 
 32. Then when Mar}?^ was 
 come where Jesus was, and 
 saw Him, she fell down at His 
 feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if 
 Thou hadst been here, my 
 brother had not died. 
 
 33. When Jesus therefore 
 saw her weeping, and the Jews 
 also weeping which came with 
 her, He groaned in the spirit, 
 and was troubled, 
 
 34. And said. Where have 
 ye laid him ? They said unto 
 Him, Lord, come and see. 
 
 35. Jesus wept. 
 
 36. Then said the Jews, Be- 
 hold how He loved him ! 
 
 37. And some of them said, 
 Could not this man, which 
 opened the eyes of the blind, 
 have caused that even this man 
 should not have died ? 
 
 112 
 
Less. XIII.] The Crowning Miracle 113 
 
 38. Jesus therefore again up His eyes, and said, Father, 
 groaning in Himself cometh to I thank Thee that Thou hast 
 the grave. It was a cave, and heard Me. 
 
 a stone lay upon it. 42. And I knew that Thou 
 
 39. Jesus said, Take ye away hearest Me always : but be- 
 the stone. Martha, the sister cause of the people which stand 
 of him that was dead, saith by I said it, that they may 
 unto Him, Lord, by this time believe that Thou hast sent Me. 
 he stinketh : for he hath been 43. And when He thus had 
 dead four days. spoken, He cried with a loud 
 
 40. Jesus saith unto her, voice, Lazarus, come forth. 
 Said I not unto thee, that if 44. And he that was dead 
 thou wouldest believe, thou came forth, bound hand and 
 shouldest see the glory of God ? | foot with graveclothes : and his 
 
 41. Then they took away the i face was bound about with a 
 stone from the place where the 1 napkin. Jesus saith unto them, 
 dead was laid. And Jesus lifted ! Loose him, and let him go." 
 
 JOHN records seven miracles before the crucifixion, 
 all deeply significant. The raising of Lazarus is the 
 last, and, if we can compare miracles, the greatest. 
 It crowns the whole, not only by its revelation of the Life- 
 giver, but by its disclosing of Christ's human sympathy 
 and individualising love, the majesty of the manner of 
 His work, the pathos and rich store of consolation for 
 bleeding hearts hived in the inimitable narrative. The 
 direct effect of the miracle in precipitating Christ's death 
 is also part of the reason for the minute account of it. 
 The story is as inexhaustible as inimitable, and we can 
 only skim its surface. The material naturally gathers 
 into four portions. 
 
 L Jesus and Martha; the drawing forth of faith. — 
 It was like Martha to be in the way to get the news 
 of Christ's arrival, and to rush to Him without telling 
 Mary. Grief that can work is easier to bear than grief 
 that sits still and broods. ^' If Thou hadst been here " 
 is not meant for reproach, but regret, mingled with trust 
 that somehow Jesus could have hindered the blow. 
 
 8 
 
IT4 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xi. 21-44 
 
 Sorrowful hearts are but too apt, like the man with the 
 legion, to cut themselves with this sharp knife. We all 
 know the bitter thought, " How different everything 
 
 would have been, if only " Regret passed quickly 
 
 into a wild hope, which did not venture to name itself. 
 She means " resurrection " when she only dares to say 
 "whatever." Perhaps she knew of the raisings of Jairus' 
 daughter and the widow's son. But the wistful belief 
 that Jesus could was shaded by a doubt if He would, 
 and her words are a petition. The imperfection of her 
 conception is obvious as regards Christ's relation to God 
 and to His own gifts ; but the strength of the faith, born 
 of sorrow and sore need, is beautiful. Despair grasps 
 Jesus, and is transformed into faith that dares to expect 
 even impossibilities. Thick smoke-wreaths flare up, 
 when they are once set on fire. 
 
 The purpose of Christ's treatment of Martha was to 
 evoke and enlighten her faith, which, though not needful 
 for the miracle, was needful for her getting the full good 
 of it. So His first reply is intentionally indefinite. If 
 the hope she expressed were deep and solid, she would 
 apply the promise to the moment ; if not, it would 
 sound remote. Jesus grants requests, but often in such 
 a form that faith is needed to perceive the grant. 
 " The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received." Will 
 Martha take what is given, or spill the most of it by 
 tremulous faith ? Her answer is almost impatient, as it 
 puts away the far-off prospect as all insufficient for 
 present comfort. Heart's agony makes short work of 
 religious commonplaces. It is a dreary, long road to 
 " the last day," and she wants Lazarus now. How true 
 to nature that putting away of the very hope that she 
 
Less. XIII.] The Crowning' Miracle 115 
 
 had been cherishing ! So swiftly does the mood change, 
 and what seemed soHd melt into cloud. 
 
 But this at least has been gained, that the thought 
 of resurrection has been twice spoken, and the way 
 prepared for the full glorious declaration which Jesus 
 offers to her faith : " I am the resurrection." That sets 
 right her notion of His relation to His gift, and, in its 
 assumption of the power of His personality, contrasts 
 with " God will give it thee." It also meets the sad 
 postponement to a far-off future, and teaches that in 
 Him standing by her side was power to effect a resur- 
 rection now as well as then. Whenever and however it 
 takes place, it is His work. 
 
 The order of words is profoundly significant ; for 
 " resurrection " comes first, not simply as the subject in 
 hand, but as being the issue of what is named second, 
 " life." Jesus is the former because He is the latter, 
 and partaking in resurrection is the certain issue of par- 
 taking in life. Therefore two paradoxes for sense are 
 true on condition of union with Jesus by faith. If He 
 is the resurrection, they who believe live, though they 
 die. If He is the hfe, they who, in this mortal being, 
 are united to Him by faith, never really die; for the 
 name of death is not to be given to the physical fact, 
 which does not touch the life eternal. United to Jesus, 
 we are vital with a life over which the shadow called 
 Death has no dominion ; and having passed through the 
 dark sea, as some bright stream may through a sullen 
 lake, without losing its current or a drop of its waters, 
 shall flow on beyond to meet the sunny ocean. The 
 resurrection of all believers is the consequence of their 
 possession of Christ's life, 
 
ii6 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xi. 21-44 
 
 These were stupendous truths to flash upon tear- 
 dimmed eyes, and to be followed by the searching 
 question, "Believest thou this?" But great truths are 
 quickly assimilated by deeply moved souls, and lasting 
 faith sometimes grows, or becomes conscious of its growth, 
 as fast as Jonah's gourd. Martha's answer fully accepts 
 the wonderful words, and is not rash credulity ; for she 
 builds her swift belief on rock when she says, " I have 
 believed that Thou art the Christ." That faith had 
 been slow to grow, but it prepared for the unhesitating 
 acceptance of all that He showed her. 
 
 II. Jesus and Mary ; sympathy with grief. — The work 
 on Martha was done when her faith thus triumphantly 
 closed with the great promise, and now she sought her 
 sister. Apparently Jesus bade her go ; for her words 
 to Mary are scarcely her own inference. Her calling 
 " secretly " indicates the natural wish to get rid of 
 heartless " comforters," but the effort was vain. Mary's 
 characteristic swift setting out did not shake off the 
 conventional sympathisers, who understood sorrow so 
 little that they would not let it have a moment of solitude 
 to break down in, and be relieved. 
 
 Note the delicate difference between the sisters, in 
 that while both say the same thing, and thereby show 
 how monotonously they had said it to one another in 
 the four dreary days, Mary falls at Christ's feet, and has 
 no word of hope for " even now." The difference of 
 character makes their treatment different. Martha got 
 teaching ; Mary, sympathy. Christ's tears would do 
 more for her than words. 
 
 That picture of the emotion of Jesus is too sacred for 
 cool comment. But we may reverently mark the token 
 
Less. XIII.] The Crowning Miracle 117 
 
 of Christ's true manhood, in that the sight of tears 
 brings His, as well as in that He has tears to be brought. 
 Surely, of all the signs of His manhood none is more 
 precious than this. It sanctions sorrow, and sets its 
 limits. It reveals the reality of His sympathy, the depth 
 of His personal affection. It lets us see dimly that He 
 could not take away grief without feeling its pressure, 
 and that His work was not done without painful cost. 
 
 But tears were not all that the sight of sorrow evoked. 
 That other phase of emotion, described in the margin 
 of the Revised Version as " moved with indignation in 
 the spirit," opens a glimpse into a deep region. What 
 was the cause of this strange storm of anger which swept 
 across that calm spirit ? Surely the most worthy answer 
 is that He saw in this one death and these two weeping 
 sisters, as it were, one drop in the ocean of woes which 
 covered the earth. He summons all the miseries of 
 man before Him, and sees them all in connection with 
 their cause, sin, and possibly the personal tempter, whose 
 handiwork of murdering was so near. But that brief 
 agitation did not delay His work ; and the very fact that 
 He felt it, even when the end of the sorrow was so near, 
 shows how keen His sympathy was, and is, with transitory 
 ills. If Jesus did not feel with us the pains which He 
 knows are brief, what pains would He feel ? 
 
 Another apparent taking of human conditions is His 
 question — the only one of the kind in the Gospels — as 
 to the situation of the tomb. But perhaps it was rather 
 meant as an invitation to the " Jews " to do what they 
 ask Him to do, — "come and see." An evident desire 
 for publicity marks Him at this stage, and, knowing 
 what would come of it. He courts the presence of wit- 
 
ii8 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xi. 21-44 
 
 nesses. How natural the fresh burst of tears as they 
 drew near the tomb ! And how cool the criticisms of the 
 curious group, some struck by the tokens of His affection, 
 but not sharing it, and others half scoffing, and suggest- 
 ing that His letting so dear a friend die discredited His 
 power to cure a blind stranger ! Malice is ingenious and 
 shallow. Think of men having actually seen Jesus weep- 
 ing, and having nothing else to say about it than this ! 
 
 HI. Jesus at the tomb. — Majestic calm of conscious, 
 unbroken communion ! The emotion is past, and the 
 habitual calm majesty reassumed. The command to 
 take away the stone is in accord with Christ's continual 
 economy in the use of miraculous power. Whatever man 
 can do is to be done by man ; and, besides, the men 
 whose hands rolled away the stone were made witnesses 
 of the resurrection. 
 
 John has a delicate touch in reminding us of Martha's 
 relationship to " him that was dead," as explaining the 
 natural shrinking of her love from the exposure of the 
 dear form in its dishonour. But she was faltering in 
 her faith, or she would not have so spoken. Therefore 
 Jesus puts out a hand to hold her up, as He did to Peter 
 sinking, and His reminder of the previous conversation 
 puts its true purport into other words. He had, in 
 effect, told her that, if she believed, she would see the 
 glory of God, when He had sought to draw out her 
 faith, and spread before her astonished eyes the resur- 
 rection and the life which come by faith. Her faith was 
 not the condition of the miracle, but it was of her enjoy- 
 ing (seeing) all that the miracle meant and prophesied. 
 The outward fact might be seen by eyes all blind to the 
 glory that shone in it. 
 
Less. XIII] The Crowning Miracle T19 
 
 With like majesty sounds the solemn thanksgiving 
 before the mighty act. It was not a prayer, such as 
 Martha had meant. He does not ask for a gift, but He 
 gives thanks. He traces, indeed, as always, the miracle 
 to the Father ; for He does nothing of Himself, and gives 
 life to whom He will in conformity with the Father's 
 gift. But that relation is by no means parallel with the 
 relation of other men who wrought miracles by Divine 
 power, and must be taken in conjunction with the teach- 
 ing of chapter v. ; for He has the consciousness of 
 unbroken communion with the Father, and of continual 
 fulfilment of His will. 
 
 The prayer of thanksgiving, then, was spoken in order 
 that the bystanders might, by hearing it, and seeing the 
 miracle that followed, be led to recognise the true import 
 of the miracle as a sign that He was sent from God. 
 The prayer was a solemn appeal to God, a confident 
 assumption of what was to follow. If it did follow, the 
 appeal was effectual and the conclusion plain. 
 
 IV. Jesus and the living dead ; the life-giving word. 
 — The actual miracle is briefly told, but with unsurpass- 
 able vividness and solemnity. The brief emotion showed 
 the Son of Man, but, as is always the case, the tokens of 
 His humiliation lie side by side with those of His glory. 
 The same voice that had sobbed in human grief now 
 spoke in Divine power. Curt and authoritative is its 
 utterance. He named the man, who still lived. The 
 man heard, wherever he was, and dull as his ear was to 
 sisters' weeping and all earthly noises. Wherever he 
 was, he was not out of reach of Christ's will, and that 
 voice could pierce the depths of the unseen world ; 
 Christ's commands run through the universe. The mere 
 
I20 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xi. 21-44 
 
 words were breath, but the will was mighty. Who is He 
 whose bare will has power over material existences, and 
 can shoot out its behests wherever there are creatures ? 
 
 Who could paint that picture of the swathed form 
 stumbhng from the tomb, bound hand and foot, and 
 the unaccustomed eyes shrinking from the sunlight, 
 which had grown strange to them ? What awe would 
 await the taking away of the napkin from the face, and 
 how the gazers would look to see what traces of the 
 unseen world were there ! But the reticence of the story 
 is one of its charms. No eye is allowed to see the joy 
 of the sisters or to peer into the home that night. 
 " Loose him, and let him go." Christ's p_art_is done. 
 Other hands may undo the graveclothes ; His will has 
 loosed the grip of death. 
 
LESSON XIV 
 
 What Jesus Thought about the Cross 
 
 St. John xii. 20-36 
 
 20. " And there were certain 
 Greeks among them that came 
 up to worship at the feast : 
 
 21. The same came therefore 
 to Philip, which was of Beth- 
 saida of Gahlee, and desired 
 him, saying, Sir, we would see 
 Jesus. 
 
 22. Philip Cometh and telleth 
 Andrew : and again Andrew 
 and Philip tell Jesus. 
 
 23. And Jesus answered them, 
 saying, The hour is come, that 
 the Son of man should be 
 glorified. 
 
 24. Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you. Except a corn of wheat 
 fall into the ground and die, it 
 abideth alone : but if it die, it 
 bringeth forth much fruit. 
 
 25. He that loveth his life 
 shall lose it ; and he that hateth 
 his life in this world shall keep 
 it unto life eternal. 
 
 26. If any man serve Me, let 
 him follow Me ; and where I 
 am, there shall also My servant 
 be : if any man serve Me, him 
 will My Father honour. 
 
 27. Now is My soul troubled ; 
 and what shall I say ? Father, 
 save Me from this hour : but for 
 this cause came I unto this hour. 
 
 28. Father, glorify Thy name. 
 Then came there a voice from 
 heaven, saying, I have both 
 
 glorified it, and will glorify it 
 again. 
 
 29. The people therefore, that 
 stood by, and heard it, said 
 that it thundered : others said. 
 An angel spake to Him. 
 
 30. Jesus answered and said. 
 This voice came not because of 
 Me, but for your sakes. 
 
 31. Now is the judgment of 
 this world : now shall the prince 
 of this world be cast out. 
 
 32. And I, if I be lifted up 
 from the earth, will draw all 
 men unto Me. 
 
 33. This He said, signifying 
 what death He should die. 
 
 34. The people answered 
 Him, We have heard out of 
 the law that Christ abideth for 
 ever : and how sayest Thou, 
 The Son of man must be lifted 
 up ? who is this Son of man ? 
 
 35. Then Jesus said unto 
 them, Yet a little while is the 
 light with you. Walk while 
 ye have the light, lest darkness 
 come upon you : for he that 
 walketh in darkness knoweth 
 not whither he goeth. 
 
 36. While ye have light, be- 
 lieve in the light, that ye may 
 be the children of light. These 
 things spake Jesus, and de- 
 parted, and did hide Himself 
 from them." 
 
 121 
 
122 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xii. 20-36 
 
 THE remarkable request of some Greek proselytes 
 to see Jesus, interesting as it is, is but the starting- 
 point of the great thoughts in this lesson. These carry 
 the Evangelist so completely away that he does not tell 
 us what came of the request. Jesus saw in it the first 
 drops of the shower, the beginning of the Gentiles com- 
 ing to His feet ; and that prospect brought with it the 
 vision of the death that must" first be endured. The 
 theme, then, of the lesson is what Jesus thought and felt 
 about the Cross. " The place whereon thou standest is 
 holy ground." We may note a difference in the tone of 
 His words before and after the heavenly voice, and so 
 take the whole as gathered into four parts. 
 
 I. The prevision of the near Cross, and the troubled 
 soul of Jesus. The first emotion stirred by the request 
 was triumph. " The hour is come, that the Son of Man 
 should be glorified." Now, the subsequent context shows 
 that the " glory " in view is chiefly that of His bringing 
 men to Himself by His death, and that of the return to 
 the pre-incarnate glory with the Father. But it is not 
 to be forgotten that in this Gospel the Cross is always 
 presented as the summit of Christ's glory, rather than as 
 His lowest humiliation. It was His throne, because in it 
 were most wondrously manifested the redeeming power 
 and love which are the very flashing central light of all 
 His brightness. In all His life we " behold His glory, 
 . . . full of grace and truth " ; but the rays are focussed 
 there, where He hangs dying in the dark. There all 
 paradoxes met. Shame is glory ; weakness is strength ; 
 death is life. 
 
 Verses 24-26 point to 'the wide range of the same 
 paradox of which the Cross is the crowning example. It 
 
Less. XIV.] What Jesus Thoug^ht about the Cross 123 
 
 is seen in nature, where fruit is only possible by the 
 destruction of the seed. No converts without martyrs, 
 whether literally by actual death or by the daily dying 
 of self-sacrifice. Life exemplifies the law. Eager 
 clutching at the delights of natural life, and making 
 it one's chief aim, is the sure way to lose all its sweet- 
 ness and to miss the higher life, while the subordination, 
 and, if needful, the sacrifice of "life in this world," leads 
 straight to the possession of " life eternal." That was 
 the truth for lack of which Greek literature, art, and 
 glory rotted and perished. Discipleship demands the 
 same conditions. Christ's servant must be Christ's 
 follower on that road. The Cross must be his pattern 
 as well as his trust. In a later part of this lesson (vers. 
 31, 32) the virtue of Christ's death, which has no parallel 
 in the servant's " following," is stated ; but here the 
 possibility and necessity that discipleship shall be imita- 
 tion even of that inimitable death are solemnly declared, 
 with the appended blessed assurance that faithful follow- 
 ing means final union and lowly service, a share in His 
 honour and glory. 
 
 But swiftly a wave of agitation breaks upon the rock 
 of His steadfast will. It is a true wave, but it breaks, 
 and the rock is unshaken. Jesus had the natural, in- 
 stinctive human recoil froni death, and that clashed 
 against the will to suffer. But it was His " soul," not 
 His "spirit," which was " troubled." The hesitation so 
 pathetically expressed here did not extend to His will, 
 and was sinless. Whether we read the prayer " Save Me 
 from this hour " as a question or as a definite petition, it 
 seems to represent the one alternative of " what " He 
 "should say," and is immediately superseded by the 
 
124 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xii. 20-39 
 
 prayer in which the perturbed soul as well as the un- 
 moved spirit unite. It is put aside, because Jesus sees 
 the Cross as the great purpose of His coming, and so the 
 very sight of the dreaded thing as the goal of His work 
 gives strength to embrace it. 
 
 An old monkish painter makes the strengthening 
 angel in Gethsemane hold forth a cross, and there is 
 deep truth in the picture. The prayer, in which the 
 whole man Jesus utters Himself, grasps the name 
 " Father," and, in filial submission and trust, asks only 
 that His name may be glorified. That is really a prayer 
 that Jesus may die ; but the pain is all lost in the con- 
 templation of the issue, and so the universal pattern for 
 true sons is set, and the victory in this prelude of Geth- 
 semane is won. We can see but a little way into the 
 depths of Christ's nature, and shall better use this tender 
 and mysterious shrinking of human weakness overcome 
 by fiHal submission and resolved sacrifice, if we adore the 
 love that kept His will so firm, than if we curiously 
 speculate beyond our depth . 
 
 H. We have the heavenly voice and how it sounded 
 to dull ears (vers. 28, 29). The Revised Version gives 
 "therefore" instead of "then" in verse 28 and thus 
 brings out the significant connection of the voice with 
 that prayer. Such prayer is sure of answer, and such 
 filial surrender is sure of tokens of the Father's approval. 
 If our prayers were more often like His, we should more 
 often hear the voice following close upon them, and 
 repeating in accents loud as thunder and sweet as an 
 angel's speech our own low breathings turned into 
 promises. As in the conspicuous humility of the 
 baptism, and in the hour on the mountain when the 
 
Less. XIV.] What Jesus Thought about the Cross 125 
 
 mighty dead spake with Him of His decease, the Father's 
 voice witnessed to Him. The past acts of glorifying are 
 those of Christ's earthly ministry ; the future are the 
 declaring more gloriously of that name to the whole 
 world by the Cross and subsequent triumph. 
 
 Every man hears in God's voice what he is fit to hear. 
 Obviously there was an objective something, an audible 
 sound. To the deafest there was a vague impression of 
 some majestic noise from heaven, which said nothing, 
 but was grand and meaningless as a thunder-clap. 
 Others, a little more susceptible, caught something like 
 articulate words, but discerned no significance, though 
 they felt their sweetness and dignity, and so thought 
 them an angel's voice. " Ye therefore hear them not, 
 because ye are not of God." We can dull our ears till 
 they will not even recognise God's voice as thunder, and, 
 if it sounds meaningless to us, it is our own fault. 
 
 HI. We have Christ's triumphant vision of the issues of 
 the cross (vers. 30-33). Did Jesus not need the voice ? 
 His filial submission was perfect, and His assurance that 
 His death was to glorify the Father's name was entire 
 before it came. His words do not necessarily imply 
 that He drew no strength from it, but only that His 
 strengthening was not its main purpose. An absolute 
 negative often in Scripture means a comparative one. 
 But how could a voice be sent for people who did not 
 understand it ? Some of them would ; and the deafness 
 of men does not compel the dumbness of God. The 
 revelation is given, and they who are capable receive it. 
 Let us see that we do not make ourselves unfit to profit 
 by what is sent for our sakes. 
 
 What did the voice teach its hearers? The true 
 
126 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xii. 20-36 
 
 meaning of Christ's past life, and of the great crisis now 
 impending. 
 
 Jesus translates its lessons in the next words, which 
 show Him, Victor over all the shrinking of flesh, 
 triumphing in the world-wide and world-saving results 
 of the Cross. He anticipates the rapidly approaching 
 hour, and in the eagerness, if we may so say, of loving 
 self-sacrifice, stretches out to meet the coming doom, 
 in that prophetic and repeated "now." His death is 
 the judgment of this world. Does not the fact of His 
 death considered as the act of men reveal, as nothing 
 else does, the depth of human alienation from God and 
 goodness ? If He thought of Himself only as a martyr, 
 one among many, it was gross exaggeration to say that 
 His death headed the black roll of the world's sins. 
 On that hypothesis of His person, there have been 
 many other deaths quite as criminal. Only the full- 
 toned view of who and what the victim was warrants 
 such a construction of the guilt of His slaying as is here. 
 
 Still more extravagant, on the supposition that Jesus 
 is simply the best of men and teachers, is that other 
 triumphant cry of victory over the defeated and cast-out 
 " prince of this world." Only the full-toned' view of 
 the death of Christ as the sacrifice for the world's sins 
 can warrant such a construction of its power to redeem 
 the world from the tyranny of that usurper, and to 
 dislodge him from his fortress. He and all his hosts 
 hold their own, undisturbed by teachers and martyrs, 
 but they flee before the power of the Cross of the Son 
 of God, "who taketh away the sin of the world." He 
 " made a show of them openly, triumphing over them 
 in it." 
 
Less. XIV.] What Jesus Thought about the Cross 127 
 
 The judgment and defeat are immediate results of 
 the Cross, but the last issue, which Jesus stays Himself 
 by beholding, is one that begins, indeed, contempor- 
 aneously with these, but stretches on through all time, 
 and blesses each coming generation. Of course, the 
 "lifting up" here is primarily a designation of the 
 crucifixion (John iii. 14) ; but that is contemplated in 
 connection with the other lifting up from the earth, in 
 His ascension and session at the right hand of God- 
 To draw men to Himself is the work of Christ till 
 the end of the world. His magnet is the Cross. That 
 drawing does not imply universal yielding to itself, for 
 there may be resistance to it ; but for evermore there 
 stream out from that Cross powers which lay hold on 
 hearts, and sweetly and mightily grapple them to Jesus. 
 He Himself, and nothing less, is the centre ; and what 
 conquers men to be His, is His death. 
 
 Every form of so-called Christianity which weakens 
 or obscures the sacrificial death of Jesus weakens the 
 power of Christianity. A Christ without a cross is no 
 match for the drawings of the world and its prince. 
 This is the grand vision on His own death, in which 
 Jesus found strength, and in which we shall find peace, 
 pardon, and purity. 
 
 IV. We have the objection of the crowd, and Christ's 
 last warnings to the nation. There must have been 
 more spoken than is reported, or the people would not 
 have puzzled about " the Son of man " being lifted up, 
 since that title is not employed in the saying, though it 
 occurs in verse 23. They knew that Jesus claimed to 
 be the Messiah, and, building on passages which spoke 
 of His kingdom as everlasting, they anticipated Messiah's 
 
128 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xii. 20-36 
 
 permanent, miraculous life on earth. They have heard 
 Jesus saying that "the Son of Man" is to be lifted up 
 from the earth, and they supposed that He was speaking 
 of Himself by that name ; but, if so, what about His 
 Messianic claims ? They are in a fog, and are pottering 
 about interpretations of the law, instead of letting the 
 light, which was shining before them, shine into them. 
 
 Texts out of the Prophets were all very well, but, if 
 they would open their eyes and their hearts to Him 
 standing there before them, they would find all their 
 pedantic difficulties melt away. The best way to deal 
 with similar trivial objections sometimes is to press the 
 positive revelation of Christ, and let that speak. So 
 here Jesus does not " answer " the question, but speaks 
 a solemn warning — His last words before the cross — to 
 the nation. The time was short. In a few minutes 
 He would go over Olivet to Bethany, only to return 
 for the upper room and the cross. But still there was 
 time. 
 
 Two exhortations are given, the former enforced by 
 the misery of darkness, the latter by the blessings of 
 transformation into light. The former counsels " walk 
 while ye have the light." Progress in the knowledge 
 of Him could yet be won. Action correspondent to 
 the light was yet possible. So is it ever. And the 
 solemn alternative is certain if we do not " walk." 
 Darkness is, as it were, hurrying up behind, and only 
 by diligent carrying out of Christ's precepts, and pressing 
 towards fuller knowledge, can we escape it. If it fall on 
 us, we shall wander without guide or clear aim, and be 
 lost in the desert. The history of Israel ever since is a 
 commentary on the words, as it strays through the world 
 
Less. XIV.] What Jesus Thought about the Cross 129 
 
 with no aim or hope beyond earth. They are a parable 
 and warning for us. 
 
 But Jesus will not let His last word be a threat. 
 Therefore, in still clearer tones, He speaks a merciful 
 invitation and a glorious promise. Believe on the light, 
 is His invitation to us all. And the gracious hope is 
 offered to each, of becoming, by faith, changed into 
 the substance of that to which we trust, and having all 
 our darkness of sorrow, ignorance, and sin turned into 
 light in the Lord. So some poor wreath of cold, wet 
 mist, lying near the rising sun, is suffused with light 
 in all its dank depths, and glows with radiant hues 
 caught from the great Hght near which it hangs. 
 
LESSON XV 
 The Master-Servant 
 
 St. John xiii. 1-17* 
 
 1. "Now before the feast of 
 the passover, when Jesus knew 
 that His hour was come that 
 He should depart out of this 
 world unto the Father, having 
 loved His own which were in 
 the world, He loved them unto 
 the end. 
 
 2. And supper being ended, 
 the devil having now put into 
 the heart of Judas Iscariot, 
 Simon's son, to betray Him ; 
 
 3. Jesus knowing that the 
 Father had given all things into 
 His hands, and that He was 
 come from God, and went to 
 God ; 
 
 4. He riseth from supper, and 
 laid aside His garments ; and 
 took a towel, and girded Him- 
 self. 
 
 5. After that He poureth 
 water into a bason, and began 
 to wash the disciples' feet, and 
 to wipe them with the towel 
 wherewith He was girded. 
 
 6. Then cometh He to Simon 
 Peter : and Peter saith unto 
 Him, Lord, dost Thou wash my 
 feet? 
 
 7. Jesus answered and said 
 unto him, "\4^»hat I do thou know- 
 est not now ; but thou shalt 
 know hereafter. 
 
 8. Peter saith unto Him, 
 Thou shalt never wash my feet. 
 
 Jesus answered him. If I wash 
 thee not, thou hast no part 
 with Me. 
 
 9. Simon Peter saith unto 
 Him, Lord, not my feet only, 
 but also my hands and my head. 
 
 10. Jesus saith to him. He 
 that is washed needeth not save 
 to wash his feet, but is clean 
 every whit : and ye are clean, 
 but not all. 
 
 11. For He knew who should 
 betray Him ; therefore said He, 
 Ye are not all clean. 
 
 12. So after He had washed 
 their feet, and had taken His 
 garments, and was set down 
 again. He said unto them. Know 
 ye what I have done to you ? 
 
 13. Ye call me Master and 
 Lord : and ye say well ; for so 
 I am. 
 
 14. If I then, your Lord and 
 Master, have washed your feet ; 
 ye also ought to wash one 
 another's feet. 
 
 15. For I have given you an 
 example, that ye should do as I 
 have done to you. 
 
 16. Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you, The servant is not greater 
 than his lord ; neither he that 
 is sent greater than he that sent 
 him. 
 
 17. If ye know these things, 
 happy are ye if ye do them. " 
 
 no 
 
Less. XV.] The Master-Servant 131 
 
 IN this lesson we have four stages, — the gUmpse into 
 the heart of Jesus, and the impelHng motives to the 
 great act of tender humility ; that act itself described in 
 all the details of its lowHness ; the episode of the mis- 
 placed and spurious humility which was really arrogance ; 
 and the application, by the Master and Lord, of the 
 lesson which He taught in the form of a servant. 
 
 I. Verse i should be regarded as an introduction, not 
 only to the one act of foot-washing, but to the whole 
 following section, including all the sacred teachings of 
 the upper room. It is best to adopt the marginal render- 
 ing of "to the uttermost " ; for John is more concerned 
 to tell us how, at that supreme moment, Christ's love 
 shone forth as absolutely perfect, than simply to assure 
 us of its continuance. So understanding the last clause 
 of the verse, its Iformer part becomes an explanation of 
 the influences which gave rise to the special manifesta- 
 tions of that love in the succeeding acts, discourses, and 
 prayer. When, then, are these influences ? 
 
 First, the consciousness that separation was at hand. 
 We have heard much about " His hour " in this Gospel. 
 His unbroken communion with the Father taught Him 
 the duty proper to each moment, and He never acted 
 without the illuminating assurance that it was the time 
 to act. But now the supreme hour was close at hand. 
 For what ? The language is remarkable, — " that He 
 should depart out of this world unto the Father." 
 
 Then His death was voluntary and His own act, as it 
 is ever represented in this Gospel. He is not cast out 
 of the world by others, but departs. He goes, not to 
 the grave, but " to the Father." So may death be to us, 
 if we are His. 
 
132 The Gospel of St. John [Chap.xiii. 1-17 
 
 This consciousness increased the manifestations of 
 His love. We, too, know that parting brings deeper 
 tenderness, as an earthquake may lay bare hidden veins 
 of gold. The heart crowds all its love into a look or a 
 word or an embrace which two may find it life to re- 
 member. Blessed is it to know that Jesus felt the same, 
 arid sought to make the last moments tender moments, 
 for His sake as well as for ours. But it was more than 
 human love w^hich so forgot His own sufferings in the 
 desire to pour itself into the hearts that were soon to be 
 stricken and solitary. 
 
 That love, too, was one which owned the obligation 
 created by its own past. " Having loved, . . . He loved." 
 Alas, how much human love has the opposite for its 
 epitaph, " Having loved, ... he tired of loving " ! But 
 Christ's past is the pledge of His future, and every " has " 
 of His holds a " will " in its hand. Even earthly love 
 may sometimes have in its depth the guarantee that it 
 is not " born for death " ; but how much more Christ's, 
 which is, as He is, the same yesterday, and to-day, and 
 for ever ! That love clasps " its own " with special 
 tenderness, and it is moved to pour itself out over 
 those who trust Him, with such specialty because He 
 knows their dangers, left to fight and be tempted "in 
 the world." 
 
 Verses 2 and 3, in similar fashion, give the precise 
 date and the impelling motives of the foot-washing. The 
 time was " during supper " (Rev. Ver.), at what point in 
 the meal we are not told, and need not try to guess. 
 Possibly, as has been thought, the usual washing of the 
 guests' feet had been omitted at the beginning of the 
 meal, and the dispute as to who was greatest may have 
 
Less. XV.] The Master-Servant 133 
 
 been connected with that omission. But that is un- 
 certain. Why is the treachery of Judas brought into 
 prominence at this point ? Probably to enhance the 
 lowly forbearance which washed even his feet, as well 
 as to explain the allusions to him in what follows, and to 
 suggest that Jesus read his heart, and saw, in its black 
 resolve, the token that His hour was come. 
 
 At that hour of clearly discerned nearness to the cross, 
 Jesus was unhesitatingly conscious of universal authority, 
 of His pre-incarnate glory and mission, and of His return 
 to the Father. That consciousness must be taken along 
 with the motives in verse i, and then we learn that the 
 lowliness of Jesus, when He stooped to be a servant, was 
 based on His knowing himself Divine and on His infinite 
 love. Not although^ but because^ He was conscious of 
 Divine authority, origin, and destination, did He humble 
 Himself thus. What a strange " therefore " it is in the 
 world's eyes ! 
 
 n. Verses 4 and 5 give with awe-struck particularity 
 the marvellous details of the fact, which had left an in- 
 effaceable impression on the disciple who reclined next 
 the Lord at the table, and which now come all back to 
 him, step by step, with yet deeper sense of their wonder 
 and meaning. We can see the little company startled by 
 His rising, and watching in silence each successive detail. 
 The task was that of a slave, or, at least, of the lowest 
 in rank of those present. The disciples had had a hot 
 journey from Bethany, and, no doubt, needed the service. 
 No part of the servile task did He omit, not even the 
 indignity of divesting Himself of His upper robe, and 
 wrapping round Him the slave's towel ; Himself filled 
 the bason that stood ready, and thought nothing un- 
 
134 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xUi. 1-17 
 
 worthy, even to wiping the wet feet with the towel which 
 touched His own body. 
 
 Well may the Evangelist linger over such a deed, and 
 well may we try to print deep on our hearts its gracious- 
 ness and stringent exhortation to us. But while the deed 
 was in itself the most touching manifestation of the tender 
 emotions that then filled Christ's heart, and loses its 
 supreme beauty unless we think of it as the spontaneous 
 outgush of His love, we can scarcely fail to note how it 
 symbolises His whole work, or, rather, how it shows the 
 same principles at work on a lower plane, which find their 
 highest manifestation in His incarnation and life of ser- 
 vice. He rose from His place in the uncreated glory. 
 He divested Himself of the robes of His Divine majesty. 
 He assumed the form of a servant, and girded Himself 
 with the slave's badge. He filled the bason, providing 
 the means of cleansing. He applied the cleansing water. 
 Alone He originated, prepared for, effected, carried out, 
 and completed the work. " Himself doing all things with 
 all alacrity." 
 
 IH. Verses 6-1 1 give the ill-timed humility of Peter, 
 which was really presumption with a mask on. The 
 language of verse 6 implies that others had been washed 
 before Peter ; but his impetuous love, his strong self- 
 will, and his hking for being unlike the others, burst 
 out in the remonstrance. He had thought that he knew 
 better than Christ before now, and he was always ready 
 with his advice. No doubt his question came from 
 the sense of his own inferiority, as is marked by the 
 emphatic pronouns " Thou " and " I." But an adequate 
 sense of it would have taught him that Christ could n^t 
 degrade Himself, however low He stooped, and that he, 
 
Less. XV.] The Master-Servant 135 
 
 Peter, could not be unworthy to receive anything which 
 Jesus chose to give. 
 
 The gentle answer, which repressed rashness by 
 impressing present ignorance and promising future know- 
 ledge, may teach us all how perilous it is to make our- 
 selves the judges of what is becoming to a Divine love 
 dealing with sinful men. The partial explanation 
 immediately following can scarcely be what Jesus meant 
 by the promise of knowledge hereafter ; for " after these 
 things " seems to stretch to all the incidents of the 
 passion on which He was now entering, and the time 
 of illumination, when all the significance should be 
 plain, was years ahead. 
 
 But rash self-will is not to be repressed by considera- 
 tions of its ignorance, and forbearance may only make 
 it bolder. The comparatively modest question changed 
 into obstinate, rude refusal. " Never " is opposed to 
 " hereafter," as if he said, " I do not care what the future 
 may teach me, which I do not know now ; but I know 
 this, that no future can teach me to let Thee do such 
 a thing to me." It was a flat contradiction of Christ, 
 and assumed superior knowledge to His. It strained the 
 tie of discipleship to almost breaking-point. So closely 
 does "voluntary humility " neighbour arrogant self- 
 assertion and pride ; so dangerous is it to suppose our- 
 selves too lowly for Jesus to stoop to serve and cleanse 
 us. 
 
 Christ's answer has a tone of sternness in its plain 
 statement of what was involved. Peter had said " never," 
 and Jesus accepts the word, and probes the speaker's 
 heart, to see if he will stand by his refusal when he 
 knows that it means losing all share in Him. It is 
 
136 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xiii. 1-17 
 
 usually said by commentators now that the context 
 forbids any direct reference to the forgiveness of sins, 
 and limits the meaning of the solemn words to a 
 declaration that separation must follow the want of sub- 
 mission. But the reference to forgiveness and cleansing 
 from sin is undeniable in verse 10, and it seems most 
 natural to see it here also. If Jesus is not our Saviour 
 from the guilt and power of sin, we have no vital union 
 with Him. He must be that or nothing ; and the 
 converse is also true, that, if He is anything to us, He 
 will cleanse us. 
 
 The prospect of separation from the Lord whom he 
 loved so deeply brings the wayward, true-hearted disciple 
 back to lowliness and a passion of clinging affection. 
 These quick revulsions, all so genuine and so whole- 
 souled, give a charm to Peter which the others lack. 
 " If washing means union with Thee, and what is un- 
 washed is parted from Thee, let my whole self be blessed 
 with it." It is the vehement cry of the soul longing for 
 union with Jesus. Does it wake an echo in ours ? If 
 we have any real love for that Lord, it will. It will, 
 if we have any deep sense of our own sin, and con- 
 sciousness that it makes separation. One film of sin is 
 a thicker barrier than would be made if the space from 
 this spot to His throne were covered with solid wall. 
 
 Jesus answers the request, which went as much too 
 far on the one side as the refusal did on the other, 
 by great words, capable of such wide application, and 
 throwing light on the whole teaching of Scripture as 
 to sanctification. There is an initial cleansing of the 
 whole man, comparable to the entire bathing of the 
 body. That corresponds to the entire forgiveness and 
 
Less. XV.] The Master-Servant 137 
 
 ideally complete cleansing by the impartation of the 
 new nature, which is given in the initial act of faith. 
 But the ways of the world are foul, and bare or sandalled 
 feet on dusty or muddy roads are stained by travel. So 
 the cleansed spirit has yet to avail itself of continual 
 fresh resort to the blood of cleansing, and daily to pray 
 for pardon as for daily bread. So the lessons of the 
 whole episode are : No Christ for us unless He cleanse ; 
 no cleansing for us unless from Christ ; no cleansing 
 without faith, and daily cleansing for stains contracted 
 even by cleansed men. 
 
 IV. Verses 12-17 .?ive the application of the pattern 
 to ourselves. We note the remarkable juxtaposition of 
 humility and loftiness. Seated again at table, Jesus 
 declares His supreme authority as Teacher of truth and 
 Ruler of life in uncompromising tones. No man ever 
 rendered Him higher honour or titles than He accepted 
 as His right. The mystery of the Master-Servant, un- 
 approachable as it is, has yet an imitable side ; and in 
 that most pathetic and wonderful incident Jesus sets 
 forth the law for all His followers. That law is that 
 dignity binds to service. If we are Christ's, we must 
 stoop to serve, and serve to cleanse. The noblest form 
 of help is to help men to get rid of their sin. The 
 highest glory of powers and gifts is to humble one- 
 self for the lowest, and to be ready to be a slave, if we 
 may wash any stained soul or bind any bleeding feet. 
 
 The example of Christ includes what He has done 
 for us. Some of us are willing to look to the Cross as 
 the foundation of our hope, who are not willing to take 
 it as the law of our lives. But the benefits of the gospel 
 are meant to impel us to corresponding action. How 
 
138 The Gospel of St. John [Chap.xiii. 1-17 
 
 little any of us have caught the whole sweep of the 
 meaning of that imperative " example, that ye should do 
 as I have done to you." What have we received from 
 Him ? What have we given to men ? Are we not too 
 much like some sullen, land-locked lake, which receives 
 many streams and gives forth none ? If our acts to 
 others are not widened to correspond to Christ's to and 
 for us, the reverse process will set in, and Christ's acts 
 and gifts to us will shrink to the narrowness of ours to 
 -others. 
 
 We all know that He is our example, and that even 
 in the supreme and unapproachable gift of His death we 
 ought to find the model for our lives. But the gulf 
 between knowledge and practice is all too wide, and so 
 our Lord adds one more to the Beatitudes, pronouncing 
 those blessed who add doing to knowing. Only they 
 really know who translate all their knowledge into 
 performance. Only they are truly blessed who have 
 no principles which do not regulate conduct, and no 
 conduct which is not regulated by principle. The one 
 principle which can shape all life into blessedness is, 
 Do as Jesus has done for you. Stoop that you may 
 serve, and let your service be cleansing. 
 
LESSON XVI 
 
 The Present-Absent Christ and the Abiding 
 Comforter 
 
 St. John xiv. 1-3, 15-27 
 
 1. "Let not your heart be 
 troubled : ye believe in God, 
 believe also in Me. 
 
 2. In My Father's house are 
 many mansions : if it were not 
 so, I would have told you, I 
 go to prepare a place for you, 
 
 3. And if 1 go and prepare a 
 place for you, I will come again, 
 and receive you unto Myself; 
 that where I am, there ye may 
 be also. . . . 
 
 15. If ye love Me, keep My 
 commandments. 
 
 16. And I will pray the 
 Father, and He shall give you 
 another Comforter, that He may 
 abide with you for ever ; 
 
 17. Even the Spirit of truth ; 
 whom the world cannot receive, 
 because itseeth Him not, neither 
 knoweth Him : but ye know 
 Him ; for He dwelleth with 
 you, and shall be in you. 
 
 18. I will not leave you com- 
 fortless : I will come to you. 
 
 19. Yet a little while, and 
 the world seeth Me no more ; 
 but ye see Me : because I live, 
 ye shall live also. 
 
 20. At that day ye shall know 
 that I am in My Father, and ye 
 in Me, and I in you. 
 
 21. He that hath My com- 
 mandments, and keepeth them, 
 He it is that loveth Me : and 
 
 he that loveth Me shall be loved 
 of My Father, and I will love 
 Him, and will manifest Myself 
 to Him. 
 
 22. Judas saith unto Him, 
 not Iscariot, Lord, how is it 
 that Thou wilt manifest Thy- 
 self unto us, and not unto the 
 world ? 
 
 23. Jesus answered and said 
 unto him, If a man love Me, he 
 will keep My words : and My 
 Father will love him, and we 
 will come unto him, and make 
 our abode with him 
 
 24. He that loveth Me not 
 keepeth not My sayings : and 
 the word which ye hear is not 
 Mine, but the Father's which 
 sent Me. 
 
 25, These things have I 
 spoken unto you, being yet 
 present with you. 
 
 26, But the Comforter, which 
 is the Holy Ghost, whom the 
 Father will send in My name, 
 He shall teach you all things, 
 and bring all things to your 
 remembrance, whatsoever I 
 have said unto you. 
 
 27, Peace I leave with you. 
 My peace I give unto you : not 
 as the world giveth, give I unto 
 you. Let not your heart be 
 troubled, neither let it be 
 afraid." 
 
 139 
 
I40 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xiv. 1-3, 15-27 
 
 THE depth, sweetness, and calm of these wonderful 
 words in the upper room lift them high above 
 comment. Who can reproduce their tender music, or ex- 
 haust their deep meaning ? We can but skim the surface. 
 
 I. The first three verses apply the simplest and most 
 sufficient soothing to the sorrow for His departure. In 
 verse i the exhortation to twofold and yet single trust 
 presents faith in God, which is also faith in Jesus, as the 
 one antidote to trouble of heart. What is the use of 
 telling men not to be troubled, unless you can show 
 them how ? How else can coiling sorrow be cast out 
 than by faith ? Jesus asks the same trust which we give 
 to God, and these two are one. He does not bid us 
 ruin our faith by dividing it between two objects. 
 Strange words from a Man who was within twenty-four 
 hours of death ! 
 
 Verse 2 clothes great truths in simple words, and 
 changes the aspect of departure by the revelation of the 
 place whither He goes, and of the share they had in 
 His going, and appeals to His frankness in telling them 
 the sad tidings, as assuring them that He would not 
 have hidden it from them if His departure had been 
 parting. It is really the preparation for their eternal 
 reunion. " My Father's house. . . . Wist ye not that 
 there is My place ? " Heaven is the true temple, and 
 in it is room for these eleven poor men, and for millions 
 more. The places there are "mansions," perpetual 
 abodes. Unchangeableness and repose breathe from 
 the word. Jesus tells us all that we need, though less 
 than we sometimes wish. If there were any dismal 
 separation, any dark shadow brooding over that future. 
 He would not leave us to find it out too late. We may 
 
Less. XVI.] The Abiding Comforter 141 
 
 utterly trust His absolute frankness, and be content to 
 know that the gaps in our knowledge hide nothing 
 terrible, or affecting permanent repose in and with Him 
 in the Father's house. 
 
 Verse 3 opens the blessed prospect of return and 
 reunion. How He prepares the place we know not, 
 nor need to know. Perhaps, if He had not gone thither 
 in human form, there had been no place. Certainly, if 
 He stood not before the throne, we could never stand 
 there. Only because the Lamb is " in the midst of the 
 throne," can the elders, the representatives of redeemed 
 manhood, " adore around." 
 
 n. Verses 15-17 are mainly occupied with the promise 
 of the Comforter. They present to our thoughts the 
 loving obedience which secures the Saviour's interces- 
 sion, the praying Christ, the giving Father, and the 
 abiding Spirit. Hitherto "believe" has been the key- 
 word. Now it is " love." Jesus has just promised to 
 do whatsoever we ask in His name. Now He bids us 
 do whatsoever He commands. On both sides is love 
 set in motion by a message from the other. His love 
 commands, and delights to be asked. Ours should ask, 
 and delight to be commanded. Verse 15 contains the 
 all-sufficient guide for life. His " commandments " are 
 Himself. That pattern is enough for conduct, for 
 character, and for all perplexities. Here is the all- 
 powerful motive. " Ye will keep," says the Revised 
 Version. Love will have power to sway life. It is the 
 foundation of obedience, and obedience is its sure out- 
 come. All the emotional, mystic, and select experiences 
 of Christians must submit to this plain test : Do they 
 help to obedience ? 
 
142 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xiv. 1-3, 15-27 
 
 The root of such active love is " beHeve," and its 
 issues are next unfolded. " I will pray, . . . and He 
 will give." His intercession is our hope. It is His 
 present work. His presence within the veil, His con- 
 tinual presenting of His finished work as the reason for 
 blessing being given to us, are truths of which we can 
 but grasp part ; but without them the Cross would lack 
 its meaning and be shorn of its power. Jesus is sure of 
 answer to His prayer. 
 
 The one all-inclusive gift secured by Christ's interces- 
 sion is " the Comforter." We probably know that that 
 name has shrunk in significance in our modern English, 
 and that it means, and was understood at the date of 
 the earlier translations to mean, more than it now does. 
 It is wider than " consoler," meaning literally " one called 
 to aid another," and so covering the meanings of 
 " advocate," " helper," " strengthener," " guide," and 
 "instructor." By whatever processes a man can be 
 made strong, these are the Spirit's work. This Advocate 
 is to replace Christ, and carry on His work. He is 
 " another Comforter," and is to be an abiding presence, 
 not going away, as Jesus was about to do. But mark 
 how He will do His work. He is " the Spirit of truth." 
 Not that He brings new truth, — that is Christ's work, — 
 but the Spirit has for His weapon and source of strength 
 the revelation summed and finished in Christ's person 
 and work. 
 
 The world — that is, the aggregate of men considered 
 as separated from God and immersed in the material — 
 cannot have this Strengthener, any more than low, sen- 
 suous natures are capable of perceiving the highest forms 
 of natural beauty or of art. Of course, the " conviction " 
 
Less. XVI.] The Abiding Comforter 143 
 
 which the Spirit works on " the world " is not the 
 matter in hand here. But men put out their eyes by 
 sin and worldly lusts, and cannot see what purer vision 
 suns itself in beholding. Some men need oculists, not 
 light. The world cannot receive, because it does not 
 know. The disciples know, because they receive. 
 Possession and knowledge are mutual cause and effect ; 
 or perhaps, rather, they are one and the same thing. 
 Even at that hour the Spirit abode with the disciples, 
 for He was in Christ ; but the future was to bring a 
 clearer, closer knowledge and possession, when, after 
 Pentecost, He should not only be with, but in, them. 
 These great promises are for all Christian souls* to the 
 end. The way to the personal experience of their sweet 
 truth is, as this discourse shows, first, " believe " ; then, 
 " love " ; then, " do His commandments." 
 
 HI. Verses 18-21 carry the comfort of the sorrowing 
 disciples still further, by assuring them that Christ Him- 
 self will come to them, and give them greater gifts than 
 they could ever possess otherwise. Reunion, influence 
 from afar, the preparation of a place, were not all that 
 they craved for. So there are, in verses 18 and 19, 
 three paradoxes : the absent Christ is present ; the 
 unseen Christ is visible ; the dying Christ is life-giving. 
 The word rendered "comfortless" (ver. 18) is "orphans." 
 The forlorn disciples would be like fatherless and 
 motherless children without Him, and nothing would 
 keep them from being so but His presence. Unless 
 Christ be with us, we are desolate. 
 
 He does not say " I will come," but " I come," — an 
 immediately impending coming. If His future coming 
 were meant, then till then all His people are to be as 
 
144 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xiv. 1-3, 15-27 
 
 orphans ; and that cannot be. There is a coming, then, 
 contemporaneous with His bodily absence. " Bodily " 
 is not a synonym for " real." He came in the very act 
 of going. Being absent, He is present with us, if we 
 will. How the vivid belief in Christ's real presence 
 would calm, glorify, and hallow life ! Again, the unseen 
 Christ is a seen Christ. " Yet a little while " is best 
 interpreted as covering all the time till the ascension, 
 and the brief appearances during the forty days are too 
 little to be the fulfilment of this promise, which neces- 
 sarily has the same extension in time as the coming — 
 that is, is continuous and permanent. 
 
 " See," when denied as to the world, means bodily 
 sight ; when promise to disciples, spiritual perception. 
 Every Christian life may be blessed with the vision of 
 the present Christ. " See " is a strong word, implying 
 very vivid, direct, and certain knowledge and conscious- 
 ness. Is Jesus so near us, and are we so aware and 
 sure of Him, that the sight of sense is less than that of 
 spirit? Again, the dying Christ lives and gives life. 
 " I live " is a timeless present tense, all but identical 
 with "Jehovah." We Hve because, and therefore, as 
 long as, and, in a true correspondence, in the same 
 manner as He lives. We can never die as long as the 
 eternally " living who became dead " is alive, and that 
 is "for evermore." 
 
 Verse 20 discloses the blessed consequence of His 
 coming. Because the disciple has Christ's presence, 
 sees Him and draws kindred life from Him, he will 
 know by experience Christ's indwelling at once in the 
 Father and in His servant, and His servant's indwelling 
 in Him. " That day " is the whole period between 
 
Less. XVI.] The Abiding Comforter 145 
 
 ascension and return in bodily form. In that period 
 the experiences just promised will be the best teachers 
 of fundamental Christian truth. But how can the rela- 
 tion between Father and Son ever have any verification 
 in ourselves ? If these preceding promises be fulfilled 
 to me, my experiences will be such as to be inexplicable, 
 except on the supposition of their having a Divine 
 source. They bear the signature of a Divine hand. 
 I know that it is Jesus who gives them, and that He 
 could not give them unless He was in the Father. 
 Similarly, the consciousness of Christ present, seen, 
 life-giving, carries the knowledge that Jesus is in us ; 
 for we feel His touch, and we are in Him ; for we are 
 aware of the power that encompasses us and the atmo- 
 sphere in which we have our being. 
 
 Verse 21 closes the first section of the discourse. Its 
 first words are substantially equivalent to verse 15, but 
 the slight difference is significant. The former saying 
 begins with the root, and works outward to the fruit ; 
 while this verse takes the reverse order, beginning with 
 the fruit and going inwards to the root. Note that 
 " hath My commandments." The only real possession 
 of them is in the heart. Practical obedience is the test 
 of love. The emphatic " he " and the order of the 
 sentence, putting the fruits first, give it a sharp edge 
 as against false pretensions. Christ stamps with His 
 hall-mark as gold no mere emotion, however genuine 
 and passionate, but only that which issues in Christian 
 conduct and character. 
 
 Such love is rewarded by further and sweeter gifts 
 of Divine love and manifestation. What boldness in 
 saying that, if a man loves Christ, God will love him ! 
 
 10 
 
146 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xiv. 1-3, 15-27 
 
 Of course, that saying does not begin at the very 
 beginning. " We love Him because He first loved us " 
 digs a story deeper down in the building. What is in 
 hand is, not how a man comes to receive the love of 
 God at first, but how a Christian grows in possession 
 of it. God loves all men, but the heart that believes 
 and therefore loves, and loves and therefore obeys, will 
 receive deeper and sweeter tokens of God's love. Further, 
 Christ will meet us on the path of obedience, with more 
 and more of His love unveiled to our eyes. 
 
 IV. In verses 22-24, Judas' question gives occasion 
 for a statement of the conditions of Christ's self-mani- 
 festation, both positively and negatively. The question 
 is that of a listener dimly understanding Jesus, perceiving 
 that the public display which had seemed coming, when 
 Christ rode into Jerusalem, was somehow not to be. 
 "What is come to pass that?" etc. He understands 
 that somehow " unto us, and not unto the world," is the 
 revelation to be made. Christ answers both parts of 
 the question, and tells us what brings Christ and what • 
 Christ brings, and then what keeps away Him and His 
 gifts. Note the width of the words " if a man," instead 
 of "if ye" (ver. 15), thus telling Judas that his com- 
 placent assumption, " unto us," was a narrow reading of 
 the sw^eep of the promise. 
 
 We have already seen what brings Christ, and need 
 only here note that the test of love is said to be 
 keeping Christ's " word," which suggests that not only 
 His commandments, but all His words, are to be 
 treasured, and, further, that His many words are one 
 whole, and, further, that every word of His holds some 
 law for practical life in its depths. Obedience brings 
 
Less. XVI.] The Abiding Comforter 147 
 
 the sense of the Father's love, and the reality of His 
 abiding presence, which is also Christ's presence. How 
 close must be that union of Father and Son whereby 
 Jesus could dare to say, " We will come " ! How 
 blessed the dwelling of the Divine guest, which is 
 permanent, as long as the obedience which is its con- 
 dition endures ! The negative side shows what keeps 
 away Jesus. Unloving disobedience closes the heart. 
 Two principles are laid down. First, no love, no 
 obedience. Second, disobedience to Christ is dis- 
 obedience to God. Jesus is sure that all He speaks is 
 God's word. What should we think of a religious 
 teacher who began by saying, " Remember that every- 
 thing which I say God says " ? The conclusion is not 
 stated, but easily drawn. Unloving obedience, then, 
 will keep away Christ, and in Him God. It is possible, 
 then, not to see Christ, though He stands beside us. 
 The simple absence of love is fatal. 
 
 V. A slight pause in the flow of speech seems to 
 come in, and then in verses 25 and 26 Jesus looks back 
 on what He has said, and contrasts His teaching with 
 that future teaching by the Comforter, whom He has 
 already, in a different connection, promised. Mark the 
 name here given to the Teacher-Spirit. His office of 
 Strengthener is brought into immediate connection with 
 His teaching ; for what can more fully equip us with 
 power from on high than the firm grasp of the truth as 
 it is in Jesus ? That Teacher is, further, " the Holy 
 Ghost." That name in this connection suggests that 
 there is no holiness without such knowledge, and no 
 learning of the truth without holiness. This Teacher- 
 Spirit is " sent in Christ's name." In some deep sense 
 
14S The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xiv. 1-3, 15-27 
 
 God acts as representing Christ, and it is on the 
 historic manifestation of Christ as basis that the Spirit 
 is sent. Revelation must be complete before He who 
 came to unfold and impress it had material to work 
 with. Mark, too, the unmistakable declaration of the 
 personality of the Spirit : " He shall teach." That 
 cannot be said of an influence. 
 
 The lesson-book of the Teacher-Spirit is clearly set 
 forth as Christ, " all things whatsoever I have said." 
 Jesus Himself contrasts here the partial understanding 
 of His words while on earth with the fuller grasp of 
 their inexhaustible meaning to be attained hereafter. 
 His words can never be fathomed, much less exhausted. 
 The Spirit is ever with His Church, teaching each age 
 to understand some little bit more of their depth. True 
 progress consists, not in getting beyond Jesus, but in 
 getting more deeply into His ever-fresh truth. The 
 problems of this generation will find their solution 
 where those of past generations have found theirs, and 
 the old commandment of the old Christ will be the new 
 commandment of the new Christ. As long as we have 
 an abiding Spirit to teach the endless fulness of His 
 words to loving obedience, we need not fear, though 
 the things which can be shaken are removed. The 
 world will not outgrow Jesus Christ. All change will 
 but make more plain His inexhaustibleness, and reveal 
 new treasures in His familiar and enduring words. 
 
LESSON XVII 
 The Vine and the Branches 
 
 St. John xv. i-i6 
 
 1. "I am the true vine, and 
 My Father is the husbandman. 
 
 2. Every branch in Me that 
 beareth not fruit He taketh 
 aw^ay : and every branch that 
 beareth fruit, He purgeth it, 
 that it may bring forth more 
 fruit. 
 
 3. Now^ ye are clean through 
 the word which I have spoken 
 unto you. 
 
 4. Abide in Me, and I in 
 you. As the branch cannot 
 bear fruit of itself, except it 
 abide in the vine ; no more can 
 ye, except ye abide in Me. 
 
 5. I am the vine, ye are the 
 branches : He that abideth in 
 Me, and I in him, the same 
 bringeth forth much fruit : for 
 without Me ye can do nothing. 
 
 6. If a man abide not in Me, 
 he is cast forth as a branch, 
 and is withered ; and men 
 gather them, and cast them 
 into the fire, and they are 
 burned. 
 
 7. If ye abide in Me, and 
 My words abide in you, ye 
 shall ask what ye will, and it 
 shall be done unto you. 
 
 8. Herein is My Father 
 glorified, that ye bear much 
 fruit ; so shall ye be My dis- 
 ciples. 
 
 9. As the Father hath loved 
 Me, so have I loved you : con- 
 tinue ye in My love. 
 
 10. If ye keep My command- 
 ments, ye shall abide in My 
 love ; even as I have kept My 
 Father's commandments, and 
 abide in His love. 
 
 11. These things have I 
 spoken unto you, that My joy 
 might remain in you, and that 
 your joy might be full. 
 
 12. This is My command- 
 ment. That ye love one another, 
 as I have loved you. 
 
 13. Greater Jove hath no man 
 than this, that a man lay down 
 his life for his friends. 
 
 14. Ye are My friends, if ye 
 do whatsoever I command you. 
 
 15. Henceforth I call you 
 not servants; for the servant 
 knoweth not what his Lord 
 doeth : but I have called you 
 friends ; for all things that I 
 have heard of My Father I 
 have made known unto you. 
 
 16. Ye have not chosen Me, 
 but I have chosen you, and 
 ordained you, that ye should 
 go and bring forth fruit, and 
 that your fruit should remain ; 
 that whatsoever ye shall ask 
 of the Father in My name. He 
 may give it you." 
 
 149 
 
150 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xv. 1-16 
 
 THE last words of the fourteenth chapter show that 
 there is a sHght break in the discourse, and possibly 
 a change of place. Many guesses have been made as to 
 the occasion suggesting the parable of our lesson ; but 
 these are unimportant. A vine by the wayside, or the 
 golden vine on the temple doors, or the " fruit of the 
 vine" which had just been used for the Lord's Supper, 
 may have shaped the allusion. 
 
 I. The lovely and significant parable occupies verses 
 1-8. It falls into two halves, of which the first (vers. 
 1-4) gives the image in its most general aspect, and the 
 second (vers. 5-8) dwells on the branches abiding in the 
 vine, and the solemn issues involved. Jesus is the " true 
 Vine," the reality of which the material one to which He 
 perhaps pointed is but a shadow, and of which Israel 
 had failed to be the spiritual emblem which it was 
 meant to be. One life fills the plant from root through 
 stem, and reddens and mellows each cluster. So His 
 life pervades all His true followers ; and that one life 
 results in oneness of relation to God, of character, and 
 of destiny. We are sons of God in Him, lights of the 
 world by Him, clothed with His righteousness, sanctified 
 by His Spirit, and at last with Him and glorified with 
 His glory. 
 
 The husbandman and his dressing of the vine comes 
 next. Christ is usually presented as the Cultivator, but 
 the form of the parable requires that here the Father, 
 who, however, works through the Son, should do that 
 office. The vinedresser's chief tool is a knife. Pruning 
 looks merciless and wasteful, but it is done scientifically, 
 without random strokes. Nothing is cut away except 
 that which it is gain to lose. Dead wood has to be cut 
 
Less. XVII.] The Vine and the Branches 151 
 
 out, and living wood has to be cut back. The whole 
 strain of the parable implies that life, however imperfect, 
 will produce some fruit, and therefore leads to tlie 
 conclusion that the utterly fruitless branches are people 
 with a merely nominal connection with Christ, whose 
 "taking away" is simply making visible the fact that 
 they are not His at all. 
 
 But pruning is needed by true branches, for we all 
 have two natures if we are in Christ, and the one 
 flourishes at the other's expense ; therefore the Husband- 
 man has to cut the rank shoots from self, that all our 
 force may be thrown into growing fruit. Then we have 
 the condition of fruitfulness laid down as abiding in 
 Christ. There may be much work and no fruit. What 
 we bring forth " of ourselves " is no more fruit than 
 cankers are roses. The reception of the life which 
 secures fruit depends on our own effort. We have to 
 take pains that we may abide in Christ, and so secure 
 His abiding in us. If a canal lock be empty, the water 
 will press on it, and open the gates, and fill it. If we 
 empty the heart, Christ will come in. If we abide in 
 Him, by thought, love, desire, by submission and re- 
 ference of all work to Him, He will dwell in us, and we 
 shall be fruitful branches. 
 
 Verses 5-8 repeat, but with additions, these truths. 
 Christ was not afraid of repetition. He broke the bread 
 of life small, and fed the disciples little and often. In 
 these four verses are four aspects of the great truth of 
 union with Him. First, the fruitfulness of union. Note 
 the pointed application of the truth, " Ye are the 
 branches." Toothless generalities are useless ; there 
 must be a driving home of truth to the individual. The 
 
152 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xv. 1-16 
 
 great condition of fruit-bearing is quiet abiding in 
 Christ, — a temper far remote from noise and bustle. 
 We must be much within the veil, and have still hearts ; 
 and the harder our work, the more must we " labour to 
 enter into that rest." 
 
 Mark the promise of "much fruit." Why do we bear 
 a shrivelled cluster or two, more like marbles than grapes ? 
 Because we do not abide in Him. Christ puts but two 
 alternatives, — no fruit or much. The average crop now- 
 adays is " little." " Apart from Me, nothing," is the 
 emphatic statement here. Life without Jesus is a long 
 sum, which, added up, has for its total a cipher. 
 
 Second, the converse truth is stated, that separation 
 means withering and destruction. How the leaves shrivel 
 on a plucked branch ! So, separate from Christ, men 
 wither and Churches droop. Withering brings destruction. 
 The language describes what befalls actual branches in 
 literal vines, but is symbolic of the fate of men apart from 
 Jesus. Note the mysterious language : " They gather." 
 Who do ? and who cast into the fire ? All is left in un- 
 explained awfulness. Enough to know that to be in the 
 Vine or thrown into the fire are the alternatives. Once 
 more, union with Christ brings satisfaction of desires. 
 If He, by His words, abide in us, and we in Him, our 
 " will " harmonises with His, and we get our wishes when 
 they are moulded by His indwelling word. 
 
 Once more, union with Him leads to God's glorifying 
 and our increasing discipleship. Do we so live that the 
 sight of us kindles sweeter and worthier thoughts of God 
 in men? Thus abiding, we shall "become" (as the 
 accurate rendering is) His disciples. We never, on 
 earth, reach full discipleship, but should be ever in pro- 
 
Less. XVII.] The Vine and the Branches 153 
 
 cess of becoming His true servants. The fruit borne 
 by union with Him will help us nearer to Him. 
 
 II. Verses 9-1 1 are a kind of conclusion of the parable, 
 presenting a somewhat different aspect of its main drift, 
 and telhng us His purpose in it. Three things are spoken 
 of in these verses as abiding, — love, obedience, joy. The 
 abiding is, first, abiding in love. Christ claims to be in 
 an altogether unique manner the object of the Father's 
 love, and — no less wonderful — to be able to love like 
 the Father, — as deeply, purely, fully, eternally, and with 
 all the unnamable perfectness of Divine love. In that 
 mysterious, tender, perfect love He bids us abide, — 
 meaning thereby, not the continuance of our emotion 
 of love to Him, but our keeping ourselves in the sacred 
 precincts of His love to us. That abiding is in our own 
 power. The dwellers in the clefts of that riven Rock need 
 no other defence. 
 
 The second abiding thing is obedience, by which we 
 abide in the love of Christ. Fruit is grown without effort, 
 but the human side of the truth is more prominent here, 
 where the converse of the previous thought is set forth ; 
 namely, that obedience is the condition of abiding. 
 Jesus does not say " Obey God as I have done, and He 
 will love you," but " Obey Me as I obey Him, and I will 
 love you." Who is He that thus comes between us and 
 God ? And does He come between, or rather lead us to 
 the Father ? He does love us the better the more we do 
 His will. That love which sought the wandering sheep 
 will pour itself more tenderly on it when it follows close 
 at the heels of the Shepherd. 
 
 The third abiding thing is joy, if the reading of the 
 Authorised Version be retained. This was a strange 
 
154 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xv. 1-16 
 
 time for Jesus to speak of His joy, with Gethsemane and 
 Calvary so near. Was the Man of Sorrows a joyful man ? 
 He was anointed with the oil of gladness above His 
 fellows, because He absolutely surrendered Himself to the 
 Father's will ; and that joy He will give us if we too give 
 up ourselves at the bidding of love. Such joy will be 
 progressive, ever full, and ever advancing towards fulleo: 
 possession of His joys. 
 
 HI. Verses twelve and thirteen pass from the relation 
 of branches to vine to that of branches to each other, of 
 which the natural expression is mutual love. The com- 
 mandments are all summed in one — love. Then love is 
 obligatory. But can it be produced to order ? Com- 
 mandment and love do not go well together, but yet 
 much may be done to cultivate it. Christians should 
 feel nearer to each other, however unlike in temperament, 
 culture, and position, than they are to non-Christians to 
 whom in these respects they may be most hke. If this 
 be the sum of His commandments, it must be the essence 
 of our duty, and hold every other right feeling and deed 
 in germ in itself. When Jesus was about to leave His 
 little flock. He did not talk to them about institutions. 
 Church order, and the like, but gave this one all-sufficient 
 injunction. If that be right, everything will come right. 
 
 Further, He here gives the pattern and measure of 
 mutual love. He had just declared that His love was 
 like God's, and now He bids us make ours like His. 
 Think of a man calmly saying, "I am the embodiment 
 of perfect love, the pattern for all hearts." But still 
 more remarkable is it that He sets before us His death 
 as our pattern, not, indeed, in its propitiatory character, 
 but as being a voluntary, love-impelled surrender for our 
 
Less. XVII.] The Vine and the Branches 155 
 
 good. That is the model for us, — a solemn thought 
 which may well bring a blush to our cheeks and peni- 
 tence to our consciences. " For His friends." But He 
 died for enemies, that He might make them friends. 
 The word here does not mean those who loved Him, 
 but those whom He loved, and so refers to the same 
 persons as Paul had in view in his variation of this 
 saying, and called " enemies." 
 
 IV. The closing verses of the lesson describe Christ's 
 friends. They tell us what His friends do for Him, what 
 He does for them, how they come to be so. " Friends " 
 here means mainly those who love Him, and Jesus here 
 stoops to accept and rejoice in the imperfect love of these 
 poor men and of us. But the singular blending of friend- 
 ship and authority is noticeable. He commands, though 
 He is Friend ; He is Friend, though He commands. So 
 we should cherish at once absolute submission and closest 
 friendship. Obedience will knit the tie between Him 
 and us more closely ; and the closer tie will give clearer 
 insight into His will, and fuller joy in doing it. 
 
 Verse fifteen tells us what Christ does for His friends. 
 The slave may see what his lord does, but does not 
 know his purpose or motive, and so cannot estimate 
 his acts. A servant in his master's confidence is some- 
 thing more than a servant. But Jesus calls His disciples 
 " friends," and had called them so in act before He here 
 named them so. Jesus recognises the obligation of per- 
 fect frankness, and He will tell His friends everything 
 that He can. Of course, that frankness has its limits in 
 the power of reception in the hearers ; for He does not 
 pour His treasures into vessels that will spill them, and 
 there were many things yet to be spoken which remained 
 
156 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xv. 1-16 
 
 unspoken " because ye cannot carry them now." That 
 frankness continues, and to-day we, if we listen to Him, 
 may know all which it concerns us to know, and may 
 peacefully acquiesce in ignorance about much which we 
 sometimes feel we wish to know. Let us be certain that 
 we have caught all the words which He has spoken. That 
 still small voice is not heard amid the babble of earth and 
 the cries of our own hearts ; but if we keep silent before 
 the Lord, it will fill the silence with music. 
 
 Then we have, in verse sixteen, how and why Christ's 
 friends come to be so. The reference is primarily to the 
 apostles, chosen and ordained to their office, and in their 
 apostolic labours bringing forth abiding fruit. But the 
 saying has a far wider application. The beginning of all 
 friendship between Christ and men lies with Him. I 
 suppose that every man who has felt Christ's love will 
 say, whatever his theological standpoint, " I was appre- 
 hended of Christ." It is because He lays His seeking 
 hand upon us that we come to Him, and His choice of 
 us precedes ours of Him. 
 
 This is how men come to be His friends, because, 
 when they were enemies, He gave Himself for them, and 
 has ever since been sending the rays of His love to draw 
 us to Himself. The purpose is twofold. First, it re- 
 spects service or fruit. " That ye may go." That word 
 hints at parting, gives them a quasi-independent position, 
 and yet shows the real union in separation. Wherever 
 we go in obedience to His will, we carry His friendship. 
 " That ye may bring forth fruit." This recalls the parable. 
 Both ideas of keeping commandments and bringing forth 
 fruit are needed to set forth the whole truth of Christian 
 service. It is more than effortless growth or than painful 
 
Less. xviL] The Vine and the Branches 157 
 
 effort. There must be first unity of life with Jesus, and 
 then toil. Both are essential. " That your fruit should 
 remain." Nothing corrupts faster than fruit. One sort 
 only is incorruptible. The only activity that outlasts 
 time and the world is that of those whose deeds are begun, 
 continued, and ended in Him. 
 
 The other half of the issues of friendship with Jesus is 
 the satisfaction of our desires, stated in substantially the 
 same terms as we have already considered. To " ask in 
 Christ's name " is more than merely to put that name as 
 a kind of charm at the end of our prayers. It is to ask 
 as — in some sense — His representatives, filled with His 
 spirit, as well as in reliance on His sacrifice and inter- 
 cession. Such prayers will not be self-willed, but in 
 accordance with the will of Christ, and therefore of God ; 
 and therefore they will be answered. If we make Christ's 
 desires ours, and our desires Christ's, they will be satis- 
 fied. 
 
LESSON XVIII 
 
 The Spirit Convicting the World and Guiding the 
 
 Church 
 
 St. John xvi. 1-15 
 
 1. "These things have I 
 spoken unto you, that ye should 
 not be offended, 
 
 2. They shall put you out of 
 the synagogues: yea, the time 
 Cometh, that whosoever killeth 
 you will think that he doeth 
 God service. 
 
 3. And these things will they 
 do unto 3''0u, because they have 
 not known the Father, nor 
 Me. 
 
 4*. But these things have I 
 told you, that when the time 
 shall come, ye may remember 
 that I told you of them. And 
 these things I said not unto 
 you at the beginning, because 
 I was with you. 
 
 5. But now I go My way to 
 Him that sent Me; and none 
 of you asketh Me, Whither 
 goest Thou ? 
 
 6. But because I have said 
 these things unto you, sorrow 
 hath filled your heart. 
 
 7. Nevertheless I tell you the 
 truth ; It is expedient for you 
 that I go away : for if I go not 
 away, the Comforter will not 
 
 come unto you ; but if I depart, 
 I will send Him unto you. 
 
 8. And when He is come, He 
 will reprove the world of sin, 
 and of righteousness, and of 
 judgment : 
 
 9. Ofsin, because they believe 
 not on Me ; 
 
 10. Of righteousness, because 
 I go to My Father, and ye see 
 Me no more. 
 
 11. Of judgment, because the 
 prince of this world is judged. 
 
 12. I have yet many things 
 to say unto you, but ye cannot 
 bear them now. 
 
 13. Howbeit when He, the 
 Spirit of truth, is come. He 
 will guide you into all truth : for 
 He shall not speak of Himself; 
 but whatsoever He shall hear, 
 that shall He speak : and He 
 will show you things to come. 
 
 14. He shall glorify Me : for 
 He shall receive of Mine, and 
 shall show it unto you. 
 
 15. All things that the Father 
 hath are Mine : therefore said 
 I, that He shall take of Mine, 
 and shall show it unto you." 
 
 THE unbroken flow of thought and many subtle 
 links of connection in this wonderful discourse 
 baffle attempts to group its deep teachings in any rigid 
 
 158 
 
Less. XVIII.] The Spirit 159 
 
 sequence. But we can trace in this lesson three main 
 ideas, which may assist us in grasping its significance if 
 we keep in view. 
 
 I. Verses 1-6 are a kind of landing-place or pause in 
 the discourse, mainly looking back on the previous 
 utterances, and contemplating the reasons for speech 
 now and silence before. First, in verses 1-4 the reasons 
 for speech now are given in a double form, — " that ye 
 should not be made to stumble" (ver. i), and "that 
 when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told 
 you of them " (ver. 4). These two views of the reasons 
 for speech are separated by a reiteration, in more emphatic 
 form, of the dark prospect of persecution. 
 
 In the previous chapter the disciples were taught to 
 expect the hatred of " the world," but here that world 
 is formally identified with the apostate Jewish Church. 
 "The synagogue" is "the world." The organised body 
 calling itself God's Church may become the most ram- 
 pant enemy of Christ's people and the fullest embodiment 
 of all that makes " the world." Such a body will do the 
 cruellest things religiously, and offer up Christ's servants 
 as sacrifices to God. That is partly aggravation and 
 partly alleviation of the sin. A Church which has 
 become " world " will persecute as a duty ; and the 
 reason is that, although it may be rigidly orthodox and 
 versed in theology, it " does not know " either God or 
 Christ. It does not know the former because it will not 
 know the latter. 
 
 The first reason which Jesus gives for present speech 
 is that the disciples might be kept from stumbling when 
 the forewarned evils burst on them. The stumbling- 
 block for them in finding themselves at odds with the 
 
i6o The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xvi. 1-15 
 
 synagogue as to the claims of Jesus is of such magnitude 
 as we can scarcely realise. But forewarned is forearmed, 
 and that is as true about our difficulties as about theirs. 
 If we try to follow Christ, we shall often have to stand 
 in such a very small minority, and have against us such 
 a mass who take such a different view of duty, that 
 we shall be tempted to distrust our own consciences and 
 to yield. We shall be heartened to stand firm if we 
 remember Christ's warnings. So is it also in regard to 
 other sorrows and trials. We have fair and full warning 
 of them. Jesus does not enlist recruits by rose-tinted 
 pictures of delights and concealment of trials in His 
 service, but lets us understand from the beginning that 
 we must make up our minds to antagonisms that we 
 might otherwise escape, and "enter the kingdom through 
 much tribulation." Sorrow anticipated is half overcome. 
 Sorrow foretold gives confidence in our Guide. He has 
 told us this, and He is right. If there were anything 
 worse, He would have told us, and He will be right, too, 
 in His predictions of good. He foretold Marah and its 
 bitter waters ; shall we not trust Him when He foretells 
 Elim and its wells and palms ? 
 
 "When their hour is come," says Jesus. "Their 
 hour " is their appointed time. Who appointed it ? He 
 did, and therefore their punctual arrival up to time 
 shows that they come in obedience to Him. Further, 
 we have His reasons for past silence, — " Not unto you 
 from the beginning, for I was with you." There had 
 been passing hints before, but no such detailed exhibi- 
 tion, and that because He was still with them. That 
 expresses superb confidence in His power to shield 
 them. No harm can come as long as He is with them. 
 
Less. XVIII.] The Spirit i6i 
 
 For US; too, sorrows though foretold in general terms, are 
 largely hidden till near. There needs an adaptation of 
 ear to word, which only experience gives. Great tracts 
 of Scripture He dark to us till life explains them, and 
 then they come on us with the force of a new revelation, 
 like the messages which of old were sent by a roll of 
 parchment coiled upon a baton and then written upon, 
 and were unintelligible unless the receiver had a corre- 
 sponding roller to wrap them round. Thank God for 
 the loving reticence as well as for the loving frankness of 
 His forewarnings of sorrow ! 
 
 One more thought lies here ; namely, that the imperfect 
 apprehension of Christ's words leads to sorrow instead 
 of joy (vers. 5, 6). He had been telling them that He 
 was "going," and all that they thought was "Going! 
 then what is to become of us ? " If there had been 
 more love to Him, and they had said " Going ! then 
 what is to become of Him ? " sorrow would not have 
 filled their hearts, but joy would have flooded out sorrow, 
 because He went to Him that sent Him, and therefore 
 went with His work done. The steadfast contemplation 
 of the ascended Christ is a sovereign antidote against 
 solitude, the victory over a hostile world, the cure for 
 every sorrow. 
 
 H. Verses 7-1 1 set forth one aspect of that gift of the 
 Spirit, which has already been promised in these parting 
 words; namely, its operation on "the world" through 
 the disciples. Think of these eleven poor men and their 
 peasant Leader at that moment. They were neither very 
 wise nor strong, and outside that upper room there was 
 scarcely a creature who had the least belief in either 
 Him or them. They had everything against them, and, 
 
 II 
 
i62 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xvi. 1-15 
 
 most of all, their own hearts, while they had nothing 
 for them but their Master's promises. They were 
 desolate at the thought of His going. And now He 
 bids them think of that going away as pure gain for 
 them, and explains that staggering statement by the 
 assurance of the coming of the Spirit. 
 
 Paul said, " To abide in the flesh is more needful 
 for you." Jesus said, " It is expedient for you that I go 
 away." Why this difference ? Because of the essential 
 difference of the relation of the two to those whom 
 they left. Paul's work ended when he went ; Jesus' 
 continued after He went. He is nearer us w^hen He has 
 left us, and works more mightily for us after departure. 
 Death drops an iron gate between the dead and the 
 living, through which no helping hand can be stretched, 
 but Christ's influence flows unchecked through the 
 grated door. Who is He of whom this is true, and what 
 sort of work is that which is continued and perfected 
 after death ? 
 
 Here again we meet the declaration that the Spirit's 
 coming is inseparably connected with Christ's departure. 
 The complete work of Christ was the necessary pre- 
 liminary, and, in some sense, the procuring cause of that 
 gift ; and since the Word is the Spirit's instrument, the 
 revelation must be complete before the application of it 
 can begin in its full energy. Christ must be at the right 
 hand of God before He can bestow that Spirit, ascending 
 on high that He may receive for, and give the gift to, 
 spirits fitted to receive it by faith in His completed 
 work. 
 
 It is by being " sent unto you " that the Spirit is to 
 "convict the world"; that is to say, the subject in hand 
 
Less. XVIII.] The Spirit 163 
 
 here is the conviction wrought by the Spirit using Chris- 
 tian men as its organs. Note the process of " convic- 
 tion," which is no mere demonstration of truth. Certain 
 facts are borne in upon understanding and conscience, 
 and along with these, the conviction of error and fault 
 in relation to them. " He shall convict the world in 
 respect of sin." That is the first step towards the world's 
 ceasing to be "world." Apart from the conviction of 
 sin which is characteristic of the gospel, men have 
 wholly inadequate notions of what it is, its inwardness, 
 universality, and gravity as affecting man's whole being 
 and relation to God. Every blunder and heresy that 
 leads men away from the true conception of Christ and 
 His work may be traced to defective notions or realisa- 
 tion of the fact of sin. 
 
 After the conviction of sin comes the dawning of the 
 sunrise of righteousness. Obviously, " the world " is the 
 subject throughout these verses. It is to be convinced, 
 and it must be its sin and its righteousness and its 
 judgment which are in view. There is but one way by 
 which a conviction of righteousness as mine can follow 
 one of sin as mine ; namely, by the sight of a righteous- 
 ness given from above, to sweep away my sin, and make 
 me righteous as Christ is. That conviction will not be 
 ours unless the other has gone before. The one convic- 
 tion without the other is misery ; the second without 
 the first is irrelevant, as medicine to a man that thinks 
 himself well. 
 
 Finally comes the conviction of " judgment." If there 
 are in the world sin and righteousness, and the two 
 collide, what then ? Which will go down ? Righteous- 
 ness will triumph, and there will be " judgment," which 
 
164 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xvi. 1-15 
 
 will destroy the sin. There is a continual judgment 
 going on now, and there is a future one beyond the 
 grave. That is a terrible, but also a blessed, thought ; 
 terrible if I do not make that righteousness mine, 
 blessed if I do, since it assures me that in the one case 
 I must perish with the sin to which I cling, and in the 
 other that I shall be separated from all my evil, and 
 filled with perfect righteousness. 
 
 This threefold conviction which the Spirit in believers 
 will work in the world rests on three facts : one of ex- 
 perience, one of history, and one of revelation, — all 
 three having reference to Jesus and His relation to men. 
 These are, the world's unbelief, Christ's ascension, and 
 the judgment of the Prince of the world. Unbelief in 
 Jesus is the climax and strongest proof of sin. Strange 
 words ! Here is a Man who dares to say that, full as the 
 world is of hideous crimes, a mere negative and inward 
 thing, namely, men's rejection of Him, is worst of all. 
 What does the rejection of Christ betray the rejecter to 
 be ? He turns away from the loftiest, tenderest revela- 
 tion of God's love, seeing nothing there to desire. 
 Surely that augurs criminal blindness. He rejects the 
 blessings of forgiveness, cleansing, and purity, and of a 
 heaven which is the perfection of these. Surely that 
 augurs earthly-mindedness gross and ignoble. The 
 essence of sin is living to self Belief in Christ is the 
 surrender of self So unbelief is a " typical " sin in its 
 " purest " form. The mother-tincture is there concen- 
 trated which, variously coloured and perfumed, makes 
 the evil of all sins. 
 
 There is a fact of history as the ground of the convic- 
 tion of righteousness. He " goes to the Father and we 
 
Less. XVIII.] The Spirit 165 
 
 see Him no more." He speaks as if the process had 
 begun. His death, resurrection, and ascension are its 
 stages. The apostles' great argument to convince the 
 world of righteousness was to be the ascended Christ. 
 With the supernatural fact of His ascension and abode 
 with the Father stands or falls His power of giving us 
 His own righteousness. If He cannot give me that, 
 what does His having had it matter to me ? Nothing. 
 But if He is above to bestow upon us the law of the 
 Spirit of Life in Him, which will make us free from the 
 law of sin, then we may cherish hope that we too shall 
 be made like Him. If He has gone to the Father, His 
 righteousness may be the world's ; if He has not, it is 
 useless to any but Himself. 
 
 A fact made known only by revelation, the judgment 
 of the Prince of the world, is the ground of the final 
 conviction. The world has a Prince. However ludicrous 
 vulgar superstitions may have made the notion, there 
 is nothing ridiculous, nor anything which we have the 
 right to call incredible, in Christ's solemn declaration 
 that the kingdom of darkness has a King. The Cross 
 was the judgment of that Prince, as is frequently taught 
 in Scripture. Then the power of evil was broken in its 
 centre. The serpent's head has been bruised, though 
 still it writhes and swings " the scaly horror of its folded 
 tail." But the strong man is bound, and his house is 
 being spoiled. The judgment of the Prince prophesies 
 the judgment of the world. That thought ought to be 
 a hope, but it often is a fear. Whether hope or fear, 
 it is a fact as certain as the Cross in the past or the 
 throne in the present. If we know our own sin, and 
 Christ's righteousness as ours, we can rejoice in the 
 
i66 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xvi. 1-15 
 
 hope of the final judgment, and have boldness before 
 Him when it comes. 
 
 III. I can but glance at the final portion of the lesson, 
 in which the aspect of the Spirit's work as the Guide 
 into all truth for believing souls is presented (vers. T2-15). 
 Note the avowed incompleteness of Christ's own teaching 
 (ver. 12). How does this representation agree with the 
 other that He had made known " all things whatsoever 
 He had heard of the Father " ? There is a difference 
 between bud and flower, principles and their develop- 
 ment. He did give the fundamental, seminal principles, 
 but not their unfolding, their consequences, or their 
 mutual relations. As to these, there was much to be 
 said which the disciples were not able to " carry." 
 
 People tell us, "Your modern theology isn't in the 
 Gospels ; we stick by Jesus, not by Paul." I do not 
 admit that the silence of Jesus about His sacrificial 
 death and the atoning power of it is so absolute ; but 
 I do admit that He says little about it. What then ? 
 That reticence is exactly what He told us we should find 
 in His words. The Cross had to be endured before it 
 could be explained. Jesus came to be the sacrifice, not 
 to speak about it. Those who say that they take His 
 words as the only source of their Christianity are flying 
 in the face of His words in saying so ; for He proclaimed 
 their incompleteness, and referred us for fuller knowledge 
 to a subsequent teacher. 
 
 Next we have declared the completeness of the truth 
 into which the Spirit leads. Mark the personality of 
 the Spirit, — " He," not " it." Note His designation as 
 " the Spirit of truth," which is His characteristic and 
 weapon. Note His office — " shall guide," as with a 
 
Less. XVIII.] The Spirit 167 
 
 loving hand put out to lead, so suggesting the gracious- 
 ness, gentleness, and gradualness of the teaching. Note 
 the width of the promise, " all truth." That is not a 
 promise of omniscience, but the assurance of gradual 
 and growing acquaintance with the spiritual truth revealed 
 in Jesus. Not to-day, nor to-morrow, will it all be known, 
 but step by step we shall be led. 
 
 "He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He 
 shall hear, that shall He speak." The Spirit stands to 
 Jesus as Jesus stands to the Father. Where does the 
 Spirit " hear " ? In the depths of Deity. And especially 
 " things to come " would be made known — the evolving 
 glory of the kingdom, and " all the wonder that should 
 be " — in the new order which Christ should establish. 
 It might appear as if two independent sources of 
 illumination were set forth. Therefore in the last verses 
 of the lesson we see the union of the two beams. " He 
 shall glorify Me." Think of a man saying that ! So 
 fair is Christ that to make Him known is to make Him 
 glorious. " He shall take of Mine." All the Spirit brings 
 is Christ's ; His office is not to give new revelation, but 
 to interpret that given. He guides into " the truth," 
 which Jesus declared Himself to be. 
 
 " All things that the Father hath are Mine : therefore 
 said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it 
 unto you." What awful words ! A Divine teaching 
 Spirit can only teach concerning God, and Christ here 
 explains the preceding words, in which, if He were but 
 human, He had given that Spirit an unworthy office, by 
 the solemn, articulate claim that whatever is God's is 
 His, and whatever is His is God's. He puts out an 
 unpresumptuous hand and lays hold on all the con- 
 
i68 The Gospel of St. John [Chap.xvi. 1-15 
 
 stellated glories of the Divine nature, saying, " They 
 are Mine"; and the Father admits the claim, and 
 answers, " Son, Thou art ever with Me, and all that I 
 have is Thine." Let us add our " Amen," and trust our 
 all to Him who makes us possessors of all that is His, 
 that so we may be " filled with all the fulness of God." 
 
LESSON XIX 
 The Intercessor 
 
 St. John xvii. 1-19 
 
 1. "These words spake Jesus, 
 and lifted up His eyes to heaven, 
 and said, Father, the hour is 
 come ; glorify Thy Son, that 
 Thy Son also may glorify Thee : 
 
 2. As Thou hast given Him 
 power over all flesh, that He 
 should give eternal life to as 
 many as Thou hast given Him. 
 
 3. And this is life eternal, 
 that they might know Thee the 
 only true God, and Jesus Christ, 
 whom Thou hast sent. 
 
 4. I have glorified Thee on 
 the earth : I have finished the 
 work which Thou gavest Me to 
 do. 
 
 5. And now, O Father, glorify 
 Thou Me with Thine own self 
 with the glory which I had 
 with Thee before the world 
 was. 
 
 6. I have manifested Thy 
 name unto the men which Thou 
 gavest Me out of the world : 
 Thine they were, and Thou 
 gavest them Me ; and they have 
 kept Thy word. 
 
 7. Nowthey have known that 
 all things whatsoever Thou hast 
 given Me are of Thee. 
 
 8. For I have given unto 
 them the words which Thou 
 
 gavest Me ; and they have 
 received them, and have known 
 surely that I came out from 
 Thee, and they have believed 
 that Thou didst send Me. 
 
 9. I pray for them : I pray 
 not for the world, but for them 
 which Thou hast given Me ; for 
 they are Thine. 
 
 10. And all Mine are Thine, 
 and Thine are Mine ; and I am 
 glorified in them. 
 
 11. And now I am no more 
 in the world, but these are in 
 the world, and I come to Thee. 
 Holy Father, keep through 
 Thine own name those whom 
 Thou hast given Me, that they 
 may be one, as we are. 
 
 12. While I was with them 
 in the world, I kept them in 
 Thy name : those that Thou 
 gavest Me I have kept, and 
 none of them is lost, but the 
 son of perdition ; that the 
 Scripture might be fulfilled. 
 
 13. And now come I to Thee ; 
 and these things I speak in the 
 world, that they might have 
 My joy fulfilled in themselves. 
 
 14. I have given them Thy 
 word ; and the world hath 
 hated them, because they are 
 
 169 
 
T70 
 
 The Gospel of St. John [Chap.xvii. 1-19 
 
 not of the world, even as I am 
 not of the world. 
 
 15. I pray not that Thou 
 shouldest take them out of the 
 world, but that Thou shouldest 
 keep them from the evil. 
 
 1 6. They are not of the world, 
 even as I am not of the world. 
 
 17. Sanctify them through 
 Thy truth : Thy word is truth. 
 
 18. As Thou hast sent Me 
 into the world, even so have I 
 also sent them into the world. 
 
 19. And for their sakes I sanc- 
 tify Myself, that they also might 
 be sanctified through the truth." 
 
 WE may well despair of doing justice, in a lesson, 
 to the deep thoughts of this prayer, which 
 volumes would not exhaust. Who is worthy to speak 
 or to write about such sacred words ? Perhaps we may 
 best gain some glimpses of their great and holy sublimity 
 by trying to gather their teaching round the centres of 
 the three petitions, — "glorify" (vers, i, 5), "keep" (ver. 
 11), and "sanctify" (ver. 17). 
 
 I. In verses 1-5 Jesus prays for Himself, that He 
 may be restored to His pre-incarnate glory ; but yet the 
 prayer desires not so much that glory as affecting Him- 
 self, as His being fitted thereby for completing His work 
 of manifesting the Father. There are three main points 
 in these verses, — the petition, its purpose, and its grounds. 
 
 As to the first, the repetition of the request in verses 
 I and 5 is significant, especially if we note that in the 
 former the language is impersonal, " Thy Son," and 
 continues so till verse 4, where " I " and " Me " appear. 
 In verses 1-3, then, the prayer rests upon the ideal 
 relations of Father and Son, realised in Jesus, while in 
 verses 4 and 5 the personal element is emphatically 
 presented. The two petitions are in their scope identical. 
 The " glorifying " in the former is more fully explained 
 in the latter as being that which He possessed in that 
 ineffable fellowship with the Father, not merely before 
 incarnation, but before creation. In His manhood He 
 
Less. XIX.] The Intercessor 171 
 
 possessed and manifested the "glory as of the only 
 begotten of the Father, full 'of grace and truth"; but 
 that glory, lustrous though it was, was pale, and humilia- 
 tion compared with the light inaccessible, which shone 
 around the eternal Word in the bosom of the Father. 
 Yet He who prayed was the same Person who had 
 walked in that light before time was, and now in human 
 flesh asked for what no mere manhood could bear. 
 The first form of the petition implies that such a par- 
 taking in the uncreated glory of the Father is the natural 
 prerogative of One who is " the Son," while the second 
 implies that it is the appropriate recompense of the 
 earthly life and character of the man Jesus. 
 
 The petition not only reveals the conscious Divinity 
 of the Son, but also His willing acceptance of the cross ; 
 for the glorifying sought is that reached through death, 
 resurrection, and ascension, and that introductory clause 
 " the hour is come " points to the impending sufferings 
 as the first step in the answer to the petition. The 
 crucifixion is always thus treated in this Gospel, as being 
 both the lowest humiliation and the " lifting up " of the 
 Son ; and here He is reaching out His hand, as it were, 
 to draw His sufferings nearer. So willingly and desir- 
 ingly did this Isaac climb the mount of sacrifice. Both 
 elements of the great saying in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews are here : " For the joy that was set before 
 Him [He] endured the cross." 
 
 The purpose of the petition is to be noted; namely, 
 the Son's glorifying of the Father. No taint of selfish- 
 ness corrupted His prayer. Not for Himself, but for men, 
 did He desire His glory. He sought return to that serene 
 and lofty seat, and the elevation of His weak manhood 
 
172 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xvii. 1-19 
 
 to the throne, not because He was wearied of earth or 
 impatient of weakness, sorrows, or Hmitations, but that 
 He might more fully manifest, from that glory, the Father's 
 name. To make the Father known is to make the Father 
 glorious ; for He is all fair and lovely. That revelation 
 of Divine perfection, majesty, and sweetness was the end 
 of Christ's earthly life, and is the end of His heavenly 
 Divine activity. He needs to reassume the prerogatives 
 of which He needed to divest Himself, and both neces- 
 sities are one. He had to lay aside His garments and 
 assume the form of a servant that He might make God 
 known ; but, that revelation being complete. He must 
 take His garments and sit down again, before He can go 
 on to tell all the meaning of what He has " done unto us." 
 The ground of the petition is twofold. Verses 2 and 
 3 represent the glory sought for, as the completion of 
 the Son's mission and task. Already He had been 
 endowed with authority over all flesh, for the purpose 
 of bestowing eternal life ; and that eternal Hfe stands in 
 the knowledge of God, which is the same as the know- 
 ledge of Christ. The present gift to the Son and its 
 purpose are thus precisely parallel with the further gift 
 desired, and that is the necessary carrying out of this. 
 The authority and office of the incarnate Christ demand 
 the glory of and consequent further manifestation by 
 the glorified Christ. The life which He comes to give 
 is a life which flows from the revelation He makes of the 
 Father, received, not as mere intellectual knowledge, but 
 as loving acquaintance. 
 
 The second ground for the petition is in verse 4, the 
 actual perfect fulfilment by the Son of that mission. 
 What untroubled consciousness of sinless obedience and 
 
Less. XIX.] The Intercessor 173 
 
 transparent shining through His life of the Father's like- 
 ness and will He must have had who could thus assert 
 His complete realisation of that Father's revealing pur- 
 pose, as the ground of His deserving and desiring 
 participation in the Divine glory ! Surely such words 
 are either the acme of self-righteousness or the self- 
 revealing speech of the Son of God. 
 
 n. With verse 6 we pass to the more immediate refer- 
 ence to the disciples, and the context from thence to 
 verse 15 may be regarded as all clustered round the 
 second petition, "keep " (ver. 11). That central request 
 is preceded and followed by consideration of the dis- 
 ciples' relation to Christ and to the world, which may be 
 regarded as its grounds. The whole context preceding 
 the petition may be summed up in two grounds for the 
 prayer, — the former set forth at length, and the latter 
 summarily ; the one being the genuine, though incom- 
 plete, discipleship of the men for whom Christ prays 
 (vers. 6-10), and the latter their desolate condition 
 without Jesus (ver. 11). 
 
 It is beautiful to see how our Lord here credits the 
 disciples with genuine grasp, both in heart and head, of 
 His teaching. He had shortly, before had to say, " Have 
 I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not 
 known Me ? " and soon *' they all forsook Him and fled." 
 But beneath misconception and inadequate apprehension 
 there lived faith and love ; and He saw the full corn in 
 the ear, when only the green blade was visible, pushing 
 itself above the surface. We may take comfort from this 
 generous estimate of imperfect disciples. If He did not 
 tend, instead of quenching, dimly burning wicks, where 
 would He have " lights in the world "? 
 
174 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xvii. 1-19 
 
 Verse 6 lays down the beginning of discipleship as 
 threefold : Christ's act in revealing ; the Father's, in 
 giving men to Jesus ; and men's, in keeping the Father's 
 word. " Thy word " is the whole revelation by Christ, 
 which is, as this Gospel so often re'peats, not His own, 
 but the Father's. These three facts underlying disciple- 
 ship are pleas for the petition to follow ; for unless the 
 feeble disciples are " kept " in the name, as in a fortress, 
 Christ's work of revelation is neutralised, the Father's 
 gift to Him made of none effect, and the incipient dis- 
 ciples will not " keep " His word. The plea is, in effect, 
 " Forsake not the works of Thine own hands " ; and, like 
 all Christ's prayers, it has a promise in its depths, since 
 God does not begin what He will not finish ; and it has 
 a warning, too, that we cannot keep ourselves unless a 
 stronger hand keeps us. 
 
 Verses 7 and 8 carry on the portraiture of discipleship, 
 and thence draw fresh pleas. The blessed result of 
 accepting Christ's revelation is a knowledge, built on 
 happy experience, and, like the acquaintance of heart 
 with heart, issuing in the firm conviction that Christ's 
 words and deeds are from God. Why does He say, " All 
 things whatsoever Thou hast given," instead of simply 
 " that I have " or " declare " ? Probably it is the natural 
 expression of His consciousness, the lowly utterance of 
 His obedience, claiming nothing as His own, and yet 
 claiming all, while the subsequent clause " are of Thee " 
 expresses the disciples' conviction. In like fashion our 
 Lord, in verse 8, declares that His words, in their mani- 
 foldness (contrast ver. 6, "Thy word"), were all received 
 by Him from the Father, and accepted by the disciples, 
 with the result that they came, as before, to " know " 
 
Less. XIX.] The Intercesso 175 
 
 by inward acquaintance with Him as a person, and so 
 to have the Divinity of His person certified by experi- 
 ence, and further came to " beHeve " that God had sent 
 Him, which was a conviction arrived at by faith. So 
 knowledge, which is personal experience and acquaint- 
 ance, and faith, which rises to the heights of the Father's 
 purpose, come from the humble acceptance of the Christ 
 declaring the Father's name. First faith, then knowledge, 
 and then a fuller faith built on it, and that faith in its 
 turn passing into knowledge (ver. 25), — these are the 
 blessings belonging to the growth of true discipleship, 
 and are discerned by the loving eye of Jesus in very 
 imperfect followers. 
 
 In verse 9 Jesus assumes the great office of Intercessor. 
 " I pray for them " is not so much prayer as His solemn 
 presentation of Himself before the Father as the High 
 Priest of His people. It marks an epoch in His work. 
 The task of bringing God to man is substantially com- 
 plete. That of bringing men by supplication to God is 
 now to begin. It is the revelation of the permanent 
 office of the departed Lord. Moses on the Mount holds 
 up the rod, and Israel prevails (Exod. xvii. 9). The 
 limitation of this prayer to the disciples applies only to 
 the special occasion, and has no bearing on the sweep 
 of His redeeming purpose or the desires of His all-pitying 
 heart. The reasons for His intercession follow in verses 
 9-1 1 a. The disciples are the Father's, and continue 
 so even when " given " to Christ, in accordance with 
 the community of possession which oneness of nature 
 and perfectness of love establish between the Father and 
 the Son. God cannot but care for those who are His. 
 The Son cannot but pray for those who are His. Their 
 
176 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xvii. 1-19 
 
 having recognised Him for what He was binds Him to 
 pray for them. He is glorified in disciples, and if we 
 show forth His character He will be our Advocate. 
 The last reason for His prayer is the loneliness of the 
 disciples and their exposure in the world without Him. 
 His departure impelled Him to intercede, both as being 
 a leaving them defenceless and as being an entrance 
 into the heavenly state of communion with the Father. 
 
 In the petition itself (ver. 11), observe the invocation 
 " Holy Father," with special reference to the prayer for 
 preservation from the corruption of the world. God's 
 holiness is the pledge that He will make us holy, since 
 He is Father as well. Observe the substance of the 
 request, that the disciples should be kept, as in a fortress, 
 within the enclosing circle of the name which God has 
 given to Jesus. The name is the manifestation of the 
 Divine nature. It was given to Jesus, inasmuch as He, 
 the Word, had from the beginning the office of revealing 
 God ; and that which was spoken of the angel of the 
 covenant is true in highest reality of Jesus : " My name 
 is in Him." " The name of the Lord is a strong tower : 
 the righteous runneth into it and is safe." 
 
 Observe the issue of this keeping ; namely, the unity 
 of believers. The depths of that saying are beyond us, 
 but we can at least see thus far, — that the true bond of 
 unity is the name in which all who are one are kept ; that 
 the pattern of the true unity of believers is the ineffable 
 union of Father and Son, which is oneness of will and 
 nature, along with distinctness of persons ; and that 
 therefore this purpose goes far deeper than outward unity 
 of organisation. 
 
 Then follow other pleas, which are principally drawn 
 
Less. XIX.] The Intercessor 177 
 
 from Christ's relation to the disciples, now ending; 
 whereas the former ones were chiefly deduced from the 
 disciples' relation to Him. He can no more do what 
 He has done, and commits it to the Father. Happy 
 we if we can leave our unfinished tasks to be taken up 
 by God, and trust those whom we leave undefended to 
 be shielded by Him ! " I kept " is, in the Greek, expres 
 sive of continuous, repeated action, while " I guarded" 
 gives the single issue of the many acts of keeping. Jesus 
 keeps His disciples now as He did then, by sedulous, 
 patient, reiterated acts, so that they are safe from evil. 
 But note where He kept, — " in Thy name." That is 
 our place of safety, a sure defence and inexpugnable 
 fortress. One, indeed, was lost ; but that was not any 
 slur on Christ's keeping, but resulted from his own evil 
 nature, as being " a son of loss " (if we may so preserve 
 the affinity of words in the Greek), and from the Divine 
 decree from of old. Sharply defined and closely united 
 are the two apparent contradictories of man's free choice 
 of destruction and God's foreknowledge. Christ saw 
 them in harmony, and we shall do so one day. 
 
 Then the flow of the prayer recurs to former thoughts. 
 Going away so soon He yearned to leave them sharers 
 of His own emotions in the prospect of His departure to 
 the Father, and therefore He had admitted them (and 
 us) to hear this sacred outpouring of His desires. If we 
 laid to heart the blessed revelations of this disclosure 01 
 Christ's heart, and followed Him with faithful gaze as 
 He ascends to the Father, and realised our share in that 
 triumph, our empty vessels would be filled by some of 
 that same joy which was His. Earthly joy can never be 
 full ; Christian joy should never be anything less than full. 
 
 12 
 
lyS The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xvii. 1-19 
 
 Then follows a final glance at the disciples' relation to 
 the world, to which they are alien because they are of 
 kindred to' Him. This is the ground for the repetition of 
 the prayer " keep," with the difference that formerly it 
 was " keep in Thy name," and now it is ^^from the evil." 
 It is good to gaze first on our defence, the munitions of 
 rocks where we lie safely, and then we can venture to 
 face the thought of " the evil " from which that keeps us, 
 whether it be personal or abstract. 
 
 III. Verses 16-19 give the final petition for the im- 
 mediate circle of disciples, with its grounds. The posi- 
 tion of alienation from the world, in which the disciples 
 stand by reason of their assimilation to Jesus, is repeated 
 here. It was the reason for the former prayer, " keep " ; 
 it is the reason for the new petition, " sanctify." Keep- 
 ing comes first, and then sanctifying, or consecration. 
 Security from evil is given that we may be wholly devoted 
 to the service of God. The evil in the world is the 
 great hindrance to that. The likeness to Jesus is the 
 great ground of hope that we shall be truly consecrated. 
 We are kept " in the name " ; we are consecrated " in 
 the truth," which is the revelation made by Jesus, and 
 in a very deep sense is Himself That truth is, as it 
 were, the element in which the believer lives, and by 
 abiding in which His real consecration is possible. 
 
 Christ's prayer for us should be our aim and deepest 
 desire for ourselves, and His declaration of the condition 
 of its fulfilment should prescribe our firm adhesion to, 
 and constant abiding in, the truth as revealed and 
 embodied in Him, as the only means by which we can 
 attain the consecration which is at once, as the closing 
 verses of the lesson tell us, the means by which we may 
 
Less. XIX.] The Intercessor 179 
 
 fulfil the purpose for which we are sent into the world, 
 and the path on which we reach complete assimilation 
 to His perfect self-surrender. All Christians are sent 
 into the world by Jesus, as Jesus was sent by the Father. 
 We have the charge to glorify Him. We have the 
 presence of the Sender with us, the sent. We are 
 inspired with His Spirit. We cannot do His work 
 without that entire consecration which shall copy His 
 devotion to the Father and eager swiftness to do His 
 will. How can such ennobling and exalted consecration 
 be ours ? There is but one way. He has " consecrated 
 Himself," and by union with Him, through faith, our 
 selfishness may be subdued, and the Spirit of Christ may 
 dwell in our hearts, to make us " living sacrifices, con- 
 secrated and acceptable to God." Then shall we be 
 " truly consecrated," and then alone, when we can say, 
 " I live ; yet not I, but Christ hveth in me." That is 
 the end of Christ's consecration of Himself, — the prayer 
 which He prayed for His disciples,— and should be the 
 aim which every disciple earnestly pursues. 
 
LESSON XX 
 
 The Willing Prisoner 
 
 St. John xviii. I-13 
 
 1. "When Jesus had spoken 
 these words, He went forth with 
 His disciples over the brook 
 Cedron, where was a garden, 
 into the which He entered, and 
 His disciples. 
 
 2. And Judas also, which be- 
 trayed Him, knew the place : 
 for Jesus ofttimes resorted 
 thither with His disciples. 
 
 3. Judas then, having re- 
 ceived a band of men and 
 officers from the chief priests 
 and Pharisees, cometh thither 
 with lanterns and torches and 
 weapons. 
 
 4. Jesus therefore, knowing 
 all things that should come upon 
 Him, went forth, and said unto 
 them, Whom seek ye ? 
 
 5. They answered Him, Jesus 
 of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto 
 them, I am He. And Judas 
 also, which betrayed Him, stood 
 with them. 
 
 6. As soon then as He had 
 said unto them, I am He, they 
 went backward, and fell to the 
 ground. 
 
 7. Then asked He them again, 
 Whom seek ye ? And they 
 said, Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 8. Jesus answered, I have 
 told you that I am He : if there- 
 fore ye seek Me, let these go 
 their way : 
 
 9. That the saying might be 
 fulfilled, which He spake, Of 
 them which Thou gavest Me 
 have I lost none. 
 
 10. Then Simon Peter having 
 a sword drew it, and smote the 
 high priest's servant, and cut 
 off his right ear. The servant's 
 name was Malchus. 
 
 11. Then said Jesus unto 
 Peter, Put up thy sword into 
 the sheath : the cup which My 
 Father hath given Me, shall I 
 not drink it ? 
 
 12. Then the band and the 
 captain and officers of the Jews 
 took Jesus, and bound Him, 
 
 13. And led Him away to 
 Annas first ; for he was father 
 in law to Caiaphas, which was 
 the high priest that same 
 year." 
 
 JOHN'S omissions and additions in this section are 
 equally significant. He has no mention of the agony 
 in Gethsemane, and he alone records the remarkable 
 incident of the panic which shook the soldiers. His 
 
 180 
 
Less. XX.] The Willing Prisoner i8i 
 
 narrative is most naturally taken here, as everywhere, as 
 a supplement to the Synoptics, for the special purpose 
 of bringing out the facts which showed Jesus to be " the 
 Son of God." This is his own account of his design, 
 and is well illustrated in this lesson. 
 
 I. We have the two so diiferent companies converging 
 on the one spot. It is only John who mentions the 
 passage of the Kidron, the generally dry torrent-bed 
 between the temple mount and Olivet, which had seen 
 the crossing of another king of Israel, a fugitive from a 
 traitor son (2 Sam. xv. 23). John alone tells us that 
 the place was " a garden." Gethsemane witnessed 
 victory; Eden saw defeat. The place seems to have 
 been chosen not only for quiet and seclusion, but because 
 it was His habitual resort, and may even have been His 
 usual open-air sleeping-place (John viii. i). The refer- 
 ence to Judas' knowledge of the place implies that that 
 knowledge was one reason for its selection. The motive 
 for secrecy was past since His " desire to eat this passover 
 with you " was fulfilled, and now Jesus seems to smooth 
 the path for His captors. 
 
 On the one hand, then, we see the little band coming 
 from the city in deep silence, and passing into the olive- 
 garden, where the tremulous shadows of the leaves 
 somewhat obscured the paschal moon ; and, on the other, 
 we see the armed soldiers of the Roman garrison and 
 the temple police, headed by Judas, and carrying useless 
 swords which had no power against Jesus, and super- 
 fluous "lanterns and torches," which were absurd in that 
 clear moonlight. The contrast of the two groups is 
 striking as they pass through the silent midnight to meet 
 beneath the olives. One starts from heaven, the other 
 
I«2 
 
 The Gospel of St. John [Chap, xviii. 1-13 
 
 from hell, and they touch there. Infinite love and the 
 mystery of Divine endurance for man stream from the 
 one, like the encircling moonbeams ; diabolic hate and 
 treachery flame in the other, like the smoky torches with 
 which they affronted the moon. How many opposing 
 paths met in that meeting ! John has no record of the 
 solemn scene in the depths of the garden. He takes 
 the readers' knowledge of it for granted; but he fixes 
 our attention on these two groups, and wishes us to feel 
 the impressiveness of the contrast, as well as the voluntary 
 surrender of Jesus to His captors, implied in His choice 
 of the place. 
 
 II. John's special contributions to the narrative of our 
 Lord's capture are the momentary flash of glory which 
 struck awe into the band, and the care of Jesus for His 
 disciples' safety even in that supreme moment. What 
 calm majesty there is in His coming forth from the garden 
 to meet the approaching crowd, and how His willing 
 surrender, not so much to the violence of men as to the 
 purpose of the Father, is expressed in that explanation 
 of the consciousness which impelled Him, as a similar 
 consciousness had led Him to gird Himself with the 
 towel ! Probably Judas' kiss was given at this first 
 meeting with the band; but, as would be likely in the 
 uncertain light (made more uncertain by the torches) 
 and confusion, it was unnoticed by most, and the traitor 
 slunk back among the others, as he appears in verse five. 
 
 The quiet question " Whom seek ye ? " fell on the 
 ears of the foremost ranks of the captors. Did it remind 
 John of the other, so like and yet so unlike it, " What 
 seek ye ? " which had drawn him to Jesus at first ? Its 
 purpose was apparently to protect the disciples, and 
 
Less. XX.] The Willing Prisoner 183 
 
 perhaps to appeal to the conscience of some among the 
 tools of the priests. If men would put their sinful 
 purposes into plain words, they would sometimes shrink 
 from executing them. But here the answer came from 
 many lips, and was not without a shade of contempt for 
 their prey, "Jesus the Nazarene." They did not suppose 
 that their questioner was their prisoner ; and when the 
 tranquil voice said " I am He," they recoiled, and some 
 of them "fell to the ground," perhaps thrown down by 
 the falling back of the front ranks. 
 
 We need not ask if this was a miracle. However 
 produced, a strange awe and terror smote the rude 
 soldiers. His calm dignity impressed them, as that of 
 virgin martyrs and grey-headed confessors has often done. 
 But that will not explain the fact, which seems most 
 worthily attributed to a momentary shining forth of 
 Christ's indwelling divinity, somewhat like that which 
 shone through His corporeal frame at the transfiguration. 
 It may not have been the work of His will at all, but 
 the elevation of spirit attendant on the solemn scene in 
 Gethsemane may have transfigured for a moment His 
 lowly manhood, and let some beams of His glory through. 
 But however that may be, we can scarcely fail to see 
 here a revelation of His majesty, which is all the more 
 eloquent as coming at the hour of deepest humiliation. 
 
 We have frequently had occasion to note how John 
 delights to bring into juxtaposition instances of both, as 
 indeed do all the evangelists. The interweaving of 
 lowliness and glory makes the very differentia of the 
 character portrayed by them all. He is a weak infant, 
 but angels hover round the manger, and a star leads 
 worshippers to it. He bows His head to John's baptisai, 
 
184 The Gospel of St. John [Chap, xviii. 1-13 
 
 but heaven opens and the dove descends. He falls 
 asleep in the boat, but wakes to still the storm with a 
 word. He weeps by a grave, but He raises its tenant. 
 He all but faints in His agony in the garden, but angels 
 strengthen Him. The same union of opposites is in 
 this incident. He is to be led, bound by rude hands, 
 before an unjust judge. But as He passes into their 
 power, one flash of brightness " above that of the noon- 
 day sun " tells of the hidden glory. " What will He do 
 when He shall come as judge, if He did this when 
 giving Himself up as a prisoner ? " (Augustine.) 
 
 The moment was propitious for escape, if He had 
 chosen, as the soldiers lay huddled together in terror. 
 Why did He not pass through the midst of them, and 
 go His way ? It would have been perfectly easy. But, 
 instead. He stands still and repeats the question. Verse 
 seven literally reads " Inhere/ore He asked them again," 
 which suggests that the second putting of the question 
 was meant to stimulate the soldiers to their ofhce. Thus 
 here again, even if that interpretation of the " Therefore " 
 be not sustained, we have a distinct instance, in the facts 
 themselves, of Christ's voluntary surrender to the fate 
 which He could easily have avoided. Not only in the 
 great resolve to enter into our human limitations, but 
 step by step, through all His earthly life. His steadfast 
 will travelled towards the Cross ; and the voluntariness of 
 His death is most strongly marked in the events of that 
 last journey to Jerusalem, and especially of the final days 
 there. The studied publicity — and we had almost said 
 offensiveness to the rulers — of His last entrance and 
 utterances; the withdrawal till the passover; the pre- 
 cautions against interruption at the Last Supper ; the 
 
Less. XX.] The Wniing Prisoner 185 
 
 resort to the usual place, Gethsemane ; and this refusal 
 to avail Himself of the means of safety open to Him at 
 this last moment, — are all of one piece, and present Him, 
 not as the passive Victim of men's hate, but as the volun- 
 tary Sacrifice, who chooses time and place for the con- 
 summate act of His love and of our redemption. " No 
 man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself." 
 His death was His act. He died because He chose, 
 and He chose because He would obey the Father and 
 loved the world. This Sacrifice was not bound to the 
 altar, but laid Himself willingly there ; or, if bound at all, 
 it was with "cords of love." 
 
 The last word to the captors explains the motive for 
 the previous repeated question as being the shielding of 
 the disciples, by the clear definition of the limitation of 
 the arrest to Himself. The disciples were innocent, and 
 they were unfit for such a trial. One day many of them 
 would have to die for Him, but not yet. So, even at that 
 hour of peril for Himself, all His care is for His humble 
 friends, and He was ready to yield Himself to bonds and 
 death to secure their liberty. " Let these go their way " 
 gives the sheep permission to scatter, now that the 
 Shepherd is taken. John sees in this a fulfilment, on a 
 small scale, of the great words which he quotes from the 
 intercessory prayer ; not that he thought that such a 
 trivial and transient matter exhausted their meaning, but 
 he sees in it, as in a tiny mirror, the reflection of the 
 much mightier, eternal safe-keeping of all Christ's ser- 
 vants. A dewdrop is rounded by the same law which 
 shapes planets into spheres. The greatest may be shown 
 in the smallest. 
 
 This incident is as a parable. It shows Christ's self- 
 
i86 The Gospel of St. John [Chap, xviii. 1-13 
 
 forgetting care. In it He gives Himself up as a prisoner, 
 that His servants may go free. To all our foes He says, 
 Take Me, and let these go. Guilt, sorrow, pains and ills, 
 death and hell, are thus addressed, or rather commanded, 
 by Him. His speech to them is, like that to His captors, 
 authoritative, and liker the orders of a prince than the 
 entreaty of a prisoner. Jesus has met our enemies like 
 a mother who gives herself to the wolves that her 
 children may escape. The transcendent sacrifice of His 
 death is mirrored, in its principle and effects, in these 
 wondrous words, " If ye seek Me, let these go their 
 way." 
 
 III. The rash and futile attempt at resistance follows, 
 in strong contrast to the unused power of overcoming by 
 Divine might, which Jesus willed to keep latent. He 
 would not use the effectual defence which He possessed ; 
 but Peter, who with the others had by this time joined 
 the company outside the enclosure, produces some sword 
 which he had got hold of, and strikes at random. Half 
 asleep, and dazzled by the uncertain light, and agitated, 
 and probably more used to haul nets than handle swords, 
 he happily missed the head, and took only an ear. An 
 eyewitness is manifest in the specification of " the right 
 ear." 
 
 It is right and easy to blame the rashness of Peter, 
 but let him have the credit of brave devotion. It is 
 easy to see that one sword flourished would only provoke 
 twenty to leap from their scabbards, and bring on a 
 hopeless struggle. But how many of us would have 
 been courageous enough to have done what he did ? 
 Prudence is a very valuable virtue, but courage set on 
 fire by love is better, and its condemnation, if it be 
 
Less. XX.] The Willing Prisoner 187 
 
 sometimes rash, should be very lenient. John knew, 
 and, now that so many years had passed, could venture 
 to tell, the names of both actors in what had so nearly 
 been a tragedy, which names the other evangelists either 
 did not know, or thought it better to suppress. 
 
 Our Lord's command to sheathe his useless weapon 
 is given in a form which implies the prayer in Gethsemane, 
 which John does not record. He had asked that the 
 cup should pass from Him, and the answer was the full 
 acquiescence of His will in the Father's will that He 
 should drink it. The cup was felt to be given, and that 
 was better than that it should have been taken away. 
 The best answer to our prayers is the submission of our 
 wills and the recognition of the Father's hand as com- 
 mending the chalice to our lips. The cup may remain, 
 but its bitterness is taken away when we know it to be 
 the " cup which our Father hath given us." 
 
 IV. The actual capture is briefly described. The 
 soldiers of the Roman garrison and their officer are 
 significantly named before the Jewish officials. Evidently 
 the arrest was beyond the power of the priests without 
 the help of Pilate, and also the co-operation of Gentile 
 and Jew, which runs through the whole story of the 
 passion, and points so deep truths, is meant to be noted 
 from the beginning. 
 
 John alone records the appearance before Annas, and 
 his remark that Jesus was led to his house " first " seems 
 to imply that he wishes to supplement the other accounts, 
 which tell only of Christ's appearance before Caiaphas. 
 The name of the judge was sufficient to stamp the 
 character of shameless injustice on the whole procedure. 
 Annas had himself been high priest, and several of his 
 
i88 The Gospel of St. John [Chap, xviii. 1-13 
 
 sons, as well as his son-in-law Caiaphas, held the office 
 in succession during his lifetime, in flagrant violation 
 of the law for the high-priesthood. Such worldly 
 intriguers, who prostituted their office for personal ends, 
 were the judges before whom Jesus, the reahty of which 
 their desecrated office was the shadow, stood as a 
 criminal. The irony of providence could no further go 
 than that such a man as Annas or as Caiaphas should 
 hold that position at such a time. And this it is which 
 John would point out by his remark that Caiaphas, of 
 all men in the world, should have been " high priest 
 that year," the unworthy holder of the office which gave 
 such a man power of life and death over Jesus. Caiaphas 
 on the bench, and Jesus at the bar ! What could the 
 end of that be ? 
 
LESSON XXI 
 
 The Reluctant Judge, the Resolved Accusers, and the 
 Patient Christ 
 
 St. John xix. 1-16 
 
 1. "Then Pilate therefore 
 took Jesus, and scourged Him. 
 
 2. And the soldiers platted a 
 crown of thorns, and put it on 
 His head, and they put on Him 
 a purple robe, 
 
 3. And said, Hail, King of 
 the Jews ! and they smote Him 
 with their hands. 
 
 4. Pilate therefore went forth 
 again, and saith unto them. 
 Behold, I bring Him forth to 
 you, that ye may know that I 
 find no fault in Him. 
 
 5. Then came Jesus forth, 
 wearing the crown of thorns, 
 and the purple robe. And 
 Pilate saith unto them, Behold 
 the Man ! 
 
 6. When the chief priests 
 therefore and officers saw Him, 
 they cried out, saying, Crucify 
 Hnn, crucify Him. Pilate saith 
 unto them. Take ye Him, and 
 crucify Him : for I find no fault 
 in Him. 
 
 7. The Jews answered him, 
 We have a law, and by our 
 law He ought to die, because 
 He made Himself the Son of 
 God. 
 
 8. When Pilate therefore 
 
 189 
 
 heard that saying, he was the 
 more afraid ; 
 
 9. And went again into the 
 judgment hall, and saith unto 
 Jesus, Whence art Thou ? But 
 Jesus gave him no answer. 
 
 10. Then saith Pilate unto 
 Him, Speakest Thou not unto 
 me ? knowest Thou not that I 
 have power to crucify Thee, 
 and have power to release Thee ? 
 
 11. Jesus answered. Thou 
 couldest have no power at all 
 against Me, except it were 
 given thee from above : there- 
 fore he that delivered Me unto 
 thee hath the greater sin. 
 
 12. And from thenceforth 
 Pilate sought to release Him : 
 but the Jews cried out, saying. 
 If thou let this Man go, thou 
 art not Caesar's friend : whoso- 
 ever maketh himself a king 
 speaketh against Caesar. 
 
 13. When Pilate therefore 
 heard that saying, he brought 
 Jesus forth, and sat down in 
 the judgment seat in a place 
 that is called the Pavement, 
 but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. 
 
 14. And it was the prepara- 
 tion of the passover, and about 
 
190 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xix. 1-16 
 
 the sixth hour : and he saith King ? The chief priests 
 
 unto the Jews, Behold your 
 King! 
 
 15. But they cried out, Away 
 with Him, away with Him, 
 crucify Him. Pilate saith unto 
 them, Shall I crucify your 
 
 answered. We have no king 
 but Caesar. 
 
 16. Then delivered he Him 
 therefore unto them to be 
 crucified. And they took Jesus, 
 and led Him away." 
 
 THE Struggle between the vacillation of Pilate and 
 the fixed malignity of the rulers is the principal 
 theme of this fragment of Christ's judicial trial. He 
 Himself is passive and all but silent, speaking only one 
 sentence of calm rebuke. The frequent changes of 
 scene from within to without the prsetorium indicate 
 the steps in the struggle, and vividly reflect the irresolu- 
 tion of Pilate. These changes may help to mark the 
 stages in the lesson. 
 
 I. The cruelties and indignities in verses 1-3 were 
 inflicted within the " palace," to which Pilate, with his 
 Prisoner, had returned after the rulers' vote for Barabbas. 
 John makes that choice of the robber the reason for the 
 scourging of Jesus. His thought seems to be that Pilate, 
 having failed in his attempt to get rid of the whole 
 difficulty by releasing Jesus, according to the " custom," 
 ordered the scourging, in hope that the lighter punish- 
 ment might satisfy the turbulent crowd, whom he wished 
 to humour, while, if possible, saving their Victim. It 
 was the expedient of a weak and cynical nature, and, 
 like all weak attempts at compromise between right and 
 wrong, only emboldened the hatred which it was meant 
 to appease. If by clamour the rulers had succeeded 
 in getting Pilate to scourge a Man whom he thought 
 innocent, they might well hope to get him to crucify, 
 if they clamoured loudly and long enough. 
 
 One attitude only befitted Pilate, since he did not in 
 
Less. XXI.] The Reluctant Judge 191 
 
 the least believe that Jesus threatened the Roman 
 supremacy ; namely, to set Him at liberty, and let the 
 disappointed rulers growl like wild beasts robbed of their 
 prey. But he did not care enough about a single half- 
 crazy Jewish peasant to risk his standing well with his 
 awkward subjects, for the sake of righteousness. The 
 one good which Rome could give to its vassal nations 
 was inflexible justice and a sovereign law ; but in Pilate's 
 action there was not even the pretence of legality. 
 Tricks and expedients run through it all, and never 
 once does he say. This is the law, this is justice, and by 
 it I stand or fall. 
 
 The cruel scourging which, in Roman hands, was a 
 much more severe punishment than the Jewish " beating 
 with rods," and often ended in death, was inflicted on the 
 silent, unresisting Christ, not because His judge thought 
 that it was deserved, but to please accusers whose charge 
 he knew to be absurd. The underlings naturally followed 
 their betters' example, and, after they had executed 
 Pilate's orders to scourge, covered the bleeding wounds 
 with some robe, perhaps ragged, but of the royal colour, 
 and crushed the twisted wreath of thorn-branch down 
 on the brows, to make fresh wounds there. The jest 
 of crowning such a poor, helpless creature as Jesus 
 seemed to them, was exactly on the level of such rude 
 natures, and would be the more exquisite to them 
 because it was double-barrelled, and insulted the nation 
 as well as the "king." They came in a string, as the 
 tense of the original word suggests, and offered their 
 mock reverence. But that became tame after a Httle, 
 and mockery passed into violence, as it always does in 
 such natures. These rough legionaries were cruel and 
 
192 The Gospel of St. Jolin [Chap. xix. 1-16 
 
 brutal, and they were unconscious witnesses to His 
 kingship as founded on suffering ; but they were innocent 
 as compared with the polished gentleman who pro- 
 stituted justice on the judgment-seat, and the learned 
 Pharisees who were howling for blood outside. 
 
 II. In verses 4-8 the scene changes again to without 
 the palace, and shows us Pilate trying another expedient, 
 equally in vain. The hesitating governor has no chance 
 with the resolute, rooted hate of the rulers. Jesus silently 
 and unresistingly follows Pilate from the hall, still wear- 
 ing the mockery of royal pomp. Pilate had calculated 
 that the sight of Him in such guise, and bleeding from 
 the lash, might turn hate into contempt, and perhaps 
 give a touch of pity. " Behold the Man ! " as he meant 
 it, was as if he had said, " Is this poor, bruised, spiritless 
 Sufferer worth hate or fear ? Does He look like a king 
 or a dangerous enemy ? " Pilate for once drops the scoff 
 of calling Him their king, and seeks to conciliate and 
 move to pity. The profound meanings which later ages 
 have delighted to find in his words, however warrantable, 
 are no part of their design as spoken, and we gain a better 
 lesson from the scene by keeping close to the thoughts 
 of the actors. What a contrast between the vacillation 
 of the governor, on the one hand, afraid to do right and 
 reluctant to do wrong, and the dogged malignity of the 
 rulers and their tools on the other, and the calm, meek 
 endurance of the silent Christ, knowing all their thoughts, 
 pitying all, and fixed in loving resolve, even firmer than 
 the rulers' hate, to bear the utmost, that He might save a 
 world ! 
 
 Some pity may have stirred in the crowd, but the 
 priests and their immediate dependants silenced it by the 
 
Less. XXL] The Reluctant Judge 193 
 
 yell of fresh hate at the sight of the Prisoner. Note how 
 John gives the very impression of the tierce, brief roar, 
 like that of wild beasts for their prey, by his "Crucify, 
 crucify," without addition of the person. Pilate lost 
 patience at last, and angrily and half seriously gives per- 
 mission to them to take the law into their own hands. 
 He really means, " I will not be your tool, and, if my 
 conviction of ' the Man's ' innocence is to be of no 
 account, you must punish Him; for I will not." How 
 far he meant to abdicate authority, and how far he was 
 launching sarcasms, it is difficult to say. Throughout he 
 is sarcastic, and thereby indicates his weakness, indem- 
 nifying himself for being thwarted by sneers, which sit 
 ill on authority. 
 
 But the offer, or sarcasm, whichever it was, missed 
 fire, as the appeal to pity had done, and only led to the 
 production of a new weapon. In their frantic determina- 
 tion to compass Jesus' death, the rulers hesitate at no 
 degradation ; and now they adduced the charge of 
 blasphemy, and were ready to make a heathen the judge. 
 To ask a 'Roman governor to execute their law on a 
 religious offender, was to drag their national prerogative 
 in the mud. But formal religionists, inflamed by 
 religious animosity, are often the degraders of religion 
 for the gratification of their hatred. They are poor 
 preservers of the Church who call on the secular arm to 
 execute their " laws." Rome went a long way in letting 
 subject peoples keep their institutions ; but it was too 
 much to expect Pilate to be the hangman for these 
 furious priests, on a charge scarcely intelligible to him. 
 
 What was Jesus doing while all this hell of wickedness 
 and fury boiled round Him ? Standing there, passive 
 
 13 
 
194 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xix. 1-16 
 
 and dumb, "as a sheep before her shearers." Himself 
 is the least conspicuous figure in the history of His own 
 trial. In silent communion with the Father, in silent 
 submission to His murderers, in silent pity for us, in 
 silent contemplation of the joy that was set before Him, 
 He waits on their will. 
 
 IH. Once more the scene changes to the interior of 
 the praetorium (vers. 9-1 1). The rulers' words stir a 
 deepened awe in Pilate. He " was the more afraid." 
 Then he had been already afraid. His wife's dream, 
 the impression already produced by the person of Jesus, 
 had touched him more deeply than probably he himself 
 was aware of; and now this charge that Jesus had 
 " made Himself the Son of God " shook him. What if 
 this strange Man were in some sense a messenger of the 
 gods ? Had he been scourging one sent from them ? 
 Sceptical he probably was, and therefore superstitious ; 
 and half-forgotten and disbelieved stories of gods who 
 had come dow^n in the likeness of men would swim up 
 in his memory. If this Man were such, His strange 
 demeanour would be explained. Therefore he carried 
 Jesus in again, and, not now as judge, sought to hear 
 from His own lips His version of the alleged claim. 
 
 "Why did not Jesus answer such a question ? His 
 silence was answer ; but, besides that, Pilate had not 
 received what Jesus had already declared to him as to 
 His kingdom and His relation to " the truth " as he ought, 
 and careless turning away from Christ's earlier words is 
 righteously and necessarily punished by subsequent 
 silence, if the same disposition remains. That it did 
 remain Christ's silence is proof. Had there been any 
 use in answering, Pilate would not have asked in vain, 
 
Less. XXI.] The Reluctant Judge 195 
 
 If Jesus was silent, we may be sure that He who sees all 
 hearts and responds to all true desires was so because 
 He knew that it was best to say nothing. The question 
 of His origin had nothing to do with Pilate's duty then, 
 which turned, not on whence Jesus had come, but on 
 what Pilate believed Him to have done, or not to have 
 done. He who will not do the plain duty of the moment 
 has little chance of an answer to his questions about 
 such high matters. 
 
 The shallow character of the governor's awe and interest 
 is clearly seen from the immediate change of tone to 
 arrogant reminder of his absolute authority. "To me 
 dost Thou not speak ? " The pride of offended dignity 
 peeps out there. He has forgotten that a moment since 
 he half suspected that the Prisoner, whom he now seeks to 
 terrify with the cross and to allure with deliverance, was 
 perhaps come from some misty heaven. Was that a 
 temper which would have received Christ's answer to his 
 question ? 
 
 But one thing he might be made to perceive, and 
 therefore Jesus broke silence for the only time in this 
 lesson, and almost the only time before Pilate. He reads 
 the arrogant Roman the lesson which he and all his 
 tribe in all lands and ages need, — that their power is 
 derived from God, therefore in its foundation legitimate 
 and in its exercise to be= guided by His will and used for 
 His purposes. It was God who had brought the Roman 
 eagles, with their ravening beaks and strong claws, to the 
 Holy City. Pilate was right in exercising jurisdiction 
 over Jesus. Let him see that he exercised justice. And 
 let him remember that the power which he boasted that 
 he " had " was " given." The truth as to the source of 
 
196 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xix. 1-16 
 
 power made the guilt of Caiaphas or of the rulers the 
 greater, inasmuch as they had neglected the duties to 
 which they had been appointed, and by handing over 
 Jesus on a charge which they themselves should have 
 searched out, had been guilty of " theocratic felony." 
 This sudden flash of bold rebuke, reminding Pilate of his 
 dependence, and charging him with " the lesser " but yet 
 real " sin," went deeper than any answer to his question 
 would have done, and spurred him to more earnest efl'ort, 
 as John points out. He " sought to release Him," as if 
 formerly he had been rather simply unwilling to condemn 
 than anxious to deliver. 
 
 IV. So the scene changes again to outside. He first 
 went out alone, leaving Jesus within, and was met before 
 he had time, as would appear, to speak, by the final 
 irresistible weapon which the rulers had kept in reserve. 
 An accusation of treason was only too certain to be 
 listened to by the suspicious tyrant who was then 
 emperor, especially if brought by the authorities of a 
 subject nation. Many a provincial governor had had but 
 a short shrift in such a case, and Pilate knew that he was 
 a ruined man if these implacable zealots howling before 
 him went to Tiberius with such a charge. So the die 
 was cast. With rage in his heart, no doubt, and knowing 
 that he was sacrificing innocent blood to save himself, 
 he turned away from the victorious mob, apparently in 
 silence, and brought Jesus out once more. He had no 
 more words to say to his Prisoner. Nothing remained 
 but the formal act of sentence, for which he seated him- 
 self, with a poor assumption of dignity, yet feeling all the 
 while, no doubt, what a contemptible surrender he was 
 making. 
 
Less. XXI.] The Reluctant Judge 197 
 
 Judgment-seats and mosaic pavements do not go far to 
 secure reverence for a judge who is no better than an 
 assassin, killing an innocent man to secure his own ends. 
 Pilate's sentence fell most heavily on himself. If " the 
 judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted," he is 
 tenfold condemned when the innocent is sentenced. 
 
 Pilate returned to his sarcastic mood when he returned 
 to his injustice, and found some satisfaction in his old 
 jeer " your King." But the passion of hatred was too 
 much in earnest to be turned or even affected by such 
 poor scoffs, and the only answer was the renewed roar 
 of the mob, which had murder in its tone. The repeti- 
 tion of the governor's taunt " Shall I crucify your King ? " 
 brought out the answer in which the rulers of the nation 
 in their fury blindly flung away their prerogative. It is 
 no accident that it was " the chief priests " who answered, 
 " We have no king but Caesar." Driven by hate, they 
 deliberately disown their Messianic hope, and repudiate 
 their national glory. They who will not have Christ 
 have to bow to a tyrant. Rebellion against Him brings 
 slavery. 
 
LESSON XXII 
 "It is Finislied" 
 
 St. John xix. 17-30 
 
 17. "And He bearing His 
 cross went forth into a place 
 called the place of a skull, which 
 is called in the Hebrew Gol- 
 gotha: 
 
 18. Where they crucified 
 Him, and two other with Him, 
 on either side one, and Jesus in 
 the midst. 
 
 19. And Pilate wrote a title, 
 and put it on the cross. And 
 the writing was, JESUS OF 
 NAZARETH THE KING OF 
 THE JEWS. 
 
 20. This title then read many 
 of the Jews : for the place 
 where Jesus was crucified was 
 nigh to the city : and it was 
 written in Hebrew, and Greek, 
 and Latin. 
 
 21. Then said the chief priests 
 of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, 
 The King of the Jews; but that 
 He said, I am King of the Jews. 
 
 22. Pilate answered. What I 
 have written I have written. 
 
 23. Then the soldiers, when 
 they had crucified Jesus, took 
 His garments, and made four 
 parts, to every soldier a part ; 
 and also His coat : now the 
 coat was without seam, woven 
 from the top throughout. 
 
 24. They said therefore among 
 themselves, Let us not rend it. 
 
 but cast lots for it, whose it shall 
 be : that the Scripture might 
 be fulfilled, which saith. They 
 parted My raiment among them, 
 and for My vesture they did cast 
 lots. These things therefore 
 the soldiers did. 
 
 25. Now there stood by the 
 cross of Jesus His mother, and 
 His mother's sister, Mary the 
 wife of Cleophas, and Mary 
 Magdalene. 
 
 26. When Jesus therefore 
 saw His mother, and the disciple 
 standing by, whom He loved, 
 He saith unto His mother. 
 Woman, behold thy son ! 
 
 26. Then saith He to the 
 disciple, Behold thy mother ! 
 And from that hour that disciple 
 took her unto his own home. 
 
 28. After this, Jesus knowing 
 that all things were now ac- 
 complished, that the Scripture 
 might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. 
 
 29. Now there was set a 
 vessel full of vinegar : and they 
 filled a spunge with vinegar, 
 and put it upon hyssop, and 
 put it to His mouth. 
 
 30. When Jesus therefore 
 had received the vinegar, He 
 said, It is finished : and He 
 bowed His head, and gave up 
 the ghost," 
 
 198 
 
Less. XXII.] " It is Finished " 199 
 
 THE supplementary character of John's account of 
 the crucifixion is shown by both its omissions and 
 additions, as compared with the other Gospels. These 
 deserve careful examination. So far as any purpose 
 beyond that of contributing incidents to complete the 
 narratives can be discerned, we cannot but feel that the 
 impression from the whole account is that of the calm 
 majesty of voluntary suffering, in filial obedience ful- 
 filling the will of the Father and the word of prophecy. 
 Such an impression corresponds entirely to the point of 
 view of John's Gospel, which is none the less trustworthy 
 as a record of facts because the facts are chosen with a 
 purpose. 
 
 I. The account of the act of crucifixion is singularly 
 brief, but even in it we find a noteworthy addition, in 
 the statement that Jesus " went out, bearing the cross 
 for Himself." The practice was that the condemned 
 man should carry his cross, and that cruel indignity too 
 was endured by Jesus at the beginning of the short 
 passage to Golgotha, as is shown by John's accurate 
 words, " ive7tt out, bearing." These perfectly harmonise 
 with, and may almost be said to presuppose, what the 
 other evangelists tell us ; that is, that when the sad pro- 
 cession was outside the gate, it was needful to find some 
 one else to carry the burden, which His physical strength 
 sank under. Simon of Cyrene was " coming out of the 
 country," when he was pressed into that service, which 
 suggests that he was met outside the city. The other 
 evangelists give the sequel, which teaches the weakness 
 of Christ's flesh. John gives the first arrangement, which 
 teaches the meek willingness of His spirit. 
 
 His bearing His cross, like Isaac's carrying the wood 
 
200 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xix. 17-50 
 
 for his own burning, speaks of patient submission to a 
 Father's will, and gives pathetic meaning to the exhorta- 
 tion to "go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing 
 His reproach." We, too, have sometimes to carry the 
 cross on which we are to be crucified. 
 
 John leaves the agents of the crucifixion somewhat 
 indefinite by that vague " they," which, however, is prob- 
 ably to be taken as meaning the persons last named; 
 that is, " the chief priests." Whose hands actually nailed 
 Him to the cross mattered little. Probably the soldiers 
 did it, as executioners, skilled in the art; but the real 
 agents were the priests. The ignorant legionaries were 
 no more guilty than their own hammers. The hands 
 that used them as tools w^ere those really stained with 
 innocent blood. AVhile the plea of Christ's dying prayer 
 for His murderers applied to all concerned, its ample 
 folds covered entirely the ignorant instruments of crimin- 
 ally and partially ignorant rulers. 
 
 John touches most slightly on the companions in 
 suffering, omitting their crimes and the taunt implied in 
 the association of such men with Jesus ; and omitting, 
 too, the jeers of the one and the penitence of the other, 
 and seeing an unintended but eloquent symbol of Christ's 
 dignity, even in humiliation, in His place in the midst. 
 It had been meant to imply that He was chief in crime ; 
 it is a watness to His being the centre of all things, and 
 chief wherever He is — " Him first, Him last. Him midst 
 and without end." 
 
 H. The next section tells of the royal proclamation in 
 many tongues, and adds much to the accounts of the 
 other Gospels. John uses the technical Latin word for 
 the inscription, " title " ; and he alone tells us that it 
 
Less. XXII.] "It is Finished" 201 
 
 was fixed on the cross by Pilate's orders, and possibly 
 was written by his own hand. It was the last fling of 
 his malice, directed not against Jesus, but the priests. 
 Like many another scoffer, Pilate did not see that the 
 sharpest edge of his gibe cut himself; for, if he thought 
 the pretensions to royalty of such a poor creature so 
 ludicrous, the more disgrace to the unjust judge who let 
 Him be hung up there to die. Caiaphas, the unworthy 
 high priest, had unconsciously uttered one prophecy. 
 Pilate, the unworthy governor, unconsciously spoke 
 another. " This " — this fainting, bleeding, dying Man — 
 is King, not of Jews only, but of all men, just because He 
 hangs there helpless. The cross is His throne. The crown 
 of thorns will be wreathed round with the many crowns 
 of universal dominion. A rule, compared with which 
 Rome's was limited, vulgar, superficial, and transient, was 
 established then. The Redeemer of men is their King. 
 The fact of the inscription being in three languages is 
 peculiar to John, for the similar clause in Luke is not 
 genuine. The motive for the triple " title " was, probably, 
 the presence at the passover of foreign-born Jews, to all 
 of whom it was desired to make it legible. But we may 
 permissibly see in this accident another unconscious 
 prophecy. Hebrew was the language of revelation ; 
 Latin, the tongue of civil authority and law ; Greek, that 
 of philosophy and art. These all find their fulfilment 
 in the Christ, and their highest glory is to proclaim Him. 
 Not only these cultivated languages but the rude speech 
 of tribes who were barbarians then was to be capable of 
 receiving and re-echoing the message of His reign, as has 
 been the case with our own English, the ancestor of 
 which was the speech of unlettered tribes when Pilate 
 
202 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xix. 17-30 
 
 wrote, and as has been true in the many tongues which 
 Christ's missionaries have been the first to reduce to 
 writing, for the very purpose of entrusting the name of 
 Christ the King to them. 
 
 The vigilance of the priests scented possible danger in 
 the reading of the title by the crowds, and their brusque 
 demand to have it altered shows how they were ready 
 to presume on Pilate's compliance. But, like all who 
 yield what they know they should not give up, he tried 
 to cover his weakness by obstinacy. If he had asserted 
 himself a little sooner, he would have escaped his bad 
 pre-eminence. He did not know what he had written, 
 in imperishable characters, in the record of his deeds ; 
 and, while he thought himself announcing with fitting 
 dignity his determination, he was declaring that the black 
 lines he had traced would last for ever. Strange that the 
 awful truth of the ineffaceableness of our deeds should 
 come from his lips ! Blessed we if we have learned that 
 He whom Pilate slew will blot out our sins from His 
 book. The characteristic of the whole procedure of 
 Jewish accusers and Roman governor is repeated here. 
 They reject, and he proclaims, the King. 
 
 HI. The additions in the account of the soldiers 
 dividing His garments are as significant as in the other 
 sections. All tell of parting them and casting lots ; but 
 John, who stood there, saw and heard the whole, and 
 fills up the narrative of the Synoptics. There is some- 
 thing very horrible in the matter-of-course way in which 
 the soldiers, as soon as they had finished their grim task, 
 set about securing their booty. They had not nerves 
 easily thrilled by the sight of pain, and could coolly allot 
 a dying man's garments, their perquisites, before his 
 
Less. XXII.] " It is Finished " 203 
 
 very eyes. The outer garments could be divided among 
 them into four parts, but the inner vestment was all of 
 one piece, and would be ruined if cut. Therefore it 
 was drawn lots for. 
 
 The literal correspondence of their proceeding with 
 the words of the twenty-second Psalm, from which Jesus 
 took the bitter cry, " My God, My God, why hast Thou 
 forsaken Me ? " seemed to the evangelist a fulfilment of 
 prophecy. No doubt the Psalm came from the heart 
 of a sufferer, whether David or an ideal impersonation 
 of Israel, but equally certainly it contains details which 
 never had been applicable to any sufferer, and in which, 
 if we do not see the foreshadowing of the Prince of 
 sufferers, we can only see tasteless exaggerations. We 
 do not need to construct a theory of prophecy (which 
 only a prophet could do) in order to be sure that unless 
 these and other parts of this Psalm are direct prophecies 
 of the minute details of the sufferings of Jesus, they 
 swing in the air, attached to no one. "These things 
 therefore the soldiers did," says John, as if they were 
 but the bhnd instruments to fulfil the prophecy. High 
 above all their cruelty and stohd greed we are to see 
 the working out of the purpose of God, — a point of 
 view which does not in the least diminish the freedom 
 or responsibility of the actors. 
 
 IV. Another group, as profoundly moved as the 
 soldiers were indifferent, stood by the cross, and the 
 original marks the striking contrast between the weeping 
 friends and the legionaries. Does John mean that there 
 were three women there, or four? There are strong 
 reasons for supposing four ; and, if so, the likelihood is 
 that the unnamed sister of Jesus' mother was " the 
 
204 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xix. 17-30 
 
 mother of Zebedee's children," which makes the sub- 
 sequent incident all the more natural and pathetic. 
 Jesus knew that sorrow which accompanies death, the 
 pain of leaving dear ones whom we have sheltered to a 
 rough world ; and on His cross His heart not only bore 
 the sins of men, but felt filial care for the mother whom 
 He loved as a son. 
 
 His address to Mary as " woman " has no trace of the 
 associations which now cling to the word, while yet it 
 gently warns her that the special relationship is ended, 
 and that henceforth adoring love of her Lord is to take 
 the place of maternal love. Mary's experience of the 
 conflict between earthly and heavenly love was peculiarly 
 sharp, because the same person was the object of both. 
 *' Behold thy son ! " authoritatively commanded her to 
 thmk no longer of Him in that relation, and lovingly 
 provided for her another comforter, protector, and object 
 for her affections. 
 
 Does He not speak thus to all mourning souls who 
 love Him, bidding them find, and assuring them that they 
 may find, in those who represent Him in the world, 
 solace for their grief and objects for their care ? And 
 does not His entrusting of Mary to John illustrate by a 
 tender example how love to Him fits us to carry on His 
 tasks, and makes us, in very blessed and wonderful 
 fashion. His representatives on earth ? Happy we if we 
 accept as swiftly and thankfully the offices which He 
 honours us by giving, as did that disciple who left even 
 the cross in order to take Mary to "his own home." 
 So the mother glides out of the Gospels ; and the only 
 time we hear of her again is when she is named, after 
 the apostles, as one of the disciples. 
 
Less.xxii.] « It is Finished " 205 
 
 V. The last earthly act was to provide for His mother, 
 and, that done, Jesus knew " that all things " were '' now 
 finished," and nothing remained but to die. The con- 
 sciousness of accomplished work calmly fills His mind. 
 That consciousness allows Him to give heed to the 
 physical craving which He had repressed, or, possibly, 
 scarcely felt, while anything remained to be done. Of 
 course, the narrative does not mean that Jesus said " I 
 thirst " in order to carry out the Messianic programme, 
 but that His cry, like all the rest of the passion, was 
 Divinely ordered so as to fulfil the prophecies. It is 
 the last expression of bodily suffering, keenly felt once 
 more, in the cessation of the tension of care for others. 
 His pity and love bore Him above these pangs, but 
 not so completely as to deaden them. He had refused 
 the stupefying draught previously offered, but now He 
 accepted the vinegar, which was meant to refresh, and 
 was given with a touch of human kindness. 
 
 The same lips, which were parched with thirst and 
 feebly uttered the complaint, spoke in the next moment, 
 when moistened with the drops from the sponge, the 
 triumphant " It is finished." Mark the absence of 
 specification of what was finished. The indefinite ex- 
 pression is a universal one. All that Jesus had come 
 to do was known by Him to be accomplished. Who 
 of us dare go out of this life of half-done tasks and 
 imperfect service with such a claim on our lips ? It far 
 transcends Paul's " I have finished my course." Jesus, 
 and only He, dying, looks back on no defects, departures, 
 or omissions. He has done all that the Father gave 
 Him to do, all that love prompted, all that the world 
 needed. That dying word is like to, but greater than, 
 
2o6 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xix. 17-30 
 
 the voice of the Creator pronouncing that His world 
 was " very good." The Divine ideal of redemption, 
 mightier than that of creation, is accomplished, and 
 that finished work remains for ever, needing no supple- 
 ment, and tolerating none, but abiding through the ages, 
 the foundation of men's hopes and the assurance of their 
 salvation. 
 
 The consciousness of completed work could only 
 be followed by the voluntary death. " He bowed His 
 head," unbent till then, and inclined at last, not by 
 reason of weakness, but by His own will. He " gave 
 up His spirit," — an expression which is not a mere 
 euphemism for natural death, but distinctly means that 
 the death of Jesus was the act of Jesus. The dark 
 waters were indeed round Him, but could not cover 
 Him till He chose, as some man, standing breast-high 
 in the ocean, might will to bow his head beneath the 
 sullen sea, and so voluntarily let it roll its heavy, sluggish 
 wave above his corpse. 
 
LESSON XXIII 
 
 The Dawnings of Faith in the Risen Lord 
 
 St. John xx. i-i8 
 
 1. " The first day of the week 
 Cometh Mary Magdalene early, 
 when it was yet dark, unto the 
 sepulchre, and seeth the stone 
 taken awaj' from the sepulchre. 
 
 2. Then she runneth, and 
 Cometh to Simon Peter, and to 
 the other disciple, whom Jesus 
 loved, and saith unto them, 
 They have taken away the Lord 
 out of the sepulchre, and we 
 know not where they have laid 
 Him. 
 
 3. Peter therefore went forth, 
 and that other disciple, and 
 came to the sepulchre. 
 
 4. So they ran both together : 
 and the other disciple did out- 
 run Peter, and came first to the 
 sepulchre. 
 
 5. And he stooping down, and 
 looking in, saw the linen clothes 
 lying ; yet went he not in. 
 
 6. Then cometh Simon Peter 
 following him, and went into 
 the sepulchre, and seeth the 
 linen clothes lie, 
 
 7. And the napkin, that was 
 about His head, not lying with 
 the linen clothes, but wrapped 
 together in a place by itself. 
 
 8. Then went in also that 
 other disciple, which came first 
 to the sepulchre, and he saw, 
 and believed. 
 
 9. For as yet the}' knew not 
 the scripture, that He must rise 
 again from the dead. 
 
 10. Then the disciples went 
 away again unto their own 
 home. 
 
 11. But Mary stood without 
 at the sepulchre weeping : and 
 as she wept, she stooped down, 
 and looked into the sepulchre, 
 
 12. And seeth two angels in 
 white sitting, the one at the 
 head, and the other at the feet, 
 where the body of Jesus had 
 lain. 
 
 13. And they say unto her, 
 Woman, why weepest thou ? 
 She saith unto them. Because 
 they have taken away my Lord, 
 and I know not where they 
 have laid Him. 
 
 14. And when she had thus 
 said, she turned herself back, 
 and saw Jesus standing, and 
 knew not that it was Jesus. 
 
 15. Jesus saith unto her, 
 Woman, why weepest thou ? 
 whom seekest thou ? She, sup- 
 posing Him to be the gardener, 
 saith unto Him, Sir, if thou 
 have borne Him hence, tell me 
 where thou hast laid Him, and 
 I will take Him away. 
 
 16. Jesus saith unto her, 
 Mary. She turned herself, and 
 
 207 
 
2o8 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xx. i-iS 
 
 saith unto Him, Rabboni ; 
 which is to say, Master. 
 
 17. Jesus saith unto her. 
 Touch Me not ; for I am not 
 yet ascended to My Father : but 
 go to My brethren, and say 
 unto them, I ascend unto My 
 
 Father, and your Father ; and 
 to My God, and your God. 
 
 18. Mary Magdalene came 
 and told the disciples that she 
 had seen the Lord, and that He 
 had spoken these things unto 
 her." 
 
 JOHN'S purpose in his narrative of the resurrection is 
 not only to estabhsh the fact, but also to depict the 
 gradual growth of faith in it, among the disciples. 
 The two main incidents in this lesson, the visit of Peter 
 and John to the tomb and the appearance of our Lord 
 to Mary, give the dawning of faith before sight and the 
 rapturous faith born of sight. In the remainder of the 
 chapter, beyond our lesson, are two more instances of 
 faith following vision, and the teaching of the whole is 
 summed up in Christ's words to the doubter : " Because 
 thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed : blessed are they 
 that have not seen, and yet have believed." 
 
 I. The open sepulchre and the bewildered alarm it 
 excited. The act of resurrection took place before sun- 
 rise. " At midnight," probably, " the bridegroom came." 
 It was fitting that He who was to scatter the darkness of 
 the grave should rise while darkness covered the earth, 
 and that no eye should behold " how " that dead was 
 "raised up." The earthquake, and the descent of 
 angels, and the rolling away of the stone, were after the 
 tomb was empty. 
 
 John's note of time seems somewhat earlier than that 
 of the other Gospels, but is not so much so as to require 
 the supposition that Mary preceded the other women. 
 She appears alone here, because the reason for mention, 
 ing her at all is to explain how Peter and John knew of 
 the empty tomb, and she alone had been the informant. 
 
Less. XXIII.] Dawnings of Faith in the Risen Lord 209 
 
 In these Eastern lands, " as it began to dawn/' '' very 
 early, at the rising of the sun," and " while it was yet 
 dark," are times very near each other, and JNIary may have 
 reached the sepulchre a little before the others. Her 
 own words " we know not " show that she had spoken 
 with others who had seen the empty grave. We must 
 therefore suppose that she had with the others come to 
 it, seen that the sacred corpse was gone and their spices 
 useless, exchanged hurried words of alarm and bewilder- 
 ment, and then had hastened away, before the appearance 
 of the angels. 
 
 The impulse to tell the leaders of the forlorn band the 
 news which she thinks to be so bad was womanly and 
 natural. It was not hope, but wonder and sorrow, that 
 quickened her steps, as she ran through the still morning 
 to find them. Whether they were in one house or not is 
 uncertain ] but, at all events, Peter's denial had not cut 
 him off from his brethren, and the two who were so con- 
 stantly associated before and afterwards were not far 
 apart that morning. The disciple who had stood by the 
 cross to almost the last had an open heart and probably 
 an open house for the denier. "Restore such an 
 one, . . . considering thyself." 
 
 Mary had seen the tomb empty, and springs to the 
 conclusion that " they " — some unknown persons — have 
 taken away the dead body, which, with clinging love that 
 tries to ignore death, she still calls " the Lord." Possibly 
 she may have thought that the resting-place in Joseph's 
 new sepulchre was only meant for temporary shelter 
 (ver. 15). At all events, it was gone, and the fact 
 suggested no hope to her. How often do we, in like 
 manner, misinterpret as dark what is really pregnate with 
 
 14 
 
210 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xx. 1-18 
 
 light, and blindly attribute to " them " what Jesus does ! 
 The tone of mind thus remote from anticipation of the 
 great fact is a precious proof of the historical truth of 
 the resurrection ; for here was no soil in which hallu- 
 cinations would spring, and such people would not have 
 believed Him risen unless they had seen Him living ! 
 
 II. Peter and John at the tomb, the dawning of faith 
 and the continuance of bewildered wonder. In the 
 account, we may observe, first, the characteristic con- 
 duct of each of the two. Peter is first to set out, and 
 John follows, both men doing according to their kind. 
 The younger runs faster than his companion. He 
 looked into the tomb, and saw the wrappings lying ; but 
 the reverent awe which holds back finer natures kept 
 him from venturing in. Peter is not said to have looked 
 before entering. He loved with all his heart, but his 
 love was impetuous and practical, and he went straight 
 in, and felt no reason why he should pause. His bold- 
 ness encouraged his friend, as the example of strong 
 natures does. Most of my readers will recall Bushnell's 
 noble sermon on " Unconscious Influence," from this 
 incident, and need no more about it. 
 
 Observe, too, the further witness of the folded grave- 
 clothes. John from outside had not seen the napkin, 
 lying carefully rolled up apart from the other cloths. It 
 was probably laid in a part of the tomb invisible from 
 without. But the order of these came to him, when he 
 saw them, with a great flash of illumination. There had 
 been no hurried removal. 
 
 Here had been no hostile hands, or there would not 
 have been this deliberation ; nor friendly hands, or there 
 would not have been such dishonour to the sacred dead 
 
Less.xxiii.] Dawnings of Faith in the Risen Lord 211 
 
 as to carry away the body nude. What did it mean? 
 Could He Himself have done for Himself what He had 
 bade them do for Lazarus ? Could He have laid aside 
 the garments of the grave as needing them no more ? 
 "They have taken away," — what if it were not " they," 
 but He ? No trace of hurry or struggle was there. He 
 did " not go out with haste, nor go by flight," but 
 calmly, deliberately, in the majesty of His lordship over 
 death. He rose from His slumber and left order in the 
 land of confusion. 
 
 Observe, too, the birth of the apostle's faith. John 
 connects it with the sight of the folded garments. " Be- 
 lieved " here must mean more than recognition of the 
 fact that the grave was empty. The next clause seems 
 to imply that it means belief in the resurrection. The 
 scripture, which they " knew " as scripture, was for John 
 suddenly interpreted, and he was lifted out of the 
 ignorance of its meaning, which till that moment he had 
 shared with his fellow-disciples. Their failure to under- 
 stand Christ's frequent distinct prophecies that He 
 would rise again the third day has been thought 
 incredible, but is surely intelligible enough if we re- 
 member how unexampled such a thing was, and how 
 marvellous is our power of hearing, and yet not hearing, 
 the plainest truth. We all in the course of our lives are 
 lost in astonishment, when things befall us which we 
 have been plainly told will befall. The fulfilment of 
 all Divine promises (and threatenings) is a surprise, and 
 no warnings beforehand teach one tithe so clearly as 
 experience. 
 
 John believed, but Peter still was in the dark. Again 
 the former had outrun his friend. His more sensitive 
 
212 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xx. i-iS 
 
 nature, not to say his deeper love, — for that would be 
 unjust, since their love differed in quality more than in 
 degree, — had gifted him with a more subtle and swifter- 
 working perception. Perhaps if Peter's heart had not 
 been oppressed by his sin, he would have been readier 
 to feel the sunshine of the wonderful hope. We con- 
 demn ourselves to the shade when we deny our Lord by 
 deed or word. 
 
 III. The first appearance of the Lord, and revelation 
 of the new form of intercourse. Nothing had been said 
 of Mary's return to the tomb ; but how could she stay 
 away? The disciples might go, but she lingered, 
 woman-like, to indulge in the bitter-sweet of tears. 
 Eyes so filled are more apt to see angels. No wonder 
 that these calm watchers, in their garb of purity and joy, 
 had not been seen by the two men. The laws of such 
 appearance are not those of ordinary optics. Spiritual 
 susceptibility and need determine who shall see angels, 
 and who shall see but the empty place. Wonder and 
 adoration held these bright forms there. They had 
 hovered over the cradle and stood by the shepherds at 
 Bethlehem, but they bowed in yet more awestruck 
 reverence at the grave, and death revealed to them a 
 deeper depth of Divine love. 
 
 The presence of angels was a trifle to Mary, who had 
 only one thought, — the absence of her Lord. Surely 
 that touch of her unmoved answer, as if speaking to 
 men, is beyond the reach of art. She says " My Lord " 
 now, and "/ know not," but otherwise repeats her 
 former words, untouched by any hope caught from John. 
 Her clinging love needed more than an empty grave and 
 folded clothes and waiting angels to stay its tears, and 
 
Less.xxiii.] Dawnings of Faith in the Risen Lord 213 
 
 she turned indifferently and wearily away from the inter- 
 ruption of the question to plunge again into her sorrow 
 Chrysostom suggests that she " turned herself," because 
 she saw in the angels' looks that they saw Christ sud- 
 denly appearing behind her ; but the preceding explana- 
 tion seems better. Her not knowing Jesus might be 
 accounted for by her absorbing grief. One who looked 
 at white-robed angels, and saw nothing extraordinary, 
 would give but a careless glance at the approaching 
 figure, and might well fail td recognise Him. But 
 probably, as in the case of the two travellers to 
 Emmaus, her " eyes were holden," and the cause of non- 
 recognition was not so much a change in Jesus as an 
 operation on her. 
 
 Be that as it may, it is noteworthy that His voice, 
 which was immediately to reveal Him, at first suggested 
 nothing to her ; and even His gentle question, with the 
 significant addition to the angels' words, in " Whom 
 seekest thou ? " which indicated His knowledge that 
 her tears fell for some person dear and lost, only made 
 her think of Him as being the gardener, and therefore 
 probably concerned in the removal of the body. If 
 He were so. He would be friendly ] and so she ventured 
 her pathetic petition, which does not name Jesus (so 
 full is her mind of the one, that she thinks everybody 
 must know whom she means), and which so overrated 
 her own strength in saying "I will take Him away." 
 The first words of the risen Christ are on His lips yet 
 to all sad hearts. He seeks our confidences, and would 
 have us tell Him the occasions of our tears. He would 
 have us recognise that all our griefs and all our desires 
 point to one person, — Himself, — as the one real object 
 
2 14 The Gospel of St. John [Chap xx. 1-18 
 
 of our " seeking," whom finding, we need weep no 
 more. 
 
 Verse sixteen tells us that Mary turned herself to see 
 Him when He next spoke, so that, at the close of her 
 first answer to Him, she must have once more resumed 
 her gaze into the tomb, as if she despaired of the new- 
 comer giving the help she had asked. 
 
 Who can say anything about that transcendent 
 recognition, in which all the stooping love of the risen 
 Lord is smelted into one word, and the burst of rapture, 
 awe, astonishment, and devotion pours itself through 
 the narrow channel of one other ? If this narrative is" 
 the work of some anonymous author late in the second 
 century, he is indeed a " great unknown," and has 
 managed to imagine one of the two or three most 
 pathetic " situations " in literature. Surely it is more 
 reasonable to suppose him no obscure genius, but a 
 well-known recorder of what he had seen, and knew 
 for fact. Christ's calling by name ever reveals His 
 loving presence. We may be sure that He knows us 
 by name, and we should reply with the same swift 
 cry of absolute submission as sprang to Mary's lips. 
 " Rabboni ! Master ! " is the fit answer to His call. 
 
 But Mary's exclamation was imperfect in that it ex- 
 pressed the resumption of no more than the old bond, 
 and her gladness needed enlightenment. Things were 
 not to be as they had been. Christ's " Mary " had 
 indeed assured her of His faithful remembrance and of 
 her present place in His love ; but when she clung to 
 His feet she was seeking to keep what she had to learn 
 to give up. Therefore Jesus, who invited the touch 
 which was to establish faith and banish doubt (Luke xxiv. 
 
Less. XXIII.] Dawnings of Faith in the Risen Lord 215 
 
 39 ; John XX. 27), bids her unclasp her hands, and 
 gently instils the ending of the blessed past by opening 
 to her the superior joys of the begun future. His words 
 contain for us all the very heart of our possible relation 
 to Him, and teach us that we need envy none who com- 
 panied with Him here. His ascension to the Father is 
 the condition of our truest approach to Him. His pro- 
 hibition encloses a permission. " Touch Me not ; for I 
 am not yet ascended," implies " When I am, you may." 
 
 Further, the ascended Christ is still our Brother. 
 Neither the mystery of death nor the impending mystery 
 of dominion broke the tie. Again, the resurrection is 
 the beginning of ascension, and is only then rightly 
 understood when it is considered as the first upward 
 step to the throne. " I ascend," not " I have risen, and 
 will soon leave you," as if the ascension only began forty 
 days after on Olivet. It is already in process. Once 
 more the ascended Christ, our Brother still, and capable 
 of the touch of reverent love, yet is separated from us 
 by the character, even while united to us by the fact, of 
 His fihal and dependent relation to God. He cannot 
 say " Our Father " as if standing on the common human 
 ground. He is Son, as we are not, and we are sons 
 through Him, and can only call God our Father because 
 He is Christ's. 
 
 Such were the immortal hopes and new thoughts 
 which Mary hastened from the presence of her recovered 
 Lord to bring to the disciples. Fragrant though but 
 partially understood, they were like half-opened blossoms 
 from the tree of life planted in the midst of that garden, 
 to bloom unfading, and ever disclosing new beauty in 
 believing hearts till the end of time. 
 
LESSON XXIV 
 The Sea and the Shore 
 
 St. John xxi. 1-14 
 
 1. "After these things Jesus 
 showed Himself again to the 
 disciples at the sea of Tiberias ; 
 and on this wise showed He 
 Himself. 
 
 2. There were together Simon 
 Peter, and Thomas called Didy- 
 mus, and Nathanael of Cana in 
 Galilee, and the sons of Zebe- 
 dee, and two other of His 
 disciples. 
 
 3. Simon Peter saith unto 
 them, I go a fishing. They say 
 unto him, We also go with 
 thee. They went forth, and 
 entered into a ship immediately; 
 and that night they caught 
 nothing. 
 
 4. But when the morning was 
 now come, Jesus stood on the 
 shore : but the disciples knew 
 not that it was Jesus. 
 
 5. Then Jesus saith unto 
 them, Children, have ye any 
 meat ? They answered Him, 
 No. 
 
 6. And He said unto them, 
 Cast the net on the right side 
 of the ship, and ye shall find. 
 They cast therefore, and now 
 they were not able to draw it 
 for the multitude of fishes. 
 
 7. Therefore that disciple 
 whom Jesus loved saith unto 
 Peter, It is the Lord. Now 
 
 when Simon Peter heard that 
 it was the Lord, he girt his 
 fisher's coat unto him, (for he 
 was" naked,) and did cast him- 
 self into the sea. 
 
 8. And the other disciples 
 came in a little ship ; (for they 
 were not far from land, but as 
 it were two hundred cubits,) 
 dragging the net with fishes. 
 
 9. As soon then as they were 
 come to land, they saw a fire 
 of coals there, and fish laid 
 thereon, and bread. 
 
 10. Jesus saith unto them, 
 Bring of the fish which 3'e have 
 now caught. 
 
 11. Simon Peter went up, and 
 drew the net to land full of 
 great fishes, an hundred and 
 fifty and three : and for all there 
 were so many, yet was not the 
 net broken. 
 
 12. Jesus saith unto them, 
 Come and dine. And none of 
 the disciples durst ask Him, 
 "Who art Thou ? knowing that 
 it was the Lord. 
 
 13. Jesus then cometh, and 
 taketh bread, and giveth them, 
 and fish likewise. 
 
 14. This is now the third 
 time that Jesus showed Him- 
 self to His disciples, after that 
 He was risen from the dead." 
 
 216 
 
Less. XXIV.] The Sea and the Shore 217 
 
 THE last chapter of this Gospel is obviously an 
 appendix by the author. The last verses of 
 chapter xx. are clearly intended as the conclusion of 
 the whole, and, as clearly, chapter xxi. is by the same 
 hand as the former. It falls into two parts, — the former 
 setting forth the work of the Church as a whole, and the 
 latter the varying tasks of individuals. The former is 
 our lesson, which is parted off from the second half by 
 the notice in verse fourteen. 
 
 I. We note the little group and their night of toil. 
 The catalogue is significant. There are seven of the 
 disciples together, and the fact that they were together 
 implies the resurrection. What stopped the disintegrat- 
 ing process which began at Calvary ? Why had not the 
 sheep scattered when the Shepherd was smitten ? They 
 would certainly have sought safety in flight, and buried 
 their shattered illusions and hopes in isolation, unless 
 some powerful magnet had drawn them together. It is 
 no exaggeration to say that the holding together of the 
 apostles after the crucifixion is not the least cogent proof 
 of the resurrection. 
 
 The fact that they were in Galilee is significant. Jesus 
 had bid them go ; and by the narration of this incident 
 John unites the cycle of appearances of the risen Lord 
 in Jerusalem and in Galilee, which are recorded separately 
 in the Synoptics. Nor is the composition of the company 
 unimportant. As a whole, it is the reproduction of the 
 original nucleus mentioned in chapter i. Peter, John, 
 and Nathanael are named here ; and the conjecture that 
 the remaining two of the first five disciples — namely, 
 Andrew and Philip — are the anonymous two of this 
 narrative seems reasonable. If so, all who had been 
 
2t8 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xxi. 1-14 
 
 at the beginning were recipients of this " manifestation," 
 with the addition of Thomas and James, who make 
 up the number of completeness, the symboHc seven, 
 which indicates the representative character of the 
 group. 
 
 The individuals are significant, as is the order of 
 mention. First comes Peter, not merely because he 
 was usually foremost ; for he is associated with Thomas, 
 the denier with the doubter, as if the two greatest sinners 
 were put first, the more to enhance the love which drew 
 near to them. Then comes Nathanael, the guileless, 
 who had been seeing ever greater things during all the 
 Lord's ministry, and had never been heard of again 
 since that first day. He is the type of quiet growth, 
 silent advance in vision, and Christ-like guilelessness. 
 Then come the sons of Zebedee, John hiding himself as 
 much as possible, according to his wont. Who but him- 
 self would have put him in that place ? It is an unmis- 
 takable sign of his authorship. Then come the two 
 anonymous disciples, who had nothing to make their 
 names worth handing down, but yet were worthy to see 
 the Lord on the shore. Commonplace people, with no 
 special brilliancy of gifts or distinguished capacity of 
 service, are none the worse for obscurity, and see the 
 Master just as well. 
 
 Peter is leader as usual. His purpose to " go a-fish- 
 ing " was welcomed by the others. It was no despairing 
 return to their old trade, as if the high hopes with which 
 they had left it were all gone to water, but the calm oc- 
 cupation of themselves with wholesome toil, while with 
 patience waiting for the promised presence of Jesus. 
 The best way of spending times of expectation of great 
 
Less. XXIV.] The Sea and the Shore 219 
 
 events is in the discharge of small ordinary duties. To 
 fishers at their work Jesus manifests Himself. 
 
 II. What befell them at sea. The long night of fruit- 
 less toil perhaps may have reminded some of them of the 
 other similar experience ; but, more probably, they were 
 too busy and weary to think of anything but their empty 
 nets. Whether they remembered that first miraculous 
 draught of fishes or no, we must keep it constantly in 
 view, if we would understand this incident, and must 
 remember that our Lord Himself gave it a symbolical 
 meaning. The whole of the events in this lesson point 
 to that symbolism as a chief part of the intention ; and, 
 while it is easy to be over-ingenious in translating the 
 facts into parables, it is unwise to shut our eyes to the 
 broad features which receive their full meaning only 
 when so translated. 
 
 As the day was breaking over the Eastern girdling 
 hills, and the cold air at sunrise telling of a change in 
 the dark world, Jesus stood on the shore. The place is 
 significant, — the disciples tossing on the water, the Lord 
 standing on the firm beach, with the light playing round 
 Him. Can we fail to see in that the picture of the con- 
 dition of His servants in contrast with the rest and 
 stable glory where He dwells ? And may we not see 
 in His attitude the same inspiring truth which upheld 
 Stephen dying, when he saw the Son of Man in the 
 opened heaven, standing as ready to help ? The dis- 
 ciples did not recognise Him. Throughout the forty 
 days His will determined when He should be known. 
 
 The Unknown speaks as a superior, using the address 
 " Children," and His question in the original implies 
 the expectation of a "No." "Then you have not any- 
 
220 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xxi. 1-14 
 
 thing to eat ? " He knew the state of things before 
 asking, but He wished the acknowledgment. Is not 
 that ever His procedure with His servants, drawing 
 them to confess their failure, and so preparing them for 
 the blessing, which He cannot send except to the con- 
 sciously weak and powerless ? An honest and humble 
 " No " is generally followed by correction of methods or 
 fields, and that by full nets. If we said it more readily 
 to Him who is ever interested in our work, we should not 
 have to say it so often to ourselves. 
 
 The prompt obedience to the Stranger's directions 
 was probably due to the disciples' belief that He had 
 seen from the shore some sign of a shoal which they in the 
 twilight had not noticed. None of them had any thought 
 of His being anything more than a passing traveller, 
 stopping to look on. The swift result is, alas ! not 
 always the experience of even the humblest and most 
 docile of Christ's servants ; but we may be sure that, 
 though in regard to immediate issues the parable of 
 this incident may fail, it does not fail in regard to their 
 certainty. Jesus did not promise them that they should 
 find at once, nor does He promise us ; but He does 
 promise that, sooner or later, our labour will not be " in 
 vain," if it be " in the Lord."' And that may content us. " 
 
 The beautiful episode of Peter and John is full of 
 meaning. Love has quick eyes, and is first to discern 
 the Christ. Its prerogative is to trace His working 
 where others do not see Him ; and for love it is enough 
 to know that " it is the Lord," and to sit quietly blessed 
 in contemplation. But there is another kind of faithful 
 devotion, not so quick to discern, but eager to act. 
 John could sit still, satisfied to gaze, but Peter flung his 
 
Less. XXIV.] The Sea and the Shore 221 
 
 upper garment about him, and was over the side and 
 splashing in the water before he knew what he was doing. 
 He was only a hundred yards off, and would have been 
 by Jesus almost as soon if he had sat still ; but that was 
 not his way, and "there are diversities of operations." 
 Besides, penitence and the blended shame and joy of 
 restoration made him flounder thus quickly to his Lord. 
 He had said, " Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, 
 O Lord," on that first similar occasion ; but the sense 
 of sin which drives to Jesus is deeper and wholesomer 
 than that which drives from Him. The safest place for 
 the forgiven penitent is close to the Lord. 
 
 HI. What befell on the shore. If the sea is the 
 symbol of this unquiet world, and the night of toil ended 
 by the securing the fish, that of the Church's work as 
 fishers of men, the stable shore and what happened there 
 must be the symbol of the rest that remaineth for the 
 people of God. Who kindled that mysterious fire, or 
 whence came the fish and bread, we cannot tell. But 
 its meaning is clear enough. Not only may it teach us 
 how even here Jesus provides seasons of refreshing 
 repose for wearied servants, and cares for their need, 
 but it prophesies of the repast which He prepares here- 
 after for them ; and that aspect of the meal gives signi- 
 ficance to the command to bring of the fish now caught. 
 For in that world of rest we shall eat the fruit of our 
 doings, and the results of Christian service are parts of 
 the provision of His table in His kingdom. 
 
 Peter is again first to haul in the net. An eye-witness 
 speaks in the precise enumeration of number and speci- 
 fication that they were " great fishes." Fantastic expla- 
 nations of these points have been given, which need not 
 
222 The Gospel of St. John [Chap. xxi. 1-14 
 
 be repeated, but the unbroken net may be meant to 
 teach that all Christ's true servants will be landed on 
 that peaceful shore. 
 
 Jesus invites His disciples to the meal, but they hold 
 back in awe. There the parallel fails ; for then the 
 profounder the reverence, the closer the approach, and 
 in the sunlit certainties of the land where we shall see 
 Him as He is, none of the disciples will need to ask, 
 Who art Thou ? knowing that it is the Lord. Then He 
 Himself will come forth and serve His feasting servants, 
 according to His own promise, and as He did on that 
 morning by the lake. For us, too, the scene of our 
 labours, failures, and darkened nights of toil and weeping 
 will he sleeping in the morning sunlight, and from the 
 Lord's own hands we shall receive the blessed results 
 which His grace has given to issue from our poor service, 
 mingled with the yet more blessed and glorious issues, 
 with which we have nothing to do but to receive them 
 at His hands. 
 
LESSON XXV 
 Review Lesson Thoughts 
 
 THE passion week occupies nearly half of this Gospel. 
 Why should it ? The answer will carry us far 
 into the mystery of the Cross, which thus throws its 
 shadow, or rather its light, over so wide a field. 
 
 Lessons XIIL and XIV. are preliminary to the main 
 theme. The raising of Lazarus was closely connected with 
 the crucifixion, as the excitement it produced steeled and 
 precipitated the rulers' resolution. It casts light on the 
 Cross, by the strange contrast between Jesus as giving 
 life to the dead and Himself dying. 
 
 The narrative brings out three phases in the self- 
 revelation of Jesus, — His dignity, as expressed in His 
 majestic promise to the sisters ; His declaration, impos- 
 sible to sane human lips, that He is resurrection and 
 life, in whom, believing, dead men live, and, living, 
 never die; His authoritative questioning as to faith in 
 Him, and His acceptance of the twofold tide of the 
 Christ and Son of God. The second phase is that of 
 His sharing in the true human emotions of sorrow and 
 indignation at the ravages of sin, His troubles and tears. 
 The third is His Divine, life-giving power, breaking the 
 fetters with a word. He weeps, and He says, " Lazarus, 
 come forth." To know Him aright, we must take both 
 
 223 
 
2 24 T^® Gospel of St. John 
 
 into account. To understand the Cross, we must 
 remember the grave of Lazarus. 
 
 Lesson XIV. gives a further preparation for that central 
 mystery of love, by teaching us to look at Christ's death 
 with His eyes. So beheld it is wondrously transfigured, 
 and becomes radiant with glory, — the condition of His 
 bringing forth much fruit, the pattern to which the lives 
 of all true servants must conform, since only followers 
 are reckoned servants. But amid all the glorious 
 anticipations there blends the minor key of human 
 shrinking, and the calm spirit is troubled, and flesh 
 prompts the cry for escape ; but the unfaltering will and 
 unwavering love to us keep Him from yielding to the 
 innocent recoil from death. The heavenly Voice 
 answered the filial prayer, and once more the visions 
 of what His death would do filled His thoughts. It was 
 to be the judgment of the world, the casting out of the 
 world's Prince, — the all-attractive magnet to bring hearts 
 to Him, drawn by the all-subduing forces of His sacri- 
 fice. There is but one conception of Christ's death, 
 which saves these visions from the name of fond 
 delusions, and delivers Him from the charge of going to 
 His death with a false idea of His own importance ; and 
 that is the belief that He died the sacrifice for the sins 
 of the world. 
 
 Lessons XV. to XIX. carry us to the upper room, 
 that simple chamber on the roof, which by these few 
 hours has become for all time " the holy place of the 
 tabernacles of the Most High." First came a deed of 
 transcendent love, fitly followed by the inexhaustible 
 words of comfort and teaching; and these, again, lead 
 up to the great prayer, than which the speech of earth 
 
Review Lesson Thoughts 225 
 
 can utter, and the ears of mortals hear, nothing more 
 sacred. Silent adoration is more to the purpose than 
 many words. 
 
 In Lesson XV. the central truth is that of Jesus as 
 servant, and of cleansing as His lowliest, loftiest service. 
 The sweet and wondrous story is preceded by a pro- 
 found exposition of its motives, from which we learn 
 that even Christ's love was capable of increasing tender- 
 ness, and that He too felt the truly human impulse to 
 make last moments specially full of tokens of love. The 
 consciousness of His Divine origin, authority, and 
 destination moved Him to the lowly garb and act 
 of the attendant slave. So His humiliation became a 
 revelation of His exaltation, and in it He taught us the 
 right use of felt power and superiority. How different 
 the world and we should be if we laid that lesson to 
 heart ! The act of service reminds us, as in a sensible 
 symbol, of the emptying Himself of His garments of 
 glory, but is yet more impressive and touching in its 
 literality than as a symbol. This unclothed, stooping 
 Man, washing the dusty feet, and taking their foulness 
 on to the cloth that wrapped Himself, is the incarnate 
 God. Who can say anything worthy ? The lesson of 
 cleansing, as essential to participation in Him, needs 
 no enforcement, nor the teaching that this lowly act 
 of His is the law for us. What they need is that 
 we should live as if we believed them, and should 
 not be content with admiring the story, but should 
 follow it. 
 
 The sweet and deep consolations of the three succeed- 
 ing lessons scarcely admit of summarising; but we 
 should try to grasp firmly the main thought of each. 
 
 15 
 
2 26 The Gospel of St. John 
 
 That of Lesson XVI. seems to be the great truth that 
 the absent Christ is present with all who love Him, 
 and that through the Divine Spirit. " Let not your 
 heart be troubled" gives the purpose of the whole. 
 " Believe also in Me " shows how troubled hearts may 
 be calmed and solitary ones companioned. His absence 
 is but in continuation of the design of His presence. 
 He has gone before us to prepare the many mansions 
 of the Father's house, just as, if we may say so, the 
 two disciples had gone before the rest to prepare the 
 chamber where they were. Separation for such a 
 purpose means reunion. The permanent presence of 
 the Advocate, the Spirit of strength, is assured to all 
 Christians, and in that presence Jesus Himself comes 
 to us. "Presence" and "absence" are delusive words 
 when applied to the relations between us and our Lord. 
 No Christian has any right to think of Jesus as away 
 from him. He comes by His Spirit, and we can bring 
 and keep Him by keeping His word. Then He will 
 make His abode wath us. 
 
 Lesson XVIL sets forth the indissoluble union, 
 independent of " place," between Christ and us, by the 
 parable of the vine. The main idea in it is the unity of 
 life between Christ and us. That unity is not to be 
 weakened and watered down into metaphor. The life 
 of Jesus Christ does move in every Christian spirit, as 
 truly as the vine's sap permeates every blushing cluster 
 and tiny twig. We are fruitful only in the measure in 
 which it permeates us. But that unity is of a higher 
 kind than vegetative oneness, which does not mean that 
 it is less real. A branch can depart from this Vine, 
 and there must be the conscious effort to abide. How 
 
Review Lesson Thoughts 227 
 
 do we resist the tendency to separation? By letting 
 His words abide in us (John xv. 7), and keeping His 
 commandments (John xv. 10). And what are His 
 commandments ? They are all one, — love (John xv. 
 12). And what are the results of abiding? Fruit, 
 true discipleship, the abiding in us of His perfect joy, 
 filling our hearts, the possession of His confidence, 
 insight into His doings. His friendship, and the power 
 of reception of all that we desire when our desires are 
 abiding in Him. 
 
 Lesson XVHI. expands the promise of the Spirit as the 
 continual possession of believers, and that especially in 
 two ways, as convicting the world by the ministry of 
 Christians, and as teaching the Church. In regard to 
 their defenceless position in a hostile world. Christians 
 are to fall back trustfully on the assurance that they 
 have an unfailing Helper, who, through them, will carry 
 on the great plea against the world. The world's sin is 
 mainly manifest in its unbelief in Him. What must 
 He have been who could set that at the head of the 
 catalogue of sins ? A righteousness which may be the 
 world's is revealed by the ascension and glory of the 
 Crucified, and a judgment which will crush sin, if it 
 have not been cleansed by accepting Christ's righteous- 
 ness, is established by the fact that already in the Cross 
 the Prince of the world has been cast out. These three 
 truths are the staple of the Church's message, and will 
 be victorious in proportion as we hold to them, and 
 proclaim them in dependence on the convincing Spirit. 
 His work lies within the Church as well as on the world 
 by the Church ; and step by step He guides docile 
 souls into all truth concerning Jesus, glorifying Him as 
 
2 28 The Gospel of St. John 
 
 Jesus has glorified the Father. This teaching Spirit is 
 with us if we are abiding in Christ. 
 
 The unapproachable sanctity of the intercessory 
 prayer bids us listen in silence. Jesus prays for Himself. 
 Note His petition, that He may be glorified ; its purpose 
 not His own advantage, but ours, attained by His glori- 
 fying of the Father ; its grounds, namely, that His return 
 to His eternal glory is the completion of the gifts and 
 mission already His (vers. 2, 3), and the fit reward of His 
 work (ver. 4). Then comes the prayer for the disciples, 
 which is summed in that one petition, "keep." That 
 prayer, like the former, is grounded on two thoughts, — 
 the genuine though imperfect discipleship of His disciples 
 (vers. 6-10), and their desolation when left by Him (ver. 
 11). To be kept "in the Name" is the true security 
 and blessedness. It is Christ's desire for us, if we are 
 His. This prayer was the beginning of His continual 
 intercession. Like the mighty angel of the Apocalypse, 
 He stands here, as with one foot on the sea of time and 
 the other on the eternal shore, and lifts up the voice 
 which God heareth always, for us tossing on the billows. 
 The glorified Christ is the interceding Christ. 
 
 Lessons XX. and XXI. go together, as the arrest and 
 trial. The chief point in the former is the revelation of 
 Christ's voluntary surrender to force which by one flash of 
 His will He could paralyse. The contrast between such 
 power kept by Him sheathed and idle, and Peter's foolish 
 brandishing of his useless weapon, heightens the impres- 
 sion of the Lord's meek submission, while His words to 
 the soldiers express the motive for His submission to 
 suffering and death so distinctly that they need no 
 change in order to set forth the very heart of His 
 
Review Lesson Thoughts 229 
 
 redeeming work : " If ye seek Me, let these go their 
 way." 
 
 The next lesson is more occupied with Pilate and 
 rulers than with Jesus, and that very fact is eloquent of 
 His meek patience, as a lamb silent before its shearers. 
 Three types of character appear united against Jesus. 
 The rude soldiers mock, and their mockery turns to 
 honour and prophecies. Pilate is self-interested, irreso- 
 lute, troubled by suspicions that this is no common man, 
 and certainly no malefactor. But he gets no answer to 
 his question, because he had not heeded former answers 
 to former ones, was stifling convictions, and doing violence 
 to conscience for personal advantage. His taunts at the 
 Jews and their helpless King told how ill at ease he was, 
 and how degraded in his own eyes by cowardly compli- 
 ance with a howling mob. The bitter enmity of the 
 rulers drove them on to deny their King, and to be false 
 to their national hopes. They hated Jesus so much that 
 they swore loyalty to Tiberius. Christ, or tyrants, is the 
 alternative for us too. 
 
 John's account of the crucifixion is intended to 
 emphasise the calm majesty of the dying Christ, and to 
 point to His cross as His regal throne. Hence he tells 
 of the central place between the malefactors, and not of 
 the scoffs of one of them, and dwells on the fact that the 
 inscription was set by Pilate's order, and that it pro- 
 claimed Christ's royalty in the three languages which 
 divided the civilised world ; and that it not only pro- 
 claimed His royalty as His claim, but as a fact, and that 
 it was a permanent record. Hence, too, he tells of the 
 rent garments and unrent robe, and points to the minute 
 correspondence of the details with the Psalm in which a 
 
230 The Gospel of St. John 
 
 royal sufferer of old had spoken. Hence he tells, hid- 
 ing himself, of the calmness of loving care which had 
 entrusted him with the precious bequest of the mother of 
 the Lord ; and hence he tells how, with that last act of 
 thoughtful filial love, Jesus felt His mission done, and, in 
 triumphant consciousness of a finished work, willed to 
 die, and bowing His head, which drooped because He 
 bowed it, died, and therein proved Himself the Lord of 
 death and life. 
 
 The tvv^o scenes from the resurrection morning illustrate 
 the growth of the disciples' faith in the risen Lord. The 
 evangelist hides his own personality, but he tells that he 
 was the first to believe in the resurrection ; and his narra- 
 tive, so vivid and minute, shows how that morning lived 
 in his memory. The first faith in Christ's resurrection 
 came not from sight, but from the evidence of the empty 
 tomb, the folded grave-clothes, and the flash of light 
 upon " the Scripture," which these brought to John. He 
 outran Peter and them all in faith ; and though Peter 
 was first in the tomb, his companion was first to under- 
 stand the meaning of what met them there. The second 
 believer in the resurrection was the first beholder of the 
 risen Lord. But it was not sight, but hearing, that 
 revealed Him ; and we may be sure that hearing would 
 have been as ineffectual as sight, unless He had willed to 
 be known. We cannot tell why Jesus chose to be seen 
 first by Mary, unless we take the other evangelist's hint, 
 "out of whom He had cast seven devils," as supplying 
 the reason, in that she owed so much and loved so 
 much ; but we can lay to heart the teaching as to the 
 possibility of more blessed intercourse with the ascended 
 Lord than any clasping of His feet here could ever bring, 
 
Review Lesson Thoughts 231 
 
 and may thankfully and humbly claim the brotherhood 
 with Him on His throne, and the participation with Him 
 in the Fatherhood of His Father and ours, which He has 
 given to us all, when He gave them to the kneeling 
 woman. 
 
 The last scene by the lake in the morning light is 
 clearly best understood as being a prophetical repetition, 
 with significant differences, of the first miraculous 
 draught of fishes, directed not only, as that was, to 
 impressing by symbol the conditions of service on the 
 future fishers of men, but also, while confirming the 
 lessons of that earlier scene, going beyond it, in its 
 blessed symbols of the reward. The fire on the shore, 
 the presence of the recognised Lord in the breaking 
 morning, the various ways by which the disciples reach 
 the beach, the firm shore itself, the refreshment prepared, 
 the command to bring the fish they had caught, the 
 meal at which Jesus is the servant, all point on to the 
 result and reward of His servants' toil, when they " rest 
 from their labours," by the fire which His own hands 
 have kindled on the eternal shore, and " their works do 
 follow them," inasmuch as they are bidden " to bring of 
 the fish which they had caught." 
 
 Printed by Hazelly Watson, 6^ Vzney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
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