^> 2 3.'<2V .^lUeo.^,,^ 4Sfi PRINCETON, N. J. ft Divhion -13-) dfV\\ Shelf Section Number / PRINTED BY MORRISON AND OIBB, FOR T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH. LONDON : S1MPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LIMITED. NEW YORK I CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. OUE LORD'S SIGNS ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. In demy 8vo, price 9s., LECTURES ON PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS. SEith $lotzs anb Illustrations. • We have read this book with real interest, and we are sure that it will furnish much J!SS££Z5o may undertake the work of exegetical preaching, and that both clergymen and laymen will find it helpful and edifying. -Church Belh. In demy Svo, price 7s. 6d., LECTURES ON PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. SEitlt gioits anb Illustrations. 'This book has one great merit which separates it from the mass of commentaries and expos ory lectures-it is not only instructive, but it is also delightfully interesting. The author's moral and spiritual tone is lofty, and these sermons are characterised by a s^eet and sunTy g^ace, which cannot but charm and make better those who read them. —Literary World. EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. OUR LORD'S SIGNS t Solm's #ospd* DISCUSSIONS CHIEFIY EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL ON THE EIGHT MIRACLES IN THE FOURTH GOSPEL. JOHN 'HUTCHISON, D.D., BONNINGTON, EDINBURGH ; AUTHOR OF ' EXPOSITORY LECTORES ON ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS, AND THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS," AND "OUR LORD'S MESSAGES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES." EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLAKK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 1892. 1 Verbum Dei, Deo Natum, Quod nee factum, nee creatum Venit de ccelestibus, Hoc uidit, hoc attrectauit, Hoc de coelo reseravit Johannes hominibus. Inter illos primitivos Veros veri fontis riuos Johannes exiliit, Toti mundo propinare Nectar illud salutare Quod de throno prodiit. " Hymnus de S. Johanne Evangelista. Mone, Hymni M> "\ At '. i PREFACE. The work which I now venture to publish is, in design, very similar to those which I have already issued. It is mainly expository, although homiletical aims have not been rigidly set aside. Exposition of Scripture can hardly, with profit, be entirely severed from practical interests. It has long seemed to me that the miracles recorded in the fourth Gospel may well be studied as a distinct group. They bear marks, both in themselves and in their setting, which to a large extent distinguish them from those narrated in the synoptic Gospels. As the name of "signs" indicates, their symbolical purpose is pre-eminently clear, even though their individual significance may in some cases be difficult to discover. Under this conviction I have endeavoured to provide a careful, and even a minute, exegesis of each narrative, in such a form that it can be easily read by the ordinary student of Scripture, who desires to make a study of the details, without being burdened and disheartened by the use of purely scientific terms and methods. In seeking to attain this end, I have given attention, not only to Patristic and even Medieval exposition, but also, VI PREFACE. and chiefly, to modern commentaries, whatever be the schools to which they severally belong. The result may seem meagre ; but I am hopeful that the labour so expended may prove not altogether devoid of value. I have had a further aim in view : that of ascertaining what each sign, as recorded by the Evangelist, is designed to teach or emphasise. This is by no means, in some instances, an easy task ; nor can any one feel confident that he has discharged it. We have no definite system of rules, in such an inquiry, on which reliance for guidance may be placed. It has been too common for each commentator, according to his own theological point of view, or according to his own individual taste, to lay stress on some part of the incident rather than on others. From such varying methods a general consensus cannot be expected. We have only to look at much of present-day preaching to see how frequently minor details are pressed into service, and the prominent idea of the sign altogether ignored. I have therefore attempted to discover, if possible, the central point of view from which each sign ought to be considered. This may be found, either in the record itself, or in its surroundings. With the exception of the third and fourth, these miracles are all, more or less, explained and illustrated by the parts of the Gospel which lie near them. This fact has been taken into account in trying to ascertain their significance. The tabulation, which is offered on page 11, is to be accepted as a scheme, accurate in a general sense, and PREFACE. Vii nothing more. It may serve a useful purpose in grouping the eight signs. It need hardly be stated that these miracles are treated only in the two aspects which have been described. There are, of course, other aspects which have been designedly left entirely unnoticed. There are full and useful monographs on several of these miracles. Notably may be mentioned that of Professor Paulus Cassel, of Berlin, on " the water made wine at Galilee," Die Hochzeit von Cana, theologisch und historisch in Symbol, Kunst unci Legencle ausgelegt, an interesting treatise which owed its origin to the Silver Marriage of the late Emperor Friedrich of Ger many, January 25th, 1883, and was published as a memorial of that event. A most exhaustive study of 11 the raising of Lazarus," by Gumlich, entitled Die Rcithsel cler Erweckung Lazari, is to be found in the Studien unci Kritiken, 1862. There are also mono- graphs by Professor Steinmeyer, of Berlin, on " the raising of Lazarus " and " the healing of the man born blind," in addition to his book on Die Wunderthaten des Herrn. 1 These last I regret that I have not had an opportunity of using, all the more that many years ago I had the privilege of attending his much valued academic course on this Gospel as a whole. The notes, fragmentary as they are, may prove of some interest to the student, if not to the general reader. They may help to open up some lines of thought. 1 Transl. (Edin. T. & T. Clark), Tlie Miracles of our Lord. Vlli PREFACE. As on former occasions, I am much indebted to the Rev. D. W. Forrest, M.A., Moffat, for careful revision of the proof - sheets ; and also to the Rev. Thomas Crawford, M.A., B.D., for a like service. My brother, the Rev. M. B. Hutchison, M.A., of Lincoln College, Oxford, Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway, has, as usual, given me his valued aid. Aftox Lodge, Bonnington, April 5th, 1892. CONTENTS. PAGE Introductory, . 1 LECTURE I. The Water made Wine at Cana — The Exposition, . . . . .15 The Significance of the Sign, .... 28 II. The Healing op the Courtier's Son — The Exposition, ..... 41 The Significance of the Sign, .... 52 III. The Healing of the Impotent Man at Bethesda The Exposition, • • ■ . . 59 The Significance of the Sign, .... 69 IV. The Feeding op the Five Thousand — The Exposition, . . . • * . 77 The Significance of the Sign, .... 88 V. The Walking on the Water — The Exposition, ..... 101 The Significance of the Sign, . . . .111 VI. The Healing op the Man born Blind — The Exposition, . . . . .121 The Significance of the Sign, . . . .132 VII. The Raising of Lazarus — The Exposition, .... 145 The Significance of the Sign, . . . .175 VIII. The Second Miraculous Draught op Fishes— The Exjjosition, . . . , .213 The Significance of the Sign, . . . .227 Conclusion, ....... 235 INTRODUCTORY. ' Sed quia omnia, quw fecit Dominus Jesus Christus non solum valent ad excitanda corda nostra miraculis, sed etiam ad cedificanda in doctrina fidei scrutari nos oportet quid sibi uelint ilia omnia id est quid significent."—AvausTix, Tractat. ix. 1. " Him Whose life was more than words, for words are dim ; His deeds are lamps, that brighter, farther shine, That men may see, and seeing, hail divine." Mrs. Lionel A. Tollemache in Safe Studies. INTRODUCTORY. TT is a mere commonplace to say that the fourth J- Gospel is still the battlefield of controversy. As much as in earlier clays, it still attracts the love of friends and the hate of foes. While it has constantly been assailed as the very citadel which the enemies of Christianity seek at all costs to overthrow, it continues to be accepted by Christ's people as the most valued storehouse of their spiritual food. The Emperor Julian the Apostate, deploring the decay of aesthetic heathenism in the presence of the ever-growing triumphs of Chris- tianity, with a true insight into the nature of the case, despairingly exclaimed : "It is this John who, in declar- ing that the Word was made flesh, has done all the mischief." 1 It is natural, therefore, that those who are "of the truth" should hold fast this Gospel, and sur- render themselves to it as the very heart of Christ. 2 Lessing, the father, as he has been called, of modern Rationalism, thus writes: "John's Gospel alone gave the Christian religion its true consistency ; we have to thank his Gospel alone if the Christian religion still continues in this consistency notwithstanding all attacks, and will, we may suppose, continue as long as there are men who believe they need a Mediator between them and the Divinity — that is, for ever." 3 1 Godet, i. p. 27. 2 Ernesti has called it " pectus Christi." 3 Quoted by Sime, Lessing, His Life and Writings, ii. p. 230. 3 4 INTRODUCTORY. A testimony of this kind makes it clear that this book, so far removed as it is in its contemplative elevation from all earthly turmoil, is yet emphatically set as a meeting-point of ceaseless strife. The conflict still rages as to the authorship. Scholarship, to say the least of it, is certainly as much ranged on the traditional side as on the other. Dr. Watkins, in his recent Bampton Lectures on "Modern Criticism and the fourth Gospel," has done much in the region of external evidence to fortify the old position. Especially has he depicted for us, and that with no little power, the whole surroundings, social and intellectual, of the Church in Ephesus, which help to explain the peculiar form and phrase- ology of the Gospel. The more vividly we try to realise this environment to ourselves, the more readily do we occupy the right standpoint for contemplating and understanding this "spiritual Gospel" as its product. Accepting then without discussion — indeed our design in no way demands it — the Johannean authorship, we hold that it was in accordance with the needs of his time and the mental attitude of his first readers that he — the disciple who bears the title of " Dilectus Dilector Dei " 1 — penned in extreme old age, not strictly a narrative, for there are many gaps in it, and constant dislocation of chronological order ; not strictly even a formal treatise, for there is little of sustained and consecutive reasoning in it ; but pre-eminently and peculiarly a personal testimony, and that in the form most likely to appeal to the intellectual movements of his age. As with a diamond-point, he has caused to stand out before the eve the most clearly cut sentences which set forth personal declarations — leaving no room 1 Anselm, Orat. 68. INTRODUCTORY. 5 for doubt as to what his purpose is — " These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." We need not be disturbed by the theory recently so ably revived by Professor Wendt, that the unity of this Gospel is to be set aside, the sayings of our Lord being alone accepted as the original part of the treatise, the historical parts being regarded as additions made by John's disciples. Of course it is entirely beyond the scope of our design to discuss this ingenious attempt to make a cleavage in what has hitherto almost invariably been regarded as a whole. It is perhaps sufficient to set over against it the utterance of Dr. Martineau, all the more telling that he rejects entirely the Johannean authorship. " It is plainly," he says, " a whole, the production of a single mind, — a mind imbued with a conception of its subject, consistent and complete, and not less distinct from being mystical and of rare spiritual depth." 1 The unbiassed, sympathetic reader feels that this witness is true. This blending of the philosophical and the devotional, so peculiarly the characteristic of this Gospel, has led many a reader of it to declare, as Schleiermacher did of his death-bed experiences : "I have the deepest specu- lative thoughts presented me, and they are all one with the most devout religious emotions." While this holds good very specially of our Lord's words thus recorded, it is also true in regard to His works. It is to these latter that our attention is throughout to be turned. The position of these works is quite conspicuous enough in the book to arrest attention. In the fourfold Gospel there are, as usually enumerated, thirty-eight miracles ascribed to our Lord. Of these the author of the 1 Seat of Authority in Religion, p. 189. 6 INTRODUCTORY. fourth Gospel records only seven belonging to Christ's ministry proper, and a solitary supplemental one belonging to the forty days' period between the resur- rection and the ascension. The number " seven " symbolises, as is well known, completeness and covenant- relationship between heaven and earth. 1 It is not far- fetched to imagine that this conception was before the author's mind. Seven, with a supplemental eighth, is too frequently met with in Scripture — Old and New Testa- ments alike — to be quietly ignored in such a case as this. There is, further, every reason to believe that he was per- sonally acquainted with the whole circle of his Master's works of wonder. Indeed, he himself substantially declares that he was. Yet, as we shall see, he selects for the special purpose he has in view what may be called typical samples — those, namely, which fit naturally into the general plan of his treatise. Looking at these from this point of view, we may almost regard them as the backbone of the whole work. They are manifestly there, each in its own place, not as part of a rigidly progressive narrative, but as helping to unfold, not so much the story of our Lord's life, as the significance of His ministry. They seem " exquisite narratives inter- spersed, standing out like islets of rare beauty in the broad expanse of some quiet lake," 2 and from each one separately some new point of view may be obtained for a survey of the whole. Once more these works are called emphatically "signs." This is their significant title — works, that is to say, visible on earth that they may be mirrors of 1 Vide Biihr's Symbolik des Mosaischen Cultns, i. pp. 233-247, for much biblical and philological lore on this point; and also Donaldson's New Cratylus, p. 291, and Delitzsch on Heb. xii. 22. 2 Tayler on St. John's Gospel, p. 6. INTRODUCTORY. 7 heavenly and spiritual things. They look back to the almighty power of the Divine Word in creation : " All things were made by Him ; and without Him was not anything made that hath been made ; " and they looked forward to that same almighty power in the new creation : "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." Considered in this way, they are what Professor Bruce has called Miracles of State, rather than like those of the Synoptics, Miracles of Humanity. 1 They are, it is true, manifestations of our Lord's loving-kindness ; but in their chief design they are pre-eminently manifestations of His glory. In regard, therefore, to their ultimate aim, they have been well designated incarnate doctrine. 2 It is, then, when we study these miracles in this light, that we most surely recognise them as helps, not hindrances, to faith. Kousseau Ions ago said, that if we took the miracles out of the Gospels, the whole world would lie at the feet of Christ. 3 Many in our day have felt and spoken in an exactly similar way. There is, however, an entire misapprehension in such an attitude towards the miraculous in the Gospel narrative. Not to speak of their evidential value, which may easily enough be unduly emphasised, the miracles are actual parables ; hieroglyphics, they may be called, of spiritual truth. And as such, so far from repelling, they can never lose their power in bringing the world to the Saviour's feet. If this view be justified, and indeed it never has been seriously controverted, it follows that much instruction may be found in the study of the signs recorded in the 1 Tlie Miraculous Element in the Gospels, p. 151. 2 " Die Wunder des Messias sind fleischgewordene Lehre," Dr. Cassel, Die Hochzeit von Cana, p. 39. 3 " Otez les Miracles de l'Evangile et toute la terre est aux pieds de Jesus Christ." 8 INTRODUCTORY. fourth Gospel in their relation to one another and in their bearing upon the teaching of the book as a whole. Separately, they are stray beams of light ; together, they shine with clear and steady brightness. But how is this study to be pursued ? Recognising the fact that the Evangelist delights in mystic symbolism, we must, of course, adapt our exegetical method to that fact. But here at once begins our difficulty. We may be seduced into falling into the excessive mystical and allegorical style of treatment which has brought patristic and medieval exposition so much into dis- repute. This danger is undoubtedly real. The "Lesbian rule of lead," as it has been called, ever twisting and bending according to the holder's own caprice, can be no safe measuring - rod for Scripture truth. Yet there are some safeguards against this tendency, not very difficult to be found, and when found never to be disregarded. There are hints as to the right and sober method of exposition to be discovered, both in the features themselves of each narrative and in the setting in which each narrative appears. These hints are peculiarly frequent and significant in this Gospel. They are amply sufficient to guide us in the way of prudent and reverent exegesis. Keeping close by these, as best we may, we need not be afraid of speaking even of the fourfold sense of Scripture, as the old distich puts it — " Litem gesta docet ; quid credos, allcgoria ; Moralis, quod ages ; quid speres, anagogia." Indeed, in so far as the miracles of this Gospel are concerned, we have a most striking instance of ex- tremes meeting. Patristic exposition, as is well known, sees secret significance even in the minutest INTRODUCTORY. 9 and most subordinate details of these miracles. So also, strange to say, does rationalistic exposition. With an entirely different aim, — the setting aside altogether of the historical reality of the miracles, — Rationalism reaches precisely the same conclusion. It, in serving its own ends, strives to turn everything into allegory. Almost as many puerile and strained and fanciful interpretations can be found in the one school as in the other. Thus there emerges this curious result, that whether these miracles be accepted as historic or not, both parties agree in discovering in them substantially the same teaching. As a somewhat striking illustration of the tendency of the negative school in this respect, an anonymous tractate may be adduced, which has been making considerable stir among the German people, to whom it is specially addressed. 1 Its purpose is to show how the Bible miracles, being now hopelessly destroyed as history, may yet be retained as valuable — indeed more valuable than ever for all purposes of practical religious teaching. Here is one of its deliverances : 2 " We hear it often said of these narratives of Bible miracles, either they took place as they are recorded to have done, or these narratives are lies, and those who wrote them liars. But are these the only two possibilities of the case ? Is it not plain that beyond those of reality and falsehood there is yet a third possibility that partakes of neither, namely, poetic fiction, having a didactic purpose ? The parables, for instance ; no one thinks of them as relating either true or false incidents. They are not 1 " Die biblischen Wundergeschichten, vom Verfasser des Buches," Im Karrvpf um die Weltanschammg, Freiburg 1890. 2 P. 19. 1 INTRODUCTORY. estimated in this way at all. There is recognised in them, not literal fact, but truth in figurative form. This is of the very essence of such fiction, and it is felt at once that just on this account is it most suited to portray the highest truths. Accordingly we most worthily estimate the Bible miracles when we en- deavour in a similar way to understand them as didactic fiction. In this way no offence is given to the intellect, and the true meaning reaches and works freely upon the spirit." This method of treatment is elaborately recommended to families and schools and churches as alone honest and profitable. Such an impotent conclusion as this, however, — the rejection of our Lord's works as historical, and the retention of them as none the less instructive, — will not bear scrutiny. It seems at best to be what Unitarianism has been wittily called, " a feather-bed to catch a falling Chris- tian," — an anxious attempt, in other words, to retain hold of the Christian faith at the very time when there is the consciousness of falling away from it. But to return to our point ; while carefully avoiding the extremes of the patristic method, and entirely disowning the rationalistic, we may learn from both — opposite points of view as they are — that the historic reality of these " signs " in the fourth Gospel is not the only, nor even the chief aspect, in which they are to be contemplated. Their enduring spiritual signi- ficance as " signs " is the main matter for us all. Studying them under this conviction, we shall find that, while together they form an integral part of the structural plan of the whole book, they are fraught with the noblest teaching as to the glory of our Lord and His kingdom, in relation to the individual soul, to the universal Church, and to the world. THE MIRACLES OF THIS GOSPEL MAY BE THUS TABULATED :— The Inaugural Sign, chap. ii. 1-11. The water made wine at Cana, illustrating our Lord's glory in the transforming and ennobling influences of His kingdom. First Pair of Signs, chap. iv. 43-54, and chap. v. 1-18. (a) The healing of the nobleman's The blessings of our Lord's kingdom son at Capernaum. realised by faith. (b) The healing of "the impotent These blessings manifested in sancti- man at Bethesda. fication. These signs depict our Lord's glory in His kingdom in relation to the individual soul. Second Pair of Signs, chap. vi. 1-14 and 15-21. (a) The feeding of the five thousand. Our Lord the Divine Giver of sus- tenance to His people. (b) The walking on the sea of Our Lord the Divine Giver of pro- Galilee, tection to His people. These signs depict His glory in His kingdom in relation to His Church on earth. Third Pair of Signs, chaps, ix. and xi. (a) The healing of the man born Our Lord the Light of the world blind. lying in darkness. (b) The raising of Lazarus of Bethany Our Lord the Life of the world from the dead. lying in death. These signs depict His glory in His kingdom in relation to the world. The Supplemental, Post-Resurrection Sign, chap. xxi. 1-14. The second miraculous draught of The final fulfilment of the bless- fishes. in£s of our Lord's kingdom. " Unde rubor uestris, et non sua purpura, lyntphis ? Qua? rosa mirantes tarn noua mutat aquas ? Numen, conuiuw, pra>sens agnoscite Numen : Lympha pudica Deum vidit, et erubuit!" Epigrammata Surra, 1634. THE WATER MADE WINE AT CAN A. THE WATER MADE WINE AT CAN A. (John ii. 1-11.) I. THE EXPOSITION. PT1HE opening words are not without significance : J- "And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee." The suggestion that they should run : " There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee in its third day," Jewish weddings being usually prolonged throughout a week, 1 may be at once set aside. It is altogether forced and unnatural. Another suowstion, '-' Do " that "the third day" means the third day of the Jewish week, — the day which Rabbinical teaching and usage specially set apart for the marriage ceremony, — is also to be rejected. However supported by Jewish lore, 2 it cannot commend itself as the simple rendering of the words. " The third day " as a note of sequence merely serves to connect the narrative with what has gone before. But there lies imbedded in it a hidden design. The first chapter unfolds to us a whole series of days, each marked by its own outstanding incident. On the first of these days the Baptist gave his witness on behalf of the Saviour to the inquiring priests and Levites. On the second, he pointed with outstretched finger to that same Saviour, who probably had just returned from the temptation in the wilderness, declaring Him 1 Stanley Leathes in Expositor, 1877, v. 305. 2 Vide Dr. Paulus Cassel, Die Hochzeit von Cana theologisch und historisch in Symbol, Kunst und Legende ausgelegt, Berlin 1883. 15 16 THE WATER MADE WINE AT CAN A. to be the Lamb of God. On the third, he revealed the Saviour as the Messias to Andrew and another of his disciples, apparently the Evangelist himself, who both thereupon followed their new Teacher. As the old saying has it, they forsook — discarded — the candle- light, now that they had found the light of the sun. On the fourth day, Jesus repaired to Galilee, where He found Philip, and where Philip on his part found Nathanael, and where both accepted Him as their Master. Now it is the third day after this fourth that is given as the date of this miracle — this beginning of sio-ns. The incidents of the intervening fifth and sixth days are left unrecorded. The time, however, must have been for the most part spent in the journey to Cana. Patristic ingenuity has busied itself in this connection with instituting a comparison between the days recorded in the opening of the Book of Genesis, and these days alluded to in the fourth Gospel, which describe the Genesis of the New Dispensation, the consummation in both cases being the institution and celebration of marriage. Such fancies, however beauti- ful, cannot commend themselves to sober exegesis. All that is noticeable here is that the Evangelist has depicted the beginnings of Christ's kingdom in a few abrupt short statements of several days' events, — events full of interest, which find at length their climax in this work of power. The new Teacher had now some followers. Their loyalty to Him was undoubted ; but their faith in Him stood in need of enlightenment. As yet they knew little about their Master, though they loved Him well, and doubtless trusted Him to the full. Besides, He had already excited within their breasts a certain eager expectancy, when, for instance, He said directly to Nathanael : " Thou shalt see greater THE EXPOSITION. 17 things than these," and yet more, "Verily, verily, I say unto you," including in the " you " the others, " Ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." This expectancy, cherished by hearts as yet untaught, needed some support. Hence in order that it might not shift into despondency, He graciously granted this sign. In this work of power, by establishing His Messianic claims, He at the same time established their hearts. He further showed, for all time, that as the foundations of His new kingdom had been laid in brotherly love, so its growth and blessings were to be seen in the sanctities of family and home. Cana of Galilee was the scene of this first miracle. The site cannot with certainty be known. The modern village of Kefr-kenna, a little more than four miles north-east of Nazareth, lying on the road to the Lake of Galilee, has the strongest claims in its favour. Here was the home of Nathanael, where we may conceive our Lord, for the time being, to have been received as an honoured guest. 1 There were clinging to this district many memories of His child- hood and early years. Hence the peculiar propriety of its now becoming the scene of His first manifested glory. Here not only His immediate followers, but also His mother and brethren, along with others, His acquaintances and friends who formed the wedding company, were permitted to witness the earliest evi- dence of His Messiahship. The late tradition, that the Evangelist John was him- self the bridegroom, is at entire variance with all the facts we know of his history. This legend of Bona- ventura, as well as that other supported by Nicephorus, 1 Edereheim, Life and Times of Jesus, the Messiah, i. 356. B 18 THE WATER MADE WINE AT CAN A. that the bridegroom was Simon of Cana, the son of Mary, sister of our Lord's mother, is unhesitatingly to be rejected. We are entitled to surmise no more than this, that the family circle was well known to Jesus, and that its friendship was a possession which He greatly prized. Hence He was an invited guest, and with Him His disciples. These were John and Andrew and Peter and Philip, and Nathanael whom He had just called. The word " disciples" may possibly r how- ever, include some others of His followers. Where He Himself was respected, His friends would not be unwelcome. " The mother of Jesus was there," being possibly a relative of one of the parties. She seems, at all events, to have been present at an earlier stage in the festivities, and even prominent enough to mingle with, and, in some respects, to take the management of the arrangements. Without unseemly interference, she could bid the servants to obey her Son. No mention is made of Joseph. He may have been, as is generally supposed, already dead, although chap. vi. 42 rather militates against this conclusion. At some undefined point of the festival, prolonged, it may be, through several days, " the wine failed." The deficiency of supply may readily enough be con- jectured to have arisen, not merely from the presence of our Lord and His disciples, but chiefly from the unexpected arrival of many who eagerly sought to see Him, — strangers even, to whom the rites of hospitality at such a joyous season would in no wise be denied. At all events there was embarrassment ; there was annoyance, if not actual distress. Mary's tender heart felt this most. She keenly shared the shame which the discovery of the scanty supply could not fail to cast upon the bride and bridegroom. The reason of THE EXPOSITION. 19 the shame is not to be sought simply in the implied lack of hospitality, but chiefly in the punctilious ceremonial of Jewish marriage. It was commonly held that no marriage was valid without the formal act of blessing. A bride over whose nuptials the seven blessings had not been pronounced was actually regarded as still unmarried. These seven blessings, further, could not properly be uttered without the use of wine. Many rabbinical illustrations of this usage may be adduced. 1 For instance, it is said, "He only who speaks the blessing over a full cup of wine comes into possession of the two worlds." We may therefore in all likelihood find the deepest reason of Mary's solicitude in these traditional prac- tices. The thought of foregoing them at the stern bidding of necessity was painful to her sympathetic heart. Hence she said to her Son, " They have no wine." Some definite design doubtless prompted the words. It is far-fetched to suppose that there was couched in them a gentle hint that He and His com- pany should withdraw before their host's embarrassment appeared, and that the reply, "Mine hour is not yet come," simply means that the time for their retiring had not yet arrived. The more natural suggestion, adopted by Luther and others, that Mary, in the quiet retreat of her own home life, had already witnessed evidences of Jesus' wonder-working power, and, relying upon these, now ventured to call upon Him for its more public display, is also to be rejected. Not to speak of the Evangelist's unqualified and emphatic declara- tion, that this was the inaugural miracle — the " begin- ning of signs," we can hardly conceive that the thought of miraculous intervention could definitely occur to 1 Vide Dr. Cassel, p. 82. 20 THE WATER MADE WINE AT CANA. her in the presence of so simple and commonplace a dilemma, — a mere dislocation of domestic arrangements, however annoying. The exercise of power, so startling and abnormal, by her Son, could not have been suggested to her mind by so trivial an event. The most satisfactory view is certainly this, that ofttimes before, in the ordinary concerns of daily life, He had allayed her anxieties and solved her difficulties. She was therefore now, as was her wont, simply confiding her cares to His sympathetic breast. She who had kept all the sayings of the shepherds, "pondering them in her heart," felt, from many past experiences, that the greater her perplexity, the surer she was of finding helpful counsel from Him whom, while she loved Him as her Son, she reverenced also as her Lord. The answer is abrupt and unexpected. "Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee ? Mine hour is not yet come." These somewhat startling words at once arrest us. They seem to grate upon our feeling, as if there was something disrespectful, even unfllial, about them. We almost incline to exclaim, as Augustine puts it, "What is this? 'Came He for this cause to the marriage, that He might teach men to set light by their mothers ! " But the strangeness of the utterance is in no sense difficult to explain. No elaborate reason- in^ is needed to vindicate our Lord from any unworthy aspersion. The appellation " woman " has no necessary severity in it. It may even breathe more than usual respect. Nor does any harshness lie in the interroga- tory form of the sentence. Such a form is only a familiar and favourite Hebrew way of emphasising a point, as indeed it is also with ourselves. Nor are we entitled to assume that there was aught of reproach either in the tone of the utterance or in the gesture which THE EXPOSITION. 21 accompanied it. We may at once set aside all sugges- tions of this kind. Yet " while the words are not unfriendly, they are estranging." * And why so ? "The mother of Jesus," as the Evangelist expressly designates her, in the request or command which she had tacitly made to her Son, relied apparently on the relation in which, as mother of His humanity, she stood to Him. She needed therefore to be taught that this earthly bond had henceforth lost its signifi- cance. Now that His public ministry had begun, the loving subjection of His earlier days must cease. There is now, indeed, a reversal of relationship. As the Divine Logos, about to manifest His glory in His power, — about to work a miracle of which Mary's heart had up to this point no forecasting thought, He could only say, as He elsewhere did, " I and My Father are one." Thus far as to the first part of the answer ; but what about the second, " Mine hour is not yet come " ? Greater difficulty is involved in it. It is altogether inept to weaken it into some such paraphrase as this : " My time, the time at which, from the Father's appointment and My own concurring will, 1 am to begin miraculous working, is not yet arrived : forestall it not." 2 Mary's words, as we have seen, do not appear to point to such intervention at all; and if this be so, then a reply of this kind from her Son's lips would be entirely inappropriate. Besides, any explana- tion on such a line as this seems trifling, amounting, as it does, to no more than this, that there is no call for haste, that there must be an hour or two of delay, though why such delay should be needful remains unexplained. We must seek, therefore, some deeper solution of the utterance. We find it without much i Luthardt. 2 Alford. 22 THE WATER MADE WINE AT CAN A. difficulty when we remember the solemn and significant way in which our Lord, in this Gospel, speaks of what He calls His hour, and the coming of it. 1 He signifies thereby the time when the work appointed Him to do was to be undertaken and completed. He alludes to the time of His suffering and death. There is thus a refer- ence, thus early in His ministry, and in the midst of the festivities of a bridal day, to the hour of His passion — that which He Himself calls Satan's hour, as well as His own. Before He went forth to suffer as the Lamb of God, as His Forerunner had at first announced Him, He thus addressed the Jewish and Gentile mob that in the darkness of night had come out against Him : " This is your hour, and the power of dark- ness." 2 It was the hour when the deadliest enmity of sin appeared to triumph, and yet in His actual triumph was overthrown. But why allude to that hour here ? What possible connection can it have with the mother of Jesus and her present dilemma ? She had confided her trouble to Him about the failing wine, and He answers her by a mysterious reference to the hour of His final suffering and shame. How is this enigma to be solved ? Probably in this way : in her extreme solicitude that all shall go well in the wedding feast, Mary had met, and that for the first time, with some- thing like a reproof, a repulse from the gentle lips of her Son. Her maternal authority had been disowned. Her desire, indeed, was to be met and gratified, but in a manner as yet entirely unexpected ; His intervention was to be of a kind that could not acknowledge her well-meant interference. While, therefore, the repulse could not be spared, it is softened and subdued by that which follows.— " What have I to do with thee?" 1 vii. 30, viii. 20, xii. 27, xvii. 1. 2 Luke xxii. 53. THE EXPOSITION. 23 Nothing now, but a time, distant yet approaching, is spoken of — the hour of His human weakness. Then, He declares, would He acknowledge her through whom that weakness came. And so we know He did. While He could not own her now in the manifestation of His power, He at last owned her ere He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. In His humiliation, as He hung upon the cross, He commended her to the care of that disciple by whom both incidents are recorded. " He saith unto His mother, Woman, behold thy Son ! Then saith He to the disciple, Behold thy mother ! " Thus Cana and Calvary alike reveal the Saviour's heart of love. If this be the solution, 1 the question has still to be asked, How could Mary thus early in our Lord's teaching and ministry in any way understand an utterance of this kind? We may at once own that she could not. To her it was a hidden thing; yet, doubtless, one of the many which she treasured. She " kept all these sayings in her heart," and in due time they became plain. In this incident of the first miracle all warrant for Mariolatry is shattered and overthrown. All earthly ties, in their tenderness and pathos, our Lord has duly recognised and honoured. But in so far as these sought to dominate the things of the higher world, to Him they are as nought. He Himself has declared, " Whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in Heaven, he is My brother, and sister, and mother." In answer to the exclamation, " Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the breasts which Thou didst suck," He said, " Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." Mary's whole-hearted humility shines forth in what 1 Wordsworth, following Augustin, substantially adopts it. 24 THE WATER MADE WINE AT CAN A. follows. Even from the apparent repulse she won new confidence that help was at hand. There was no decline of her reliance in her Son's wisdom and good- ness. It would seem, on the contrary, that some presentiment, however vague, may now have seized her, or that some hint, though it be unrecorded, may have been given her, of what was to be the issue of things. At all events, she surmised that the agency of the attendants was to be sought. She said to them, inculcating upon them the ready submission which she herself had learned, "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." * " Now there were six waterpots of stone set there, after the Jews' manner of purifying, contain- ing two or three firkins apiece." These water jars — Bethlehem stoneware we may imagine them to have been, for the Talmud mentions Lydda and Bethlehem as towns noted for their stoneware works 2 — were ranged in something like order, outside of the recep- tion-room. Their exact capacity cannot now be ascer- tained, owing to the varying measures in use at that time in Palestine. Each of the vessels, however, according to the more likely estimate, contained from seventeen to twenty-five gallons. 3 Their use was for ceremonial purification, for "all Jews, except they wash their hands diligently, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders." 4 They were now empty, or at 1 The two utterances of the mother of our Lord which we have in the record of this miracle are her last recorded words— the "desiring to see Thee" being told Him by a stranger's lips— are used by Ruskin, Fors Clavigera, vii. 389, in a far-fetched way indeed, but very effectively, as a text for pressing the claims of the poor on general sympathy and help. "The first sentence of these two contains tin' appeal of the workman's wife to her Son for the help of the poor of all the earth. The second, the command of the Lord's mother, to the people of all the earth, that they should serve the Lord/' 2 Wichelhaus. 3 Vid. Edersheim, i. 358. 4 Mark vii. 3. THE EXPOSITION. 25 least not full. The rites of ablution having been duly observed, the guests were done with them. It is important to notice that this fact was known to the servants ; they were thus unimpeachable witnesses of the reality of the miracle. " Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim." In this command, enjoining the exact agency which she had expected, He at once rescued His mother from all possible imputation of officious io-norance. Then follow the words which apparently mark the moment of transformation, — when the water straightway flashed into wine, — when as Dryden, rendering the old Latin, has it — " The unconscious water blushed to see its God." "Draw out now, and bear unto the ruler of the feast." " Now," — the change at this point took place. The manner is untold, because for us it would be un- intelligible. From the Fathers downwards it has been customary to institute a parallel between this work of power and those other works of power which are pre- sent ceaselessly in nature, and yet ceaselessly un- noticed. It is said, The water which was made wine by a word at Cana once, is made wine by the vintage every year. It is true, Bishop Westcott carefully seeks to guard, us against this popular analogy as false and misleading, declaring that " the two pro- cesses have absolutely nothing in common, so that the one cannot even illustrate the other." l Let it be granted that this is so : a believing, God - seeing heart will not on that account refuse to adopt the words of Kingsley, words which our age needs more than some others have done : " The Lord is a giver 1 Vid. The Gospel of the Resurrection, p. 38. 26 THE WATER MADE WINE AT CASTA. and not a taskmaster. He does not demand from us : He gives to us. He had been giving from the founda- tion of the world. Corn and wine, rain and sunshine and fruitful seasons had been His sending. And now He has come to show it. He has come to show men who it was who had been filling their heart with joy and gladness, who had been bringing out of the earth and air, by His unseen chemistry, the wine which maketh glad the heart of man. In every grape that hangs upon the vine, water is changed into wine as the sap ripens into rich juice. He had been doing that all along, in every vineyard and orchard ; and that was His glory. Now He was come to prove that : to draw back the veil of custom and carnal sense, and manifest Himself. ... I make the wine ; I have been making it all along. The vines, the sun, the weather, are only My tools wherewith I worked, turn- ing rain and sap into wine ; I am greater than they. . . . Behold, see My glory without the vineyard, since you had forgotten how to see it in the vineyard." 1 Obeying our Lord's command, the servants bare the wine they had drawn "unto the ruler of the feast." This functionary was no upper servant or steward placed in charge, but rather one of the guests, chosen and appointed to this honourable post, either by the com- pany or by the host. There are indications that this office at Jewish weddings was frequently sustained by a person of sacerdotal rank. 2 Be this as it may, the master of ceremonies, as it was his official duty to do, 1 Sermons on National Subjects. 2 Webster .and Wilkinson adduce Schleusner, quoting Gaudcntius, in support of this. Edersheim writes, i. 355 : " Here it ought to be specially noticed, as a striking evidence that the writer of the fourth Gospel was not only a Hebrew, but intimately acquainted with the varying customs prevailing in Galilee ami in Judaea, that at the marriage THE EXPOSITION. 27 " tasted the water now become wine " before its seneral circulation took place. He did so in ignorance. He " knew not whence it was (but the servants which had drawn the water knew)." It has been said, The ignor- ance of the ruler of the feast attested the good quality of the wine ; the knowledge of the servants attested the reality of the miracle. Both thus served their part. With a purposed pleasantry the presiding guest straight- way exclaimed, as he called to the bridegroom, "Every man setteth on first the good wine ; and when men have drunk freely, then that which is worse : Thou hast kept the good wine until now." His astonish- ment found utterance in a common saying — a familiar adage descriptive of the ways of the world. The best is offered first ; the worst is offered afterwards. The poorer quality is then less likely to be noticed and resented. The saying is quite a general one : it is therefore to be entirely detached from any unfavour- able reference to the assembled guests. No hint, even of the most distant kind, is to be detected in it that the bounds of sobriety had been passed. " We may be quite sure that there was no such excess here ; for to this the Lord would as little have given allowance by His presence, as He would have helped it forward by a special wonder-work of His own." 1 A question has often been put, What of the enormous quantity of wine thus miraculously produced — a quan- tity extending far beyond the wants of the occasion ? of Cana no friend of the bridegroom, or 'groomsman,' is mentioned, while he is referred to in St. John iii. 29, where the words are spoken outside the boundaries of Galilee. For among the simpler and purer Galileans, the practice of having 'friends of the bridegroom,' which must often have led to gross impropriety, did not obtain, though all the invited guests bore the general name of 'children of the bride- chamber.' " 1 Trench. 28 THE WATER MADE WINE AT CAXA. This question, however, may be met by the reasonable doubt as to whether such a large and so-called super- fluous supply did actually exist. AVe read in ver. 9, "The servants which had drawn the water knew." It was then water which was drawn from the waterpots. The Evangelist still calls it water even after it had been drawn. Is it not implied, therefore, that it was only at a later stage — when the distribution took place — that it became wine ? This seems a fair con- clusion from the language employed. It follows then, if this view be accepted, that not all the water in the pitchers, but only that part of it which was drawn, underwent the mysterious change. "What remained, being by far the larger part, was water still. 1 If, however, we adhere to the usual and more accepted view, we can place this lavish freeness of the gift alongside of the similar abundance — even the superfluity — in the allied miracle of the loaves. " They filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves, which remained over unto them that had eaten." While there is no waste, there is no stint in the Master's gifts. Cana thus was first to witness the glory of Jesus ; and His disciples, as they wondered, were established in their faith. II. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. Ver. 11. "This beginning of His signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory ; and His disciples believed on Him." The narrative which we have been expounding, notwithstanding its traits of 1 Vid. article by Professor Stanley Leathes on this point in The Expositor, 1877, p. 304. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. 29 unusual beauty and interest, leaves upon the mind a feeling of perplexity and even of deep dissatisfaction. "Why, we very naturally ask, such a display of power, in a case upon the whole so trivial and insignificant ? The urgent need — the strong compassion — which in other cases called forth our Lord's intervention has no existence here. A failure in the wine-supply at a wed- ding festival was surely no great catastrophe, regarded even from a Jewish point of view. The wine, besides, could have been provided otherwise than by wonder- working power, even if its presence had been essential. We cannot feel satisfied with the superficial explanation that our Lord simply designed to show His friendly sympathy with the joyous company. No adequate reason can be found in such a suggestion. His in- auomral miracle seems to demand a far more constrain- ing motive. It is indeed a sign, an indication, or token, or pledge. The Evangelist conceives this work, wrought by the Divine Word in the visible world, as a shadow- ing forth of that which He does in the spiritual. 1 It is, therefore, a manifesto. But of what ? The worker's glory — "glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father." " The outward sign was but a transparency through ^ which the living glory gleamed" — the glory of the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father " full of grace and truth." But we have further to ask, What special aspects of that glory is the miracle designed to set forth ? What special phases of the Messiah's kingdom does it depict? It is well known how Patristic Ex- position has spiritualised all the minutise of the story. 2 1 Die sichtbare That (to Wiytiov) spiegelt hier ein lirovpavtov ab, Scholten. 2 This miracle, it is worthy of notice, stands alone in being assigned to an otherwise prominent day in the Church Calendar — January 6th. This same day, according to several Church Fathers, commemorates also 30 THE WATER MADE WINE AT CAN A. We must guard, however, against all sucli dangerous extravagance, remembering, at the same time, that the excess of this method of exposition does not necessarily invalidate the method itself. It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that in this act of power we have what may be called a parable of the kingdom of heaven. 1 That kingdom is portrayed as one of social happiness and joy. The miracle is wrought in connection with the sanctities of wedded life, and exhibits Him who wrought it as one with the Lord of Paradise, who, when He placed man there, blessed him, and said, "It is not good for man to be alone, let us make him a helpmate for him," — one with that God and Father of all who " placeth the solitary in families," and who, in His redemptive work, is ever bringing nearer the one end, the gathering together of His children into the one great "household of faith." Beecher has well said : " Through the household as through a gate Jesus entered upon His ministry of love. Ever since, the Christian home has been the refuge of true religion. Here it has had its purest altars, its best teachers, and a life of self-denying love in all gladness, which is constituted a perpetual memorial of the nourishing love of God, and a symbol of the great mystery of sacrifice by which love perpetually lays down its life for others. The religion of the synagogue, of the temple, and of the church would have perished long- ago but for the ministry of the household. It was fit the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. Both miracles are regarded as symbols of the Eucharist. This view is embodied in many ancient works of art — especially, in artistic representations on sarcophagi. 1 In confirmation of this, it is worthy of notice that Hippolytus, in alluding to the miracle, has substituted for t»jj/ lo^xu uvtov the Matthajan form (iccaihtixv ruv ovpxvuu. Vid. J. J. Tayler, The Fourth Gospel, p. 76. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. 31 that a ministry of love should begin at home. It was fit, too, that love should develop joy. Joyful love inspires self-denial, and keeps sorrow wholesome. Love civilises conscience, refines the passions, and restrains them. The bright and joyful opening of Christ's ministry has been generally lost sight of. The dark- ness of the last great tragedy has thrown back its shadow upon the morning hour of His life." It seems quite legitimate to learn this lesson from the fact that, as Fuller 1 puts it, " Our Lord showed the virginity of His miracles at a marriage." More especially does this appear when we bear in mind that the five disciples who witnessed it had all previously been disciples of the Baptist. They were thus deeply imbued, doubtless, by the spirit of his teaching. The life of the ascetic, in all probability, appeared to them the very ideal of a life of advanced holiness. The austere dweller in the desert, shunninir the haunts of men, and emerging at times from his retreat to arouse men to a sense of sin and of the need of repentance, had left this impress upon their minds and hearts. But now that they had become followers of another Master, it was fitting, needful, that they should be taught that this lower and preparatory type of Old Testament piety, with its austerities, must give place to one of cheerful fellowship and joy fulness in the Lord. It was thus proclaimed that any separation between a life of holiness and a life of common daily duty can never be recognised ; that, in a word, severity — the mood of the hermit spirit that dwells apart, is not sanctity, — " We need not bid, for cloistered cell, Our neighbour or our work farewell." 1 Holy War. 32 THE WATER MADE WINE AT CANA. But while lessons such as these lie in this inaugural miracle, they do not carry us to the central conception of it as a siem. We must find the kernel of the teaching in the clause " the water now become wine." We have confirmation of this in what the Evangelist afterwards says : 1 " He came therefore again unto Cana of Galilee, where He made the water wine." The point of view, therefore, which he occupies, and desires his readers to occupy, is not the marriage itself, not even the utterance of our Lord to Mary, but specially the work of transmutation. The surroundings and accessories of the incident retire into the back- ground. We are thus confronted with this central idea, one that dominates the whole narrative — our Lord calling forth His power, not at the entreaty of others, but unsolicited, and as it were with the direct design of issuing an inaugural proclamation, to change the lower element into the higher, water into wine. We have not here, it is to be observed, a mere mir- aculous increase of what was wine. The work has no parallel w T ith the Old Testament miracle, the increase or extension at Zarepta of the widow's meal in the barrel and oil in the cruse. Nor has it a parallel with the similar New Testament miracle, the multi- plying of the. few barley loaves and the fishes in the desert place. Here it is the quality rather than the j/ quantity that is affected. The true parallel, although imperfect, is rather rightly to be found in that miracle of Moses — the transforming of the bitter Marah waters into the sweet. The true scope, therefore, of the significance of this sign is to be surveyed from this point, the transmuting, or transfiguring, of a common substance, however precious, into another — even a 1 iv. 16 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. 33 better and a nobler. We have in this way set before us the renewing and ennobling influences of Christ's kingdom ; what, in other words, we understand by regeneration, conversion. This is no mere fancy or far-fetched thought. Its simple naturalness appears the more we consider the circumstances of the case. Let us try, for instance, as best we may, to realise the Evangelist's aim in selecting this incident for record. Lingering in Ephesus, the last of the apostolic band, just as the apostolic age is closing, he has been urgently entreated to indite this fourth Gospel to meet the special wants of the time, — wants arising now that the Church has fairly started on its career in the world, and has already gathered the experience of two gene- rations as to its mission. Looking back through the long vista of these vanished years, he is recalling the most vivid events of a distant, yet ever memorable past. He is giving no continuous narrative, but simply a selection of incidents and teachings suitable to his immediate design. Hence, following upon that prologue, so simple in word, so profound in thought, he pens a few graphic, brief delineations of the early days of his Master's ministry. Amid these first things, there comes to him what indeed he could never have forgotten, the memory of this first sign. It flashes upon him with a new significance, at least a significance which it could hardly have had for him at the time it was wrought. Years were needed — even " the long results of time," to unfold its inner meaning. But all is clear now. The miracle, he now apprehends, was a manifesto, a symbol of the all-transforming power of his Master's truth. It was with this design that it was wrought. A great work as it was in the domain of the natural world, it was a picture of an infinitely greater 34 THE WATER MADE WINE AT CANA. work in that of the spiritual — one wrought, not once for all, but ceaselessly going on, making all things new. Now this exposition is entirely on the line of much that is recorded in the early part of this Gospel. A large part of its teaching gathers significantly around the one idea of change, renewal. For instance, we have the Forerunner's announcement, i. 16, 17 — " Of His fulness we all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses ; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." That is to say, the old dis- pensation of grace has now passed ; it has in Him of whom it testified, and for whose coming it prepared the way, become changed, transmuted into the higher, the infinitely better, the new dispensation of grace. In the light of this passage the first sign wrought by our Lord shines forth in its full significance. What was the first miracle wrought by Moses the servant of God ? It was the turning of water into blood. He stretched out his rod, and the waters of Egypt — the streams, the rivers, the pools, became blood. There w r as "blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone." The divine intervention on behalf of the chosen people began in manifestation of judgment. Now, the divine inter- vention through Him who is a greater than Moses — ■ the Fulfiller as well as the Giver of the law, begins by a gracious turning of water into wine. His ministry is thus declared to be one, not of death, but of life, and His kingdom to be one of eternal joy. It is also sub- stantially the same thought that lies at the root of the incident of the temple-cleansing, narrated in this same chapter, ii. 13-17. Further, as closely allied with this first sign, and standing very near it in its place in the Gospel, we must THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. 35 link on to it the record of the midnight interview of our Lord with Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews. 1 The subject-matter of that mysterious conversation is just what this miracle in symbol represents — the nature and necessity of the new birth — change in the indi- vidual heart — the renewal and ennobling of the whole nature. The text of both is simply this : " Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are passed away ; behold, all things are become new ; " or this other: "Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." Man's spiritual nature must undergo, not a single amendment in certain dispositions, but what may be called a miraculous metamorphosis — a change as wonderful in reality as that which passed over the water at the marriage feast. All this had O actually come to pass in the personal experience of the disciples themselves who witnessed this work of power. Peter — that ardent, manly, resolute and yet wavering natural character of his — became at length changed, the same, yet another, now renewed into apostolic zeal. Nathanael — his simple, guileless, truthful disposition henceforth shining in a new nature, and in consecrated Christian service. John and James, the sons of Zebedee, at one time Boanerges, sons of thunder, in their discipleship became ardent, loving ministers of the gospel of love. So it has ever been. In every case where regeneration has become a reality, the saint may be recognised in the sinner. He is changed, another and yet the same. All the ele- ments of the original natural disposition are not destroyed, but transfigured, henceforth manifesting Christ's glory, because glorified in fellowship with Him. 1 John iii. 1-4. 36 THE WATEIi MADE WINE AT CANA. What thus holds good ^of the individual, holds equally good of humanity as a whole. This aspect of the truth is set forth, not so distinctly indeed, but none the less really, in that other discourse of our Lord's recorded in chap. iv. 1-42 — the con- versation with the Samaritan woman by Jacob's well at Sychar. Throughout it there runs the allusion, more or less evident in the several parts, to the changing, the renewing, the ennobling of the whole world by the gospel of His grace. The world-wide sphere of His mission— of His new kingdom — under- lies it all. The first beginnings of this new spiritual creation, the Evangelist John had himself been privi- leged to see, before he wrote this Gospel. He had been able to trace the growing influence of the Church of Christ in every region of human existence. Human life in the nation, in the family, and in the individual, before his very eyes, had, as it were, been born again, the water, in a word, had become wine — even the wine of the kingdom. It is decidedly fanciful to carry the symbolisms of this incident further. It is indeed held by some that the ruler of the feast in this first miracle, like Caiaphas, the high priest, in reference to the last of this Gospel, was unconsciously prophesying. " Every man setteth on first the good wine; and when men have drunk freely, then that which is worse. Thou hast kept the good wine until now." This somewhat low - toned maxim of worldly wisdom, unworthy as it is, is regarded as having wrapt up in it, entirely con- cealed though it was from the speaker, and as yet unintelligible to the company, an allusion to the con- summation of the Saviour's kingdom in glory. The giving of the world, and the giving of Him who THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. 37 has overcome the world, are thus contrasted. His glory is that He reserves the best for the last. In the end of the days the beatitude receives its fulfil- ment, "Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb." It is improbable that this meaning is actually in the sign. Yet it is hardly possible to avoid noticing these three things. The first time our Lord sat at table with His disciples and friends, He turned water into wine, thus depicting the nature and blessedness of His kingdom. The last time He sat with them, before He went forth to suffer, He passed round the cup, and bade them drink it as a symbol of His shed blood, thus point- ing out the need of personal, individual appropriation of the blessings of His kingdom. The final reference in Scripture to His fellowship with His disciples is this, " I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." Thus the joy of the marriage feast at Cana reaches forward in thought to the joy of heaven — " Where Jesus gives the portion Those blessed souls to fill, The insatiate, yet satisfied, The full, yet craving still." We have seen that this first sign represents the glory of the Incarnate Word. He who created the universe has come to our world to manifest His glory in re-creating it for Himself. We have seen how this conception of the miracle is that which also appears in different forms in the isolated utterances, the dis- courses, and the incidents which in the Gospel cluster around it. These, while belonging to different times and circumstances in our Lord's ministry, seem all \ + 38 THE WATER MADE WINE AT CANA. purposely brought together by the Evangelist at the beginning of his Gospel to emphasise in all these varied ways this truth, Christ Jesus has come to change — to make all things new. "His disciples believed on Him." They transferred, as is implied, their faith on to Him, henceforth and entirely. While genuine before, their allegiance now became confirmed and strong. Their spiritual advance- ment was " from faith to faith." Such is the purpose of all Christ's signs. This purpose is reached only when they are reverently contemplated by the eye of the understanding and the heart. 1 1 Scliolten, Das Evangelium nach Joannes, Kritische historischc Unter- suchung, is worthy of consultation regarding the spiritualising exposition of I Ids miracle, p. 164 If. Dr. Paulus Cassel in his Monograph, already noticed, on the marriage at Cana, has much that is interesting, from an antiquarian point of view, about the representations of the miracle in early art and medieval legend. In the earliest art presentations, e.g. a picture at Mount Athos, the bride- groom appears as grey-headed. This has evidently arisen from some confusion of the Latin "canus," grey, with Cana. It is further remark- able that Joseph is usually introduced into the group ; e.g. on an ivory carving of the fifth century. Our Lord, too, is depicted as touching the water-pot with His rod, as did Moses the rock. In the Latin hymns of the Epiphany there are some striking allusions to this miracle, viz. Mone, Hymni Latini Medii .Evi, i. To ff. II. " Niemand wird ohne Leiden geadelt " Rothe, Stille Stundcn. THE HEALING OF THE COURTIER'S SON. THE HEALING OF THE COURTIER'S SON. (John iv. 43-54.) I. THE EXPOSITION. THIS miracle, the second in the record of the fourth Gospel, is regarded by Bishop Westcott as stand- ing in a very close relation to the first. " The first two," he says, " give the fundamental character of the Gospel, its nature, and its condition ; the next five are signs of the manifold working- of Christ, as the restora- tion, the support, the guidance, the light, and the life of men; the last is the figure of all Christian labour to the end of time." While this arrangement, as to their significance, of the Johannean miracles is just, partial exception may be taken to it in so far as it concerns this one. It is not co-ordinate with the first. As we have sought to show, the first miracle, having an inaugural character, stands apart, symbolising the nature and blessings of the new kingdom, in which all things are changed and made new. " It is the gate Beautiful, by which the inquirer enters the sacred temple of divine truth. It is the illuminated initial which represents, in a pictorial form, the nature and design of the kingdom of heaven as revealed unto men." 1 The second miracle, so far from being closely associated with it, moves rather on the same level with the third. Though not as to locality or chronology, yet as to its place in the Gospel, and, above all, as to 1 Dr. Macmillan. 41 42 THE HEALING OF THE COURTIER'S SON. its inner significance, the second and third miracles are associated in the writer's mind, and are presented to the reader as depicting different aspects of one great central doctrine. The one chiefly teaches that faith is essential to the reception of Messianic blessing ; and the other, as we shall afterwards see, that the Messianic blessing itself consists in forgiveness of sin. The two leading ideas in this pair of signs — the healing of the courtier's son, and the healing of the infirm man at the pool of Bethesda — are, in short, faith and forgiveness. The higher blessings of the dispensation of grace are present in the individual soul when faith is exercised and forgiveness received. The kingdom is without us, if these be not realised within us. The probability, if not indeed the entire justification, of this view will appear as we proceed. "And after two days He went forth from thence into Galilee." This statement throws us back upon ver. 3, where we learn that our Lord, on leaving Judsea, " departed again into Galilee." He resumed, that is to say, the journey which had been interrupted by the incident in Samaria. 1 Moved by the Samaritans' earnest entreaty, He had tarried with them for two days, unfolding in growing measure the mysteries already disclosed to the woman at Jacob's well. Now, however, in accordance with His original intention, He directly repairs to Galilee. His visit to Samaria w T as but an interlude. A reason is assigned for this return to Galilee — " For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet hath no honour in his own country." Quite a thicket of confused opinions has grown up around this state- 1 Hengstenberg calls attention to the fact that a.r.rfKhv is a common word with John. It is used in this Gospel and the Apocalypse more frequently than in any other New Testament books. THE EXPOSITION. 43 ment. So far as our purpose is concerned, we are not called upon to attempt its disentanglement. It is sufficient to say that " for " cannot with aught of reason be transformed into "but" or "although." We cannot evade a difficulty by doing any linguistic violence of this kind. Nor is it a view which com- mends itself, that Juclsea is specified by " His own country." Trench combats this well by saying : " Our Lord's birth at Bethlehem of Judsea was not generally known, and therefore the slight esteem in which He was there held could not have had this for its ground." Besides, the incidental birthplace cannot be irarpi^ — His own country. The word rather means the place where a man has been brought up, and that, too, not so much a district as a town. 1 Now it is Nazareth that was our Lord's own particular town. He is styled the Prophet of Nazareth over and over again. Upon the whole, then, the solution of the difficulty seems to be this. Our Lord repaired to the district of Galilee, but, otherwise than might have been expected, He avoided Nazareth, His original home in Galilee. It had proved itself unworthy to receive Him. In its previous treatment of Him, He Himself (avros) had found the adage to be true, "A prophet hath no honour in his own country." His disciples often afterwards testified to the same experience. Hence Cana was preferred to Nazareth. 2 1 A good case has been made out by Koster in Stud, und Krit. 1862, p. 349, for the view that voirpig in New Testament usage always means native town (Vaterstaclt) rather than native country. What has misled commentators is confounding vurpi's with the Latin patria. Even in the use of the word in Heb. xi. 14 it is the idea of v6ki; that is prom inent. 2 For other explanations, vid. Hofmann's Schriftbeweis, ii. 170, and Keil's Commentary. Schenkel, in his Charalderbild Jesu, only shows the absurdities into which rationalistic exegesis is so prone to fall, when he 44 THE HEA.LING OF THE COUKTIEIt's SON. But, turning to the world-worn adage itself, we find that it, too, is not without its difficulty. Like most sayings of its class, it is the embodiment of a wide — a general experience — " The people's voice the voice of God we call ; And what are proverbs but the people's voice, Coined first, and current made by common choice ? Then sure they must have weight and truth with all." l But how can this people's-voice apply to the experi- ence of Christ ? There are, it is true, obvious reasons why, as a rule, a public teacher fails to find favour where he has been earliest known. The sins and shortcomings of youth, though long ago condoned, are not entirely forgotten. They are still a living force tending to lessen reverence and esteem. It is perfectly easy to understand how this is so in the case of all ordinary teachers of their fellow-men. But it is not easy to understand it in regard to Him who is the one perfect Teacher — to Him of whose youth we read that He grew "in wisdom and stature, and in favour w T ith God and man " — to Him who in every act of His life " did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." Surely there could be no spot where men would accord Him a more hearty welcome than " His own country." But no : in His case it was the perfection, not the im- perfection, of His character and conduct which gave the proverb its significance. The early meanness of His surroundings obscured in later days all else in the eye of His critical countrymen. The Son of Joseph and Mary ; they could not get over that. " Words of grace " to fall from His lips — a call to repentance to says that our Lord's use of the word "prophet" here proves that He did not yet recognise and announce Himself as the Messiah. 1 Vid. Trench on Proverbs, p. 14. THE EXPOSITION. 45 come from Him to them, was more than they could brook. One who for thirty years had borne with them the burden of daily anxiety and want and toil — they could not take Him as their director in the way of holiness. Hence their alienation from Him. His claims, all the more that they were enforced by the stainless beauty of His life, were an offence to them. They knew not this great mystery of godliness, that it is just because the Son of God is one with men them- selves that He is a deliverer stromr to save. Here, then, in the recognised attitude of Nazareth towards Himself, our Lord had a foretaste of what in reality awaited Him at the hands of the whole people of Israel. " He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not." It was in such circumstances as these that, avoiding the familiar home of His youth, He repaired to the other parts of Galilee, and " the Galileans received Him." They cordially welcomed and honoured Him. 1 In this northern province men w r ere less under the influence of the ruling party in Jerusalem. Having frequent friendly relations also with the surrounding Gentiles, they were less enthralled by Jewish prejudice. In their simpler modes of life, too, as husbandmen and fishermen, they had more of that childlike docility which with readiness recognises and accepts the truth. Hence in some degree their favourable reception of our Lord. But a more specific reason is assigned. " The Galileans received Him, havinsf seen all thing-s that He did in Jerusalem at the feast ; for they also went unto the feast." Many Galilean residents, who had been in the path of duty in Jerusalem, had been also in the 1 Compare SsjctoV in the parallel passage, Luke iv. 24, signifying "held in esteem." 46 THE HEALING OF THE COURTIER' S SON. path of privilege. They had enjoyed opportunities of seeing and hearing the new Teacher, and noticing the widespread interest in Himself which He had awakened throughout the capital. On their return, they could not fail to talk much about Him. Hence, when He around whom general interest had gathered appeared in person, He was at once hailed with excited curiosity and eager expectation. They " received Him," and, in this friendly attitude of their hearts, some received " power to become sons of God." " He came therefore again into Cana of Galilee, where He made the water wine." The dwelling, within whose friendly walls, amid the joys of the marriage- festival, He had first " manifested His glory," doubtless a^ain received Him. He was a welcomed guest where before He had been an invited guest — both He and His disciples. While abiding there, His presence be- came widely known. "And here we come upon one of those striking scenes of which we see so many during His career — pictures they seem, rather than histories. Out of the nameless crowd some striking figure emerges — a ruler, a centurion, a maniac, a foreign woman. Under the eye of Christ these personages glow for a moment with intense individuality and then sink back into obscurity. No history precedes them ; no after- account of them is given. Like the pictures which the magic lantern throws upon the screen, they seem to come from the air and to melt again into nothing ; and yet, while they remain, every line is distinct, and every colour intense." 2 Such an instance we have here. The incident is not to be identified with that recorded in Matt. viii. 5-13; Luke vii. 1-10. From Irenaeus downwards, it has been common thus to confound this i i 12. 2 Beecher, Life of Chri.it. THE EXPOSITION. 47 courtier's son with the centurion's servant. Even such commentators as Sanday and Weiss have accepted this view. But the points of difference between the two records are, as Bishop Westcott has shown, far too numerous and manifest to lend it aught of probability. They may at once, indeed, be declared entirely irrecon- cilable. While there are considerable and even some- what striking points of contact, it cannot be overlooked that in the present case the prominent figure is a high official of Herod's household, and almost certainly a Jew, not a heathen centurion of Rome — that intercession is on behalf of a son, not a slave — that Cana is the locality specified, not Capernaum — that the intercession is directly made to Jesus, not through the good offices of the Jewish elders — that the petitioner entreats Christ to come to his house, instead of expressly declaring himself unworthy of such honour — that the malady for which the cure is sought is a fever, not paralysis — that the wdiole incident is illustrative of a strong faith, not of a weak. Such is a summary of the arguments for regarding this miracle as standing distinct from the other. The petitioner is called a nobleman, or king's officer. The "word is indefinite. It may possibly even depict one of royal blood. It is more probable, however, that it designates an officer, either civil or military, in the Court of Herod Antipas — one, consequently, of the royalist party, a prominent figure in the Herodian faction — a Jew too, as has been said, for he is included in the "ye" of ver. 48; and it was the direct interest of Herod, as also his practice, to select high-born Jews as his courtiers. It has been imagined, with what amount of likelihood it is impossible to decide, that this officer may be identified with Chusa, Herod's steward, 1 whose 1 Luke viii. 3, 53. 48 THE HEALING OF THE COURTIER'S SON. wife Joanna was afterwards among those who min- istered to Christ of their substance. If so, we may reasonably suppose that this ministry of hers was the manifestation of her gratitude for the restoration of her child. Manaen, the foster - brother of Herod the tetrarch, 1 has also been claimed as the courtier of our text. This man's son — his only son and heir 2 — was sick. The sickness was febrile. 3 "The close, heat of the borders of the lake of Galilee, with their fringe of reeds and marsh, though then tempered by the shade of count- less orchards and wooded clumps, now wholly wanting, has in all ages induced a prevalence of fever at certain seasons." 4 This plague of Capernaum had brought the stricken one to " the point of death." The father had learned of the Saviour's arrival in Cana. He knew also of the fame which had followed the new Teacher from Judaea, and doubtless he was acquainted with the first sio-n which Cana had already witnessed. It was this knowledge, now touched with the emotion of anxiety, which brought him to the feet of Christ, "praying swift succour for a dying child." " He went unto Him, and besought Him that He would come down and heal his son." The answer is one of stern severity and reproof — " Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will in no wise believe." " Signs and wonders," — the phrase is not infrequent in the Old Testament, or even in the New. It is also quite familiar to classical usage. But in John's writings it stands here alone. It means works which in their teaching are full of significance, and in their manifestation are full of marvel, and in i Acts xiii. 1. • "Ut articulus videtur inferre," Bengcl. 3 Ver. 52. 4 Geikie, i. 536. THE EXPOSITION. 49 both are beyond the range of common experience. 1 Unspiritual men must have these outward things to force their faith, and faith thus forced is little worth. It is with something almost of bitterness that our Lord by this utterance contrasts the favoured Galileans with many of the despised Samaritans who simply " believe because of His word." 5 There may also be implied a tacit reflection on the Court of Herod to which the petitioner belonged. That Court was, we know, char- acterised by an exaggerated and perverted taste for wonder - works, but was entirely unreceptive as to spiritual influence. We learn 3 that Herod " was desir- ous to see Jesus of a long season, because he had heard many things of Him ; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done of Him." His attendants also were charge- able with this same spirit of idle curiosity about signs. They had listened to the Baptist with some amount of reverence, but ultimately when he " did no miracle " — showed no sign, they rejected him, and he was slain. This hardness of heart, which craved for wonders, refused to be touched by the mere enunciation of truth. While in thus testing the courtier who earnestly 1 Vid. Wickelliaus, in loc. Godet says : " There is some bitterness in the accumulation of the two terms. The first describes miracles in the relation to the facts of the invisible world which they manifest ; the second characterises them in relation to external nature, whose laws they defy. The latter term thus brings out forcibly the external character of the supernatural manifestation. The meaning, therefore, is : 'You must have signs ; and, moreover, you are not satisfied unless those signs have the character of wonders.' " Bishop Westcott says : " The two words mark the two chief aspects of miracles ; the spiritual aspect, whereby they suggest some deeper truth than meets the eye, of which they are in some sense symbols and pledges ; and the external aspect, whereby their strangeness arrests attention. ' Sign ' and ' work ' are characteristic words for miracles in St. John. The word here translated ' wonders ' is never used by itself in the New Testament." 8 Ver. 41. s Luke xxiii. 8 ; John x. 41. D 50 THE HEALING OF THE COURTIER'S SON. petitions Him, 1 our Lord was rebuking this unreason- able and unreceptive spirit, He is in no sense to be regarded as disparaging miracles themselves as an evidence and proof of His Messiahship. They have their own place in the rank of evidence. He Himself made frequent allusions to them as His credentials — " The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me." They have therefore a value for every age. "As the Christian rises to a clearer perception of their distinctness and harmony, as he traces their simplicity and depth, as he sees their comprehensive variety and infinite significance, they become an evidence of his faith — an evidence of power and wisdom— which issues, not in the silence of repressed doubt, but in the thanksgiving of grateful praise." : But while reproof lurked in the Saviour's reply to the courtier's prayer, there was also displayed in it tender and loving encouragement. Just as in the first miracle, so in this, the second, something of gentle remonstrance and rebuke simply precedes and prepares for the gracious manifestation of power. It was in no tempting spirit, like that of the Pharisees, that the anxious parent had sought a sign, if indeed personally he had sought it at all : it was rather in the feebleness of his new-born faith. Hence help is near. The thought of impending bereavement gives wings to his prayer. He has no time to analyse and explain his state of mind. The cry of his heart simply finds utterance in the words — words almost of command, "Sir, come down ere my child die" — my little child— in the original diminutive form of the word there is endearment, as 1 " He who came to complain of bis son's sickness, hears of his own," Bishop Hall. 2 Bishop Westcott on Cliaracteristics of the Gospel Miracles, p. 7. THE EXPOSITION. 51 in Jairus' similar word — " my little daughter." " Come down;' Capernaum, situated on the shore, was on a lower level than Cana. In this case it was " human sorrow that was the birth-pang of faith." But the faith was as yet weak — " Ere my child die" The Master's bodily presence he regards as needful for the exercise of His power. Like Martha and Mary at Bethany, the courtier was very far from conceiving that any help could avail if once the spirit had left the tenement of clay. Yet his faith being true, however feeble, is met promptly with the decisive assurance, " Go thy way; thy son liveth." The adage, "Bis dat qui cito dat," was here signally verified. Our Lord gave beyond what was asked. The long distance of five and twenty miles is annihilated so far as His healing power is concerned. He but spake, and it was done. The assurance, so full of repose and power, gave strength to the father's faith. No sign was needed any longer ; " the man believed the word that Jesus spake unto him, and he went his way." His reliance on the spoken word evinced itself in his leisurely return. It was the following day ere he reached his home — using his own animals, instead of hiring others in his haste. 1 But all the time he carried music in his heart. Its refrain was ever this, " Thy son liveth." At length the responsive echo of the bondservants from the sick- room of Capernaum is heard, the announcement that the child lived. But this confirmatory message ex- ceeded even his highest expectations. Apparently looking only for improvement, it may be, even a tedious recovery. " he inquired of them the hour when he began to amend." 2 But the answer brushes all 1 So Webster and Wilkinson. 2 xofi-^oTipo!/ 'iaxtv ; Latin, belle habere; German, feiner hubscher. Et 52 THE HEALING OF THE COURTIER'S SON. fear away — " Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." Left ; it had suddenly and completely gone. It had gone, too, at the very moment that the word had fallen from the Healer's lips. The seventh hour : if this be one o'clock afternoon, as many hold, then the cure is all the more wonderful, effected, as it was, in the time of the glowing heat of day. Thus the father found a restored child, and the child found a better, because a believing father — "Himself believed, and his whole house " — the members of the household in the widest sense — the many dependants of a courtier high in rank. There was light in that dwelling. The Evangelist is careful to note that " this is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judsea into Galilee." 1 "Again" and "the second;" the language is peculiar. It seems to signify the second sign in Galilee which John records, 2 the third being the Feeding; of the five thousand in the desert place. Thus in this threefold manifestation of His power did our Lord vouchsafe to all sincere truth- seekers in Galilee the signs of His Messiahship and of the blessings of His kingdom. II. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. At once setting aside the many fantastic meanings sometimes assigned to the subsidiary parts of this narrative, we none the less feel that it is set before us, as a whole, as a manifesto, like the others, of the king- dom — the kingdom of heaven brought near to men. befmdet sick hiibsch. It is the amanum verbum of a father's choice, tenderly yet fearingly expressing his intense anxiety. 1 TraAiv belongs to ixojViv. It is a favourite word with John. 2 Wickelhaus. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. 53 Its teaching all gathers around the central idea, that the blessings of this kingdom, symbolised in the first miracle, -can be realised in the individual experience only by a living faith. Faith makes these blessings a reality in each personal experience. For instance, we are very forcibly taught by this incident how the dealings of Divine Providence lead a man to faith. In this case the leading was that of domestic affliction. "Das Haus-kreuz soil zu Jesu treiben." 1 In other and happier circumstances this courtier would possibly never have given more than a passing thought to the new Teacher about whom he had heard so much. Perhaps, had he come into contact with Him, he might, for the whiling away of a spare moment, have lent Him an ear — a fashionable man of the world listening to some wandering magician. " But sorrow makes men sincere, and anguish makes them earnest."' In the hour of overmastering anxiety the haughtiest heart will become humble. So it was here. Though as yet he knew it not, the hand of affliction laid upon his son was for the nobleman the guiding hand of divine grace leading him to peace in believing. So it often is. There are many rejoicing in the Church on earth and in the Church in heaven, inasmuch as suffering, personal or relative, has been the means of bringing them to salvation, — many of whom it can be said, " Lord, in trouble have they visited Thee ; they poured out a prayer when Thy chastening was upon them." 8 There are many parents' hearts, which " heaved moaning as the ocean," that have been brought near to the great heart of the heavenly Father through children's sufferings. Of all such it may be said that "a little child has led them "—led them on 1 Hahn. 2 Beecher's Life of Christ. 3 Isa. xxii. 16. 54 THE HEALING OF THE COURTIER'S SON. the way to the heavenly home. Grief to all such at last proves itself as " but joy misunderstood." Once more, the incident — associated not like the first sign, with household joy, but with household sorrow — teaches us the blessedness of household fellowship in the faith. The narrative is invested with peculiar interest as giving us the first direct mention of family- faith. We meet with frequent references to it later ; but this stands first. In the nature of things it could not stand long alone, for faith is a holy flame which kindles whatever it approaches. 1 So soon as individual adherents of the new cause multiplied, whole house- holds, as here, could not fail to be gathered into the one household of faith. Hence throughout the ages the home circle, which is also a Christian circle, has ever been the best guardian and nurse of the truth — the region where Christ Jesus loves to be honoured and obeyed. It has been well said, " What the single banyan pillar stem is to the pillared and multitudinous banyan tree, such is the family to the nation." 1 The figure may be applied with yet greater propriety and stronger force to the Church of the living God. But the prominent, the central aspect of faith which this miracle or sign presents is this — faith in its growth, its steady progress, its stages from weakness unto strength in the individual soul. This is woven into the very texture of the whole narrative. Bede 3 says : " There are degrees in faith as in other virtues : the nobleman's faith began when he came to Christ. It increased when our Lord said, ' Thy son liveth.' It 1 "Glaube tat eine Flamme Gottes, die entziindet was in ihie Nahe kommt," Rothe. - Dr. Rigg, Anglican Theology, p. 233. 3 Quoted by Wordsworth. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. 55 was completed when his servants told him, ' Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.' " Dr. Richard Rothe 1 calls these stages the preparatory, the element- ary, and the high schools of saving faith. Setting out on his journey, the nobleman had a faith that was hardly conscious as yet of its own existence. His musings by the way may have been somewhat of this kind — This is all vain — the sick-bed of my child claims my presence — my proper post is there, and not on this fool's errand — what help can I expect from such a quarter as that to which I am going to apply ? the man whose aid I seek is an impostor, or, at best, a fanatic, whose followers are sounding abroad the praises which he himself disclaims. But then this thought is borne in upon him — What if, after all, this Jesus be the Christ, the long expected Deliverer. If He can help, then my belief will be all His own. Thus can we imagine him swaying between doubt and hope. His soul is in conflict, but the conflict is towards the light. At all events the boy's recovery was to be the chosen sio-n. He needed that staff on which to lean. But the need of it, imperfect as it was, was not felt for long. Feeble faith, once in presence of the Saviour, advances in strength, because He graciously meets and aids it. It gets strength, too, "despite the plucking fiend," by finding voice in prayer. Then, when prayer is answered, faith is confirmed, and its peace is shed abroad in the heart. The fevered heart of the father is healed, as well as the fevered body of the son. " Full assurance of faith " comes at last to be possessed. All these stages are true to the experience of earnest seeking souls. "There are doubts which evil spirits darken with their wings." It is action alone, suggested n^ifVi fVioir WIT,.. 1 Prediyten, i. 94. 56 THE HEALING OF THE COURTIER'S SON. by the amount of faith we may already have, that can put these doubts to flight. Yet there is ever room, at whatever stage we may individually stand, to cry, " Lord, increase our faith." This faith is needful if we would have renewal — the changing from glory to glory, till at the marriage supper of the Lamb we say, "Thou hast kept the good wine till now." We thus learn that the leading idea in this, the first of this pair of signs, is the blessings of our Lord's kingdom, as realised in the individual soul by faith. III. "Deformed, transformed, reformed, informed, conformed." Browning, The Ring and the Book. THE HEALING OF THE IMPOTENT MAN AT BETHESDA. THE HEALING OF THE IMPOTENT MAN AT BETHESDA. (John v. 1-18.) I. THE EXPOSITION. WITH this chapter we enter upon an entirely new section of the fourth Gospel — a section that depicts a new phase of our Lord's work and teaching, and especially the relation in which His ministry stood to the unbelieving spirit of the Pharisees. "After these things:" the words are a common formula of transition. They imply that a gap in the narrative is to be understood — a considerable interval of time between the incidents already recorded and those to which attention is now to be turned. 1 Our Lord now appears in Jerusalem. The city of the Great King is visited by the King Himself. But the event associated with this visit is but an illustration of what the Evangelist at the beginning of the Gospel had declared — " He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." " There was a feast of the Jews." What feast? — the Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, Consecration of the Temple, or Purim % The point, though of great importance in its bearing upon the chronology of the Gospel history, is of little practical interest, and, indeed, is one that apparently cannot be 1 This is the significance, as Liicke was first to suggest, of pit* rxvzct. The singular, (*.&£, rovro, implies immediate sequence. Luke uses the same formula, but not nearly so often. 50 60 THE HEALING OF THE IMPOTENT MAN AT BETHESDA. decided. " Let us be content with the learned ignor- ance of what God hath concealed ; and know that what He hath concealed will not avail us to know." l The arguments, however, seem to point most to the Feast of Purim or Lots. This annual festival com- memorated the preservation of the Jews in Persia from the massacre threatened them through the trucul- ence and cunning of Haman. 2 This festival, indeed, was not strictly a religious one, but it had its own elements of good. It was a celebration of the cove- nant-God's providential care over the nation, and an acknowledgment of the nation's gratitude. Hence there is nothing strange in supposing our Lord's honouring it by His presence and observance. He would thus, as "a son of the commandment," show Himself in true sympathy with the feelings and usages of His people and country. This was a feast, further, in which the poor and the afflicted were specially remembered and cared for, and therefore it was a fitting, a peculiarly appropriate occasion for the miraculous healing at the pool of Bethesda. 3 As has been said, however, the true identification of this feast is impossible. " Jesus went up to Jerusalem." It was a short and rapid visit. He sought the city at the time when it was most thronged, and when, consequently, it was most likely to yield the best opportunity for the doing of His Father's work. " Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches." In this verse, as well as in the first, there is ample room for discussion. " If either you or myself knew not how to be rid of time, we might easily wear 1 Bishop Hall's Contemplations. 2 Esther ix. 3 Vid. Bishop Ellicott's Lectures on the Life of Christ, pp. 134-138. THE EXPOSITION. 6 1 out as many hours in this pool as this poor impotent man did years. But it is edification that we affect, and not curiosity." So said Bishop Hall, somewhat quaintly, in discoursing on this miracle before King- James and his Court. We may make his utterance precisely our own. The site of this pool it is as im-r possible to identify as is the name of the feast with which it is connected. The " is " is no evidence that this Gospel was written before the destruction of the city. It simply represents the vivid recollection of the writer ; and it may further be contended that a pool, being natural more than artificial, would sur- vive the overthrow of the porches erected around it. Bethesda — the best supported reading — means House of Compassion. The pool or plunging bath may have received the name from the medicinal nature of the water, or more probably, from the porches or colonnade for the use of suffering humanity which public benefi- cence had erected. Thomas Fuller says here : " The mercy of God was seconded by the charity of man ; God gave the cure, men built the harbour for impotent persons." 1 The ghauts of the Hindoos at the present day are structures of a very similar character with these Bethesda porches. " In these lay a multitude of them that were sick, blind, halt, withered." What follows to the end of the fourth verse must be ex- punged. A very general consent of experts declares the words to be nothing more than an early gloss upon the narrative. 2 The insertion of the legend of the angelic moving of the waters may readily be 1 Holy War, Book I. chap, xxiii. Bishop Hall uses these words of Fuller's without acknowledgment. 3 Vid. Sandfly, Authorship and Historical Character of the Fourth Gospel, p. 104. 62 THE HEALING OF THE IMPOTENT MAN AT BETHESDA. explained as aiming at filling up what at first seems a gap in the record. The unwarranted addition, how- ever, is fitted to remind us of what in this age many so vehemently ignore, that the virtues and energies of the material universe are not the result of mere dead natural laws. Behind these laws God is ever working, either immediately or by His angelic min- istrants, who fulfil His will. These may be present, though unseen — and in this spurious passage it is not said that the angel was visible, though his power was felt. 1 Ignoring, however, this acknowledged interpola- tion, we have simply to conceive a pool of water, having, or supposed to have, certain medicinal mineral properties — and a group of sufferers who had resorted thither. Any English or German Spa presents sub- stantially the same scene. Here were men afflicted by various bodily maladies seeking relief, — - hoping, in many cases, against hope, that within the hallowed precincts of Jerusalem, and in the pool, to which many cures had been ascribed, they might find " surcease of sorrow." Why did our Lord, it has been asked, repair to such a melancholy spot ? The answer surely is not far to seek. He who is " the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," where else would we expect to find Him ? " As one longs to escape from the Stirling atmosphere of a scene of worldly pomp, with its glitter and unreality, into the clearness of the evening air, so our Lord may have longed to pass from the glitter and unreality of those who held rule in the temple, or who occupied the seat of Moses in their academies, to what was the atmosphere of His life on earth, His real work, among that suffering, 1 Vid. Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, i. 326, and especially Maurice in loc, who defends the passage. THE EXPOSITION. 63 ignorant multitude, which in its sorrow raised a piteous longing cry for help, where it had been misdirected to seek it." 1 Out of the company of crippled wretches, lying on their pallets or rugs, and in Eastern fashion expressing their woes in their wailings, our Lord selects one, and one only. Why He does so we cannot tell. Just as, while He must have seen many funeral processions, the mourners going about the streets, He raised only the widow's son at the gates of Nain as He touched the bier, so in this case one is singled out from his fellows for healing — only one, some moral reason doubtless justifying the choice. " A certain man was there, which had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity." We are not to understand that the man was thirty-eight years of age, and that con- sequently his nervous prostration or paralysis was h congenital. No, his disease, as is afterwards implied, was the penalty of his sin. It was his malady, there- fore, that was of this long duration. His life had been much longer still. He was a conspicuous figure among his " companions in tribulation " — possibly not only for the length of his suffering, but also for the greatness of his sin. But the crisis which was to issue in the double cure was near. " Wouldest thou be made whole ? " The question thus addressed to him appears at first sight a very needless one. The answer might well have been taken for granted. The man's extremity, as well as his presence there, amply testified to his desire, his yearning after healing. Even supposing that his immediate purpose was to gain alms by the display of his disease, and so to make a sorry livelihood out of his misery, the desire for restored health, while it may have been dormant 1 Ederslieim, i. 464. 64 THE HEALING OF THE IMPOTENT MAN AT BETHESDA. within his breast, could not in any sense have been dead. The Divine Healer " knew that he had been now a long time in that case" We have here one of the many instances in which this Evangelist reveals the motive of his Master's actions. He thus, as the bosom disciple, — the eVtcrTr;0jo?, — shows himself thoroughly familiar with the thoughts and aims of his Lord. 1 And it was this knowledge that prompted the inquiry. "He knew what was in man." He "could thoughts unveil e'en in their dumb cradle." His question, there- fore, had the design of turning the man's thoughts in upon himself, and so leading him up through awakened interest to a certain measure of receptive faith. For we have to observe that as yet this faith does not appear to have had any existence. The man is not in that attitude of curiosity and hopeful expectancy which the nobleman of the preceding miracle assumed. He has asked nothing. He has no glimmering even of hope as he lies helpless in the presence of the unknown and sympathetic visitor. He is looking rather, in so far as he anticipates anything at all, to others. "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled," — it was therefore an intermittent spring, — " to put me into the pool ; but while I am coming, an- other steppeth down before me." The sanative virtues of the pool, when it became active, disappeared very quickly. "It would seem," besides, "that the space covered by its activity was only large enough to con- tain one person at a time." 2 Hence the poor cripple who stood most in need of help w r as the least likely to receive it. The greater activity, if not the greater energy, of the others always forestalled him. The 1 Vid. iv. 1, vi. G, 15, Gl, ix. 35, and many other passages. 2 Sanday, p. 105. THE EXPOSITION. 65 rapid action needful to throw him in, as the word implies, he could not command. His, then, was the spirit of entire despondency — the resignation of gather- ing despair. He was without friendly aid to take him down the narrow descent. He was possibly also shunned, being regarded as a sinner above others, only receiving the due reward of his deeds. He as yet, above all, was poor in this, that he knew not the help that was to be found in Him who is Son of God and Son of Man. All, however, was soon to be changed. The question, in its tones of compassion and in its accompanying look of pity, awoke within his seared heart the first right consciousness of sin and the recognition of offered mercy. Hope dawned within him like a summer's morn. Thus the command came to him in authority and power, "Arise, take up thy bed, and walk." Thereupon rolling up and carrying the pallet or sleep- ing mat which had so long carried himself, " straight- way the man was made whole." His was restoration immediate and complete and visible. " Now it was the Sabbath on that day." It was indeed a Sabbath work that had been done by Christ Jesus ; and it was no violation of Sabbath sanctity that He had enjoined. Not so, how T ever, thought " the Jews " — the expression in John's usage/means Christ's enemies, the Jewish authorities. They were offended. Appointed guardians of the public morals, they were not so much rightly zealous for the law itself as over- zealous for its mere letter. They had overlaid its precepts with countless explanations and additions, and these they defended with all the fanaticism of ecclesi- astical pedantry and pride. The Sabbath had thus in their hands become a day of bitter bondage. Many of 66 THE HEALING OF THE IMPOTENT MAN AT BETHESDA. the irksome prohibitions as to Sabbath work had refer- ence to the carrying of burdens. Even a staff was regarded as an unlawful burden for even a blind man to cany. It is said that so much of this trivial absurdity still remains, that there are strict modern German Jews who throw aside their staffs on the seventh day of the week. It is easy to understand, then, how the healed cripple in this case, openly carry- ing his rug under his arm, was a cause of grievous offence. The authorities were, or professed to be, scandalised at his conduct. He, as well as his Healer, had been guilty, they held, of an ostentatious con- travention of Sabbath law. But, in reply to all remonstrance or rebuke, he can only emphatically declare, " He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk." He knows nothing as to the right or wrong of the matter. "Hair- splitting distinctions " as to the lawful and the unlawful are in no way in his line. It is enough for him that He, whose work was one of power, has also a word full of authority. On this simple assur- ance he rests in peace. His benefactor's direction cannot be one that is wrong. But Jewish malice, now thoroughly roused, went much further than mere murmuring and complaining. " They asked him, Who is the man that said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk ? " The question in the form in which it is put is designedly scornful. Malignity, too, lurked under its pretended innocency. 1 They did not ask to know, for they knew already* The whole city, indeed, was by this time ringing with Christ's fame, and it was precisely this that accounted for the gathering hostility against Him. 1 " Quserunt non quid mirentnr, seel quid caluinniciitur," Crothis. THE EXPOSITION. 67 But the man himself was as yet in ignorance. The seclusion caused by his paralysis, and possibly by his sin, may account for this. His hermit - spirit dwelt apart. Besides, it was only for a passing moment that his eye had rested upon his helper and friend, and in the tumultuous excitement of his joy his mental faculties may naturally have suffered from confusion, all the more " for Jesus had conveyed Himself away, a multitude being in the place." This, in fact, is the explanation of the man's ignorance which the Evangelist gives. He could not point out his deliverer, because, as a strong swimmer, He had glided out of notice, passing through the surging waves of the crowd (itjevevae). Not only do we learn that our Lord withdrew Himself from the gaze of idle curiosity, we find also that the healed man did the same. Avoiding what he knew would await him, the keen inquiry and the scornful enmity of those in authority, he repaired to the temple. The house of God rather than the market- place was the spot in true accord with his newly-found thankfulness and joy. He was there, we may surely conjecture, devoutly giving God the glory. Like the cripple whom Peter and John afterwards healed in their Master's name at the Beautiful Gate, he was found " entering into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God." But, however much we may ascribe to him a thankful, a worshipping spirit, it is clear that he stood in need of a word of caution and exhortation. And this, at length, is graciously vouchsafed. " Afterward," at a later part of the same day, we may suppose, " Jesus fmdeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole : sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee." 68 THE HEALING OF THE IMPOTENT MAN AT BETHESDA. Bodily restoration is here assigned by the Saviour Himself as a reason, a motive, for renewal of the soul. See to it that there be henceforth a quitting of sin, now that the body, which had been the instrument of sin, is made whole. And there is added the threaten- ing in loving-kindness — the warning against the worse thing ; not a more pronounced development of his malady, but the living paralysis and death of the soul. The man's conscience is touched. His ailment had in some way been the outcome of his transgression. He acknowledges this, and in doing; so receives a double cure. Body and soul are alike healed by " the Good Physician." He no longer uses the freedom restored " for an occasion to the flesh." The man, healed, and now converted, having learned who his friend and deliverer was, " went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole." It is entirely wrong to suppose (as Schleier- macher, Wickelhaus, and others do) that, irritated by the words of gracious severity just addressed to him, and still clinging to his self-righteousness, he acted thus out of malice. It is wrong also to see in this procedure of his merely an unquestioning obedience to the authorities whom he had always regarded with reverence. What he did, he did out of his overflowing gratitude and joy. So far from denouncing his bene- factor, he was lovingly trying to spread abroad His fame. He could not doubt, whatever his first im- pressions had been about them, that the Jews, like himself, would be won to the side of this new Teacher and Wonder-worker. Mistaken then he w r as, but he was not blameworthy. He did not understand the hardness of these cold official hearts. These purists — false guardians and corrupt expositors of God's law — THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. 69 preferred their own formal, lifeless traditions to all spiritual good. " For this cause did they persecute Jesus, because He did these things on the Sabbath." Here, then, we see their enmity now openly aroused. Henceforth it slept not. It at last found utterance in the cries: "Crucify Him, crucify Him — not this man, but Barabbas — His blood be on us and on our children ! " The historical significance of this sign, therefore, is this, that, along with the crowning sign, the raising of Lazarus from the tomb, it was the direct occasion of our Lord's persecution and death. II. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. As in other cases, so here, and perhaps especially here, it is vain to adduce and appraise all the vagaries of Patristic and even Protestant expositions of this miracle. The allegorical treatment of it is indeed strangely attractive, but just on that account it is dangerously seductive. It has been held that the pool symbolises the Jewish religion — the man, the Jewish people — the thirty-eight years of his suffering, the thirty-eight years of Israel's punishment in the wilderness — the healing only of one man, the restricting of Old Testament blessing to the one chosen nation — the stirring; of the waters, the coming of Christ Jesus and the consequent perturbation of the Jewish people. These are samples — there are many others — of the puerile conceits into which even pious Bible - study may readily fall. It is interesting in this same connection, too, to notice the frequency with which this Gospel incident appears in liturgical paintings of the Roman catacombs. Its design is apparently to 74 THE HEALING OF THE IMPOTENT MAN AT BETHESDA. power has come — walk before God with new hopes, new happiness, new spiritual activities and aims, and ever listening to their Saviour's voice, " Go, sin no more." This exposition is borne out by almost all the teaching which follows in this chapter. The quickening energy of Christ Jesus is that which He Himself pro- ceeds to expound. He is the awakener and strengthener of morally helpless humanity. The next pair of signs open up for us a new aspect of the Saviour's work and kingdom. It depicts the relation in which He stands, not to the individual soul, but to His Church, the consecrated company of His saints. 1 1 The view we have taken of the significance of this miracle is that which Scholten suggests, when he says : " Die Heiligung einer dreisig jtihrigen Lahmung beim Teich Bethesda ; v. 1-14 wild in Verbindung gebracht mit der geistigen Wirksamkeit Jesu als des Erweckers des sittlich gelahmten Lebens der siindigen Menschlieit ; vers. 20-26, welch e deutlich als das grossere Zeichen in der sinnlichen Thatsache abgebildet ist. (Vid. Das Evangelium nach Johannes, p. 162.) IV. 1 Ecce panis angelorum, Factus cibus uiatorum, Vere panis filiorum, Non mittendus canibus. In figuris prcesignatur, Cum Isaac immolatur, Agnus paschai deputatur, Datur manna patribus. Bone pastor, panis vere, Jesu, nostri miserere, Tu nos bona fac uidere In terra viventium. Tu qui cuncta scis et vales, Qui nos pascis hie mortales, Tuos ibi commensales, Coharedes et sodales Fac sanctorum ciuium." Thomas Aquinas, De Corpore Christi. " quam sanctus panis iste I Tu solus es, Jesu Christe, Caro, cibus, sacramentum, Quo non majus est inventum. Salutare medicamen, Peccatorum relevamen, Pasce nos, a malis leva, Due nos, ubi est lux tua." Carmen quoddam Johannis Hrs, de sancta cmna. THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. 75 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. (John vi. 1-14.) T I. THE EXPOSITION. HIS is the only miracle which all the evangelists record. Indeed it is one of the comparatively few points at which the four narratives with peculiar closeness touch each other. In the fourth Gospel, however, the incident is introduced, not in strict chronological order, not as serving to give complete- ness to the story of our Lord's sayings and doings, but simply as forming a natural introduction or a companion-picture to what follows— Christ's discourse regarding Himself as the true Bread of Life. Bearing this in mind, we need not be astonished to find that an interval of several months, indeed, well-nigh an entire year, is to be understood between chaps, v. and vi. 1 "After these things." This formula, as we have already seen, is a quite general one. Marking, as it does, no more than transition, it stands for "some- time afterwards, on another occasion." "Jesus went i Ewald thinks that something must have fallen out— that a section of the hook has been lost. Jokann. Schriften, p. 221. But as Dr. Sanday says Authorship and Historical Character of the Fourth Gospel, p. 117, "There is not the slightest documentary evidence for sucli a supposition ; and really the abrupt transition is only in accordance with the practice of the Evangelist. It brings out clearly the eclecticism of his narrative which does not profess to be continuous ; but while it treats the particular sections selected with great minuteness of detail, leaves the links of con- nection between them wholly vague and indefinite." 78 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias." John alone gives the lake this latter name. " Thirty years earlier, when the other evangelists wrote, Herod's new town of Tiberias had not yet succeeded in giving its name to the lake, and superseding its older designation." 1 The scene of Messianic activity is thus suddenly shifted from Judaea back to Galilee. In this Galilaean district, as we know, a more favour- able reception was usually accorded the new Teacher than in Judaea. 8 Here, then, " a great multitude followed Him." They thronged around Him. He had already become a celebrity in their eyes ; hence they hailed His appearance in their midst with general curiosity and expectation. They followed Him " be- cause they beheld the signs which He did on them that were sick." Many of these signs, though un- noticed by John, are recorded by the other evan- gelists. These were works of an infinite power and love wrought upon those who were afflicted in body. He cured them, seeing in the ravages of disease among men the visible representation of the ravages of sin in the soul. " And Jesus went up into the mountain," the hill country in the neighbourhood, "and there He sat with His disciples." The purpose of His thus retir- ing with His little band of chosen followers is stated by Mark. " Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile," Pie had said to them ; " for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat." It was therefore for bodily rest that for a season this solitude was sought. We have to remember that the disciples had just returned from their first mission, and had rejoined 1 Farrar's Messages of the Books, p. 114. * Vid. e.g. chap. iv. 45. THE EXPOSITION. 79 their Master. He now doubtless desired to hear from their own lips of their success. The Forerunner's death, further, had just been announced, and under all the depression which it occasioned this solitude was doubly needed and desired. But apart from any such immediate reasons, we know that often the midnight solitude of the everlasting hills in the case of our Lord Himself " witnessed the fervour of His prayer," and His wrapt fellowship with things unseen and eternal. But this season of rest and contemplation was in this instance of very short duration. The great national feast of the Jews, the Passover, was nigh. Preparatory to its celebration in the Holy City, there were troops of pilgrims from all parts of the country drawing near to the capital. Especially were there many such companies thronging the great highways of Capernaum. Hence " the great multitude" mentioned in ver. 5. Our Lord had gone by water. They, on the other hand, had gone by land, taking a longer and a circuitous route. At length they had made up to Him. And now He "lifted up His eyes and saw " that He and His disciples were no longer alone. A multitude, weary and hungry by the greatness of the way, had gathered around Him. Turning then at once from private meditation and fellowship, He com- passionated their helplessness. He " saith unto Philip, Whence are we to buy bread (or loaves), that these may eat?" From what place, or, it may be, from what fund is the needed help to come ? As the other evangelists tell us, the day was begin- ning to decline, it was "wearing away;" hence the harsh, or, at least, the inconsiderate counsel of the disciples could not be taken— " Send the multitude 80 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. away, that they may go into the towns and country round about and lodge and get victuals." The dis- ciples' Master was more tenderly thoughtful than they. Besides, He had His own purpose in view. This per- plexing crisis presented the opportunity of feeding, out of His exhaustless fulness, both the body and the soul. But why was the question put to Philip ? Why was he singled out from among the disciples by having this inquiry addressed to him specially ? The answer is not simply because he happened to be standing nearest to our Lord at the moment. This solution appears far too superficial. Nor, again, because he may be sup- posed to have had charge of the commissariat, the " res alimentaria," of the little band. It was rather Judas that was purse-bearer, and to whom it consequently pertained to make such purchases as were needful. Nor is the explanation, favoured by Trench, to be sought in the fact that the scene of this miracle was in the neighbourhood of Bethsaida, and that Philip, belonging originally to a town of that name, was likely to know better than others the localities where food could most easily be procured. This, indeed, would seem a very satisfactory supposition, were it not clear that there were two Bethsaidas, and that the Bethsaida of Philip's birthplace was not that of the miracle. The real explanation is given by the Evangelist himself. " This He said to prove him : for He Himself knew what He would do." It was not that our Lord needed any information for His guidance. He was Himself in no perplexity. As Augustine has put it, " It was not bread He sought from Philip, but faith." He knew what to do, and had already resolved to do it. He asked, therefore, in this case, as in other precisely similar cases, solely for the sake of him to whom the THE EXPOSITION. question was put. It was in no tone of gaiety, almost of sportiveness, as Godet strangely supposes, that the words fell from His lips. The design was in all seriousness to test, and by testing, to bring out what measure of faith or of unfaith was in His follower, and so to lead him to a right knowledge of himself. But this is only putting the solution of our problem one stage back. The inquiry at once suggests itself, Why did Philip need thus to be proved? Were there elements, either in his character or in his circumstances, which rendered the testing of him more expedient, more necessary, than that of any other of the disciples? Now it is not altogether easy to give answer here. Amid the very scanty notices which we have of Philip there is hardly sufficient material for forming a definite estimate of him. Yet John has reserved one or two reminiscences of him which may be significant of his character. 1 Cherishing a sincere and simple faith, he at the v same time appears to have been constitutionally dis- trustful, when confronted with difficulties — a man easily cast down, prone to despondency. Want of self-reliance seems in him to have been associated with slowness of spiritual perception. It has been supposed, possibly on this account, that he was the disciple who urged the plea, "Suffer me first to go and bury my father," and who needed to be promptly reminded of higher duties thus, " Let the dead bury 1 " The number of distinct persons portrayed by St. John is a singular mark of the authenticity of his narrative. In the Synoptic Gospels no one stands out from the apostles except St. Peter, and perhaps the sons of Zebedee ; but in St. John we have characteristic traits of St. Andrew, 1. 41 ff., vi. 8, 9, xii. 22 ; St. Philip, i. 44 ff., vi. 5, xii. 21 ff., xiv. 8 f. ; St, Thomas, xi. 16, xiv. 5, xx. 24 ff. ; St. Jude, xiv. 22." Vid. Westcott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, p. 282. F 82 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. their dead : follow thou Me." Whether this supposi- tion have aught of probability or not, we do at least know that when the Gentile proselytes came to him saying, " Sir, we would see Jesus," he did not take upon himself the entire responsibility of introducing them. He first, with apparently characteristic diffi- dence, consulted with his brother disciple and towns- man, Andrew. Yet again, it is Philip whom we find saying, " Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." 1 He had failed to understand what Jesus had been saying about His Father and their Father, and about His going to His Father's house and their following Him thither. Light as yet was hardly even glimmering upon his spirit. Hence it was to him that the reproof was specially directed — "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip ? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou, Show us the Father % " Now it is in perfect accord with these notices of him that Philip here appears as standing in need of proving. But he did not abide the testing. He failed in insight into his Master's power, and in trust in His willingness to exert it. At all events he merely says : " Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one may take a little." What a disappoint- ing and alienating answer to our Lord's inquiry ! Not the faintest expectation of a work of power is disclosed in it. Natural means are alone thought of, and there is no help to be found in them. But in his apparently constitutional diffidence, Philip seems prudently to have had recourse to his friend Andrew, just as we find him doing in chap. xii. He inquired what way out 1 Chap. xiv. 8. THE EXPOSITION. 83 of the difficulty occurred to him. " One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto Him, There is a lad here, which hath five Barley-loaves, and two fishes : but what are these among so many?" Although the disciple to whom Jesus had immediately addressed Himself had no suggestion of any kind to offer, yet one out of the circle of disciples (such is the force of the eh eK toov jxaOrjrSyv avrov) had something to say ; yet it was but little apparently to the point. He could only speak of one little lad who had any provisions at all. His stock, probably carried for sale, was but slender. He had only five cakes of barley-bread — cakes such as that which in Gideon's dream " tumbled into the host of Midian." It was but a mean kind of fare — sometimes contemptuously spoken of as food of cattle rather than of men. It was given to Roman soldiers, instead of wheaten bread, when they were undergoing punishment. 1 In addition to this coarse and meagre bread, the lad had "two fishes" — salt fish used as a relish, for this the term implies. 2 What, indeed, were these among so many ! Nothing but an evidence of general and entire destitution — a reminder that the place was desert, and that no help was nigh. But He who is the Son of God was about to " prepare a table in the wilderness." Andrew, in calling attention to the meagre supply, was possibly giving utterance, not simply to despondency, but also to a hardly conscious, half-formed hope within his breast, that his Master would somehow graciously 1 Vicl. Wetstein. 2 Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, i. 682, has an interest- ing discussion on the o^xpiov, the pickled fish eaten with bread, like our sardines or the caviare of Russia. The word was probably a familiar Galilean word, and therefore an instance of the local knowledge of the author of the Gospel. 84 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. interpose. If so, it would appear that it was his faith, however imperfect, which made the working of the miracle possible ; for we are told elsewhere that where no co-operation of faith existed, there no miracle took place. At all events the command is given, " Make the people (av6pa)Trov<;) sit down," that is, the people as a whole. " So the men (avSpes) sat down, in number about five thousand," that is to say, the men as distinguished from the women and children. These latter in a paschal caravan may be presumed to have been few in number, and they appear to have been served pro- miscuously. The multitude being thus arranged in companies, all confusion was avoided, and none were in danger of being overlooked. They were in groups like garden plots ; 1 and they were reclining on " the green grass," as the more vivid and pictorial Gospel of Mark tells us. It was in the month Nisan, the so-called month of flowers. "There was much grass in the place ; " and in the latter end of the spring season the rains, which had but recently fallen, had left its verdure unimpaired. The spot, Dean Stanley believes, 2 may almost exactly be identified. There, where the tall grass broken down by the feet of the multitude so as to make something like natural couches for the way-worn guests, they waited. All had wonder- ing expectations. Incredulity doubtless prevailed; yet something like faith may have been awakened in some breasts. We can most readily sympathise with the doubters ; for, as Bishop Hall says, " Nothing is more easy than to trust God when our barns and coffers are full, and to say, ' Give to us our daily bread,' when we have it in our cupboard. But when we have nothing, 1 irpxoiui in the other evangelists. 8 Vid. Sinai and Palestine, p. 381. THE EXPOSITION. 85 when we know not how or whence to get anything, then to depend upon an invisible bounty, this is a true and noble act of faith." Such a height, a nobility of faith, however, some of the disciples at least may have approached, or even now attained. "Jesus therefore took the loaves." He had previously said, "Bring them hither to Me." He needed not to have done so. The loaves might have been awanting, and yet the supply might have been given. But here, as in all similar cases, for disciplinary purposes, the outgoing of His power was associated with some material visible thing, however humble and inadequate. " And having given thanks, He distributed to them that were sat down; likewise also of the fishes as much as they would." The thanksgiving was nothing more than the ordinary grace before meat, the well - known formula familiar to every Jewish household, " Blessed art Thou, Jehovah our God, King of the world, who causest to come forth bread from the earth." This word of thanksgiving became now the creative word of multi- plying. God's gift in these few common loaves became now bread from heaven ; and it was " received with thanksgiving, for it was sanctified by the word of God and prayer." The disciples are represented by the other evan- gelists as the chosen means of communication between our Lord and the people ; and the provision in their hands, like the meal in the barrel and the oil in the cruse of the widow of Sarepta, failed not. There was enough and to spare. "They did all eat and were filled." " When they were filled, He saith unto His disciples, Gather up the broken pieces which remain over, that nothing be lost." John alone records this command, although the other evangelists imply it, 86 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. telling us that it was obeyed. This gathering up of the fragments has been adduced as a strong mark of truth in the narrative. The command is what might be expected from our Lord. He would enjoin upon His followers the duty of carefulness. " We do not find," it has been said, " the owner of Fortunatus' purse careful against extravagance." But it is other- wise with Him who, even in the form of a servant, manifested Himself as Lord of all. He would teach His people that they must so act in dealing with all His gifts, that it may be thoughtfully said of them — " Frugality and bounty too, These diff'ring virtues meet in you." A Christian who is habitually thriftless, is one who belies his profession, because he disobeys his Master. Such is the lesson incidentally suggested by this part of the narrative. As Dryden has put it — " Thus Heaven, though all-sufficient, shows a thrift In His economy, and bounds His gift." But there appears yet a further design in our Lord's command. The gathering of the broken pieces brought out into all the greater prominence the reality of the miracle. More was gathered at the end than had existed at the beginning. " So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley-loaves, which remained over unto them that had eaten." Thus a little had become much ; a hopeless scarcity had been exchanged for overflowing abundance. As in the first sign at Cana of Galilee, men saw creative power in reference to quality, — water transformed into wine, — so now they beheld it in reference to quantity. But it was plain bread still, THE EXPOSITION. not luxury, but plenty ; yet only barley-loaves to the end. Yet another design may be found in the gather- ing up of the fragments. There were twelve baskets full, one evidently for each disciple. There was thus illustrated what Lightfoot tells us "was the custom and rule, that when the Jews ate together, they left something to those that served ; which remnant was called Peah." The disciples further, in carrying out the orders of their Lord in the spirit of self-denial, — apparently distributing to others, reserving no share for themselves, — were now to receive personally their due reward. Their own wallets were to be replen- ished. Provision was thus secured for their own needs in their continued journey. It was a common practice of the Jews when travelling to carry with them food- baskets. In this way they avoided all ceremonial pollution, such as might otherwise be incurred. These poor baskets of wicker or of willow are designated here and also in the Synoptics by one name (kq^lvoi). It was the Jewish name. When, however, we turn to the allied miracle— that of the feeding of the four thousand, recorded by Matthew and Mark, the baskets there mentioned appear under a different, apparently a more general name {airvp&es). This may seem a small and trivial point. But in reality it is not so. The careful, discriminating use of these two terms suo-cmsts that the multitudes in the two cases were of different nationalities. 1 Thus this distinc- tion, one which the text neither of the Authorised nor of the Revised Translation has recognised, is one of considerable interest, and even of apologetic importance. The narrative of the sign closes thus : ' When, Vid. Bishop Lightfoot, Revision of New Testament, p. 71. 88 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. therefore, the people saw the sign which He did, they said, This is of a truth the prophet that cometh into the world." The confession of their faith, at least for the time being, was this, that He who had given them bread of wonder in the wilderness, as did Moses, was in reality the prophet like unto Moses, unto whom the people should hearken. 1 Nay more, they declared Him in yet clearer way to be " The Coming One," He who had been coming all those weary centuries of waiting that lay behind them, the King of Israel, the Deliverer of the world. 2 Thus it was that in the recognition of this sign, the faint, glimmering light of Messianic hope burst forth, though it proved but momentarily, in this Jewish multitude into a clear, bright flame. 3 II. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. Augustine's exposition of this sign is upon the whole singularly disappointing. It is both meagre and fanciful. His introduction, however, is extremely 1 Deut. xviii. 15. 2 Vid. John xi. 27. i 3 The narrative of this miracle in the fourth Gospel has often heen cited as supplying a remarkable number of what are called undesigned coincidences. Blunt's Scriptural Coincidences, pp. 264-267, is well worthy of consultation here. It also supplies many evidences in proof of the writer being himself an eye-witness. Vid. Stanley Leathes' Witness of St. John to Christ, p. 292 ; and on the evidence of his minute acquaintance with localities, vid, Luthardt, Ursprung des Joann. Evangelium, p. 138. A note by Eev. A. Carr, M.A., in the Expositor, 1890, p. 79, on Philip's calculation as to the two hundred denarii is interesting. It was no hap- hazard guess, but the result of a swift and shrewd calculation. The note closes thus : " Our Lord's appeal to Philip may imply that such matter- of-fact calculation was characteristic of him. There was a want of imagination and of the faith which needs imagination. The very power to calculate and make shrewd provision for the future may have been the element in his character which needed the divine rebuke of the miracle which followed." [the significance of the sign. 89 worthy of citation. " Let us," he says, " interrogate the miracles themselves, what they speak to us con- cerning Christ : for they have their tongue, if they be understood. Since Christ is the Word of God, every deed of that Word is to us a word. Therefore, as concerns this miracle, since we have heard how great it is, let us search how profound it is : let us not delight ourselves with the mere outside, but also explore its depth. This, which we admire on its outer side, hath something within. We have seen, we have beheld, a great, a glorious, an altogether divine work, which could not be wrought save only by God : from the thing done we have praised the Doer. But in like manner, as if we were anywhere inspecting a fair piece of writing, it would not be enough that we should praise the writer's skilful hand, that he formed the letters even, equal, and graceful, unless we should also read what he by them would make known to us : so, he who does but look at the thing done in this miracle is delighted by the beauty of the deed, and moved to admiration of the Artificer ; but he who understands, does, as it were, read it. It is one way in which we look at a picture ; another at a writing. When thou seest a picture, this is all, to see, to praise : when thou seest a writing, this is not. all: thou art put in mind also to read it." 1 This miracle, then, being a writing as well as a picture, let us try to read it, that so we may learn its meaning. Following these wise directions of the great Church Father, rather than his own ofttimes wayward practice of them, let us learn what this sign says. Now, however much we may seem to put ourselves out of harmony with present-day modes of thought, 1 Homilies on St. John's Gospel, No. xxiv. 90 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. we need not hesitate to hold that this sign, like its companion -picture, the first sign, is in a very real sense a representation of that infinite Providence which gives to the children of men the fruits of the earth in their season. We feel that to deny this is to do violence to the true instincts of the Christian heart. Year by year the eye of faith sees the repeti- tion of this work of power in the whitened autumn fields. The single grain of corn is cast into the fur- rows : in due time it is multiplied into the ripened ears. Thus, while the eye of contemplation sees with wonder this annual miracle in nature, the medita- tion of the heart finds this adoring and thankful ex- clamation to be its proper utterance — " Thou openest Thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." But while not unmindful of this lesson, we must turn from it to the meaning proper. Like the others in this Gospel, this miracle is a symbol of our Lord's glory, not in nature, but in His kingdom. Like that which follows it and is so closely associated with it, it declares, further, the glory of Christ Jesus in His king- dom, in relation, not to the individual soul alone, but also, and chiefly, to His Church, — the consecrated com- pany of those who truly bear His name, — those who, feeding on Him now as the Bread of Life, shall at last find the beatitude realised, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." It was a miracle wrought on behalf of the multitude, both for their help and for their instruction. But it had its significance above all for the little band of immediate disciples, in view of the work to be committed to them. We cannot, of course, follow those expositors who THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. 9 1 discover the most fantastic mystical meanings even in the minutest details. The desert place, the five thousand, the sitting on the ground, the much grass, the loaves and fishes, the lad who supplied them, the baskets, — all these have been pressed into the service of highly allegorical interpretation. 1 Nor can we further accept the view, so subtly and persuasively maintained by Newman, 2 that in the discourse of our Lord following on this miracle there is the teaching of the eucharistic presence. It is difficult to conceive such a view, at least as receiving any support in the narrative of the miracle itself. It is therefore in no sense safe to go further than this, that although the Lord's Supper had not yet been instituted, the idea that underlies it is probably present throughout a considerable part of the discourse, and may therefore be assumed to be also present in the sign which the discourse is manifestly made to expound. Edersheim seems well to have caught the spirit of our Lord's work, thus : " The Passover was nigh, of which He was to be the Paschal Lamb, the Bread which He gave, the Supper, and around which He would gather those scattered, shepherdless sheep into one flock of many ' companies,' to which His apostles were to bring the bread He had blessed and broken, to their sufficient and more than sufficient nourishment; from which, indeed, they would carry the remnant - baskets full after the flock had been fed, to the poor in the out- lying places of far-off heathendom. And so thoughts 1 Vid. Lampe, in loc. Even lie himself has made tins curious discovery —the foreshadowing of Wyclif and Hus in the lad with the loaves. Attention may here be called to a very different kind of treatment of the miracle in Abbott's Philochristus—a, most unsatisfactory and unnatural attempt to explain it away, and to empty it of all its import. 2 Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vi. p. 136. 92 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. of the past, the present, and the future must have mingled — thoughts of the Passover in the past, of the last, the Holy Supper in the future, and of the deeper inward meaning and bearing of both the one and the other ; thoughts also of this flock, and of that other flock which was yet to gather, and of the far-off places, and of the apostles and their service, and of the provision which they were to carry from His hands — a provision never exhausted by present need, and which always leaves enough to carry thence and far away." 1 By recognising, therefore, a general reference of this kind as lying in the sign, though it be lying only in the background, we put ourselves in line with the almost universal consensus of the Church. We find such an allusion to the Lord's Supper, for instance, in the artistic portrayal of this miracle in the catacombs of Rome, and also in those of Alexandria. The artists in the service of the Church, " On those walls subterranean, where she hid Her head in ignominy, death, and tombs," clearly understood this work of power as an anti- cipation of the great central rite of the Christian religion. 2 This view, though in most cases greatly exaggerated in the statement of it, has held its ground ever since. But to be more specific, the truth which our Lord's discourse emphasises, reverting to it over and over again, and displaying it in different aspects, is this — He Himself is the true Bread of Life, or Living Bread. He is the one true and all-sufficient sustenance of His people. He not only gives this, but He Himself is 1 Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus tJie ftressiah, i. p. 679. 2 Vid. Northcote and Brown low's Roma Sotterranea, ii. p. 70 flf. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN. 93 this. All that is in Him, and goes forth from Him, is life-giving and life-sustaining. He is the heavenly Manna provided for the soul's hunger, and satisfying it. (Vers. 35 and 48-50.) This is set forth especially in ver. 51, and those verses immediately following — embracing that mysterious and much contested utter- ance, which, not to speak of the whole discourse, might well claim a treatise for itself. Our Lord there declares Himself, in all His fulness, with refer- ence to His incarnation and His atonement, as the Living Bread. 1 He will give His life " for the life of the world." He further declares the need of personal appropriating faith in Himself for the reception of that life. The eating of the flesh of the Son of man and drinking of His blood is the condition of having this life, and that is but the symbolical word-expres- sion for the soul's appropriation of Him by faith. " This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." Now, without going further into the exposition of this discourse of our Lord's, — this would be entirely alien to our design, — we may surely conclude that the miracle which is so closely associated with the discourse, and, indeed, occasioned it, symbolises more or less clearly the same teaching. It is hard to conceive that the Divine Teacher had not the same design in view alike in His work and in His word. It is equally hard to conceive that this is not the Evangelist's conviction in recording them. But while this is acknowledged, the miracle is dis- 1 The use of the word