Review our past study and sum up your idea of what religion was according to Jesus. Recall his relation to the forms and institutions of religion. What was his criticism of the forms of Jewish piety? Recall how indifferent he was to formal observances and how he had to criticize the scribes and Pharisees for their formalism. Note that Jesus did have regard for Jewish forms and institutions. What, then, is the Christian position concerning the value and use of religious forms? Consider in turn the different Christian institutions, and answer for yourself the question how they originated, and how they should be used. CHAPTER XXII JESUS' CONCEPTION OF HIS MISSION There is danger of We may take three There is the ecclesi WHAT was Jesus' mission upon earth? What did he regard as the great task of his life? one-sided answers to this question. prominent examples to illustrate this. astical answer: Jesus came to establish a church, to found an institution to which he could turn over his work for men, or the salvation which he came to bring. Then there is the answer given by a certain type of theology: Jesus came to die, to satisfy the justice of God by suffering the penalty for the sins of men. The tendency of this view is to give very little meaning to the life and teaching of Jesus. Finally, there is the view that Jesus came as a great teacher of truth and a great example of life. No one of these views is adequate, each brings some of the truth. WHY DID JESUS COME? What Jesus Said of His Coming.-There are not a few passages in which Jesus speaks of the purpose of his coming. Very early in his ministry, after some notable healings at Capernaum which had stirred the people and brought the crowds in search of him the next morning, Jesus himself was found by his disciples out in the fields praying. To their urgent request to return he said: "Let us go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may preach there also; for to this end came I forth" (Mark 1. 38). Again we seem to have in Luke 4. 17-21 a confession of his life purpose. He reads from the prophets the words: "He anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, To set at liberty them that are bruised, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." According to these two passages, Jesus came to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom, and to serve men. In two other notable passages Jesus declares that he is come to save sinners. "The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost," he declares to those who criticized him for going in to Zacchæus (Luke 19. 10). And when they criticized him at another time for a similar reason, he says, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Matthew 9. 13). Finally, there are the solemn words in which he looks forward to his death. The first was spoken not long after Peter's confession: "The Son of man also came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10. 45). The second is from the time of the Last Supper, and speaks again of the purpose of his death: "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many" (Mark 14. 24). The Supreme Purpose: The Kingdom.-Back of these varied forms of statement there lies one great purpose. Jesus came to bring in the kingdom of God. That Kingdom, as we have seen, was the life of God ruling the lives of men. He came in order that men might have this life as sons of God, that men might be joined together in a new family of God, a fellowship of loving service, of righteous living and mutual good will. He came that there might be a new world, in which the life of God should make men rich, in which the will of God should be done in all the life of men. Nothing less than this was the purpose of Jesus. It was to save the world, not to save a few men. It was to make a new world, not to save a few souls out of the world. If he emphasized the saving of sinners and the calling of men to repentance, it was because he knew that impenitent sin was the one great obstacle that stood in the way of that new life from God and that new world of God's rule. WHAT DID HE HAVE TO Do? He Came to Preach.-What did Jesus need to do in order to the establishment of this Kingdom? His first task was to preach. "To this end came I forth," he declared. So the evangelists describe his work at its beginning (Mark 1. 14, 15). Such it remained to the very end. It was as a teacher that his disciples first regarded him, and he never lost that place. It was a title that he chose also for himself (Mark 14. 14). He had a message to bring, a revelation to make: "Neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him" (Matthew 11. 27). It was through the truth that Jesus expected to bring life to men. He did not give men rites and forms, and tell them that they were to gain life in this way. He did not give them rules to follow. He wanted men to see, to know. "The truth shall make you free." He must make men see God, see his nearness, his love, his power, his gracious purpose to save them and to establish his rule. Then he could call men to repent, then he could summon them to cast aside their enslaving fears and worries and their selfishness and sin, and receive this life of God. Such teaching as his was no mere work of intellect, no cold setting forth of ideas. It meant loving and living, and in the end suffering and death. The cross itself was the last great parable of that Teacher who spoke so often to men in pictures. In this sense, the whole work of Jesus may be considered as a work of teaching. He Came to Live a Life.-Jesus' second task was the living of a life. That, indeed, was a part of his teaching. It was his life that gave power and meaning and beauty to his words. He could say, "I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you" (John 13. 15). He bade men learn not only through his words but by his spirit and life: "Come unto me, learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11. 28, 29). Here was a teaching that every man could read and that no man could forget. He did not in so many words say, "I am come to lead such a life before you," but looking back we can see here the good purpose of God. More than any precept that he gave was the illuminating guidance of his own life, showing men what they should be. Better than his best parable about God was his own gracious and holy spirit as a revelation of God's heart. So the early church, with Paul, saw "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4. 6). He Came to Serve Men.-Jesus came to be a servant. This was not an incident in his life, it was his vocation. "The Son of man came to minister," he said (Mark 10. 45). “I am in the midst of you as he that serveth" (Luke 22. 27). He had recognized this to be his calling at the beginning. The temptation story is eloquent proof how he faced the alternative, whether he should take the expected way of power and rule, or that of humble and loving ministry to men. It was by service that he showed men the spirit of God as a spirit of mercy and good will. It was by service that he sought to create a new people of God, ministering to their needs, winning them from their sins. And by his service he showed men what the life was to be in the new Kingdom, whose rule was to be not self-seeking and mastery, but good will and helpfulness (Mark 10. 42-45). We must not think of this service as the casual giving of bread here or of healing there, as a lesser form of work before his great work of giving his life. His service of deed, like the service of teaching, is one with his final and greatest deed, and the meaning of it all is the giving of life. All true service of men is the giving of life. The highest service is that in which we give most of ourselves and most to others. JESUS CAME TO GIVE HIS LIFE A Conviction That Came Gradually.-Jesus came not only to live for men but to give his life in death. We do not know at just what point in his life Jesus realized that his death was to be a part of his obedience to God |