as the sacrificial basis of an atonement before the righteous judg ment throne of God. It was neither moral cowardice nor weakness that moved His soul so deeply. Yet, for a moment, even the Son of God, facing the thought of His Cross, prayed, "Father, save Me from this hour." But there was a deeper thought in the heart of Christ. That was the thought which immediately possessed His spirit. It was the thought of the whole Plan of Salvation, in the original covenant of redemption, which was made between the Son of God and His Father in Heaven. That covenant involved the death of Christ; and yet to that covenant He must be faithful, and desired so to be. Without a break in His prayer, therefore, there came from His deepest heart the triumphant voice of resignation: "But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy Name." Being the Son of God, Jesus could not stop short of that exalted petition. (4) Assurances: Divine and Human John 12:29-36 Therein lay the triumph of His own glory and reward. His glory was one with that of His Father. Hence the Father's assurance to His Son: "I have both glorified (My Name), and will glorify it again." This voice was heard by the people. Some of them thought that it was thunder which they had heard. Others said that it was an angel speaking to Jesus. The fact that this difference of opinion is attributed to the multitude suggests that the Apostles, and possibly other disciples who were near to the Lord, may have heard and understood the words of this message from the Father to His Son. But these words had a message for the people, as Christ explained. Once already He had met the Kingdom of Darkness, in His Temptations, and had triumphed. In His own Death and Resurrection was to be accomplished the complete victory over Sin and Death. Hence the comfort and courage in these words: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth (crucified), will draw all men unto Myself.” Jesus knew that He, in His death hour, should achieve glory for His Father, and for Himself, and salvation for His people. It only remained therefore for the people to accept Him, in the light of His own splendid nature as the Son of God, and then to await the issue of the event of His Death and Resurrection, to which He had so clearly pointed them. Having thus translated Heaven's assurance, "He departed, and hid Himself from them." Jesus soon re-appeared, however, for the farewell scene of His public ministry. In it is summarized the attitudes of Christ and 1 His enemies toward one another. The day in the Temple had come to a close. One may fancy that the Lord Jesus was taking 3. Mutual Attitudes of Christ and the Jewish Rulers and Others John 12:37-50 (1) Prophetic Program thus Fulfilled His final leave of the friends and foes who had gathered about Him during the day. Perhaps it was at the door of the Temple, or even in the outer court, that He paused, and turned back to the dispersing crowd, for these last words. Most The Apostle John, who recorded this last scene, felt that these final words of Jesus were an assurance that the net results of His work with the Jews had been exactly what God had foreseen, and definitely recorded in the ancient words of Isaiah the Prophet. Those net results were of two kinds. of the leaders had confirmed themselves in the sin of blindness and rejection. Many, however, had a secret faith in Christ, which they feared to confess openly. They had not the courage to meet the threat of being cast out of the synagogue by the Pharisees, and thus to lose the praise of men, which they loved more than the glory of God. John 12:37-43 To them, therefore, in His very last words, Christ issued His ultimatum of faith. These words of Jesus, spoken, as they were (2) Christ's Ultimatum of Faith John 12:44-50 no doubt, with deep feeling on the part of Jesus, need no special commentary. Every one will note the particular force which these words acquire from the fact that they were the very last recorded words of Christ's Jesus cried and said: strictly public ministry. "He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him That sent Me. And he that beholdeth Me beholdeth Him That sent Me. I am come a Light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me may not abide in darkness. And if any man hear My sayings, and keep them not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My sayings, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I spake not from Myself; but the Father Which sent Me, He hath given Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life eternal: the things therefore which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto Me, so I speak." These were Christ's last words to the public. In them He asserted His oneness with His Father in point of divine nature and divine mission. He affirmed Himself to be the source of light (truth) in the world, and of eternal life. He declared that His single purpose in the world was to save the world. For that purpose He had come, and had exhibited His Divine nature to men, so that they might believe unto the saving of their souls. He solemnly announced the inflexibility of the truth which He had proclaimed. Before that truth men must stand or fall in judgment: for it has all the authority of its origin from God the Father Himself. Finally, He gave definite assurance to them who hear and heed His word: "And I know that His commandment is life eternal," With that assurance, Jesus took final leave of the multitude, on that eventful Tuesday evening. Thus He closed His strictly public ministry. Henceforth, until His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, His interests, as will appear in the following chapters, were devoted to His own Apostles. CHAPTER XIX THE FALLING NATION AND THE RISING KINGDOM "The whole Land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end." Jeremiah 4:27. "Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded unto this day (according as it is written, 'God hath given them the spirit of slumber, ') .. Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: that blindness (hardness) in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." Romans 11:7-25. On Tuesday evening' of the Passion Week, when Jesus left the Temple, as described in the preceding chapter, He went out with the Apostles toward the village of Bethany. That departure marked the close of Christ's free intercourse with the Jews as a Nation. Henceforth the Nation and the People were objective to Him and to His thought. The remainder of His time, so far as the Records have shown, from that departure until His arrest at an early hour on Friday morning, was spent in scenes of privacy with the Apostles. The Lord's thoughts, as usual in such scenes, centered then in His Kingdom, the prospect of which He discussed with the Apostles, both in its earthly and in its heavenly aspects. During Tuesday evening, and the earlier parts of Thursday evening, Christ devoted His thoughts more especially to the earthly, and outward, and temporal aspects of His Kingdom, and especially as it was related to the approaching Fall of Jerusalem, and to other subsequent events. During the later hours of Thursday evening, Christ dealt almost exclusively with the heavenly aspects of His Kingdom and with the inner principles of the Spirit, and with the spiritual life and power, which, when all should work together, should bring the Kingdom in the present world to its heavenly consummation. These effective principles of the Kingdom will be considered in the next chapter. The present chapter is concerned with the 1The Jewish day began at sunset. However, for sake of clearness in translating these events into terms of modern thought, the time-element has also been translated. Therefore the days of the Passion Week will be spoken of, in this and the following chapters, as beginning and ending at mid-night. events of Tuesday evening, and of the early hours of Thursday evening. During this time, the Gospel records are concerned with the old order of the Kingdom and the new. The negative phase of this interesting question was the Fall of Jerusalem, and the breaking up of the Jewish Nation, as described by Christ. those tragic events the old national organization of God's Kingdom in the world was brought to an end. The positive phase is seen in the celebration of the Passover and the Lord's Supper, wherein the permanent spiritual elements of the old order are conserved, and made to function in the new spiritual Kingdom of Christ in the world. IV. Tuesday Evening-Christ's Discourse on the Fall of Jerusalem; and the Conspiracy of Judas The negative events, which were two in number, occurred on Tuesday evening. They exhibit the external fact, and the inner principle of the clearing away of the old order. The first of these events was the discourse of Christ on the Fall of Jerusalem. The old order of the Kingdom as an organized nation had served its purpose. Furthermore, that old organization had brought itself under judgment, by assuming an attitude of clearly defined opposition to the new order of the Kingdom of Christ, for which the old order had existed. Jesus therefore described the fate of the Jewish Nation, whose end was already in sight, showing that, beyond the fall of that nation, His own spiritual Kingdom would go on to its destined consummation. The records of this Tuesday evening close with an account of Judas Iscariot's conspiring with the rulers of the Jews to betray to them the Messiah of Israel. This event is logical at this point: for it was the first step in that last extreme perfidy of Israel which fully justified God's judgments upon that nation, and the transfer of His Kingdom from the Jews to other peoples. 1. Christ's Discourse on the Fall of Jerusalem, and the Future of His Kingdom in the World. This discourse was given in Christ's Discourse answer to a question of the Apostles concerning a prophecy which Jesus had spoken about the Fall of Jerusalem. While He and the Apostles were going out from the Temple at the close of the day, the Apostles had paused in the streets of the city to look back upon the Temple, 2The numbering of the time-elements, as here, will continue, in this and the next chapters, the series that was begun in the preceding chapter. These are the major time-divisions of the Passion Week. |