BOOK III St. John vi. 41-51 hindrances, for the object of His Coming was to do the Will of His Father; and those who came would not be cast outside, for the Will of Him that had sent Him, and which He had come to do, was that of the all which He has given' Him, He should not lose anything out of this, but raise it up in the last day.' Again, the totality— the all-would reach Him, since it was the Will of Him that sent Him that everyone (Tâs) who intently looketh' at the Son, and believeth on Him, should have eternal life;' and the coming ones would not be cast outside, since this was His undertaking and promise as the Christ in regard to each: And raise him up will I at the last day.' Although these wonderful statements reached in their full meaning far beyond the present horizon of His disciples, and even to the utmost bounds of later revelation and Christian knowledge, there is nothing in them which would have seemed absolutely strange or unintelligible to those who heard them. Given belief in the Messiahship of Jesus and His Mission by the Father; given experience of what He had done, and perhaps, to a certain extent, Jewish expectancy of what the Messiah would do in the last day; and all this directed or corrected by the knowledge concerning His work which His teaching had imparted, and the words were intelligible and most suitable, even though they would not convey to them all that they mean to us. If so seemingly incongruous an illustration might be used, they looked through a telescope that was not yet drawn out, and saw the same objects, though quite diminutively and far otherwise than we, as gradually the hand of Time has drawn out fully that through which both they and we, who believe, intently gaze on the Son. 4. What now follows is again spoken to the Jews,' and may have occurred just as they were entering the Synagogue. To those spiritually unenlightened, the point of difficulty seemed, how Christ could claim to be the Bread come down from heaven. Making the largest allowance, His known parentage and early history 2 forbade anything like a literal interpretation of His Words. But this inability to understand, ever brings out the highest teaching of Christ. We note the analogous fact, and even the analogous teaching, in the 1 Mark the special meaning of θεωρῶν, as previously explained. 2 This is not narrated in the Fourth Gospel. But allusions like this cover the whole early history of Jesus, and prove that omissions of the most im portant facts in the history of Jesus are neither due to ignorance of them on the part of the writer of the Fourth Gospel, nor to the desire to express by silence his dissent from the accounts of the Synoptists. CHRIST'S APPEAL TO THE SCRIPTURES. case of Nicodemus. Only, his was the misunderstanding of ignorance, theirs of wilful resistance to His Manifestation; and so the tone towards them was other than to the Rabbi. 33 CHAP. XXXII a St. John Yet we also mark, that what Jesus now spake to the Jews' was iii. 3 &c. the same in substance, though different in application, from what He had just uttered to the disciples. This, not merely in regard to the Messianic prediction of the Resurrection, but even in what He pronounced as the judgment on their murmuring. The words: No man can come to Me, except the Father Which hath sent Me draw him,' present only the converse aspect of those to the disciples: 'All that which the Father giveth Me shall come unto Me, and him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.' For, far from being a judgment on, it would have been an excuse of, Jewish unbelief, and, indeed, entirely discordant with all Christ's teaching, if the inability to come were regarded as other than moral, springing from man's ignorance and opposition to spiritual things. No man can come to the Christ-such is the condition of the human mind and heart, that coming to Christ as a disciple is, not an outward, but an inward, not a physical, but a moral impossibility-except the Father 'draw him.' And this, again, not in the sense of any constraint, but in that of the personal, moral, loving influence and revelation, to which Christ refers when He saith: And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself.' b 2 Nor did Jesus, even while uttering these high, entirely un-Jewish truths, forget that He was speaking them to Jews. The appeal to their own Prophets was the more telling, that Jewish tradition also applied these two prophecies (Is. liv. 13; Jer. xxxi. 34) to the teaching by God in the Messianic Age. But the explanation of the manner and issue of God's teaching was new: 'Everyone that hath heard from the Father, and learned, cometh unto Me.' And this, not by some external or realistic contact with God, such as they regarded that of Moses in the past, or expected for themselves in the latter days; only 'He Which is from God, He hath seen the Father.' But even this might sound general and without exclusive reference to Christ. So, also, might this statement seem: He that believeth 3 hath eternal life.' Not so the final application, in which the subject was carried to its ultimate bearing, and all that might have seemed general or mysterious plainly set forth. The Personality of Christ was the Canon Westcott has called attention to this. For other Rabbinic applications of these verses to the Messiah and His times, see the Appendix on Messianic pas- The words 'on Me' are spurious. b St. John xii. 32 Bread of Life: I am the Bread of Life.' a The Manna had not been bread of life, for those who ate it had died, their carcases had fallen in the wilderness. Not so in regard to this, the true Bread from heaven. To share in that Food was to have everlasting life, a life which the sin and death of unbelief and judgment would not cut short, as it had that of them who had eaten the Manna and died in the wilderness. It was another and a better Bread which came from heaven in Christ, and another, better, and deathless life which was connected with it: the Bread that I will give is My Flesh,' for the life of the world.' 5. These words, so deeply significant to us, as pointing out the true meaning of all His teaching, must, indeed, have sounded most mysterious. Yet the fact that they strove about their meaning shows, that they must have had some glimmer of apprehension that it bore on His self-surrender, or, as they might view it, His martyrdom. This last point is set forth in the concluding Discourse, which we know to have been delivered in the Synagogue, whether before, during, or after, His regular Sabbath address. It was not a mere martyrdom for the life of the world, in which all who benefited by it would sharebut personal fellowship with Him. Eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of the Son of Man, such was the necessary condition of securing eternal life. It is impossible to mistake the primary reference of these words to our personal application of His Death and Passion to the deepest need and hunger of our souls; most difficult, also, to resist the feeling that, secondarily,2 they referred to that Holy Feast which shows forth that Death and Passion, and is to all time its remembrance, symbol, seal, and fellowship. In this, also, has the hand of History drawn out the telescope; and as we gaze through it, every sentence and word sheds light upon the Cross and light from the Cross, carrying to us this twofold meaning: His Death, and its Celebration in the great Christian Sacrament. 6. But to them that heard it, nay even to many of His disciples, this was an hard saying. Who could bear it? For it was a thorough disenchantment of all their Judaic illusions, an entire upturning of all their Messianic thoughts, and that, not merely to those whose views were grossly carnal, but even to many who had hitherto been drawn closer to Him. The meat' and 'drink' from heaven which had the Divine seal of truth' were, according to Christ's teaching, not 'the Law,' nor yet Israel's privileges, but fellowship with the 1 The words in the A. V. which I will give' are spurious. 2 Canon Westcott (ad loc.) clearly shows, that the reference to the Holy Supper can only be secondary. Mark here specially, that in the latter we have the Body,' not 'the Flesh,' of the Lord. REVULSION OF POPULAR FEELING. Person of Jesus in that state of humbleness (the Son of Joseph,'"), nay, of martyrdom, which His words seemed to indicate, My Flesh is the true meat, and My Blood is the true drink;' and what even this fellowship secured, consisted only in abiding in Him and He in them; or, as they would understand it, in inner communion with Him, and in sharing His condition and views. Truly, this was a totally different Messiah and Messianic Kingdom from what they either conceived or wished. с d CHAP. XXXII a ver. 42 ver. 55 vor. 56 Though they spake it not, this was the rock of offence over which they stumbled and fell. And Jesus read their thoughts. How unfit were they to receive all that was yet to happen in connection with the Christ-how unprepared for it! If they stumbled at this, what when they came to contemplate 2 the far more mysterious and un-Jewish facts of the Messiah's Crucifixion and Ascension! 4 ver. 62 Truly, not outward following, but only inward and spiritual lifequickening could be of profit-even in the case of those who heard the very Words of Christ, which were spirit and life. Thus it again appeared, and most fully, that, morally speaking, it was absolutely impossible to come to Him, even if His Words were heard, except under the gracious influence from above." ever. 65; 35 comp. vv. And so this was the great crisis in the History of the Christ. 37,44 We have traced the gradual growth and development of the popular movement, till the murder of the Baptist stirred popular feeling to its inmost depth. With his death it seemed as if the Messianic hope, awakened by his preaching and testimony to Christ, were fading from view. It was a terrible disappointment, not easily borne. Now must it be decided, whether Jesus was really the Messiah. His Works, notwithstanding what the Pharisees said, seemed to prove it. Then let it appear; let it come, stroke upon stroke-each louder and more effective than the other-till the land rang with the shout of victory and the world itself re-echoed it. And so it seemed. That miraculous feeding that wilderness-cry of Hosanna to the Galilean KingMessiah from thousands of Galilean voices-what were they but its beginning? All the greater was the disappointment: first, in the repression of the movement-so to speak, the retreat of the Messiah, His voluntary abdication, rather, His defeat; then, next day, the incongruousness of a King, Whose few unlearned followers, in their ignorance and un-Jewish neglect of most sacred ordinances, outraged Comp. here the remarks on ver. 27, about Truth as the seal with which God sealed the Christ. 2 Mark here also the special meaning οι θεωρῆτε. BOOK III a St. Matt. XV. 12 b St. John vi. 66 © vv. 68, 69 every Jewish feeling, and whose conduct was even vindicated by their Master in a general attack on all traditionalism-that basis of Judaism as it might be represented, to the contempt of religion and even of common truthfulness in the denunciation of solemn Vows! This was not the Messiah Whom the many-nay, Whom almost any-would own." 6 Here, then, we are at the parting of the two ways; and, just because it was the hour of decision, did Christ so clearly set forth the highest truths concerning Himself, in opposition to the views which the multitude entertained about the Messiah. The result was yet another and a sorer defection. Upon this many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.' Nay, the searching trial reached even unto the hearts of the Twelve. Would they also go away? It was an anticipation of Gethsemane-its first experience. But one thing kept them true. It was the experience of the past. This was the basis of their present faith and allegiance. They could not go back to their old past; they must cleave to Him. So Peter spake it in name of them all: Lord, to whom shall we go? Words of Eternal Life hast Thou!' Nay, and more than this, as the result of what they had learned: And we have believed and know that Thou art the Holy One of God. It is thus, also, that many of us, whose thoughts may have been sorely tossed, and whose foundations terribly assailed, may have found our first resting-place in the assured, unassailable spiritual experience of the past. Whither can we go for Words of Eternal Life, if not to Christ? If He fails us, then all hope of the Eternal is gone. But He has the Words of Eternal life-and we believed when they first came to us; nay, we know that He is the Holy One of God. And this conveys all that faith needs for further learning. The rest will He show, when He is transfigured in our sight. But of these Twelve Christ knew one to be a devil'-like that Angel, fallen from highest height to lowest depth.2 The apostasy of Judas had already commenced in his heart. And, the greater the popular expectancy and disappointment had been, the greater the reaction and the enmity that followed. The hour of decision was past, and the hand on the dial pointed to the hour of His Death. This is the reading of all the best MSS., and not as in the A. V. 'that Christ, the Son of the Living God.' For the history of the variations by which this change was brought about, see Westcott, ad loc. 2 The right reading of ver. 71 is: 'Judas the son of Simon Iscariot,' that is, a man of Kerioth.' Kerioth was in Judæa (Josh. xv. 25), and Judas, it will be remembered, the only Judæan disciple of Jesus. |