Christ's Musts and Other Sermons

Eve’ so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” — John iii. li.

HAVE chosen this text for the sake of one word in it, that solemn must” which was so often on our Lord’s hps. I have no purpose of deahng with the remainder of this clause, nor, indeed, with it at all, except as one instance of His use of the expression. But I felt it might be interesting, and might set old truths in a brighter light, if we gather together the instances in which Christ speaks of the great necessity which dominated His life, and shaped even small acts.

The expression is most frequently used in reference to the Passion and Resurrection. There are many instances in the other Gospels, in which He speaks of that must. The first of these is that of my text. Then there is another class, of which His word to His mother when a twelve-year-old child may be taken as a type, ‘•’ AVist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business? “where the mysterious consciousness of a special relation to God in the child’s heart drew Him to the Temple, and to His Father’s work. Other similar instances are those in which He responded to the multitude when they wanted to keep Him to themselves:” I must preach in other cities also ‘’; or, as when He said, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day,”

Yet another aspect of the same necessity is presented when, looking far be^ond the earthly work and suffering, He discerned the future triumph which was to be the issue of these, and said, “Other sheep I have... them also I must bring.”

And yet another is in reference to a very small matter: His selection of a place for a few hours’ rest on His last fateful journey to Jerusalem, when He said, “Zaccheus,... to-day I must abide at thy Jiouse.”

Now, if we put these instances together, we shall get some precious glimpses into our Lord’s heart, and His view of life.

I. — Here we see Christ recognizing and accepting the necessity for His death.

My text, -if we accept John’s Gospel, contributes iin altogether new element to our conception of our Lord as announcinsr His death. For the other three •Oospeis lay emphasis on it as being part of His teaching, especially during the latter stage of His ministry. But it does not folio vf that He began to think about it or to see it, when He began to speak about it. There are reasons for the earlier comparative reticence, and there is no ground for the conclusion that then first began to dawn upon a disappointed enthusiast the grim reality that His work was not going to prosper, and that martyrdom was necessary. That is a notion that has been frequently upheld of late years, but to me it seems altogether incongruous with the facts of the case. And, if John’s Gospel is a true record, that theory is shivered against this text, which represents Him at the very beginning of His career — the time when, according to that other theory. He was full of the usual buoyant and baseless anticipations of a reformer commencing His course — as tehing Nicodemus, “Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” In like manner, in the previous chapter of this same Gospel, we have the significant though enigmatical utterance: “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up “; with the Evangelist’s iiuthoritative comment: ‘’ He spake of the Temple of His body.” So, from the beginning of His career, the end was clear before Him.

And why must He go to the Cross? Not merely, as the other evangelists put it, in order that “it might bj fulfilled which was spoken of the prophets.” It was not that Jesus must die because the prophets had said that Messiah should, but that the prophets had said that Messiah should because Jesus must. There was a far deeper necessity than the fulfilment of any prophetic utterance, even the necessity which shaped that utterance. The work of Jesus Christ could not be done unless He died. He could not be the Saviour of the world unless He was the sacrifice for the sins of the world.

We cannot see all the grounds of that solemn imperative, but this we can see, that it was because of the requirements of the Divine righteousness, and because of the necessities of sinful men. And so’ Christ’s was no martyr’s death, who had to die as the penalty of the faithful discharge of his duty. It was not the penalty that He paid for doing His work, but it was the work itself. Not that gracious life, nor “the loveliness of perfect deeds,” nor His words of sweet wisdom, nor His acts of transcendent power, equalled only by the pity that moved the power, completed His task, but He “came to give His life a ransom for many.”

“Must” is a hard word. It may express an unwelcome necessity. AVas this necessity unwelcome? When He said:” The Son of Man must be lifted up,’’’ was He shrinking, or reluctantly submitting? Ah, no! He must die because He woidd save, and He tvould save because He did love. His filial obedience to God coincided with His pity for men: and not merely in obedience to the requirements of the Divine righteousness, but in compassion for the necessities of sinners necessity was laid upon Him.

Oh, brethren, nothing held Christ to the Cross but His own desire to save us. Neither priests nor Romans carried Him thither. What fastened Him to it was not the nails driven by rude hands. And the reason why He did not, as the taunters bade Him do, come down from it, was neither a physical nor a moral necessity unwelcome to Himself, but the yielding of His own will to do all which was needed for man’s salvation.

This Sacrifice was bound to the altar by the cordsof love. We have heard of martyrs who have refused to be tied to the stake, and have kept themselves

CHRISrS MUSTS,

motionless in the centre of the fierce flames by the force of their wills. Jesus Christ fastened Himself to the Cross and died because He would.

And, oh! if Ave think of that sweet, serene life as having clear before it from the very first steps that grim end, how infinitely it gains in pathetic beauty And in heart-touchingness! What wonderful self- -abnesration! How he was at leisure from Himself, with a heart of pity for every sorrow, and loins girt for all service, thousfh for all His life the Cross closed the vista! Think! human shrinking was felt by Him. Think! it was so held back that His purpose never faltered. Think! each of us may say, “He must die because He would save me “; and then ask, “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?”

II. — In a second class of these utterances, we see Christ impelled by filial obedience and the consciousness of His mission.

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