To Whom Shall We Go

“From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”

john vi. 66-68.

In this incident the Lord is hearing the early murmurings of final rejection. The chilling airs of a darkening twilight are already on the road. Deep shadows are falling about Him. He has begun to assert His own claims more imperatively, and He is laying heavier demands upon the faith of men and upon their loyalty and obedience. Discipleship had been regarded as a smooth and flowery road, leading to earthly power and glory, a noble highway terminating in a throne. But now the Master is speaking mysterious words about drinking His blood. Stern antagonisms begin to appear on the way. The terrific figure of death is seen approaching, and all the coveted flowers are beginning to wither, and every bird is losing its song. The disciples had imagined they were marching onward to worldly crowns and dominions; and now their entire horizon is filled with a looming and threatening cross, the symbol of final tragedy and confusion. “And many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.” There is something very cold about the desertion, and the gathering sense of desolation is deepened when the Master turns to those who are left and says, “Will ye also go away?” And Simon Peter, with a swift impulsiveness which often tripped him into disaster, but which quite as often led him into realms of truth and rich experience, answered Him, saying, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”

Well now, who is this Peter who thus proclaims the Lord Jesus as the only fountain of spiritual satisfaction? Is he a man of any distinction? Or is he a man of shallow being, whose small capacities are easily filled? We are sometimes inclined to speak of the disciples as though they were just twelve average men, whose gifts were about on a par with any other twelve men whom we might meet in the street. But I am not so sure about that. I am not inclined to regard a fisherman as a type of the average man. There is something about a real fisherman which appeals to me as very distinguished. His very calling is the minister of enlargement; its perils, its vastnesses, the sweep of the encompassing heavens, the far-spreading ocean-wastes reaching to dim horizons; the height, and depth, and breadth; the silences, the broodings, the mysterious presences, the sense of the Infinite! No, I cannot regard the fisherman’s life as a common life, nor can I look upon the fisherman as an average man; and I think it is deeply significant that fishermen have given us so large a part of the New Testament. They have given us the epistle of James, the epistles of Peter, the epistles of John, the Book of Revelation, and the richest treasure of them all, the Gospel by John. And I love to cherish the thought that perhaps the immensities of their daily life were no mean part of the ministry which expanded their beings to receive the immensities of revelation, the unfolding of the wonderful gospel of redeeming grace.

Here, then, is one of these fishermen who has just answered the pathetic question of our Lord, “Will ye also go away?” by the counter-question “To whom shall we go?” “Where is there another teacher who can give to us what Thou dost give? If we leave Thee we leave everything! Thou hast the words of eternal life.” Well, what did Jesus Christ do for Simon Peter? We have his life before us; it is recorded in the Word. His letters have been preserved; they are bound up in the Word. What, then, did Jesus Christ do for this man which he could have found nowhere else f And I ask the question on the assurance that what Christ Jesus did for Simon Peter He can do for everybody, and that all lives, which may be externally very different from Simon Peter’s, can be filled with a kindred satisfaction. What, then, did Jesus do for Peter f Turn to Peter’s life and letters.

First of all, Jesus Christ gave Simon Peter a new God. When you change a man’s conception of God it is as though his God had become new. In these realms a new revelation is a new creation. In what way can we realize the newness of Peter’s God? It is sometimes an exceedingly instructive experience, even in common literature, to pass quickly from one book to another, in the attempt to realize the difference in their atmospheres. Take a biography down from your shelves, or a book of letters, and read just enough pages to feel the climate. And then take down another, and stay long enough in the second to get the feeling of the general weather and temperature; and you will find the contrast in the two atmospheres to be most instructive. For instance, take the life of Tennyson, and read almost any chapter you please, and then pass swiftly into the life of Thomas Carlyle, and read almost any chapter you please; and the almost violent change in the climate will tell you much about the constitution of their lives. Or read a chapter in the life of Tolstoy, and then, almost with a leap, pass into the life of Napoleon, and you will find that it is not only the external events which are in such vivid contrast, but the very air, the temperature, the skyey influences, the mystic breath. Read twenty pages of the life of Cecil Rhodes, and then twenty pages of the life of Emerson, and you will find yourself in two absolutely different worlds with a different heaven and a different earth.

And then, take the book of Amos, and move about in that book for an hour, looking up, and down, and around, and especially watching and brooding upon the God revealed in that book.

And then, by a swift transition, pass to a letter of Peter’s, and look upon his God as revealed to him in Jesus Christ our Lord. Do the same with the book of Hosea, that tender little revelation, which is as sweet in many places as rich meadows that are drenched with dew. Do it with Jeremiah. Then turn again to Peter. I am suggesting that you make these little journeys in order that you may feel the contrast in the two climates and in the two skies. Take one of the imprecatory Psalms, and look at its God, and then bathe your eyes in a chapter of Peter, and look out upon his God; and you will feel as though you have passed from a blast-furnace, shooting forth its fires by night, to the wooing glory of a serene and radiant dawn. Or read a chapter or two in the mysterious and complicated symbolism of Ezekiel, and then turn your perplexed and wearied eyes to a paragraph or two in Peter, and you will feel as though you had turned from some very trying glare to the cooling presence of green pastures, and to gracious simplicities of love which feed the soul with the bread of life.

I am suggesting to you that Simon Peter had hitherto been living in the climate of the Old Testament, under the Old Testament sky, and in the Old Testament world. But when Jesus came, Simon Peter found a new mental and spiritual climate, for he found a new heaven and a new earth in the new revelation of God. It was a tremendous day for Simon Peter when he heard Christ Jesus say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” From that day, “old things were passed away; behold all things became new!”...” Lord, to whom shall we go? “Thou hast the word of revelation m “Thou hast the words of eternal life.”

What else did Jesus Christ give to Simon Peter? Jesus Christ gave to Simon Peter a new relationship to God. The new God revealed in Christ Jesus was not afar off, like some dazzling snow-white mountain which could never be climbed. The new revelation was not some uplifted and resplendent glory which mocked him by its very remoteness. The Christ who made the revelation of God to Simon Peter also established a new relation between Simon Peter and God. Before Jesus came Peter felt himself to be only a connection of God; now he knew himself to be a relation. You can feel the difference in the two words which I am using in the attempt to express it. A connec ion is legal, formal, external, cold. A relation is spiritual, inward, vital. A doll’s arm is connected with a doll’s body; but my arm is related to my body by vital processes of blood, and by even more mystic currencies which cannot be expressed. Simon Peter was once connected with God; in Christ Jesus he has found a vital relation. Once he was far off; now he is nigh. Once he was alienated; now he is reconciled. Once he was in bonds in a far country; now he is redeemed from bondage and finds himself at home. Once he was a servant; now he is a son. Now he is of the blood-royal, of heaven’s best blood, with titles manifold. If you read his letters you will again and again hear the wedding bells ringing announcing the marriage of his soul with the Lord. The revelation of God has issued in a new relation, and the grace of the Lord Jesus has done it!... “Will ye also go away?” “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the word of reconciliation. Thou hast the words of eternal life.”

And there are many other things which Jesus did for Simon Peter, all of which spring from the new revelation of the Father, and from the new relationship to the Father begotten in His Son.

For one thing, ‘Jesus had given Peter a new conception of man. It will be altogether worth your while to take these letters of Simon Peter, and just pick out the separate lineaments of his ideal man, and then so compose them that you can gaze upon the face of the ideal character. It can be done, just as you might compose Plato’s ideal man from Plato’s works, or Byron’s ideal man, or Thomas Carlyle’s. You can take Peter’s letter, and bit by bit you can construct his man in Christ Jesus, until the man shines before you, a radiant personality. The Lord Jesus gave Peter a new conception of man, and Peter’s new ideal was in the likeness and glory of the Nazarene.

And with all these wonderful gifts Jesus Christ also gave to Peter an all-sufficient moral dynamic. For what are revelations worth without inspirations? And what is the worth of ideals if they are accompanied by no dynamics? And what is the good of high callings if we have no wings? If the veil is lifted upon the ideal man, and we gaze upon him in all the alluring glory of his holiness, what is its value unless the Revealer can impart to us some mystic energy which can nourish virtue and sap the roots of vice? The

209 moral ideal is only welcome as it is accompanied by moral motive and moral constraint. And if you will read the life and letters of Simon Peter you will find plenty of evidence that this holy moral energy was poured into this man’s being in such gracious abundance that weakness became strength, and timidity was changed into courage, and inconstancy, which had once trembled at the threatenings of a maid, was transformed into a fidelity which greeted martyrdom with a song, and went forth to death as lightly as a bride trips forth to meet her bridegroom. And Jesus did it! Jesus did it!

And added to all other gifts the Lord Jesus gave to Simon Peter the glorious hope of immortality. You cannot read this man’s letters without finding the hope of immortality throwing its interpreting beams on every page. You have scarcely begun to read the first letter before you come upon this illumining mass of glory: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.” And the light of that great hope sends its radiance over everything, until even suffering itself is tipped with gold, and is lit with the glory of our eternal home. And Jesus did it!

I have only just begun to mention the things which Simon Peter found in Christ, and yet what glory has already been revealed! Christ Jesus gave Simon Peter a new God; He gave him a new relationship to God; He gave him a new conception of man, and a new ideal of the riches of human fellowship; He gave him an altogether adequate moral dynamic; and over all the ups and downs of Simon Peter’s changing road the Saviour flung the light of eternal hope.

And now, what shall we do with this Jesus? Shall we leave Him? Where then shall we go? If we throw Jesus over, where shall we direct our steps? When our life is all in pieces, when we are confused and broken, where shall we turn? When our consciences are disquieted, when our wills are maimed, when evil habits have fastened invincible chains upon our souls, at whose door shall we knock for relief? When the floods of sorrow are out, and we are well-nigh overwhelmed, to whom shall we cry for deliverance? When the light of our eyes has gone out, and when desire and purpose have left us altogether, where shall we look for the re-kindling of our smouldering lamps and fires? If not to Jesus, then to whom shall we go?

What are the alternatives? There are some classic sentences in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” which I should like to read to you:

I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, and a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back.... And he broke out into a lamentable cry saying, What shall I do? ... And I saw in my dream that the highway up which Christian was to go was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a Cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a Sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the Cross his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do, till it came to the mouth of the Sepulchre, where it fell in and I saw it no more.

That is what John Bunyan said Jesus did for his pilgrim. But suppose that in our day we desert the Lord Jesus, and forsake His Cross! Suppose we turn our backs upon all the wonderful deliverance begotten of our Saviour’s life and love and passion, where shall we go? How would you re-write Bunyan’s famous passage, and bring it up to date?

How would this do? “I saw a man clothed with rags, with a great burden upon his back.... Up this way did the pilgrim run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load upon his back. So I saw in my dream that just when the pilgrim came up to the hypnotist.” Is this the alternative? And what is going to happen there? What is this modern saviour going to do for a man whose past is a by-word, whose present is a humiliation, and whose future is black with despair? Is this the alternative to our Lord?

Or shall we amend the passage in this way? “I saw a man clothed in rags, and with a great burden upon his back. And he broke out with a loud lamentation, crying, ‘What shall I do? ‘Up this way did the pilgrim run. So I saw in my dream that just when the pilgrim came up to the secularist...!” And what will happen there? What has this modern substitute for Jesus to say to us? What is the secularist’s counsel? This is his treatment? “Pack thy life,” he says, “within the confines of the immediate day. Shut down all obstinate questionings. Close thy windows. Draw the shades. Silence these blank misgivings of a creature moving about in worlds not realized. Limit thy regard to the present hour. Take things as they come. Deal only with human interests, and human relations. Deal with the actual practical things of daily life. Shut out the unseen. Forget God! Ignore eternity! “... So I saw in my dream that the pilgrim, with the burden still upon his back, turned from the secularists to carry out his counsel. And with what result:

Just when we are safest, there’s a sunset touch, A fancy from a flower-bell — someone’s death, And that’s enough for fifty hopes and fears, As old and new at once as nature’s self, To rap and knock and enter in our soul, Take hands and dance there a fantastic ring, Round the ancient idol, on his base again, — The grand Perhaps! We look on helplessly. There the old misgivings, crooked questions are.

Is the secularist the alternative to our Lord. Or, finally, shall we amend Bunyan’s classic in this way?” I saw a man, clothed with rags, with a great burden upon his back. Up this way did the pilgrim run, but not without great

difficulty because of the load on his back. So I

saw in my dream that just as the pilgrim came

up to the agnostic...!” Is that the

alternative? What has he to say to the pilgrim’s

quest and questionings? Nothing. Let me

hear the pilgrim lay his pathetic need before

him.” Sir, when my mind is haunted with the

fear of God, and my soul is disquieted with me,

hast thou any anodynes or balms?” ...

No answer.” Sir, when my days are broken

with the sense of guilt and shame, and when my

sin pursues me like my shadow, dost thou know

any welcome hostel where a weary captive can

find release? “... No answer.” Sir,

when the sorrows of life pound all my little garden

into a soddened mass and marsh, hast thou any

hiding place from the storm? “... No

answer.” Sir, when the partner of my heart,

light of my light, life of my life, leaves me and

passes into the night, and I lay the body in the

cold ground, and my hungry soul looks forward

to the morning, hast thou any good news, any

light of hope, any softening gleam to throw upon

my cross and care? “... No answer.

... Silence!

What then f Good-bye hypnotist, secularist, agnostic, atheist! Good-bye, I am going home to Christ. When I need Him most He is most unto me. He fills the noontide with a fuller light, and He opens a great and hospitable shelter in the midnight and the storm. Jesus Christ is “a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”

“Will ye also go away?” Lord, to whom shall we go?

I’ve tried the broken cisterns, Lord,

But ah! the waters failed;
E’en as I stooped to drink they fled,

And mocked me as I wailed.
Now none but Christ can satisfy,

None other name for me. There’s life, and peace, and lasting joy,

Lord Jesus, found in Thee.