The Death of Christ: Supernatural

lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment received I from My Father. — John x. 17, 18.

IT T is not at all surprising to read what immediately follows this declaration, “There arose a division again among the Jews because of these words. And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye Him? Others said. These are not the sayings of one possessed with a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?”

I sometimes think that no words of our Lord which have been recorded for us have received less serious attention than these, and yet they constitute the very heart of all His teaching concerning Himself and His mission.

I do not propose to consider tMs passage alone or exhaustively. I have read it because it seems to me the most remarkable statement Jesus ever made concerning His death; and because, in association with other words of His, it will enable us to follow a little further the teaching of the Bible concerning the Cross.

The problem of the death of Jesus considered in our previous study is solved when we contemplate it from the standpoint of what the Scriptures teach concerning the meaning of His title — the Christ. The death of Christ was supernatural because Christ was supernatural.

I am very conscious of the awkwardness of that word supernatural. All the things of which we speak as supernatural are only supernatural to our finite knowledge and understanding. The thiags of which we speak as miraculous are only so because we know certain laws, hut are not acquainted with the whole economy of God. In the ages to come, and in the light of the Father’s house, we shall not speak of these things as supernatural, we shall discover that they are all in harmony with the nature of God. For the sake of accommodating our meditation on this subject to the necessities of our present limitation we are however compelled to speak of the death of Christ as supernatural. If we speak of Jesus as the Man of Nazareth only, sinless, spotless, undefiled, then we affirm that His death was unnatural, that is, out of the regular order. When we see Him as Christ, we are driven to the conclusion that His death was supernatural.

Let us then consider the teaching of our Lord concerning Himself, and concerning His death, in order to make certain deductions concerning the death of Christ from that teaching.

First, then, the teaching of Christ concerning Himself. The word Christ is, of course, the Greek form of the Hebrew word Messiah. Passing in review the occasions upon which our Lord made use of the word, we shall see what was His conception of its meaning, and what He intended men to understand thereby.

I find in the course of the four gospels

that He is quoted as referring to the title directly or indirectly as applied to Himself ten times.

His first claim to he the Christ was made where of all places one would least expect to find it; not to the Hebrew people, but in Samaria; not to Samaria as represented in a large assembly, hut to Samaria as represented in a woman; and, most astonishing of all, to Samaria as represented in a woman of sin and shame. He had uttered in her hearing that wonderful declaration that “the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father .... the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father m spirit and in truth: for such doth the Father seek to be His worshippers ’ ’; and she having replied, “I know that Messiah cometh; when He is come. He will declare unto us all things,” He said, “I that speak unto thee am He.”

The next occasion of definite reference to the title was at Caesarea Philippi, when He questioned the disciples as to what men said about Him. Peter having answered.

“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” He commanded them that they were to tell no man that He was the Christ.

His next reference to the fact that He was the Christ was incidental. John had told Him that they had forbidden one whom they had seen casting ont devils in the name of Jesns, because he followed not with them. Jesus rebuked him, declaring that those who were not against Him were for Him, and then said this simple hut significant thing, revealing His estimate of the dignity of the title Christ; “Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink, because ye are Christ’s, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.”

A little further on in His ministry, after discoursing on the sheepfold, the flock, and the Good Shepherd, the people were strangely perplexed, and sent a deputation who said, “If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly”; and He replied, “I told you, and ye believe not; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these bear witness of Me.” Thus He claimed to he the Christ,

and declared that the truth of His claim was demonstrated by His works.

Next in order is the occasion when He challenged the rulers concerning the meaning of Messiahship, “What think ye of the Christ?” The question did not mean, What do you think of Me? He asked them what their religious conception was of the Messiah for whom they were looking. “Whose son is He?” They said, “The Son of David.” He did not contradict them, hut asked another question, “How then doth David in the Spirit call him Lord?” The problem as He presented it to them revealed His own conception of the meaning of the title; Christ is Son of David, of his very nature; yet Lord of David, and thus in some way superior to him.

Almost immediately after this conflict with the rulers. He said to His disciples, “One is your Master, even the Christ.” You will need guidance and direction; the Christ will he your one Master, one Guide, one Director.

A little later He warned them, saying, “There shall arise false Christs.” “If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or. Here; believe it not.” “For many shall come in My name, saying, I am the Christ: and shall lead many astray.”

A little later He again spoke of Himself as the Christ, “This is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him “Whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.”

At the end the high priest challenged Him, “I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us whether Thou be the Christ, the Son of God.” The three Evangelists give different answers, and there is every reason to believe that the whole of them were given. Matthew gives His reply as, “Thou hast said”; Mark as simply, “I am”; Luke tells us that He parried them with a statement which was a rebuke, “If I tell you, ye will not believe: and if I ask you, ye will not answer.”

Finally, on the other side of the Cross He made use of the same title, thus: “Behoved it not the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?.... It is written, that the Christ should suffer

and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached.”

From the teaching of all these references I make these deductions.

According to Christ’s own estimate of the meaning of the title, Christ is first Son of Man, David’s Son; hut He is also Son of God, David’s Lord. The title fits a Person Who is of human nature, but Who is infinitely more than of human nature.

The mission of Christ — I am not now speaking of its process or its method, but of its ultimate intention — according to His own conception, was to give the knowledge which leads to worship, to give that knowledge which in itself is age-abiding life. “This is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him Whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.” The mission of the Christ was that of bringing men to such knowledge of God as should constrain them to the attitude of worship, and give them age-abiding life.

His teaching moreover, reveals His conception of the process by which the Christ would accomplish that work to be that of suffering, dying, rising from the dead, and giving men repentance and remission of sins.

II

Secondly, the teaching of Christ concerning His own death. I shall now still further restrict our outlook to the Gospel of John. Repeated reference is made therein to an hour toward which Christ was evidently looking. At Cana of Galilee, when His mother suggested that He should work a miracle. He said, “Mine hour is not yet come.” When a little later we find Him in the temple, and opposition and hatred were stirred up against Him, and men would fain have laid hold on Him, it is declared that they could not do so, “because His hour was not yet come.” Still later, while He was teaching in the treasury, men desired to arrest Him, and again the declaration is made, “His hour was not yet come.” When the Greeks were asking to see Him, He said, “The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” The reference was evi-THE DEATH OP CHRIST:

dently to the Cross, for immediately He said, ‘‘Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone,” The Paschal discourses are introduced by the statement that Jesus,

“knowing that His hour was come

having loved His own which were in the world. He loved them unto the end”; and later, in the course of them. He distinctly declared to His disciples, ‘ ‘ The hour cometh, yea, is come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” Finally, in the great intercessory prayer. He said, ‘ ‘ Father, the hour is come.”

That is a rapid survey, but it helps us to see that from the very beginning Christ knew that the culminating fact in His ministry was death.

Then examine the facts of His death as recorded by John. Jesus, despised and rejected of men, passed down into the sombre shade of Gethsemane’s olivegarden, and spent a night of anguish. Suddenly, towards daybreak, there was seen the lurid glare of torches; and Judas came with armed men and a mob. Jesus confronted them, with that poor little handful of men standmg behind Him. He asked them naturally, “Whom seek ye?” The answer was quick and ready, “Jesus of Nazareth.” He said, “I am,” and they fell backward to the ground. There is no possibility of escape from the conviction that there was something — whether in the tone of the voice or in the flash of the eye, I know not — by which these men were made conscious of power which they feared; and for the moment they dared lay no arrestiug hand upon Him. There followed an almost greater marvel. These men recovered themselves, persuaded themselves in all likelihood, as men can so easily do, that the vision was nought, that the flaming glory was only a phantasm. Herein is the wonder that He Who could so say, “I am,” as to compel men to prostration and to overpowering weakness, permitted Himself to be bound. This was a demonstration of the truth of His assertion, “No man taketh My life from Me, I lay it down of Myself.” This was Jesus of Nazareth, but He was more. This is a

mystery, a marvel, but yet it is the solution of the first problem. So much was He Jesus of Nazareth that they could seize Him and bind Him; so much more was He than Jesus of Nazareth that, when He but said, “I am,” they became as dead men in His presence.

I follow Him along the sorrowful way to Pilate’s judgment-bar, and watch the perplexity of Pilate. Some day, when you are in doubt about Jesus, about His Deity, about His imperial, lonely, splendid dignity, read that story again. I now touch it at one point only. Pilate, perplexed, astonished, and harassed, at last looked into the face of this Man in the loneliaess of the inner chamber to which he had taken Him, and said in effect: You know I have power over you; You are in my hands. Jesus looked back into the face of Pilate and said, “Thou wouldest have no power against Me, except it were given thee from above.” From that time Pilate worked hard to set Him free, but he was unable to do it. The explanation is to be found in His declaration, “I lay down My life no one taketh it from Me.”

Once again, I pass beyond that scene in Pilate’s hall to the Cross itself. Here I can only speak in halting words. The longer I live, the less I can say in the actual presence of that Cross. Yet God help us to see this. In all the mystery of the woimding and the darkness never lose sight of the regal dignity of His dying. When He knew that all things were accomplished He said “I thirst.” That is Jesus of Nazareth. Then He said, “It is finished; and He bowed His head, and gave up His Spirit.” That is the Christ, dying by His own will and act.

In the light of these considerations it is evident that He clearly apprehended His death, but He definitely accepted it as the issue of His ministry. There were moments when His soul was troubled, when He said, “Now is My soul troubled”; but He also said, “Father, glorify Thy name.” Thus He triumphed.

Finally, the death of Jesus was accomplished. That is the word used in one of the synoptic gospels. Moses and Elijah talked, not of the death He should die, but of the exodus He should “accomplish.”

In our last study we saw the hands of lawless men murder Jesus, and so far as they were concerned it was murder brutal and wicked; and, if I want to know what sin is, I do not consult any new philosophy, but that Cross. In this study we see the deeper matter. Peter said, “Jesus of Nazareth... .ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay”; but Peter also said, “Him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” This Christ, Who is God’s Son as well as David’s Son, David’s Lord as well as David’s Heir, this One went to the Cross, died at His own time and by His own choice, apprehending the death, accepting the death, accomplishing the death. From this study we may make these deductions. Christ was supernatural, and therefore His death must be considered in the light of that fact, Jesus of Nazareth was Man of my manhood, but He was more. When we speak of His death we must not speak of it merely as the death of a man. We must take into account His supernatural nature when we would understand His death. Therefore the death of Christ was unique. There are some wonderful stories of dying, heroic dying, dastardly dying, noble dying, ignoble dying; but this story is unmatched in literature.

If this be only a dream, a fancy, then I am constrained to say, as I am always constrained to say in the presence of these stories, in God’s name, find me the man who dreamed it. My affirmation is that no man could have dreamed this. It is unique, lonely. It is the story of the death of One Who was at once Son of God and Son of Man.

It was a death in which the consciousness of God and the consciousness of man were identified. God’s consciousness of man found expression when the dying One said, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” That was the cry of God as He gathered into His own heart all the consciousness of humanity in its lack of Him.

Man’s consciousness of God found expression as the One upon the Cross said, “It is finished,” and “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit.”

If you would write the truth of the

Cross in the briefest words yon must borrow the language of the Apostle and write it thus, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.”

The death of Jesus, if He were a Galilean peasant only, was unnatural; hut the death of this Christ Who is more than man, was supernatural, and this explains that.

This study teaches us that the subject is beyond us, and that we can only understand the purpose of such dying, as God reveals the meaning to us. It is outside the ken of our philosophy. It is beyond the reach of our speculation. It baffles the wildest flight of our imagination. That God in man should stoop to death creates a new wonder, a new amazement, and I am constrained to ask the reason of such dying.