The Parting of the Ways

- My Lord at home Gentle He spake; I answered; God from heaven Bright i in ‘ie full face of the dawning day Called, and I hardly heard Him, such a love Stood at His carpentry, and azure air. Streamed in that orison from man to man. Inarched Him, scattered with the glittering green: Then shining from His shoulders either-way I saw Him standing, f saw His face, I saw Fell the flood Jordan, and His kingly eyes His even eyebrows over eyes grey-blue, Looked in the east, and star-like met the sun. From whence with smiling there looked out on me Once in no manner of similitude, A welcome and a wonder — ‘Mine so soon? And twice in thunderings and thrice in flame, Ah, me, how sweet and unendurable The Highest ere now hath shown Him secretly; Was that ees beauty of the boy! But when from heaven the visible Spirit in air

. Came verily, lighted on Him, was alone,

“And once again I saw Him in exe days Then knew I, then I said it, then I saw Fraught with a deeper meaning, for He came God in the voice and glory of a man.” To my baptising, and the infinite air — FREDERICK W. H. Myers. Blushed on His coming, and all the earth was still; “Saint John the Baptist.”

“THEN cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John, to be baptised of him.

But John would have hindered Him, saying, I have need to be baptised of Thee, and comest Thou to me? But Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffereth Him. And Jesus, when He was baptised, went up straightway from the water: and lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him; and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. — Matt. 3. 13-17.

And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptised of John in the Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon Him: and a voice came out of the heavens, Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased. — Mark 1. 9-11.

Now it came to pass, when all the people were baptised, that, Jesus also having been baptised and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon Him, and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased. — Luke 3. 21, 22.

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The Parting of the Ways

Bee second crisis in the mission of the Christ was reached when,

emerging from the long silence and seclusion of Nazareth

He faced the brief period of speech and service, culminating

in His Cross. That crisis is marked by His baptism in the river of

Jordan. Concerning the thirty years, practically no details are given. A few brief statements constitute the record of this period.

- These statements reveal the principles of His life, and a bare statement of facts, quite sufficient for an understanding of all that is of

value. They were years of seclusion and privacy.

The Gospel narratives give a much fuller account of the three years of public ministry.

Between these periods, the baptism in Jordan stands, at once dividing and uniting them. An understanding of the meaning of that ceremony, in the case of Jesus, will be gained by a contemplation of the thirty years and of the three. The order of the present study then is that of considering, first, the thirty years of private life; secondly, the three years of public ministry; and lastly, the ceremony coming between the two periods.

I. With regard to the thirty years, it will be well first to gather the statements of Scripture concerning them, thus coming into possession of the facts, and then to consider the characteristics of those years, as therein revealed.

The facts chronicled concern the infancy, the childhood, the youth, and the manhood of Jesus.

Concerning the infancy, the following facts are recorded.

“And when eight days were fulfilled for circumcising Him, His name was called JESUS, which was so called by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.”!

“And when the days of their purification according to the law

ILuke 2. 21.

of Moses were fulfilled, they brought Him up to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord.”!

“Now when they were departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I tell thee: for Herod will seck the young child to destroy Him. And he arose and took the young child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt;,and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt did I call My Son.”2

“But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead that sought the young child’s life. And he arose and took the young child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judzea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither; and being warned of God in a dream, he withdrew into the parts of Galilee, and came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets, that He should be called a Nazarene.’”’3

In exact fulfilment of the requirements of the Hebrew law Jesus was circumcised at the age of eight days. He was thus brought into the outward and visible manifestation of His relationship to the covenant of God with Israel.

The second fact is that of His presentation in the temple, and dedication as the first-born child of His mother, to the purpose and service of God.

The third fact chronicles the flight into Egypt, and the fourth the return from thence to His own land and people.

Thus in connection with the infancy there is a record of suggestive facts, the identification of Jesus with the covenant people of God, by the symbol of separation and purity, His dedication to special and specific work by His presentation in the temple, the carrying into Egypt, as part of a Divine programme of protection for One set apart to Himself, and the return to Nazareth for the entry upon that life of obscurity, in which the human is to make its

*Luke 2. 22. 2Matt. 2. 13-15. 3Matt. 2. 19-23.

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progress from innocence to holiness, in the place of such ordinary testing as comes to man, and which is necessary for His development.

Concerning the childhood of Jesus, all the recorded facts are in the Gospel of Luke, and are as follows:

“And the child grew, and waxed strong, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him.”!

“And His parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up after the custom of the feast; and when they had fulfilled the days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and His parents knew it not; but supposing Him to be in the company, they went a day’s journey; and they sought for Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance: and when they found Him not, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking for Him. And it came to pass, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them, and asking them questions: and all that heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. And when they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said unto Him, Son, why hast Thou thus dealt with us? behold, Thy father and I sought Thee sorrowing. And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me? knew ye not that I must be in My Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which He spake unto them. And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and He was subject unto them: and His mother kept all these sayings in her heart.”2

The whole story of the childhood of Jesus from infancy to His religious coming of age, is contained in one verse. The main statement of the verse is, “the child grew.” Then follows an explanation of the statement, in what may be spoken of as an analysis of the lines of His growth. The whole fact of His human nature, physical, mental, and spiritual is recognised; the physical development in the words, He “waxed strong”; the mental development in the words, “becoming full of wisdom” (see margin); the spiritual development in the words, “the grace of God was upon Him.” Thus the development of Jesus was not one-sided. Under the careful training of His mother, the advancement was a perfect harmony of progress in the whole fact of His life.

*Luke 2. 40. Luke 2. 41.-§1.

The other fact of His childhood recorded, is that of His religious coming of age. It is altogether to miss the importance of this story to think of it as accidental. The purpose of the coming to Jerusalem on the part of Mary, was undoubtedly primarily that of fulfilling the requirements of the law, the bringing of Jesus to His confirmation. At this point a boy was supposed to enter upon that period of life when he should have immediate dealings with the law, receiving it no longer through the instruction of his parents; but having been brought by them into a knowledge of its requirements, he would now take upon himself the responsibility. The rite, which is still in existence, consists in the preparation by the candidate of certain passages of the law, which are to be recited, and his presentation to the rulers and doctors, that in conversation with him, they may ask him questions, testing his knowledge, and he may submit to them questions arising out of his training. It was to this ceremony of confirmation that Jesus was brought at the age of twelve.

The picture of Christ here is very full of beauty, although too often the natural fact is obscured by false ideas concerning the attitude of Jesus towards the teachers. A very popular conception of His action here is that of a boy delighting to ask questions that will show His own wisdom, and puzzle the doctors. This would seem to be utterly contrary to the facts. Jesus, a pure, beautiful boy, physically strong, mentally alert, spiritually full of grace, moving into new and larger experiences of His life, answered the questions of the doctors with a lucidity that astonished them, and submitted problems to them which showed how remarkable was the calibre of His mind, and how intense the fact of His spiritual nature. So great an opportunity was this to Him, that He tarried behind, still talking with these men.

Supposing Him to have been with the company, His parents had started on the homeward journey, and missing Him returned. Here again violence has been done to the character of Christ by the tone in which His question has been repeated. “There was no touch of rebuke in what He said to His mother. It is far more probable that there was a tender expression of surprise that she from whom — He had received His training, and under whose direction His mind had developed and His spiritual nature been nurtured, should not

78 THE “CRISES -OF ADR E, CURIE

know how “the things of His Father” were to Him the chief things. -

So far of course Jesus is seen in the development of His human nature along the ordinary lines. The difficulty suggested in a previous chapter, how there could be growth and advancement, or why training was necessary if He was indeed God, admits of no explanation save that of repeating the fact that while He was very God, He was actual Man. His human life was lived wholly within the realm of humanity. The Son of God in His Deity refrained from giving to the human fact in its testing and development, any assistance other than was originally at the disposal of unfallen man. It cannot be over-emphasised or too often repeated, that this is a mystery defying explanation. Yet to deny it is to create a new mystery on either of the sides of the Personality of Jesus, involving the rout of the reason, in that there is discovered a marvellous effect, of which the only possible cause is denied.

The conclusion of the story of the confirmation is that He went down with His parents, and was subject unto them.

Concerning the youth of Jesus, that is, the period from His confirmation to His young manhood, there is one statement.

“And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and. men.”!

Here again there is no detail, but the bare declaration of His advancement, and that advancement is revealed as being balanced, and including the whole of His nature, “in wisdom, in stature, in favour with God and men.” ‘The application of this statement, very often lost sight of, is that He grew in favour not only with God, but with men. It is not a sign of being in the grace of God when ‘one is out out of favour with men. It was not the Personality and character of Jesus that alienated the crowds from Him, but the teaching which rebuked their sin, and called them to repentance. It is very beautiful to read that in those long years at Nazareth Jesus was a favourite. No details are given, and yet it is quite possible to sit down in front of the statement, and imagine various facts included within it. One could almost picture the children going to Him, taking perhaps their toys for Him to mend; and the young men, visiting Him to talk out some of the problems that were vexing

1Luke 2. 52, their hearts. And the old people, bent with sorrow, and loving to hear the tones of some strong and yet tender voice, sitting while He talked to them. Let this never be forgotten “He grew in favour with God and men.” Jesus was a favourite in His own village until the days came when, in fulfilment of His Father’s will, He had to speak such words as alienated them from friendship, and made the very men of Nazareth attempt His murder, long before it was accomplished by the priests of the nation.

There yet remains one fact chronicled concerning the years, that namely, of the occupation of His Manhood.

“Ts not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? and are not His sisters here with us? And they were offended in Him.”’1

The question was asked in the days when the enmity of the men of Nazareth was stirred against Him, because of His superior wisdom, and authoritative teaching. And yet it lights up facts of those past years. He was the village carpenter. The Greek word tekton, here translated carpenter, etymologically means a producer, but specifically, and in its use in that country, it indicated a craftsman in wood. The declaration reveals Him to us as One Who learned a trade, becoming Master of the tools of His craft. All this is to be dealt with more fully in the next chapter.

These facts, brief as is the chronicle of them, reveal the characteristics of the life of Jesus. Through the process of training, He lived in dependence upon the guidance of other human wills. He trod the path of a daily duty. Toil was not to Him merely the taking up of work for the sake of amusement. It was His response to stern necessity. He laboured for the bread which was to sustain physical life. Through all the years, His life was conditioned within human limitations. These limitations were of course, such as were part of an original Divine plan. There was a difference throughout between the experience of the Man Jesus, and the experience of fallen men. Their intelligence is darkened. His shone clearly, and yet in ever increasing capacity. Their emotion is prostituted. His was ever set upon highest things, and responsive to the most perfect. Their will is degraded, because under the dominion of a false governing principle. His was exercised within

*Mark 6. 3.

the true realm of submission to the highest of all. The thirty years were the years of the long silence, in which the Son of God is seen stripped and emptied of all royalty, save that of a victorious manhood.

Il. Turning to the three years, there may be considered the facts and the characteristics. Here everything is different. Silence has given way to speech, privacy to publicity; submission to human authority has been changed into authoritative teaching and deeds, in the midst of human affairs. His induction to public ministry is recorded by Luke. Returning to the synagogue, with which He was so familiar, and taking up the book of the prophet, He read Himself into His sacred office. From the prophecy of Isaiah He read the marvellous description of the mission of the Servant of God, and then in sublime and quiet majesty announced that “to-day hath this Scripture been fulfilled in your ears.”! There was no one to introduce Him, for no one appreciated the meaning of His mission. Passing from the life of privacy to the days of publicity, He definitely and positively claimed that He was the One, anointed of God, for the fulfilment of the dreams, and the realisation of the hopes, of the ancient people.

The description of the following years is all crowded into the brief descriptive statement, with which Luke opens his second treatise. ““Jesus began both to do and to teach.”2 For the purposes then of gathering the general impression of the facts of the three years, they may be considered under that twofold heading, of His doing and His teaching.

There is no necessity here to attempt to chronicle the deeds. It will be sufficient to state concisely their character again in the words of Luke. “Jesus of Nazareth... went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.”3 That covers the whole fact concerning the deeds of Jesus in the three years of public ministry. Doing good means infinitely more than being good, or doing good things that are right. The phrase indicates active beneficence. He was, in the richest and fullest sense of the word, a Benefactor. He lived a life in which there was the constant activity of deeds of goodness and kindness

*Luke 4. 16-21. “Acts I, I. *Acts 10. 38.

towards other people. The goodness referred to is positive and relative, assuredly the goodness of character, but also that manifested in conduct, not merely the rightness of inward attitude, but the beneficence of outward act. His vocation during the hidden years had been that of a carpenter. When He laid that calling aside, He entered upon the vocation of doing good, serving others, scattering blessing. All life now was an opportunity for benefiting some one. His journeyings, His ordinary deeds, the miracles of His power, are all contained within the phrase “doing good.” He was pouring out of His own rich treasury upon other people, scattering gifts, bestowing benefits. He went about doing good. Then as to the teaching. This consisted in the announcement of the principles of human life, and was a revelation of the convictions and conditions lying behind true conduct. It is almost impossible to summarise the teaching of Jesus, and yet the attempt must be made, though the result will of necessity be imperfect. As in the Gospels four facts are revealed concerning the Personality of Christ, so also these Gospels reveal four phases of His teaching; and the whole system of the teaching of Jesus can only be understood, as these phases are all present to the mind, and their harmony and balance are discovered. The teaching of Matthew has to do with the government of God. It is teaching concerning the Kingdom. In it lies that most matchless document, the Manifesto of the King. Afterwards there occurs His commissioning of His first messengers, with yet fuller revelation of the true meaning of the Kingdom. Then in perfect harmony of deed with word, illustrations and explanations of the benefits and values of the Kingdom are given. Then incidentally scattered through the Gospel there are illuminative illustrations, and ever broadening teaching, concerning the powers and perfections of the kingly authority. The people who have listened, have become antagonised, and as in the beginning of the teaching, there were the Beatitudes, so towards its closing, so far as the crowd is concerned, the woes are pronounced, the stern and awful denunciations of such as reject the Kingdom of God. Towards the close of the three years, the programme concerning the final movements of the Divine economy, in the casting out of evil, and the establishment of the Kingdom is announced. Along all the pathway incidental teaching, great parables, and revealing deeds, unite in making clear the great facts concerning the Kingdom of God, yet to be set up on the earth, and spoken of almost invariably, therefore through Matthew, as the Kingdom of heaven.

In the Gospel of Mark, the teaching is of a different character. There is very little of it. He is revealed as to His Person, as the Servant, always girded, always busy, stripped of royalty, and consecrated to duty. Incidental accounts which had to do largely with that aspect of truth, fall from His lips. A special section is devoted to the charge He delivers to His servants, concerning their work, and in which He speaks of the final things.

In Luke again the character of the teaching is different, harmonising as it does with the Person of Jesus as therein presented. In this Gospel there is no consecutive body of teaching. The Son of Man, the universal Saviour, speaks as occasion demands, of the great subjects that are ever on His heart. First the Gospel contains in condensed form some of the mighty sayings contained within the Manifesto of the King as recorded by Matthew. Then there are general instructions, and solemn warnings uttered to His apostles, as He equips them for their work. That however which is peculiar to Luke is His wonderful teaching concerning publicans and sinners, their lost condition, and the redemption He has come to accomplish for them. In Luke there is the parable concerning the lost sheep, the lost silver, and the lost son. It is a parable of the lost. It is a parable of the lost sought. It is a parable of the lost found. And that parable of Jesus may be said to reveal His teaching concerning humanity in the light of His mission more perfectly than it is revealed in any other of His recorded words. In this Gospel moreover, is contained the denunciation of the Pharisees, the parables of service, of the talents, and yet again, words concerning the final things.

Coming to the Gospel of John, in some senses the greatest of all, because presenting Jesus as to His Deity, there is the most wonderful teaching of all. From first to last the teaching of Jesus in John may be spoken of as the speech of heaven to earth. There are the wonderful conversations with Nicodemus, and the woman at the well; the remarkable discourses, delivered in the hearing of the crowds, concerning His unity with the Father; His discourse on the sustenance of the life of the spirit, as being of infinitely greater importance than the feeding of the physical; a declaration of the meaning of His mission, as being that of providing life for those who need it, by the liberation of His own, through the mystery of death. Finally, the great Paschal discourses, in which He promises to His Church the coming of the Spirit, and declares the meaning - and the method of that great advent.

It is in John that there is the repetition so constantly of the Divine title, “I am,” linked to simple symbols of things human, and in that very fact is a key to the whole teaching of Jesus, as contained in the Gospel of John. It is the speech of heaven to earth, of God to men. It is but to pass through the Gospel reading His “I am’s,” and their setting, to discover this key. “I am the bread.”1 “I am the light.”2 = “Iam.”3 “Iam the door.”4 “I am the good shepherd.”5 “I am the resurrection.” “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’7 “I am the true vine.”8 Here is a growing revelation. Here is a declaration of the whole meaning of His gracious mission. Thehumansymbolsare simple. The Divine title ever thrills with the music infinite and unfathomable. Yet in their combination is heard the voice from heaven, the Logos, the Word of God.

How different these three years from the thirty. The characteristics of the thirty, and those of the three, make a striking contrast. In the thirty, depending on human will. In the three, uttering authoritative speech, and performing deeds of power. In the thirty years, the commonplace duty a daily call. In the three, manifesting Himself as the Lord of duty, demonstrating the dignity of the Son of Man by the miracles of His power, and the glory of the Son of God in the matchless magnificence of His Person, and the infinite wisdom of His teaching. In the thirty years, a life lived strictly within human limitations, a life in which there was constant relation to the Divine, but the relation of dependence, submission, fellowship. In the three years while this continued, yet the life was evidently broadening out into a spacious and conspicuous co-operation with the Divine, until the supreme consciousness left ‘upon the mind is that of the movements of God through the deeds

’ Yohn 6. 35. John 8. 12. 3John 8. 58. ‘John Io. 7.
5John to. 11. SJohn 11. 25. John 14. 6. 8John 15. 1.

84 THD, (CRISES YOR (“THR CHRIST

and words of man. The thirty years were those of the long silence in which the Son of God was seen stripped and emptied of all royalty, save that of His perfect Manhood. The three years are the years of the brief speech, in which the Son of Man is seen clothed in authority, filled with power, speaking in the tone and accent of the Son of God.:

Ill. Between these periods there came the solemn and significant ceremony of the baptism. As Jesus left that in His life which was preparatory, and entered upon the actual work of the ministry, He devoted Himself to the ultimate issue of His work, that namely, of an identification with men even to death. His being baptised — was an act by which He consented ‘to take His place among sinners. John’s baptism was that of repentance. There was no room for repentance in Jesus, and yet because of His devotion to their redemption, He took His place with them. This will be referred to again in subsequent considerations. It is named here as helping to explain the value of the supernatural manifestations accompanying the baptism. As in the act of baptism He yielded Himself, a sacrifice and an offering; the opened heavens, the descending dove, the living voice, each having its own significance, unite in the attestation of the. perfection of the One so yielding Himself, to the mightiest phase in the purpose of God, that of redemption by way of sacrifice. The significance of this threefold fact may be considered briefly.

The opened heavens suggest the perfections of the thirty years, and declare in sacred sign and symbol that no act of His has excluded Him from the fellowship of the perfect. Heaven which must for ever exclude whatsoever is imperfect, could have enfolded Him without the violation of any principle of the Eternal Holiness.

The descending Spirit in the form of a dove was a recognition of the character, the Spirit, the disposition, of this Man, which lay behind the outward expression in conduct. Never anywhere else, is it recorded that the Spirit descended in the form of a dove. It rested upon Christ as the symbol of purity and of meekness. And yet it was also His anointing for the work of the three years. Seeing that the Spirit of anointing, which was preparation for the future, came in the form of a dove, which sealed the past; the fact was

signified that the ministry in public would be exercised in the strength of, and carried forward in the spirit of, the purity and the meekness which had characterised the past.

Superadded to these signs there was the sound of the living voice. First in identification of this Person as the One Who was referred to in the prophetic writings, and in the words of the Psalmist,

“I will tell of the decree:
Jehovah said unto Me, Thou art My Son;

This day have I begotten Thee... Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way.”?

The great word coming out of the old economy is “the Son.” Now at the baptism God says, “Thou art My beloved Son.’”2

Thus the description has reference to His office, and appointment and anointing for service. The second part of the Divine pronouncement declares that God is well pleased in Him. This sets the seal of the Divine approbation upon the thirty years, and declares therefore the perfect fitness of the approved One for the carrying out of the work of the three.

Thus the thirty years of privacy merge into the three years of publicity, by the way of solemn and significant ceremony.

By this study the baptism is placed in its relation to these two periods in the ministry of Jesus. The next study will deal more fully with the perfections of the thirty, and the following one will

indicate more fully the true meaning and value of the three. 1Psalm 2. 7, 12. *Luke 3. 22.