Jesus could not pass it by in utter silence. For His disciples' sake
and His own, it was necessary to allude to, and to probe it. But each
was performed as gently as possible. Thrice he had been warned, thrice
he had denied, and now thrice shall he be asked if he really loves.
And in asking him if he loved Him more than the rest, our Lord surely
reminded him of his boast that if all the rest forsook Him, he never
would. Christ delicately reminded him that his actions had not been
consistent with his professions, at the same time giving him an
opportunity of wiping out the record of failure by a new avowal of
attachment. Thus He deals with us still. He does not drag our secret
sins to light before our brethren and friends, and parade them before
the sun; but He asks with deep meaning if we love Him, leaving
conscience to apply the question. And is there not good reason for Him
to ask it? How you have forgotten Him! You have been occupied with
the world, pleasure, or even sin.
And there is nothing that breaks us down so quickly as this. Peter was
grieved. An old man, eighty years of age, reared in connection with a
church, once found his way to the penitent form, crying, "I've come
here to be broke." Ah, there is nothing that so breaks us down as this!
_The question must be asked as a preliminary to service._--Thrice He
asked Peter, as if to be perfectly sure ere He sent him forth on a
shepherd's work. All the self-denial, patience, tenderness, and
delicacy of love are needed, as the Lord knew well, in dealing with
men, who are naturally uninteresting, or perhaps repulsive, and hence
our Lord saw the necessity that there should be love. But how could
there be love to _them_? It was impossible to expect it; and so Christ
introduced Himself, saying, in effect, "Dost thou love Me? Henceforth
there will be little opportunity of doing anything for Me, thou canst
not now shelter Me in thy home, or let Me use thy fishing boats, or
share My toils; but as thou lovest Me, and desirest to show it, expend
it on those whom I love, for whom I died, and whom I long to see
brought into My fold. If only thou lovest, thou art fit for this."
You may not be naturally fitted to teach children, or shepherd adults;
but if you love Christ you will do better than those more cultured. It
is not science, nor intellect, nor eloquence, that wins souls; but love
to Christ pouring over in love to man. Love will give you a delicacy
of perception, an ingenuity, a persuasiveness, which no heart shall be
able to resist. Love will reconcile the accomplished scholar to a life
among savages, and will carry the refined and cultured lady up to the
sultry attic, or down to the damp and airless cellar. Love will bear
all, believe all, hope all, endure all, if only it may win wild
wandering sheep for Christ.
II. THE CONTRITE REPLY.--_It was very humble_. Peter did not now boast
that he excelled the rest, he did not even dare to stand sponsor for
his own affection; he threw the matter back on his Lord's omniscience,
and without mentioning the degree more or less, he said simply, "Thou
knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee." There is a
delicate shade of meaning in the Greek. The words translated _love_
are not the same. Jesus asks Peter if he cherishes toward Him
love--spiritual, holy, heavenly. Peter declines to use that term, and
contents himself with speaking of a simpler, more personal, more human
affection. If I do not give Thee that love which is Thy due as Son of
God, I at least give Thee that which befits Thee as Son of Man.
There are many who could not go even as far as this. Yet here are
tests of love! Would you be able to enjoy Heaven if Christ were not
there? Would you be willing to go to hell itself if you might have
Him? Do you feel drawn out to Him in service? Do you do things which
you certainly would not do except for His sake? Are you glad to hear
of Him in sermon or talk, so that there is a warm feeling rising to Him
at the mention of His name? Does it cost you pain to hear Him evil
spoken of? Do you sorrow that you do not love Him more? Then you can
challenge Him, saying, "Despite my worldliness, my faithlessness, my
sins, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee."
_It was very confident._--"Thou knowest all things." Jesus is
omniscient. He can see with microscopic eye the lichen on the grey
stone, the enamel on the shell, the modest flower; and He can see the
love that is in the disciple's heart, though it be but a tiny seed.
When we sin, we are tempted to believe that we have no love to Christ.
But let this incident encourage us. It is impossible for any true
lover of Christ to go on in a course of sin, but quite possible for him
to be betrayed into a single sin. And if that has been your case, do
not shun the Master; He still believes that it is possible for you to
love, and He is willing even to reinstate you in His blessed service.
Who is there, that does not long to speak more confidently of his love
to Christ? Cease then to think of your love to Christ, dwell much on
His love to you--"He loved me, He gave Himself for me." Think of its
unwearied patience, its delicacy, its tenderness. Consider the
character of Christ as unfolded in the New Testament. Commune with
Christ as friend with friend. Above all, put away from your heart all
that might grieve Him, and throw it open to the Holy Ghost, with prayer
that He would shed Christ's love abroad. Then, almost unconsciously,
it will arise, though it may not become palpable till some great crisis
calls you to the front, and demands some heroic sacrifice, which you
will give, not feeling it great.
III. THE DIVINE COMMAND.--In the miracle Peter had been commissioned to
do the work of a fisherman, that is, of an evangelist; here he is
commissioned to do the work of a shepherd, that is, of a pastor.
Feeding and tending lambs and sheep. It is not every one that is able
to care for the sheep; but there is hardly any one who loves, that
cannot feed or tend the lambs. And even if you shrink from the former,
what good reason have you to refuse to comply with the latter?
There are in this land hundreds of young lives whom the morning light
awakes to hunger, filth, and wretchedness, and whom the evening shadows
limit to rooms in which you would not care to keep your dogs. They are
growing up without the least sense of decency, or the slightest
reverence for God. Their existence is one long struggle against the
constituted guardians of society; or if they do not resist, they are
always eluding. In addition to these are the children of our homes and
families and schools. "_Feed My lambs!_"
It is worthy of note that two Greek words are used in these
injunctions. In the first and last, the Master says simply, Feed. In
the middle He adds, Do the work of a shepherd. So that the lover of
Christ has not fulfilled all his duty, when he has given his sacred
lesson or instruction: he must go further, and be prepared to act as
shepherd.
XXXVI
The Life-Plan of Peter and John
"What is that to thee? follow thou Me."--JOHN xxi. 22.
We are standing on the eastern shore of the Lake of Galilee. The
morning breeze blows fresh in our faces; the tiny wavelets run up with
a silvery ripple, and die on the white sand; across the expanse of
water the white buildings of Tiberias and Capernaum gleam forth. With
gunwale all wet and slippery a fishing smack is drawn up on the
deserted shore; near it the nets unbroken, although they had been heavy
with finny spoils; yonder the remnants of a fisherman's breakfast and
the dying embers of a fire.
The Master has just reinstated His erring apostle and friend, and
proceeded to describe the death by which he was ultimately to glorify
God: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou
girdest thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest; but when thou
shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall
gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not."
How different this forecast to what Peter would have chosen for
himself! What a contrast between that yielding to the will of another,
and that impetuous nature which so constantly betrayed itself! Take,
for instance, the occasions that are offered in this chapter. As soon
as he hears John's suggestion that the Lord is standing on the beach,
he lets go the fish that he had spent all night to catch, the nets
which it cost hours to make, the boat which was probably his own
property, binds his fisher's coat about him, plunges into the water,
and never rests till he has cast himself at his Master's feet. As soon
as the Lord expresses His desire to mingle some of the recent haul with
His own preparations for breakfast, he springs up, hastens to the
margin of the sea, drags the net to land, counts its contents, and
brings specimens to the little group gathered about the Master. Every
movement so quick and energetic! To wish, is to act! To desire a
thing, to do it! He makes us think of young manhood in all its
vigorous, nervous life.
The Lord did not damp or repress His fervid disciple. He looked on
him, to borrow the thought of another, with tender pity; as a parent,
who has passed through many of the world's darkest places, beholds the
child who is speaking of what he expects life to bring. Fresh from His
own agony, the Lord knew how different a temper that would be which had
been induced by prolonged suffering and patience: and He knew how
necessary it was that that temper should be induced in His beloved
disciple, so that he might become a pillar in His Church, and the
tender sympathetic writer of that First Epistle, which is so saturated
with a spirit of tender patience and sympathy for all who suffer.
Having uttered these cautionary words our Lord seems to have moved
away, bidding Peter follow--a mandate which was intended to carry a
deeper meaning. John followed them some few steps in the rear.
Hearing footsteps, Peter turned and saw him, and with a touch of
unworthy curiosity, hardly compatible with the seriousness of the
statement Jesus had just made, said, "Lord, and what shall this man do?"
The question was objectionable. It savored too much of Peter's old,
hasty, forward self. The Lord would not become a mere fortune-teller
to gratify his inquisitiveness. He put a check, therefore, on the
unbefitting inquiry, and yet, in rebuking, answered it: "If I will
that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou Me."
It is not easy to explain certainly the import of Christ's reply. Some
have interpreted it as meaning Christ's coming in death. But this can
hardly be, for He would as certainly come to Peter dying amid the agony
of martyrdom, as to John dying in a peaceful old age. Surely the
period referred to must have been the fall of Jerusalem, only forty
years distant, and to which our Lord so often referred as one phase at
least of His coming. Then the old economy would fall and pass away;
Christianity assume a world-wide importance, and the cross become one
of the mightiest factors of human history.
When those words were repeated to them, some of the disciples
interpreted them as meaning that John should not die, but they did not
convey that meaning to John himself; he only saw in them a general
intimation that his lot was in his Master's hands, and in any case
would be a very different one from Peter's.
I. OUR LIFE-PLAN IS FASHIONED BY THE WILL OF CHRIST.--What royalty
there is in those words, _If I will_! If Jesus were less than Divine,
how blasphemous they would appear! What arrogance to suppose that He
could regulate the time and manner of life or death! Yet how natural
it is to hear Him speak thus. No one starts or is surprised, and in
that calm acquiescence there is a testimony to the homogeneousness of
Christ's character. It is of one piece throughout. There is a perfect
consistency between His acts and words.
The ancients thought of their _lives_ as woven on the loom of spiteful
fates, whom they endeavored to humor by calling euphonious names. The
materialist supposes that his life is the creature of circumstances, a
rudderless ship in a current, mere flotsam and jetsam on the wave. The
Christian knows that the path of his life has been _prepared_ for him
to walk in; and that its sphere, circumstances, and character are due
to the thought and care of Him who has adapted it to our temperament
and capabilities, to repress the worst, and educate the best within us.
We are ignorant of the place and mode of our _death_. Our grave may be
in ocean depths with storm-blasts as our dirge, or the desert-waste
with the sands as our winding-sheets. Like that of Moses in a foreign
land, unknown and untended; or within the reach of friendly hands,
which will keep it freshly decked with evergreens. But wherever it may
be, it must befall as Christ has willed. We may die by some lingering
agony, or the gentle slackening of life's silver cord. The temple may
be shattered by an earthquake, or taken down stone by stone. But
whether the one or the other, it will be determined by His will. He
who makes the hue of each fading leaf different from that of any other
in the forest has some new trait of godliness, some fresh feature of
grace to illustrate and enforce in the dying hour; it is therefore
written, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
There is no lasting happiness, no comfort, no peace, to be had in this
life, apart from the belief that the so-called trifles, as well as the
apparently greater incidents of existence, are included in the
circumference of Christ's will, either executive or permissive. But in
speaking thus, I discriminate between ourselves and our surroundings.
I am speaking more particularly of the latter, and urge that even where
they are apparently moulded by the carelessness or malignity of others,
yet these are, unconsciously indeed, but really, effecting what He
predetermined should be done. "If I will."
Bind this to your heart. It may be appointed for you to die in early
prime, when the purpose of your life seems unfulfilled; or to live a
sequestered life, banished to the Patmos of exile and suffering, dying
after long years. But in any case, your Saviour has contrived and
adjusted all. And He will send the Angel of His Presence with you, to
help you, and to bring you to the place that He has prepared.
II. THE LIFE-COURSE OF ANY IS DETERMINED BY THE PECULIARITIES OF
CHARACTER AND SERVICE.--Christ tells us that we are destined to a long
future; and in doing so gives us the only satisfactory clue to the
mystery of existence. If there be no life beyond death, life is a maze
of endless wandering, to which there is no clue. But if there be--and
after all there is no _if_ in it--we can easily understand that the
present needs to be carefully adjusted to our nature and our future
niche in the great universe of God, that we may be able, to the
farthest limit, to realize our Master's anticipations.
There is a conspicuous illustration of this before us. Peter was to be
the apostle of sufferers, and write a letter, which should help, as
perhaps no other writing has helped, all sufferers to the end of time;
but he could never have penned it apart from the fiery trials through
which his character was softened and sanctified. How could he have
spoken of the humility, meekness, and patience of the suffering
believer, had he not drunk deeply of the cup of suffering for himself
and lived in constant anticipation of the martyr-death of which the
Lord spoke?
John's work, on the other hand, was to declare, as he does in the Book
of Revelation, that Jesus is the Living One, unchanged and unchanging,
the King of earth and heaven. And how could he have produced that
marvellous work, and received and reported those sublime visions, if he
had not lingered on, in loneliness and exile, till Jerusalem had fallen
before Titus and his legions, the Temple been destroyed, and the Jews
scattered to every nation under heaven?
Neither of these men understood at the time what he was being prepared
for. But as each now from heaven reviews the work he did, and the way
in which he was prepared for doing it; as each compares the discipline
through which he passed with the peculiarities of the people he was to
address, and the testimony he was to deliver, he must be full of glad
acknowledgments of the perfect adaptation of means to ends, of
instrumentalities to results.
And what is manifestly true of them is equally so of each of us. Not
always in this world, but in the next, we shall discern the admirable
fitness of the discipline through which we passed, to prepare us for
our position and ministry both here and hereafter.
"Great and marvellous are Thy works,
O Lord God the Almighty;
Righteous and true are Thy ways,
Thou King of the ages."
III. WHILST GOD IS WORKING OUT OUR LIFE-PLAN, WE MUST GIVE OURSELVES
TO PRACTICAL OBEDIENCE.--"Follow thou Me." The Master reiterated this
command, both when He told Peter his destiny, and when His apostle was
prying into secrets with which he had no immediate concern. Whatever
threatens us, looming in the future, we must not be deterred from
following our Master; and we are not to waste our time in speculation
as to matters which lie beyond our ken, but apply ourselves to the
practical duties, which lie ready to our hand.
But what is it to follow Christ? It is not to live an Oriental life
beneath these Northern skies, nor wear an Eastern garb, nor speak in
the Hebrew tongue. A man might do all these, and in addition wander
like Him, homeless and outcast, through the land, and yet not follow in
His steps. No! Following Jesus means our identification in the
principles that underlay His life, in His devotion and prayer, in His
absolute compliance with God's will, in His constant service of
mankind, in the sweetness and gentleness and strength of His personal
character. There is no path of legitimate duty into which we are
called to go, in which He does not precede; for when He putteth forth
His own sheep, He goeth before them, and His sheep follow. As of old,
His disciples saw Him going before them ascending up to Jerusalem, and
they followed Him; there is no path of arduous duty and suffering in
which He does not still precede.
Following Christ involves almost certain suffering at first. When
Peter asked what they would have, who had left all to follow Jesus, the
Master did not hesitate to say that the bitter herb of suffering would
mingle with all the dishes with which their table might be spread: and
when James and John tried to bespeak the right and left seats of the
throne, He spoke of the cup and baptism of pain. But afterward, when
the cross and grave are passed, then the fullness of joy and the
pleasures, which are at God's right hand forever-more!
We may follow Christ, and yet our paths diverge. Peter and John had
been close friends. In them, the binary stars of love and zeal, labor
and rest, action and contemplation, revolved in a common orbit.
Together at the grave, in the boat, in the temple, in prison; but their
outward fellowship was not permitted to continue; perhaps if it had, it
would have been too absorbing. It is in silence and solitude that
spirits attain their complete beauty, and so the Master is sometimes
obliged to say to us, "What is that to thee? follow thou Me."
In following Jesus, with the shadow of the cross always on his spirit,
Peter learned to sympathize with his Master's anticipation of death,
which in earlier years had been incomprehensible to him, and had led
him to say, "That be far from Thee, Lord"; and it gave him finally the
opportunity of fulfilling his first resolve to go with Him to prison
and to death. We often think ourselves strong to do and suffer long
before patience had done her perfect work. We rush impetuously
forward, and are overwhelmed. Then our Master has to lead us about, to
take us round by another and longer route, to train us by toils and
tears and teachings, till, hopeless of our own strength and confident
in His, in our old age we cry, "I must put off this my tabernacle, even
as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me."
If the old legend is true, Peter was crucified with his head downward,
because he felt unworthy to be so like his Lord--following Him with
humility and reverence. But whatever befalls us, whatever be the
nature of our experience in life or death, let it be our one aim to
glorify God. "And the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His
eternal glory in Christ, after that we have suffered a little while,
shall Himself perfect, stablish, strengthen us. To Him be the dominion
forever and ever. Amen."
XXXVII
Back to the Father
"And there are also many other things which Jesus did."--JOHN xxi. 25.
Once more, as we learn both from the Gospel according to Matthew and
the First Epistle to Corinthians, our Lord met the eleven Apostles,
together with some five hundred brethren beside, on a mountain in
Galilee, chosen partly for retirement and seclusion, and partly that
all might see Him. The majority of these were alive when Paul wrote.
"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me
in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
age."
Only once or twice beside did the Lord appear. He was seen of James,
and this interview seems to have determined this saintly man, who was
his own brother either through a previous marriage of Joseph, or as
born after his own birth, of Mary, to become a humble follower of Him,
with whose existence His own was so mysteriously blended. Then He
appeared once more to all the Apostles, and being assembled with them
commanded them to wait in Jerusalem till the promise of the Father was
fulfilled, that He would send them another Comforter, the Holy Ghost.
"For John," He said, "truly baptized with water; but ye shall be
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
There seems to have been an interval at that point, during which the
disciples had time to think over what the Lord had said. It had
suggested to them the idea of the setting up of the Messianic kingdom,
which had always been viewed as coincident with the bestowal of the
Holy Ghost. "Lord," they said when they came together again, "wilt
Thou restore at this time the kingdom to Israel!" The Lord would not
gratify their curiosity, and at that moment it would have been useless
to combat and explain their erroneous views. This must be left to the
education of time, and circumstance, and that same Spirit. These
things were kept in the Father's secret councils. It was not for them
to know, but they should receive power.
Then, with the tenacity of affection for the scenes of His former life,
He led them out as far as Bethany. And when they had reached the
beloved spot, associated with so many sacred and tender memories, He
lifted up His hands and blessed them; and while He blessed them, He was
parted from them, and a cloud became both vail and chariot, parting
them and receiving Him out of their sight.
Thence He ascended far above all principality, power, might, and
dominion, through all heavens to the right hand of the Father, there to
pursue His life of ministry and prayer for men, and specially for those
He loved. And angels stood beside the little group of lovers, assuring
them of His return in the same manner as they had seen Him go. And
they worshipped Him, and went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord
working with them, and confirming their word with signs following.