_JESUS ANNOUNCES HIS DEPARTURE._
"When therefore he was gone out, Jesus saith, Now is the Son of man
glorified, and God is glorified in Him; and God shall glorify Him in
Himself, and straightway shall He glorify Him. Little children, yet
a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek Me: and as I said unto
the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say unto you. A new
commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I
have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men
know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another. Simon
Peter saith unto Him, Lord, whither goest Thou? Jesus answered,
Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow
afterwards. Peter saith unto Him, Lord, why cannot I follow Thee
even now? I will lay down my life for Thee. Jesus answereth, Wilt
thou lay down thy life for Me? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The
cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied Me thrice. Let not your
heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My
Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have
told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto
Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go, ye
know the way."--JOHN xiii. 31-xiv. 4.
When Judas glided out of the supper-room on his terrible mission, a
weight seemed to be lifted from the spirit of Jesus. The words which
fell from Him, however, indicated that He not only felt the relief of
being rid of a disturbing element in the company, but that He recognised
that a crisis in His own career had been reached and successfully passed
through. "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him."
In sending Judas forth He had in point of fact delivered Himself to
death. He had taken the step which cannot be withdrawn, and He is
conscious of taking it in fulfilment of the will of the Father. The
conflict in His own mind is revealed only by the decision of the
victory. No man in soundness of body and of mind can voluntarily give
himself to die without seeing clearly other possibilities, and without
feeling it to be a hard and painful thing to relinquish life. Jesus had
made up His mind. His death is the beginning of His glorification. In
choosing the cross He chooses the crown. "The Son of man is glorified"
in His perfect self-sacrifice that wins all men to Him; and God is
glorified in Him because this sacrifice is a tribute at once to the
justice and the love of God. The Cross reveals God as nothing else
does.
Not only has this decision glorified the Son of man and God through Him
and in Him, but as a consequence "God will glorify" the Son of man "in
Himself." He will lift Him to participation in the Divine glory. It was
well that the disciples should know that this would "straightway" result
from all that their Master was now to pass through; that the perfect
sympathy with the Father's will which He was now showing would be
rewarded by permanent participation in the authority of God. It must be
through such an one as their Lord, who is absolutely at one with God,
that God fulfils His purpose towards men. By this life and death of
perfect obedience, of absolute devotedness to God and man, Christ
necessarily wins dominion over human affairs and exercises a determining
influence on all that is to be. In all that Christ did upon earth God
was glorified; His holiness, His fatherly love were manifested to men:
in all that God now does upon earth Christ will be glorified; the
uniqueness and power of His life will become more manifest, the
supremacy of His Spirit be more and more apparent.
This glorification was not the far-off result of the impending
sacrifice. It was to date from the present hour and to begin in the
sacrifice. God will glorify Him "straightway." "Yet _a little while_"
was He to be with His disciples. Therefore does He tenderly address
them, recognising their incompetence, their inability to stand alone, as
"little children"; and in view of the exhibition of bad feeling, and
even of treachery, which the Twelve had at that very hour given, His
commandment, "Love one another," comes with a tenfold significance. I am
leaving you, He says: put away, then, all heart-burnings and
jealousies; cling together; do not let quarrels and envyings divide
you. This was to be their safeguard when He left them and went where
they could not come. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love
one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this
shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to
another."
The commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves was no new
commandment. But to love "as I have loved you" was so new that its
practice was enough to identify a man as a disciple of Christ. The
manner and the measure of the love that is possible and that is
commanded could not even be understood until Christ's love was revealed.
But probably what Jesus had even more directly in view was the love that
was to bind His followers together[13] and make them one solid body. It
was on their mutual attachment that the very existence of the Christian
Church depended; and this love of men to one another springing out of
the love of Christ for them, and because of their acknowledgment and
love of a common Lord, was a new thing in the world. The bond to Christ
proved itself stronger than all other ties, and those who cherished a
common love to Him were drawn to one another more closely than even to
blood relations. In fact, Christ, by His love for men, has created a new
bond, and that the strongest by which men can be bound to one another.
As the Christian Church is a new institution upon earth, so is the
principle which forms it a new principle. The principle has, indeed, too
often been hidden from sight, if not smothered, by the institution; too
little has love been regarded as the one thing by which the disciple of
Christ is to be recognised, the one note of the true Church. But that
this form of love was a new thing upon earth is apparent.[14]
Tenderly as Jesus made the announcement of His departure, it filled the
minds of the disciples with consternation. Even the buoyant and hardy
Peter felt for the moment staggered by the intelligence, and still more
by the announcement that he was not able to accompany his Lord. He was
assured that one day he should follow Him, but at present this was
impossible. This, Peter considered a reflection upon his courage and
fidelity; and although his headlong self-confidence had only a few
minutes before been so severely rebuked, he exclaims, "Lord, why cannot
I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake." This was the
true expression of Peter's present feeling, and he was allowed in the
end to give proof that these vehement words were not mere bluster. But
as yet he had not at all apprehended the separateness of his Lord and
the uniqueness of His work. He did not know precisely what Jesus alluded
to, but he thought a strong arm would not be out of place in any
conflict that was coming. The offers which even true fidelity makes are
often only additional hindrances to our Lord's purposes, and additional
burdens for Him to bear. On Himself alone must He depend. No man can
counsel Him, and none can aid save by first receiving from Him His own
spirit.
Peter thus rebuked falls into unwonted silence, and takes no further
part in the conversation. The rest, knowing that Peter has more courage
than any of them, fear that if he is thus to fall it cannot be hopeful
for themselves. They feel that if they are left without Jesus they have
no strength to make head against the rulers, no skill in argument such
as made Jesus victorious when assailed by the scribes, no popular
eloquence which might enable them to win the people. Eleven more
helpless men could not well be. "Sheep without a shepherd" was not too
strong an expression to depict their weakness and want of influence,
their incompetence to effect anything, their inability even to keep
together. Christ was their bond of union and the strength of each of
them. It was to be with Him that they had left all. And in forsaking
all--father and mother, wife and children, home and kindred and
calling--they had found in Christ that hundredfold more even in this
life which He had promised. He had so won their hearts, there was about
Him something so fascinating, that they felt no loss when they enjoyed
His presence, and feared no danger in which He was their leader. They
had perhaps not thought very definitely of their future; they felt so
confident in Jesus that they were content to let Him bring in His
kingdom as He pleased; they were so charmed with the novelty of their
life as His disciples, with the great ideas that dropped from His lips,
with the wonderful works He did, with the new light He shed upon all the
personages and institutions of the world, that they were satisfied to
leave their hope undefined. But all this satisfaction and secret
assurance of hope depended on Christ. As yet He had not given to _them_
anything which could enable them to make any mark upon the world. They
were still very ignorant, so that any lawyer could entangle and puzzle
them. They had not received from Christ any influential position in
society from which they could sway men. There were no great visible
institutions with which they could identify themselves and so become
conspicuous.
It was with dismay, therefore, that they heard that He was going where
they could not accompany Him. A cloud of gloomy foreboding gathered on
their faces as they lay round the table and fixed their eyes on Him as
on one whose words they would interpret differently if they could. Their
anxious looks are not disregarded. "Let not your heart be troubled," He
says: "believe in God, and in Me, too, believe." Do not give way to
disturbing thoughts; do not suppose that only failure, disgrace,
helplessness, and calamity await you. Trust God. In this, as in all
matters, He is guiding and ruling and working His own good ends through
all present evil. Trust Him, even when you cannot penetrate the
darkness. It is His part to bring you successfully through; it is your
part to follow where He leads. Do not question and debate and vex your
soul, but leave all to Him. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why
art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise
Him who is the health of my countenance and my God."
"And in Me, too, trust." I would not leave you had I not a purpose to
serve. It is not to secure My own safety or happiness I go. It is not to
occupy the sole available room in My Father's house. There are many
rooms there, and I go to prepare a place for you. Trust Me. In order
that they may fully understand the reasonableness of His departure He
assures them, first of all, that it has a purpose. The parent mourns
over the son who in mere waywardness leaves his home and his occupation;
but with very different feelings does he follow one who has come to see
that the greater good of the family requires that he should go, and who
has carefully ascertained where and how he can best serve those he
leaves behind. To such an absence men can reconcile themselves. The
parting is bitter, but the greater good to be gained by it enables them
to approve its reasonableness and to submit. And what our Lord says to
His disciples is virtually this: I have not wearied of earth and tired
of your company, neither do I go because I must. I could escape Judas
and the Jews. But I have a purpose which requires that I should go. You
have not found Me impulsive, neither am I now acting without good
reason. Could I be of more use to you by staying, I would stay.
This is a new kind of assertion to be made by human lips: "I am going
into the other world to effect a a purpose." Often the sense of duty has
been so strong in men that they have left this world without a murmur.
But no one has felt so clear about what lies beyond, or has been so
confident of his own power to effect any change for the better in the
other world, that he has left this for a sphere of greater usefulness.
This is what Christ does.
But He also explains what His purpose is: "In My Father's house are many
mansions. I go to prepare a place for you." The Father's house was a new
figure for heaven. The idea of God's house was, however, familiar to the
Jews. But in the Temple the freedom and familiarity which we associate
with home were absent. It was only when One came who felt that His real
home was in God that the Temple could be called "the Father's house."
Yet there is nothing that the heart of man more importunately craves
than the freedom and ease which this name implies. To live unafraid of
God, not shrinking from Him, but so truly at one with Him that we live
as one household brightened by His presence--this is the thirst for God
which is one day felt in every heart. And on His part God has many
mansions in His house, proclaiming that He desires to have us at home
with Him; that He wishes us to know and trust Him, not to change our
countenances when we meet Him at a corner, save by an added brightness
of joy. And this is what we have to look forward to--that after all our
coldness and distrust have been removed and our hearts thawed by His
presence, we shall live in the constant enjoyment of a Father's love,
feeling ourselves more truly at home with Him than with any one else,
delighting in the perfectness of His sympathy and the abundance of His
provision.
Into this intimacy with God, this freedom of the universe, this sense
that "all things are ours" because we are His, this entirely attractive
heaven, we are to be introduced by Christ. "I go to prepare a place for
you." It is He who has transformed the darkness of the grave into the
bright gateway of the Father's home, where all His children are to find
eternal rest and everlasting joy. As an old writer says, "Christ is the
quartermaster who provides quarters for all who follow Him." He has gone
on before to make ready for those whom He has summoned to come after
Him.
If we ask why it was needful that Christ should go forward thus, and
what precisely He had to do in the way of preparation, the question may
be answered in different ways. These disciples in after-years compared
Christ's passing into the Father's presence to the high priest's
entrance within the veil to present the blood of sprinkling and to make
intercession. But in the language of Christ there is no hint that such
thoughts were in His mind. It is the Father's house that is in His mind,
the eternal home of men; and He sees the Father welcoming Him as the
leader of many brethren, and with gladness in His heart going from room
to room, always adding some new touch for the comfort and surprise of
the eagerly expected children. If God, like a grieved and indignant
father whose sons have preferred other company to his, had dismantled
and locked the rooms that once were ours, Christ has made our peace, and
has given to the yearning heart of the Father opportunity to open these
rooms once more and deck them for our home-coming. With the words of
Christ there enters the spirit a conviction that when we pass out of
this life we shall find ourselves as much fuller of life and deeper in
joy as we are nearer to God, the source of all life and joy; and that
when we come to the gates of God's dwelling it will not be as the
vagabond and beggar unknown to the household and who can give no good
account of himself, but as the child whose room is ready for him, whose
coming is expected and prepared for, and who has indeed been sent for.
This of itself is enough to give us hopeful thoughts of the future
state. Christ is busied in preparing for us what will give us
satisfaction and joy. When we expect a guest we love and have written
for, we take pleasure in preparing for his reception,--we hang in his
room the picture he likes; if he is infirm, we wheel in the easiest
chair; we gather the flowers he admires and set them on his table; we go
back and back to see if nothing else will suggest itself to us, so that
when he comes he may have entire satisfaction. This is enough for us to
know--that Christ is similarly occupied. He knows our tastes, our
capabilities, our attainments, and he has identified a place as ours and
holds it for us. What the joys and the activities and occupations of the
future shall be we do not know. With the body we shall lay aside many of
our appetites and tastes and proclivities, and what has here seemed
necessary to our comfort will at once become indifferent. We shall not
be able to desire the pleasures that now allure and draw us. The need of
shelter, of retirement, of food, of comfort, will disappear with the
body; and what the joys and the requirements of a spiritual body will be
we do not know. But we do know that at home with God the fullest life
that man can live will certainly be ours.
It is a touching evidence of Christ's truthfulness and fidelity to His
people that is given in the words, "If it were not so, I would have told
you"--that is to say, if it had not been possible for you to follow Me
into the Father's presence and find a favourable reception there, I
would have told you this long ago. I would not have taught you to love
Me, only to have given you the grief of separation. I would not have
encouraged you to hope for what I was not sure you are to receive. He
had all along seen how the minds of the disciples were working; He had
seen that by being admitted to familiarity with Him they had learnt to
expect God's eternal favour; and had this been a deceitful expectation
He would have undeceived them. So it is with Him still. The hopes His
word begets are not vain. These dreams of glory that pass before the
spirit that listens to Christ and thinks of Him are to be realised. If
it were not so, He would have told us. We ourselves feel that we are
scarcely acting an honest part when we allow persons to entertain false
hopes, even when these hopes help to comfort and support them, as in the
case of persons suffering from disease. So our Lord does not beget hopes
He cannot satisfy. If there were still difficulties in the way of our
eternal happiness, He would have told us of these. If there were any
reason to despair, He Himself would have been the first to tell us to
despair. If eternity were to be a blank to us, if God were inaccessible,
if the idea of a perfect state awaiting us were mere talk, He would have
told us so.
Neither will the Lord leave His disciples to find their own way to the
Father's home: "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again,
and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
Present separation was but the first step towards abiding union. And as
each disciple was summoned to follow Christ in death, he recognised that
this was the summons, not of an earthly power, but of his Lord; he
recognised that to him the Lord's promise was being kept, and that he
was being taken into eternal union with Jesus Christ. From many all the
pain and darkness of death have been taken away by this assurance. They
have accepted death as the needful transition from a state in which much
hinders fellowship with Christ to a state in which that fellowship is
all in all.