The point we have now reached in the history is marked by a signal change
as well in the form of our Lord’s teaching as in the outer tenour of His
life. His discourses are no longer a string of positive precepts, but they
consist largely of parables, commonly closing with a moral put into a
striking, not to say a paradoxical, form. His way of life is altered also,
it is no longer that of a resident of Capernaum, but that of a wayfarer
undertaking considerable journeys, accompanied by the Twelve who had left
all to follow Him. Outward circumstances, such as danger from the side of
Herod, may have had influence in bringing this latter change about, but
all things fell together to further the kind of education desired for the
Twelve. This change from a stationary life to a wandering one was
conducive to the growth of certain qualities valuable for the founders of
a Church. These qualities we find conspicuously displayed by the Apostles
in the Acts, and we may ask whether they had not acquired them in this
course of practical education, and also whether our Lord did not frame
this course with a view to its educational effects, and the fitting of the
Apostles for their work. Was it of pure accident that all this came about?
We can also, although with less positiveness, draw some inferences from
the courses which our Lord avoided taking as well as from those which He
took. When we are disposed to wonder why our Lord did not take some
particular step, it is a good plan to consider what would have come about
if He had done so. We shall often find that the proposed course would have
had an ultimate effect, very different from that immediate and obvious one
which had at first occurred to us. So, by examining the educational
consequences which would have resulted from certain courses that were
_not_ taken we shall, I think, learn something about what to avoid in
education ourselves. Although the education of the Apostles is a purpose
ever in our Lord’s view, yet it is only now and then that we are plainly
told that something was said or done for the Apostles’ sakes. This silence
as to the effect which is aimed at is, in education, often a necessity. If
a pupil is told by his master that he is put through certain studies, not
that he may learn the subject, but that he may perfect himself in certain
mental motions and improve his capacities, he is apt to be made
self-conscious and coxcombical or else, feeling satisfied that his mind
and capacities are very well as they are, he gives small attention to what
he is told.
From the very first we have seen indications that our Lord was divining
the natures of men, selecting them with a forecast to their coming work,
and fitting them to receive and promulgate His revelation of God. But this
inner purpose, which, until the Twelve are called, has lain underground,
now crops out on the surface and forces itself into view; and we feel
bound to ask of every subsequent incident in the sacred History, “How was
the Apostles’ character influenced by this?”
I have spoken of the “Schooling of the Apostles” for want of a better
phrase, but the mental changes wrought in the disciples by their Master’s
company constitute a very different sort of schooling from what commonly
goes by the name. They receive no doctrinal instruction in dogmatic form,
they obtain nothing which they can display, they are shewn no new system
for dealing with the problems of life, nor are they given fresh views
about the Messiah. Those who come asking “What they are to do?” are always
told that they already know, or should know, this very well of themselves.
Among the great Teachers of the world there is hardly one, whose chosen
pupils have received so few tenets in a formulated shape as those of
Christ; and yet the Apostles at the time of the Ascension have undergone a
transformation, compared with what they were when our Lord first found
them, greater than was ever wrought in men in the same time before.
One special function was assigned to the Apostles which sets them apart
from all other men. In them was engendered a new quality belonging to
spiritual life; they were the trustees of mankind for a new capacity; they
were the depositaries of the faculty for realising “the assurance of
things hoped for, the proving of things not seen.”(187) In them Faith,
which elsewhere existed only in the germ, was brought to perfection and
bore fruit, and scattered seed. Their progress in this quality proceeds by
certain steps; these are roughly indicated in the first chapter of this
book (pp. 8, 9), but I will name them here again.
First of all, the men who were chosen for the work had a more than usual
power of savouring the things of God. They are brought under the influence
of One whom they regard as the Messiah but about whom something of mystery
hangs. They conceive for him a passionate loyalty, and an affection, of
which that inspired by the highest human natures will only serve to give a
bare idea; they are with him day by day; they look on his Signs and
Wonders, but it seems to them so natural that a Man like Him should work
wonders, that they scarcely marvel at them. Inward evil, selfish thoughts
and all, disappear when He is by. Again, they are educated to feel that in
His company they are safe against outward dangers. This growing
confidence(188) was tried and found wanting when they were with their
Master on the Lake and the storm arose; the lesson had to be studied a
little longer. As soon as it was fully learned they were advanced another
stage; the Apostles, in the great practical lesson which is the leading
matter of this chapter, were taught that Christ’s power reached beyond His
presence, that it could even be delegated to them, and that His shelter
could be spread over them, though He might be far away. They are sent
forth without purse and scrip that they may the better feel that they are
in Christ’s hand and need give no thought to petty daily cares. The same
lesson is afterwards given to the Seventy disciples. The Crucifixion
brought about an education of a very different kind, that of affliction
and trial; but the Apostles do not, at once, wholly lose their Master, He
is withdrawn from them by degrees. After the Resurrection though He no
longer lives on the earth a common life with men, yet His disciples feel
that He is not absolutely gone; He seems to be still close by, and they
may at any moment see His loved and honoured form and hear the words
“Peace be unto you.” The stranger who joins them on the road may prove to
be He; they may catch sight of the Lord’s features as He vanishes away.
Then comes the last stage of separation when He is completely lost to eye
and ear, and Spiritual Communion only is maintained. Most carefully and by
wisely ordered degrees had they been brought to apprehend this Spiritual
Communion, and they were actuated by the inner sense of His presence
during all the rest of their lives. This it was, this realization of our
Lord’s words “Lo, I am always with you unto the end of the world,” which
rendered—and still is rendering—the Christian Church a body living and
organic, and not a mere exponent or depository of doctrines, and of
traditions about the Lord.
Christ is the Divine core of the true life of Humanity, and He, when one
set of views are outgrown, may whisper to the “company of God’s faithful
people,” and there may be disclosed to them another aspect of that truth
absolute which men in the body cannot completely discern or receive.
Soon after the call of the Apostles the fixed residence of our Lord at
Capernaum was broken up. Very little consideration will be wanted to see
that it was serviceable, with a view to the education of the Apostles,
that it should be so.
Up to this time the fisher brethren had gone on working for their
livelihood more or less, but now their Master saw that He should be but a
short time with them and He would have them all to Himself. Of labour,
both bodily and mental, the Apostles should indeed have enough, but so
long as they were with their Master—so long as the bridegroom was with
them—all this labour must tend to the single object unto which they were
to consecrate their lives. We can readily see that so long as Christ was
on earth it was their one duty to follow and to hear; they should be
engrossed by the sole duty of attending Him and were not to be distracted
by sordid cares or by having to labour for their daily bread. They were to
learn that the work to which they were called was of a sublime order, and
that the business of common life was as nothing by its side. After this
time the Apostolic party were supported from their own savings or from the
contributions of their friends, or of others interested in the “words of
eternal life.” The following passage belongs to this time:
“And it came to pass soon afterwards, that he went about through
cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good tidings of
the kingdom of God, and with him the twelve, and certain women
which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary that
was called Magdalene, from whom seven devils had gone out, and
Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many
others, which ministered unto them of their substance.”(189)
But as soon as they ceased to labour for their daily bread, they were kept
continuously and actively engaged in their Master’s service; for they were
not to be exposed to the dangers attending the lack of settled occupation.
Thus we find that as soon as they ceased to earn their livelihood they
were occupied incessantly, journeying in attendance on our Lord. This
matter may be approached at either of its two ends. It may have been our
Lord’s first care that the Apostles should be freed from secular labour,
and the journeys may have been secondary to this purpose; or the
journeyings may have been of primary importance, and the Twelve would then
necessarily abandon their callings, and have to be supported out of some
common fund. In both cases the educational effect was the same.
If the Twelve after being freed from earning their livelihood had remained
in Capernaum, there must have been some part of the day when they were not
in actual attendance on their Master; they would have to meet the reproach
of idleness, and they might lose some self-respect by feeling that they
were eating others’ bread; or, in their spare time they might fall into
those polemical discussions from which our Lord safeguards them with
especial care.
All these evils were obviated by the course which was actually taken. Our
Lord left his fixed home at Capernaum, and He and the Twelve adopted a
wandering life. These journeys taken in company supplied a need which in
all education is a foremost one, that of discipline. They were given
duties to perform. When men travel together, faring hardly on rough
mountain ways, bound to start together and to keep up each with the rest,
whether disposed to do so or not, they soon come to set inclination on one
side and to learn what obligation means. There is no kind of companionship
which binds men in a closer and heartier fellowship than this journeying
together. Thus the Schooling of the Twelve went on, without their guessing
it, as they went with their Master, sometimes on foot over the hills,
sometimes rowing the boat on the Lake, sometimes providing for His
reception in the cities, or marshalling hearers to listen to the word; and
sometimes, when multitudes had to be fed, arranging them, plot by plot, so
that they might be reached by those who distributed the food.(190)
This work afforded the very training required. Nothing is more remarkable
in the Apostles than their unbroken mental health. The histories of
religious communities are full of instances of ecstacies and hysterical
delusions; but never do we find among our Lord’s followers anything
approaching to a spiritual craze. Such crazes are commonly the growth of
solitude, and no Apostle while the new ideas are working in him is
suffered to be long alone. This health of theirs came in great measure
from their being constantly employed about matters of which their hearts
were full. The training of the Apostles fulfils all the conditions for
sound spiritual health; the Twelve lead lives of out-door labour, with
constant change of scene, with varied interests, with occupations to
engage their minds; some had the provisioning to see to,(191) some the
contributions, some were sent on in advance to secure lodging,(192) and
some wrought works of healing in their Master’s name. All this was
conducive to their becoming self helpful, fertile in practical resource,
as well as earnestly devoted to their Master, confident both of His power
and of that delegated to themselves. Their way of life brought them also
into acquaintance with the various dispositions and ways of men: all of
this was essential for their work.
At the same time this regular occupation, though sufficient to prevent any
evil spirit finding in them a corner “empty, swept and garnished,” yet was
not absorbing or exhausting, it left their minds and wills free play; they
could fall into groups as they chose, they could talk freely on the way,
they could debate on the meaning of a parable, or on the nature and time
of coming of the Kingdom of Heaven.
After, what seems to have been a short mission journey, with the Twelve,
into the villages of Gennesareth, which served to initiate them into their
new life and to teach them confidence in their Master, our Lord came back
to the Lake coast where a great crowd assembled, whom He addressed from a
boat upon the Lake near the shore.
The crowd that gathered there heard a teaching new to the world both in
matter and in form; men who had listened to the Sermon on the Mount might
scarcely believe that the speaker was the same; hitherto the lessons to
the multitude had placed before them truths of life, moral and spiritual,
put in such a way as to require no effort of the learner to be fully
understood; the right or wrong about some matter, with which they had
daily to deal, had been set before them in a light in which they had never
seen it before. But what they heard now was not apopthegm, not precept,
but, on the face of it, only a simple tale. “This” they would say “is all
well, but how is it like the Kingdom of God?” Whether much more might not
be learnt, even from these plain lessons, by turning them over a second
time in the mind, was a question which only a few asked, and of these few
the greater part were probably already among the disciples of Jesus. They
were no longer given instruction in a condition ready for use, but only
material from which they should extract it for themselves; and to do this
they must both use their wits and have hearts alive to God. I shall speak,
further on, of the principle on which our Lord acted in withdrawing from
the mass the opportunities they had had before. He states it himself, in
words I have many times cited, “to those who have shall be given”; words
which we have not done with yet, but which it would draw me from my point
to discuss now.
It was apparently for the sake of the Apostles that this form of teaching
is introduced. One of the services it rendered is obvious, it set the
hearers thinking. A new form of intellectual exercise was laid before the
listeners, something was proposed which they had to solve for themselves;
they are given the solution in two cases, and they are provided with other
examples on which they are to try their own skill. Beside the stimulus
thus given to intellectual activity by the new kind of teaching, it kept
before the eyes of the students those lofty conceptions of Divine agency
in the world which preachers of the Kingdom of Heaven would require.
Personal trust in our Lord’s words, cooperating with some intuition of
their own, had made them feel sure that God’s Kingdom had come. Now they
were told that they might know something of its ways; they are set to
ponder on them, but the direction their thoughts are to follow is marked
out; they are not left to rove hither and thither in their own
imaginations, they are not suffered to pass disjointedly from notion to
notion as in a dream; the puzzle of the parable arrests their attention,
and the thread which the circumstance of it supplies serves as a clue
confining their thoughts to move along a certain path. Here again, as we
have observed so often, a selective action comes in, for it is the more
active intellects that are most drawn towards a puzzle. They find in it
something that their minds may work upon and this is what they seek; while
the sluggish desire nothing of the kind, but turn aside from anything they
cannot at once understand.
Again, if the Apostles solved a parable for themselves and thereby arrived
at a new aspect of some Divine truth, this fresh knowledge would be much
more their own, and have a far greater effect in forming their minds, than
if the solution had come from their Master. A problem solved by the pupil
himself does him more good than a dozen of which he reads the solutions in
a book. The parable suggested certain parallels between things outward and
things spiritual in the world, and, without conceiving anything so
abstract as an analogy between these two orders of things, the Twelve may
have caught a glimpse of the truth, that a workmanship betokening the same
hand runs through all provinces of the universe.
When the disciples had thus been filled with new thoughts and new ideas,
our Lord withdrew them from turmoil that the ideas might germinate
undisturbed, we read
“And on that day, when even was come, he saith unto them, Let us
go over unto the other side.”(193)
An incident in this little voyage served as a test of the condition of
that Faith, the growth of which in the Apostles’ hearts was being, I
believe, watched anxiously by our Lord.
“And there ariseth a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into
the boat, insomuch that the boat was now filling. And he himself
was in the stern, asleep on the cushion: and they awake him, and
say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he
awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be
still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he
said unto them, Why are ye fearful? have ye not yet faith?”(194)
This _yet_ is emphatic. This was a miracle of instruction, and it served
also as a test of how far the Apostles were fit for the high lesson in
store for them, that namely of trusting in the Lord’s protection when they
were out of His sight. Their behaviour shewed that they had not as yet
fully mastered the easier one of trusting in Him when He was by.
First let us notice a trait of nature in the recital which shews the hand
of an eye-witness. The words “Master, carest thou not that we perish”
exactly express the irritation of alarm, which turns against those who
remain undisturbed. No fabricator would in those days have hit on this
trait; and a compiler from tradition, unless he had felt constrained by
his authority, might have preferred to pass it by.
It is not quite clear from the account whether the disciples hoped for
superhuman help from our Lord or not. The works of His which had most
gained notice had been cures, and that He should have power over the winds
and waves had probably never entered their minds. Still, it is obvious,
that they turned to their Master in peril, as a child does to its parent,
expecting at least to find Him solicitous about them. If our Lord had
asked them, as soon as the wind rose, “Shall you, if a storm should come,
feel safe because I am with you?” they would have answered, and answered
truly, that they would. But their Oriental disposition to panic lay deeper
in them than their newly born confidence in their Master, and the sudden
emergency brought the depths to the surface. Their trust, we may be sure,
advanced after that night both in intensity and breadth.
The miracle in the country of the Gadarenes, into which our Lord went,
brings out one point which belongs to my subject.(195) This miracle I
regard as a practical illustration of the lesson of the parable of the
Tares, inasmuch as both one and the other bear on the great puzzle of
God’s tolerance of evil in the world. While the parable and interpretation
are yet fresh in the minds of the Apostles, the case of this Demoniac
comes before them. It may have struck them—as it must often have struck
ourselves—how often after having learnt something one day we come,
unaccountably, on an instance or illustration of it on the next. The
circumstance was this, an evil agency was, so to say, taken prisoner by
our Lord; should it be deprived of existence, or at any rate of activity
at once? Men generally would answer “Yes.” They would regard it as
something that had escaped God’s eye and which God’s servants ought to
destroy whenever they could. This is not Christ’s view. Evil is not
regarded by him as an oversight of God. God has allowed it to exist in the
world, and so it has probably some function to perform. It is not to be
extirpated with ruthless hand. The tares are to grow until the harvest. On
the same principle our Lord will not send the Spirit into the pit. He is
the Son of Man, and men he has come to deliver; of the man therefore this
evil agency must loosen his hold; but, saving this, he may pursue the
vocation he was following when Christ crossed the Lake. Our Lord rescues
the _man_, because to do good unto men He was sent, but for property he is
not concerned. If the Demon must be about some evil, but will be content
with turning to the swine, to the swine he is at liberty to go; he is not
sent to them, but neither is he interdicted. The plague on men is, as was
observed above, turned into a murrain among swine.(196) The destruction of
the swine was the act of the Divine government only in the same sense that
the losses by the cattle plague are so now. As we go on we read:
“And they began to beseech him to depart from their borders.”(197)
It would be hard upon this people to say that they counted the deliverance
of their brother a less matter than the loss of their swine; they were
terror-stricken at the display of superhuman power, and they wished to be
rid of their cause of fear.
In the above verse we find the first instance of indifference or aversion
among those to whom our Lord went.
The schooling of the Apostles leads them steadily on; step by step they
advance into the rougher ground of actual life, and one such step is noted
here.
It was well, as I have said, that a glow of success should at starting
rest upon their path, but they could never grow into hardy wayfarers if
all the ways were smooth and all the weather bright; there were in them
many qualities, good and hard, which could only take their proper lustre
by rubbing against what was rough. So they were early taught to expect
opposition, and they saw in what spirit it was dealt with by our Lord.
Men, thinking only of the contest, are apt to lose sight of the matter in
debate, and make it a point of honour not to give way. They are often made
obstinate by being opposed. Our Lord counts the fact that opposition
exists to be material in the case and allows it its weight. Here the
people pray Him to go and He goes. He could do them no good by staying
against their will. He returns at once to the western side of the Lake,
and soon after his arrival we read of the raising of Jairus’ daughter.
With the miracle itself I have nothing to do; I am concerned with the
choosing of Peter, James and John, to witness the miracle,(198) but this
is an instance of the principle which will form the subject of the next
chapter and will there be discussed.
After this, according to my view of the chronology, our Lord paid a second
visit to Nazareth accompanied by His disciples. He may have supposed that
the news of His doings would have turned His townspeople towards Him; but
the old impression is still strong among them. A man from God, they
thought, must come they knew not whence, whereas Jesus and His brothers
they had known all their lives; and although it seems that His mother and
brethren had gone to live at Capernaum,(199) His sisters were still among
them in Nazareth. We may gather from these two events that the faith of
the disciples had by this time grown strong enough to encounter opposition
without harm. A strong conviction is confirmed by attack; it takes up a
firm position on its bases of support; while a stripling faith bends and
quivers at every gust of disbelief.
It was soon after this rejection at Nazareth, and possibly from the
neighbourhood of that place, that our Lord sent forth the Twelve on their
mission journey, giving them the very remarkable injunction, which I print
below. St Luke tells us of another mission of seventy disciples; how long
a time elapsed between the two missions, or whether the Apostles were
among the seventy, we do not know; inasmuch as the circumstances of the
two journeys, and the directions given are very similar, and the
educational purport of the two is alike, I shall print both the narratives
here, and consider the two events together. St Mark’s account is as
follows:
“And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth
by two and two; and he gave them authority over the unclean
spirits; and he charged them that they should take nothing for
their journey, save a staff only; no bread, no wallet, no money in
their purse; but to go shod with sandals: and, said he, put not on
two coats. And he said unto them, Wheresoever ye enter into a
house, there abide till ye depart thence. And whatsoever place
shall not receive you, and they hear you not, as ye go forth
thence, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony
unto them. And they went out, and preached that men should repent.
And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that
were sick, and healed them.”(200)
St Luke gives this account of the sending of the seventy.
“Now after these things the Lord appointed seventy others, and
sent them two and two before his face into every city and place,
whither he himself was about to come. And he said unto them, The
harvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore
the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth labourers into his
harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs in the
midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no wallet, no shoes: and salute
no man on the way. And into whatsoever house ye shall enter, first
say, Peace be to this house. And if a son of peace be there, your
peace shall rest upon him: but if not, it shall turn to you again.
And in that same house remain, eating and drinking such things as
they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from
house to house. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they
receive you, eat such things as are set before you: and heal the
sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is
come nigh unto you. But into whatsoever city ye shall enter, and
they receive you not, go out into the streets thereof and say,
Even the dust from your city, that cleaveth to our feet, we do
wipe off against you: howbeit know this, that the kingdom of God
is come nigh.”(201)
In the account of St Matthew we find some small differences. The
discourses delivered on the two occasions are perhaps combined.(202)
It so rarely happens that practical directions as to conduct or behaviour
are given to the Apostles by our Lord, that we may be convinced that there
is strong reason for His so doing in this case. A lesson of great moment
was to be taught by this mission; much depended on the spirit in which it
was carried out. This spirit would be affected by the external
circumstances, and these are therefore so ordered as to give the greatest
possible impressiveness to the lesson in view.
These missions have another singularity. Our Lord, contrary to His usual
practice, explains the part they bore in the education of His followers.
In a few words spoken to the Twelve, as He was leaving the chamber on the
way to Gethsemane, He throws abundant light on the whole purport of these
journeys.
The words are these:
“And he said unto them, When I sent you forth without purse, and
wallet, and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing. And
he said unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it,
and likewise a wallet: and he that hath none, let him sell his
cloke, and buy a sword. For I say unto you, that this which is
written must be fulfilled in me, And he was reckoned with
transgressors: for that which concerneth me hath fulfilment. And
they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto
them, It is enough.”(203)
From this it is seen that all these provisions and directions had a
definite purpose, tending to give certain strong impressions to the
Twelve, one of the most important being that the Twelve might trust
themselves to Christ’s guardianship even when He was not by.
They were sent without purse and scrip and shoes, and they found that
those among whom they came would not suffer them to lack anything: all
went smoothly as they proceeded with their work in the Lord’s name. They
were to be kept free from sordid anxieties and harassing bodily wants, in
order that their minds might be open to higher lessons; and that they
might gain the habit of trusting—not indeed that Christ would send them on
every occasion just what they desired—but that He would not suffer them to
be tried beyond their strength. Possibly, on that journey all their needs
were supplied so easily, that it may hardly have struck them as strange
that they never had felt the lack of anything they required. They may
never have thought that what seemed to come by accident was really the
Lord’s doing and part of His plan, until He Himself recalled this mission
to their minds.
Our Lord goes on to teach them that these journeys of theirs to the
cities, compared to the missions awaiting them in the actual life on which
they so soon would enter, were only what the mimic fight on a day of
review is to the conflict of real war; or what the exercise of a swimmer
in a school, within reach of his instructor’s help, is to the crossing a
river for his life. In the exercise ground one lesson, or one set of
motions is taught at a time; but when the faculty acquired is brought into
actual practice all a man’s capacities and endowments are wanted to work
together at once. So, in Christ’s schooling also, one thing is taught at a
time. Two leading qualities only, viz. trustfulness in Christ’s spiritual
oversight and a helpful self-reliance, were cultivated and tested by this
preparatory mission; but in the actual work itself which awaited the
Twelve, every gift of nature or fortune, and every faculty of their being
would have to be brought into play and turned to the best account.
They went on their way through the cities without purse or wallet, and
they found then that no money or provision was needed; but in the real
work awaiting them, in the open world, they must take thought beforehand
for all their needs; and those who have worldly means are to use them in
God’s service just as they must do their talents or their strength. They
are to be wise as serpents as well as simple as doves. Prudence and a good
judgment are entrusted gifts whose true worth is most apparent when they
are turned to the service of God. It is not only piety for which God has a
care; He claims for his service all endowments of fortune and body and
mind; station and wealth, health and skill of hand, judgment, utterance,
and clearness of thought—all these are held on trust for Him. The Apostles
had been sent on the mission without any provision, in order that they
might learn this one particular lesson—what it was to abandon themselves
to the guardianship of Christ. In the real work now lying close before
them, He bids them use the same forethought and the same practical good
sense in all that relates to God’s service as in what relates to their
own. They went to the cities without arms, and they were unmolested on
their way; but now they are told to provide weapons of self-defence, even
though they should sell their garments to buy them. It is not the arms
themselves that are the gist of the matter, but they stand for a symbol of
that personal courage which would have to play no small part in the work
of the Christian Church.
Again these words of our Lord throw a stream of light upon what was His
object in the plan He pursued; they shew that the training of the Apostles
was carried on continually and systematically from the first, and was
among the things always uppermost in His mind. When the Twelve set out on
this first mission journey it seemed to them a passing act in the regular
course of ministerial duty, but after a year had gone by, it is brought
back to their minds by our Lord; and they learn the significance of that
which they had almost suffered to pass out of mind. It is cited, not with
regard to what it effected directly—not for the good it did to those who
were taught—but for the qualities it fostered in the preachers themselves.
That these preachers rendered service to those to whom they were sent
there can be no doubt, but the notice of our Lord calls attention, not to
this, but to the lesson which the Apostles learned. There are some points
in these directions which it is hard to explain if we suppose them given
solely with the practical view of furthering the Apostles’ work, as
Christ’s forerunners in making known to the people the advent of the
Kingdom of God. We do not, on such an hypothesis, see why they should have
gone without food or raiment or have saluted no man on the way; they would
have made no fewer converts if they had taken purse and scrip and wished
“God speed” to those they met. They might, indeed, have _done_ the same
good, but they would not have _got_ the same good. We shall see presently
how these instructions were calculated to make them feel that they were
God’s servants, dignified by their duty, and withdrawn by their special
overmastering vocation from the ordinary intercourse of man with man.
The effects of this journey were twofold. There was an outside good to be
done by the workers in the world, and an inside good to be done within
themselves. This last was brought about by the mental processes and
motions they went through in doing the _outside_ good to which only they
gave their thoughts at the time. They supposed that they were sent on this
mission because their Master wished the Kingdom of God to be preached in
the cities, and they regarded the particular injunctions,—if they thought
about them at all,—as the set rules of garb and procedure for preachers of
the Kingdom. It never occurred to them that by all this they were being
made to grow inwardly in the way that Christ desired. They could not be
told unto what end they were being educated, for self-consciousness would
have spoiled all. They would have got no _inner_ good, if they had not
believed they were doing _outer_ good, and good no doubt they did.
Moreover they never thought about themselves at all. Christ’s disciples
are always led away from doing so. They are, with sedulous care, kept so
occupied in body and mind that at last self is lost sight of, and they
become absorbed in their love for their Master, and in the glory of
feeling that they have a share in His work.
Along with the lesson of confidence in their Master’s care, there went
another, not less prominently insisted upon, that of the dignity of the
work they were being consecrated to do. They were to go in Christ’s name,
preaching the Kingdom He had declared, and affirming its presence by such
Signs as He had Himself shewn. This dignity belonged, not personally to
themselves, but to the Lord whom they represented; they felt secure, just
as the Ambassador of a power feels Sacrosanct because he represents the
Majesty of his State.
They were to be possessed with the sense of the greatness of the charge
laid on them, and all their being was to be concentrated in this. Their
eyes are never to be off their goal; hence the minute precautions against
distraction.
The directions for their equipment will be seen to further the growth of
the impressions desired.
They are to go two together; this is a rule always observed. Our Lord sent
“messengers before his face(204) into a village of the Samaritans to make
ready for him;” it is not said that they were two in number, but as James
and John are loud in their indignation, it is not improbable that they
were the messengers. Two disciples are sent to find the colt before our
Lord’s entrance to Jerusalem,(205) and Peter and John together are sent to
make ready the Passover.(206) Afterwards, in all the Apostolic journeys
the Church followed the practice. In these mission journeys of the newly
chosen Apostles we see how well it suited the objects in view that they
should go in pairs. If three or more had gone together the sacred
character of their journey might more easily have dropped out of sight.
Conversation on indifferent points would have been more likely to arise
and dissension might have ensued; two might have differed in opinion and
each have tried to gain over the third. They could hardly have remained so
absorbed in their purpose, as when they went two together, full of the one
matter in their hearts and rarely interchanging a word.
Neither would it have been well for them to go one by one. A man by
himself has many dangers. He may grow downcast, and a depressed condition
is not favourable to the growth of Faith; or he may harp upon one idea,
and having no one with him to criticise it and reduce it to its right
proportion, it may overshadow his whole mind and degenerate into a craze.
The solitary missionary might find danger also in success. If the cures he
wrought excited admiration, he might be inclined to take some of the glory
to himself: or he might be tempted to go beyond his commission to preach
the Kingdom, and try to establish some notions of his own about Jesus as
the Christ. The presence of his colleague would recall him to his true
position and remind him that he was not about his own work but his
Master’s. If one of the pair were inclined to take too much on himself, or
to allow the people to exaggerate his own part in the wonder wrought, he
would be sure to find a silent monitor in his colleague’s eye. When two
men go together not only does each represent to the other the purpose with
which he is sent, but also each supports the other. When one is inclined
to despond the other feels forced to take a hopeful tone and this does
good to both.
The Apostles were to salute no man by the way; they were not to join in
any trivial wayside talk. This served to impress upon them the solemn
nature of their work; all their thoughts were to be centred in that, it
was to supply the master purpose of their lives. They had God’s work to do
and God’s message to give, and there should be no room in their hearts for
any thing but this. This severed them for the time from the rest of the
world. They were to go, side by side, with their staves in their hands,
not looking this way or that, but having the fixed gaze and steadfast air
of men who are marching determinedly to their goal.
When they come to the city where they will stay they are not to plead for
hospitality; they have not come of themselves or for themselves—they are
God’s messengers; they are to go to the house which they think fittest,
and, if denied, they are to shake off the dust from their feet and go
elsewhere, and, when admitted, there they are to abide as of right. There
is to be no shifting of quarters; disturbance and unsettlement is
studiously avoided, as in all other proceedings of our Lord. Many among
the householders of a village might strive to have a share in entertaining
the prophets of God; and the passing of these from house to house would
bring into play little worldly jealousies and call off the attention of
the missionary from his single object. Where they are admitted, they are
told, “there abide and thence depart.”
The Apostles are given minute directions as to outfit and demeanour but
very little as to what they were to say. They were not to be mere
mouthpieces, they were teachers as well, and were left to teach in their
own way. To use responsibility was the highest part of the lesson they had
to learn, and if they had been tied down too precisely this responsibility
would have been lost. We have no record of their preaching on this
journey—they are sent to proclaim one truth and one only “That the Kingdom
of God was come.” This truth they might enforce in any way they chose—they
might preach to many or few, in houses or synagogues or on the mountain
side—and if any disbelieved that God’s Kingdom was come, they were to
assure their hearers that it was none the less about them on every side,
because they did not choose to believe it was there.(207) On their return,
they relate what they had taught.(208)
There is another point. They are not directed even to name our Lord; He
would not suffer them to proclaim Jesus of Nazareth, for He had not “come
in his own name.”(209) This law is most steadily observed; the seventy say
on their return, that the devils were subject to them through our Lord’s
name, but though they may have used His name when they wrought cures, they
do not seem to have declared that the expected Messiah had come; they kept
to what they were told to do. The wonder is that no one on this mission
should have announced Jesus as the Messiah: they could not have been
warned against doing so, because to warn them specially would have been to
suggest the notion of that which was to be avoided. A similar circumstance
may have been one cause of the fervent thanks which our Lord renders to
His Father on the return of the seventy.(210)
How long this journey of the Apostles lasted we do not know; the
exigencies of harmonists have led some of them to reduce it to a day or
two, but I should suppose it to have occupied at least a week. Neither do
we know in what districts the journeys took place; but that the Twelve
started from the neighbourhood of Nazareth in the spring of A.D. 29, and
the seventy from the Northern border of Judæa or from Peræa in the
following autumn, is a plausible guess. The words, “Go not into the way of
the Gentiles,” &c. which St Matthew puts at the head of our Lord’s
directions, I think refer to the mission of the seventy. In Peræa they
were close to Gentile countries and Samaria lay in the way to parts of
Galilee and Judæa. They are told not to abide in any Samaritan city or set
foot at all in a Gentile land; our Lord is first sent to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel. All went well on both occasions. On the return of the
seventy our Lord saw in this success of His disciples in their
ministration, an augury of the establishment of His Church. Men, it was
plain, could be trusted for the great work in view; and in this success of
the disciples in setting it afoot our Lord seemed to behold the Power of
Evil falling from the sky. Our Lord pours out His soul on this occasion in
thankfulness to His Father.
“In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, I
thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst
hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst
reveal them unto babes: yea, Father; for so it was well-pleasing
in thy sight. All things have been delivered unto me of my Father:
and no one knoweth who the Son is, save the Father; and who the
Father is, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to
reveal him.”(211)
This thankfulness of our Lord assures us of one point; these seventy must
have been exposed to the possibility of failure. Our Lord’s joy is that of
one delivered from a great anxiety. This instance bears out the view that
our Lord’s knowledge of the immediate future was, partly at least, in
abeyance during His stay on earth. Indeed, if He had been free from all
feeling of uncertainty, His life could not have been truly human. The
course of daily events depending on the will of others did not in general
lie spread out to His view.
Another illustration of this occurs on the return of the Twelve; our Lord
goes to the desert seeking quiet, but in this He is disappointed, for He
finds Himself attended by five thousand people.
St Mark tells us
“And the apostles gather themselves together unto Jesus; and they
told him all things, whatsoever they had done, and whatsoever they
had taught. And he saith unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into
a desert place, and rest a while. For there were many coming and
going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. And they went
away in the boat to a desert place apart.”(212)
This rule of our Lord to give the Apostles rest and leisure after a period
of mental strain, or when much food for reflection had been taken in, is
almost invariable. Our Lord’s intention is, in this case, frustrated by
the zeal of the multitude, who running together from the villages, go
round the head of the Lake and meet Him on the shore near the northern
end. St John speaking of this matter says:
“Now the passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Jesus
therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a great multitude
cometh unto him, saith unto Philip, Whence are we to buy bread,
that these may eat?”(213)
We see that St John attributed this great concourse of people to its being
the time of the Passover. Now the road from Damascus to Jerusalem went
past the north end of the Lake, and it has been supposed that the great
caravan of Syrian Jews was passing on its way to the feast, and that to
this the “great company” belonged. St Matthew, St Mark and St Luke,
however, all imply that the multitude came from the neighbouring cities,
and St John says that they “_followed_ Him (_i.e._ from the villages of
Gennesaret) because they beheld the Signs;” and St Mark tells us that the
people “saw them going and many knew them.” The crowd therefore could not
have been strangers from Damascus. St John, however, would not have here
mentioned the Passover, if there had not been some connexion between it
and the presence of the crowd. The connexion, I believe to have been this.
He means to account for the crowd by saying, “It was feast time, no work
was being done, and large bodies of men were therefore at leisure to
follow.” Some think that the Evangelist may have seen in this miraculous
meal a substitute for the Paschal feast, which our Lord and his followers
can hardly have kept according to due form.
In this miracle, I am particularly concerned.(214) In speaking of it in an
earlier Chapter I observed that our Lord’s rule of abstaining from using
His miraculous power to provide for the physical wants of His followers or
Himself, holds in this case, inasmuch as our Lord’s party had enough for
themselves; this proceeds on the supposition that the loaves and fishes
belonged to the Apostles, although if they had had the money, and bought
what would just have sufficed for themselves, the law would have held
good.
It may be asked, “Had the Apostles the loaves with them or did they buy
them of the lad?”
As a matter of explanation, I think it more consistent with the narrative
of the other Evangelists to suppose that the lad mentioned by Andrew(215)
was carrying provisions belonging to the party, than that he had brought
them for sale and that the disciples bought them.
St Matthew, St Mark and St Luke speak as though the loaves and fishes
belonged to the Apostolic company, while St John says “There is _a lad
here_ who has &c.” The supposition that the lad was employed to carry the
provisions does not, it is said, agree with the received notions of the
poverty of the Apostles. We find, however, that they had the use of
various boats, and St Mark speaks of “hired servants” in Zebedee’s
boat.(216) I suppose that one of these servants, not being wanted while
the boat was ashore, was employed to carry the sack of provisions for the
party. It supports my view that the two common articles of diet should
_both_ be brought by the same lad, in just such quantity as to suffice for
our Lord’s company. The words “How many loaves have ye? Go and see” shew,
that our Lord supposed them to have brought a supply;(217) moreover the
quantity of provisions was nearly the same and they were of the same kind,
as those which the Twelve had with them on the subsequent occasion of the
feeding of the four thousand.(218) It is unlike the East, as we now know
it, that there should have been no bargaining, and that _one_ lad should
have seen the opportunity of selling his commodities and followed from one
of the villages, and that no other should have done so.
Whether the provisions belonged to the disciples or were(219) purchased at
the time, the wants of our Lord’s own party, as I have just said, could
have been supplied without miraculous intervention; and the rule,
answering to the refusal to turn Stones into Loaves, would hold. These
rules, or Laws as I have called them, treated of in Chapter V. are not
formally imposed by our Lord on Himself, or alluded to in express terms.
They are _uniformities observed_ in his conduct, which harmonise with the
course taken in the Temptations. We need not suppose that He said to
Himself “I will always adhere to this rule or that,” but He observed the
rule because to follow it best forwarded in each case the end in view. Our
Lord’s company are never in straits for food, but our Lord once implies
that if they had been so His power might always be trusted as a means of
supply.(220) He would not have adhered to His practice narrowly, when it
would have weakened the lesson of Trust. Philip may have been charged with
the care of provisioning the party, just as Judas Iscariot carried the
purse; this conjecture would account for our Lord turning to him with the
question, “Whence are we to buy bread?”(221)
What our Lord said on this occasion to the multitude we do not know; we
are told only that “He began to teach them many things,”(222) and in
listening they lost all count of time, so that when our Lord had finished,
it was too late for them to go and buy bread. After the meal He perceived
that they “were about to come and take him by force to make him
king.”(223) The people must have just heard of the execution of John; they
may have been exasperated against Herod and thought they had found in our
Lord one who would treat the Romans like Sennacherib’s host. We hear of no
outbreak of enthusiasm, no clamorous demonstration of fervour; they were
perhaps too much possessed by reverential awe for that, at any rate their
orderliness is very remarkable.
No malice on the part of the scribes could have been so fatal to what our
Lord had in view, as this giving of a political turn to the movement which
He was setting afoot. The erroneous impression would spread fast and
become ineradicable, so that the work of saving the world might have to be
begun over again in another way. He hurried the disciples on board that
they might not catch the contagion of this idea.
“And straightway he constrained his disciples to enter into the
boat, and to go before him unto the other side to Bethsaida, while
he himself sendeth the multitude away. And after he had taken
leave of them, he departed into the mountain to pray.”(224)
Solitary prayer on our Lord’s part commonly betokens some important step
in his course of proceeding. Here it precedes His leaving Galilee;
possibly this political manifestation made it advisable; at any rate, very
shortly after this, He goes to the borders of Tyre and Sidon and sees
little more of Galilee during his life.
On the passage of the Apostles back to the western shore, occurred the
miracle of the Lord walking on the sea.
“And when even was come, the boat was in the midst of the sea, and
he alone on the land. And seeing them distressed in rowing, for
the wind was contrary unto them, about the fourth watch of the
night he cometh unto them, walking on the sea; and he would have
passed by them: but they, when they saw him walking on the sea,
supposed that it was an apparition, and cried out: for they all
saw him, and were troubled. But he straightway spake with them,
and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid. And
he went up unto them into the boat; and the wind ceased: and they
were sore amazed in themselves; for they understood not concerning
the loaves, but their heart was hardened.”(225)
This miracle is one mainly of instruction, it is a step in that ascending
course, whereby the Apostles were led to the conception of the crowning
truth that Christ was “ever with them unto the end of the world.” The
experience of the journey taught that they “lacked nothing” when on duty
for Christ; they were now to obtain assurance that in moments of danger He
was at hand to protect. It is worth notice that they were doing their
utmost for themselves, “toiling in rowing,” when Christ comes to their
help. In like manner the miraculous draught of fishes was not given to men
who had lightly accepted disappointment, but to those who had toiled all
night.(226) I know of no Gospel instance of Divine assistance granted to
men sitting with folded hands, and leaving Providence to do all. From this
miracle they would learn a truth which was much more fully taught after
the Resurrection, viz. that their Master was ever by them, and might
assume a body not subject to the forces affecting matter, and become
apparent at any time.
These lessons would be graven on the Apostles’ memory, and would come upon
them from time to time in after life. They would naturally look back to
the days when they went forth on their first mission, full of hope and not
without exultation; and when they recalled how all had gone well with
them, how the devils had been subject to them and how all their needs had
been provided for as it were by chance, it would come home to them that
matters may be Divinely guided without the finger of God being suffered to
appear. Many a time they may have cheered one another saying “Christ
provided for us when we went forth with only our staves in our hands. He
will not desert us now;” and many a time also in sore days of distress,
the Apostles may have reminded one another that they were doing their very
utmost—not sitting still and praying for help when the sea ran high—at the
time when their Master appeared and said:
“Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.”(227)