On entering upon the active purposes of his mission, it is the
will of Jesus to have, and He has Disciples--Apostles. He knows
the power of an association founded upon faith and love. He knows
also that faith and love are virtues as rare as they are
efficacious. It is not numbers that He seeks. He surrounds
himself with a select band of believers, and lives with them in a
complete and enduring intimacy.
{240}
In the midst of these intimate relations, Jesus declares his
authority primitive and supreme:--"Ye have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring
forth fruit." [Footnote 88]
[Footnote 88: John xv. 16.]
But the authority of the Master does not prevent Him from
evincing a tenderness full of trust, and from respecting himself
the dignity of his disciples:--"Henceforth I call you not
servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I
have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my
Father I have made known unto you." [Footnote 89]
[Footnote 89: John xv. 15.]
{241}
He evinces on all occasions towards his apostles the trust that
He feels in them, and shows his sense of the superiority of the
position to which He has elevated them. His language sometimes
fills them with astonishment, and they are more peculiarly struck
by the numerous parables in which, whilst addressing the
assembled multitude, He clothes his precepts:--"And the disciples
came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to
know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is
not given. ... But unto those that are without, all these things
are done in parables." [Footnote 90]
[Footnote 90: Matthew xiii. 10, 11; Mark iv. 10, 11.]
The confidingness of Jesus, however, never descends to weak
compliance; when, in an impulse of vanity and ambition, one of
his apostles asks for a particular favour, Jesus rebukes him with
severity:--"James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him,
saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever
we shall desire. And he said unto them, What would ye that I
should do for you? They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may
sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in
thy glory. But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can
ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the
baptism that I am baptized with?
{242}
And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye
shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the
baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized: But to
sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but
it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. ... Ye know
that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise
lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon
them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be
great among you, shall be your minister." [Footnote 91]
[Footnote 91: Mark x. 35-43; Matthew xx. 20-26.]
Jesus having thus selected and intimately attached to Him his
apostles, commissions them to carry forth his law:--"Go not into
the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans
enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at
hand.
{243}
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out
devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither
gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrips for your
journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for
the workman is worthy of his meat. ... Behold, I send ye forth as
sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents
and harmless as doves." [Footnote 92]
[Footnote 92: Matthew x. 5-10, 16; Luke x. 1-12.]
It is, in effect, prudence side by side with absolute
self-denegation that Jesus, in his first instructions, enjoins
upon his disciples; at the very commencement of their mission He
limits its object; He recommends to them particularly "the lost
sheep of the house of Israel;" He declares his will to be that,
instead of a pertinacity with out bounds, "they should depart,
shaking off the dust from their feet, out of the city that should
not receive them nor hear their words." But He adds immediately,
as if to give to their mission all its grandeur:--"What I tell
you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the
ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops. And fear not them which
kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear
him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
[Footnote 93]
[Footnote 93: Matthew x. 27, 28.]
{244}
Jesus knows that his disciples will need the firmest courage,
and, far from promising them any of the goods of this world, any
temporal successes, He discloses to them unceasingly all the
perils they will incur, all the invectives they will have to
endure. "But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the
councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye
shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a
testimony against them and the Gentiles ... And ye shall be
betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks and
friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And
ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." [Footnote 94]
[Footnote 94: Matthew x. 17-22. Luke xxi. 12-17.]
{245}
What Reformer, other than Jesus Christ, ever held to his
followers such language? Who else than God could have imparted to
their language such virtue that they would in obedience to it
sacrifice with joy not merely all the good things of this life,
but life itself? Nevertheless, one of those apostles, and the
first of them all, Peter, evinces some disquietude, if not at
their lot in this world, at least at their destinies in the
kingdom of heaven. "Then answered Peter and said unto him,
Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we
have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son
of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit
upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And
every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or
father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's
sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting
life." [Footnote 95]
[Footnote 95: Matthew xix. 27-29.]
{246}
But Jesus does not intend that the prospect of their lofty
inheritance should inspire in the minds of any of his apostles,
and not more in that of Peter than the rest, any proud
presumptuousness, and He immediately adds, "But many that are
first, shall be last; and the last shall be first." [Footnote 96]
[Footnote 96: Matthew xix. 30.]
The world's history may be perused and reperused; the causes of
all the revolutions that have taken place in the world, whether
religious or political, may be probed and investigated; but we
shall nowhere be able to trace in the dealings of chiefs and
accomplices, of originators and fellow-workmen, the divine
characteristics of absolute and uncompromising sincerity that
reign throughout the actions and language of Jesus Christ in His
conduct towards His apostles. Them He has chosen and loved; to
them He has entrusted His work; but He practises with them no
arts of worldly wisdom; He withholds nothing from them; here is
no faltering encouragement, no exaggeration in the promises that
He makes or in the hope that He holds forth; He speaks to them
the language of pure truth, and it is in the name of that truth
that He gives them His commands and transfers to them His
mission. "Never did man speak like this man," [Footnote 97] nor
so deal with men.
[Footnote 97: John vii. 46.]
{247}