OF
THE FOURTH GOSPEL
BY
CANON G. OSBORNE TROOP, M. A.,
Montreal, Canada
The whole
Bible is stamped with the Divine “Hall-Mark”; but the Gospel according to St.
John is primus inter pares. Through it, as through a transparency, we gaze
entranced into the very holy of holies, where shines in unearthly glory “the
great vision of the face of Christ”. Yet man’s perversity has made it the
“storm center” of New Testament criticism, doubtless for the very reason that
it bears such unwavering testimony both to the deity of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, and to His perfect humanity. The Christ of the Fourth Gospel is
no unhistorical, idealized vision of the later, dreaming church, but is, as it
practically claims to be, the picture drawn by “the disciple whom Jesus loved”,
an eye-witness of the blood and water that flowed from His pierced side. These
may appear to be mere unsupported statements, and as such will at once be
dismissed by a scientific reader. Nevertheless the appeal of this article is to
the instinct of the “one flock” of the “one Shepherd”. “They know His voice”
... “a stranger will they not follow.”
1. There is one passage in this Gospel
that flashes like lightning — it dazzles our eyes by its very glory. To the
broken-hearted Martha the Lord Jesus says with startling suddenness, “I am the
resurrection and the life; he that believeth on Me, though he die, yet shall he
live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me, shall never die.”
It is
humbly but confidently submitted that these words are utterly beyond the reach
of human invention. It could never have entered the heart of man to say, “I am
the resurrection and the life.” “There is a resurrection and a life,” would
have been a great and notable saying, but this Speaker identifies Himself with
the resurrection and with life eternal. The words can only be born from above, and He who utters them
is worthy of the utmost adoration of the surrendered soul.
In an
earlier chapter John records a certain question addressed to and answered by
our Lord in a manner which has no counterpart in the world’s literature. “What
shall we do,” the eager people cry; “What shall we do that we might work the
works of God?” “This is the work of God”, our Lord replies, “that ye believe on
Him whom He hath sent” (John 6:28,29). I venture to say that such an answer to
such a question has no parallel. This is the work of God that ye accept ME. I
am the Root of the tree which bears the only, fruit pleasing to God. Our Lord
states the converse of this in chapter 16, when He says that the Holy Spirit
will “convict the world of sin ... because they believe not on ME.” The root of
all evil is unbelief in Christ. The condemning sin of the world lies in the
rejection of the Redeemer. Here we have the root of righteousness and the root
of sin in the acceptance or rejection of His wondrous personality. This is
unique, and proclaims the Speaker to be “separate from sinners” though “the
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Truly, “He is His own best evidence,
His witness is within.”
2. Pass on to the fourteenth chapter,
so loved of all Christians. Listen to that Voice, which is as the voice of many
waters, as it sounds in the ears of the troubled disciples:
“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. I go to
prepare a place for you. And 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.”
Who is he
who dares to say: “Ye believe in God, believe also in Me”? He ventures thus to
speak because He is the Father’s Son. Man’s son is man can God’s Son be
anything less than God? Elsewhere in this Gospel He says: “I and the Father are
one”. The fourteenth chapter reveals the Lord Jesus as completely at home in
the heavenly company. He speaks of His Father and of the Holy Spirit as Himself
being one of the utterly holy Family. He knows all about His Father’s house
with its many mansions. He was familiar with it before the world was. Mark
well, too, the exquisite touch of transparent truthfulness: “If it were not so,
I would have told
you.” An
ear-witness alone could have caught and preserved that touching parenthesis,
and who more likely than the disciple whom Jesus loved?
As we
leave this famous chapter let us not forget to note the wondrous words in verse
23:
“If a man
love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and WE will come
unto him and make our abode with him.”
This
saying can only be characterized as blasphemous, if it be not the true
utterance of one equal with God. On the other hand, does any reasonable man
seriously think that such words originated in the mind of a forger?
“Every
one that is of the truth heareth My Voice”, and surely that voice is here.
3. When we come to chapter 17 we pass
indeed into the very inner chamber of the King of kings. It records the
high-priestly prayer of our Lord, when He “lifted up His eyes to heaven and
said, Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son that Thy Son may also glorify
Thee.” Let any man propose to himself the awful task of forging such a prayer,
and putting it into the mouth of an imaginary Christ. The brain reels at the
very thought of it. It is, however, perfectly natural that St. John should
record it. It must have fallen upon the ears of himself and his
fellow-disciples amidst an awestricken silence in which they could hear the
very throbbing of their listening hearts. For their very hearts were listening
through their ears as the Son poured out His soul unto the Father. It is a rare
privilege, and one from which most men would sensitively shrink, to listen even
to a fellowman alone with God. Yet the Lord Jesus in the midst of His disciples
laid bare His very soul before His Father, as really as if He had been alone
with Him. He prayed with the cross and its awful death full in view, but in the
prayer there is no slightest hint of failure or regret, and there is no trace
of confession of sin or need of forgiveness. These are all indelible marks of
genuineness. It would have been impossible for a sinful man to conceive such a
prayer. But all is consistent with the character of Him who “spake as never man
spake”, and could challenge the world to convict Him of sin.
With such
thoughts in mind let us now look more closely into the words of
the
prayer itself.
“Father,
the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee: As Thou
hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou
hast given Him. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”
Here we
have again the calm placing of Himself on a level with the Father in connection
with eternal life. And it is not out of place to recall the consistency of this
utterance with that often-called “Johannine” saying recorded in Matthew and
Luke: “All things are delivered unto Me of My Father: and no man knoweth the
Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he
to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him.” We read also in St.John 14:6: “No
man cometh unto the Father but by Me”. And as we reverently proceed further in
the prayer we find Him saying: “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine
own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” These
words are natural to the Father’s Son as we know and worship Him, but they are
beyond the reach of an uninspired man, and who Can imagine a forger inspired of
the Holy Ghost? Such words would, however, be graven upon the very heart of an
ear-witness such as the disciple whom Jesus loved.
We have
in this prayer also the fuller revelation of the “one flock” and “one Shepherd”
pictured in chapter ten:
“Neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through
their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in
Thee, that they also may be one in us: That the world may believe that Thou
hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they
may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be
perfected into one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and
hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.”
In these
holy words there breathes a cry for such a unity as never entered into the
heart of mortal man to dream of. It is no cold and formal ecclesiastical unity,
such as that suggested by the curious and unhappy mistranslation of “one fold”
for “one flock” in St.John 10:16. It is the living unity of the living flock
with the living Shepherd of the living God. It is actually the same as the
unity subsisting between the Father and the Son. And according to St. Paul in Romans 8:19, the
creation is waiting for its revelation. The one Shepherd has from the beginning
had His one flock in answer to His prayer, but the world has not yet seen it,
and is therefore
still
unconvinced that our Jesus is indeed the Sent of God. The world has seen the
Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church, but the Holy Catholic Church no
eye as yet has seen but God’s. For the Holy Catholic Church and the Shepherd’s
one flock are one and the same, and the world will not see either “till He
come.” The Holy Catholic Church is an object of faith and not of sight, and so
is the one flock. In spite of all attempts at elimination and organization
wheat and tares together grow, and sheep and wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing are
found together in the earthly pasture grounds. But when the Good Shepherd
returns He will bring His beautiful flock with Him, and eventually the world
will see and believe. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! How
unsearchable
are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!”
The
mystery of this spiritual unity lies hidden in the high-priestly prayer, but we
may feel sure that no forger could ever discover it, for many of those who
profess and call themselves Christians are blind to it even yet.
4. The “Christ before Pilate” of St.
John is also stamped with every mark of sincerity and truth. What mere human
imagination could evolve the noble words: “My kingdom is not of this world; if
My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not
be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence. To this end was
I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness
unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth
My
voice”?
The whole
wondrous story of the betrayal, the denial, the trial, the condemnation and
crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, as given through St. John, breathes with the
living sympathy of an eye-witness. The account, moreover, is as wonderful in
the delicacy of its reserve as in the simplicity of its recital. It is entirely
free from sensationalism and every form of exaggeration. It is calm and
judicial in the highest degree. If it is written by the inspired disciple whom
Jesus loved, all is natural and easily “understanded of the people”; while on
any other supposition, it is fraught with difficulties that cannot be explained
away. “I am not credulous enough
to be an
unbeliever,” is a wise saying in this as in many similar connections.
5. The Gospel opens and closes with
surpassing grandeur. With Divine dignity it links itself with the opening words
of Genesis: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. ... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth.”
What a
lifelike contrast with this sublime description is found in the introduction of
John the Baptist: “There came a man sent from God whose name was John”. In the
incarnation Christ did not become a man but man. Moreover in this Paul and John
are in entire agreement. “There is one God”, says St. Paul to Timothy; “one
Mediator also between God and man Himself Man — Christ Jesus.” The reality of
the Divine Redeemer’s human nature is beautifully manifested in the touching
interview between the weary Savior and the guilty Samaritan woman at the well;
as also in His perfect human friendship with Mary and Martha and their brother
Lazarus, culminating in the priceless words, “Jesus wept”.
And so by
the bitter way of the Cross the grandeur of the incarnation passes into the
glory of the resurrection. The last two chapters are alive with thrilling
incident. If any one wishes to form a true conception of what those brief
chapters contain, let him read “Jesus and the Resurrection,” by the saintly
Bishop of Durham (Dr. Handley Moule) and his cup of holy joy will fill to
overflowing. At the empty tomb we breathe the air of the unseen kingdom, and
presently we gaze enraptured on the face of the Crucified but risen and ever
living King. Mary Magdalene, standing in her broken-hearted despair, is all
unconscious of the wondrous fact that holy angels are right in front of her and
standing behind her is her living Lord and Master. Slowly but surely the glad
story spreads from lip to lip and heart to heart, until
even the
honest but stubborn Thomas is brought to his knees, crying in a burst of
remorseful, adoring joy, “My Lord and my God!”
Then
comes the lovely story of the fruitless all-night toil of the seven fishermen,
the appearance at dawn of the Stranger on the beach, the miraculous draught of
fishes, the glad cry of recognition, “It is the Lord? the never-to-be-
forgotten breakfast with the risen Saviour, and His searching interview with
Peter, passing into the mystery of St. John’s old age.
In all
these swiftly-drawn outlines we feel ourselves instinctively in the presence of
the truth. We are crowned with the Saviour’s beatitude: “Blessed are they that
have not seen, and yet have believed,” and we are ready to yield a glad assent
to the statement which closes chapter twenty:
“Many
other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not
written in this book; but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life in His Name.”
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