Chapter XXIV (continued, part 2)
will endure for ever—the other not only has it not now,
biu sliall never have It—never see it. abidfth on Ulm—
It was on Him before, and not beinf< removed in the only
possible way, by " believing on the Son," it necessarily )-emnine/h on him! iJ.—How flatly does this contradict
the tcachinj^ of many in our day, thai there neither was, uor is, anything in God against sinners wliicli needed to
t>e remove-i by Christ, but only in men against God ! CHAPTER IV.
Ver. 1-12. Christ and thk Woman of Samaria—The Kamakitans ok Sychar. 1-1. tile Lord knew—not by
reiiort, but in the sense of ch. 2. 2.5, for wliich reason He is here styU^d "the Lord." Jcsns baptized not—John being a servant baptize<l vvitli his own hand ; Clirist as the Mas-
ter, " baptizing wilh the Holy Ghost," administered the outward symbol only through His disciples, left Judea —!o avoid persecution, wiiicli at that early stage would have marred His work, dejiarted into Galilee—by which time John had been cast into prison (Mark 1. 14). must needs go tUi-o>«gli Samaria-for a geographical reason, no doubt, as it lay straight in his way, but certainly not without a higher design. 5. coineth to i.e.. as far as:
for He remained at some distance from it. Syeliar—the "Sliechein" of the Old Testament, about thirty-lbur nriles from Jei usalem, afterwards called " Neapolis," and now
'• Nahlous." G-8. wearied . . . sat thus i.e., 'as you
niight fancy a weary man would;' an instance of the graphic style of .St. John. [Webstkr and Wii.KiNriON.] In fact, this is perhaps the most human of all the scenes
of our Lord's earthly history. We seem to be beside Him, overhearing all that is here recorded, nor could any painting of the scene on canvas, however perfect, do other than lower the conception which this exquisite narrative conveys to the devout and intelligent reader. But witli
all that is /ix/nan, how much also of the Divine have we
here, both blended in one glorious manifestation of the
niajcs'y, grace, pity, patience with which "the Lord" im-
{•irts liglit and life to this unlikeliest of strangers, standlag midway between Jews and heathens, theslxtli liour —noonday, reckoning from 0 A. M. From Song of Solomon
1.7 we know, as from other sources, that the very flocks " rested at uoon." But Jesus, whose maxim was, " I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day" (ch.
9. -(1, seems to have denied Himself that repose, at least on this <x-casion, probably that He might reach this well when He knew the woman would be there. Once there, however. He accepts the grateful ease of a seat on the patriarclmf stone. But what music is that which I hear from His lips, " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11.28). Give ine to drink—for the heat of a noonday sun had parclied His lips. But " in the last, that great day of the
feast," Jesus stood and cried, saying, "If any man thirst
let him come unto me and drink" (ch. 7. 37). 0-1^. How
Is It tliat thou—not altogether refusing, yet wondering at so unusual a recjaest from a Jew, as his dross and dialect would at once discover him to be, to a Samaritan. For, &c.—It Is this national antipathy that gives point to the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10. 30, &c.), and the thankfulness of the Samaritan leper (Luke 17. lit, 18). If thon knewest, itc.—17. (/., 'In Me thou seest only a petitioner to thoe ; but if thou k newest Who that Petitioner is, and the Gift that God is giving to men, thou wouldst have changed places with Him, gladly suing of Him living water—nor shouldst thou have sued in vain' (gently retlectlng on her for not Immediately meeting His request). Art thou greater, &c,.—already perceiving in this Stranger a claim to some mysterious greatness, our father Jacob—for when It went well with the Jews thej' claimed kindred with them, as being descended from Joseph, but when misfortunes befel the Jews they disowned all connection with them. [Josephus, 9. 14,3.] 13, 14. thIrMt again . . . nevcv thirst, &c.—The contrast here Is fundamental and all comprehensive. "This water" plainly means ' this natural water and all sati.%factiom 0/ a like earthly and perishable nature.' Coming tons fnm uithoui,mid reaching only the superficial jmrts of our
Christ Dedareik to His Disciples JOHN IV. His Zeal for God's Glory.
filled His whole soul, and raised Him above the sense of natural hunger (Matthew 1. 4). yet fonr months, and then harvest—5. d., 'In current speech, ye say thus at this season; but lift up your eyes and look upon those fields in the light of another husbandry, for lo! in that sense, they are even now wliite to harvest, ready for tlia sickle.' The simple beauty of this language is only surpassed by the glow of holy emotion in the Redeemer's own soul which it expresses. It refers to the ripeness of these Sycharites for accession to Him, and the joy of this great Lord of the reapers over the anticipated ingathering. Oh could we but so " lift up our eyes and look" upoq many fields abroad and at home, which to dull sense appear unpromising, as He beheld those of aamaria, what movements, as yet scarce in embryo, and accessions to Clirist, as yet seemingly far distant, might we not discern as quite near at hand, and thus, amidst difficulties and discouragements too much for nature to sustain, be cheered as our Lord Him-ielf vms in circumstances far more overwhelming—with "songs in the night !" he that reapeth, &c.—As our Lord could not mean that the reaper only, and not the sower, received " wages," in the sense of personal reward for liis work, the "wages" here can be no other than the Joy of having such a harvest to gather in—the joy of "gathering fruit unto life eternal." rejoice together—The blessed issue of the whole ingathering is the interest alike of the sower as of the reaper; it is no more the fruit of the last operation than of the first; and just as there can be no reaping without previous sowing, so have those servants of Christ, to whom is assigned the pleasant task of merely reaping the spiritual harvest, no work to do, and no joy to taste, that has not been prepared to their hand by the toilsome and often thankless work of their predecessors in the field. The joy, therefore, of the great harvest festivity will he the common Joy of all irlio have taken any part in the work from the first operation to the last. (See Deuteronomy
deposited unth a particular people, and must be sought in connection with, and a.i issuing from Ihem ; and that people " the Jews." Itour conietU and now Is—evidently meaning her to understand that this new economy was in some sense being set up while He was talking to her, a sense which would in a lew minutes so lar ajipear, when He told her plainly He was llie Clirist. 'Zrt, 20. I know Mesglas cometli . . . wlirn He is come, &c.—If we take our Lord's immediate disclosure of Himself, in answer to this, as the proper key to its meaning to HLi ear, we can hardly doubt that the woraau was already all but prej>ared for even
this startling announcement, which indeed she seems (from
I'. 29) to have already begun to suspect by His revealing her to herself. Thus quickly, under so matchless a Teacher, was she brought up from her sunken condition to a frame of mind and heart capable of the noblest revelations, tell us nil tilings—an expectation founded probably on Deuteronomy 18. 15. I that sitealt: . . . am lie— He scarce ever said anything like this to His own people, the Jews. He had magnified them to the woman, and yet to themselves He is to the last far more reserved than to her—p7-oui»(/ rather than plainly telling them He was the Christ. But what would not have been safe araong them was safe enough with her, whose siinplicity a.t this stage of the conversation appears from the sequel to have become perfect. What now will the woman say? We
listen, the scene has changed, a new party arrives, the disciples have been to Sychar, at. some distance, to buy bread, and on their return are astonished at the company their Lord has been holding in their absence. 27. inarvelSed tliat l>e tallied with tlie woman—It never probal)ly occurred to them to marvel that He talked with tliemselves ; yet in His eye, as the sequel shows. He was quite as nobly employed. How poor, if not
false, are many of our most plausible estimates! none suld . . . WUatI . . . AVliy?- awed by the spectacle, and tliinking there must be something under it. 38-30. left lier watei--pot — How exquisitely natural! The presence of strangers made her feel that it was time for
16. 11, H; Psalm 126. 6; Isaiah 9. 3.) What encouragement
is here for those "fishers of men" who "have toiled all the night" of their otllcial lite, and, to human appearance, "have taken nothing!" I sent you, Ac-The I
lier lo withdraw, and He who knew what was in her heart, and what she was going to the city to do, let her go without exchanging a word with her in the hearing of others. Their interview was too sacred, and tlie effect on the. woman too overpowering (not to speak of His own deep emotion) to allow of its being continued. But this one artless touch—that she "left her water-pot" speaks volumes. The living water was already beginning to spring up within her; she found that man doth not live by bread nor by water only, and tliat tliere was a water of wondrous virtue that raised people above meat and drink, and the vessels that held them, and all human things. In short, she was transported, forgot everything but One; and her heart running over with the tale slie had to tell, she hastens home and pours it out. Is not tills tlie Clii-lst—The form o( the question (In the Greek) is a distant, modest way of only half insinuating what it seemed hardly fitting for her to affirm; nor does Bhe refer to what He said of Himself, l)ut solely to His disclosure to her of the particulars of her own life, tliey went out, &e.—How ditl'erent from the .lews ! ami richly was tlieiropenness to conviction rewarded. 31-3S. meantime—t. <?., while the woman was away. Master, eat
is emphatic— I, the Lord of the whole harvest: "sent you," points to their past appointment to the apostleship, though it has reference only to their future discharge of it, for they had nothing to do with the present ingathering of the Sycharites. ye bestowed no labour— meaning that much of their future success would arise from the prejjai'ation already made for them. See on v. 42. others laboured—Referring to the Old Testament labour-
ers, the Baptist, and by implication Himself, though He studiously keeps this In the background, </in< the line of distinction between Himself and all His servants might not be
' Christ represents Himself as the Husbandman [rather the Lord of the labourers], who has the direction both of the sowing and of the harvest, who commissions all the agents—those of the Old Testament ns well as of the New—and therefore does not stand on a level with either the sowers or the reapers.' [Or.silAUSEN'.] 39-4'i. many believed, &c.—Tlie truth of v. 35 begins to appear. These Samaritans were the foundation of the Church afterwards built up tliere. No miracle appears to have been wrought there [but unparalleled supernatural knowledge displayed]: "ice have heard Him ourselves" sulllced to raise their faith to a point never attained by the Jews, and hardly as yet by the discliiles-- tlmt He was "the Saviour of the world.'' [Ai.kokd.I 'This incident is further remarkable as a rare instance of the Lord's ministry producing ati awakening on a large
lost siglil of.
Ji'atigue and tliirst we saw He felt; here is revealed another of our common infirmities to which the Lord was subject hunger, meat ye know n€>t of—Wliiit spirituality of mind! 'I hiive been eating all th'.« while, and such food as ye dream not of.' What can tiint be? they ask each other; have any supplies been brought Him In our aljsence? He knows wliat they are saying though He hears it not. My meat Is, Ac.—'A Servant here to
scale.' [Or.SH.\USKN.] abode two days—Two precious days, surely, to the Uedeenier Ilinisilf! Unsought, He had come to His own, yet His own received Him not : now those wlio were not His own had come to Him, been won by Him, and invited Him totheirtown thatothers might share Willi them in the benefit of His wonderful ministry. Here, then, would He solace His already wounded spirit and have in this outfield village triumph of His grace, a sublime foretaste of the inbriuglug of the whole UentUe world into the Church.
fullll a prescribed work, to do and to finish that is " meat" to Me; and of tills, while you were away, I have had niy
fill.' And of what does He speak thus? Of the condescension, pity, patience, wisdom He had been laying out upon one soul—a very liutnlde woman, and In some respects repulsive too! But He had gaim^d her, and throtigh her was going to gain more, and lay i)crlinps tlie founda-
tions of a great work In the country of Samaria • and this 134
Ihe Eedhig of the Courtier's Son. JO] IX V. The Impotent Man Healed,
Second Galilean Miracle—Healing of the OOUKTIEK'S SON. 43, 44. After two days— ' the two
It was not one, but a » accession of miracles periodically wrought: (2.) As it was only wrought "when the waters were troubled," so only upon one patient at a time, and that the patient "who first stepped in after the troubling of tlie waters." But this only the more uude* niably fixed its miraculous character. We liave heard of manj' waters having a medicinal virtue ; but what water was ever known to cure instantaneously a single disease? And wlio ever heard of any water curing all, even the most diverse diseases—"blind, lialt, withered "—alike? Above all, who ever heard of such a thing being done "only at a certain season," and most singularly of all, doing It only to the first person who stepped in after the moving of the waters? Any of these peculiarities—much more all taken together—must have proclaimed the supernatural character of the cures wrought. (If the text here be genuine, there carj be no doubt of the miracle, as there were multitudes living when this Gospel was published who, from their own knowledge of Jerusalem, could have exposed the falseiiood of the Evangelist, if no sucli cure had been known there. The want of v. i and part of V. 3 in some good iVLSS., and the use of some unusual words In the passage, are more easily accounted for than the evidence in their favour if they were not originally in the text. Indeed v. 7 is unintelligible without V. 4. The internal evidence brought against it is merely the unlikelihood of such a miracle—a principle which will carry us a great deal farther if we allow it to weigh against positive evidence.) 5-9. tliirty-eight years—but not all that time at the pool. This was probably the most pitiable of all the cases, and therefore selected. saw him lie and Itnew, &c.—As He doubtless visited the spot just to perform this cure, so He knows where to find His patient, and the whole previous history of his case (ch.
days' of His stiiy at Syohar. For Jesits testified, Ac— This verse has occasioned much discussion. For it seems
Btrauge, If "His own country" here means Nazareth, which was in Galilee, that it should be said He came to
Galilee because in one of its towns He expected no good
reception. But all will be simple and natural if we fill np the statement thus: 'He went into the region of Gali-
lee, but not, as might have been expected, to that part of It called "His own country," Nazareth (see Mark 6. 4; Lake i. 2)), for He acted on the maxim which He oft repeated, that a prophet,' &c. 45. received— ' welcomed' Him. Imving seen . . . at the feast—proud, perhaps, of their Countryman's wonderful works at Jerusalem, and possibly won by this circumstance to regard His claims as at least wortlij' of respectful investigation. Even this our Ix)rddid notdespise, for saving conversion often begins in
less than this (so Zaccheus, Luke 19. 3, &c.). fortliey also went— i. e., it was their pi'actice to go up to the feast. 46, 47. nobleman — courtier, king's servant, or one connected with a royal household; such as Chuza (Luke 8. 3), or Manaen (Acts 13. 1). heard tliat Jesiis was come out of Judea—
' where he had doubtless seen or heard what things Jesus had done at Jerusalem ' (v. 45). [Bengel.] comedown—for Capernaum was down on the north-west shore of the .Sea of Galilee. 4S-54. Except ye see signs,
(Sc.-He did believe, botli as his coming and his urgent entreaty show; but how imperfectly we shall see; and our Lord would deepen his faith by such a blunt and seemingly rough answer as He made to Nicodemus. Come down ere my child die—
' Wliile we talk, the case
is at its crisis, and if Ihou come not instantly, all is over.' This was faith, but partial, and our Lord would perfect It. The man cannot believe the cure could be wrought without the Physician coming to the patient—the thought of such a thing evidently never occurred to him. But Jesus will in a moment bring him up to this. Go thy wayj thy son liveth—Both efl'ects Instantaneously followed: "The man believed the word," and the cure, shooting quicker than lightning from Cana to Capernaum, was felt by the dying youth. In token of faith, the father takes his leave of Christ—in the circumstances this evidenced full
2. 25). Wilt thou be made whole!—Could anyone doubt that a sick man would like to be made whole, or that the patients came thither, and this man had returned again and again, just in hope of a cure? But our Lord asked the question. (1.) To I'asteu attention upon Pliraself; (2.) By making him detail his case to deepen in him the feeling of entire helplessne.ss ; (3.) By so singular a question to beget in his desponding heart the hope of a cure. (Cf. Mark 10. 51.) Sir, I liave no man, &c.—Instead of saying he wished to be cured, hejust tells with piteous simplicity how fruitless had oeen all his efforts to obtain it, and how helpless and all but hopeless he was. Yet not quite. For here he is at the pool, waiting on. It seemed of no use; nay, only tantalizing—" Vv'hile lam coming, another steppetli down before me "—the fruit was snatched from hia lips. Yet he will not go away. He may get nothing by staying, he may drop into his grave ere he get into the pool; but by going from the appointed. Divine way of healing, he can get nothing. 'Wait therefore he will, wait he does, and when Christ comes to heal; him, lo! he is waiting his turn. What an altitude for a sinner at Mercy's gate! The man's hopes seemed low enough ere Christ came to Iilra. He might have said, just before "Jesus passed by that way,"' 'This is no use; I'll never get in; let me die at home.' Then all had been lost. But he held on, and his perseverance was rewarded with a glorious cure. Probably some rays of hope darted into his heart as he told his tale before those Eyes whose glance measured iiis whole case. But the word of command consummates his preparation to receive the cure, and instantaneously works it. Rise, tAke up t\ty bed, &c.—"Immediately" he did so. "He spake and it was done." The slinging of ills portable couch over his slioulders was designed to show the perfection of the cure, the same day was the sabbatli—beyond all doubt this was intentional, as in so many other healings, in order that wlien opposition arose on this account men might be coniiiclled to listen to His claims and His teaching. 10-10. The .lewa —i.e., those in authority. See on ch. 1. 19. It is not lawful to carry thy bed—a glorious testimony to the cure, aa instanlanemis SLnd complete, from the lips of the most pre-
faith. The servants hasten to convey the joyful tidings to the anxious parent, wliose faith now only wants one confirmation. "When began he to amend?" " Yesterday, at the .seventh hour, the fever left him"—the very hour in which was uttered that great word, "Thy son liveth !" So " himself believed and his whole house." He had believed before this, first very imperfectly ; then with assured confidence of Christ's word ; but now with a faith crowned by "sight." And the wave rolled from the head
to the members of his household. "To-day is salvation ccme to this house" (Luke 19.9); and no mean house this! second miracle Jesns did i.e., in Cana; done "after be came out of Judea," as the former before.
Ver. 1-47. The Impotent Man Healed—Discourse Occasioned by thk Persecution arising thereupon.
1. a feast of the Jews What feast? No question has more divided the Harmonists of tlie Gospels, and the duration of our Lord's minislrjmay be said to hinge on it. For if, as tlie majority have thought (until of late years)
It was a Fassover, His ministry lasted three and a lialf years; If not, probably a year less. Those who are dissatisfied with the Passover-view all dlH'er among themselves what other feast it was, and some of the most acute think there are no grounds for deciding. In our Judgment the evidence is in favour of its l)eing a Passover, but the reasons cannot be stated liere. 2, 3. Slieep [market]—The supplement should be (as in Mnrc/in) 'sheep
[gate]', mentioned Nehemlah 3. 1, 32. Bethesda— i. e.,
' house (place) of mercy,' from the cures wrought there. Ave porches—for shelter to the patients. Impotent—or infirm. 4. An angel, Ac.—This miracle differed in two points from all other miracles recorded in Scripture : (1.)
judiced! (And what a contrast does it, as all our Lord's miracles, present to the bungling miracles of tlie Church of Rome !) In ordinal j circumstances, the rulers had the
The Jews Cavil at Christ's ^Firades. JQHN V. Christ, answering, Showeih who He it.
Persons results from unity of nature. (3.) Their oneness of interest is no unconscious or involuntary thing, but a thing of glorious consciousness, will, and love, of which the Persons themselves are the proper Objects, show hint greater things, &c.—referring to what He goes on to mention (I'. 21-31), comprised in two great words, Like and Judgment, which Stieu beautifully calls God's Regalia. Yet tliese tlhrist says the Father and He do in common. '^1-^3. raiseth tiie dead and quiekeneth them—one act in two stages. This is His absolute prerogative as God. so tiie Son quiekeneth—t. e., raiseth up and quiekeneth. whom He will—not only doing the same Divine act, but doing it as the result of Hi^ own will, even as the P'ather does it. This statement is of immense Importance in relation to the miracles of Christ, distinguishing them from similar miracles of prophets and apostles, who as human instruments were employed to perlorm supernatural actions, while Christ did all as the Father's commissioned K^ei'vanl indeed, but in the exercise of His oW7i absolute right of action. For tlie Father Judgeth no man, ifcc—rather, ' For neither doth the Fatlier judge any man,' implying that the same "thing was meant in the former verse of llie quickening of the dead"—both acts being done, not by the Father and the Son, as though twice done, but by the Father tlirouyh the Son as His voluntary Agent, all judgment—judgment in its most comprehensive sense, or as we should say, all administra-
law on their side. (Nehemlah 13. 15; Jeremiah 17. 21.) But when the man referred them to "Him that had made him wiiole" as his authority, the argument was resistless. Yet tliey ingeniously parried the llirust, asking him, not wliohad " made 111 m whole"—tliat would liave condemned lliemselves and defeated their purpose—but who liad bidden him ' take up his bed and walk," in other words, who had dared to order a breach of the sabbath? ' Tis time we were looking after him—thus liopiiig to shake the man's tV.ith in his Healer, lie tltat was liealcd wist not, &c.—That some one, witli unparalleled generosity, tenderness and power, had done it, the man knew well enough
but as he had never heard of Him before, so he disappeared too quickly for any inquiries, conveyed Himself awny—or 'slipped out' of the crowd that had gatliered to avoid both hasty popularity and precipitate liatred. (Matthew li 14-19.) liudelU Ulm in tl»e temple—say ing, perhaps, "I will go into thy house with burnt otlerings, I will pay my vows wliich my lips have uttered and my mouth hatli spoken when I was in trouble." (Psiilm tKi.
13, It.) Jesus, there Himself for His own ends, "lindeth him there" iiot all accidentally, be assured. Sin no more, &c.—a glimpse this of the reckless life he had probably led bejore his thirty-eight years' intirmity had come upon him, and wliicli not improbably had brought on, in tlie just judgment of God, his chronic complaint. Fearlul illustration this of " tbe severity of God," but glorious manifestation of our Lord's insight into " what was in man." Tlie man departed and told, Ac—little thinking how unwelcome his grateful and eager testimony would
tion, honour tile Son as . , . the Father—As he who believes that Christ in the foregoing verses has given a true account of His relation to tiie Father must of necessity hold Him entitled to the same lionour as the Father, so He here adds that it was the Father s express intention in making over all judgment to the Son, that men should thus honour Him. honoureth not the i<'aUier, Ac.—does not do it in tact, whatever he may imagine, and will bo held as not doing it by the Father Himself, who will accept no luiinage which is not accorded to His own Sou. believeth on Htm (hat sent me i, e., believeth in him as having sent Me. q. d., 1 have spoken of the Son's right not only to heal the sick but to raise from the dead, ami quicken wiiom He will: And now I say unto you, 2'hai life-giving operation has already passed upon all u ho receive my uorUs as the jSent of the Father on the great errand of mercy. Iiath everlasting life—immediately on his believing (cf. ch. 3. 18; 1 John 5.12,13), is passu!—'hath passed over' " Irom death unto life." What a transition I Cf. 1 John 3. H. a5-!J9. the hour cometh—in its whole luliuss, at I'eutecost. and now Is—In its beginnings, the dead—the spiritually dead, as is clear from v. is. Here He rises from the calmer phrase " hearing his word" {v. 2i), to the grander expression, "hearing the voice of the Hon of
' The darkness received not the liglit which waspouring its rays upon it,' Joliu 1. o, 11. [Olsuausen.] because
be.
lie liaddone tliese tilings on tile subl>atli-duy—Wliat to
tliese hypocritical religionists was the doi ng of tile most glorious and biiielicent miracles, coiiipaied with tlie atrocity of doing tliem on the sabbalii-day ! Having given tliem tliis liandie, on purjjose to raise the first public controversy wilh them, and tlius opuu a litliug opportunity ol laying His claims before tlii-m. He rises at once to
tUi! wiiole lieiglit of them, in a statement which lor grandeur and terseness exceeds almost any thing tlnit ever afterwards ull from Him, at least to His enemies. 17,
1 a. Hy Patlier worketli iilllierto and 1 worK—Tlie "J"
is empliatic ; <j. d., 'The creative and conservative aitlivity of My Fatlier has known no 6al)bath-cessation from llie beginning until now, atid that is the law of My working.' was ills Fatlier—/i/., 'his own (or peculiar) l-'alller,' as in iioinans 8. M. Tlie addition is tlieir own, but a very proper one. malting Iilmself equal witli God—riglitly gathering this to be His meaning, not from tbe mere words " My Father," but irom His claim of right to actas His Fatiier did in the like higli sphere, and by the same law of ceaseless activity in that spliere. And as, instead of instantly disclaiming any such meaning—as He must have done if it was false—He positively sets His seal to it In the following verses, merely explaining how consistent such claim was with the prerogatives of His Father, it is
Ood," to signify that a-s it finds men in a rfc<tti condition, so
it carries with it a resurrection-power, shall live—in the sense of v. 21. given to the Son, &c.—Does this refer to the essential life of the Son before all lime (ch. 1. 4) [as most of the Fatliers, and Olshausen, Stiek, Ai.KOi<l>, Ac, among the moderns], or to the purpose of God that this essen-
beyond all doubt that we have here an assumption of peculiar 2>crsunul Hons/iij), or participation in the Fatlier's essential nature. l'J,>iO, tlie Son can do notliliig of liiiusell— i. e., apart from and in rivalry of the Father, as they KUijposed. The meaning is, 'The Kon can have no Beparate interest or action from the Father.' for what tilings, (tc—f/. d., 'On the contrary', whatever the Father doetli that same douth the Son,' likewise—'in the like manner.' What claim to absolute equality with the Fatlier could exceed this: not only to do the name l/ilnys, but to do them as the I<'alher doea t/uinf Futlier lovetli
tial life should reside in the I'er.son of the Incarnate Son, and be manifested thus to the world 7 [C.\lvin, Lucke, LuTHAitnr, <tc.) The question is as dithcull as the subject is higli. But as all that Christ says of His essential relation to the Father is Intended to explain and exalt his mediatorial functions, so the one seems In our Lord's own mind and language mainly the starting-point of the other, because lie is the Son of man—This seems to conhrm the last remark, that what Christ had properly in view was tlie indwelling of the Son's essential life in humanity us the great theatre and medium of IJlvine display, in both the great departments of His wovli—lifegiving and judgment. Tlie appointment of a Judge in our own nature is one of the mcist beautiful arrangi^ments of Divine wisdom in redemption. Marvel not at this-this conimltlal of all Judgment to the Hon of man. fortliehour
, . . and sliowetli lilm all, itc.—As love has nocoiiccalments, so it results Irom the perfect fellowship and mutual endearment of the Father and the Son (,see on ch. 1.
1, 16), whose inli rests are one, even as their nature, that the Father coniniuuicates to the Son all His comiscls, and what has been thus shown to the Son is by Him executed in His mediatorial character. 'With tlie Father, doiny Is williny ; it is only the Son who acts in 'J'ime.' [Al>- FOHU.I Thri e things here are clear : (l. i 'i'Ui: pvinuniU Uis-
Is voniing—He adtis not in this ca.se (as in o. '25), " and no\T
Is," because this was not to be till the close of the whole dispensation of mercy, resurrection of life—j. c, 'to life' everlasting. (Matthew 25, Kt.) of damnation— It would have been htirsh losuy ' the resurrection of death,' though
ttno^iotwi in tlie Godhead. (2.) Unity of ucliun among llie m
TAc Scriptures Bear Witness to Christ. JOHN VI. Jesus Walks upon the Sra,
features of the same awful state of the numan heart. De not think I will accuse you—7. d., 'My errand hither is not to collect evidence to condemn you at God's bar.' one thai judgeth you, Moses, &c.—7. d., 'Alas ! tliat will be too well <l<>ne by another, and liim the object of all your religious boastings—Moses,' here put for "Wie Law,"
that Is meant, for sinners rise from death to death. [Ben-
ski-.] Tlie resurrection of botli classes is an exercise of
aovfi eign. (tiUlioriti/ ; but in the one case it isanactof (/?-ace,
In the other of justice. {Cf. Daniel 12. 2, from which the language is tjilien.) How awfully grand are these utifold-
ings of His dignity and authority from the mouth of
tlie Inf^iis of the Old Testament Scriptures, he wrote of me—'an important testimony to the subject of the wliole Pentateuch—"of Me.'" [At^FORd.) If ye l>elieve not, &c.—(See on Luke 16. .'il.) his writings . . . my words a remarkable contrast, not absoltdcly vnnXUnf:, Old Testament .Scripture above His own words, but pointing to tlie
Christ Himself! And they are all in tlie third pcr.wii ; in what follows He resumes the first person. 30-32. of iiilue
oiiit sell" do iiotlitng—t. e., apart from the Father, or in any inteiest tlian my own. (See on v. 19.) as I hear—
d., 'My judgments are all anticipated in the bosom of my Father, to whicli I have immediate access, and by me only responded to and reflected. They cannot therefore
office of those venerable documents to prepare Christ's
waj', to the necessity universally felt for documentary testimony in revealed religion, and perhaps (as Stier adds)
err, as I live for one end onl3', to carry into effect the will
of Him that sent me. If I witness of myself—standing alone, and setting up any separate interest. Tl»cre is Buofher— !. v., the Fatlie)-, as is plain from the connection. How brightly the distinction of the Persons shines out here! and I know that the wititess, &c.—'This is the Son"s testimony to the Father's truth (seech. 7. 28; 8.26,
to tlie relation which the comparative "letter" of tlie Old Testament holds to the more flowing "words" of "spirit and life" wliich characterize the New Testament.
5.5). It testifies to the full consciousness on tlie part of the Son, even in the days of His humiliation, of the righteousness of the Father.' [Alford.] And thus he cheered His
Ver. 1-13. Five Thousand Miraculously Fed. (See on Mark 6. 31-44.) 3. a mountain—somewhere in that hilly range which skirts tiie east side of the lake. 4. Passover . . . was nigh—liut for the reason mentioned, ch. 7. 1, Jesus kept away from it, remaining in Galilee.
spirit under the cloud of human opposition which was already gathering over His head. 33-35. Ye sent unto Johu—(See ch. 1. 19, &c.) receive not test . . . from m<>n —t. e., depend not on human testimony, but . . . that ye may be save*!—'I reler to hiin merely to aid your
14-21. Jesus Walks on the Sea. See also on Mark 6.
4.5-^36. 14, 15. that prophet—(See on ch. I. '21.) 15. departed to a mountain himself alone—(1.) to rest, which He came to this "desert place" on purpose to do before the miracle of the loaves, but could not for the multitude that followed Him (see on Mark 6. .31); and (2.) "to pmj/," Matthew 11. 2:5 ; Mark 6. 46. But from His mountain-top He kept watching the ship (see on d. 18), and doubtless prayed both for them, and with a view to the new manifestation which He was to give them of His glory. 16, 17. when even was come—(See on Mark
salvation.' He was a burning and a shining light lit.,
'the Inirning and shining lamp' (or torch) :—7. d., 'the groat light of his day.' Christ is never called by the humble word here applied to John—a ?/i7/t«-6e(7re?-—studiously used to distinguish him from liis Master, but ever the Lighl
In the most absolute sense. See on ch. 1. 6. willing for a season i. e., till they saw that it pointed whither tliey were not prepared to go. to rejoice In his light—Tliere
Is a play of irony here, referring to the hollow delight with whicli liis testimony tickled them. 36-38. I liave greater witness—rather, 'Tlie witness whicii I have is greater.' the works . . . bear witness of me—not simply as miracles nor even as a miracle of mercy, but these miracles, cm He did them, witli a iviU and a power, a majesty and a grace manifestly His own. The Father himself hath borne witness of me—not referring, probably, to the voice of His baptism, but (as seems from what follows) to the testimony of the Old Testament Scripture. [Calvin, Lucke, Meyer, Luthardt, &c.] neither heard his voice, <S:c.—never recognized him in tliis^^character. Tlie words are 'designedly mysterious, like many others which our Lord uttered.' [Stier.] not his word abiding In you—passing now from the Witness to the testimony borne by liim in "tlie lively oracles:" both were alike strangers to their breasts, as was evidenced by their rejecting Him to whom all that witness was borne. 39—I'J. S«nrch the Scriptures, &c. q. d., 'In the Scriptures ye
6.35.) entered Into a ship "constrained.' to do SO by their Master (Matthew 14. 22; Mark 6. 45), in order to put an end to the misdirected excitement in His f.'ivour (v,
15), into which the disciples themselves may have been somewhat drawn. The word "constrained" implies reluctance on their part, perhaps from unwillingness to part with their Master and embark at night, leaving Him alone on the mountain, went—rather, ' were proceed-
ing.' towards Capernaum—Mark says (6. 45), "unto Bethsaida," meaning "Bethsaida of Galilee" (ch. 12.21), on the west side of tlie lake. The place they left was of the same name (see on Mark 6. 31). Jesus was not coma to them—They probably lingered in hopes of His still joining them, and so let the darkness cotne on. 18. 19 sea arose, &c.—and they were "now in the midst of it" (Matthew 14. 24). Mark adds the graphic and touching particular, "He saw tliem toiling in rowing" (6. 48), putting forth all their strengtli to buffet the waves and bear on against a head wind, but to little effect. He saw this from His mountain-top, and tlirough the darkness of the
fiufl your charter of eternal life; go search them then, and you will find that I am the Cireat Burden of their testimony; yet ye will not come to Me for tliat life eternal which you profess to find there, and of which they tell you I am the appointed Dispenser.' (Cf. Acts 17. 11, 12.) How touching and gracious are these last words! Observe here (1.) The honour wliicli Christ gives to theScriplures, as a record which all have a right and are bound to search—the reverse of which the Church of Rome teaches
niglit, for His heart was all with them; yet would He not go to their relief till His own time came, they see Jesus —"about the fourth watch of the night" (Matthew 14.
25; Mark 6. 48), or between three and six in the morning, walking on the sea—What Job (9.8) celebrates as the distinguishing prerogative of God, "Who alone spreadetli out the heavens, and treadeth upon the WAVES OF THE SEA"—w^liat Agur challenges as GoD'a unapproachable prerogative, to " gather the wind in His FISTS, and bind the waters in a garment" (Proverbs
(•2.) The opposite extreme is, resting in the mere Book, without the living Christ, to direct the soul to Whom is its main useand chiefest glory. I receive not honour from men—contrasting His own end with theirs, which was to otitain human applunse. not the love of God In you which would Inspire j-ou with a single desire to know Ills mind and will, and yield yourselves to It, In spite of Jirejudice atid regardless of consequences. 43-47. If another shall come, <tc.—How strikingly li.as this been verified in the history of the Jews! 'From the time of the true Christ to our time, sixty-four false Christs have lieen re<-koned by whom they have been deceived.' [Bkn- <IEL.] How can ye believe? &c.—(See on v. 40, 4 1 . ) Tlie "wiU not'' of I'. 40, and "canr.oV here are just differeut
30. 4)—lo! this is here done in flesh, by "the Son of man.'' drawing nigh to the ship—yet as though He " would have passed by them," Mark C. 48 (cf. Luke 21. 28; Genesis 18. 3. 5;
32.21-26). they were afraid—" cried out for fear" (Matthew 14. 26), "supposing it had been a spirit" (Mark 6. 49). He would appear tothemat first likeadark moving speck upon the waters; then as a human figure, but.—in the dark tempestuous sky, and not dreaming that it could be their Lord—they take It for a spirit. (How often thus we miscall our chiefest mercies—not only thinking them distant when they are near, but thinlcing the best tn«> 137
Christ, Followed by Great Multitudes, JOHN VI. Discourses on the Bread of Life.
hath God tlie Father sealed—marked out and au thentlcated for that transcendent office, to impart to the world the bread of an everlasting life, and this in the character of "the Son of man." 38-31. What shall we do
worst !) 20. It Js I ! be not afraid—Mat thew and Mark give before these exliilaraliiig words, that to them wellknown one, " He of good cheer !" 31. Wlllliigly received him Into the ship—their first fears being now converted Into wonder and deliglit. and Immediately the ship was at the land—Tliis additional miracle, for as such it
. . . the works of God—such works as God will approve. DifJ'erent answers may be given to such a question, according to the sj>irit which prompts tiie inquiry. (See Hosea 6. 6-8 ; Luke 3. 1'2-14.) Here our Lord, knowing whom he had to deal with, shapes His reply .accordingly. This U the work of Gotl, &c.— That lies at tlie threshold of aU acceptable obedience, being not only the prerequisite to
is manifestly related, is recorded here alone. Yet all that
is meant seems to be that as the storm was suddenly calmed, so the little baric—propelled by the secret power of the Lord of Nature now sailing in it—glided tlirough the now unruffled waters, and while they were wrapt in wonder at wliat had happened, not heeding their rapid motion, was found at port, to their still further surprise.
it, but the proper spring of it^in that sense, the work of works, emphatically "the work of God." What sign showest thou, <&c.—But how could they ask "a sign," when many of them scarce a day before had witnessed sucli a "sign" as had never till then been vouchsafed to men; when after witnessing it, they could hardly be restrained from making Him a king; when they followed Him from the one side of the lake to the other; and when, in the opening words of tills very discour.se, He had chid them for seeking Him, " not because they saw the signs," but for the loaves? The truth seems to be, that they were confounded by the novel claims which our Lord had Just advanced. In proposing to make Him a king,
22-71. Jesus, Followed by the Multitudes to Capernaum, Discourses to them in the Synagogue of the Bread of Life—Effect of.this on Two Classes of the Disciples. 32-34. These verses are a little involved, from the Evangelist's desire to mention every circumstance, however minute, that might call up the scene as vividly to tlie reader as it stood before his own view. The day following—the miracle of the loaves, and the stormy night; tlie day on wliieh they landed at Capernaum, the people which stood on the other side of the sea—not the whole multitude tiiat had been fed, but only such of them as remained over night about the shore, i. e., on the
it was for far other purposes than dispensing to the'world the bread of an everlasting life; and when He seemed to raise His claims even higher still, by representing it as the grand "work of God," that they should believe on Himself as His Sent One, they saw very clearly that Ho was making a demand upon them beyond anything they were prepared to accord to Him, and beyond all that man had ever before made. Hence their question, "What dost thou Our fathers did eat manna, Ac-Insinuating the inferiority of Christ's miracle of the loaves to those of Moses: q. d., 'When Moses claimed the confidence of the fathers, " he gave them bread from lieavea to eat"—not for a few thousands, but for millions, and not once only, but daily throughout their wilderness Journey.' 33, 33. Moses gave you not. &c. q. d., ' It was not Moses that gave you the manna, and even it was but from the lower heavens; "but Mj/ Father giveth you the true
east side of the lake ; for we are supposed to have come, with .lesus and his disciples in the ship, to the ivesi side, to Capernaum. saAv that there was none other boat there, etc.—The meaning is, the people had observed that there had been only one boat on the east side where tliey were, namely, the one in which the disciples had crossed at night to the other, the west side, and they had also observed that Jesus had not gone on board that boat, but His disciples had put off without Him: " Howbeit," adds the Evangelist, in a lively parenthesis;, " there came otlier boats from Tiberias" (which lay near the south-west coast of the lake), whose passengers were part of the multitude that had followed Jesus to the east side, and been miraculously fed ; those boats were fastened somewhere (says the Evangelist) "nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks"—thus he refers to the glorious " miracle of the loaves"—and now they were put in requisition to convey tlie people back again to tlie west side. For when " the people saw that Jesus was not there, neitlier his disciples, they also took shipping (in these boats)and came to Capern.aum, seeking for Jesus." 'Za. when they found him on the other Bide (at Caperiinnm) they said, itc—astonished at His being there, and wondering how he could have accomplished it, whether by land or water, and irhen He came;
fcreofi," and that "/)-o/;i heaven."' The bread of GoA la He, etc.—Tills verse Is perhaps best left in its own transparent grandeur—holding up the Bread Itself as dimne, spiritual, and eternal; its ordained Fountain and essential Substance, "Him who came down from heaven to give it" (that Eternal Life which was with the Father and was n^nifested unto us, 1 Joliu 1. 2); and its designed objects, ." the world." 34. Lord evermore give us this bread—speaking now with a certain reverence (as at V. 25), the perpetuity of the manna floating perhaps In their minds, and much like the Samaritan woman, when her eyes were but half opened, "Sir, give me this water," &c. (ch. i. 15). 3.5. I am the Bread of Life—Henceforth the discourse is all in the first person, "I," "Me," which occur in one form or other, as Stier reckons, thlrty-flve times. He that Cometh to me—to obtain wliat the soul craves, and as the only all-sutlicient and ordained source of supply, hunger . . . thirst—shall have conscious and abiding satisfaction. 30. But ye have seen nie and be« lleve not—seen Him not In His mere bodily presence, but in all the majesty of His life. His teachl^ig. His works. 37-40. All that, itc-This coiiipreliensiveand very grand passage is expressed with a peculiar artistic precision. Tlio opening general statement (v. 37) consists of two members: (1.) "All that the Father Givkth mes SHALL COME TO ME"— (7. d., 'Tliough ye, as I told you, have no faith in me, my errand into the world shall In no wise be defeated; for all that the Father giveth me shall Infallibly come to me.' Observe, what Is given Him by
for being quite unaware of His having walked upon the sea and landed with the disciples in the ship, tliey could not see how, unless He had travelled all night round the head of the lake alone, he could have reached Capernaum, and even then, how he could have arrived before them-
selves. 30. Ye seek me, &c.—Jesus does not put them through their dilticulty, says nothing of His treading on the waves of the sea, nor even notices their question, but takes advantage of tlie favourable moment for pointing out to tliem how forward, fiijipant, and superficial were their views, and liow low their desires. " Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles" lit., ' the signs,' i. e., supernatural tokens of a higher presence, and a Divine commission, "but because ye did eat of tlie loaves and were
filled." From this He proceeds atonce to iUai other liread,
Just as, Willi the woman of Samaria, to that other Water
(eh. 4). We should li.ave supposed all that follows to have been delivered by the wayside, or wherever they happened first to meet. Hut from v. 59 we gather that they had probably met about the door of the synagogue— ' for that was the <lay In which they assembled in their synagogues' [Lioil tfoot]—and that on being asked, at the close of the service. If He had any word of exhortation to the people. He had taken the two breads, the perishing and the living bread, for the subject of His profound and extraordinary discourse. 37. which the Son of man taking that title of Himself which denoted His incarnate
tlie Father is expressed in X\\c singular numberand neuter gender—;i7., 'everything;' while those who come to Him are put In the masculine gender and singular number— 'every one.' The whole mass, so to speak. Is gifted by the Father to the Son as a unit!/, which the Son evolves, one by one. In the execution of His trust. So ch. 17. 2, " thai He shouli! give eternal life to all that which Thou has\ given Him." [Benqei,.] This " ahall" expresses the glorU
life, ahall gi-ve unto you—in the sense of r. SI. Him 138
Jeeta L^darea IlimsdJ to be JOHN VI. the Bread oj Li/a to all Believers
u. 54. written In the 'propliets-In Isaiah 54.13; Jeremiah 31.33, 34 ; other similar passages may also have been in view. Our Lord thus falls back upon Scripture authority for this seemingly hard saying, nil taught of Goil— not by external revelation merely, but Ijy internal illumination, corresponding to the "drawing" of v. 44. every man tlj«refore, <tc. i. e., who hath been thus efficaciously taught of Him. cometli unto me— with absolute certainty, yet in the sense above given of "drawing:" q. d., 'As none can come to me but as divinely drawn, so none thus drawn shall fail to come.' Not tJiat any man hnth seen, &c.—Lest they should confound that " hearing and learning of the Father," to which believers are admitted by Divine teaching, with His own immediate access to Him, He here throws in a parenthetical explanation; stating, as explicitly as words could do it, how totally different the two cases were, and that only He who is " from God" hath this naked, immediate access to the Father. (Seech. 1. 18.) 47-51. He that believeth, &c.—See on ch.
ouscertaint)/ c>{ it, the Father being pledged to see to it
that tlie gilt be no empty mockery. (2.) "And him that
COMF.TJI TO ME I WtLl, IN NO WISE CAST OUT." AS the former was tlie Divine, tliis is just the human side of tlie same tiling. True, the "coming" ones of tlie second
clau.sp are just tlie " given" ones of the first. But had our Lord merely said, MtViere those that have been given me
of Hiy Father shall come to me, I will receive them'—be-
sides being very flat, the Impression conveyed would have been quite diflerent, sounding as if there were »io Uher laus in 02>eratinn, in the movement of sinners to
Christ, but such as are wholly Divine and inscrutable to
us; whereas, though He docs speak of it as a sublime certainty which men's refusals cannot frustrate, he speaks of that certainty as taking eflect only by men's voluntary advances to Iliin and acceptance of Him—"Him that comelh to me," "whosoever will," throwing the door wide open. Only it is not the simply willing, but the actually coming, whom He will not cast out; for the word here employed usually denotes arrival, us distinguished from the ordinary word, which ratlier expresses the act
3. 36; 5. 24. I am the bread of life, &c.—As he that believeth in Me hath everlasting life, so I am Myself tlie everlasting Sustenance of that life. (Repeated from v. 35.) Your fathers—of whom ye spake (u. 31); not 'ours,' by which He would hint that He had a higlier descent, of which they dreamt not. [Bengel.J did eat manna . . . and are dead—recurring to their own point about tlie manna, as one of the noblest of the ordained preparatory illustrations of His own office : ' Your fathers, ye say, ate manna in the wilderness; and ye say well, for so they did,6u< they are dead—wen they whose carcassesfell in the wilderness did eat of that bread; the Bread whereof I speak cometh down from heaven, which the manna never did, that men, eating of it, may live /or ever.' I am, etc. Understand, it is of Myself I now speak as the Bread from heaven; of Mb if a man eat he shall live for ever; and " THE Bread which I will give is My Flesh, which
of coming ; see ch. R. 42, Oreek. [Webster and Wilkin-
son.] "In no wise" is an emphatic negative, to meet the
fears of the timid (as in Revelation 21. 27, to meet the presumption of the hardened). These, then, being the two members of the general opening statement, what follows
Is meant to take in both, "For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will"—to play an independent part "but {in respect to both the foregoing things, the Divine and the human side of salvation) the will of Him that sent me." What this twofold will of Him that sent Him
is, we are next sublimely told (v. 39, 40): "And this"-in the firr.t place—" is the will of Him that sent me, that of
all (' everything') which He hath given me (taking up the Identical words of d. 37), I should lose nothing, but should raise It upat the last day." The meaning is not, of course, that Ho is charged to keep the objects entrusted to Him as He received them, so as they should merely suffer nothing in His hands. For as they were Just "perishing" sinner* of Adam's family, to let " nothing" of such " be lost," but "raise them up at the last day," mu!it involve,/i)-«<, "giving His flesh for them" (v. 51), that they " might not perish, liut have everlasting life;" and after "keeping them from falling," raising their sleeping dust in incorruption and glory, and presenting them, body and
I WILL GIVE FOK THE LIFE OF THE WOULD." Here,
for the first time In this high discourse, our Lord expli-
citly introduces His sacrificial death—for only rationalists can doubt this—not only as that which constitutes Him the Bread of life to men, but as that very element in Him WHICH POSSESSES THE LIFE-GIVING VIUTCE.— ' From this time we hear no more (in this discourse) of " Bread ;''
this figure is dropped, and the reality takes its place.' [Stier.] The words "I will give" may be compared with, the words of institution at the Supper, "This is my body which is given for you" (Lulte 22. 19), or in Paul's report of
Boul, perfect and entire, wanting nothing, to Him who gave them to Him, saj'ing, " Behold I and the children which God hath given me." So much for tlie first will of Him that sent Him, the ZJiume side of man's salvation, whose every stage and movement is inscrutable to us, but Infallilily certain. " And this"—in the second place— "is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which'
it, "broken for you." (1 Corinthians 11. 24.) 52. .Tewjh strove among themselves—arguing the point together How can, Ac.—7. d.,' Give us his flesh to eat? Absurd.' 53-58. Except ye eat the tlesh . . . and drink the blood.
. . . no life, Ac—The harshest word He had yet uttered in their ears. They asked how it was possible to eat hia-
eeetli theSonandbelieveth (or ' seeing the Son believeth') on Him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him np at t!ie last daj'." This is the human side of the same thing as in the foregoing verse, and answering to "Him
flesh. He answers, with great solemnity, ' It is indispen^
able.' Yet even here a thoughtful hearer might find something to temper the harshness. He says they must not' only "eat His/es7i" but "drink His blood," which could not but suggest the idea of His rfcart—implied in the separation of one's flesh from his blood. And as He had already hinted t'nal it was to be something very different from a natural death, saying, " My flesh I will give for the
that comelh unto me Twill in no wise cast out:" q. d.,
' I have
It expressly in charge that every one that so "beholdeth"
(' so vieweth') the .Son as to believe on Him shall have everlasting life ; and, that none of Him be lost, " I will raise him up at the last day." ' See on v. 54. *1-4:G. Jews miirmureil—or ' muttered,' not in our Lord's hearing, l)ut He knew it, V. 4.3 (ch. 2. 25). he said, I am tlic bread, &c.— Missing the sense and glory of this, and having no relish for such sublimities, they harp upon tlie "Bread from heaven." 'What can this mean? Do we not know all about Him—where, when, and of whom He was born? And yet He says He came down from heaven !' Mnrmur not . . . Xo man—7. d., 'Be not either startled or stumbled at these sayings ; for it needs Divine teaching to understanil them. Divine drawing to submit to them.' can come fo me— In the sense of v. .35. except the Father M^htch liatik sent me i. e., the Father as tlie Sender of Me and fo carrt/ out the design of My mission, draw him—by nn internal and efficaeious operation ; though by all the means of rational conviction, and In a way altogether consonant to their moral nature (Song of Salomon 1.4; Jeremiah 31. 3; Hosea 11. 3, 4). raise him up, &c.—See on 50
life of the world" {v. 51), it must have been pretty plain to candid hearers that he meant something above the grossidea which the bare terms expressed. And farther, when he added that they " had no life in them unless they thusate and drank," it was impossible they should think He meant that the temporal life they were then living was dependent on their eating and drinliing, in this gross sense. His flesh and blood. Yet the whole statement was certainly confounding, and beyond doubt was meant to bo
so. Our Lord had told them that in spite of all they had "seen" in Him they "did not believe" (v. Sn). For Iheirconviction therefore he does not here lay Himself out; but having the ear not only of them but of the more candid a.n<l iliought/id in the crowded synagogue, and the miracle of the loaves having led up to the most exalted of all views of His Person and OtSce, He takes advantage of their very difficulties and; objections to announce, lor
Many Disciples Depart from Jesus, JOHN VII. but Peter Boldly Confensen Him.
all time, those most profound triUhs which ave here expressed, regiirdless of tlie disgust of the untrii(tlial)Ie, and
merely of the outer but of the Inner circle of His dlsciples ; for he knew the traitor, though it was not yet time to expose him. Therefore said I, &c. q.d., 'That wan why I spoke to you of the necessity of Divine teaching which some of you are strangers to.' except it were given him—plainly showing that by the Father's "drawing'' (v. 4i) was meant an internal and effleacious operation, for iu recalling the statement here He says, it must l)e " given to a man to come" to Christ. 66-71. Prom tliat time, &c.— or, in consequence of this. Those last words of our Lord seemed to have given them the finishing stroke—the.v could not stand i t any longer, walked no more—Many a journey, It maybe, they had taken with Him, but now they gave Him finally up! the Ttvelve—the flvst time they are thus mentioned in this Gospel. 'Will ye also go away!—Aflfecting appeal! Evidently Christ felt the desertion of Him even by those miserable men who could not abide His statements; and seeing a disturbance even of the wheat by the violence of the wind which blew away the c?tf/^'(uot yet visibly showing itself, but open to His eyes of fire). He would nip it in the bud by this hotne question. Then Simon Peter—whose forwardness in this case was noble, and to the wounded spirit of His Lord doubtless very grateful. Lord, to whom, &c. q. cl., ' We cannot deny thatrt e have been staggered as well as they, and seeing so many go away who, as we thought, might have been retained by teaching a little less hard to take iu, oar own endurance has been severely tried, nor have we been able to stop short of the question. Shall we follow the rest, and give it up? But when it came to this, our light returned, and our hearts were reassured. For as soon .as we thought of going away, there arose upon us that awful question, "To whom shall we go?" To the lifeless formalism and wretched traditions of the elders? to the gods many and lords many of the heathen around us? or to blank unbelief? Nay, Lord, we are shut up. They have none of that "eternal life" to ofl'er us whereof Thou hast been discoursing, in words rich and ravishing as well as in words staggering to human wisdom. That life we canuot want ; that life we have learnt to crave as a necessity of the deeper nature which Thon hastawakened : " the words of that eternal life" (theantliority to rcvea/. it and the power to confer it) Thou hast : Therefore will we stay with Thee—
tlie prejudices even of tlie most sincere, wliicli His language would seem only designed to deepen. The truth really conveyed here is no other tlian that expressed in v.
51, thoui^h in more emphatic terms—that Himself, in the virtue of His sacrificial death, is the spiritual and eternal
life of men ; and that unless men voluntarily appropriate to themselves this death, in its sacrilicial virtue, so as to become the very life and nourishment of their inner man,
tliey have no spiritual and eternal life at all. Not as if His death were the only thing of value, but it is what gives
all else in Christ's Incarnate Person, Life, and Office, their whole value to ns sinners. AVlioso eatetli . . . hath, &c. The former verse said that viitess they partook of Him they had no life; tliis adds, that whorver does so "hath eternal life." Ami I will raise him up at the lust day For the fourth time this is repeated (see v. S!), -10, 44)—showing most clearly that the "eternal life" which such a man "hat?i" cannot be the same with the /i<<(«-e resurrection-
life, from which it is carefully distinguished each time, but a life communicated here below immediately on believing (ch. 3. 36; 5. 24, 2.5); and giving to the resurreetion of the body as that whicli consummates the redemption of the entire man, a, prominence which in the current theology, it is to be feared, it has seldom had. (See Romans 8.
23; 1 Corinthians 15., throughout.) He that eateth . . . dwelletU in me and I in him—As our food becomes incorporated with ourselves, so Christ and those who eat His flesh and drink His blood becotne spiritually one life, though personally AifiVmcl. As the living Father Itath sent ine—to communicate His own life, and I live by the Fatlier lit., 'because of the Father;' My life and his being one, but Mine that of a Son, whose it is to be " of the Father." (See ch. 1. IS; 5. 26.) he tliat eatetli me shall live by n\K—lit., ' because of me.' So that though one spiritual life with Him, " the Head of every man is Christ, as the head of Christ is God." (1 Corinthians II. 3; 3. 23.) This is that bread, &c.—a sort of summing up of the whole discourse, on wliicli let this one further remark snlHce that as our Lord, instead of softeiiing down His figurative sublimities, or even putting them in naked phraseology, leaves the great truths of His Person and Office, and our participation of Him and it, enshrined for all time in those glorious forms of speech, so when we attempt to strip the truth of these figures, figures though they be, it goes away from ns, like water when the vessel is broken, and our wisdom lies in raising our own spirit, and attuning our own ear, to our Lord's chosen modes of expression. (It should be added thataltliough this discourse has nothing to do with the Sacrament of the Supper, the Bacrament lias every thing to do with it, as the visible em-
' we must.' And we believe, &c.—(See on Matthew 16. 16.) Peter seems to have added this not merely—probably not so much—as an assurance
to his Lord of ills heart's belief in Him, ,as for the purpose of fortifying himself and his faithful brethren against that recoil from his Lord's harsh statements which he was probably struggling against witli difllculty at that moment. iV.£.—There are seasons when one's faith is tried to the utmost, particularly by speculative diflicuUies ; the spiritual eye then swims, and all truth seems ready to depart from us. At such seasons, a clear perception that to abandon the faith of Christ Is to face blank desolation, ruin and death; and on recoiling from this, to be able to
bodi7He?it of these figures, and, to the believing partaker, a real, yea, and the most lively and atl'ecting participation of His flesh and blood, and nourishment thereby of the spiritual and eternal life, here below.) 59. Tliese things Bald lie in tlic synagogue—which seems to imply that what lollows took place after the congregation had broken up. 00-0.>. Many of Ills disciples—His pretty constant followers, though an outer circle of them, hard saying— not merely harsh, but insulferable, as the word often means in the Old Testament, ivlio can hear—submit to Listen to it. Doth this olTend . . . AVIiat and if, &c.—
fall back, not merely on^rst principles and immovable foundations, but on persortal experience of a Living Lord in tvhom all truth is wrapt up and made flesh for our very benefit —this is a relief unspeakable. Under that blessed Wing taking shelter, until we are again fit to grapple with the questions that have staggered us, we at length either find our way through them, or attain to a calm sjitisfaction in the discovery that they lie beyond the limits of present apprehension. Have not I chosen . . , and one of you
g. d., ' If ye are stumbled at what I Iiave said, liow will ye .bear what I now say?' Not that His as(^ension Itself would Stumble them more than His death, but that after recoiling from the mention of the one they would not be in a state of mind to take in the other, tlie flesh profiteth Mothing— Much of His discourse was about "flesh;" but Hesh as such, mere flesh, could proflt nothing, much less impart that Vi/e which the Holy Spirit alone communlCUtes to the suul. the words I speak are spirit and life— the whole burden of the discour.se is "spirit," not mere flesh, and "life" i,n its highest, not its lowest sense, and the words 1 have employed are to be Interpreted solely in
is a devil 1—5. (/., 'Well said, Slmon-Barjonas, but that "we" embraces not so wide a circle as in the simplicity of thine heart thou thinkest; for though I have chosen you but twelve, one even of these Is a "devU" ' (the temple, the tool of that wicked one).
"Ver. 1-53. Christ at the Feast op Tabernacles. !« S. After these things—t. e., all that is recorded after o/i. 5. 18. walked In Galilee—continuing ills labours there. Instead of going to Judea, as might have been expected, sought to kill hiin, &c.—referring bock to cU. 5. IS. Jlcnce U ap-
thai, sense. But tliere are some, &c. q. d., ' But it matters little to some of you in what sense I speak, for ye bcllovo not.' ThlJii was said, adds the Evangelist, not 140
OirLft at the Feast of Tabernacles. JOHN lie Teaches in, the Temple^
mense importance, showing, on the one hand, that singleness of desire to please God is the grand inlet to light on all questions vitally affecting one's eternal interests, and on the other, that the want of thi^, whether perceived or uot, is the chief cause of injidelily amidst the light of revealed religion, seeketii his own glory,ttc.—See on cli. o. 41—tl. 19, 30. Did not nioses, >ic.—17. d., 'In opposing Me ye pretend zeal for Moses, but to the spirit and end of that law which he gave ye are total strangers, and in "going about to kill me" ye are its greatest enemies.' Tlie people answered. Thou hast a devil : m'Iio goeth about to kill thee !—Tills was saidby ' tlie muliitude,' whoas yet had no bad feelingto Jesus, and were not in tlie secret of the plot hatching, as our Lord knew, against Him. Hl-'H. I have doneone work, &c.—Taking no notice of the popular appeal, as there were those there who knew well enough what He meant, He recalls His cure of*the impotent man, and tlie murderous rage it had kindled (ch. 5. S), 16, 18). It may seem strange that He should refer to an event a year and a half old, as if but newlj' done. But tlieir present attempt "to kill Him" brought the past scene all fresh up, not only to Him, but without doubt to tliem too, if indeed they had ever forgotten it; and by this fearless reference to it, exposing their hypocrisy and dark designs. He gave His position great moral strength. Moses gave you circumcision, (fee.—Tliough servile work was forbidden on the sabbath, tlie circumcision of males on that day (which certainly was a servile work) was counted no infringement of the Law. How much less ought fault to be found witli One who had made a man "every wliit whole"—or rather, ' a man's entire body whole"—011 the sabbath-day 7 What a testimony to the reality of tlie miracle, none daring to meet the bold appeal, judge not, &c.—q. d., 'Rise above the letter into the spirit of the law.' 25-!J7. some of them of Jerusalem—the citizens, who, knowing the long-formed purpose of the rulers to put Jesus to death, wondered they were now letting Him teach openly. Do the rulers linow, &c.—Have they got some new light in favour of His claims? Howbelt we know tliis man, &e.—^Tliis seems to refer to some current opinion that Messiah's origin would be mj'sterious (not altogether wrong), from which they concluded that Jesus could uot be he, since they knew all about His family at Nazareth.