Chapter 1: INTRODUCTORY
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTORY
Matt. iii. 1-12; Mark i. 1-8; John i. 35-42
"Where is the lore the Baptist taught,
The soul unswerving and the fearless tongue?
The much enduring wisdom, sought
By lonely prayer the haunted rocks among?
Who counts it gain His light should wane
So the whole world to Jesus throng?"
—Kehle.
THE CONTRAST BETWEEN the method of the Divine Worker and the human is specially apparent in the earliest stages. Man, with considerable confidence in his own powers of initiation and fulfilment, cries: "Go to, let us build a tower the top of which shall reach to heaven, so that we be not scattered abroad." God begins in secret, and works curiously in the lowest parts of the earth. He calls an individual from the crowd, trains him long and patiently, and finally makes him His partner, the centre of a new unit, the channel through which He pours Himself forth upon the world. Man's method, more often than not, ends in a Babel of confusion; whilst God's, invariably, is consummated in the city of the Living God, the Jerusalem which descends from above.
The majority of those who, from time to time, have been called to this holy service, have been selected from among the foolish, weak, and despised ranks of the human family, that the excellency of the power might be of God, and not of man. There have been thousands of noble exceptions; but, as a rule, not many wise, or great, or noble according to this world's estimate, have been called. The hole of the pit that has yielded God His materials has been of common clay, and the rock whence His stones have been hewn of very ordinary grain.
It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that the leader of the apostolic band was drawn from the ranks of very ordinary people, and that the story of his life opens in the obscure village of Bethsaida, at the northwest corner of the Lake of Galilee. The unadorned and simple homes of its fishermen were in striking contrast to the marble palaces of the neighbouring proud city of Capernaum, which were erected by the large incursion of Roman residents, who were attracted to the locality by its equable climate and luxuriant natural beauty. The shore was lined with costly palaces and imposing public offices; the roads were filled with splendid equipages; and luxurious gondolas flashed to and fro upon the lake.
I. The Coming of the Son of Zacharias. — The native population probably held aloof from the manners and habits of the conquerors, though quite ready to take advantage of their wealthy patronage and custom. Under their breath they spoke together of the great days of Judas Maccabaeus and of Judas of Galilee, before whom even the mighty Roman legions had on more than one occasion been compelled to give way.
To these echoes of the memorable past were added a strange anticipation and hope, which stirred in the breast of many, that the hour was near when the invader would be driven beyond the waters of the Great Sea, and the kingdom would be once more restored to Israel. Some said that the weeks of Daniel's vision had nearly expired. Some told that the aged Simeon before his death bore witness to having held the Lord's Messiah in his arms. Some spoke of visions of angel-choirs, and said that portents and voices had been steadfastly borne witness to by creditable witnesses. "The people were in expectation and all men mused in their hearts."
All suddenly the land was startled and shaken with the rumour that God had visited His people. A company of pilgrims, crossing the Jordan by the fords of Jericho, had been arrested by a strange figure, gaunt and sinewy, the child of desert solitudes, who had accosted them with the cry: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." When released from the spell and able to proceed to Jerusalem, they could talk of nothing else. That strange figure, half Bedawin and half prophetic! That voice which rang with trumpet-note! That evident vision of the Unseen and Eternal, which illumined his face with unearthly glory! That he had no lodging but a cave! That his food consisted of locusts dipped in water and baked on the hot coals, with wild honey to make them palatable! Without wife or child! These things gripped the national imagination and thrilled the air, already charged with electricity.
"The people that sat in darkness saw a great light," and on those that sat in the shadow of death, dawn arose.
The tidings spread everywhere, as by a mysterious telepathy. They reached the mountain-villages of the Lebanon to the north and the sheepfolds of Bethlehem and Hebron to the south. They were discussed by priests in the intervals between the Temple-services, and by Rulers in their council-chambers; by business men, as they transacted in the markets, and by traders, as they sat behind their stalls in the bazaars. Holy women, waiting at the wells for the drawing of water, spoke often one to another, whilst the Lord hearkened and heard and wrote thereof in His Book of Remembrance. The little children were told to reverence the name of John, the son of Zacharias, whose parents had passed through such strange experiences at his birth.
Then the whole country rose en masse. It was the Sabbatic year, when the ploughmen and the vinedressers ceased from toil. Men had plenty of leisure to leave their homes and fields, their vineyards and orchards. Through a land carpeted with flowers and exhaling fragrance, the confluent streams of people poured down the Jordan Valley in eager crowds.
"There went out to him Jerusalem and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan." Multitudes were baptized in the Jordan — confessing their sins; among whom we may surely include the brothers Andrew and Peter, and their life-long companions, James and John.
II. The Baptist's Influence on Peter. — Peter was married, but marriage among the Orientals takes place early. He was, therefore, still in the prime of his manhood. Strong, vehement, impulsive and self-assertive, he could by no means be accounted a saint.
Would he so easily have taken to swearing, when the maid accosted him in the hall of Caiaphas, unless he had been addicted to the habit in early life? He was doubtless attentive to the duties and formalities of his religion, attended the Temple-feasts, paid his dues, and was morally respectable. He was satisfied that he was a not unworthy son of Abraham. We are reminded of those words with which Paul described his earlier life as a son of the synagogue — "I was alive without the law once."
From his youth he was an ardent patriot. Like all his friends and companions, he was prepared to sacrifice everything he possessed to see David's race once more on David's throne. When, therefore, he and the others heard the tidings of the Baptist's appearance, they hailed them as heralding the new era. Might not this be the first phase of the kingdom which the God of Heaven was setting up, and which would never be destroyed, and whose sovereignty would not be left to another people, but it would break all other kingdoms in pieces, and stand for ever?
His friends shared these convictions and hopes.
Taking with them a frail canvas tent to serve as a shelter, and a bag of coins for the supply of their simple needs, Peter, his brother, and their friends bade good-bye to home and craft and "went forth to see." They crossed the Jordan by the fords of Bethabara and joined the crowds who were streaming down the Jordan Valley to the scene of the Baptist's ministry.
It must have seemed the prelude to the Day of Judgment when the Baptist, selecting a ledge of rock for his pulpit, stood forth to address the awestruck throng, gathered from all the land to listen. Clearly enough, as our Lord suggested, he was no reed shaken by the wind of popular favour. He was neither courtier nor sycophant. He spoke what he knew and testified what he had seen. There had never arisen a greater than John amid all the myriads of the human family. He penetrated the hollow pretensions of Pharisee and Scribe: compared them to the rock-vipers; threatened them with the woodsman's axe, the smelter's furnace, and the harvester's fan. In his stern outlook there was short shrift for the sinner that refused to repent.
He had faith that God vvould yet transform the stones of the desert into sons of Abraham. Truly he was a light that burned as well as shone!
Beneath such preaching, Peter must have been deeply moved. It raked his soul. Beneath those words sin revived and he died. He felt then, as he confessed afterwards, that he was "a sinful man." Frequently, as in after years, he would go out alone and weep bitterly, and when on the Day of Pentecost he saw that vast crowd of Jews pricked to the heart and crying out "What must we do?" he knew exactly the agony of their remorse. Probably he was baptized by the Baptist, confessing his sins. He had thus been born of water, as afterwards he was to be born of the Holy Spirit.
III. Peter's First Interview with the Lord. — When Jesus was baptized he may have been present, but as yet his senses were not anointed to behold the open heaven or discern the descending dove. Or he may have been paying a brief visit to attend to necessary affairs of home and business. Certainly he was out of the way, when, on two successive days, the Baptist designated the Saviour as the Lamb of God. But he was back again in the Jordan Valley on the morning following the day of his brother's memorable interview with the One whose shoe-latchet the Baptist confessed himself unworthy to unloose.
Andrew and John had spent some hours in His holy company. They had been welcomed to His dwelling, had listened with rapt attention while He spoke of heavenly things, had perhaps listened to His recital of the salient features of the Temptation from which He had just emerged, and had been told of His chosen method for winning back the kingdom by patient sufferings rather than armed force. As they listened their hearts had burned within them. They knew, with absolute conviction, that they had found the Messiah; and rejoiced with a joy exceeding all their experience.
Leaving Christ's presence, they said each to the other, "We must tell Simon of all this, so soon as we can find him"; and, as was befitting, Andrew found him first and brought him to Jesus, saying, "We have found the Messiah." Brought him, as though it was necessary to overcome some hesitation. The young colt is difficult to catch, as if it realizes all that the first lassoing may involve.
Peter was immensely impressed by that interview.
This Teacher was so complete a contrast to his earlier master John. Perhaps the hardy fisherman may have been less attracted to Him than to the sinewy son of the desert. He may not have been immediately susceptible to the grace and truth, and gentleness and purity, the humility and selflessness of the Lamb of God. But if this was his first impression, it was instantly succeeded by one of awe and wonder, as those searching eyes looked into the depths of his nature, and Jesus said, "Thou shalt be called Cephas " (the Aramean equivalent for the Greek Peter).
This is our Lord's method of making saints. He speaks of things that are not as though they were.
When the heart is broken and contrite, as was the case with Peter, He speaks words of encouragement and cheer. He imputes righteousness where there is but the smallest germ of faith. He addresses us, not as though we had attained or were already perfect, but as following on. He awakens our expectancy by indicating possibilities of which we never supposed ourselves to be capable. Over the grave of our hope. He speaks words of Resurrection and Life.
"Ah," said Peter to himself, at the close of that interview, "He little realizes how fickle and wayward I am; now hot with impulse, then cold as the snows of Lebanon. And yet if He thought me capable of becoming rock, and evidently He does think so, why should I not, with His help, resolve to attain and apprehend that for which I have been apprehended?"
Thus our Saviour deals with us still. He tells us what we can become by the proper development of our temperament and the exercise of Divine grace; and as He speaks He imparts all needed help. We become possessed with the Divine ideal, and laid hold of by Divine strength; and thus the weakest become as David and David as the Angel of the Lord, the reed becomes a pillar in the Temple, the stone becomes a rock, and the chief of sinners the mightiest of saints.
It is said that Michael Angelo saw in the blocks of marble, which others had refused, the forms which his genius would call into being; so in very unlikely souls our Lord descries qualities of unusual strength and beauty, which He sets Himself to elicit; and His first act often is to reveal the fair hidden image and to impute it. He saw Peter in Simon, Israel in Jacob, Paul in Saul — and told them so!