Pastor Pastorum Part 19

"The disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?"(230)

Observe the words _unto them_. It is not about themselves that they ask, but the crowd. They were desirous to see our Lord's influence increase, and were perhaps anxious that new proselytes should swell their number, and so they were puzzled at this new form of teaching, which seemed calculated to repel converts. "In order to win men over," they would say to themselves, "it would surely be best to speak in the plainest and most direct way."

The fullest version of the reply is that given by St Mark.

"And he said unto them, Unto you is given the mystery of the kingdom of G.o.d: but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables: that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest haply they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them."(231)

This is followed by the interpretation of the parable of the Sower. And then comes a discourse explaining for what purposes the teaching by parables was employed, which throws a strong light both on this matter and on education in its highest sense. Here the principle comes to the front, that it is not so much what is done upon the man, or for the man, as what is done by the man himself, that transforms him into a higher creature.

"Unto you," says our Lord, turning to the disciples and the Twelve, "is given the mystery of the kingdom of G.o.d." The mystery was given not to save their thinking but to set them thinking on a right track. What bore on the practical conduct of life had been preached to all, but the glimpse of the underlying spiritual order was vouchsafed to few: all must learn to tell time from a clock, but all need not know how it works. It is not the application of the parable which is here the difficulty-that is told the hearers at once-but it lies in the original differences between men, how far these come of men's own selves, how far of heredity, and how far men are answerable for their own dispositions; here we come on great difficulties which beset all creeds alike. In the parable of the Tares we are confronted with the origin of moral ill; the Apostles are to _contemplate_ these mysteries, and they are given a way of looking at them which will serve for the practical purposes of life, but they are by no means led to believe that they can see to the bottom of them.

The second pa.s.sage brings out a positive use of parables. They are not primarily meant to hide truth but to show it. The matter is only for a moment put out of sight, in order that men may search after it, prize it when found, and, bringing to it eyes sharpened by keen search, may discern all particulars more truly and well. The sifting of the auditory of which I have spoken above was only a secondary and subordinate use of the parable; its primary one was this; it enshrined an abstract truth in such a portable concrete form that it was made accessible to men; it put it into a shape, familiar to Orientals, a shape to which the Eastern tongue lent itself with ease, and which fitted readily into the minds of men; they could carry the story about with them, and they would in so doing learn its lesson by degrees.

There was also another point; the meaning of these new utterances gave men some pains to find, and when they had found it, they delighted in it as something they had conquered for themselves. Our Lord lets men into this secret of all learning. Did they suffer those words of His which "were Spirit and which were Life" to fecundate their hearts, turning them over in their minds again and again? The words "with what measure ye mete"(232) have no bearing on outward dealings here; what they mean is, "In proportion to the pains and attention which you bestow in searching out all that my words contain, so will the profit be. If you bestow thought freely, and time as well, freely will G.o.d requite the same-something will you then have, and more shall be given you." To him who had been faithful over a few things a wider range of duties, and that alone, would be given as reward.

I note a connection between the introduction of the new form of teaching and the course of events. When our Lord began to teach in parables "His departure which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem"(233) was shaping itself more and more definitely in His mind. Time was getting short, and so He now spake for those only who had ears to hear. The nature of this departure was too shocking to Jewish notions and too inexplicable to be declared in plain terms to the ma.s.s. We know that even the Twelve were bewildered with the hints that our Lord drops about the end, and we can easily see how ill-suited such declarations would have been for the people at large.

Again, we can understand that as the end in all its awfulness came more and more distinctly into view, our Lord should confine His teaching very much to those to whom was committed the mystery of the Kingdom of G.o.d; and, inasmuch as the Twelve differed in spiritual capacity among themselves and higher duties were to be laid on some than on others, within that body a further selection had to be made. Peter and James and John form an inner circle, they are chosen as witnesses of the things that were not to be proclaimed until the Son of Man should come.(234) It is worth noting that in St John's Gospel we find no trace of the preeminence of these three; this falls in with the hypothesis of the author being the Apostle John, who carefully avoids mention of himself.

This choosing of the Three Apostles who should be preferred before the rest touches my purpose closely in another way; it was no insignificant part of the Schooling of the Twelve. They would learn from it that Christ gave what charge He would to whom He would; that in G.o.d's service it is honour enough to be employed at all; and that no man is to be discouraged because he sees allotted to another what appears to be a higher sphere of work than his own. We all know how heavily jealousy among subordinates who administer affairs clogs the wheels of the state, and it was of the highest importance that this vice should be eradicated, with a view to the practical business of the Church.

So the great lesson taught to the Apostles-and in the end it was taught more completely than ever men were taught it before-was self abnegation.

They came at last not to think about themselves at all. This unselfishness is never preached to them, because it cannot be taught by preaching. If a man has self-surrender pressed incessantly upon him, this keeps the idea of self ever before his view. Christ does not cry down _self_, but he puts it out of a man's sight by giving him something better to care for, something which shall take full and rightful possession of his soul. The Apostles, without ever having any consciousness of sacrificing self, were brought into a habit of self sacrifice by merging all thoughts for themselves in devotion to a Master and a cause, and in thinking what they could do to serve it themselves.

Have not most of us known cases of men, seemingly immersed in amus.e.m.e.nts and frivolities, who would gladly have flung these to the winds, if only we could have found them something which would fill their hearts. If such people are selfish, it is not because they really care very much for themselves; but because self seems a little more real and a little more under their own control than anything else. They have found unreality in many things; perhaps when they have attempted to do good they have been thrown back by ridicule or discouragement, and are thereby brought to feel at a loss for an interest in life; and in this case an evil one, who is always by, has seemed to whisper, "Do good to thyself and the world will speak well of thee." If now, at the right moment, you could shew these men a real good, they would be glad enough to throw aside the _self_ which they have been only trying to persuade themselves that they cared for, and would seize upon anything which appeared to answer to the secret hope, asleep, but still alive in their hearts.

It is a good test of the nature of the devotion above spoken of to be able to endure the preference of others to ourselves. If the Apostles generally had resented the preeminence of the three, it would have shewn that they had not realised "what spirit they were of." We see from St Luke xxii. 24 that they had not quite overcome all personal feeling, but we hear at this time no word of murmur, though they ventured pretty freely to murmur when they were displeased: from this I gather that, little by little they were losing personal ambition and merging themselves in their Master's cause.

Thus this selection of the Three out of the body carried with it a lesson in the postponement of self.

This reserving of special attention for those only who shewed promise is, as I said just now, connected with the appearance on the horizon of the End at Jerusalem. "Times and seasons" the Father "had put in His own power," and it may not have been till a year before the Pa.s.sion that our Lord had known how short a time was left for Him on earth. Before He had preached unto all alike, now, his time and pains were reserved for the hopeful few. Something of this same reservation of teaching for those likely to profit by it, was seen when the Apostles were sent out two and two. They were only to be a few days away, consequently they were to waste no time over cases that were hopeless; when one city would not receive them they were to go to another.

Resumption of the Narrative.

I left the narrative at the point where the vessel with the Apostles, whom our Lord had joined upon the sea, had just reached the sh.o.r.es of the country of Gennesaret. The mult.i.tude sought Him on His arrival bringing their sick to be healed. Our Lord's words addressed to them suit the occasion so exactly, that we may be sure they belong to this place. The discourse(235) is preserved only by St John. It was probably begun upon the sh.o.r.e and was afterwards continued by our Lord in the synagogue.

This discourse is very ably treated by Mr Sanday,(236) and the doctrinal matters of which it treats do not fall within my sphere. It is the character of St John's versions of our Lord's discourses that we find it hard to trace in them the progress of thought. One or two points usually form the burden; in this case these points are "I am the bread of life"

and "I will raise him up at the last day." This mannerism suits with the supposition that St John's Gospel was written by a very old man; for this recurrence to the dominant topic is a marked peculiarity of the utterances of old age. St John had probably preached on these discourses over and over again, and he set them down in the Gospel in the form in which they were most familiar to him, with, possibly, something of the amplification required to adapt them to homiletic use.

This speech is pitched in so high a spiritual key that it was not all who had ears to hear it: it notably effected the purpose of separating the chaff from the wheat. What the people expected of the Messiah, and what they looked for in the future life may be gathered from the gospels or from Jewish books;(237) our Lord's words gave no promise of His fulfilling these hopes of theirs, and so we read-

"Upon this many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him."(238)

Another cause of offence arose at this time.

The Pharisees and certain of the Scribes who had come from Jerusalem had seen that some of his disciples ate their bread with defiled, "that is unwashed hands." These persons had not come from Jerusalem at this time-Pa.s.sover time-without serious intentions, and these we may be sure were not friendly to our Lord. They fasten on this point of was.h.i.+ng before meals, a process not enjoined by Moses but resting on a "tradition of the elders." The stress however laid on it by the Rabbis was excessively great,(239) and the provisions with regard to it were so minute and troublesome that only those cla.s.ses who possessed leisure could possibly observe them. Here we come upon a self-righteous exclusiveness; but what was worse than all was the low idea of G.o.d involved in the notion that He gave or withdrew his favour according as men were or were not punctilious about trivial acts.

Our Lord turns the attack against His a.s.sailants, "Full well," said He, "do you reject the commandment of G.o.d that ye may keep your traditions."

He shews how by a Rabbinical fiction they evaded the natural duty of maintaining their parents in their age.

"And he called to him the mult.i.tude again, and said unto them, Hear me all of you, and understand: there is nothing from without the man, that going into him can defile him: but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man."(240)

It is to be noted that here our Lord turns _to the mult.i.tude_. He calls-not only disciples and not only scribes, but every one-to listen to this vindication of the ways of G.o.d. These are our Lord's last words to the people of Capernaum, and the discourse in the synagogue is nearly His last utterance in a place of wors.h.i.+p. He would not leave them without a denunciation of that stress upon outward observances, which prevented spiritual religion from growing in their souls. His words are wide, I believe intentionally so, and sweep away those ordinances about meats clean and unclean, which, as sanitary measures, had done good, no doubt, in their time, but which now led one man to think that because he did not eat what another did, he stood religiously on a higher level than his brother. For spiritual religion to become possible, men must be freed from the idea that G.o.d's favour depended on what they eat or drank.

This notion however was, by heredity, part and parcel of the mental const.i.tution of every Jew. The disciples regard this statement of our Lord as so bold that it cannot be intended to be taken literally, they call it "the parable." We can understand, they would say, this about eating with unclean hands, but the Master's words would go to do away with all distinction of meats, and this surely He cannot intend. No explanation does our Lord give; He restates in the plainest terms what was matter of offence. He expresses wonder that the disciples should be startled at His words-there was that in store which would offend them more-

"Many therefore of his disciples, when they heard _this_, said, This is a hard saying; who can hear it? But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said unto them, Doth this cause you to stumble? _What_ then if ye should behold the Son of man ascending where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life."(241)

As far as affection and loyalty went our Lord carried them with Him. But their minds had not kept pace with their hearts, habit was their master still. That many who had counted themselves disciples should have taken offence at this bold a.s.sertion, "whatsoever from without goeth into the man it cannot defile him," is easily conceived. It did away with a ready source of self congratulation. If a Jew's conscience p.r.i.c.ked him, he turned for comfort to the thought that he had never eaten anything unclean.

So many fell away that our Lord's company was reduced to a handful. He had expected, and probably intended, to thin it considerably, but the withdrawals among the disciples appear to have surprised Him, He says to the Apostles, "Will ye also go away?" Puzzled by our Lord's declarations no doubt they were, but of one thing they were sure: having known Christ they could follow no one else but Him. The mountain journey clenched their devotion and their faith.

"And from thence he arose, and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered into a house, and would have no man know it: and he could not be hid."(242)

Now at last does our Lord find for the Apostles the rest which He had desired to give them before. It is not a missionary journey, He does not preach to the people; and the miracles which He performs are no longer ill.u.s.trations of G.o.d's Kingdom, but works of beneficence wrung from Him by the sight of suffering. The cures are wrought as privately as is possible.

The Syro-Phnician woman obtains what she desires by her exceptional openness to Divine impression: when He entered into a house "and would have no man know it," she sought Him out. The man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, is taken "aside from the mult.i.tude privately,"

and our Lord charged the witnesses "that they should tell no man."(243) So again with the blind man at Bethsaida (probably Bethsaida Julias at the head of the lake)(244) "He took hold of the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village," and at the end "He sent him away to his home, saying, Do not even enter into the village."(245)

Our Lord appears to have returned southwards along the valley and down the eastern side of the Lake, where the miracle of the feeding of the four thousand took place.

This country on the east of the Sea of Galilee, contained a mixed population, of which only the smaller part were of Israelite descent. The four thousand had followed day after day seeking cures; but there was no fear of these men trying to make Jesus a King, for there was little nationalist feeling on that side the sea. Our Lord might therefore exert His beneficence without imprudence. It seems strange that the disciples should not have thought of the feeding of the five thousand; but they may have thought that it was out of the question that a miracle should be wrought for people who were mostly heathen; or it may have been one of those not uncommon cases in which a man has seen his mistake and supposes that he can never make it again, and yet when circ.u.mstances arise, similar except for some slight variation, he does exactly what he did before.

When the four thousand were sent away, our Lord takes boat and crosses the lake to Magada in "the parts of Dalmanutha." Of this region we know nothing except that it must have been on the western side of the lake.

Here our Lord again finds himself among the haunts of men, and, since wherever there was a town population Pharisees were to be found, these "came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a Sign from heaven, tempting him."(246)

Perhaps they had heard of the feeding of the four thousand and wanted to put Him to what they considered a conclusive test. "Could He shew a Sign in Heaven?" This iterated cry shewed the poorness of the soil, they had nothing else to utter but a demand for credentials. If our Lord had worked a "Sign in Heaven" they would have examined it to find a flaw, and even if they had been driven to admit that it was valid, no change whatever would have ensued in the men themselves. Chronic evil requires, not a pa.s.sing shock but a long continued reparative process for its cure. So, here, to those who have not nothing is given, indeed nothing could be given to any purpose, and they soon lose even what they had, viz. our Lord's presence, for He leaves them and goes elsewhere.

On the way across the Lake, while this circ.u.mstance is still in His mind, our Lord warns the Apostles against this Pharisaic spirit, the leaven of the Pharisees, which would kill all that is spiritual in religion by reducing every thing to matter of dry proof and dead authority. On the mistake of the disciples, "It is because we have no bread," I have already spoken (p. 7), it is to me a proof of the genuineness of the story. Who would have introduced it, and who has not met scores of people who would have clung to the literal sense of the words just as the Apostles did?

Our Lord and the band of apostles travel along the upper valley of the Jordan to the neighbourhood of Caesarea Philippi. Most if not all of the outer disciples had by this time fallen away, and the opportunity for giving His higher inmost teaching had come.

Never yet, except to the woman of Samaria, had Our Lord spoken of Himself as the Messiah. The notions of the Jews about the Messiah varied greatly, but the notion of an era of material physical enjoyment was dominant in all, and this had the demoralising effect of leading men to regard sensuous well being as the supreme good. If our Lord had proclaimed Himself the Messiah, crowds would have rallied to his side, hoping to have found one who would give them what they desired. This would have been fatal to all spiritual growth. Our Lord's reticence about the Messiah and also about His own nature, is very significant: I think it means that truth absolute about heavenly things is not within the reach of man.

What follows, is so important, that it must be given in the words of St Matthew whose narrative is the most full.