SECTION III.

CHRIST, AS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, FINDS EVERYWHERE A READY RECEPTION AMONG THOSE WHO HAVE AFFINITY WITH THE LIGHT.

(Chap. i. 19-iv.)

In the first place, Christ was received and accredited by John the Baptist. The testimony of John was invested with the highest historical importance: it was the testimony of the Spirit of the Old Testament theocracy itself. And this testimony was very distinct, decided, and persistent. It was imparted to the whole nation; first to the fathers and leaders of the Jewish people, then to the disciples of John himself, and indirectly through them to the whole multitude.

And this is the record of John, writes the Evangelist. When the Jews of Jerusalem sent an embassy of priests and Levites to ask him, who art thou? he confessed,' and denied not. His confession was, 'I am not the Christ; 'in which light, indeed, they would gladly have regarded him. Then asked they him, 'What then? art thou Elias? 'And he said, 'I am not.' 'Art thou the prophet? 'He answered, 'No.' They said unto him, 'Who art thou? we must give an answer to them who have sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? 'He said, 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias' (xl. 3). And they who were sent were of the Pharisees — strong in their theocratic sentiments. They therefore urged him further with the question, 'Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet?' John answered them, saying, 'I baptize with water; but there standeth already one among you, whom ye know not; He, who, coming after me, was before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose.'' The Evangelist adds significantly the words: These things were done at Bethabara, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.¹

Thus did John confess his entirely subordinate position in reference to Christ, although the Pharisees seemed disposed, amongst all the titles, to concede a pre-eminent one to him; and thus he withstood the danger of denying the majesty, far surpassing his own pretensions, of the unknown One, who was indeed already in the midst of the people — primarily in the act of His baptism — but who had as yet acquired no name among them.

But before his disciples also did the Baptist confess the Lord. The next day he saw Jesus as He was coming towards him, and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world! This is He of whom I said. After me cometh a man which is preferred (became) before me, for He was before me. And I knew Him not; but that He should be made manifest in Israel, therefore am I come, baptizing with water.' And John bare record, saying, 'I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. I also knew Him not— hitherto; — but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, He it is which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I have seen it, and have borne record,² that this is the Son of God.'

Although John, as a pious Israelite, had previously known and honoured the person of Christ, he nevertheless did not yet know Him officially in His prophetic calling as the Messiah. To know Him in this character, he had to wait for the divine token, as described and announced to him. With this sign he received official certainty, and could publicly testify of Him. And now he directed the eyes of the deputies of the Sanhedrim to Him, not merely by declaring the arrival of the Messiah, but by designating Jesus as the Messiah who had appeared.

He did not rest satisfied, however, with a first or second testimony; but lie bore witness of Him ever anew, although by so doing he more and more lowered his own reputation. He had made his own disciples acquainted with the fact, that Jesus was the Messiah, and had thereby indicated that they had now to attach themselves to Him. But at the first intimation none of them had gone. He therefore immediately followed it by a second announcement on the next day. He stood again in his place, with two of his disciples. And resting his eyes on Jesus as He walked — still lingering in his vicinity, and perhaps going and coming, as He first sought companionship among the disciples of John³ — he said once more, 'Behold the Lamb of God! 'This time his word took effect. Two of his disciples heard him thus speak, and they followed Jesus.

From this moment were drawn together, in quick succession, the primary elements and noblest kernel of the discipleship of Jesus from among the disciples of John. We thus see, that the most select pupils of the last Old Testament prophet, the best of the disciples of John, receive Him.

As those two followed after Him, Jesus turned round; and seeing them coming. He said unto them, 'What seek ye? 'They said unto Him, 'Rabbi (which is, being interpreted, Master), where dwellest Thou (where hast Thou thy lodging to-day)? 'He said unto them, 'Come and see! 'They came and saw where He lodged, and remained with Him that day. It was about the tenth hour — about four o'clock in the afternoon — that they came unto Him. One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. The Evangelist does not name the other, although he manifestly knows both well; and by this he indicates that he himself was that second disciple.⁴ He first (Andrew), continues the narrative, finds his brother Simon, — whom, therefore, both had gone out to seek, — and saith unto him, 'We have found the Messiah (which is, being interpreted, Christ).' And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked on him, and said, 'Thou art Simon, the son of Jona — the dove, which nestles in the rock: — thou shalt be called Cephas '(which is, by interpretation, a rock — the rocky abode of the dove. See above, ii. 13).

The day following Jesus would return unto Galilee. And He findeth Philip, and saith unto Him, 'Follow Me.' Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, 'We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.' And Nathanael said unto him, 'Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? 'Philip saith unto him, 'Come and see! 'Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and saith of him, 'Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! 'Nathanael saith unto Him, 'Whence knowest Thou me? 'Jesus answered and said unto him, 'Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee.' Nathanael, in the feeling that Jesus had looked into his heart from afar in a sacred moment, answered in the words, 'Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel '— thus the King of the Israelite without guile, as Thou hast named me.

To this Jesus replied, 'Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. And He saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, From henceforth ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.' As I have just now in secret seen into thy heart, ye shall henceforth see into the open heaven, into the depths of the revelation of God, and of the revelation of His Son — into the sanctuary of the mutual cooperation between the Son and the Father, in which the angels of prayer ascend, and the angels of miraculous power descend, perpetually.

So speedily did the Prince of light recognise elect souls, who had affinity with the light, and so speedily, on the other hand, did they recognise Him. The same recognition, however, which Jesus in His public manifestation found among the more susceptible of John's disciples, He now also found in His native country, among His relatives and friends.

And on the third day (after receiving the attestation of John, see vol. ii. 18) there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. And the mother of Jesus was there. But Jesus also, with His disciples — on His return — was invited to the marriage-feast — which had already commenced some time before. And when they wanted wine (doubtless in consequence of the arrival of new guests), the mother of Jesus said unto Him, 'They have no wine.' Jesus said unto her, 'Woman, leave that to Me⁵ Mine hour — herein to give counsel — is not yet come.' His mother said unto the servants, 'Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.' — His word had thus appeared to her as a kindly intimation of help, in which He had only reserved to Himself the determination of the time. — And there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the custom of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three measures apiece. Jesus saith unto them — the servants — 'Fill the water-pots with water.' And they filled them up to the brim. And He saith unto them, 'Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.' And they — had the faith to do so, and — bare it. But when the governor of the feast tasted the water that had been made wine (and he knew not whence it came, but the servants which had drawn the water knew), he called the bridegroom, and said unto him, 'Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when they have well drunk, then that which is inferior: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.' This was the beginning; of signs which Jesus accomplished in Cana of Galilee; and thus He manifested His glory. And His disciples believed on Him — they attained to a higher measure of faith in Him from their own observation, and were no longer, as before for the most part, dependent on the authority of John. After this. He went down to Capernaum, He, and His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples; but they continued there, at this time, not many days.

From a variety of indications we may here conclude, that Jesus found a large reception amongst His relatives and friends in Galilee. The extraordinary invitation to the marriage-feast is the first intimation of this; then the faith of His mother, the bold faith of the servants at that feast, the susceptibility of the guests themselves to the impression of the miracle and its effects, and finally, the readiness of His brethren, with His mother, to leave their home, in order to attach themselves to Him, and accompany Him to Capernaum. In this passage John places the brethren of Jesus even before the disciples; it cannot mislead us as to the susceptibility of His brethren for the light which was in Him, that they afterwards temporarily expressed their unbelief (chap. vii. 5; comp. vol. i. 336).

But if Jesus had thus already found a reception in the narrower circles of the pious and the unknown in the land, the question always remained, whether He would meet with a similar recognition in the great centre of Jewish life itself, on one of the festival celebrations of the nation. This question was soon to come to a decision.

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple the sellers of oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the money-changers sitting — having established themselves there. And having made a scourge of rush-cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, 'Take these things hence! Make not my Father's house an house of merchandise!' And His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine house eateth me up⁶ (Ps. lxix. 9). Thus does Christ first appear in the national assembly of Israel as a prophet, filled with zeal for the sanctification of the temple. By employing the scourge against the oxen and sheep, and driving them out, He also drove out the sellers, and with them the buyers. By going straight before Him, hither and thither, He pushed against the tables of the money-changers, which ought not to have been there, so that the money was poured out and the tables were overturned. But the doves, which were in the cages, He could not drive out; He therefore commanded the dealers to remove them, and gave at the same time the ground of His conduct. Nevertheless the Jews met Him with the question, 'What sign showest Thou unto us, that Thou mayest do these things?' To this Jesus answered with the declaration, 'Destroy this temple, and in three clays I will raise it up.' Then said the Jews, 'Forty and six years was this temple in building, and Thou wilt raise it up in three days! 'But He — adds the Evangelist — spake of the temple of His body For the temple in Jerusalem was the symbol of the Old Testament theocracy, and His body was the true temple, in which God revealed Himself to the covenant people. If they thus killed His body, they destroyed the edifice of the Old Testament theocracy, which the temple on Moriah represented (see vol. ii. 26). To this John points in the words that follow: When therefore He was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this unto them; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said. Now, while He was — thus — at Jerusalem (in the chief city) at the Passover (the grand national festival), many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them — did not give Himself to be known by them as the Messiah, as if their faith had been a ripe act of recognition on the part of the people — for He knew them all, and needed not that any one should testify to Him of man; for He Himself knew what was in man.

The disciples of John had first come to believe in Him through the testimony of the Baptist regarding the divine revelation which had been imparted to Him; through the announcement that Jesus was the Lamb of God; and through the penetrating glances which He had cast into their heart, and by which He had characterized their distinctive individuality. The relatives and friends of Jesus had come to believe in Him through the benign miracle performed at Cana; but the first sign by which Jesus aroused the people was the purification of the temple. It was quite in accordance with the legal character of the people — an act which reminded them of the uncompromising zeal of Old Testament prophets, although followed, no doubt, by more friendly signs. The first impression which Jesus thereby made on the people was decidedly favourable. All minds, in which there was any affinity to the light, felt themselves drawn towards Him. Many believed in Him; and a less penetrating look than His might have led to the conclusion, that the time was already come when He might reveal Himself to the people of Israel as the Messiah. But His eye did not allow itself to be deceived by any favourable appearances: He did not commit Himself to His admirers. And for this end He needed no warning on the part of others, who perhaps were well acquainted with the disposition of the metropolis: He Himself knew what was in man.

Even upon the members of the Sanhedrim and upon the Pharisees did Jesus at that time make a strong impression. Some of them felt attracted towards Him; one appeared already to be half, or at bottom wholly, gained as a disciple— Nicodemus.

Nicodemus was a man who not only belonged to the party of the Pharisees, but was a member of the Sanhedrim. This man came to Jesus by night; without doubt, because he still feared to visit Him openly by the light of day. With this indication of his fear of man, in which a true anticipation of the approaching alienation of his party and of his companions in office from Christ expressed itself, was now indeed strongly contrasted the highly promising communication which he made to Jesus: 'Master, we know that Thou art come from God as teacher; for no man can do these these signs which Thou doest except God be with him.'

Nicodemus believed himself already warranted to give Him the assurance, in the name of many, nay, in the name of his associates generally, that they were convinced of His divine mission, and that, too, on distinct dogmatic grounds, namely, by the strength of the proof derived from His miracles. He had an upright appreciation of the glory of the Lord; but this manifested itself still in the form of his old life — as party opinion, as an inadequate conception of the mission of Christ; partly also as a rationalizing knowledge, which inclined to take the place of faith; and partly as a reflective orthodoxy, which assumed to be the true life of the Spirit.

Christ recognized the situation with His divine searching glance. He saw that with Nicodemus the method of a gentle and gradual process would lead to no result; that he must be gained by an arousing flash of truth. He therefore addressed him with these words: 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God,' — that is, not even see, to say nothing of already knowing its mysteries, pledging its advent, or becoming security for its citizens.

With these words He manifestly called in question the birth from above in the case of Nicodemus himself, not to speak of the associates, whom he supposed himself to represent. And, further, He gave him to know that He did not allow the symbolical new birth of the Jews, which consisted in circumcision and in washings, to pass for the real.

Of any other new birth, however, Nicodemus knew nothing; and the supposition that he should know of any other, nay, that he himself must still pass through this other, appeared to him offensive, the more so that it seemed to place him among the (even according to Jewish opinion) unregenerate heathen. Nevertheless he would not unconditionally assail the doctrinal statement of Jesus, but only, as it were, sideways.

It may have hovered upon his tongue to ask, What need is there for a Jew, a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrim, once more to be born again? But a warning thought restrained this question; and thus he came to the conclusion to take the expression of Jesus literally, and with a facetious evasion to appeal to his age, whilst he replied: —

How can a man be born again when he is already old? Can he enter the second time (again) into his mother's womb, and be born?' In a figurative manner, he wishes to intimate that he holds a real regeneration, besides the legal-formal regeneration by water, to be impossible.

Jesus did not allow Himself to be turned aside by the excited and half-ironical words of the embarrassed old man. With a second authoritative declaration He confirmed the first, whilst He at the same time explained it: 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.'

In a regeneration by water, by washings, which sealed the act of circumcision, and which lately had adopted the form of the baptism by John, Nicodemus also believed. But the water alone seemed to him to be sufficient for regeneration; and it was just this regeneration which, in his evasive answer, he had had in his thoughts, without confessing it.

Christ therefore demanded, in the most emphatic manner, the regeneration by water and spirit. At one stroke He thus pointed out the real meaning of Nicodemus, and at the same time set aside his plea. Regeneration by water is not sufficient, He said: of a second birth according to the flesh, however, there cannot even be a question, but rather in the room of the fleshly birth must there come a new birth by the Spirit. At the same time He impressed it on his heart, that the matter in hand did not merely concern the seeing of the kingdom of God, but the entering into it. He then proceeded to urge still further the necessity of the birth by the Spirit: —

' That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' The contrast between these two modes of birth — between the birth by the flesh into the fleshly life, and the birth by the Spirit into the spiritual life — makes a new birth to be necessary for all who are born of the flesh.

'Marvel not that I have said unto thee. Ye must be born from above (anew). The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.'

First must the man who is born of the flesh acknowledge the fact, that there is a spiritual life opposed to the flesh, although he neither knows its origin nor its end. For the Spirit, who is the life of this life, attests it, by His revelation. His operation. His voice. This relationship is made clear to human conception by the wind, which is a symbol of the Spirit of God. The wind forms a contrast to the life of the earth, similar to that of the Spirit to the outward life of man. One might be disposed to doubt of the existence of the wind, as of the being of a Holy Spirit, because one does not see it; but it makes itself known by its voice: and so must one believe in its being, even if one does not know its outgoings and ultimate ends. So is it then also with the Spirit, and with the children of the Spirit.

Nicodemus could not fail to hear in the words of Christ the voice of the Spirit, which testified of a new life. He now already perceived dimly the necessity of such a new birth, but he still despaired of the possibility of it, and in this sense replied, 'How can these things be?' Jesus answered, 'Art thou the teacher of Israel — who, as the first spokesman of their Sanhedrim, wilt now represent Israel in the knowledge of the Messiah — and thou knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee' — thus follows the third twofold solemn affirmation, in the third great divine announcement — 'We speak what we know, and we testify what we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.' Thus speaks Christ as the head, and in the name of the children of the New Covenant, concerning the certain knowledge which proceeds from the experience of the new life, in contrast to the uncertain 'we know 'of Nicodemus, which seeks to base itself on traditions, party convictions, and school opinions. And thus has He declared, in three great divine announcements, with six-fold affirmation, the necessity of the new birth, in order to enter the kingdom of God.

'If I have told you earthly things (facts of the kingdom of God already naturalized upon earth, more especially the doctrine of the new birth), and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things '— the facts that are still to be revealed? If ye refuse to credit Me when I propound to you doctrines whose rudiments are already known to the Old Testament, how shall ye believe Me when I join to those doctrines the revelations of the New Testament itself?

Nevertheless He permits these revelations to follow. First, in connection with His words concerning the heavenly things, the doctrine of the absolute revelation: —

'And no man (at least) hath ascended up into heaven, but He" only who — continuously — cometh down from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven.'

His being is the foundation of His revelation: He is eternally in heaven as the Son of God, who is Himself God. The means of His revelation consists in this, that by His incarnation, and by His various acts of condescension, He again and again continually cometh down from heaven. Finally, the result appears in His being able to announce the whole counsel of God, the whole order of salvation; in His knowing heavenly things, and revealing them. The first point is the entirely peculiar character, the second the entirely peculiar acts, and the third the entirely peculiar knowledge, of Christ. No one can have the peculiar knowledge which He has, for no one can point to His peculiar acts; and how could any one be able to do so? for no one is furnished in character and being as He is. Therefore, also, Christ claims full faith in His knowledge, His testimony.

With the first doctrinal statement is connected the second, the doctrine of the absolute atonement. This atonement proceeds f]-ora the fact, that in it the descent of Christ from heaven is perfected: —

'And as Moses lifted up (as a sign and banner) the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever belie veth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life/

As Moses gave to the Israelites bitten by the serpents a sign of deliverance in the form of a serpent destroyed, and exposed to view, by looking at which they were healed, the Son of man is in like manner appointed to become a sign of deliverance for mankind by being lifted up to view in the form of the condemned and destroyed transgressor, of sin itself annihilated; nay, of the original sinner turned into an object of derision, the old serpent. For the guilt of the world is perfected when mankind consider their holy Head Himself as the hereditary enemy, and put Him to death. And the judgment is perfected when God thus gives over the Son of man to the condemnation of the world. And the perfected reconciliation takes place when He does this iu love, and when Christ sees in this judgment only love, and in love plunges into its depths. And, finally, the perfected appropriation of this reconciliation takes place when man by faith sees in the great image of the condemned transgressor, of the perfect condemnation, the love of God, the rescue of his own life.

In this doctrine of faith — that salvation, namely, is imparted to the believer, and only to Him — was the third great doctrinal statement announced, the doctrine of absolute evangelization, and of the absolute condemnation which results from its rejection.

'For God hath not sent His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only-begotten Son of God.'

Nicodemus must have seen what a contrast subsisted between this declaration of Christ and the Jewish notion, according to which salvation was to be the portion of the Jews, and condemnation the portion of the heathen.

In the expression, He is condemned already, Jesus had at the same time intimated that He did not merely give expression to abstract doctrinal statements, but to relationships whose realization had already commenced. Nicodemus had given Him the prospect of a general recognition on the part of the Sanhedrim and the people, Jesus, however, now gives to understand that He knows better how He already stands with respect to the Sanhedrim: —

'And this is the condemnation, that the light (as principle of the world's transformation) hath come into the world, and men have loved the darkness (the principle of the world's confusion and bewilderment) rather than the light; for their works were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.'

The word last spoken must have drawn the attention of Nicodemus to his own connection with those light-avoiding opposes of Christ, the effects of which still showed themselves in the choice of the night-season for coming to Christ. But the Lord at the same time intimated, that He nevertheless regarded him in the centre of his being as a child of the light, who would yet wholly break through the bands of darkness: —

'But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest; for they are wrought in God.'

With these words of farewell, till they should meet again in light,⁷ He took leave of Nicodemus.

As Jesus had now found a reception, even in the Jewish metropolis itself, among the minds who had sympathy with the light, He met with a still wider reception in the country of Judea. And this was the more to be wondered at, as He made His appearance, and laboured here for some time, in the neighbourhood of John the Baptist.

After these things He went with His disciples into the country of Judea; and there He tarried with them, and baptized. But John also was still occupied with baptizing, namely, at Æon, near to Salim⁸ (in the frontiers of the Samaritan territory), for there was much water there; and they came, and were baptized — even though the district might be Samaritan. For John — adds the Evangelist, most probably with reference to current misapprehensions of the three first Gospels — was not yet cast into prison.

At that time there arose a question between John's disciples and the Jews about the act of purification — regarding the holy washing or baptism. Probably it was a controversy about the relation of the baptism of John to the baptism of Jesus. And they came unto John — those his disciples— and said unto him, 'Master, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come — run — unto Him.' Manifestly the language of envious jealousy. They would mentioning the name of Jesus; they are of opinion that He was indeed Himself formerly a half-disciple of John; their master had all too generously given testimony to Him, and now He repays the benefit by alienating all the world from him. But John returned them for answer, 'A man can take nothing, except it be given him from heaven.' In these words the impiety on the one hand, and the useless disquietude on the other, of all envy, are judged. 'Ye yourselves are my witnesses that I said, I am not the Christ, but am sent before Him.' He then continued, 'He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled.' The more free he knew himself. to be from envy, the greater was his joy at the union now forming between Christ and His Church, which presented itself to his mind, according to Old Testament conceptions (Ps. xlv. and the Song of Solomon), in the figure of a festive union between the bridegroom and the bride. He rejoiced, therefore, notwithstanding he felt that his own reputation must decline in like measure as Christ's reputation rose, 'He must increase,' said he further, 'but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth (one who belongs to the old materialized religious society), the same speaketh also of the earth (from this he does not get altogether free). He that cometh from heaven is above all; and what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth' — His testimony is the testimony of absolute experience.

Sorrowfully he added, his eye resting on his unbelieving disciples, 'And no man receiveth His testimony.'

The voice of jealous dissatisfaction regarding the result of the labours of Christ sounded: Every man runneth after Him. The voice of high joy over these results, accompanied by sadness that all do not go to Him, sounds: And no man receiveth His testimony.

'He that hath received His testimony,' he then says, probably with reference to those of his disciples who had already attached themselves to Jesus, 'hath set to his seal that God is true' — that the revelation of God in the New Covenant and His revelation in the Old, or that Christ and John, agree.

And so must indeed the truth of God be sealed. 'For He whom God hath sent,' he continues, 'the same speaketh the words of God.' He speaks neither that which has been already handed down, nor anything in contradiction to it, but the words of God, which as such are perfectly new, and yet also perfectly coincide with the older revelations, the whole contents of the words of God. How this phenomenon is to be explained, John tells us in the words, 'For God giveth not the Spirit by measure.'

That is, the communications of His Spirit are not definitely concluded, in accommodation to the measure of this or that individual power of apprehension in any one prophet, rabbi, or believer, but they proceed forward in ever new revelations, until the fulness of the Spirit appears. And this fulness has now appeared in the Son. This is announced by the Baptist in the words, 'The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hands.' He then closes his prophetic office, as forerunner of Christ, with the last word of promise, and the last voice of thunder, from the Old Covenant: —

'He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life; and He that is not obedient⁹ to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remaineth on him.'

By this position which the Baptist assumed towards the Lord, the recognition which the latter experienced in the country of Judea must have been greatly furthered. That this recognition of Jesus very rapidly increased, may be concluded from the circumstance, that it even already excited the attention of the Sanhedrim, and began to bring; His position into danger.

When the Lord now knew, narrates John, how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus gained and baptized more disciples than John (although, more strictly defining his information, he adds, Jesus Himself baptized not, but His disciples), He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. The time had not yet come when He could enter on the spiritual contest with the Sanhedrim. His life must first strike root in all susceptible minds far and near, even in Samaria. It was a peculiar dispensation of events, that the people of a Samaritan town should first receive Him in faith, when He had been constrained to withdraw from Judea, through the disfavour of the Pharisees in Jerusalem.

Even in Samaria He was received by minds accessible to light, and feeling their need of it.

And He must needs go through Samaria — as probably He found Himself at the time near to the Samaritan frontier. He thus came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph (see vol. ii. 54). Now Jacob's well was there. As, therefore, Jesus was wearied with His journey, He set Himself without ceremony (οὕτως) on the well (without more ado. He placed Himself on the brink of the well, where the women of Sychar and other Samaritans were accustomed to sit). It was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith to her, 'Give Me to drink! 'For His disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat — could not therefore render Him help. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto Him, 'How askest Thou drink of me, of a woman of Samaria?' For the Jews, remarks John, have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, 'If thou knewest the gift of God (what God bestows, the grace, as it makes itself known to thee by this singular opportunity), and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.' Thus He met the expression of the woman's surprise at His friendly reception of her, with the intimation, that she had here to do not with a mere Jew, but with a special manifestation of God and His grace; that He — without all Jewish prejudice against her — was at once ready in true friendship to give her the noblest gift, a living water, refreshment from the coolest fountain, although she still seemed to hesitate about reaching Him the small gift of a draught of water from the well of Jacob.

Christ designates His gift as a living water, not only because the woman has come to draw water, and because she thinks He, as a Jew, cannot take from her hand a draught of water, but also because He knows the state of her mind — the consuming thirst of her soul for the true peace, of which as yet she has no experience.

The woman saith unto Him, 'Sir, Thou hast no vessel to draw with, and the well is deep: whence then hast Thou the living water? Art Thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 'She does not understand that He speaks of eternal things, but supposes He has in view a living water from an earthly well. As He has no pitcher, and the well is deep, He must mean a concealed well somewhere in the neighbourhood. At this thought, however, the national pride is again excited, and expresses itself in a singular manner. Canst Thou, she thinks. Thou a stranger, procure a better well on this ground than our father Jacob? She claims the father Jacob so strongly for the Samaritans,^ as almost to deny all share in him to the Jews. She thinks the discovery of the well also belongs to the religious revelations and traditions of father Jacob, in which he could be surpassed by no Jew. And it even makes her proud of the well, that father Jacob's cattle drank of it.

Jesus now obviated her mistake, as if He meant an earthly water: 'Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.'

The water from Christ's fountain has three wonderful properties. First, a full draught of it quenches the thirst for ever. Secondly, the draught becomes a well in him who drinks it. Thirdly, the well becomes an endless stream, which flows forward into the infiniteness of everlasting life, and so that at every point it becomes a fountain ever repeating itself anew. A wonderfully beautiful image of the spiritual life which Christ imparts.

The woman does not even yet understand what the Lord means to say to her. Yet she surmises the highest meaning, whilst the conception of earthly water is not yet quite loosened from her mind. Hence the remarkable answer, 'Lord, give me this water, that I no more thirst, nor come hither to draw! '

To this Jesus gave her again an enigmatical answer: 'Go, call thy husband, and come hither.'

He saw that the longing of her soul began, under the influence of His words, to burst through the darkness of her condition. Her words were to Him a testimony that she would become His disciple. He therefore held it to be accordant with Israelitish order, as well as generally with the order of the family life, to cause the head of the family to be called.¹⁰ By this means, certainly, her conscience also should experience a special awakening.

'Go,' He said, 'call thy husband, and come hither.' Evasively she replied, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said unto her, 'Thou hast well said, I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband; "there hast thou spoken truly.'

The woman felt herself to be found out, and recognised also at once the divine insight of the Lord. Both lay in her answer: 'Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet! '

But, as if on wings, her thoughts were already on another point: 'Our fathers worshipped on this mountain; and ye say, in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.' Certainly these words were not mere evasion, else Christ would not have entered on the subject to which they referred. By a rapid transition of thought, she passes from the confession of her sinful condition to the acknowledgment that Jesus is a prophet; and from this to a doubt, whether indeed her fathers were so entirely in the right over against the Jews, in their glorification of Gerizim; with which again the desire is connected to hear the wonderful Jew, in whom she already reposes the highest confidence in spiritual matters, regarding the religious controversy between the Jews and the Samaritans.

Jesus leads her thoughts out beyond the ancient breach: '"Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither on this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.' Still she must at the same time know how the matter stands with respect to the past and the present: 'Ye worship,' He continues, 'what ye know not; we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews.' This had been the difference hitherto. It did not consist in the object of worship. Certainly, however, in its form. Among the Samaritans, it was a dead, worn-out, ignorant tradition; among the Jews, in the kernel of the nation, living knowledge. And this, because amongst them the vital development continued, as the completion and fruit of which salvation must appear. The Lord then comes back to the indication of the future: 'But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth' — thus not on outward heights, and in outward temples, but in the inner sanctuary of the spirit and of truth, — in the correspondence of prayer with the spirit of prayer on the one hand, and with the life of the worshipper on the other. He then declares to her, that that time will be a good and a glorious time: 'For the Father seeketh such worshippers. God is a spirit; and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth.' The woman saith unto Him, 'I know that Messias cometh (which is called Christ). When He is come, He will tell ns all things.' In these words she expressed at once the highest hope as well as the inmost desire of her soul, and thus showed how strongly her heart had been moved by Jesus. His words had made alive within her the stinted germ of the Samaritan Messianic hope; and what she indeed knew not, she seemed to surmise, the nearness of the Messias. The wonderful stranger had made her think of the wonderful man of the dim prophetic records of her people.

Jesus knew well that He might here reveal Himself without reserve: 'I that speak unto thee am He! '

And upon this came His disciples; and they marvelled that He talked with the woman. Yet no one said, What seekest Thou? or why talkest Thou with her? But the woman left her water-pot — an expressive token of her deep emotion — and went away into the city, and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who hath told me all things that ever I did, if this be not the Christ! 'One sees how strongly the word of Christ has touched her conscience. It seems to her, as if He had told her everything which she had ever done.

The people went out of the city, and approached towards Him. Meanwhile, however, the disciples besought the Lord, saying, 'Master, eat! 'He said unto them, 'I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, 'Hath any man brought Him ought to eat? 'Jesus saith unto them, 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work. Say ye not yourselves. There are yet four months, then Cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.'

He then indicated the blissful feeling with which He regarded the approach of the Samaritans, and in which He found the heavenly food which refreshed His own soul, and in which He wished them to share: 'And he that reapeth, receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal; that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For herein (in the spiritual harvest) is the saying in its most real sense true (ἀληθινός): Another is he that soweth, and another that reapeth. I have sent you to reap that whereon ye have not laboured. Other men (on the contrary) have laboured, and ye have entered into their labours — they have been obliged to leave to you the harvest.'

We see here a threefold expression of the love and faithfulness of Christ. In the approach of those Samaritans, led on by the poor woman, He saw already a harvest field white with spiritual blessing. For the disciples, who as yet so little understood Him, He desired to prepare the joy of spiritual reapers in this harvest field. At the same time, also. He remembered in this moment those reapers of former days, long since gone to their rest, who once had scattered the seed for this harvest, and blessed them in His spirit.¹¹ And what a freshness of certainty in personal immortality and eternal blessedness is expressed in connection with all this faithfulness and love! The harvest feast shall yet be provided for those sowers in heaven.

His eye could not deceive Him. Many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the saying of the woman, who testified. He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto Him, they besought Him that He would remain with them. And He abode there two days. And many more believed because of His own word; and said unto the woman, Now we believe no longer because of thy saying (this had already become in their eyes a less important testimony to the glory of Jesus, a λαλιά): we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world,¹² the Christ.' We may conclude from these words, that many became acquainted with Him there as the Saviour of their own life.

Finally, Jesus met with a like reception in Galilee (in Upper Galilee, or Galilee in the more restricted sense: see vol. ii. 66). After two days, namely. He took His departure from that Samaritan city, and went into Galilee (Upper Galilee). He did not therefore take up His abode at Nazareth, in Lower Galilee. This contrast is indicated by the Evangelist in the following words: for He Himself, Jesus, testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country. Then, when He was come into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did at the feast in Jerusalem. For they also had gone to the feast. So Jesus came again to Cana in Galilee (to the Cana of Upper Galilee) where He made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman (government officer) whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto Him, and besought Him, that He would come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. Jesus found it necessary first to prove the man with the words: 'Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.' He received the reproach in humility, and and continued to beg in the anguish of his heart: 'Sir, come down ere my child die! '' Go thy way,' said the Lord; 'thy son liveth! 'That was a word at once of the most instant miraculous help, and of the strongest trial of faith. The man stood the proof. He believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and went his way. And as he was now going down — from the mountainous country to the sea-coast — his servants met him, and brought him the tidings: Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. So the father knew that it was the same hour in which Jesus had said unto him. Thy son liveth. And he himself believed, and his whole house.

The Evangelist concludes with the remark: This sign did Jesus again, as the second, when returning out of Judea into Galilee. He came therefore both times successively with a great miraculous blessing into the land.

This was the time of first love in the labours of Christ, the joyful recognition which took place between the Lord and the souls which had sympathy and desire for the light, the first union between Him and His eternal Church, of which John the Baptist declared, The friend of the bridegroom standeth and heareth him, and rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. The hostile agitation of the kingdom of darkness shows itself as yet but feebly.

The ideality of the life of Christ appears here first in the remarkable distinctness with which He makes known to individual minds His own divine character, with which also He apprehends them in their individual character, according to its eternal tendencies, and treats them accordingly; so that His image is reflected in theirs, their image in His, and a whole eternity in their mutual salutation. John the Baptist first becomes perfected as a prophet, by knowing Him; he assumes a christological and Christian character in the higher sense, by the manner in which he testifies of the divine depths of the life of Christ, and in which he sacrifices his own reputation, and his prospects of an extensive discipleship, to the honour of Christ. Christ, on the other hand, appears in the glass of the stern-minded Baptist as the Lamb of God, and the Holy Spirit, whom He receives, is presented in the image of a dove. Further, Christ attracts His first and most select disciples to Himself by casting marvellous glances into their heart, by recognizing and depicting the image of their inmost being, their character and destiny, with the penetrating eye of love. His relatives and friends must come to know Him as the guardian of their household life, who is acquainted with and can remove the family cares, turn its want into wealth, and beautify its festivals with a new glory; whilst the image of His mother Mary appears in the finest traits of sympathizing love, and of the boldest trust. He makes Himself first known to the Israelitish people in the form of a stern prophet: to Nicodemus as the new interpreter of the Old Covenant, who brings home to the heart the doctrine of the new birth, with the most solemn asseverations of divine certainty, in order then, as the founder of a new covenant, to attach the new revelations to the kernel of the old. How distinctly does the character of Nicodemus stand forth in the light of Christ, and how clearly does the masterhand of Christ reveal itself in the discussion with the pious but pharisaically-biased old Rabbi! He then appears to us as the holy, gentle, and unfettered Son of man in the conversation with the Samaritan woman — as the Prince of all true father confessors, whilst the transparent image of the woman's nobler nature comes forth ever more brightly from the darkness of her sinful life. We see how, in His paths, human love again blossoms forth from among the rubbish of the confessional hatred of many centuries, under which it had found its grave. Finally, in Galilee He appears already as a Prince in the domain of the spiritual life. Thus does He stand over against the nobleman of Capernaum. The latter, on the other hand, under His influence, unfolds a beautiful tenderness of paternal love, and the most courageous faith; and the obedience of faith, with which he goes his way at the command of Christ, turns himself into a royal servant of the King, in the kingdom of God.

Further, the ideality of the life of Jesus meets us here in the nature and sequence of His miracles. The first is a miracle of divinely-penetrating prophetic insight into the solitude of a pious heart; the second is the transformation of an earthly festivity into a heavenly one — the changing of the water into wine, a joyful token of the transformation of the world, now begun in the labours of Christ; the third miracle, again, a master-glance into the dark life and mind of a far-strayed sinful woman; the fourth, a silent and spirit-like operation of healing at a distance.

There is likewise to be observed here already, the commencement of the spiritual transfiguration of the Old Testament. John himself must designate the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, as the proper end and aim of the Old Testament; the first disciples of Jesus must hear of the completion of the Old Testament revelation in a new, in which heaven shall stand open over them continually; His friends must see how the water-pots of Jewish ordinance¹³ are changed into vessels of wine for the feast of Christian love; the Jews must learn what is meant by the sanctification of the temple, and be led to surmise that over against the typical temple on Moriah there stands another truer temple in the human body of Christ; Nicodemus must know that there is a higher regeneration than that of water (and circumcision) alone; and in the light of the advent of the Messias, must the old confessional strife betwixt Jews and Samaritans be judged and composed, and the ideal mountains of the worship of God must come in the room of the typical. Thus does the Lord bring to light, in features ever new, the ideal and essential meaning of the Old Testament.

And in like manner also the ideality of nature. The image of the dove designates the Holy Spirit as the animating principle of His life, the image of the Lamb, His disposition. His mode of life, and His sufferings. We hear the rushing of the night-wind amidst the conversation of Christ with Nicodemus: it is consecrated by the Lord as a figure of the Holy Spirit, in the mysterious operation by which He accomplishes the renewal of the human soul. We look into the dark night, and under the teaching of Christ it becomes to us an image of the darkness, in which the unbelieving have their being, because their works are evil. We look down into the well of Jacob, and learn how the Lord makes the fountain of water to be an image of the new life in the Spirit of God, which quenches all thirst, and, fountain-like, has an eternal principle of motion and renovation within itself.

Finally, there is here everywhere apparent the richest transformation of ordinary life, and its incidents, into ideal relationships, clothed with festive beauty. The salutations of Jesus to His first disciples are moments in which we see Him attach the highest to the nearest: their walking, their state, their name, becomes an image of their life and their destiny. The unforeseen want at a marriage-feast furnishes Him the occasion for the first manifestation of His glory. His appearance in Israel first takes place in the midst of the long established annual market within the courts of the temple. The night-season, in which He is visited by Nicodemus, provides an emblem with which He connects the deepest instruction and warning. And finally, He sanctifies the water-pot of the Samaritan woman, of whom, as a weary pilgrim on the well. He begs a draught, as a first means for the conversion of a Samaritan city, nay, as the first breaking up of the way for the spread of the gospel in the heathen world.

The last mark of ideality in this narrative must be found in the frugal communication of facts, in the perfect significancy of those selected, in the calmness and pictorial character of their delineation, and in the transformation of all the events recorded into a manifestation of spiritual life.

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