iv. The Prophecies of Death and Jlesurrection. — From the time of St. Peter's confession Jesus began in set terms to foretell that His mission would end in His death, soon, however, to be followed by His resurrection (Mk 8-"l!). At the moment of His highest triumph, marked by the Transfiguration, the same .solemn predicticm is repeated (.Mk t»^'), and again yet a third time towards the end of the i)eriod with which we are now dealing (Mk
1032-»*ll).
(a) Even an ordinary observer might have seen that the signs of the times were ominous. St. I'eter's confession showed no more than one ad- herent whose fervid faith might be supposed irapable of resisting a pressure of life or death. Herod Autipas and his faction were hostile. The Pharisees were yet more hostile, and their bitter- ness was growing every day. Within the period before us two deliberate attempts were made on the life of Jesus (Jn H^'-* lO"). And wilh the cer- tainty tliat the course on which He was bent would include nothing to conciliate these antagonisms, it was clear where they woukl end.
(I>) But the foresight of Jesus took a wider range than this. He had laid it down as a principle that it was the fate of prophets to be persecuted (.\Il o'- 2'-i^*- '■). In ))arlicular. He had loefore Him the example of the Baptist, whose fate lie a.ssDciated with His own (.\Ik li'-' :l).
(c) But there wa.s a deeper necessity even than this. At the Betrayal, to him who drew sword in His defence Jesus replied calmly, ' How then should the Scriptures be fiillilled, that thus it must be'.'" .\ud this is His consistent language (comp. Ek 24-'' +* *' etc.). The mind of Jesus was steeped in the ancient )U'opliecies. He had Him- self, as we have seen, deliberately fused the con- ception of the con(|uering .Messiah with that of the Suffering Servant of Jehovah, and He as deliberately went the way to fullil these prophe- cies iu His own ])erson. There w.is nothing acci- dental aliout His Death. He -.set his face stead- fa.stly ' on the road wliich led to it.
(it) When wc look into ii.s le.s.sons we are car- rieil even behind the fullilmeiit of prophecy. We shall have to speak presently of the extraordinary ni>velty of the turn which Christ gave to His mission. Others had coni|Uered by the exerci.se of force ; He Wius the lirst to set lliiuself to con- ipier by weakm^ss, patiince, non-resistance. And the natural and inevitable consinnmation of this new methoil of compiest was Death.
(e) In all this He was carrying out. and knew that He was carrving out. the Will of the Father.
It was conceivable that that Will might have yet ulterior objects even beyond those, deep enough as we might think, which we have been consider- ing. That Jesus a.scribed to HLs Death such an ulterior object we are led to believe by the way in which He speaks of it. The two places in which He docs so must next engage our attention.
V. iSi(juificitnrK of the. Death of Jesus. — The first of the pas.sages to which allusion has just been made is Jlk 10*^11 'For verily the Son of Man came not to be mini.stered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.' We observe here that Jesus brings His Death under the category of service, and regards it as the climax of a life of .service. This is one way of stating the great paradox to which we have ju.st alluded. The kings of the Gentiles exercise lord- ship over their .subjects ; but .such was not to be the ambition of the disciples of Christ ; rather the very opposite ; and it was Christ Himself who set them the exaiiii)le. At the end of the avenue stood a cross, and the Saviour of men walked up to it a.s if it had been a crown. It is a (|Uestion of pressing interest how much farther we may go than tills : is the Mrpoy avrl iroWCiv to be in- terpreted by the dTroXi/rpaxris and IXaar-fipiov of Ko .'!-<i', and by the language of other similar pa.ssages T By it.self we could not say that it compelled such an interjjretation ; but there is notliing forced in sujjposing that the early Church knew and followed the mind of its Founder. In that case we .should have reason to think that Jesus Himself had hinted at the sacrificial char- acter of His Death, and that He too regarded it as propitiatory.
If this passage suggests a sacrificial aspect of one kind, the other is more explicit in bringing out saerificia! associations of another. All the extant accounts of the instituti(m of the Euchari.st connect the Blood shed upon the Cross wilh the founding of a ' [new] Covenant.' This is certainly an allusion to the inauguration of the first Covenant with sacrifice (cf. Ex 24*-*, He!»"'-^), .ind the Death of ClirLst is clearly regarded as the Sacrifice inaugu- rating the second (see below, p. G.'?8).
In other words, the momentous question came before the mind of Jesus whether the New Dis- pensation which He was founding was or was not like the Old in including the idea of Sacrilice. He deliberately answered that it was. And He deliberately foresaw, and as deliberately accepted the consequence, that the .sicrifice of this New Dispensation could be none other than the Sacri- fice of Ilim,self.