itially the refusal of Messianic
Temptation i
royalty on any condition but that of suffering ser- vice. It is no accident that the same Voice is heard again on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mt 17' and Mk 9' o vlbs liov b aya-ir7p-6s, Lk ^ b vlbs nov b iK\e\ey)i.ii/os [v.l. ayaTntTbi\, cf. Is 42'), when the manner in which righteousness is to be fulfilled is made explicit in the subject of Jesus' converse with Moses and Elijah, ' the decease which he was about to fulfil' (Lk 9^' TXripoSv, cf. Mt 3'^ irXijpuo-ot) ; and that again, from the moment w hen He begins to make plain to the unwilling ears of His disciples that His throne can be reached only through resur- rection after suffering and death. He has to cry, ' Get thee behind me, Satan ' (Mt 16^). And the taunt of the rulers on Calvary, w hen the crucified Jesus is bidden to prove Himself the Christ of God, the chosen (Lk 23** 6 ^kX£k7-6s), makes it clear that the claim to be at once the Messiah and the Servant, if doubted by the disciples and derided by the Jews, was at least in the hour of its accomplishment sutti- eiently understood.
It is the Divine necessity of dyin" wliich is pro- minent in the later teaching of tlie Lord, beginning from that crisis of the ministry which is emphati- cally presented in all the Synoptics (Mt 16='-^, Mk 83>-9', Lk 9=2"). He sets His face towards it as the end (Lk 22" [cf. Is 53'=] reXeffff^i-at and reXos (X^i, cf. Jn ig^**"), the goal to which His whole life moves. And in the hour when the things
feature in the {xirtiait of the Sei-vant as that which above all others fastened its application upon Him- self. ' I say unto you that this which is written must be fulfilled in me, And he was reckoned with transgressors.' The Prophet, who at the outset of His ministry read in the synagogue of Nazareth tlie words foreshadowing the deliverance which was to issue in the Kingdom of God (Lk 4"'^ = Is 61'-=), knew that for Himself it meant the Man of
ATONEMENT
ATONEMENT
135
Sorrows, led like the lamb of the Hebrew ritual to the slaugliter, and in the power of His healing wounds making intercession for the transgressors of His people (Is 53 ; for the connexion with the Ceremonial Law see Davidson, OT Prophccn, ch. xxii.) There is thus no inconsisteiuy brlwcru the language of Jesus as recorded in tlic Syiiu|.i ii s and those utterances of the Fourth (id-prl wljich seem to remove the Passion and Death from the imme- diate historical conditions, and to represent tliem as the decision of eternal issues by the voluntary activity of the Divine Sutterer, who lays down His life of Himself and judges the prince of this world on the uplifted throne of the Cross (Jn S'-" 10"- "«
1231-33 143U Igll. 33)_
These considerations give peculiar point to the declaration which, according to both St. Matthew and St. Mark, stands in close relation to the request of the sons of Zebedee for eminent places in the Messianic kingdom. Messiah's kingship is based on service which takes specific form in the death He goes to accomplish — 'The Son of IMan < aiue lu give his life a ransom for many' — a sulp^lillltiou which made His soul an ottering for sin, fullillinj; all that was foreshadowed not only in the redemp- tion of the people from Egypt, but also in the re- demptions of the Ceremonial Law (Mk 10'"', Mt 20* Xirpov avrl not iiivip, cf. avriXirrpov 1 Ti 2", XvTpuffriTaL Tit 2", (XvTpuidriTe 1 P 1'*, where also the rtfuov at/jLa of Christ is the price ; Is o3'", 2 S 7^^ Ex 13'^ Nu 1815, cf. Ps 498).
That Jesus should thus have recognized the true significance of His death as a fact possessing not an accidental but an inherent worth, is not incon- sistent with a due acknowledgment of the historical circumstances which became its etticient cause. With regard to the prophecy of Jehovah's Servant, it must be remembered that the Sufferer, though offering a sacrifice for sin of which the liturgical oblation is the type, yet incurs pain and death only through setting his face as a flint (Is 5()*-'') in main- taining truth and righteousness under conditions which inevitably made this witness a martyrdom. And it would be misreading the phenomena" of the Gospel narrative to represent the propitiatory death of Christ as wantonly sought by our Lord in a manner inconsistent with the dictates of common morality. The Cross could not have been media- torial if Jesus had been an official and conventional Messiah reaching Calvary by any other road than that which in the first instance luaile Him one witli His brethren (lie •_""'") in the |.iusuit of IlisoHn moral eiiM. 1 1 is ,l,.;,i li. wliich allots I h,. con.-irnr,.
(He'J'Mo-l, l.l.ul ,..|ilv.r„t,Ml as srlr.|l„„l,,|;,li,,„.
He 'witiirssoa I.,. lore Pontius I'ilal.; a -o.kI con- fession'jl Ti 6';, cf. 'the faithful witness,' Kev 1= S"). His mission being to establish the kingdom upon a basis of surrender (Mt 20-'*, Jn IS''- "'•''), upon a gospel preached to the poor (Lk 4") by one who is Himself lowly in heart (Mt 11-"), He must not shrink till He send forth judgment unto victory (Mt 12-"). When there is no more risk of quench- ing the smoking fla.x by appearing openly as the uncompromising foe of the hierarchy. He recog- nizes that His hour is come (Jn 12-^ 17' al., JNlk 14« cf. Jn 2*, Lk 22^'), changing the method of His discourse so that they who reject Him may perceive that He sjjeaks of them (Mt ^V^), and without further parley join the inevitable issue. There is, however, no warrant for Mr. F. W. New- man's theory, that Jesus' denunciation of scribes and Pharisees was a deliberate provocation of judicial murder ; though it must be remarked that, assuming the knowledge of power to rise again the third day, we could not judge even such an action entirely by the ordinary standard. ISIill, if theoiie necessity of the case was a sacrificial death upon the stage of history, the event might have been