OAvn disciples had done. He resolved to go up to Jerusalem and proclaim Himself openly at the Passover feast. That this Avas the express pur- pose of His journey to Jerusalem is indicated in the tAA'o symbolic acts by Avhich He marked His arrival — the solemn entrance in fulfilment of an unmistakable prophecy (Zee 9"), and the cleansing of the Temple by right of His Messianic preroga- tive. The abrupt transition from a consistent reserve to a studied publicity can be accounted for only on the ground that He had entirely changed His plan. It had become evident to Him that the expectation Avith Avhicli He started had missed its fulfilment. The people, so far from responding to His message, had settled into a mood of apathy or even of declared hostility. There Avas no longer any purpose in maintaining silence, and He de- termined to assert Himself at the great gathering of the nation, and bring His Messianic Avork to a final issue.
3. A question rises here of the profoundest interest and importance. When our Lord decided on this second plan, did He fully realize that it loould involve His sacrificial death ? To this question Ave can offer no definite ansAver. That He contemplated the possibility of His death at Jerusalem appears certain. Apart from the actual statement that He foretold the end to His disciples (Mk 8" 9^1 10-*-«'-),— a statement Avhich may be in- fluenced by later reflexion, — Ave cannot doubt that He kneAv the temper of the national authorities, and consciously hazarded His life. His teaching also in that closing period assumes a neAV char- actei". He no longer speaks of the Kingdom as immediately at hand, Ijut prepares His disciples for an indefinite delay. He dAvells much on the thought that Avhatever may befall Himself, the triumph of His Avork is certain. But Avhile He surmised, Avith an eA-er clearer conviction, that the assertion of His Messiahsliip Avould invoh'e His death, it does not appear that He chose death deliberately as necessary to His plan. We may rather infer, from the prayer in Gethsemane, that up to the very end He entertained the possibility of a different fulfilment. This only can be affirmed Avith entire certainty : that He Avas resolved to pursue His vocation to tlie very uttermost, leaving the manner of its final accomplishment in the hands of God.
4. We have dealt hitherto Avith our Lord's jilan as it concerned His personal life and calling ; but there is a further problem Avhich cannot A\'ell be separated from this one. Hoio did He intend that His work should be completed? Hoav far did He contemplate the Avorld-Avide extension of the Chris- tian community after His death ? The ansAver must largely depend on the interpretation of His idea of the Kingdom of God, Avhich is still in many points obscure. If He believed (as is main- tained by Bousset, J. Weiss, and other recent Avriters) that the Kingdom Avould come almost immediately by a sudden act of God, there could be no anticipation in His mind of the gradual development of a Christian Church. If (as appears more proljable) He alloAved room for an interval, more or less protracted, before the daAvning of the Kingdom, Ave have .still to question Aviiether He planned a development on the lines Avhich Avere actually folloAved. The direct allusions to the Church (Mt W^ 18") bear evident traces of later modification, and it Avould be hazardous to employ them as the basis of any theory. More considera- tion is due to the sayings (]\It 8"- ^- 2V^) Avhich foretell the rejection of Israel and the opening of the Kingdom to those of every nation avIio Avere Avorthy of it. Such thoughts may Avell have been
f)resent to the mind of Jesus, especially in the ater days, Avhen the hostility of His own country-
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men became more and more decided. It seems clear, however, from numerous indications in the Gos))els, that His original plan was confined to a mission to Israel. He chose twelve disciples, with obvious reference to the number of the tribes (cf. Mt 19-*= Lk 22^"). He hesitated to exercise His healing jjower in the Gentile province, lest He might exceed the limits of His mission (Mk^T-'). He charged His disciples to avoid the Gentile* and Samaritan cities and contine themselves to the ' lost sheei) of the house of Israel ' CSlt W- «). These indications are all suliiciently explicit ; and they are confirmed by the act\ial history of the primitive Church. Peter and his fellow-Apostles, on the day of I'entecost and long afterwards, were still un- aware that their Master desired tiieiu to lU'oclaini His message to the wider Gentile world. The mission of I'aul was a grave dei)arture from the accepted programme, and was sanctioned only after long and anxious deliberation, and uniler strict conditions. It could hardly have been so regai'ded if the disciples had known that such a mission had been contemplated from the first, in the i)lan of Jesus Himself.
We can only conclude that our Lord made no definite i)rovision for the establishment of an out- ward Church and its world-wide extension. He delivered His message to His own people, and formed no clear design of a work that should embrace all men. None the less He had entirely broken with Jewish particularism. Even the Messianic title, as claimed by Him, assumed a new meaning in MJiich the traditional patriotic idea was wholly lost. His message was in its spirit universal, and made appeal to that which is permanent and central in our common nature. Whether He consciovisly planned the future exp.an- sion of His Churcli is not, therefore, a matter of the first imj)ortance. He gave the inqmlse which could not but result after His departure in the work of St. Paul, and in a missionary enterprise which can never know pause or limit. The in- ward pur))()se of Jesus, if not His express com- mandment, is rigiitly summed up in the clo.sing words of St. Matthew's (ios])el : 'Go ye therefore, and make di.sciples of all the nations.'