Throughout the parabolic teaching of Jesus the use of this word is sufficiently frequent to be sig- nificant ; but if He had given no other teaching in this connexion. His mind would have been suffi- ciently expressed in His acted parable on the occa- sion when He Himself stooped to the most menial of all menial service, and washed the feet of His disciples. When at length His self-imposed task was complete, ' He said unto them, A servant is not greater than his Lord ; . . . I have given you an example that ye also should do as I have done unto you ' ( Jn 13^'"). In this service, which Christ enjoins as well as accepts, there are one or two notes which are peculiarly His own. The first of these is, that it is a service which is not imposed upon the individual from outside, but is a spon- taneous act of submission. It was in this way tliat He Himself had entered upon that service /j.op(p7]v 5o6Xov Xa^div (Ph 2'), and it is in this way th.at He calls upon His disciples to serve (Mt 20'-''). Indeed, it was only thus that service could be of any moral value to the servant. The compelleil service is barren of aught but the spirit of rebel- lion, and it finds no place in Christ's scheme. The service that is grudged or unwilling is not to be discovered in His example. As St. Paul after- wards taught, there is a recognition of the freedom of the individual in this, tJiat he is allowed to 'yield himself a servant unto obedience,' and the bond which he thus casts upon himself grows closer with every subsequent act of obedience (Ro 6^®). The second note is that of completeness. This service is complete in its self -dedication and exclusive in its object. Christ acknowledged from tlie beginning a sense of constraint when He said that He must be in His Father's house (Lk 2«). His surrender to tliat compelling force was full ; He found it His ' meat to do the will ' of His Father, and to accomplish His work (Jn 4^). Equally full was the devotion which He realized, for He 'did always the things that pleased liim ' (Jn 8-'').
These with the other passages already cited sufficiently indicate the character of the service which belongs to the Kingdom of God. It has a definite and undivided purpose. It is not qualified either in its sanction or in its claim to occupy and dominate the whole life of the Christian. Equally marked is its measure or intensity. Both in the terms that are used and in the examples afforded, it is taught that s.acrifice, even tliat ultimate form of sacrifice which for mortals is realized in death, is the one condition of service.
614
SESSION-
SESSION
Literature. — Fairbairn, Religion in History and in the Li^e of To-day ; Church, The Gifts of Civilization ; Westcott, Lessons from Work ; Wendt, The Teaching of Jesus, i. p. 325 ff. ; Bruce, The Kingdom, of God, p. 220 ; Peabody, Jesus Christ and the Social Question ; Ely, Social Aspects of Christianity ; Lyman Abbott, Christianity ami Social Problems ; S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Sendee ■ J. H. Thorn, Laws of Life, 2nd ser. 347 ; Phillips Brooks, Addresses, 1; A. Smellie, Service and In- spiration (1904). W. W. HOLDSWORTH.
SESSION. — In the exaltation of Jesus Christ which followed His death upon the Cross, three distinct stages are indicated, viz. the Resurrec- tion, the Ascension, and the Session, which means the sifting or the state of being seated. Harnack indeed thinks that in some of the oldest accounts the resurrection and the sitting at the right hand of God are taken as parts of the same act, without mention of any ascension. But take one of these accounts : in Ro 8^^ St. Paul writes : XpLcrrbs 'Iijaovs 6 awodavixiv /xaWov d^ eyepdeis ^k veKpwv, 6s icTTLV €v 5e|ta rod deov, Ss /cai ivrvyxavei virep i]/uiu>v. 'Here,' writes SAvete (Apostles' Creed, p. 67 f.), ' are four well-marked links in a chain of facts — our Lord's Death, Resurrection, Session, Inter- cession. It is difficult to see why the second and the third, the Resurrection and the Session, should be taken as parts of the same act, when the first is clearly distinct. If the Ascension is not men- tioned, it is implied in the Session, for it is con- trary to the usage of the NT to interpret iydpeadai. of any exaltation beyond the mere recall from death. In other passages the ellipsis is equally easy to supply. Thus St. Peter's words in Ac 2^^ [tov Irjcrouv dveaT-rjaev 6 Oeds . . . tt) de^ia odv rod deov v^wdels) are interpreted by 1 P 3^'- ^-' (5t' avatTTdcrews 'Irjffov XpiaTOv, 8s iarip iv de^ia rod deov, Tropevdeis els ovpavov). It would go against the whole tenor of the NT to regard them as merely different names for the same event ; the Session is the glorified state into which the Ascension was the solemn entrance.
The Session is related as a fact of history only in Mk 16'*' : He ' sat down at the right hand of God,' which belongs at latest to the earlier sub- Apostolic age. Yet this is not so remarkable when we remember that St. Matthew and St. John do not carry their accounts beyond the Resurrection. Its truth, however, is amply estab- lished by the fact that it Avas expressly foretold by Christ Himself (Mt ig^s 25^1 266^ ||). It was the ful- filment of prophecy ; cf . Ps 1 10\ to which reference was made by the Lord (Mt 22*^'-), which was quoted by St. Peter (Ac 2^^) and the author of Hebrews (V^), and enlarged upon in Eph l"-^"'- ; cf. also Ps 2^ 45®, Is 16-', Lk FX And it found a prominent place in the doctrinal system of the NT writers (Eph P", Col 3K He P- '» 81 lO'^, Ro 8^^ 2 Co 5i» (^v/xa rod XpiffTov), 1 P 322, Rev 321).