The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 445

WM bone of their- bone. and eympathmng the lire 11nd lip!! of a M11n whom they knew, in t.heir drop!'flt IIOIT(lWB, understood their his laet and greatest meBBago. noble~! upirstions. Suoh a conoeseion, Ver. 29.-(Bnt) 1 I know him; beoauae I mnroovor, ropurli11tae the suppoeod dooolio am from him-my inmost nature, the oentra 1'.'hamctorof the Christ of the Fourth Gospel. or my ego, proceods, is derived, from him. lllany 00111mentalol'B regard the exolamntion I hn,·e come forth from him. There is that RB ironiMI and interrogatory (Grotius, about me and my origin whioh has brough\ LAID['<', Cal.in, Liioke, and ew•n Godet), me into suoh intimnte relntious with the ,•.ithout Bnflioient warrant. Our Lord, how- 1?1tther that I know him as ye do uot know <•ver, eoon showe that., thongh they are him (cf. eh. viii. 55)-a.nd he (whom I thu1 rightly informed about certRin ohvione facts, know, and to whom I refer, trc,,vor) sent me, there were others of •tnpendons impor- This sending is a further condition of the t&uoe whioh oould J:O a Jong way towards knowledge which you fuil to appreciate, but r,Joonoiling their many-sided and oonfliot- which would make all things plain to you. ing ideas of Messiah, of which they were If this knowledge should break o.B the day• yet in ignorance. And yet (all oommen• star on their darkness, would they not at tators show that there is & oerte.in &dverea- once see that, up to that point at leut, in tive force about this third real; see o.lso Yer. their experienoe they did not know, or h&d 30 ; eh. nii. 20 ; ix. 80 ; Mark xii. 12) I not known, whence he was, in the grandest &m not oome from myaelf (see eh. v. SO). I sense. The charge of ignoranoe and the haYc not risen upon the wings of my own claim or superno.tnral knowledge, Divina ambition. It is not my mere human whim origin, Divine commission, was too mnoh for and purpose, or my desire for sell-glori.6- these Jerusalemites. They thought it blas- cation, which brings me before yon. Yon phemy. may J...-now the home of my ohildhood ; and VCTB. 80-36.--{5) TM divided opiniona watched &B I have been by your ~a-er and oonduot of tJ,,e different groups around spies, BI! you h&d full right to do, yon may him; the attempt on his life, and it8 failure, know ell my public prooeedings, and yet Ver. SO.-They sought therefore to aeiae vou have not fathomed the fact that I have him: and (equivo.lent to" but;" see ver. 28) not come on my own erro.nd, nor does my no one laid hands on him,"beoauae his hour humn.nity BI! you have grasped it cover the had not yet oome. It was in their heart to whole of the faots &bout me. There is a oombine with "the Jews," but none dared peculio.rlty, a uniqueness, about my coming to touch him. There were political con- tho.t you have yet to learn. I have been sidemtions, there were lingering and oorus- eenJ; to you ; but he that sent me iB real- cating fires of enthnsium burning in the r<'elity to me, which makes it an absoluto htBrts of those who had seen his great works; rcalitv in it.sell The use of a.¼,Bi•tls iB and probably an awe, a superstitions feo.r, of someTI·hat peculio.r, and, unless with some some stroke of his reputed power held them commentators and Uevisors we make it equal b&ak. The evangelist onoe more notices the to a>..i,B-,is, and thus disturb the uniform llBllge trne cause of this arrest of their mnlignity : of St. John, we must either i.me.gine under the " The hour" for the termination of his self- word a real " Bender,'' or one really answer- revelation, for the completion of his eelf- ing to tile idea already announced BI! of Ona snrrender, the hour which t.o the beloved competent to send. " He that sent me, the disciple's eye was the very oonsummation of Fatiler," of whom I spoke (eh. v. 37) when the ages, h&d not struck. last we conversed together, is the over- Ver. 31.-The autngonism and the faith wilelming Reality in this case. Whom ye come into sharper expression. AB the spirit- know not. The Jerusalem multitudes were like words stir up malignant passion, they suffering grievously from the superstitious also e:xcite new and deepening confidence. limitations of their own faith, from the The 11.aah of lightning, which reveals to many traditions, the symbolism, the letter, the the glory of a landsco.pe, may strike othen form, whioh had well-n.igh Btmulded, suffo- blind or dead. While the authorities are ~t.ed, the underlying truths. They had in harder, more unspiritual and blinder, than many ways lost the God whose great N11.111e before, yet many of the mnltitnde-i.e. of they hononred. '.1.'hey failed to apprehend the gcneml crowd. whether belonging t.o hiB awful nearness to them, his love to eYery Jerusalem or not-believed on him, passed man, his compn.ssion to the world, tho d~ into the glorious illnmiuation which fall■ wa11d of his rigl,t.oonsness, tile coudition of on his own Person, and all things else. We scei1,g J,im, tl e way to his rest-" Ilim ye cannot say that the whole was ciao.red up h11ow not." 'l"hiB was a seriow rcl,ukc of to them, but it was an acceptance by them the entire system which pre1·ailed at JerUB&- 1 The 3~, omitted by B.T., Tisclu,ndorf lem. Not understauding nor kuowiug the Fatl-, they were unable to aee the possi- (8th edit.), and Gotlet, hae powerful authority bility of his ho.vi.ng seut to them, through in its favour : tt, D, X, ngaim1t B, L, T, A, on. vn. 1-58.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 315