The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 2 — Section 232

rnnn~· 1,or<>~ ann cloud many hontte. This wns well known to the Mnster, Uenco his 11dnw_;iition to _his disciples, "Lot not your heart bo troubled." An n<lmonition snch ne tills, when 1t oomee alone, is powerless. But Christ, by rovenlina himself allll his purposes to the minds of hie brethren, supported the prCCC'pt he addnmed to them, What might well distress and even overwhelm thoso "'ho wero without the support and consolation of a sustaining and inspiring faith, would be powerleSB to Hh,\ke such as built their hopes upon the sure foundation of unchnnging faithfulnose, immortal love. Those who have faHh in Christ are the possessors of true peace-the penco which "passeth understanding," the peace which the world cau neither give nor t.'lke away,-'!'. Vers. 4-6.-Tli.e way to God. The course of the conversation here is not hard to follow. First, there is the assortion of Jesus, following upon his rovelation of the hea,•C'nly dwelling-plnces, that his disciples knew well the road he was about to travel. Ilc had often of late Fpoken of his approaching departure from this world, nnd even of the manner of it. Secondly, there is the difficulty, started by Thomas, that they knew not the goal, and therefore could not know the path by which it should bo reached. 'l'his difficulty may ha'l'e been p.'l.rt)y an unspiritual stumbling; the twelve were think- ing of an earthly road and an earthly destination, and were confusing the approach to the Father with the approach to a city or a mansion, in which fatter case, indeed, a tmvcllcr needs to know first bis goal nnd then his route. Partly, too, the perplexity may have been owing to a deep depression, by reason of which the twelve did not do justice to their own knowledge and standing, and took n lower tone than they should have done. '.l'hen, thirdly, there is our Lord's explanatory reply. In this he gives what we may call a turn to the conversation, passing in thought from himself to them. The Father's house is for both-for the elder son and for the younger members of the spiritual family. To know the road thither-this is the matter of chief concern to all. Thus Jesus is led to communicate to them the great revelation of the sixth verse-to point to himself as "the Way,"' and to represent himself as the sole and sufficient means of approach to God. I. CHilIST lB THE WAY TO THE KNOWI.EnGE OF GoD. It is not so much by explanatory language that Jesus reveals to his p<>ople the character of the Father; he does not merely point out the way. But in his own Person, his life and ministry, he displays to ns the attributes of Deity which it most concerns us to know; and thus be u the way. As incarnate God, as the one Mediator, he presents the Father before the view of his spiritual family. IL CHllIBT IS TnE WAY TO THE FAVOUB OF Go». To understand how holy and how righteous is the Divine Ruler and Judge, is to understand that sinners. forfeit his favour. Onr Saviour is the divinely appointed Way to reconciliation and harmony with him whose laws all men have broken. He removes obstacles otherwise insurmountable, bridges chasms otherwise impassable, makes of himself a path of safety and of pro- gress, so that the passage to the Divine friendship becomes possible and safe. On this ac.count, probably, Christianity is, in the Book of the Acts, repeatedly spoken of as "tbe way," i.e. the path by which sinful men return to the affectionate interest and regard of a righteous God. Ill. CHRIST IS THE WAY TO THE FATnEB's FELLowsmP. It is, indeed, with a view to this that the former is desirable. It is moral union which is chiefly important. And the Spirit of Christ exercises over the nature of believing men that power anll grace which transform into the Divine likeness. In coming thus unto the Father ii man becomes a son indeed; be experiences the grace of true adoption ; he is made in the likeness of his Lord. IV. CHRIST IS THE WAY TO THE FATIIEB's PBEBENCE AND HOME. This perhaps is both the ulLimate sense of the language, and the first meaning attached to it by those to whom it was addressed. Jesus was himself about to go to the Father, nnd ho wished his beloved friends to understand that he would not go alone, that in dt1e,time they should enter the sacred presence and know the mystic joy. And since it wae <!ifficult for them to believe and realize this, he drew their regard to himself, and led them to cherish the hope that in his society and through his mediation they should be introduced to all the honours and to all the immortal employments of the Father's Loll8e.-T. • (Ill, XIV. 1-31.J THE GOSPEL ACCOHDING TO ST. Jom:. Ver. O.-Ol1rist the Truth. Often in the New Tcst:\mcnt do we find our Lrml ,foR•m nssocif\tc,l wiLh truth. Those who saw him as he was beheld him " full of grace anrl truth." Ilis promiso to the disciples who studied him was that they should know tho truLh, nnd by tho truth ehouhl be mnde free. When the crisis uf his ministry and the hour of his ~ncrifice arrived, he summed ap the whole purpose of hi~ mission in the rlcclamtioa tha~ he came into the world in order to "bear witness unto the truth." Hence in the Apocalypse ho is named as" the faithful and tnie Witnc~e." I. WHAT IB THE TnUTII TO DE FOUND JN CnnrsT? .All truth is beautiful, worthy -of rovcrence nud of quest; but there are grades of truth. There is a common notion that upon ma.tters of liUle moment truth is atta.inable; but that, the higher we go in our inquiries, tho more is it imporntive to be content with doubt and ancerta.;nty; whilst upon the most wonderful and ea.creel of all themes truth is iibeolutely beyond our re11ch. 'l'his accounts for much of men's absorption in trifles. How many a.re <:ontent with tho knowledge of individual facts and unimportant generalizations, just because the sceptical spirit of the time indisposes them to believe in the possibility of grasping the truth upon the greatest subjects of all! Yet it is a persua.siun as unreasonable as it is dreary, that man is not made to know the truth. Pilate asked, perhaps with a cynical a.nd wearied indifference, "What is truth?" But multituJes are like him in the conviction, the prejudice, that to this query there is no reply. Positivism tells us that phenomena. and their invariable connections may be known, but that it is a waste of human time and power to seek for what really is, for what nccounts for all that appears. Yet there a.re times when the most hopeless sceptic longs for truth. And especially a.re we constrained to desire truth regarding our own nature, truth regarding the character o.nd purposes of God, truth regarding the Divine purpose in our being and our life, truth relating to eternity. The small syllogisms by which men attempt to prove that truth, on all matters upon which we really care for truth, is beyond our reach, impose upon none of us. .And Christianity is the highest reason, because it offers that which our limited a.nd unaided experience cannot acquire-the truth, which ma.y take to one mind the form of spiritual beauty, to another the shape of a law of infinite righteousness, but which is what alone can satisfy the craving nature of man. II. How DOES C1mrsT nEVEAL THE TRUTH ? The most obvious answer to this inquiry is, that our Lord's-recorded words are the embodiment of religious truth both speculative and practical. .And he distinctly and boldly claimed to tell his auditors "the truth." Certain it is that upon all ma.tters of highest interest we are indebted more to Jesus than to all others. The intuitions of genius, the conclusions of medi- tation and of learning, cannot be compared with those Divine utterances of the Prophet of Nazareth, which, though in form and in language so simple, have been recognized by the thoughtful as consummate wisdom-as, in fact, revelation, and nothing les, than revelation. Sit at the feet of the great Teacher, and you will learn more truth from his lips than ca.n be acquired from studying the treatises of thinkers and the aphorisms of sages. Yet it is observable that Jesus does not say, " I teach the truth; " he says, " I am the Truth." 'l'his may be paradoxical, but it is just. The truth upon the highest of all themos cannot be put into words. Human language is not ah~ays adequate to express human ideas, human emotions; how can it be expected to utter the thoughts and the principles which arc Divine? There a.re subjects to which the close precision of words ma.y seem adapted; they nre capable of verbal vesture. Ilut how much there is which no words can tell-evon those words which, as their Speaker said, a.re "spirit and life" I 11 Truth in closest words sbnll fail, ,When truth, embodieJ. in a. tale, Shall enter in a.t lowly doors." There was but one way in which man could learn God, a.nd tha.t was by God becoming man. "The Word became flesh." We learn Divine truth in the ministry, the life, of God's Son. The truth as to God's character we read in the deeds of Immanuel, so gentle, yet so grand and God-like. The truth as to God's purposes of love we learn from Christ's sacrifice, from C!Jdst's cross. The truth concerning our salvation wt1 know when we witness Christ's victory over sin and death. It is the complete pict11re  240 TilE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOII~. [cu. xtv. 1-81.