RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Jesus Christ
(a) the beginning of the Gospel, forty days, from December, 26 to February, 27; (b) the Judean ministry, covering about ten months, from Feb., 27 to Dec, 27; (c) the Galilean ministry, covering about twenty-two months, from Dec, 27 to Sept., 29; (d) the last journeys to Jerusalem, covering some six months, from Sept., 29 to the Passover of (Apr.) 30. The events of this final Passover season, the narrative of which becomes so detailed and precise that the occurrences from day to day are noted, constitute, along with their sequences, what is here called " the consummation." They include the events which led up to the crucifixion of Jesus, the crucifixion itself, and the manifestations which he gave of himself after his death up to his ascension. So preponderating was the interest which the reporters took in this portion of the " life of Christ," that is to say, in his death and resurrection, that about a third of their whole narrative is devoted to it. The ministry which leads up to it is also, however, full of incident. What is here called " the beginning of the Gospel " gives, no doubt, only the accounts of Jesus' baptism and temptation. Only meager information is given also, and that by John alone, of the occurrences of the first ten months after his public appearance, the scene of which lay mainly in Judea. With the beginning of the ministry-in Galilee, however, with which alone the Synoptic Gospels concern themselves, incidents become numerous. Capernaum now becomes Jesus' home for almost two full years; and no less than eight periods of sojourn there with intervening circuits going out from it as a center can be traced. When the object of this ministry had been accomplished Jesus finally withdraws from Galilee and addresses himself to the preparation of his followers for the death he had come into the world to accomplish; and this he then brings about in the manner which best subserves his purpose.
Into the substance of Jesus' ministry it is not possible to enter here. Let it only be observed
that it is properly called a ministry.
4. The jje himself testified that he came not
■jur-11- }° to be ministered unto but to minister,
and he added that this ministry was fulfilled in his giving his life as a ransom for many. In other words, the main object of his work was to lay the foundations of the kingdom of God in his blood. Subsidiary to this was his purpose to make vitally known to men the true nature of the kingdom of God, to prepare the way for its advent in their hearts, and above all, to attach them by faith to his person as the founder and consummator of the kingdom. His ministry involved, therefore, a constant presentation of himself to the people as the promised One, in and by whom the kingdom of God was to be established, a steady " campaign of instruction " as to the nature of the kingdom which he came to found, and a watchful control of the forces which were making for his destruction, until, his work of preparation being ended, he was ready to complete it by offering himself up. The progress of his ministry is governed by the interplay of these motives. It has been broadly distributed into a year of obscurity, a year of popular favor, and a year of opposition; and if
these designations are understood to have only a relative applicability, they may be accepted as generally describing from the outside the development of the ministry. Beginning first in Judea Jesus spent some ten months in attaching to himself his first disciples, and with apparent fruitlessness proclaiming the kingdom at the center of national life. Then, moving north to Galilee, he quickly won the ear of the people and carried them to the height of their present receptivity; whereupon, breaking from them, he devoted himself to the more precise instruction of the chosen band he had gathered about him to be the nucleus of his Church. The Galilean ministry thus divides into two parts, marked respectively by more popular and more intimate teaching. The line of division falls at the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, which, as marking a crisis in the ministry, is recorded by all four evangelists, and is the only miracle which has received this fourfold record. Prior to this point, Jesus' work had been one of gathering disciples; subsequently to it, it was a work of instructing and sifting the disciples whom he had gathered. The end of the Galilean ministry is marked by the confession of Peter and the transfiguration, and after it nothing remained but the preparation of the chosen disciples for the death, which was to close his work; and the consummation of his mission in his death and rising again.
The instruments by which Jesus carried out his
ministry were two, teaching and miracles. In both
alike he manifested his deity. Wher-
5. Instru- ever j^ went the supernatural was
ments of present in word and deed. His teachthe Mm- . .,, , , ., T ., .
istrv lnS was wlth authority. In its insight and foresight it was as supernatural as the miracles themselves; the hearts of men and the future lay as open before him as the forces of nature lay under his control; all that the Father knows he knew also, and he alone was the channel of the revelation of it to men. The power of his " But I say unto you " was as manifest as that of his compelling " Arise and walk." The theme of his teaching was the kingdom of God and himself as its divine founder and king. Its form ran all the way from crisp gnomic sayings and brief comparisons to elaborate parables and profound spiritual discussions in which the deep things of God are laid bare in simple, searching words. The purport of his miracles was that the kingdom of God was already present in its King. Their number is perhaps usually greatly underestimated. It is true that only about thirty or forty are actually recorded. But these are recorded only as specimens, and as such they represent all classes. Miracles of healing form the preponderant class; but there are also exorcisms, nature-miracles, raisings of the dead. Besides these recorded miracles, however, there are frequent general statements of abounding miraculous manifestations. For a time disease and death must have been almost banished from the land. The country was thoroughly aroused and filled with wonder. In the midst of this universal excitement — when the people were ready to take him by force and make him king — he withdrew himself from them, and throwing his
Jesus Christ