Last Days of Jesus

8/8/2019 Last Days of Jesus

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THE LAST DAYS OFJESUS CHKIST


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THE LAST DAYSOFJESUS CHRISTBY

LYMAN ABBOTT

NEW YOHK. R BUTTON & COMPANY

081


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, IMSIf E. P, BUTTON & COMPANY

Prteul itt *t Onited State d1 Hmmta


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THE 1*AST DAY OF JE8V3 CUEIST

Father, we thank Thee for the revelationThou hast made of Thine Infinite and un-speakable nature in the speaking and finitenature of Jesus Christ, our elder brother. Wethank Thee that Thou hast com*- to earth andlived in human flesh and walked incognitoamong men, hiding Thyself that Thoumightst be revealed, descending that ThouiiJghtst be exalted, sorrowing that Thoumightst add to the eternal joy of all Thychildren and enrich Thine own joy the joyof self-sacrifice, the joy of a suffering love.Thou perpetually incarnate God, through Je-sus Christ Thy Son our Saviour, we come toThee, not thinking that Thou art afar offand needest a mediator, not thinking thatThou art like the God of Israel of old* hidingThyself between the horns of the altar, untowhom only the great High Priest can coroe,and the Children of Israel only unto thePriest. Through Jesus Cliiist we come toThee, because through Jesus Cfarwfc Thouomest to us; to the window we come, because

through tie window the eternal stmlight


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THE LAST BAYS OF JESUS CUBISTstreams into the room; to him we come, fee-cause he is Thy word. Thy smile, Thine eyes,Thy very self revealing Thyself through themask and veil of humanity* We could notlook upon Thee unveiled and live ; we are notlarge enough to see Thee; and so, dear God,we think yea, we do know and believe thatThou hast come to earth, and seemed to belit-tle Thyself that we might see Thee, and sohast added to the glory that could not beadded to and made more infinite the in-finity of


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LIFECHRIST WITH HISENEMIES IN THE TEMPLE


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THE LAVT DAYS OF JEbL*4 CHRIST

The God that to the fathersRevealed His holy willHas not the world forsaken,He's with the children still.Then envy not the twilightThat glimmered on their way;Look up, and sec the dawningThat broadens Into day.

*T was but far off,, in vision^The fattiers* eyes could seeThe glory of the kingdom,The better time to be.To-day we see fulfillingThe dreams they dreamt of old;While nearer, ever nearer,Rolls on the age of gold*

With trust in God's free spirit,Tlie ever-broadening rayOf truth that sliines to guide usAlong our forward way,Let us to-day be faithfulAs were the brave of old,

Till we y their work completing5,Bring in the age of gold!MXKOT J- SAV&*


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THB JbAST 1>AY* OF JC*US CHRIST [3]

Tuesday, the fourth day of April, A. 0. Si,was by far the most eventful In the life ofChrist, for on the evening of that day andfor that day's utterances,, not on the evr-nlng of his more formal trial nor for anyword of blasphemy that he uttered, was hecondemned to die.

Throughout his ministry Jeses In his treat-ment of the religionists of his day generallyfollowed his counsel to his disciples. "Leithem alone/* he said; "they be Mind leadersof the blind." This morning he pursued adifferent course. He went early to the Tem-ple, and there in the outer court challengedthe ecclesiastical and theological teachers ofthe nation. History records no greater act ofcourage. It was as if Luther had gone toRome to preach the doctrines of the Ref-ormation in the court before St* Peter's. Onthis day Jesus was no longer a teacher; hewas a fighter. He did not aroid controrersy ;he provoked it. Warning's of coming doom,which had heretofore been generally confinedto confidential discourses with his disciples,he now publicly repeated. He attacked thehierarchy in its headquarters. He declared


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[4] THE IAST 0AY3 OF JESUS CHRISTthat the religion of the Pharisees was one ofpretense; that tliey were mere actors on astage; that the puhl leans and harlots wouldgo into the kingdom of God before them;that the Jewish nation was BO longer thefavored people of God and would never be-oorae the ruler of the world; that the presentgeneralion, by slaying the Messiah, wouldfulfill the Iniquity of their fathers; that thestone which they refused would fall uponthem and grind them to powder; that theirHoly City would be utterly destroyed andthey themselves scattered far and wideamong the Gentiles whom they despised.The instructions of the day ended withthree parables of divine judgment given toliis and perplexed disciples. In one of

God's judgment was compared to thewhich overtook five foolish bridesmaids0tt a wedding night*Tic Jewish wedding day was characterizedtoy a ceremonial. The bridegroom

at with Ms companions to bringhitf bride from her home possibly a sur-vival of ruder times when the bride was cap-tured in a raid and became the reward oflie? warrior husband's courage. Now, bow-ever, she awaited IE pleasing anticipation hSsher bridesmaids waited withher, Thest* bridesmaids were torch-bearers-


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THE LAST DAYS OP JESUS CHRIST [5]their torches, cup-like vessels filled with oil,a wick floating on the top. Jesus told thestory of a wedding in which five of thebridesmaids thought it enough to have lightedtheir lamps^ while five believed In prepared-ness and had ready a supply for their lampswhen the oil in them was burned out Thefoolish bridesmaids with their burned-outlamps were shut out from the procession andthe feast which followed; only the wisebridesmaids shared in the joys of the wed-ding.

In vain does opportunity Invite us If we*are not ready to receive It. No splendor ofthe past suffices to give glory to the present.

I can remember when the admonition, Pre-pare to meet thy God, filled me with dreadIt paralyzed my powers, forbade my ordi-nary activities, seemed to call me awaylife to meditation, prayer, self-cleansing.Jehovah seemed to me a Judge whose exact-ing justice was unmixed with charity,discerned in me the secret: sins I did notmyself discern, who was of inlaiBBig con-suming purity, whom I dared not mtct Howto prepare to meet him I knew not*

To-day Prepare to meet thy bd Is tome one of the most inspiring tirawi?itemtoe sacred or secular anteim Hemeets we at unexpected times, la


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[6] THE LIST DAYS OF JBSUS CHRISTplaces, and always brings with Mma glad surprise even when It Is an awe-

inspiring surprise. He comes bringing gifts,and not the least of them some new oppor-tunity to share with him the burdens he isbearing, the service he is rendering, the workhe is doing to bring about in this world theKingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy.He comes as Spring conies to the earth witha call to a new life; as the babe comes to themother with a call to the joys of a newconsecration to love. He comes as Christcame to the fishermen at the Sea of Galileewith the promise, I will make you fishers ofmen. He comes as he came to Paul whenbe called him to be a preacher of the GladTidings to the Gentiles; as he came toLuther when he met him on Pilate's stair-case; as he came to Abraham Lincoln whenhe called Mm to New York to define in thatever memorable Cooper Union speech thewhich confronted a puzzled Nation; ashe 10 General Armstrong when heMm to lead the way to the completedredemption of the Xegro race.God comes to Nations snmmoning them toa doty. Each new service ren-dered a call to a greater service; eachmew brings a call to a greater battle,for the Nation which cannot read the


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THE I.AST DAYS OP JESl'H CHRIST [7]signs of the times; winch cannot see the op-portunity which the God of Nations sets be-fore it; alas! for the Nation if Its glory alllies burled In the graves of its ancestors.The Jews prided themselves on being thechildren of Abraham. But to a faithless gen-eration it profits nothing that they can lookback to an ancestor who was foil of faithand dared a great adventure. It is not ourglory but our shame that we are the descend-ants of men who fought at Bunker Hill andsuffered at Valley Forge if we have not theircourageous patriotism. That they founded aRepublic conceived in liberty and dedicatedto the proposition that all men are createdequal avails us nothing if we have not theself-denying courage necessary to protect thatRepublic from corruption within and enemieswithout. Are we prepared to keep horningin 1918 the lamp they lighted in 1776? Ifnot, we are the unworthy descendants of aworthy ancestry and will find the door of thefotnre barred in our faces,God comes to His church, offers afresh His

guiding inspiring spirit,calls It afresh to its

allotted service, and gives it afresh its mes-sage, and to each age a message fitted for theneeds of that age. In the first centuryPan was dead. The pagan world had grownweary of its gods and goddesses. It had grown


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[8] THE LAST DAYS OF JESUS CHRISTweary of a religion and a priesthood whichdemanded much and offered nothing. It wasready to welcome a religion which broughtthe Glad Tldlings that there is but one God,who demands of his children righteousnessand demands nothing else, and who is theFattier, the Friend, the Helper of the wholehuman race. In the sixteenth century theworld was growing weary of a chareh whichhad become corrupted by its wealth and itstemporal power, and had lost in the cathe-drals the spirit which had actuated it in thecatacombs, and the world was ready to wel-come the Glad Tiding that the gifts of Godare not for mle y but like the sun and the rainare freely given to all who will receive them.IB tie twentieth century the message givento the Church is "One is your Master Christ

all ye are brethren." God brings menof every Nation, tribe and tongue from everyof the globe, and sets them here inAmerica at oar church doors, that we maygive this message. How to unite thesepeople of various habits and traditions In oneAmerican citizenship Is the political problemof tJhe Nation. How to unite these people of

creeds In one catholic faith morespiritual anil, therefore^ more catholic than

Is the problem of theIs II fjilillling its mission?


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&AST BATS OP JSSUS CHBIST [9]The world j edges the Church by its pres-ent service,, not by its past history, and theworld judges It aright If the Church has*

to look to a historic past for its glory, thatglory is its shame. The lamp which a previ-ous generation lighted furnishes only smokeunless the present generation keeps alive thespirit of the fathers. The orthodoxy of thesixteenth century does not make the twen-tieth-century Church sound in the faith; thepiety of the first century does not make thetwentieth-century Church a living Church.And only a living Church can be a Chorehof the living God. The father may lire Inthe sonSj but the sons cannot live In the fa-thers; and it is quite immaterial whether theyare Puritan fathers or ante-NScene fathers.To every wedding Christ eomes as he cameto the wedding in Cana of Galilee. To every >bride and groom a new book of life is offered,a new door of opportunity stands ajar op-portunity for love, service and sacrifice.Every new family may be and should be atype of the true social order. Every newparenthood should get its Inspiration fromthe Father of whom every family in heavenand earth IE named.But if love Is only a new form of self-

seeking, If happiness is the only prise pcr-eeivad saA sought tor, tlws boofc of life re-


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[10] THE LAST DAYS OF JESUS CHRISTmains unopened, the door of opportunity isclosed. Of the various escapes offered forunhappy marriages some are nostrums, someare palliatives. There Is only one curelove. They who keep their love aHame onlyduring the honeymoon add to the bitternessof the present by their memory of the past.Happy they who keep up the spirit of theircourtship during half a century of weddedlife. Happy they who keep love alwayslighted In their home, for they find the joyof the golden wedding more satisfying,though It be less exuberant5 than the joy ofthe bridal day.To every youth God gives two lightsIdealism and hope. I like to speak to collegestudents because through their faces I seethese Inward lights shining. Too often, tenTears later life has extinguished them. Why?AH his troubles, difficulties, enemies could notextinguish these lights in Paul. "We gloryin tribulations/* he said, "knowing that tribu-lation worketh patience, and patience experi-ence, and experience hope." The experienceof life should feed the light of hope, not ex-tinguish it His ideals grew cleaver andnearer as the years went by. It was as life

drawing to its close that he wrote to hisfriends, "I press forward toward the goal forthe prise of the upward calling of God in


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THE LAST BAYS OF JE8O CHRIST [II]Christ Jesus." No man ever need lose th


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[12] THE LAST DAYS OF JESTJS CHRISTnew birth. EL G. Wells lias in a cliaracteris*tic paragraph described this experience :

The moment may come while we are alone inthe darkness, under the stars, or while we walkby ourselves or in a crowd, or while we sit andmuse. It may come upon the sinking ship or inthe tumult of the battle. There is no saying whenit may not come to us ... * But after it has conicpur lives are changed, God is with us and thereis no more doubt of God.Oh! if it only were always so. But it is

not always so. The doubts of God come backagain. He seems to have left us ; or have weleft Him? The light and joy of the new lifego out. Religion becomes a memory. Godbecomes an hypothesis. The lamp has goneout. It gives no light^ only smoke. Faithceases to be a living experience and becomesa creed. What was once alive is now a fossil.What shall we da? If the wheat planted in

the Spring brings forth no harvest in theFall, a recollection of the Spring sowing willnot furnish Winter food. Better plough theweeds under and begin again. The Christianwho can find nothing better to sing than

What peaceful hours I once enjoyed,How sweet their memory still!had better forget them and be reconverted.He whose only reason for thinking that he is


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THB LAST DAYS OP JESUS CHRIST [IS].

a Christian Is that he "got religion" in hisyouth had better forget that he got it andtry again.

It is a poor present which shines only bythe reflected glory of a past,


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THE LAST DAYS OP JESUS CHRIST [15]

DraperFather, who sent Thy Son into the world to

be the light of the world; lighten our darknesswe beseech Thee. We, Thy children, knowneither ourselves nor the life that lies beforeus. Prepare us for what Thou art preparingfor us. Keep us from the ambition, thatcovets great tasks. Keep us from the cow-ardice that evades the tasks to which Thoudost call us. Keep us from despair becauseof our failures. Keep us from self-conceitbecause of our successes. By Thy companion-ship equip us for the high adventure of life.To every call of duty may we respond^ Lo!I come to do Thy will^ O God. Ever forget-ting what we have left behind, may we pressforward in eager response to Thine upwardcalling in Christ Jesus. Amen.


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LOVECHRIST WITH HISFRIENDS IN THE HOME


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[18] THE LAST AYS OF JESPS CHRIST

Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drewback,

Guilty of dust and sin.But quick-eyed Love, observing me growslackFrom my first entrance in,Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioningIf I lack'd anything,

"A guest,' 5 I answered, "worthy to be here/'Love said, "You shall be he.""I, the unkind, ungrateful ? Ah, my dear,

I cannot look on Thee."Love took my hand and smiling did reply,"Who made the eyes but I ?""Truth, Lord; but I have marr'd them: letmy shameGo where it doth deserve/*"And know you not/* says Love, "who borethe blame?""My dear, then I will serve.""You must sit down," says Love, "and tastemy meat."So I did sit and eat.

HERBERT.


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THE LAST DAYg OF JESTO CHRIST * [19}

From his conflict with Iiis enemies in theTemple during Iiis last eventful week Jesussought at night repose, generally outside thecity walls; sometimes probably sleeping onthe hillside with his burnoose wrapped abWthim; once we know in a garden of olives;once in a house of a friend in the neighbor-ing village of Bethany; once in the house ofan unknown friend within the city. Thename, condition, character of this friend areall unknown. Jesus probably had many de-voted friends even in Jerusalem whose friend-ship in that perilous hour was carefully con-cealed except from the elect few. This tin-known friend had offered him a room wherehe could observe tlie Passover supper with hisdisciples. Even they apparently knew noth-ing of their host.The record which we possess of the Mas-ter's parting words to his disciples was prob-ably written down by disciples of John, ashis amanuenses, more than half a centuryafter the event. To the literalist this willseem a great misfortune. To me these in-comparable words are not less sacred becausethey represent the imperishable memory of


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Tim LAST DAYS OF JESUS CHRISTthe one disciple whose courageous devotion tohis Mas'er kept him at the cross until hisMaster's death the disciple whom Jesus inthat hour adopted as his son and to whom heintrusted the future care of his own widowedand heart-pierced mother,

It was characteristic of Jesus that he madethis hour of gloom the most luminous hour ofhis life*s teaching, that he did not seek com-fort from his disciples but gave comfort tothem* and strengthened the courage of hisown faith by imparting courage to their per-plexed and troubled hearts. For the spiritalways grows by imparting: we add to ourcourage by encouraging the timid, inspire ourhopes by ministering to the disheartened, andmake clearer our vision by telling others whatwe have seen.

I shall not attempt a paraphrase of Christ'smonologue. My ambition is humbler ; it is totranslate it into terms of every-day human ex-perience.His opening sentence gives two keys to un-lock the door to the "life that really is/*"Have faith in God." How can we have faithin him whom we have not seen and cannotsee? Show us the Father and it sufficeth us*If you cannot have faith in God, then "Havefaith in me/"

Faith in God is not the door to Christian


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THE IAST DAYS OF JESUS CHRISTfaith ; Christian faitli is the door to faith inGod. It is not easy in a world of sorrow,temptation, and sin to have faith in a goodGod who made and governs the world. Butit is not difficult to have faith in a good manwho confronts danger with courage, enduressorrow with patience, encounters temptationwithout thought of yielding, and bears theburdens of sins not his own without murmur-ing. Who can do other than believe in sucha one ? Not in ecclesiastical definitions abouthim, but in his character, in his personality,in the worth-whileness of his, life. Faith inAbraham Lincoln has inspired the Americanpeople and made them what they would nothave been but for Abraham Lincoln. Faithin Jesus Christ has made the world what itnever could have been without Jesus Christ.This is the beginning of Christian faith: itinspires in us the desire to encounter our dan-gers with his courage, to bear our burdenswith his patience, to meet our temptationswith his unyielding resolve, and to bear theconsequences of others' sins with his sufferinglove.But this is only the beginning. This hu-"man life is a reflection of the divine lifeJ Sir

Oliver Lodge has put this second step in theChristian faith with beautiful simplicity;


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[22] THE LAST DAYS OF JESUS CHRISTUndoubtedly the Christian idea of God is the

simple one. Overpoweringly and appallingly sim-ple is the notion presented to us by the orthodoxChristian churches: *A babe born of poor parents, born in a stableamong cattle because there was no room for, themin the village inn no room for them in the "innwhat a master touch! Revealed to shepherds. Re-ligious people inattentive. Royalty ignorant, orbent on massacre. A glimmering perception, ac-cording to one noble legend, attained in the FarEast where also similar occurrences have IKSCIInarrated. Then the child growing into a peasantyouth, brought up to a trade. At length a fewyears of itinerant preaching; flashes of miraculouspower and insight. And then a swift end: .setupon by the religious people his followers overawedand scattered, himself tried as a blasphemer,flogged, and finally tortured to death.

Simplicity most thorough and most strange! Initself it is not unique. Such occurrences seem in-evitable to highest humanity in an unregenerateworld; but who, without inspiration, would see inthem a revelation of the nature of God? * Thelife of Buddha, the life of Joan of Arc, are notthus regarded. Yet the Christian revelation is dearenough and true enough if our eyes arc open andif we care to read and accept the simple recordwhich, whatever its historical value, is all that hasbeen handed down to us.

Believe in me, Jesus says to me. Yes,I reply; I can believe in tliee. EvenKenan, even John Stuart Mill, could believein thee. Believe that the Father is in me.Yes; I can believe that the Father is in him,The Church tells me that the Father is all-powerful. Perhaps. But I do not reverence


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TH& LAST DAYS; OP JESUS CHRIST [23]power. The Church tells me that the Fatheris all-wise. Perhaps. But I do not reverencewisdom. Jesus tells me that the Father is alllove, and his life tells me what love means.And I reverence love. Whether it is all-pow-erful or not, whether it is all-wise or not, Ireverence love. Even if I were a Persianand believed in two gods, an Ormuzd and anAhriman, a good god and a bad god, and be-lieved that in this world they were in a battleon which the destiny of the universe de-pended, even if I did not know and could noteven guess which was to win, I would rever-ence the good god and fight the bad one. Evenif I thought the drama of Palestine fore-shadowed the end of the world drama, thatthe ambitious Caiaphas and the cowardlyPilate and the treacherous Judas would bevictors and love would be crucified, I shouldstill reverence love, and I hope I should dareto take my place with the mother of thepierced heart, not with the triumphant foes.Yes ; I can believe that the Father is in JesusHis Son.

"lut this is not the end of the Christianfaith. There is a third stage. "I will notleave you orphans; I will come to you. Yeta little while, and the world seetli me no more ;but ye see me,, because I am living and ye


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THE I*ABT 0AY$ OF JESlTSi CHRISTshall live also." An orphan is not one whois fatherless. He had a father., whom mem-ory recalls from the past. lie will have afather, whom hope anticipates meeting in thefuture. But now he is without a father.There are many orphaned Christians. They

believe in a Father who was formerly activein the world, about whom they read in theBible. They believe in a Father who will ap-pear in the great day of the future to judgethe world. But now ? Now they are withouta Father. Inspiration and revelation theythink have ceased; no wonder, then, thatprayer ceases. Why go on forever talkingto a god who gives no answer? God in his-tory ? Yes ; in past history. In Jewish wars ;but not in the European war. In humanity?Yes, In Hebrew prophets; but not in twen-tieth-century prophets. Walking with Enoch,but with no one now; speaking to Abraham.,but to no one now; dwelling in the Christ,, batdwelling with no one now. A silent God ; anabsentee God; a forgetting and a forgottenGod; what Carlyle has well called aan hypo-thetical God." Over against this common ex-perience of to-day I put Harnack's confessionof his faith: "Not only in the beginning wasthe'Word, the Word that was at once deedand life; but the living, resolute, indomitable


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LAST DAYS OP JESUS CHRIST [25]Word namely, the person lias always beena power in history, along with and above thepower of circumstance/'

This is my faith. I believe in a UniversalPresence, a Great Companion, a living Christforever incarnate in the hearts and lives ofhis friends, living now in the world withmightier and wider influence and in more inti-mate communion and companionship with hisdisciples than ever before, a living vine grow-ing from a little seed planted nineteen cen-turies ago and since then spreading over thewhole earth, whose fruits are a peace whichtroubles cannot disturb and a joy which painscannot destroy. The seed of this faith wasgiven to me many years ago by John's reportof the last discourse of Jesus to his disciples,It has grown since with the growing experi-ence of over half a century of Christian dis-cipleship.

Tt is true I have never had the ecstatic vi-sions which I read of occasionally in thespiritual biographies of the mystics. Jesushas not promised such visions to any one. Theymay be real, but they are not normal. Idoubt whether they conduce to the mostChristlike living. At all events, they are notfor me. I have no desire for them. GeorgeCroly has voiced for me my prayer:


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THE LAST DAYS OF JESUS CUEISTI ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,No sudden rending of the veil of clay,No angel visitant, no opening skies;But take the dimness of my soul away.

Teach me to feel that thou art always nigh;Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.I have never practiced the fastings, the

flagellations, the denials of the body whichsome of the mystics seem to have thought es-sential to obtain their spiritual ecstasies. Ifpersonal fellowship with God is to be a natu-ral experience,, the condition of enjoying iimust be a natural condition. Jesus prescribe?no other. Loyalty to him is the only condi-tion he prescribes. "If a man love me, hewill keep my word ; and my Father will lovehim, and we will come unto him, and makeour abode with him." And lest any oneshould think this word which his disciples arcto keep requires some mystical act of faith 01supernatural act of self-denial, Jesus tellsthem what this word is: "This is my com-mandment, That ye love one another, as 3have loved you."Love Is the key to Christ's character; lov

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Last Days of Jesus