Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chapters I to XIVMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chapters I to XIV
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. John -- Commentaries
Nor does that exhausted Figure, reclining on Jacob's Well, preach to us
only what _He_ was. It proclaims to us likewise what _we_ should be.
For if His work was carried on to the edge of His capacity, and if He
shrank not from service because it involved toil, what about the
professing followers of Jesus Christ, who think that they are exempted
from any form of service because they can plead that it will weary
them? What about those who say that they tread in His footsteps, and
have never known what it was to yield up one comfort, one moment of
leisure, one thrill of enjoyment, or to encounter one sacrifice, one
act of self-denial, one aching of weariness for the sake of the Lord
who bore all for them? The wearied Christ proclaims His manhood,
proclaims His divinity and His love, and rebukes us who consent to
'walk in the way of His commandments' only on condition that it can be
done without dust or heat; and who are ready to run the race that is
set before us, only if we can come to the goal without perspiration or
turning a hair. 'Jesus, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the
well.'
II. Still further, notice here the devoted Christ.
It is not often that He lets us have a glimpse into the innermost
chambers of His heart, in so far as the impelling motives of His course
are concerned. But here He lays them bare. 'My meat is to do the will
of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.'
Now, it is no mere piece of grammatical pedantry when I ask you to
notice that the language of the original is so constructed as to give
prominence to the idea that the aim of Christ's life was the doing of
the Father's will; and that it is the aim rather than the actual
performance and realisation of the aim which is pointed at by our Lord.
The words would be literally rendered 'My meat is _that I may do_ the
will of Him that sent Me and finish His work'—that is to say, the very
nourishment and refreshment of Christ was found in making the
accomplishment of the Father's commandment His ever-impelling motive,
His ever-pursued goal. The expression carries us into the inmost heart
of Jesus, dealing, as it does, with the one all-pervading motive rather
than with the resulting actions, fair and holy as these were.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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