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
He 'sits on no precarious throne, nor borrows leave to be,' and hence
He can impart life and lose none. Inseparably connected with that
given, and yet self-inherent, life, is the capacity for executing
judgment which belongs to Him as 'a Son of man.' It has been as 'the
Son' of the Father that it has been considered, in the previous verses,
as belonging to Him; but now it is as a true man that He is fitted to
bear, and actually is clothed with, that judicial power. No doubt He is
Judge of all, because by His incarnation and earthly life He presents
to all the offer of eternal life, by their attitude to which offer men
are judged. But the connection of thought seems rather to be that
Christ's Manhood, inextricably intertwined with His divinity, is
equally needed with the latter to constitute Him our Judge. He 'knoweth
our frame,' from the inside, as it were, and the participation in our
nature which fits Him to 'be a merciful and faithful High Priest' also
fits Him to be the Judge of mankind.
THE FOURTH MIRACLE IN JOHN'S GOSPEL
'And Jesus took the loaves; and when He had given thanks, He
distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set
down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.'—JOHN vi. 11.
This narrative of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand is
introduced into John's Gospel with singular abruptness. We read in the
first verse of the chapter: 'After these things Jesus went over the Sea
of Galilee,' _i.e._ from the western to the eastern side. But the
Evangelist does not tell us how or when He got to the western side.
'These things,' which are recorded in the previous chapter, are the
healing of the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda, the consequent
outburst of Jewish hostility, and the profound and solemn discourse of
our Lord, in which He claims filial relationship to the Father. So that
we must insert between the chapters a journey from Jerusalem to
Galilee, and a lapse at all events of some months—or, if the feast
referred to in the previous chapter be, as it may be, the Passover, an
interval of nearly a year. So little care for the mere framework of
events has this fourth Gospel; so entirely would the Evangelist have us
see that his reason for narrating this miracle is mainly its spiritual
lessons and the revelation which it makes of Christ as Himself the
Bread of Life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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