The Gospel of St. John: A Series of Discourses.: New EditionMaurice, Frederick Denison
Religion
The Gospel of St. John: A Series of Discourses.: New Edition
Maurice, Frederick Denison
Bible. John -- Commentaries; Sermons, English
'_And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him,
That thou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what
intent He spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas
had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we
have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to
the poor. He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it
was night._'
Though I have spoken of St. John as the contrast to Judas, the
contrast must not be regarded in this sense,--that love was withheld
from Judas. We are occupied with that awful mystery of a human will
and its relation to the divine will, where every step is perilous,
respecting which the truest statements must wear the appearance of
contradictions. But it has been the belief of all earnest men of all
schools that the sop given to Judas was a last love-token, and that
the entrance of Satan into him, after it had been received, expresses
that last defiance of love, that utter abandonment to the spirit of
selfishness, which precedes the commission of the greatest conceivable
crime. After that perdition has come, the Lord speaks words to the man
which he can understand, and he only. They may mean nothing to the
bystanders; they may be capable of the most frivolous construction. To
him they testify,--'There is one who knows thy heart; who knows thee.
He restrains thee no longer. Nay, He bids thee be quick. It is to be;
thou hast decreed it. Go and do thy new master's bidding faithfully.
Then it will be seen whether he or I shall prevail at last.'
And as Judas goes out into the night, a new hymn rises to heaven, and
a new commandment is given on earth. '_Now is the Son of man
glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God be glorified in Him,
God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify
Him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek
me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now
I say to you. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one
another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this
shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to
another._'
Does it not sound tremendous that the Son of Man is exalted, in the
voluntary exile of a human being from the society of his fellow-men,
from all communion with his Lord? It is tremendous; but must it not be
so? Is not the spirit of selfishness that which has destroyed human
society, that which wars against the Son of Man, that which declares
that man shall not show forth the image of the perfect and unselfish
God? Must it not, shall it not be cast forth utterly from the Church
of God? And ought not all humanity, all nature, to join in the Song of
praise of the Great High Priest, that Judas did go out into the night
to achieve that purpose, to bring about that death, by which God was
glorified in His Son, and which led to the glorification of the Son in
Himself?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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