The Life Of Jesus Christ In Its Historical Connexion

Among the hosts of visiters at the feast there were not a few heathens who had come to the knowledge of Jehovah as the true God, and were accustomed to worship statedly at Jerusalem; perhaps proselytes of the gate. [692] Christ's triumphal entry [693] and ministry attracted their attention, and all that they heard found a point of contact in their awakened religious longings. Not venturing to address him personally, they sought the mediation of one of his disciples. [694] Seeing in these individual cases a prefiguring of the great results, in the moral regeneration of mankind and the diffusion of the kingdom of God, that were to flow from his own sufferings, he said, "The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified." (The man Jesus, exalted to glory in heaven by his sufferings; the glorified one, who was to reveal himself in his influences upon mankind; especially in the invisible workings of his Divine power for the spread of the Divine kingdom.) The necessity of his death is next set forth. The seed-corn "abideth alone" unless it is thrown into the earth; but when it dies, it brings forth fruit: so the Divine life, so long as Jesus remained upon earth in personal form, was confined to himself; but when the earthly shell was cast off, the way was open for the diffusion of the Divine life among all mankind. As yet the disciples themselves were wholly dependent upon his personal appearance; and, therefore, he said that He alone, as the Son of Man, was yet in possession of this Divine life. And as He was to be glorified through sufferings, so he told his disciples that the happiness and glory destined for them was to be secured only by self-denial. "He that loveth his life (makes the earthly life his chief good) shall lose it (the true life); but he that hateth his life in this world (i. e., deems it valueless in comparison with the interests of His kingdom), shall keep it unto life eternal."