SELF-DENIAL DEMANDED. 233 though this seem, it is the wisest and best thing you can do to comply heartily with it. What has a man in the end if, by denying me for his worldly interests, he gain even the whole world, and lose that existence which alone is worthy the name? Unprepared for the eternal life of my kingdom, and without a share in it; with his breath he loses not only all that he has, but himself as well. What gain here will repay him for the loss of the life hereafter? 66 I say this on good grounds, and with absolute truth. For, though now only a man like yourselves, I shall one day return in a very different form, with the majesty of my Father in heaven, and accompanied by legions of angels, to recompense every one according to his works. In that day each true disciple will be rewarded according to his loving devotion and self-sacrifice for my sake, and will be received by me, as the Messiah, into my kingdom. But I shall be ashamed of any one, and count him unfit to enter that kingdom, who for love of life and ease, or for fear of man, or from shame of my present lowly estate, or of my cross, has wanted courage and heart to confess me openly, and separate himself, for love to me, from this sinful generation. It may be hard for you to think, as you see me standing here before you, that I shall one day come in heavenly majesty; but that you may know how surely it will be so, I shall grant to some of you, now present, a glimpse of this majesty, not after my death, but while I am still with you, that they may see me, the Son of man, in the glory in which I will come when I return to enter on my kingdom." CHAPTER XLVII. THE TRANSFIGURATION. JESUS had now utterly broken with the past. Hitherto He had been slowly educating the Twelve to right conceptions of Himself and His great work, and in doing so had had to oppose their stubborn prejudice, enlighten their ignorance, illustrate His meaning by significant acts, resist the sophistry and superficial literalism of the Rabbis, and lead the way to a higher spiritual ideal and life by His own daily example and words. They had now been in His society, however, for over two years, and, at last, had risen to a more just estimate of His dignity and of the nature of His work. He was henceforth free from the anxiety which had been inevitable so long as nothing had been definitely accomplished towards the perpetuity of His Kingdom; for the confession of Peter, in the name of his brethren, was the assurance that that kingdom would outlive His own death, and spread ever more widely through an unending future. The joy of victory filled His soul, though the cross was already near at hand. Henceforth He bore Himself as soon to leave the circle with whom He had dwelt so long; now, preparing them for His humiliation by showing its Divine necessity; now, uttering His deepest thoughts on the things of His kingdom; now, kindling their hearts by visions of the joy that would spread over all nations through the Gospel they were to preach. The future alone filled His heart and mind. His gladness of soul at Peter's confession had, like all human raptures, been tempered by shadow. He had read the hearts of the Twelve, and saw that, though they had approached the truth in their conception of the Messiah, 1 Authorities for this chapter: Hess, Leben Jesu, vol. ii. pp. 113 ff. Ewald, vol. v. pp. 460, 461. Pressel, pp. 186 ff. Lightfoot, Hor. Heb., vol. ii. p. 243. Schleiermacher's Predigten, vol. ii. p. 386; vol. iv. p. 388. Rosenmüller's Scholia on New Test. in loc. Meyer, in loc., etc. etc. THE TRANSFIGURATION. 235 they were still Jews, in linking with it the expectation of an earthly political kingdom, with its ambitions and worldly satisfactions. They had risen above the difficulties that blinded the nation; the thought of Nazareth-Galileehuman relationship-lowly position-human wants-rejection by the Rabbis-familiar intercourse with the "unclean multitude, and much beside, that had been a stumbling block to others; but it was hard for them, in the presence of one who, to outward appearance, was only a man, to realize that He was also the only-begotten Son of God, and, like His Father, Divine. The announcement that He was to enter into His glory as Messiah, by suffering shame and death, not only shocked all their preconceptions: they could not understand it, and were sorely discouraged. They needed to be cheered in their despondency, and led gradually to accept the disclosure of His approaching humiliation. His promise that some of them, before their death, should see His kingdom come with power, was doubtless treasured in their hearts; but they little thought its fulfilment was so near. 1 Six days passed; or eight, including the first and last; days full, no doubt, of sad and grave, as well as joyous, thoughts; sad that their Master spoke of suffering violence, and death; grave that He should not only have dashed all their hopes of a national regeneration, but should have painted their own future in colours so sombre; yet joyous, amidst all, in vague anticipations of the predicted spiritual grandeur of the New Kingdom, of which they were to be heralds. Little by little, they would be sure to catch more of His spirit from daily intercourse with Him, and learn imperceptibly how the purest joy and the noblest glory come from self-sacrificing love; how, in the highest sense, it is more blessed to give than to receive. We are told nothing of this sacred interval, but may well conjecture how it passed. The scene of the Transfiguration, like that of nearly all other incidents in the life of our Lord, is not minutely stated. St. Luke, indeed, calls it "The Mountain," but gives it no closer name. It seems, however, certain, that the tradition is incorrect, which from the days of St. Jerome 2 has pointed to Mount Tabor as the locality. The summit of that hill -an irregular platform, embracing a circuit of half an hour's 1 Matt. xvii. 1-13. Mark ix. 2-13. Luke ix. 28–36. walk-was fortified, apparently from the earliest ages, and Josephus mentions, about A.D. 60, that he strengthened the defences of a city built on it. Picturesque, therefore, though the hill looks, as the traveller approaches it over the wide plain of Esdraelon, it could not have been the spot where Jesus revealed His glory, for it could not offer the seclusion and isolation indicated in the Gospels. Nor is there any reason to think that the Twelve and their Master had left the neighbourhood of Cæsarea Philippi, for St. Mark1 expressly mentions that they did not start for Galilee till at least the day after. It must have been, therefore, on one of the spurs of Hermon, "the lofty mountain," near which He then found Himself, that the Transfiguration took place. Brought up among the hills, such a region, with distant summits, white in spots with snow even in summer, its pure air, and the solitude of woody slopes and shady valleys, must have breathed on the wearied and troubled spirit of our Lord, an ethereal calm and deep peaceful joy, seldom felt amidst the abodes of men. Taking the three of His little band most closely in sympathy with Him, and most able to receive the disclosures that might be made to them, He ascended into the hills towards evening, for silent prayer. The favoured friends were Peter, the rock-like, His host at Capernaum from the first; and the two Sons of Thunder, John and James; loved disciples both, but John, the younger, nearest his Master's heart of all the Twelve, as most like Himself in spirit. They had been singled out, already, for similar especial honour, for they alone had entered the death-chamber in the house of Jairus, and they were, hereafter, to be the only witnesses of the awful sorrow of Gethsemane. Evening fell while Jesus poured out His soul in high communion with His Father, and the three, having finished their nightly devotions, had wrapped themselves in their abbas and lain down on the hill-side, to sleep. Meanwhile their Master continued in prayer, His whole soul filled with the crisis so fast approaching. He had taken the three with Him, to overcome their dread of His death and repugnance to the thought of it, as unbefitting the Messiah; to strengthen them to bear the sight of His humiliation hereafter; and to give them an earnest of the glory into which He would enter 1 Chap. ix. 30. MOSES AND ELIJAH. 237 after His decease, and thus teach them that, though unseen, He was, more than ever, mighty to help. He was about to receive a solemn consecration for the cross, but, with it, a strong support to His soul in the prospect of such a death. He was a man like ourselves, and His nature, now in its high prime, and delighting in life, must have shrunk from the thought of dying. The prolonged agony and shame of so painful and ignominious an end, must have clouded His spirit at times; but, above all, who can conceive the moral suffering that must have been in the thought that, though the Holy One, He was to be made an offering for sin; that, though filled with unutterable love to His people, He was to die at their hands as their enemy; that, though innocent and stainless, He was to suffer as a criminal; that, though the beloved Son of God, He was to be condemned as a blasphemer? As He continued praying, His soul rose above all earthly sorrows. Drawn forth by the nearness of His Heavenly Father, the Divinity within shone through the veiling flesh till His raiment kindled to the dazzling brightness of light, or of the glittering snow on the peaks above Him, and His face glowed with a sunlike majesty. Amidst such an effulgence it was impossible the three could sleep. Roused by the splendour, they gazed, awe-struck, at the wonder, when, lo! two human forms, in glory like that of the angels, stood by His side-Moses and Elijah, the founder, and the great defender, of the Old Economy, which He had come at once to supersede and to fulfil. Their presence from the upper world was a symbol that the Law and the Prophets henceforth gave place to a higher Dispensation; but they had also another mission. They had passed through death, or, at least, from life, and knew the triumph that lay beyond mortality to the faithful servants of God. Who could speak to Him as they, of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem, and temper the gloom of its anticipation? Their presence spoke of the grave conquered, and of the eternal glory beyond. The empty tomb under Mount Abarim, and the horses and chariot of Elijah, dispelled all fears of the future, and instantly banished all human weakness.1 That His Eternal Father should have honoured and cheered Him by such an embassy at such a time, girt His soul to the joyful acceptance of the awful task of redemption. Human agitation and spiritual conflict passed away, to return no more in their a 1 Ruskin's Mod. Painters, vol. iii. p. 392. |