Part 4 (2/2)

there had been formed a close companions.h.i.+p which was to become closer still. But the time had not yet come for them to leave their homes and business, and attend Him wherever He went. They were not yet Apostles.

The marriage feast had become to them more than a social festival. Their Lord had intended that it should be so. Their faith in Him on the Jordan, was strengthened in Cana.

”This _beginning_ of miracles,” says John. What was this beginning? It was not the healing of the sick, nor raising of the dead, nor supplying a hungry company with bread, nor furnis.h.i.+ng a necessary drink. There was no display. Jesus stretched forth no rod over the water-jars, as did Moses over the waters of the Nile when the same Divine power changed them into like color, but different substance, and with a different purpose. The first manifestation of His glory was for ”the increase of innocent joy.”

When John had read the story of Jesus in the first three Gospels, and found no record of this miracle, did he not feel that there had been a great omission which he must supply? Nowhere else does Jesus appear just as He did at that feast, though other incidents of His life are in harmony with it. It is sometimes said He ”graced” that marriage feast, as royalty does by mere presence. But He did more. He entered into the innocent festivities, and helped to their success. A glance into that village home is a revelation of Jesus in social life, and His interests in human friends.h.i.+ps and relations.

We must remember that it was only innocent pleasures that He helped to increase, in which alone we can seek the presence of His Spirit, and on which alone we can ask His blessing.

This marriage feast must have been of special interest to John, if, as is supposed, the family was related to Mary and probably to him. This would seem to be her first meeting with Jesus since He bid her farewell in Nazareth, and left the home of thirty years, to be such no longer.

Did not Mary, mother-like, call John aside from the festive scene and say to him, ”What has happened at the Jordan? tell me all about it.” I seem to hear John saying to her; ”It is a wonderful story. Of some things I heard, and some I both saw and heard. You know of the ministry of your cousin Elizabeth's son John--of his preaching and baptizing.

Jesus was baptized by him. Immediately they both had a vision of 'the Spirit of G.o.d descending upon Him; and lo! a voice from heaven saying, This is My beloved Son.' Then John was certain who Jesus was. He told the people about the vision, saying, 'I saw and bear record that this is the Son of G.o.d.' And one day when my friend Andrew and I were with him, he pointed us to Jesus saying, 'Behold the Lamb of G.o.d,' whom we followed, first to His abode on the Jordan, and then here to Cana. We were disciples of John, but now are _His_ disciples, and ever shall be.

You know, aunt Mary, how from childhood I had thought of Him as my cousin Jesus, and loved Him for His goodness. From what my mother has told me, which she must have learned from you, there has been some beautiful mystery about Him. It is all explained now. Hereafter, I shall love Him more than ever, but I shall think of Him, not so much as my cousin Jesus, as the Messiah for whom we were looking, and as the Son of G.o.d.”

How the mother-heart of Mary must have throbbed as she listened to her nephew John's story of Jesus on the Jordan. How it must have gone out toward him, because of his thoughts about her son, and his love for Him.

How grieved she must have been as she thought of her own sons who did not believe as John did concerning their brother Jesus. The time was to come when Jesus would make her think of John, not so much as a nephew, as a son.

In that festive hour, Mary too learned the lesson that human relations.h.i.+ps to Jesus, however beautiful, were giving way to other and higher. The words He had spoken to her at the feast, like those He had uttered in the Temple in His boyhood, and the things that had happened on the Jordan, showed her that henceforth she should think, not so much of Jesus as the Son of Mary, as the Son of G.o.d.

In thoughts she must have revisited the home of Elizabeth, whose walls, more than thirty years before, had echoed with her own song, ”My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in G.o.d my Saviour.”

_CHAPTER XII_

_John and Nicodemus_

”There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came unto Him by night.”

”We speak that we do know, and bear witness of that we have seen.”--_John_ iii. 1, 2, 11.

”There is Nicodemus, who visited Jesus by night--to the astonishment of St. John--but who was soon afterward Jesus'

friend.”--_John Watson_.

”The report of what pa.s.sed reads, more than almost any other in the gospels, like notes taken at the time by one who was present. We can almost put it again into the form of brief notes.... We can scarcely doubt that it was the narrator John who was the witness that took the notes.”--_Alfred Edersheim_.

Three incidents mentioned by John only comprise all we know of Nicodemus. In each of them he refers to him as coming to Jesus by night.

That visit seems to have made a deep impression on John. We may think of Him as present at the interview between the Pharisee and the ”Teacher come from G.o.d.”

We are not told why Nicodemus came at a night hour. Perhaps he thought he could make sure of a quiet conversation, such as he could not have in the daytime. Perhaps he did not want to appear too friendly to Jesus until he knew more about Him, though he already had a friendly feeling toward Him. Perhaps he was afraid of the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish Court. Most of its members hated Jesus and had commenced their opposition to Him, which was continued during His life, and resulted in His death. Not so felt Nicodemus, though a member. At a later day he opposed their unjust treatment of Him. If he did not think of Jesus as the Messiah, he yet thought of Him as a prophet, ”a teacher come from G.o.d.” He was anxious to know more. So cautiously and timidly he sought Jesus in the night.

We suppose that, at the time of Jesus' death, John had a home in Jerusalem. It has been thought possible that when and before he became a disciple of Jesus he had an abode there, attending to the business connected with the sale of fish from his home in Galilee. There Jesus might be found in the guest-chamber on the roof of the oriental house which was reached by an outside stair. Nicodemus had no invitation, such as Andrew and John had to Jesus' abode on the Jordan, but he had an equal welcome to John's home, whither he had come on a like errand, though with different views of Jesus, to learn of Him. He sees still burning in the upper chamber the night lamp of Him whom he is to know as ”the light of the world.” He ascends the stair, stands at the door and knocks; and it is opened. Apparently without lengthy salutation, or introduction, he makes known his errand in the single sentence, ”Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from G.o.d, for no man can do these signs that Thou doest, except G.o.d be with Him.” He might have added, ”What shall I do?” Jesus gave a very solemn answer to his question,--”Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of G.o.d.” He taught him that doing certain things, and not doing others, was not enough; he must _be_ good. To be good there must be a change of spirit. As a child has a beginning of its earthly life, he must have the beginning of a spiritual life, or he cannot be fitted for the kingdom of G.o.d in this world or that which is to come. That great change comes ”from above,” from G.o.d Himself.

Listen to some of the wonderful truths Jesus taught to Nicodemus. They are for us as well as for him. 1. Those who do not have this change of spirit must ”perish.” 2. But none need to perish, for ”eternal life” has been provided. 3. This life is through the suffering and death of the ”Son” of G.o.d. 4. G.o.d ”gave His only begotten Son” to do all this. 5. G.o.d did this because He ”so loved the world.” 6. This ”eternal life” can be had only by ”believing on” the Son of G.o.d. 7. ”Whosoever” so believes may have eternal life.

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