For by an appeal to the reference in chap. x. 26, 27, to the previous discourse, as has been already shown above, nothing is proved against an intermediate period of two months. As the synoptists, on their part, have passed by the intermediate time between the first sojourn of Jesus in Perea and the second, the historical communications of the Evangelist in this section must be regarded as supplements to the synoptical Gospel history of the highest value. The announcement also of the Hellenes, who desire to see the Lord, and what stands in connection with this event, are peculiar to the fourth Gospel. The event itself belongs to the Monday of the Passion Week, the great day of the theocratic activity of Jesus in the temple. In regard to the exclusive mention by John of the resurrection of Lazarus, see vol. iii. p. 479.

SECTION VII.

CHRIST IN THE COMPANY OF THE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT, AS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, WHO HAS GLORIFIED THE FATHER, WHO IS GLORIFIED BY THE FATHER, AND GLORIFIES THE CHURCH, AND BY IT THE WORLD.

(Chap. xiii. 31-xvii.)

When the Lord had removed the traitor from the company of the disciples by purely dynamic means, without the application of force, of the legal ban, or the right of social exclusion, He had completed His warfare upon earth, so far as it was purely spiritual, in the department of Spirit, and a contest of spirits. His victory in the spiritual sphere was decisive, and thus was the foundation laid for the triumphs which should still follow-for the victory over the temptations He had to encounter in Gethsemane in the sphere of the deeper life of the soul, and for the victory over the temptations connected with His bodily death on the cross. A high feeling, therefore, of holy exultation necessarily accompanied this victory over the kingdom of Satan, of which Judas was the representative; and along with

1

1 See above, vol. iv. p. 173.

it, a lofty anticipation of the glory of His Church, which by His divine moral victory was already opened to view. This frame of mind declares itself most distinctly in the words of Christ.

When therefore he (Judas) was gone out, Jesus said, 'Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.'

He has, namely, attested His spiritual glory by His victory over the powers of darkness, as represented by Judas, and thereby He has manifested and sealed the spiritual glory of the Father.

'If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him.' At the same moment in which the manifestation of the glory of the Father in the Son is completed, must necessarily the unfolding of the glory of the Son in the Father, in His administration, and in His world, begin its resistless course, and advance with ever increasing force to its consummation. But in this glorification of the Son, the glorification also of the Church, or of the world in its heavenward calling, is implied.

This, however, involves as a necessary condition and prerequisite, His departure from the disciples.

'Little children,' He says, in anticipation of this departure, 'yet a little while-only-I am with you. Ye shall seek Mesadly miss Me. And as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go ye cannot come, so I say also to you now,' namely, for the present.

His departure is the condition of the glorifying of His name and of the glorifying of the world, which from this time should be effected in them and by them; the condition, namely, of the glorifying of the relationship between heaven and earth, of the glorifying of the higher world, of the glorifying of this world, and of the glorifying of mankind and the world generally in both, or rather of the glorifying of the Father and the Son in all these for the world as world is abolished.

In the first place, thus the glorifying of the relationship between heaven and earth comes under consideration, or the departure of Jesus from His own people, with its immediate effects (xiii. 31-38).

Jesus describes this glorification in the following words: ‘A new commandment (a new institution) I give unto you, in order that ye may love one another; as I have loved you, in order that

ye with a love otherwise so feeble-may-truly-love one another.' This is without doubt a reference to the holy Supper. The holy Supper is a glorifying of the relationship between earth and heaven, or it is a glorifying of the departure of Jesus, which at once completes and annuls the contrast which subsisted between them; for it is the institution which represents the love of the exalted Lord, and the love of the earthly Church; the presence of the exalted Lord, and of the higher world, in the company of the earthly disciples; the festive exaltation of these earthly disciples into the heavenly kingdom.

The Lord proceeded to describe the earthly-heavenly calling of the disciples: By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.'

Simon Peter, however, appeared unwilling to hear of the separation. He asked Him, "Lord, whither goest Thou?' Jesus answered him, 'Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now, but thou shalt follow Me afterwards.' Peter said unto Him, 'Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now at once? I will lay down my life for Thee.' He thus well knew that by the departure of Jesus was meant a going away by death, by a violent death, which His enemies would inflict upon Him. But he declared himself not only ready to die with Him, but also for Him. He would not only follow Him, but even precede Him, nay, by resigning his own life, be the means of saving His. Jesus answered him, 'Thou wilt lay down thy life for Me? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied Me thrice.'

His departure thus remained unalterably fixed. Yet Jesus had given to Peter, to whom He had to administer this sharp rebuke, the word of consolation also: Thou shalt follow Me afterwards.' And to the same effect He now proceeded further to comfort all His disciples.1

Thus follows the glorifying of the heavenly world. Spoken under the starry heavens (xiv.).

'Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God-who calleth Me and believe in Me-who go at His call. Believe thus, and then are ye also assured of My destination and your own.-In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were The clause, And He said unto His disciples, is not sufficiently accredited.

not so if there were no higher world for you, no immortality, and no entrance there-would I then say to you, I go to prepare a place for you?-Would the faithful voice of truth deceive you with the promise which it now gives you as a pledge of that truth?—And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.'

This is the heavenly world in its importance for the disciples of Jesus. It is the house of the Father. For His people in this world are many mansions there, into which they shall be received. These are prepared as an abode for them by Christ. And as He goes hence to prepare a place for them, He will come again to conduct them thither.

When He had thus declared the truth itself, that by His departure the glory of the heavenly world was opened up to the disciples, He now also removes out of the way the difficulties which on their side militate against this expectation. He does so by occasioning the disciples to give expression to them (see vol. iv. 193).

He draws forth the first of them by the words, 'And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.' To this Thomas replied, 'Lord, we know not whither Thou goest, and how can we-then

know the way?' Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.' Thomas formed his judgment regarding the higher world by material rules. If one has no description of the end of a journey, how can one know it? And if one does not know the end, how should one know the way? But Jesus shows him that in spiritual things an opposite law prevails. He is the living way to heaven. He is Himself as well the truth of the way, the revealer of it, as the life of the way, the precursor, the guide, nay, the living force by which the goal is reached. By Him alone can one come to the Father; thus also to the Father's house, and to the assurance of the Father's house. The Christian obtains the certainty of the heavenly world, not by outward testimonies from thence, but by the attraction of the life of Jesus thitherward, by the pledge of heaven which lies in the intensity of his heavenly life on earth, or rather, of his eternal life as it manifests itself in this world. The kernel of the life on earth is a holy testimony to the life above.

For the Son, in His appearance upon earth, is in all things the revealer of the Father throned in heaven. Jesus therefore proceeds: 'If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also. And from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.' The words are exactly suited to call forth the second difficulty.

This is now propounded by Philip, as follows: 'Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.' He desired only a distinct theophany as a pledge of the truth of the heavenly life.

Jesus saith unto him, 'Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself; but the Father, that dwelleth in Me-as the author of the words-the same doeth the works-which are a countersignature and seal of the words. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; and if not, yet believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto My Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it. If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever -namely the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, for it seeth Him not, and knoweth Him not. But ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you behind as orphans: I come unto you.' After the Lord has given His disciples the assurance of heaven, He desires to make them likewise assured of the Father in heaven. They doubted of heaven, because they did not outwardly know the end and the way He showed them how in His life the way is implied, and in the way, the end. They doubted further, however, of their being received into heaven, because they thought the Lord of heaven, the Father, had not yet made Himself sufficiently known to them upon earth: He had as yet imparted to them no sign from heaven in the form of a perfect theophany, as a pledge of their going to Him. Jesus now shows them that He is