John 16:28

John 16:28

The Earthly Life of Jesus

Full and momentous as our Lord's life was infinitely beyond the life of other men if He could say of it, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father" if He could put that life into such a parenthesis, and so bracket it between two eternities, what must our sojourn on this earth be? What an insignificant interval! Then, what is life worth but in its bearings on eternity? The life which Christ thus lived, from the Father and for the Father, seen now in a calm retrospect had most strange proportions. He lived thirty-three years a little life for such a man and to do such a work. And yet, of those thirty-three years, thirty were almost out of sight, spent apparently in preparation. Observe it well: thirty years preparing for three years' working ten-elevenths of life passed to lay a foundation. What a contrast to ourselves! What a lesson; what a special lesson, to an impatient, superficial, showy, rushing generation! Now, let us look at one or two of the features of this wonderfully proportioned life.

I. It was certainly a progressive life. It was a life which passed (and is not this growth?) from the active to the passive from the obedience that did to the obedience that bore.

II. And this was singularly a life which showed always the work He had in hand. Everything had its rule, everything had its measure, everything had its principle.

III. He came to receive. It was scarcely more a life of imparting than it was a life of receiving. He was always depending upon some loving follower for the supply of every want He ever had. There is a very high order of greatness in that acceptance of compassion. It was a part of the grandeur of His humility.

IV. And along, from Bethlehem to Bethany, it was a mystic life. There was more than met the common eye. In that life thousands and tens of thousands were living; in that death thousands and tens of thousands were dying. It was always a representative life. All His Church went down with Him to His burial; they rose with Him in the unity of their perfect membership, on the resurrection morning; and in His ascension they all soared with Him to the higher level of a glorified life.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,5th series, p. 211.

References: John 16:28. Contemporary Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 17; W. Dorling, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 356. John 16:31. Church of England Pulpit,vol. i., p. 12; Ibid.,vol. xvii., p. 304.