Crawford avalanche., 1898-01-13
Lesson for January Ie.

1Oiueu Text lue people winch sat
In darkness saw great light."-Matt. A: III.
This lesson is found in Matt. A: 1925,
treats OF the beginning of the ministry Of
Jesus.
Almost at the outset of these lessons
the teacher must decide a rather impor-
tant question:: Shall he teach the gospel
Of Mathew or the life of Christ? The
record of the events covered occupies John,
1: 29-4: AZ; and they are estimated to
have occupied about eight months, which
would make Christ arrive in Galilee about
December of the first year of his minis
try. or this Judean ministry the first
three gospels have not a word to say d.
rectly; though room is left for it in their
account. 1t is manifestly impossible for
teacher to cover these three chapters In
John as mere preliminary to the pres
ent lesson. And yet to pass directly from
the baptism to the Gallean ministry
without any explanation of the omission.
without any attempt to account for the
sudden popularity Of Christ (see John Al:
45) is but poor teaching. For when the
pupil comes to read the gospel of John,
he is at n loss how to fit the accounts to-
gether. The ideal solution is to teach
these lessons from a harmony of the gos-
pels and to emphasize the passages select
ed for the lessons.
Explanatory.
From that time began Jesus to preach:
Remembering, then, that the time spoken
of is the withdrawal of Jesus into Cali
lee after the arrest of John the Baptist,
some eight months after the temptation,
we notice that the preaching of the king
dom of heaven, distinctly as such, began
here. During the Judean ministry de-
scribed by John this thought of king
dom does not come so distinctly forward.
The difference between the teaching in
John and in the Sermon on the Mount
may easily be exaggerated, nevertheless
there is n difference; due doubtless to the
very different conditions in the cosmopoli-
tan capital and in the more or less provin-
cial towns of Galilec.
The call of Andrew and Peter here
reads as IL ii were the first, but we learn
from John that these men had already
promised to follow Jesus some months be-
fore this, when they were with the
crowds that went to hear John the Bap-
tist preach in Judea. They had then ap-
parently gone back to their regular occu-
patton as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee,
and were now summoned to leave that and
give all their time to their Masters SER
vice. 1t seems very probable that John
also had been with Jesus before this time,
on account of the full account which he
gives of the Judean ministry; though Of
course those events may have been re-
lated to him.
James and John were not the rude, un-
nt,i hnnpc hat tbn.
represented to be. That they were fish
ermen does not prove anything of that
kind. Zebedec was more likely a man
of some property and prominence, and his
sons, though not what one would call ed
ucated men, were intelligent and quick to
learn. 1t is mistake to assume that
the twelve apostles were peasants.
Galilee was larger and more impor-
tant district than we are apt to think
when we read that its inhabitants were
despised. They were not despised because
they were citizens of n provincial rural
region, but because there was a religious
and social prejudice against them on the
part of the exclusive snobs of Judea. Gal.
lice contained about one-third of the area
of Palestine, and good deal more than
one-third of its population and wealth. 1t
was fertile agricultural region, great
highway of commerce between Syria and
Egypt, and the residence of many for
eign merchants and manufacturers. One
travelling through Galilee to-day can hard
ly realize how these lonely hills and
plains, with their few wretched villages,
were once covered with large and pros
porous towns, and peopled, so some writ
ers say, at an average of 1000 to the
square mile.
The sort of ministry which Jesus per
formed during this period must have been
the happiest to him of his whole life. He
was popular, and the popularity gave him
the opportunity of doing good deeds with
boundless profusion., There had not aris-
en- that suspicion, that hatred, that con-
spiracy, which followed him afterwards
so relentlessly. The multitudes of Cali
leans who had been in Jerusalem during
his Judean ministry heralded his fame
to their stay at-home comrades, and be-
fore long the whole region was wild with
enthusiasm. Not only from Galilee itself,
but from Decapolis, the region east of
the sea, which was the seat of the Greek
and Roman civilization-as is proved by
the ruins still to be found there-the peo-
pie came.
Teaching Hints.
The call of the first four Fishers of
men" shows at the outset the nature Of
Jesus work. 1t was to be, not a whole
sale social regeneration, whether by a
church or by any other means; but the
winning of individuals to a personal SER
vice. As these first workers were called,
so they were to call others, first to the
change of mind, then to the work of win
ming men.
The supreme attractiveness of Jesus.
He would not have continued to hold the
love and admiration of the people IL the
religious leaders had not interfered. He
would have led them gradually from won
der at his miracles to wonder Mt himself,
then to understanding of his teachings,
then to faith and obedience. 1t is no part
of virtue to be disagreeable. When Jesus
said, II came not to bring peace but a
sword" he did not mean that his gospel
was intrinsically unlovely, but that sin
made IL necessary for him to be stern and
uncompromising towards it, while still he
strove to attract the sinner. In this re-
spect, Jesus was very different from the
Baptist. There was more of love and less
of denunciation in his message. Love is
still the burden of that message to-day.
n n