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Foreshadowing of the Cross
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the body of believers. If Jesus had delegated any special authority
to one disciple above the others, we should not find them so often
contending as to who should be the greatest. They would have
honored the one chosen. Instead of appointing one to be their head,
Christ said, “Be not ye called Rabbi.” “Neither be ye called masters:
for one is your Master, even Christ.”
Matthew 23:8, 10
.
“The head of every man is Christ.” God, who put all things under
the Saviour’s feet, “gave Him to be the head over all things to the
church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.”
1 Corinthians 11:3
;
Ephesians 1:22, 23
. The church is built on Christ
as its foundation. It is not to depend on man or be controlled by man.
Many claim that a position of trust in the church gives them authority
to dictate what other men shall believe and do. The Saviour declares,
“All ye are brethren.”
Matthew 23:8
. Upon no finite being can we
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depend for guidance. The Rock of faith is the living presence of
Christ in the church. Those who think themselves the strongest will
prove to be the weakest, unless they make Christ their efficiency.
See
Jeremiah 17:5
;
Psalm 2:12
.
Jesus charged the disciples to tell no man that He was the Christ.
The people, and even the disciples, had so false a conception of the
Messiah that a public announcement would give them no true idea
of His character or work.
The Disciples Had Not Envisioned a Cross to Come
The disciples still expected Christ to reign as a temporal prince.
They believed that He would not always remain in obscurity and that
the time was near when He would establish His kingdom. That Christ
would be rejected by His own nation, condemned as a deceiver, and
crucified as a malefactor—such a thought the disciples had never
entertained. Jesus must open to His disciples the conflict before
them. He was sad as He anticipated the trial.
Hitherto He had refrained from making known to them anything
relative to His sufferings and death. In His conversation with Nicode-
mus He had said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 3:14, 15
. But
the disciples did not hear this. Now the time had come for the veil