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Not With Outward Show
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men, they had not understood the mystery of His incarnation. They
did not fully recognize divinity in humanity. But after they were
illuminated by the Holy Spirit, how they longed to see Him again,
and wished they might have Him explain the scriptures which they
could not comprehend! What had Christ meant when He said, “I
have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now”?
John 16:12
. They grieved that their faith had been so feeble, that
they had so failed of comprehending the reality.
The wonderful personage whom John had announced had been
among them for more than thirty years, and they had not really
known Him as the One sent from God. The disciples had allowed
the prevailing unbelief to becloud their understanding. They often
repeated His conversations and said, Why did we allow the opposi-
tion of the priests and rabbis to confuse our senses, so that we did
not comprehend that a greater than Moses was among us, that One
wiser than Solomon was instructing us? How dull were our ears!
As they were brought before councils and thrust into prison,
the followers of Christ rejoiced “that they were counted worthy to
suffer shame for His name.”
Acts 5:41
. They recognized the glory
of Christ, and chose to follow Him at the loss of all things.
The kingdom of God comes not with outward show. The gospel,
with its spirit of self-abnegation, can never be in harmony with the
spirit of the world. But today multitudes desire to make our Lord the
ruler of the kingdoms of this world, the ruler in its courts, legislative
halls, palaces, and marketplaces. They expect Him to rule through
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legal enactments, enforced by human authority. Since Christ is not
now here in person, they themselves will act in His stead. Such a
kingdom is what the Jews desired in the days of Christ. But He said,
“My kingdom is not of this world.”
John 18:36
.
The government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and op-
pressive. On every hand were crying abuses—extortion, intolerance,
and grinding cruelty. Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms,
attacked no national abuses, nor condemned the national enemies.
He did not interfere with the authority of those in power. He who
was our example kept aloof from earthly governments; not because
He was indifferent to the woes of men, but because the remedy
did not lie in merely human and external measures. The cure must
regenerate the heart.