Communion with Christ
What name is more blessed than this title by which St. John conceals himself? Who was ever more favoured than he? It was a sweet memory to him, in his old and solitary age, to remember that night of awe, in which he lay upon the bosom of his Lord. And yet it was doubtless for some deeper reason that the evangelist wrote these words. It was not to publish abroad his own peculiar favours, nor to prefer himself to others in his Master's presence. It was perhaps to give warrant to the certainty of his written testimony; but it was surely to reveal also the deep and Divine mysteries of love which lie hid in the incarnation of the Eternal Word.
I. First we here see, as by a parable, the love of the Son of God in the mystery of His own incarnation. Our infirmity leans upon His might; our manhood upon His Godhead. There is a man in the bosom of God. Our nature is in glory. As we say at the altar in the end of our Christian sacrifice, "For Thou only art holy, Thou only art the Lord, Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the Father."
II. But again, we may see here His love in the salvation of His elect. When He took our manhood into God, it was that He might take us also unto Himself. The glorious body of the Word made flesh is the centre of His mystical body, and to it He joins us one by one. We who were by nature dead in trespasses and sin, outcasts and without God in the world, are gathered together from all ages and all lands unto Himself. All these may be said to lean upon Him who is their only strength, hope and solace they who have walked stedfast with Him from childhood, and live on unconscious of this rough outer life which beats upon the penitent; penitents who, after long wanderings past, find the peace and bliss of an eternal absolution; mourners who feel no more the burden of the Cross, while He bears up both it and them; and all who with ardent desire yearn for the coming of His kingdom, and are stayed with "white raiment" and a sense of His ever-present love. In the midst of all sorrows, trials and temptations they are at peace; in all the unrest of this tumultuous and weary world, they rest on Him. The one great gift that all alike enjoy, is a sense of repose, a placid calm of heart, a stay upon which they lean with all the weight of their whole spiritual life. "Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee."
H. E. Manning, Sermons,vol. iv., p. 273.
We may learn here:
I. That love is one of the very earliest qualities of life consecrated to Christ.
II. Love is often content to walk in quiet well-trodden paths.
III. Though love is thus content, there are times in its life, when love is very deep and true, when it shows an inventiveness which leads to the result that love not seldom beats out new tracts for itself.
IV. Even love is prone to its own evil. Love has to guard itself against a burning anger at evil.
V. Love must ever first recognise the will of the Lord, if zeal is to work well in carrying out that will.
T. Gasquoine, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 161.
References: John 13:23. G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 423; G. E. L. Cotton, Sermons and Addresses in Marlborough College,p. 330; J. Morgan, Christian World Pulpit,vol. x., p. 37 3 John 1:13 :26. Contemporary Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 366. John 13:30. Homilist,4th series, vol. i., p. 286. John 13:31. J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House,vol. ii., p. 544.John 13:31-35. Contemporary Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 28 3 John 1:13 :33. J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week,p. 91. Joh 13:33. Homiletic Magazine,vol. ix., p. 72; Preacher's Monthly,vol. ix., p. 238; W. H. Jellie, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 296.