1 Introductory

JESUS of NAZARETH made it abundantly clear during His earthly ministry that He regarded those few years of life in Palestine as a mere interlude in His real life. He knew whence He came and whither He was going, and it is impossible to regard His earthly life as a self-contained whole, having its own meaning. It is only when it is considered as a small—though vitally important—part of a larger plan that its true significance is seen. It was but a small specimen, open to human eyes, of a life of obedience to His Father which had been and was to be eternal, and it is only as a part of a larger whole that its importance can be understood. Only in the Ages of Ages that are yet to come will the real effects of those few years be made manifest. Viewed as an earthly life, it may seem to be most disappointing; as He said Himself, He had spent His strength for nought and in vain. The very nation He had come to save did but plunge more deeply into sin, and was soon to experience its most fearful and prolonged disaster. The Gentiles to whom the Good News was sent have done little better with it, and are soon to plunge into a darkness of sin and destruction past remedy.

       If, however, we lift our eyes and look backwards to that holy conversation before 'Time' was, when He laid down His life upon the altar of God's justice, and then look forward

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to that eternal Kingdom of the blood-bought which through ages shall expand in ever-increasing development, we marvel that we could have been so blind as not to see in those short years of struggle the seed-plot of all that is glorious, all that is marvellous, all that is eternal. The man who buys his packets of seeds from the florist does not purchase seeds but, by the eye of faith, a bed of flowers! And he who studies the life of Christ must not fix his eyes upon the seed but in faith envisage the flowers that were in the mind of the Creator before 'Time' was. It is the Eternal One with whom we have to do, veiled for a time in Adam's flesh, shrouded for a time from our mortal eyes by the clouds of Heaven: but for all time to be the centre of our lives and the hope of the Universe.

       It may be that the bare attempt to write of His life is folly; and yet the Bible is given not to mystify but to reveal. He stands before us as One who asks a verdict upon evidence set before us. May those who have given us the picture of Him in the Book be heard and gain the verdict: 'Truly this man was the Son of God'.

       For a day-to-day biography there are no materials and only a small number of days are even mentioned. Mountain tops and valleys are visible indeed, but a consecutive history and accurate dating are beyond us. Yet for a picture of His Heart, an understanding of His ways, a knowledge of His aims, we have all that we need. On which day He fed the five thousand we know not nor care: but we do know that He was filled with compassion for them. The day when Lazarus fell ill is concealed from us, but not the tears of Jesus. When was the day on which the carpenter of Nazareth first realised that He was God? We know not. But that He did so, and by His knowledge justified many by bearing their iniquities—that we know, and are content.

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