OR 20
October 20
John 14:30 to end. Christ goes forth to meet the prince of this world.
It required more than human courage to utter these words, "Arise, let us go hence." It was the call of the Captain of our salvation to his children—it was their summons to accompany him to the field of battle. The last supper was now over, and the parting scene was almost closed. What tender assurances, what faithful warnings had flowed from the lips of Jesus while he sat at the table surrounded by his beloved disciples! But now he says, "Hereafter I shall not talk much with you." These sweet conversations would soon be ended. Instead of talking with his disciples, the Son of God must be struggling with his foes.
There have been many bloody battles fought since evil entered into this world. On some occasions hundreds of thousands have met each other in the field. But there never was such a battle as that fought in the garden Gethsemane, and on the cross of Calvary. There legions of wicked spirits, marshaled under the prince of this world, assaulted the Son of God. On Satan's side there was an innumerable host—on the other one man, even the man Christ Jesus. None can conceive what pangs he endured in the conflict. Agony of mind caused him to sweat great drops of blood, and wrung from him the bitter cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" We find in the psalms a description of the workings of his sorrowful soul, when writhing beneath the pressure of Satan's temptations. If we would sympathize with our suffering Savior, let us read the twenty-second psalm. What expressions are these! "My heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my affections." What a prayer is this, "Save me from the lion's mouth!"
But how was it Satan could not prevail against the Son of God? Jesus himself explains the reason. "The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in me." There was no sin in the Savior's heart, there was nothing on which Satan could work. A marble quarry cannot be set on fire, and the Son of God was proof against temptation. Satan had once seduced spotless angels from their obedience. But there is an infinite difference between the holiness of a creature and that of the Creator. Even those creatures who have never sinned are not, like God, incapable of pollution. Therefore it is written, "He charged his angels with folly," (Job 4;) and "The heavens are not clean in his sight." (Job 15.)
But though the Son of God knew he should win the victory, he looked forward with horror to the conflict. With joy he had said, "I go unto the Father." With anguish he declared, "The prince of this world comes." Satan was coming to make a last attempt to wrench the scepter from his hands, and to snatch the crown from his head. Terrible indeed was the hour of the power of darkness.
What was the mighty motive which urged the Son of God to meet the enemy? It was love. To whom? To his Father. It was love to his Father that drew him from the table around which his disciples sat, and led him to the garden to which his enemies were hastening. Therefore he said, "But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence."