SERMON XXII.

WEDNESDAY IN PASSION WEEK.

[Preached at Northallerton, on Wednesday in Passion week, 1828.]

MARK. xiv. 1, 2. and 10.

After two days was the feast of the passover, and the chief priests, and the scribes, sought how they might take Him, (Jesus,) by craft, and put him to death.-But they said not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.-And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him.

I HAVE hitherto directed your attention to the last actions of Christ, as the spiritual teacher of His people. We have accompanied Him, when He entered into Jerusalem, amidst the acclamations of the people, to the mount of Olives, where He pronounced His memorable prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the day of judgment. We now begin our survey of the latter part of the concluding week of the ministry of our Lord, in

which He appears before us as the serene and passive victim-the patient, the silent, the suffering Lamb of God. He had now instructed mankind; He had obeyed the law; whatever He taught to others, He had Himself performed. He had accomplished all the prophecies which related to the place of His birth, the conduct of His life, to one part of His goodness to man, and His devotion to the service of His Father; and now He was about to accomplish the remainder of the prophecies, those which predicted His painful agonies, His cruel death, and His joyful resurrection. Three days we have devoted to His actions as our teacher and example; three more we devote to His sufferings as our Saviour and atonement. The events which we are to consider this morning, are merely introductory to His passion. They are mentioned in the passage which I have read to you; they are the conspiracy of the chief priests and elders, and the offer of Judas to betray his Master. Our Lord did not go up to Jerusalem on this day, as He had hitherto done. He remained at Bethany with Simon, whom He had cured of his leprosy; and with Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. We shall obtain, I think, a more connected view of the transactions of this day, if I bring them before you in the form of reasons, on account of which our Lord did not go up into the city. I shall confine our inquiries this morning to this one object-what were the probable causes, which induced our Lord to remain at Bethany, and not to

go up to Jerusalem, as He had done on all the former days of this memorable week? In reply to this question, I would say that He continued at Bethany while the chief priests and Judas Iscariot were conspiring together against Him for these reasons that the Scriptures might be fulfilled by the manner of His death; that His innocence and holiness might be more manifest by the conduct of Judas and that He might become Himself more prepared for His approaching sufferings by contemplating the trial before Him, and for the exaltation which the prophets had predicted. I am much mistaken, if we shall not find abundant cause to admire in these things also the wisdom of Providence, and the mercy of our blessed Saviour.

And, first, our Lord would not yet go up to Jerusalem, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, which declared the manner of His death.

The chief priests and the scribes, says the Evangelist, sought how they might take Him by craft and kill Him-but they said, not on the feast-day, lest there be an uproar among the people. They were desirous to secure the person of our Lord on this very day; because the day following was the commencement of the passover, during which time no person could be put to death. You may remember that I told you yesterday, that the very last address which our Lord made in public to the Pharisees and to the people, asserted His divinitythis they considered blasphemy, and for this crime they had before endeavoured to stone Him-then

took they up stones to stone Him', says St. John, and when they were restrained for a time by our Lord's expostulation, they said to Him-not for any good works do we stone Thee, but that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself equal with God'. Now, what they had done before, they would certainly endeavour to do again, especially at this moment, when they were more enraged and indignant against Him, than they had ever yet been. If, then, our Lord had gone up to Jerusalem before the feast, the great probability is, that the Jews would have endeavoured to stone Him for blasphemy; and if they had done so, then these prophecies would not have been completed, which predicted a much more painful and cruel death. For instance the prophet Zechariah predicted, they shall look on Him whom they pierced 3—if Christ had been stoned as a blasphemer, the spear of the soldier would not have pierced His side, and that prophecy would not have been accomplished. Again, it was said, a bone of Him shall not be broken *. This too would have failed, if He had been stoned. They parted my garments among them, and they cast lots upon my vesture, is a plain prophecy of the conduct of the soldiers at the crucifixion of our Lord-this too would have fallen to the ground. Another prophecy affirmed that Christ should be given up to the Gentiles. If He had been stoned, neither

1 John x. 31.

2 Ibid. ver. 33. Exod. xii. 46. and John. xix. 36.

3 Zech. xii. 10.

5 Psalm. xxii. 18.

Herod, nor Pilate, nor the Romans, would have been the Gentiles to whom He was delivered. In another place it was predicted that He should be sold or betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, and that with this silver, when it was returned by His betrayer, should be bought the potter's field—if our Lord had gone up to Jerusalem before the feast, and been then put to death by the Jews, they would have not only have made both these predictions void, but they would have declared that the supposed Messiah was cut off for Himself, for the sin of blasphemy, and that the prophecy of Daniel, therefore, did not apply to Him, which said, that He should be cut off for the sins of the people. Now they were resolved, by any means in their power, to put Him to death at the very moment in which they were enabled to do it; and if they could not apprehend Him before the passover, they could not, for fear of the people, put Him to death during the whole week in which the passover continued. If they could not apprehend Him, therefore, on this day, there remained only one way in which they could destroy Him, and that was, by giving Him up to the Romans, and insisting upon His crucifixion, by Pontius Pilate, without any delay. The Romans, they well knew, would prevent a rescue. The Romans, too, had no scruples respecting the passover-they would condemn Him to be crucified, therefore, immediately,

6 Zech. xi. 12.

7 Ibid. ver. 13.

8 Dan. ix. 26.