Alexander Balmain Bruce

“ Men, in the weakness of their trust, and in the depressing sense of their insignificance, need such humble estimates to help them rise to higher faith and bolder self-respect, and the use of them by Jesus is signal evidence of his deep sympathy and also of his poetic tact and felicity. I value greatly these simple naïve questions of Jesus preserved for us in the synoptic gospels as a contribution to the doctrine of man. There is nothing like them elsewhere in the New Testament ”

“ As the fatal crisis drew near, he began to speak plainly, realistically, unmistakably, of the approaching passion, saying that "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed." No sooner did he begin to speak thus realistically of the harsh tragic fact, than by way of reconciling distressed disciples to the unwelcome fact he began to instruct them as to its significance. ”

“ The prevailing expression there is the Father, as if pointing to a unique exclusive divine relation between God and Jesus, theological rather than human. The humanity of the divine fatherhood in the first three gospels is very wide, embracing not only disciples, though they are sons in the first rank, but men indiscriminately, publicans, sinners, evil as well as good, just as well as unjust (Matt. 5:45) , prodigals all, nevertheless sons. This also is changed in the fourth gospel. The sons of God there are believers in Jesus, born of the spirit; all others are simply sons of the evil one. ”

“ His reply to that question, so earnestly and yet unsuccessfully discussed in the Book of Job, is, in the first place: "They suffer just because they are righteous; their tribulations are the inevitable reaction of an unrighteous world against all earnest attempts to make God's will law in all things." ”

“ Acquiesce in no conventional classification of men as friends and foes, neighbors and enemies; let all be friends and neighbors, or let foes and strangers be distinguished as the objects of a more chivalrous love, so overcoming evil with an absolutely invincible good (5:43 f.) ”

“ Now as to this I remark, in the first place, that Jesus seems to have possessed from the very beginning of his public life intuitive insight into the truth that a genuinely good, godly life could not be lived in the world without trouble. ”

“ His first lesson on the import of the passion was a statement to the effect that his coming sufferings were no isolated phenomenon in the moral universe, but only a signal instance of the operation of a universal law: cross-bearing inevitable not only for the Master, but for all faithful disciples. ”

“ Such trust in our Heavenly Father, we infer, must be a quite fundamental element in the righteousness of the kingdom. Do the evangelic texts bear out this inference? They do. In the synoptic records of our Lord's words, faith holds a prominent place. "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." "Thy faith hath made thee whole." "O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee as thou wilt," and so on. We may say that faith was Christ's watchword, as repentance was John's. ”

“ It is not much of a comfort to be told that suffering for righteousness' sake is inevitable. One would like to know whether the inevitable evil can in any way be transmuted into good. According to the synoptical reports Jesus had something to say on that question also. ”

“ For lack of such an ear, men may get very false impressions and read all sorts of meanings into the simple phrase, meanings laboriously collected from Old Testament texts or suggested by systems of theology. To my ear the title speaks of one who is sympathetic and unpretentious; loves men and advances no ambitious claims. He may be great in spite of himself, by his gifts and graces even unique ”

“ Instead of saying in philosophic terms: "Man possesses absolute worth," he quaintly asked: "Is not man (any man) better (of more importance) than flowers, fowls of the air, sparrows, than a sheep or an ox, or even a whole world?" ”

“ If all men even at the lowest be God's sons, recipients of his providential benefits, objects of his gracious paternal solicitude for their highest spiritual well-being, what worth man even at the worst must have for God and ought to have for himself and for fellowmen! ”

“ But, secondly, it would still more turn evil into good if one could be assured that crossbearing brings not only exaltation of feeling to the sufferer, but benefit even to others, even to those who laid the cross on your shoulders, benefit to the cause for which you suffer. ”

“ He knew the world he lived in so well, especially the religious world, that tribulation, contradiction, malediction, and worse appeared to him a matter of course for any one who saw, spoke, and acted in accordance with the real truth in religion and morals. ”

“ It is even so, said Jesus in effect to his disciples: suffering is redemptive, it is the price one pays for power to benefit the world. He affirmed this truth in reference to his own suffering experience, in two texts, both of which may be confidently accepted as authentic. "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45 ) ; "This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26:28) . ”

“ Pending a final answer securing universal concurrence, this much is clear from our Lord's words: that his death was not a mere fate but a beneficent event serving high ends in the moral order of the world; procuring for man spiritual benefits. ”

“ This is a distinctive contribution of the gospels (including John's) to the doctrine of the significance of Christ's death. It is the ethical foundation of the doctrine on which all theological constructions must rest. It is not found in Paul's epistles, in which the sufferings of Christ are regarded as sui generis, and from an exclusively theological point of view. It is Christ's answer to a question handed down from the prophets: Why do the righteous suffer? ”

“ Groups of New Testament books representing distinctive types of Christian thought—The teaching of Jesus as presented in the synoptic gospels:—The Kingdom of God; the Fatherhood of God; the inestimable value of man; righteousness, and the relation of faith and conduct to it; Jesus' view of himself ”