Newspaper Page Text
2
TEXT: “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan to be baptized of him.”
N the first sermon in this series
we considered the “Childhood of
Jesus,” viewing His child
hood from three standpoints: In
heritance, environment, educa
tion. The last view that we got
of Jesus at that time was just af
ter He left the temple, when His
mother and father, journeying
I
three days from Jerusalem, realized that He
was not in their midst and returning found
Him in the Temple counfounding the lawyers
and the doctors with the depth and gravity of
the questions which He propounded unto
them.
They immediately took Him from the tem
ple, and carried Him away across the coun
try to Nazareth; and that is the last view
that we have of Jesus for eighteen years.
During those eighteen long years, Jesus is
living in absolute hiding, so far as any his
tory of Him is concerned. No history of sa
cred or profane character has ever ventured
to say anything with authority concerning
those eighteen years except that it is known
that He served during those eighteen years
in the capacity of a mechanic. What He did
as a mechanic we do not know. There is an
old legend about Him that says that He
worked upon wooden plows and ox-yokes;
that was his specialty as a mechanic, but
there is no authority even on this point.
What the world saw of Jesus and what Je
sus said to the world, how He lived and de
ported Himself, during those years at Naza
reth, no one knows. We may conjecture
about it as much as we like, but all our con
jecturing would be nothing more than con
jecture, and one man would have as much
right to suggest as another when we enter
that field.
But at the close of those eighteen years we
get another view of Jesus, and this time He
is presenting Himself on the banks of the
River Jordan to receive baptism at the .hands
of John the Baptist. It is about this baptism
that I want to speak this morning. What is
the significance of it? It is a question that
has been asked over and over again, and the
answers to it, if gathered together, would
make an exceedingly large volume. And yet
I venture to say that there are some things
that might have been said about it which
have not been said; I think the world would
have been better off, and at least it would
have had a better view of Jesus than it has.
The significance of the baptism of Jesus by
John I think is wrapped up in one word. It is
exceedingly interesting to observe how one
little word oftentimes will serve as a key to
unlock a great mystery. You remember in
connection with the woman who called upon
Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee,
how one litle phrase made up of three little
words served to unlock a mystery that had
settled upon the mind of the Pharisee and
caused him to express such astonishment.
He could not understand how it was that a
woman of her intelligence and refinement,
indicated by her having a box of alabaster
ointment in her hand, could deport herself
as she was doing at the time; taking her hair
down, getting down and kissing the feet of
his guest, washing them with her tears, wip
ing them with the hairs of her head. He
could not understand it, and Jesus used three
words which served as a key to unlock the
mystery—“ She loved much.” When you
have said that, you have said everything, for
when she loves, she is prepared to do any
thing.
And so here it is very interesting to ob-
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS
Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len G. Broughton, D.D.
Stenographically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
serve that one little word served as a key to
unlock the significance of our Lord’s baptism
by John; and it is the word with which our
text is introduced; it is the word “Then.” But
what has this word “then” to do with it? In
order that we shall be able to properly com
prehend what is wrapped up in that word we
must go back and see what precedes it, and
what the use of the word here signifies; and
going back we shall have to retrace the whole
of the preceding history of John. John has
come upon the world at a time when the
world is in perhaps its greatest state of nloral
decay. For four hundred years there has not
been the voice of a prophet left in the land.
Up until this time Israel had had great
prophets going up and down the land, pro
claiming the word of God to the people, but
for four hundred years these prophets have
not been seen, and their voices have not been
heard, and the priests in the temple have be
come corrupt in heart and in life and in con
ception. There were three schools of them,
as we have seen on a former occasion. There
was the school known as the school of the
Essenes, and that is the school to which John
the Baptist belonged; the school of ascetics,
the school of men that regarded the call of
God as of such significance as to completely
and wholly separate them from every phase
and form of the world’s life.
Then there was the school of the Sad
ducees, which was the school of Agnostics,
the school of unbelievers, who denied all su
pernatural manifestations. Then the school
of the Pharisees, the religionists of the time;
they lived the form of religion. They kept
strictly to the letter of the law and observed
rigidly all of its ceremonies and symbols. All
of these schools but the school of the Es
senes had federated themselves together; the
Sadducees, the agnostics of the day, and the
Pharisees, the legalists, the ritualists of the
time, had federated themselves together and
had made of themselves nothing more nor
less than professional politicians looking for
jobs that they were able to hold down in the
government.
As a result of this condition of things the
whole country was in a state of moral cor
ruption ; as we might say it was rotten; rot
ten from top to bottom. The church was rot
ten ; society was rotten; the state was rotten.
Everything was in a state of putrification.
John came upon the scene at that time. He
was born of a father who was a priest. If
you would get a proper view of the priests at
that time, go back and read the first chapter
of the Book of Malachi. He presents to us a
picture of the condition of the priests at the
time even of his life, and they grew infinitely
worse from his day on to the coming of John
the Baptist. Malachi presents us with five
charges against the priests at that time.
First, they were guilty of doubting the love
of God. Second, offering polluted sacrifices
unto God; sacrifices which they themselves
regarded as worthless. Third, refusing to
serve in any department of the work without
receiving pay for same; four, downright and
outright profanity, and fifth, regarding the
serivce of the Lord as a service of hardship.
That is the picture that he presents of the
priests of his day, and these priests grew
worse instead of better.
When John opened his eyes upon this world
he beheld this state of moral corruption. He
was brought in contact with the priests, and
saw their corruption, though his own father
was a worthy man, being filled with the Holy
Ghost in later years began to fling his invec
tiveness against the world for its state of cor
ruption ; to denounce the church, to denounce
the priests, to denounce the state, to de
nounce society; everything corrupt in sight
The Golden Age for June 1, 1911.
and out of sight. That was John the Baptist.
John the Baptist was a man who lived the
life to some extent, of the Essenes. We
would today regard John the Baptist as a
hermit. He refused to live in the cities, be
cause he regarded the cities as nothing more
nor less than cess-pools of corruption. They
were then and have remained so until this
day. The great centers of the corruption of
this country are in the cities. John the Bap
tist realized that and refused to live in the
city walls. He thought there was danger of
personal contamination in such environment.
He refused to dress like other men, wearing
the coarsest of clothing,-a cloth made of cam
els hair. He refused to eat like other men.
His food was of the poorest—locusts and wild
honey. Bees in that country are very com
mon, and they deposited their honey in the
clefts of the rocks, and John the Baptist gath
ered this from the rocks of the country and
this, with the locusts, a kind of grass-hopper,
which was commonly eaten by the very poor,
formed his diet.
He refused to drink like other men. In
his childhood he took the Nazarite vow never
to drink wine; and never to cut his hair and
his beard, so that he was in his appearance
and methods of life a very distinguished per
sonality ; a peculiar man with a peculiar mes
sage, a message almost altogether a denun
ciation of the world and the time for its sin
and its corruption, and from the country dis
tricts he went with a tongue of fire proclaim
ing these things throughout the land. You
can understand how a man like that would in
cur opposition, and his opposition was in
tense ; he was hated from the outset; he was
hated to such an extent that they would have
laid violent hands upon him and have cruci
fied him had it not been for the fact that they
were afraid of the people in the country dis
fricts. The people of the cities realized that
the country sided with John. He had their
full sympathy, and the cities could not af
ford to antagonize the country, and thus they
spared for the time the life of John the Bap
tist.
But finally there was such a sensation,
such an uprising that the temple itself took
cognizance of his work and sent a committee
of Sadducees and Pharisees to go to hear
John and interview him and see what they
thought of him. Have you ever observed
how easy it is for the devil to get together
all sorts of divided forces when he wants to
accomplish one particular purpose? These
different religious sects had no more to do
with one another in the days of our Lord
than agnostics and believers have with
one another today in matters religious; they
were absolutely separate and apart. They
did not in any sense agree. They did not
agree politically, socially, or religiously, and
yet when it comes to trying to suppress the
free speech of John the Baptist, when it
comes to trying to arrest him from his ef
forts to overthrow the corruption of their
day and reform the church, the home and so
ciety, they are perfectly willing to lie down
in the same bed and go off together as a
member of the same committee to report
back to the temple. And so they go to hear
John the Baptist and they do not hear what
they expect to hear. They do not hear what
ordinary men of their standing and rank and
influence would expect to hear. John knew
of their coming, and was prepared for them.
It would be the rarest exception to the rule
today if a man, learning that he was going to
be inspected and reported on by such digni
taries as these not to trim his words down
and endeavor to make his message fit the oc
casion ; and at least to keep the dignitaries in
(Continued on Page -14.)