by Eugene Higgins
Two Pronouns of Paramount Importance
There are, according to recent estimates, approximately 121 pronouns in the English language. There are personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, possessive pronouns, reflexive pronouns and numerous others. If you thought for a moment about the millions of nouns, the multitude of adjectives, and the myriad verbs with which the English language crackles and hums, and burbles, you would realize that pronouns are comparatively few in number and “quiet” in character. But the role they play, the simplicity they present, and the clarity they provide can sometimes be significant and even critical. Two events, early in the life of the Lord Jesus, illustrate this.
Luke 2:7 records,“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.”
“Them” – the plural pronoun in this verse – embraces Mary and Joseph as well as the Lord Jesus. There was no room for any of them. The inference believers often draw from this is that it was a foretoken of the kind of “welcome” the Lord of Glory would receive during His sojourn here; it foreshadowed the world’s glacial indifference (as seen in Capernaum) and white-hot antipathy (as seen in Jerusalem) toward the Savior. Think of these revealing statements: “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own and His own received Him not.” To His disciples, the Lord Jesus said, (and I think one can hear the sadness in His voice as He described how greatly sin had warped the human heart), “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.” The noted Greek scholar A. T. Robertson points out that the tense in this passage means that the Savior was saying that the world “has hated and still hates” Him. What tragedy is conveyed in His words in John 15: “If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated Me without a cause.’”
We have frequently been reminded that chapter breaks are generally not part of the inspired text but are supplied to facilitate our reading. Consequently, it seems clear that the words of John 8:1 belong with the words of the previous verse (John 7:53). However, we could scarcely ask for the contrast to be greater or have it made more apparent for us than it is by where the chapter does in fact break. The space between chapters 7 and 8 tacitly suggests that the Savior waited to see if any would invite Him and provide lodgings. One by one, they walked away, leaving Him there. He Who is the Son of David (the City was His), the Son of Abraham (the Land was His), the Son of Man (the world was His), the Son of God (the universe was His), has nowhere to lay His head and makes His way to the Mount of Olives, the place where He knew His feet would one day touch when He returns as the King of Kings. But that is then and this is now; He sleeps on the dewy grass as night draws near and the gloaming darkens, darkening around the form of the homeless, sleeping Creator of all things. There never was “room” in the world for Him.
But the pronoun was “them”; there was no room for “them in the inn.” Anyone associated with Him should expect similar treatment from the world. There is a poem that always reminds me of the late Mr. Albert Hull. I can hear his voice as I type the words:
It cast me out, the world, when once it found
That I within my rebel heart had crowned
The Man it had rejected, spurned and slain;
Whom God in mighty power had raised to reign.
We dare not make the mistake Demas made of falling in love with “this present world” (2 Timothy 4:10), and forgetting that it is still and always “this present evil world” (Gal 1:4). “There was no room for them in the inn.”
Now note the significance of a different pronoun in Matthew 2:11, “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down, and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.”
Again, Mary and Joseph are present with the Lord Jesus, just as on that night in Bethlehem. But the visiting magi do not worship “them.” They do not present their gifts to “them.” They “fell down and worshiped Him and … they presented unto Him gifts … ” There is no worship of the Virgin; no worship of “the holy family” as Christendom describes it. They worshiped Him; Him alone. Notice the language of superiority and excellence in these verses:
- Fairer: Psalm 45, “Thou art fairer (far) than the children of men: grace is poured into Thy lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee forever.” What a contrast to the merely outward fairness of the would-be king, Absalom, who knew nothing of inward, moral beauty!
- Higher: Heb 7:26, “For such an high priest became us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.” Ecc 5:8, “He … is higher than the highest.” Psa 89:27, “Higher than the kings of the earth.” Israel’s first king was “higher than any of the people,” (1 Sam 9:2), but it was merely physical stature; there were no heights of glory in Saul’s short-lived kingdom or in his weak-willed character.
- Mightier: Psa 93:4, “The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.”
- Greater: The four Gospel accounts and the Book of Hebrews all remind us specifically of His surpassing greatness (e. g. greater than the Temple, Solomon, Jonah, angels, Moses). Two questions in the Gospel of John, asked by incredulous questioners who could hardly believe it possible, remind us of His superiority – Joh 4:12, “Art Thou greater than our father Jacob?” Joh 8:53, “Art Thou greater than our father Abraham.”
- Chiefest: The bride in the Song of Songs chapter 5 says He is “the Chiefest among ten thousand” – the Standard-Bearer to whom your eye is instinctively and immediately drawn, regardless of who else or how many are present.
Compared to any and all others He is fairer, higher, mightier, greater. He is the Chiefest of all. This is why the Psalmist said, “Whom have I in Heaven but Thee.” This is why, if Christ had not arisen, we would be of all men most to be pitied. If there were no Savior on the other side, of what value would endless existence be without Him? The longing of our hearts would never be realized. Would angels, seraphim, cherubim, living creatures, and a street of gold make it Heaven for you if you never saw Him? Would being with great believers of a past day really satisfy your heart for endless ages, if you could not be with Him? What are immortality, a glorified body, a deathless, tireless, painless existence if it cannot be spent with Him? Oblivion would be better than spending an eternity without Him.
Here is what a devoted believer wrote about the Lord Jesus:
“I repeatedly return to the conviction that Jesus of Nazareth is simply peerless. He is the wisest, most virtuous, most influential person in history. I can’t even imagine what the last two thousand years would have been like without His influence. There is no one remotely like Him. The power of His ideas, the quality of His character, the beauty of His personality, the uniqueness of His life, miracles, crucifixion, and resurrection are so far removed from any other person or ideology that, in my view, it is the greatest honor ever bestowed on me to be counted among His followers.”
And just as the magi worshiped Him, just as the disciples in the boat worshiped Him, just as the excommunicated man in John 9 worshiped Him, and just as, after His resurrection, those on the Galilean mount worshiped Him, so one day you, (failing, imperfect you!) will join millions upon millions, upon millions – “ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands” – of full-hearted voices in the song that will echo and re-echo and reverberate through eternity. You will sing about Him: “Worthy is the Lamb.” And you will sing to Him: “Thou art worthy.”
A dear friend of mine wrote recently these words: “I hear so many believers say that when they get to Heaven they will see Him face to face. I think that He will probably have to touch me, because I’ll be face to feet, before I see Him face to face.”
And I think we all will gladly bow, joyously kneel, happily fall at His feet and we will sing again and again and again, never losing any of the wonder, or wearying of the worship, or tiring of the words:
Throughout the universe of bliss the centre Thou, and Sun;
Th’ eternal theme of praise is this, to heaven’s beloved One:
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou,
That every knee to Thee should bow.
“They worshiped Him.”