er's acknowledgment of him at Caesarea
Philippi (Matt. xvi. 13-20). Jesus saw in that confession a distinct
advance in the disciples' thought and faith. Yet the religious feeling
which early questioned whether the Baptist even were not the Messiah (Luke
iii. 15) would almost certainly have concluded that John's greater
successor must be God's anointed. The very fact that men's thoughts about
the Messiah were varied and complex made them ready for some modifications
of their preconceptions. One with such subtle personal power as Jesus had
exercised was almost sure to be hailed by some with enthusiasm as the
looked-for representative of God. In fact, it is probable that at any
time in the early days of his ministry Jesus could have been proclaimed
Messiah, provided he had accepted the people's terms. Such a confession
would have been merely the outcome of enthusiasm. The people, even the
disciples, did not know Jesus. They all had high hopes and somewhat fixed
ideas about the Messiah, nearly every one of which was destined to rude
shock. How little they knew him Jesus realized (John i. 51), and his
self-mastery is manifest in his attitude to this early enthusiasm. He was
no visionary; he had a great work to do and a long lesson to teach, and he
was patient enough to teach it little by little. He did not rebuke the
ill-informed faith of a Nathanael, but sought gradually to supplant the
old thought of the Messiah and of the kingdom by new truth, and to bind
men's affections to himself for his own sake and the truth's sake, not
simply for the idea which he impersonated to them.

102. The visit to Cana seems to have found a place in the fourth gospel,
because there the new disciples discovered in their master miraculous
powers which were to them a sign that he was in truth God's anointed. It
is probable that at the time of this miracle the disciples thought only of
the power and the marvel, yet the sharp contrast between John's ascetic
habit and Jesus' use of his divine resources to relieve embarrassment at a
wedding feast must have impressed every man among them. Their minds,
however, were as yet too full of Messianic hopes to leave much room for
reflection. They were content to have a sign, for in the view of Jesus'
contemporaries signs were essential marks of the Messiah (John vi. 30;
vii. 31; Mark viii. 11). They did their reflecting later (John ii. 22).

103. Miracles are as great a stumbling-block to modern thought as th