A Feast Prepared for Christ

 •  10 min. read  •  grade level: 9
These scriptures record in detail two notable instances in the New Testament of a feast prepared for the blessed Lord; true, the scenes and occasions are different, yet there are certain great moral features in both which link them on, in a way, the one to the other.
In Luke 5, Levi is called by the blessed Lord in these words, “Follow me.” Who was this Levi? Why, none other than a publican, the detested exacter of the Roman tribute, which was itself the standing memorial of the sin of Israel as a nation, for else why were they bound under the yoke of this tax? Levi, a Jew, a publican! Such were hated by the people and were disreputable in the last degree, hence publicans are classed with sinners, as the very outcasts of society: such was the man Levi among men whom the Lord Jesus thus calls. Moreover, at the time of the call, he was prosecuting his hated avocation, sitting at the receipt of custom; thus everything was so arranged as to make the grace of God prominent at this moment. The call of the Lord was absolute and distinct: “Follow me.” None but Himself could so command, none but Himself could secure the allegiance of the heart, causing it to respond in His own way—namely, even to Levi, leaving all, rising up, and following him—just observe the separating power of the call—Levi, we are told, “left all.” How blessed this is! His call took Levi out of all former detention, as really as, “I that speak unto thee am he” took the poor Samaritan away from all that previously controlled her heart. In that call to Levi, was there not something more than a mere claim so to speak from One who, though Man, was God?
I believe the call communicated what it claimed. I am assured that there was conveyed to Levi’s heart, at that moment, some taste, however feeble, of what was in the heart of God, which was manifested and witnessed in Him who was the only-begotten of the Father, God manifested in flesh. This and this alone accounts for Levi’s feast; he spreads it and furnishes his table, as it were, in the power of the revelation which had visited him, a very day-spring from on high, surely.
Now observe who it is and what they are who here entertain the Lord of glory: “a great company of publicans,” and sinners—it was “a great feast”—for great was the motive power which had entered his heart who spread the table; further it was “a great feast,” for great was the lift out of everything which Levi’s heart had received and taken in, for he rose up and left all. Beloved readers, have we risen up, as it were, and left all to follow Jesus? Alas! how little, He knows, who appreciates, ever so little, of that which is the fruit of His own love. And, further still, it was a great feast, for great was the company who there were gathered by Levi to entertain the Lord of life and glory. What a scene it is, whatever way we view it, whether we look at the host or the guests, or Himself who was invited there, and who sat there amidst publicans and sinners. It is beyond all expression blessed, when our hearts are in accord with the heart and thought of God in His own blessed ways of grace and goodness. Assured I am of this, that it is not natural to any of us, the pride of our hearts resents it, the pharisaism of poor fallen humanity cannot reach up to anything so glorious as this—it is the rock on which it splits. Hence we read of this grace in God only calling forth murmurings from men (v. 30) which is further met by His own blessed, gracious words, “They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick,” “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
How comforting to know that it was the “sick” and “sinners” that suited His mercy, who brought every grace that was in God down into man, and took every sorrow that was in man up into God, Him of whom it was so blessedly said:
“Love that made Thee a mourner
In this sad world of woe,
Made wretched man a scorner
Of grace that brought Thee low;
Still, in Thee love’s sweet savor
Shone forth in every deed,
And show’d God’s loving favor
To every soul in need.”
That which follows here shows us how the Lord was breaking, as it were, out of the old thing, out of Israel. It was not that there was not the most complete faithfulness to Israel, but the order of things which had hitherto obtained was now breaking up. Those who owned in His blessed Person the Messiah—the Bridegroom of Israel, as it were—could not fast; while He was there, fasting would be out of place, out of season; but the time was coming when the Bridegroom should be taken away from them, that is, when the cross would be taken by the blessed One. This would alter everything for the children of the bride-chamber; in those days, fasting would be their proper attitude.
Then He shows how impossible it was to fasten Christianity on to Judaism, flesh and the law combined; but there is no power that can make grace and the law to amalgamate: it is not possible to put the new wine of the Spirit, into the old bottles of Judaism. The Old and the New cannot be made into a fusion, such would be destructive to one side or another, the new wine must be put in new bottles!
Observe what we have here, namely, old wine, old bottles, new wine, new bottles, these are great contrasts; in the present day we find, on the one hand, some endeavoring to put the new wine into old bottles, others actually asserting that the old things are they which have become new! For such the old is not ended and the new is not introduced; thank God, it is not so, sad though it be, that the human mind should so work on the things of God as to weave out theories and notions of this kind. It is not even as good as an attempt to patch up the old, for it is not even putting a piece of new garment on the old. The truth is there is a “new bottle” and there is “new wine.”
Then comes a word of a very practical nature in v. 39. May the Lord give us to lay it to heart: if we indulge in the old, we have no divine relish, no taste, for the new; we then say, “the old is better.” Alas! how we see on every side a decided preference for that which is old, the forms of man after the flesh, and not the energy of that which came from God.
Now the second occasion to which I have alluded will take us to John 12, we read, “there they made him a supper”—and this occasion and its feast, has its own characteristics as well as the other. First, it is at Bethany—that one sequestered spot on earth where Jesus was at home—there was Martha, who we are told served; Lazarus who sat at the table; and Mary who anointed His feet with very costly ointment and wiped His feet with her hair. How blessed to be permitted to view this scene, and, by faith, to enter into it! All is in such divine and perfect order here, whether Martha serving, or Lazarus sitting, or Mary anointing; what a blessed family, where His heart found what was congenial to it! Still, remember, we are privileged also to be divinely intelligent as to that which most of all served him, and met Him, on this occasion, for this it was which so fully gave its character to Mary’s part in this feast; she understood Him, and entered into the circumstances through which He was about to pass, and this was grateful to His heart, this really entertained Him; on Mary’s part it was intelligent sympathy. He was about to enter into an inconceivable solitude, the solitude of death; her heart and affection in true and genuine sympathy, traverses with Him the dreary, lonely path, as well as by her act, marks her sense of the utter worthlessness of all around in view of His death; on the one hand, she intelligently, having taken in the living water into her heart, understood there was that which was beyond all blessing on earth, even Jesus Himself; on the other hand, declaring that his tomb should bury out of her sight all else valuable on earth! For her, if Jesus dies, He carries all of hers down into the grave with Himself. That “pound of ointment of spikenard very costly,” answered to all that was around Jesus, in the hatred and malignity of man in that hour. Very blessed to see Him sit there to be thus served; to see Him accepting and vindicating the affection and sympathy which His own Person had created and called forth; to see her, too, fruit as she was of His grace, expending on Him to whom she owed her all—that all, as another has touchingly and blessedly expressed it, Mary, as it were, says by this action of hers, “While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.”
There is another point of solemn interest in the very affecting scene, namely, how opposite the thoughts of men are to what suits the mind of God and His Christ. The most that could be said concerning Mary’s act was, that it was waste that was stamped upon it in their eyes. Oh, how little was He in their estimation who measured the service His blessed Person called forth at this worth! For it is the Person to whom the service is rendered that is the true measure of its value. Jesus the eternal Son of the Father; Jesus the spotless and perfect Son of God; Jesus the willing and ready Friend of need and want and sorrow, stood so low in their estimation as to call forth the expression of waste in regard to that which was thus voluntarily expended upon Him. It is the same to- day—the present is but the continuance of the past; the family character, as it were, is not wanting in the present generation, namely, a growing indifference to Christ—no sense of who He is or what He is—marks each succeeding generation; and that of to-day, with all its boasted light and advancement in science and knowledge and arts, uses even these things to manifest how little it thinks of, or cares for Him. (See Eccl. 9:1515Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. (Ecclesiastes 9:15).)
There is one bright spot here in this dark background, as it were, on which let us turn our eyes for a moment. Jesus understood her action and its motive, appreciates it, and vindicates her. How blessed! Was it not enough for her? Let me say, Far more than enough and hence He lets all know what He felt and received in that act of hers. “Let her alone” were blessed words for her, “against the day of my burying hath she kept this,” was all her heart could desire. Oh the joy of being vindicated by Christ, and the satisfaction of knowing, that however feebly, we have truly and really ministered to the longings of his heart!
The Lord impart this devoted intelligence to us all in such days as these, that more genuine affection for, and true sympathy with Him, may mark us, and that nothing may be able to divert our hearts from Him, nothing may engage our powers but Him, and satisfy our affections but Himself.