A Living Saviour in Glory.

“JESUS OF NAZARETH PASSETH BY.” Such were the significant words so solemn, so hopeful, uttered in reply to a blind beggar’s inquiry concerning the crowd thronging the highway where he had craved an alms so often. Solemn was that reply, for it meant that the traveler would soon have disappeared, yet hopeful since it meant that He had not yet done so, but was at hand. Nevertheless the multitude’s sentence had to be altered in a manner altogether outside its limited reckoning, and depths of mercy great enough to do this exhibited before its eyes, which, if understood, would have evoked the sentence “Jesus of Nazareth refuses to pass by, He stops.”
So far as Bartimaeus was concerned, much depended upon the value he attached to the moment that had arrived. Had he allowed it to pass unused the regrets of a lifetime would not have restored it to him, for whatever pittance he might have extracted from the passing crowd there was something being carried in the heart of that glorious Stranger so near to him, nothing could compare with; and that was mercy—the mercy of God. Three years had beheld Him traversing the land, undoing the works of the devil, and now He had at last “set His face stead fastly as a flint to go to Jerusalem,” nevermore to return that way.
However, the blind man did realize the moment that had come, and sought mercy from the One who made that moment what it was. Above the general din, louder than the protests of the crowd, and in spite of the sordid arguments known to him as a beggar, arose persistently the cry, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.” The beggar was ready. Was Jesus ready? Ah! He was always ready. He loved His work. Scripture says so. To Him it was as meat and drink, and when material to be worked upon was at hand He applied Himself to its every detail with ineffable delight.
Could He not by a word or a look have opened the eyes of the blind while proceeding on His way? Doubtless He could had He so wished, but nevertheless
“JESUS STOOD STILL.”
Oh! how millions of redeemed sinners praise Him for that interruption of His journey, timed in front of the suppliant for mercy—forcibly illustrating His present long and patient pause, in view of a sorrowful humanity. How well also was it that Bartimæus was deaf to the advice of the crowd; how well that he utterly ignored business prospects, such as they were, when they would have hindered him, for he threw over the goodwill of those he formerly appealed to, foregoing at the crucial moment his only means of existence and staking everything upon the mercy of God, and tasting its sweetness on the very spot, as he got his sight.
Centuries have elapsed since the foregoing incident occurred. Refreshed, Jesus resumed His pathway to Jerusalem—to Calvary. Before a universe, that beheld God dishonored by sin and heard Him libeled by a liar, has been writ, by means of the cross, the fact that God is right, and will not pass over what is wrong, the fact that He is love and loved the world.
But we would follow the course of Jesus, for, as at Jericho in the past, so in the present, everything depends upon getting into touch with Him where He is. The tomb which Romans guarded and which Jews hoped had buried the fame of Jesus witnessed His victory, as He emerged, after the power of an endless life, to company for forty days with those who loved His company, ere He departed elsewhere.
BUT WHERE DID HE GO?
Luke 19:1212He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. (Luke 19:12) shows that He likened His movements to that of “a certain nobleman who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.” He has disappeared from this country (earth) and has gone to a far country (heaven—see Luke 24:5151And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. (Luke 24:51)), and when manifested again it will be in glorious majesty in His kingdom here.
He has gone upon a journey, but unlike the former one, which ended at Golgotha, the present one has as its objective point the kingdom.
Nevertheless He has done exactly upon this journey what He did upon the former—He has stopped. Something has interrupted that journey to the kingdom. The crying need of the spiritually blind and poor is lingered over by the long-suffering corn passion of a Saviour-God, as shown in Jesus, and now He is not standing, as at Jericho, but sitting; and, my reader, I ask you if the evidence proves that He loves His present occupation, seeing He has remained at it for nigh nineteen centuries?
A wonderful message comes from the glory, where He sits, to mankind upon earth, whence He was expelled, and none other than the Holy Ghost has come to report accurately the message.
Listen to it. “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38, 3938Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38‑39)).
At the cross God spoke to Jesus about sin, and what He said and the answer given was not in words alone. Neither you nor I will ever fathom what transpired when a Holy Man was forsaken by a Holy God on that cross. But, that question settled, God now speaks to you and to everybody about Jesus, there being no one else to speak about, and this He does by the Holy Ghost upon earth through the preaching of the Gospel.
But what about your guilt? You are referred to Jesus. Again, your sinful state? You are referred to Jesus, and if you go to Him believing, He will tell you that these questions were closed at the cross.
I could not ask you to ignore such questions, that would be extreme levity and wickedness, but the cross of Calvary is the eternal witness that they were gone into, to the satisfaction of God, and no lamentation of yours will ever receive any answer than the one God has given in public. Let that suffice, therefore, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those who believe on Him receive the Holy Ghost, and those who have the Holy Ghost are neither blind nor poor.
True, they cannot see Jesus physically, as Peter reminds them, but they love Him and rejoice in Him (1 Peter 1:88Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: (1 Peter 1:8)), because, according to Hebrews 2:99But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9) they see Him with the eyes of their hearts in the spot which they know He is so worthy of. All things are not yet put under Him, but “we see Jesus” where the Father has put Him, and never will He be higher than He now is.
Soon He will sit upon His own throne, and a glorious day in public will that be for Him and His own; but, sitting upon the Father’s throne today, He opens to us the wealth of what is heavenly. There are those who can say without their sin remaining, “we see,” and who, if poor, can add, “yet possessing all things.”
A departed pilgrim used to sing―
“Is the wilderness before thee,
Desert lands where drought abides?
Heavenly springs shall there restore thee,
Fresh from god’s exhaustless tides.”
Oh! my reader do not ignore what can be yours while the Saviour sits on high. Did He arise and proceed to the kingdom your doom would be fixed, for with His departure would depart from you the mercy so near to you, leaving nothing for you but the blackness and despair of an undone eternity.
In view of such an eternity close your ears to the advice of the “multitude.” Had Bartimæus taken its advice lie would bitterly have regretted it.
In view of such an eternity plead not the popular but devilish excuse of today— “business.” Had Bartimæus done so Jesus of Nazareth would have passed by and left behind Him a blind man and a beggar, even if a successful one.
Furthermore, in view of the mercy flowing today, like the virtue that of old healed the physically wrecked, I ask you, as one who knows it, as one who prizes it, as one who could not exist without it; yea, as one who knows Him through whom it flows, as one who has a link with Him where He is, as one who, while conscious of much infirmity, must avow that he loves Him; do not miss it, if you miss everything else.
“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
R. J. R.