THE Lord, in His progress to Jerusalem, passes through Jericho, and as ere He entered it He illustrates His purposes of mercy toward Israel, for Israel on the other side Jordan saw the might and majesty of Jehovah ere it was so gloriously displayed in Canaan, so here now the true Joshua of His people re-enacts Jericho in moral power, the salvation which the first Joshua typically achieved. The recipient of blessing here represents the national, as the former had the moral, condition of Israel; and, therefore, he is a “chief” publican, (one enriching himself by the degradation of his nation,) and “he was rich;” in other words, “waxing fat;” but he sought to see Jesus who he was, and could not. He had to encounter the same hindrances which were insuperable to his nation— “the press,” or multitude, and his own personal inability to cope with it, “because he was little of stature.” But though conscious of his powerlessness, his desire to see Jesus was not to be denied. When there is true purpose of heart, there will be no difficulty in finding an expedient, and a right one; “he climbs up into a sycamore tree, for Jesus was to pass that way.” A sycamore tree (which is considered the same as the sycamine, in chapter 17.) was the symbol of Israel’s national condition. It was a wild fig tree, as we see from Amos 7:1414Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: (Amos 7:14). (Marginal reading.) The first efforts of an aroused conscience are ever directed to an increased zeal about rites and ceremonies; and as infancy in many things resembles old age, so is it true of the conscience, for an old and enervated one is only engaged with ceremonials, yet it is well to observe strictly all we know, it is strengthening and practicing the mind for every increase of knowledge. Zacchaeus in the wild fig tree illustrates a Jew seeking, from the height of his national condition, to see Jesus, and as a Jew he was right, and Jesus acknowledges it, not by commanding him, no more than He had done to the woman of Samaria, but by telling him to “make haste and come down,” and in his own house, in happy domesticity, to receive him, for “today,” “the day of salvation,” still existing, (see Heb. 3. 4. and 2 Cor. 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2),) — “I must abide at thy house,” typically we may say “an habitation of God through the Spirit.” The multitude may murmur as they will that Jesus was gone to be “a guest with a sinner” —a sinner indeed, but one who could descend from all his earthly height, and do so hastily. “He made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.” It is not in a moment, even though in the presence of Jesus, that we forget our own merit, and are entirely interested with our gracious and wonderful guest; but the only answer our Lord ever gives to such legal reasonings is: “To-day is salvation come to this house;” that is, above all good acts, and not for the sake of your good acts, but because of the grace of Him who is come “to seek and to save that which is lost.” But “as they heard these things,” this faint disclosure of the future grace of the rejected Jesus, “he added and spake a parable, because He was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought the kingdom of God should immediately appear.” He would disabuse their mind of such a thought as that the kingdom of God would immediately appear. We should mark the difference between “the kingdom of God being among them,” as was said in a preceding chapter, and that it should immediately appear. With this intention the following parable is uttered, which represents “a nobleman,” one of high birth, going to a far country, “to receive a kingdom and to return.” From this we see that the Lord was to go to a far place to receive a kingdom, and that He was to return, having received it; but ere He is long on His journey his citizens, “the dwellers at Jerusalem,” sent a message after Him in the massacre of Stephen, saying: “We will not have this man to reign over us.” However, in His absence, He has “ten servants,” to each of whom He has delivered “a pound,” with this instruction: “Occupy till I come.” I believe this refers to the service of God’s people. The word ten is a compound of seven and three, and well explained in page 28 of The Prospect, vol. 2. “The pound” is the gift for service, whatever it may be: it is silver,—metal which will stand the fire. But these gifts will be variously exercised, and perhaps the three results mentioned in this passage,—first, “thy pound halls gained ten pounds;” second, “thy pound hath gained five pounds;” third, “thy pound, which I have laid up in a napkin.”—perhaps, I say, these may be typical of the Church’s acknowledgment and use of Christ’s gifts to them, and that the last describes the complete abandonment of recognizing the gift of Christ in service, and, consequently, no service flowing, from “thy pound.” And with this state let me add, there cannot be any true sense or knowledge of Christ as He is really to us, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and a ready help in time of need. God’s gifts are never bestowed on us to be wrapped up as selfish and individual property, or merely between us and Him. It should be given to “the bank,” a common place of exchange, and then at the coming of Christ there would be “usury” from it. Ye are my crown of rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming, (1 Thess. 2:1313For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13),) is the usury the heart of Christ desires. Nevertheless, the Church will eventually lose none of “the pounds;” that which has a capacity to receive will abundantly receive; and this, we may remark, is a principle true, individually or corporately.
It is evident that the judgments on the inimical citizens occur subsequent to the adjudication of the servants; and Christ has returned, for the order is: “Bring hither and slay them before me.”
The Lord having thus, in a figure, traced His future purposes “when He had thus spoken He went before ascending up to Jerusalem.” He proceeds forewarned and forearmed on His destine path, yet not a whit swerving from every offer of mercy and testimony of His mission to this gainsaying people; and, accordingly when within a short distance of Jerusalem, He prepares for a royal entry into it. Hence, we have here a momentary display of the power of that glorious period,—all willing to receive Him, save “thy citizens.” The ass, “on which never man sat,” is willingly granted by the owner, when told “the Lord has need of him.” In the day of His power, there will be no attempt even to resist His will The reception is favorable and unanimous, and now, “at the descent of the Mount of Olives,” it became enthusiastic; “the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise Gm with a loud voice.... saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Till now there was no opposition; all seemed borne along in one acclamation of joy at the coming of the King; but, as is ever the ease with the natural conscience, trial only partly asserted may be borne with, but when pressed in all it reality, then opposition is at once called forth, and so here. The Pharisees cannot endure, at the entrance of Jerusalem, such plain and public testimony to the title of Christ; the most religious are shocked at the idea of ascribing such honors to Him, and, in their zeal, request our Lord to rebuke His disciples. The Lord’s reply unfolds the results of Israel’s rejection: “If these should hold their peace, the stones (those who have no claim or pretensions, of whom John the Baptist had before warned them) would immediately cry out.” Jesus loved Jerusalem. God’s purpose to establish man in the earth, as His image and glory, must be dear to the heart of Christ, and now, when the destiny of the city passes before Him, he “wept over it,” because the citizens were unconscious and ignorant of the time of its visitation; yet, as long as it remained, which is important to notice, He would labor to repair it and remove every wrong from it, and, therefore, from the temple He cast out them that sold and bought therein, full of that happy hour when it should be truly said: “My house is the house of prayer,” and which he was so desirous to effect, for “He taught daily in the temple;” but the more He offered mercy, so much the more was it rejected. “The chief priests and scribes and chief of the people sought to destroy Him,” but they could not accomplish it, for rejection was not yet national; all the springs of society had not been as yet corrupted by the spirit of envy which moved the heads of the people, for still “the people were very attentive to hear Him.”