WE are meditating on this Gospel with the purpose of discovering the ministerial glories of Christ. Every jot and tittle, as we have said before, ought to have an interest with us, because if we discover the ministry of Christ, we discover Himself. It is the complexion of all that He was. It is not so with us. We are all more or less deceitful in our ways.
Then we travel from that up to God Himself. Man by wisdom knows Him not, but in the face of Jesus Christ we do know Him, and the more we discover the lineaments of His face, the more we know of the Father. We should acquaint ourselves with Him, as reflected in the ways of Jesus. We can track our way back to His presence only through Jesus. His precious death is my title to put my foot on the road, and all-that He is and was is my light by the road.
" The second sabbath, after the first," is generally supposed to be some one sabbath between the Passover and Pentecost. On this occasion, as they were passing through the cornfields, His disciples plucked the ears of corn. The Pharisees objected, and this brings out a beautiful commentary on the Temple (chap. 6:3, 4), What was the Lord doing after creation? He rested. And has He not had creation rest disturbed? To be sure He has, as chap. 5. of John declares distinctly, when the Pharisees complain of His breaking the sabbath (John 5:1717But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. (John 5:17)). The moment His rest was disturbed, He became a workman afresh, and prepared a coat for Adam. When sin turned Him out of creation rest, He entered upon the work of redemption. In the opening of Genesis, He comes forth as a Creator, and on the seventh day, He rests. Man intrudes and disturbs His rest; and the Creator sets to work again. He is not overcome of evil, but overcomes evil with good. He sets to work for the very creature that had disturbed His rest. He quickens one poor sinner after another, till we shall see the sabbath of redemption,-the rest which is called glory. Creation rest waited on the fidelity of Adam; it was lost. Redemption rest waits on the blood of Christ, and can never be lost. If their ox or their ass fell into a pit, they would trespass on the sabbath. So God trespasses on it. The rest of the Redeemer was intruded on the rest of the Creator. We are debtors to Him for our eternity. He quotes Hosea (Matt. 12:77But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. (Matthew 12:7)): " I will have mercy and not sacrifice." He is not looking for you to bring something to Him, but brings something to you. If we were only 'happy in Him, we should work much better for Him. It is joy in Christ that gives victory over the world. Why are we all in subjection to the world? Just because we have not found out in Christ all the joy we ought to find. If I rightly use the grace of God it will purify me. As Titus says, "The grace of God hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world." God links my redemption with my purification.
Next we get the choosing of the twelve. In Matthew we have the choosing of the twelve-here the seventy are chosen too, because the Lord here shows Himself in a larger character. There He is rather as the Son of David, here He is the Son of Man. Therefore the seventy are sent out, to show how illimitable was the grace of God, that surveyed the whole family of Man. Salvation to all the world. The twelve were confined to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Contrast that with Paul in Acts; and "the one glory hath no glory by reason of that which excelleth." The Apostle of the Gentiles was standing as the representative of the present ministry of God. That ministry stretches to the ends of the earth.
After the choosing of the twelve, He comes down into the plain, and great multitudes came to Him and He healed all their diseases. He was a divine visitor to this world,—a heavenly stranger among men,-a divine visitor to men. He had not where to lay His head, while He was visiting their necessities with all the resources of God. This is the ideal of a saint of God-to be independent of all that the world can give, while, with open heart and lavish hand, bestowing upon it all the benefits and blessings of God. If he is a mere heavenly stranger, he may be an ascetic-if a visitor only to the world, he may get involved in its corruptions.
The close of chap. 6 is a solemn thing. It is an epitomized presentation of the sermon on the mount. It begins with the poor, the hungry, the mourner, and tells them they are " blessed." Now, would that have been the voice of God when He had accomplished His creation? In Gen. 2 He put Adam among the fruits and flowers of Eden-an obedient creation. Enjoyment was the duty then, but patience, now. God has not put me here to enjoy myself, as He did Adam. Sin has cast out the Lord of glory, the Prince of life, and my proper place is patience. It is not " blessed are they that walk amidst the fruits and flowers," but blessed are they that suffer, they that mourn, they that are persecuted. We have seen the Lord in infancy, and then as a healer. Now, we have Him as a Teacher, and the burden of his teaching is-I call you not to enjoyment, but to patience. Was Adam in the garden to be poor? There was no end of his wealth. But there is a new kind of blessedness now, because the world has made Him poor. God is a stranger now in a defiled world, and are you and I to take citizenship in a world where Christ has been crucified? We will not go through these verses, but that is the burden of them. In patience possess your souls; do not count upon enjoyment.
In chap. 7 we find the Lord in company with the centurion. Two Gentiles crossed the path of our Lord here-the Syrophenician woman, and the centurion. The centurion took his place at once, and he meditates by the Jews. This is a beautiful instance of the intelligence of faith. He took his place as a Gentile, having no right to approach immediately to the Lord, but coining through His own nation. There is great beauty in the intelligence of an understanding illuminated by the mind of Christ. He approached by the right door—got at the Lord by the elders of the Jews. And the Lord says: "I will go." Then, at the due time he began to be busy,—when Jesus was on the road. He did not begin by going to Him, but the moment He was on the way to the house, it was time for the centurion to begin to stir himself. We want these fine touches of the mind of Christ, for we are not only cold and narrow, but awkward and clumsy. By a Spirit-led soul we get all this beauty. Now he says, "Lord I am not worthy, but speak the word only, and it is enough. Thou saidst `Let there he light,' and thine arm is not shortened, nor thine eye dim; speak only." Servants are at my bidding, he says, but diseases are at yours now, as darkness was before.
I pity the soul that cannot enjoy such a specimen of the workmanship of the Spirit. That is communion, when we can sit together and enjoy one another, as the workmanship of the Spirit. The Lord marveled. It was the marvel of deep and rich enjoyment. Nothing in this world refreshed Christ but the traces of His own hand. The joy of the woman at the well of Sychar did not come up to her Savior's joy. The traces of His own Spirit were refreshing Him. So here, He was overwhelmed for the moment. To speak after the manner of men, He did not know what to do with it! It was so with the Queen of Sheba when she saw the glory of Solomon. She had no more spirit left in her. Christ found no water in this world, but when the Holy Ghost knocked a poor rocky heart to pieces-then there was water for Jesus.
Now we have the widow of Nain. The Spirit presents, in a few words, the deep loneliness of her condition. The. dead man was " the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." The heart of Jesus was arrested, and then He arrested the bier of the dead young man. His corny passions always went before His mercies. It is commonly said that the heart moves the hand. Do not you prize a blessing that comes to you in that way? Salvation came gushing forth from the heart of Christ. To say that the Cross of Christ is the source of our blessedness, would be slandering the heart of God. God loved the world, and sent His' Son; Christ's heart went before His hand. A blessing from Christ is given, as Jeremiah says, with His whole heart and His whole soul. " He came and touched the bier." He was undefilable, or he must have gone to the priest to cleanse Himself after touching it. Did Christ ever want the washings of the Sanctuary? He might have restored the young man without touching Him, but He had God's relationship to iniquity. He not only stood apart from the actuality of sin, but from the possibility of it. " And He delivered him to his mother." Let me be bold and say, the Lord does not save you that you may serve Him. To suggest the thought would be to qualify the beauty of grace. He did not say, I give you life that you may spend it for Me." Let His love constrain you to spend and be spent for Him, but He never stands before your heart and says, " Now I will forgive you if you will serve me." Surely, He had purchased him yet He gave him back to his mother I Yet you and I go back to the world, and seek to make ourselves happy and important in it I Ali I throw the cords of love round your heart, and keep it fast by Jesus! Amen.