OR,
FORESHADOWINGS OF A NEW AND HEAVENLY BODY, TRACED SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH ISRAEL'S REJECTION OF CHRIST AS THEIR KING.
Chapter 14.
IT is quite evident, from the closing verse of the preceding chapter, that Israel's rejection of Christ as their King was already full and manifest; consequently, we should be prepared to find in this chapter larger revelations of the characteristics of anybody which might succeed them. And not only so, but we are warranted to expect here a fuller exposure of the prejudices which led to this rejection. The chapter opens with spewing us our Lord in social intercourse with one of the highest professors,—" a chief Pharisee," one of the class in which the true lines of Judaism were deeply and broadly marked. In them it was magnified, and, as the best specimen of the Jews' religion, it became our Lord, as was ever His practice, not only to test them in their best and most boasted estate, but also to give utterance to His first warnings from the same ground, and with them the characters and principles He would henceforth seek after. “The Sabbath day " is also chosen, because it had been a pledge to Israel of God's purpose to set them in unbroken rest, of which the day was in itself an oatmeal,; but if the earnest was lost and the pledge forfeited, then the formal keeping of the day would give rise to painful and humiliating thoughts, rather than happy and self-satisfied ones. But not so with them. Nay, rather their sin was that they regarded the pledge more than; the purpose, and the shadow than the substance; they were contented with form without power. Hence the Lord continually brings before them types of their varied infirmities on that day, at once slowing them the imperfectness of their boasting, and that He was alone able to effect and establish a real Sabbath.
The infirmity here is that of “a certain man which had a dropsy; “the peculiarities of that disease are plainly descriptive of an insatiable desire for any acquisition which, while momentarily allaying it, really aggravates it, and in the end destroys the system subject to such conflicts. The thirst, the burning thirst of Israel for carnal blessings, was aptly pictured in this dropsical man. Every acquisition, as each drink with him, only increased their malady; temporary reliefs eventuated in fatal reactions. The hand of Christ can arrest this grievous disorder; and what He here so graciously effects for this poor sufferer, He is ready to do for the whole Israel of God. “He took and healed him." God's Sabbath will be a day of rest from many a deadly desire, and then no proud religionist will “hold his peace," from owning the beneficence and grace of the mighty hand which achieved it.
The Lord now enunciates a fundamental characteristic of those really blessed. He denounces the ruling passion, the aspiration of the Jew, "when He marked how they chose out the chief rooms," and shows them the uncertainty of unauthorized elevation, and then enforces the new and grand basis of all blessing: "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted"—lay claim to nothing on the ground of merit—have no confidence in flesh—" be not high-minded, but fear "—were now the strange and unwelcome doctrines sounded in the ears of a people whom natural blessings and glory in the flesh had alienated from, instead of attaching to, God; and to a class without claim, or pretension, or ability to recompense, should the Pharisee (if duly consistent to his profession) extend his hospitality. God was about to do so. Instead of priests, without maim or imperfection, to minister before Him, now " the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind," are to be His guests, in all the familiarity of social intercourse, not on the ground of merit, but simply their need commanding His grace and favors. One of the company is evidently interested at our Lord's allusion to the day of recompense, the resurrection of the just, and exclaims with all the earnestness of conviction: “Blessed is he that shall cat bread in the kingdom of God." But the Lord's reply declares how few will appreciate the offer of it, and how none of those who have earthly interests to engage them will accept of it. It is not the question whether they are lawful or not; they satisfy the heart, and, therefore, the feast of God is disregarded. But though the Jew, the recipient of many blessings from God, may disregard the larger and highest blessing He can offer; nay, may forget Himself while they revel in His gifts; yet God's 'grace will find recipients for its exhaustless glories. "The streets and the lanes," the thoroughfares of " the city," must be " quickly " searched for; " the poor, the maimed, the halt and the blind," the destitute sons of earth, are suited guests for a heavenly feast;—the way-worn, homeless, friendless Jacob, with a pillow of stone his only repose, can appreciate heavenly glories, and truly estimate the marvelousness of the scene which was exhibited to him. Such were the class God would now seek; and not only should the city be searched for guests, not only should the poor of Israel be gathered in, but also, from "the highways and hedges," from all the nations of the earth, should a company be pressed, numerous enough to fill the house of God. Let them be found where they may, there must be no limit to their numbers, till that house, as large as the heart of God, shall be filled.
But upon the “bidden” who rejected the invitation, upon them is this condemnation: " They shall not taste of my supper." This, doubtless, is the present condition nationally of Israel.
We now see the natural effects of these doctrines of grace upon the multitude. There went great multitudes with Him. The marvelousness and adaptation to our need of God's grace is deeply attractive, and as long as the fullness and freeness of it are alone proclaimed, so long will the multitude be ready hearers; but our Lord, who knows how to sow the seed, turns to them and announces the path each soul must traverse that will be His disciple or learner of Him. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Every natural tie must be severed if any will be a true learner of the rejected Jesus; and not only so, but he must " daily," every day he tarries here, endure sufferings like his Master, and following wherever He may lead, not expecting rest here, but where He has found it. A disciple has two objects to accomplish: the first is represented by building a tower—a tower is a safe and secure retreat from surrounding danger. A disciple will require no ordinary zeal and expenditure to acquire a place of safety and defense from the inroads of the world, the flesh, and the devil. He must maintain a bold, uncompromising, determined front against them; this can only be at great personal sacrifice and devotedness, and one does well to count the cost ere he enters on an object he is not prepared to complete, for unfinished undertakings always expose us to reproach, as attempting things too great for us and above our ability to accomplish. In an attempt when one stakes everything, a miscarriage is fatal. You assume a power which facts deny you.
The second object is not defense, but aggression. A disciple should not only be safe from attack, but able to make successful sallies against the enemy—he must be a warrior as well as a tower; but if a successful one, he must consult whether he, with a limited force, is able to encounter an adversary with a superior one; but if not, ere any collision has occurred, when the enemy is a great ways off he sendeth an embassage and desireth conditions of peace. How inglorious and ineffectual his effort and pretension! Yet so likewise, "whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." No other preventive against such fearful and humiliating failures but entire self-renunciation in devotedness of heart and soul unto Christ. The only good in salt is its savor; let it lose that, and it is good for nothing. Let disciples fail in their objects; and they are worthless. Israel is not” fit for the land nor for the dunghill," the lowest place of the earth, (see 1 Sam. 2:8,) but they " cast it out; “and let this be a warning to all. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."
Chapter 15.
IN unison with the principles our Lord was unfolding, do now all the publicans and sinners draw near to Him; they perceived they were welcome, that there was grace to receive them. They who needed blessing could appreciate the largeness and fullness of the offer of it, and they who did not, " the Pharisees and scribes, murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." The gracious Lord wearies not in reiterating to them the manner of His grace, and, in fact, in vindicating it. The great point established by the two parables is, that it became the Shepherd of Israel to look for a lost one, and, faithful to His trust, to spare not Himself till He finds it; cost what it may, the sheep must be found; and, doubtless, the greater the task, the greater the joy in accomplishing it; there is great joy in finding the sheep, for it had wandered into dark and dangerous places. This is intrinsically the grace of God, to "rejoice more over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine which need no repentance." God loves the heart that needs Him. The woman, searching for the piece of silver, tells the same tale, only with this difference, that the power which is effectual in the search is in the hand of another. The Son of God, as the Shepherd, searches—the Holy Ghost in the Church searches—and the Father, in the open arms of His love, receives the found one. This the narrative of the prodigal son fully 'elates.
The Jew had never understood the heart of the Father. One treading on the threshold of such blessing could say: “Show us the Father and it sufficeth us." (John 14.) The only-begotten Son had declared it, and it is only in the Spirit of the Son we can understand it. The deeply interesting details of this grace are disclosed here. The two-fold response it produces is illustrated by the “two sons." “The younger son” early desires independence, and seeks at a distance from hue Father to enjoy it: abundance of gifts bound not his heart to the giver, but they abide not always. Every element separated from its source is terminable. He forsook the fountain, and he began to be in want. Such was Israel when, having wandered from God, they sought for help from Egypt and Assyria. He “JOINED himself to a citizen of that country," and they took away all his labor, (see Ezek. 23:29,) and left him naked and bare; “and he would fain have filled his belly with the husks." "No man gave unto him." Now, on the verge of destitution, when there was no eye to pity, when every human aid and means are sped—then, in that moment of bitterest anguish, a thought (unseenly sent, but surely felt) of the Father's love enters his soul; the one he had slighted, above whom all others were preferred, is now to be sought as his only friend; no question as to acceptance—no one knows the Father and doubts it. You may not know the measure of it, but as to the fact there can be no question. It simply depends on His goodness and my need; if either is questionable, then may the acceptance be. This is the great point pressed here—the Father's arms, open and advancing towards the returning and desolate wanderer.
Though I do not doubt that in its main features this narrative presents the return of Israel in the latter day, as described in Hosea 13., yet I apprehend that a new purpose of present mercy is taught here, as affecting the desolate and hopeless wanderers of Israel of this day. The restored one here is not established in his forfeited, but redeemed inheritance; he is introduced into a place and portion not ever appertaining to him. The Father's house is to be the future sphere of all his glory and enjoyment. Wondrous grace! Where sin abounded, grace much more abounded. To him who forfeited his large estates of natural blessings, and now a desolate beggar—even to him are the doors of God's everlasting house thrown open. God commands His servants now to carry out the full intentions of His love. Paul understood this commission; he desired "to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." God will accomplish His purpose. "They began to be merry." This hapless one is rescued from the direst want, to abide with God in holy everlasting joys; but, instead of all with one voice acknowledging and applauding this unheard-of mercy, there are found within the nearest ties of nature the most hostile and averse to it. The elder brother is the open enemy of grace; for the mere reputable, well-conducted and prudent of the earth, have no appreciation of this new and wondrous acceptance and elevation. He could not catch the air of the anthem of grace; he could not sing the new song with the risen, heavenly, but once lost prodigal; "he would not go in." Such were the Pharisees of our Lord's day; but even to such the hand of mercy is still stretched out. The Father, in the person of Jesus, has come out, and entreated the self-satisfied Jew—offered him a participation in this glorious grace—grace that he does not understand—grace that he never expected or desired; the utmost of his wish only reached to "make merry with his friends." Into his heart it never entered that God would share His joys with him. God graciously vindicates His own course, an unanswerable one to any Jewish caviler, adding the promise yet surely to be fulfilled to Israel "Son, thou art ever with me, and all I have is thine." Even God, the gracious God, could say no more!
Chapter 16.
IN the preceding chapter, we have learned the gracious purpose of God toward the lost one, the rebellious son. Here we are instructed respecting the Jew in the capacity of steward, and how grace even meets him there, if he would but understand his impending and deserved discharge; nay, his Lord, at personal loss, would mitigate an inevitable sentence, and, in the hour of degradation, lay a groundwork for future and abiding honors. Could a Jew, could any say that they have dispensed God's gifts with a faithful, un-wasteful hand? The son wastes his substance in riotous living. The steward wastes it by inattention and unfaithfulness. Whatever be our standing, we have not requited God for His goodness to us. We are convicted. We can only say, one and all: "What shall I do?” In this extremity, grace opens a path not only for safety, but unfailing maintenance. We have no property save what belongs to our Lord. We have no title to the mammon of unrighteousness—possession does not establish right; we only hold it by sufferance. Such is our humiliating title and claim to all earthly accumulation. The grace of God canvasses not our title—it overlooks it. It bears with our trespass, and only desires that we so improve our possessions-ours without title or right, nay, distinctly our Lord's—that when we are called finally to give an account of our stewardship, we may have so traded on our Lord's rights, that there will be many to own our good works, and sanction honor and reception to us for our services through them.
But if we are unfaithful in our dispensing the mammon of unrighteousness, which God regards as the least, we will be unfaithful in a greater, and consequently we must not expect to be entrusted with true riches, with that which is our own, but only in proportion to our faithfulness in the least. And if your heart is devoted to mammon, to which you have no right, it cannot be devoted to God; you cannot serve both. You must regard it as the least of all God's gifts; and, therefore, it must never take a high place in your desires, much less be placed in the same view with Him the bountiful source of all.
All these sayings, which in the first verse of the chapter we find were addressed to the disciples, are quite unpalatable to the Pharisees, for their hearts were set on unrighteous mammon; " they were covetous; " they were not ready to be debtors to mercy alone. This further rejection only leads our Lord with greater plainness to declare the result. He denounces self-justification before men, and assures those popularity-loving religionists that human estimation is God's abomination; that the law and the prophets were until John, but now the " kingdom is preached," and every one (Jew and Gentile) is pressing into it; that no tittle of the law shall fail; that the law which binds a man to his wife cannot be abrogated. Let the wife be whom she may on the earth, Christ can have no queen there but Israel; but Israel is not without sin if she is wedded to another. And, furthermore, let your eye take a survey of the end: see whether poverty is preferable now, with rest and consolation by and bye, or riches now and torment hereafter. Is it better to be accepted of God, or enriched in the earths? On which was set the heart of Israel? A despised beggar here may be highly accepted in the kingdom of God. There, in Abraham's bosom, in the richest hospitalities, in the closest friendship, may such an one be placed. Here he may desire “to be fed from the crumbs of the rich man's table, and the dogs may lick his sores; " (kindness from Gentiles;) but there the rich and luxurious one, who passed Lazarus here without sympathy or notice, will then select him as alone fit to minister to him and assuage his bitter suffering. Little had been his means here for establishing a character for charitable sympathy, yet unquestioned testimony is borne to his possession of it by his once proud, rich and heartless neighbor, but now an expatriated sufferer. Strict propriety, as in the “elder brother," does not ensure the warm son-like affection the repentant younger one glows with. A beggar, reputedly destitute of earthly means, can outstrip in heart and principles for service the richest and the most largely gifted with human subsidies. Social nearness to Abraham, as the bosom figuratively expresses, is within reach of the least blessed on earth; and the blessing of the barn and the store, which some so earnestly desired as their inheritance, did not ensure that one which alone gave value to all others. It is well to notice here, that the word heaven is not mentioned in this passage, nor do I apprehend that the future state is taught in it, but the fact that the presently unblessed Jew may not be so by and bye. It is a word of comfort to the poor of the flock, and of warning to those who sought present “consolation." It is plainly a word to Israel, though it opens a door to them who could boast of no earthly portion; and if “the dogs” symbolize the Gentiles, their act but exemplifies our duty, and it moreover unfolds to us more plainly the characteristics of the people who should supersede the present religionists.
The reformation will not arouse Israel from its present state of self-security and ease. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." I make no comment on the “five brethren," as I might not be correct in doing so; but there is deep instruction in the conversation between Abraham and the now suffering but once luxurious Jew.
Chapter 17
FROM the last chapter, the impression that offences would arise is evidently forced upon us, and hence our Lord at once alludes to it. The greatest offence or hindrance to the believer now, is seeking present consolation and earthly aggrandizement; and the one who leads the Church to seek them and aids them in acquiring such, has wrought great detriment and hindrance to its welfare. The Pharisees, who desired to make a fair show in the flesh and sought acknowledgment from men, would ever be the great hinderers of Christ's disciples. There is nothing so hard as patiently to continue a despised worshipper of God on His own earth. To have a right on account of Him, and yet to waive that right. The assertion of this right has lowered Christians into the pursuits and plans of the world and into perpetual collision with it for all that is of the world. Alas! we need not say how hindered they have been!
The Lord foresaw all, and consequently proscribes a rule which, if adhered to, would obviate such a calamity. It was simply a zealous watching of each over his fellow—a plain reversal of Cain's effective selfishness—every one must keep his brother. If thy brother trespass against thee—if he would lead thee to seek a place and name here—if he would induce thee to court the rich man's portion to that of Lazarus—he has done thee a great hurt, he would hinder thee. Thou must "rebuke him," and if he repent, if he see his weakness, thou shalt forgive him, even if he seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, " I repent," thou shalt forgive him. The readiness to forgive must be as great as the proneness to transgress; if we fail in forgiveness, we fail in our proper strength, in our own place with God. The trial and difficulty which these announcements disclose so affect the apostles, that they, in consciousness of their little ability to cope with them, cry out to the Lord: “Increase our faith." Nothing but confidence in God can sustain the disciple in the path now set before him; but if one has it as much as “a grain of mustard seed," the smallest seed in nature, of no visible greatness, he would say to the hindrance—the Jewish pretension of which I think " this sycamore tree" is the symbol—" Be thou plucked up by the roots, and be thou planted in the sea," in untraceable and unexplorable distance, "and it should obey you."
But all this is your duty as a faithful servant, and we are still to consider ourselves "unprofitable," though we have fulfilled it. It is not optional with us to obey or not these instructions. It is simply our duty to do so; and the heart that rightly appreciates the love and service of God will eagerly adopt them, and this the healed leper in the next passage illustrates to us.
The Lord is on His way to Jerusalem, and He passes through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. His progress to the city was typical, as is evident, of His yet great triumphant epiphany he is at this moment journeying to that glorious epoch, but on His way, aliens and Gentiles are made partakers of His grace and mercies.
"Ten men that were lepers met Him," They cried for mercy. "When Jesus saw them,"—when His eye beheld their need—
"He said unto them: Go and show yourselves unto the priests."
He would not subvert an economy ordained of God; but hearts who have learned more largely of the goodness of God, they can step beyond it. One of the ten here can recognize in Jesus something greater than the law; he can out-step its confined and distant recognition of God, and he can with his own voice, apart from interventionary ordinances, glorify God; and, delivered from the Mosaic terrors of Mount Sinai, he fell down at the feet of Jesus, giving Him thanks; but he was an alien, " a Samaritan."
The Lord Himself takes note that a stranger alone returns to give glory to God. He who nationally had no right to blessing by faith, obtains everything. He hears the wondrous grace, “Thy faith hath made thee whole; “he enters into all the blessedness typified in Leviticus 14. He felt in himself the virtue and the power of the kingdom of God, and as such is our present pattern, exemplifying to us that faith only can elevate us above the trammels of the law or the yoke of ordinances, without any display, but what passes between our own soul and the unseen presence of the gracious Jesus. All this is lost upon the Pharisees, or unintelligible to them; and hence, "When he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come," He answered, The kingdom of God cometh not with outward show. The kingdom or reign of God is learned within; there it comes first to exercise its influence. It is not for you to look here or look there, but to know that the power of it already is "among you" in the person of the Son of God. The leper had learned this.
But though now among them, yet He warns His disciples that “the days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it; "they would feel their helplessness and desolation in the absence of their Lord, but yet in their anxiety for deliverance, by His presence, they were not to believe every report of His appearance, for of it there would be no uncertainty, for athwart the heaven it would gleam with all the brilliancy of lightning, but His rejection by this generation must precede that epoch, and this in addition to the "ninny things " which He personally should suffer. Also, the times would be marked by a plain similarity to those of Noe. The days of Noe evidently mean the times before the flood, so must the days of the Son of man mean the times before Christ enters with His saved ones into the everlasting ark of glory. The reference to Lot is plainer, for there we learn that, on a particular day, typical of the day of Christ's appearance, Lot retreated from Sodom, and the fire of God's judgments descended upon it; and so shall it be when the Son of man is revealed. And THAT day will be no time for anyone to engage themselves with earthly objects; escape should only engage them. "Remember Lot's wife;” her heart still lingered in the devoted Sodom; yea, many a one will be left whose companion shall be rescued; proximity to the blessed does not ensure blessing. Thrice woeful to part for ever from your closest companion, and in such an hour; and we need not ask “where?" for wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.
Chapter 18.
THIS chapter is a continuation of the subject of the preceding one, and sets before the disciples the spirit in which they should pass through the troublous scenes just foretold to them. If they be desolate, their strength and stay gone—if they suffer from the violence of their adversaries, and if the avenging arm of God is still unmoved for them—yet to Him, and Him alone, though there be no indication of His help, though all appearances be against them, must they look for deliverance and succor. The simple remedy for such times is, “that men pray always and not faint;” and the fruit of crying day and night unto Him is, " I tell you He will avenge them speedily"—when the day of vengeance begins. " Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? “a plain intimation that the earth, especially the Jewish hand, shall not be the laud of faith, as became the true sons of Abraham when the Son of man cometh. How little did their present self-satisfaction accord with the spirit of the widow! This the Lord denounces in the next parable. He is not a real suppliant whose confidence is not alone in God, and he is not a true one that is not conscious of his own unworthiness.
The Pharisee depictures Israel's then present spirit: the publican represents that of the contrite remnant. The real condition of Israel was that of a publican; they were tributaries to the Roman power. The official publicans might have exacted tribute from them, but so did they from the Lord's inheritance; one and all did this, save " the repairer of the breach," who, from the fish's mouth, from the sea, neither by toil nor from the land, provided the tribute money, the evidence of Israel's condition-but He stood above that condition.
It is evident no one can appreciate blessings rightly from God, who has not at the same time a consciousness of Ids need and helplessness and his entire unworthiness of relief. The widow shews one, the publican the other, and then follows the " infant," as showing, though weak in itself, the simple confidence and submission withal, which such an one retains for its careful nurturer. This sample of Christ's followers, the disciples, who naturally (like many a religionist) expected some appearance of power and rule, are quite ready to discard, and "rebuked them that brought them;” but the Lord sets them forward as a model of the subjects of the kingdom of God. Be a widow as to your sense of need and helplessness, and a publican as to your sense of unworthiness, and an infant, though you are weak, as to your confidence and unresisting submission. A rich; ruler, as the narrative next brings before us, may desire, yea sincerely, to discover a mode of inheriting the kingdom of God. He is a most amiable and very rich man in his best and favored condition; yet, he has a sense of need, the need of the kingdom of God, but not a sense like the widow, of need and no ability to counteract it; he has kept all the commandments he is asked, and these comprise all which refer to our neighbor, save " thou shalt not covet," which, as we see from the manner in which Paul uses it in Rom. 7., touches the secret springs; in a word, he was unblemished among men, the personification of the best among Israel. To any thoughtful Jew, it must be deeply interesting what answer the Lord would give to this good rich ruler's question. Oh! how it tested his convictions of Christ as "good Master," as of God, when required to sell all that he hath, "distribute to the poor, have treasure in heaven, and follow me," a poor, a desolate, but a good Stranger. Such are the plain characteristics of an heir of the kingdom, entirely above and beyond all Jewish calculation, so opposed to all natural desires that the hearers in consternation cry out: “Who then can be saved?" That "all things are possible with God" can alone allay such fears. May we all know more practically the effects of that “possibility," and be able to echo the words of Peter: “Lo, we have left all and followed thee!" To this the Lord replies, announcing a large blessing not to the Jews only, but to every one: " There is no man (save He) who hath left.... for the kingdom of God's sake, that shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world (or ageτῷαἰῶνι)to come eternal life." I believe the word "age " is always connected with the history of the earth, and in the coming age will be the manifestation of the sons of God; so that the followers of Christ now not only receive manifold more in this present time, "blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places," (which, though not distinctly alluded to here, is perhaps no forced interpretation of "the manifold more,") but shall be manifested in living eternity in the age to come.
The Lord, "then" in company with” the twelve," proceeds on His way "to Jerusalem," and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. He does not say at what moment, but that they shall be accomplished. The order and the time are not spoken of; the fact is merely stated that they shall be accomplished, and that Jerusalem would be the great theatre of them, so that any which are not yet accomplished will be, doubtless, accomplished, and accomplished there. But while He discloses to them the cruel mockings and bitter treatment He is to receive at the hands of “Gentiles," unto whom His own people are to deliver Him, “they understood none of these things." The death and resurrection of Jesus, the cross and the glory, are subjects often incomprehensible to many an old disciple; we are unwilling to see the path Christ trod, lest we be filled with reproach and dismay at our great distance or departure from it. Israel gave Jesus to be crucified by "the Gentiles." "He is evidently set forth crucified amongst them." (Gal. 3:1.) They are assuredly glorified with Him. Ali! how blindness in part is happened to Israel. But as a picture of their condition and the mercy that would one day arrest it, though now there was "not a man among them that should make up the hedge," and therefore " their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God," (Ezek. 22:30, 31,) we have, " as He came nigh unto Jericho, (" the cursed city in Israel,") a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging." This is Israel's present condition, blind and covetous; but when in deep distress, despite of all rebuking, he shall cry for mercy to Jesus, the Son of David. (Zech. 11:8-10.) The command shall go forth that he should be " brought near," and according to his desires so shall he receive, and then Israel shall no longer be obstructed by blindness and covetousness, but endued with a power which " the ruler " (such an ornament of their nation) knew nothing of and would not receive. " He followed Jesus, glorifying God," and as was then in measure, when they saw it, so by and bye with one heart and one voice all the people will give praise unto God.
Chapter 19.
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 7:14. (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. Zaccheus 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 "to-day," "the day of salvation," still existing, (see Heb. 3. 4. and 2 Cor. 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. 2:13,) 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."
Chapter 20.
IT ill suits the thread of the narrative to be broken by the chapter division, for it is on " one of those days in which He taught the people in the temple" that " the chief priests and scribes, with the elders, came upon Him," with the object to damage His influence with the people, as they could not succeed in their more malevolent design. They raise the questions: "By what authority doest thou these things, and who is He who gave thee this authority?"—questions always raised by those who wish to escape from the edge of truth under such shelter, and not by them who earnestly desire to be instructed by it. The Lord in his reply recalls to them their reception of John the Baptist, when He asked them: "The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men?" If they have not been able to declare openly the source of John's ministry, neither will they of Him who was to come after him. Strange and faithless guides were they who feared to tell the people what they would have them believe, but they loved their own case better than the people's benefit; (according to them,) false doctrine must always be propagated privily. There is no innate strength and sustainment in it, as there is in truth to confirm and embolden the teacher of it. Oh! how self-convicted they must have been! Where was their authority? and of how much value was it? Hence, the Lord. delivers a parable, which declares the results of all God's dealings with Israel. No matter how often He sent, or whom He sent, even His beloved Son. No recompense from this rebellious people; and not only this, but they despised the message and ill-treated the Messenger, and, to add to all, they would kill the beloved Son, that the inheritance might be their own, that they might do their own will. And we know how short a time they retained it after they had carried out their direfully ambitious views; and so it is foretold here: “He shall come and destroy these husbandman, and give the vineyard (not the vine) to others; " not at all to Christendom, I believe, for facts are against this. Professors of Christianity have been possessors of Palestine for very short periods, and the prediction merely states that the vineyard should be given to others; but, in connection with this, the present husbandman were to be destroyed, and this destruction was contingent on our Lord's coming. "He shall come and destroy these husbandmen." So that I am disposed to think that “others” mean the believing remnant; at all events, they cannot mean the Church, and thus favor the assertion of its present earthly standing. The hearers deprecate this dreaded catastrophe, but Jesus "beheld them," and shows them that long since it was predicted that " the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner; " at one and the same time declaring their sin, the sin of their teachers, &c., as builders in rejecting Him, but yet that He had grace and power to rise above all and take His proper place as "head of the corner." Let those who trembled at Israel's apostasy take comfort from, this.
The chief priests and scribes are now exasperated to the full purpose of their enmity, for "in the same hour they sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people; for they perceived that He had spoken this parable against them." Every art and every device must now be resorted to. “They watched Him and sent forth spies who should feign themselves just men," and all that they might deliver Him to the Gentiles, "unto the power and authority of the governor." They act with all the meanness and cowardice which characterize bad designs. These just men tempt Jesus respecting the tribute money, as if they were truly anxious to be informed rightly. He had spoken of Israel's territory as God's vineyard; was it then lawful to give tribute to Cæsar, thus owning his title to it To be tributaries to Cæsar was a plain evidence of Israel's apostasy. Whose image and superscription did their coins bear? Did they not own him and not God? True, they were compelled to pay tribute; but why did all the coins of the realm bear the image of Cæsar? Was this obligatory on them, or was it the adulation of the enslaved? If on all their money they own Cæsar, surely, to render unto him the portion he demanded of it was but reasonable. Let them “render therefore unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's," but that did not exonerate them from rendering "unto God the things that were God's." Nay, if they had done this latter, they would never have been compelled to do the former; but there was then, as there is now, a greater readiness to render allegiance to the power of the world than to Him who is head over all things, and who, being honored, would always make us superior to the power of the world. To advocate implicitly that the world and God should each get their very own, would create a marvel in this day, and put to silence the pretended men of justice, as it had in that day, "for they marvelled at His answer and held their peace."
But for this blessed faithful servant of God to Israel there is no respite. When one opposer is silenced, another appears on the stage. “Many bulls (well might He say) have compassed me: they gaped on me with their mouths." The Sadducees, who deny that there is any resurrection, now present themselves to entangle the Lord on the subject of the resurrection—a subject increasingly interesting to Himself, as about so soon to be the glorious manifester of it. Satan was beginning to array all his power against its display. Israel was allowing that to be called in question which was its best hope. Could they bear to have it questioned whether God would bid “the dry bones live?" Alas! for the nation, if there was no resurrection. The revelation from the burning bush, which encouraged and sustained Moses, was that God was the God of the living, and that though the fathers were not, yet shall they still live; and, therefore, as the God of resurrection, no power of death could obstruct His purposes. God is the God of the living; if death has power over you, God is your God, for unto Him life is always directed. What is not directed unto Him is not life. She that liveth in pleasure, is dead while she liveth, for “all live unto Him." And Jesus was now a living personification of the glories impressed on Moses by that wondrous vision in the desert—the great antitype of the glory of God in a bush, and the bush not consumed—God manifest in flesh—the resurrection itself, and prophet like unto Moses, to deliver them from the grinding rule of another Pharaoh. But He is not received, though even a scribe has to acknowledge that He has "answered well;" and so confounded and silenced are all His adversaries, that "after that, they durst not ask Him any question at all." Yet Jesus knew that their malevolence was only smothered to break forth in another form with fresh violence, and, therefore, quotes from Scripture the prophecy which was then fulfilled. His mission here was about to close. He is about, according to the will of Jehovah, to take His seat at the right hand of the Father. “How say they that Christ is David's Son?" Christ will depart and go unto Jehovah, as the Scriptures have said; let all understand this, and He will remain till His enemies are set for His footstool. Here we have unfolded Christ's present heavenly position, and His future purpose toward Israel—" the citizens," “His enemies." Hence, with the program before Him of His return to the Father, and within hearing of Jehovah's summons, does He now denounce the scribes, who were so called from their supposed knowledge of Scripture: they sought their own glory, "and the house of the Lord lieth waste," and they "shall receive the greater damnation."
Chapter 21.
THERE is properly no division here. Jesus, obeying the call of Jehovah, is on His journey, though it be a sorrowing one, to the joy set before Him, and now on His way out, at the door of the temple, “He looked up." His eye and heart had ceased, after many a struggle, to take interest in anything there, but He looked up when He came to the treasury, where were deposited offerings for the repair of the temple, which His heart was so entirely set on. “He saw rich men casting their gifts into the treasury." Their act did not sympathize with His purpose, but " He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites: " her act touched His heart, for it bore apt resemblance to His own destined and incipient one, for He was on His way in deep penury to give all the living that He had to repair and rebuild the temple of God; and this was her act. How different from that of the scribes! It also illustrates the future act of the nation, when in its widowhood and destitution it should readily surrender “the last farthing “for the true temple of God. I think "the two mites" may refer to a “double" suffering; (Is. 40:1.) yet, while the Lord is meditating on the great cost at which the temple would be set up on an external basis, He is interrupted by some who, in little unison with His feelings, spoke of it, " how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts." This admiration, so discordant to His mind and judgment, draws from Him a plain and succinct account of its coming destiny, even that "the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another which shall not be thrown down." They cannot mistake this, and hence the questions: “When shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? “We should remember, in seeking the interpretation of an answer, that it is necessary to keep in mind the question which called it forth, and it unconnected with any other thought. Some of the Jewish people here only defined the pronoun; “they " ask two questions respecting the total destruction of the temple, and, consequently, answers to these questions only ought we to look for or comprehend in the reply. To you who are interested in that sad scene, the first thing you have to guard against is, being “deceived," and by what? It is not false doctrine. It is by many coming in Christ's name, and saying, I am assuming power and authority, (earthly of course,) in the name of Christ. This will soon begin, but do not go after them. The mere commotions of nations and your own persecutions, which shall turn to you for a testimony, are no signs of proximity to this terrible moment; but "when you shall see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh," but "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." If the times of the Gentiles are not expired, Jerusalem must continue to be trodden down by them. When one ends, the other ends; and if one, the times of the Gentiles, still exists, as all must allow, then also must the other; and hence it is vain to expect one to cease, which many attempt, without the cessation of the other. That is, the times of the Gentiles must cease, if in this day the restoration of Jerusalem could be effected; so that they who attempt it only expedite their own removal from the scene, though it is evident they do it not with this object: not only shall there be signs in heaven and on the earth and sun, but also men, whose hearts are failing them with fear, shall see the Son of man (Christ in manhood) coming in a cloud with power and great glory. It is not merely Jews or disciples shall see, but those who are afraid to see Him.
These things are but the harbingers of the day of redemption, a period full of meaning and interest to an embarrassed Jew: that day comes not till preceded by all these sorrows and calamities. God is a righteous God. His grace always reigns through righteousness, and He will ever judge His people. To convey the results of all this in a mystery, plain to the instructed but sealed up to unbelief, He spike a parable. “Behold a fig tree and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is nigh at hand; so likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." Now, I think it is plain that this parable is no part of the answer to the two questions, but rather what was to happen, consequent on the answer to them being accomplished. I believe the fig tree is a symbol of Israel's national condition, as the vine of its moral, and the olive of its testimony, and that "all the trees" represent the nations of the earth; there is great advancement among them; there is every indication of summer being nigh; they shall say peace and safety, but destruction is imminent, and man's kingdom is at an end, for " the kingdom of God is nigh, at hand." And let none suppose that this is addressed to the Church; for, as if to guard us against the thought that these things, after the lapse of so many years, could not happen to Israel, the Lord distinctly assures us that this generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled. All the predictions recorded here are either fulfilled, or this generation has not passed away; and if it is asserted that they are fulfilled, why is Jerusalem trodden down of the Gentiles? Why do the times of the Gentiles continue Why? have not men seen Christ in manhood, in power and great glory? for as yet He was seen by them only in weakness, " crucified in weakness; " and, surely, the time has not yet come which shall be a snare TO ALL them which dwell on the face of the whole earth, but as the earth shall be the scene of such terrible judgments, the faithful are exhorted to " watch, therefore, and pray always; " and that the more dissociated they are from earth and its enjoyment, the more sure they will be to ESCAPE the judgments coming on it. It is not that they are triumphantly to pass through, but escape (ἐκφυγεῖν, literally, to "fly out") "all the things which shall come to pass, and stand before the Son of man." I can understand how the moral of this can apply to the Church, as well as to the Jewish remnant, to whom it is evident these words are primarily addressed.
Perhaps we have, in our Lord's division of His time at this moment, for He is the same yesterday and to-day, some insight as to His present and future engagements; the nights are spent on the mount of Olives, and the days in the temple. This is the night emphatically, and Christ is on the mount, the heavenly mount; there real green olive trees flourish. But when the day has fairly dawned, He will appear in His temple, and " the people will come early in the morning to Him in the temple to hear Him,' for the people shall be willing in the day of His power. (Ps. 110.)