To minister, not to be ministered to, did the Son of Man come; and, though He accepted the ministrations of women (Luke 8:3), and learned what it was as a man to be waited on in the wilderness (Mark 1:13), and strengthened in the garden by angelic agency (Luke 22:43), yet, as God’s servant upon earth, He came to minister to man. How simply can such a fact be stated, but what a fact it is! The Son of Man under whom all things in heaven and earth will one day be openly placed, He it is who has been upon earth in humiliation, who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. He came to minister! To the disciples of John He gave a slight sketch of some of the marked features of His ministry in Israel, by which their master might be assured that He was the Christ. The blind, the lame, the leper, the dead, the deaf, and the poor, these were the classes benefited by His services as He walked about amongst men. A new era had dawned upon earth, when the Firstborn of all Creation could be found occupied with such. To all in Israel, who had wants or desires, was He thus willing to minister. The impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, friendless and helpless as he was, could witness of His readiness to heal him; and the poor woman, who for eighteen years had been afflicted by a spirit of infirmity, could tell with gratitude of His words addressed to her, and His hand laid on her in the synagogue on the Sabbath day (Luke 13:12, 13). Was His, presence desired anywhere, He would graciously hearken to the request, as Peter’s wife’s mother knew well, and Jairus the ruler of the synagogue, as well as the Gentile Centurion could attest. No time nor place was out of season. When he had not time so much as to eat bread (Mark 3:20), and His friends hearing of it, went out to lay hold of Him, thinking He was beside Himself, He did not check the importunate crowd which surrounded Him; nor, when at a later date His privacy with the twelve was invaded by much people, who ran afoot out of all cities, and outwent them, did the Lord resent the seeming intrusion; but moved with compassion for them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd, He began to teach them many things (Mark 6:31, 34). Again, on his last journey to Jerusalem, He stopped the whole procession by Jericho at the sound of the blind beggar’s voice; and, on the morrow after His transfiguration on the mount, He attended most patiently to that poor distracted father’s account of his afflicted son, and manifested that, though he could be in the cloud of glory, and was the Father’s well-beloved Son, His presence on earth was indispensable to fallen men when under the dominion of the enemy.
To all classes was He accessible. As Messiah He met the need of the children of Israel, and healed, as we read, all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people (Matt. 4:23). The Samaritans of Sychar tasted of His graciousness and of His grace; for, though a Jew by birth, He could give even to the Samaritans living water springing up unto everlasting life. The Samaritan leper, a stranger according to the law of Moses, was healed in common with the other nine, and, from his turning back in the fullness of his heart to thank the Lord for having compassion on him, we learn that Christ had made no difference in His dealings between the rest and him. All alike were healed, though one only, that stranger, gave glory to God by confessing it to the Lord. And the Syrophenician woman was a witness that, even a dog, a Gentile, when she took her true place dispensationally before Him, got all the request of her heart fulfilled without delay and without reserve: “O woman great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour” (Matt. 15:28).
But not only in ministering to the wants of the body do we read about Him, for He taught, He sympathized, He comforted. On the shores of the lake of Galilee (Luke 5), in the wilderness (Mark 6:34), in synagogues, in the temple, and in private houses (Mark 2:1, 15, Luke 7), He taught. The widow of Nain could tell how, from His compassion towards her, He had healed her broken heart, by restoring the dead son to his mother; and those at the side of Lazarus’ grave could bear witness to the tenderness of His love to the sisters in their sorrow. Nor was this all. As the Shepherd He had got access to the sheep in the fold, ministered the suited truth to them, and got hold of their hearts preparatory to leading them out.
But He died, and that active ministry, carried on by Him during life, stopped when He was taken down from the cross, and was laid in the grave. Did His ministry cease then, never to be resumed? His general ministry amongst men, as carried on when upon earth, did then cease, and has not since been resumed; but, as miracles are the powers of the age to come, we learn from the character of His works before His death what the blessings are men will owe to Him when He reigns, when prayer shall be made for Him continually, and daily shall He be praised (Psa. 72:15). Before, however, that time arrives for earth, the heavenly people will learn on high what His ministry will do for them there. Their work for Him on earth ended, and having watched for His return, “He will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them” (Luke 12:37). The servants will then sit, and He Himself will attend on them, thus maintaining that character He declared was His, when He ate the last supper with the apostles. “I am among you as ὁ διακονῶν—the one who serves” (Luke 22:27). But this character of service will be exercised only on behalf of His people, those who belong to heaven, and whose life on earth has ended.
Before the cross He could minister to Jew and Gentile, by and by all nations on earth shall rejoice in what He will provide for them, but on high His own will behold Him in that character, outwardly assumed for the moment at the last supper, of the girded Servant, serving, not one above Him, but those whose privilege it had been to be reckoned amongst His servants and followers when on earth. This, however, is a heavenly scene to be witnessed when both He and they are together on high, as the powers of the age to come will be enjoyed by men on earth, when He returns to reign over them. But what a time that will be—what a scene will then be witnessed, when the Master will wait on those who have served, and waited for Him!
Thus in time past, and in the future, will the Lord manifest Himself as the One who serves. But a new thing was inaugurated when He went on high—a Man, crowned with glory and honor, serving God’s saints on earth. That heavenly beings should minister to men in their mortal state was nothing new, for as soon as Adam and Eve fell, and expulsion from the garden was found to be part of the consequences of their sin, the cherubim, placed eastward in the garden, guarded with the flaming sword every way to the tree of life. A ministry this was of goodness and mercy to the fallen pair. From that day till the time of the patriarch Abraham we read nothing about angelic ministry to men, but from his days and onward to the close of the canon of Scripture, we meet with statements of their service and intervention, providentially and judicially, or otherwise, in the affairs of men. By the visit of two to Sodom Lot was rescued, and by one Peter was brought out of prison. By the destroying angel the first-born of the Egyptians were smitten, and by an angel was Israel chastised in the reign of David. All angel ministered to Elijah in the desert, and appeared to Paul on board ship in the storm. The angels of God met Jacob at Mahanaim, and surrounded Elisha and his young man on the mount. An angel was sent to Daniel to tell him about the future, and the revelation of Jesus Christ was signified to John by one of those heavenly messengers. To men in general, without distinction of race or spiritual condition do they attend, it would appear; for the Lord acquaints us with the fact about little children, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of His Father in heaven. But to God’s people in particular do they minister. Thus Messiah was to be the object of their providential care, as the Psalmist declared (Psa. 91:11), and the nation of Israel, as God’s earthly people, is specially cared for by Michael their prince (Dan. 10:21; 12:1). And now, that Israel and God’s people are not one and the same class, we learn from Hebrew 1:14, that the angels are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. Thus, men, Israel, and God’s saints, though inferior to angels in rank, intelligence, and power, are cared for by them. But since the Lord Jesus went on high, a new thing has been instituted—His service, whilst in heaven, to souls upon earth, not superseding in the least angelic ministry to men, as the Acts of the Apostles abundantly evidence, nor carrying on exactly the same service in which He engaged when on earth. Personal service it was then, personal service it is now. He as much concerns Himself with individuals as ever He did, we have to say with reverence and with thankfulness; but He does not now do what He did then. To heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people is not the special feature in His ministry now; to restore the dead to desolated homes and hearts is not His present service. He may, He does answer prayer for bodily wants; but, since to depart, and be with Christ, is the better thing for God’s saints, we look not for Him to restore the dead to life, unless, as in the case of Dorcas, for a testimony to the reality of His power and exaltation to God’s right hand, whom men nailed to the cross. In the early days of Christianity, when the disciples went forth preaching everywhere, the Lord worked with them, confirming the word by the signs following (Mark 16:20). This manifestation of His continued interest in His people and in God’s work on earth we see not now, yet the Lord’s ministry is as real and as constant now as ever it was, though only on behalf of His own; for, though on earth He ministered to men irrespective of their soul’s condition, since He was rejected by the world He carries on His service, whilst on high, only on behalf of His saints.
Of this feature in His present ministration we have intimation in His discourse with His disciples in the upper room on the night before His crucifixion. Sorrow filling their hearts at the prospect of losing their Master and Friend, He comforted them with the assurance that He was going to His Father’s house to make ready a place for them within it. He was leaving earth; the world would see Him no more, but His own left upon earth would have a place in His heart. He would, when absent, prepare a place for them. When any child of God dies, their service for those on earth ceases, and we read not of anything such can do in the unclothed state; nor is it till we meet with the elders clothed upon with their house from heaven, and having golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints (Rev. 5:8), that we learn how saints in heaven can be occupied on behalf of saints upon earth. With the Lord, however, it was different. To prepare a place for us in His Father’s house was one thing He was to do; to answer the prayer of His disciples, offered up in His name, was another. “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything my name I will do it.” Never, then, would they be forgotten by Him; constantly would they be cared for, and their desires granted, when expressed in His name. “I will do it,” are His words, expressive of His active interference on their behalf. Remembering who spake those words—the Son of the Father, who has gone to prepare a place for His people in His—not merely the Father’s house—how favored, how blessed, must those be who are the objects of His solicitude now, part of that company for whom He will come to receive them unto Himself. Gone to prepare a place for them, fulfilling their desires, and waiting to come for them to have them with Himself, such was the brief outline He gave His disciples on the night of His apprehension, of what would be His care and thought, when separated from them in person for a season.
But this little outline, wonderful as it is, does not unfold to us the varied nature of His present service on our behalf. It assures us of His unabated interest in those who, bearing His name, and really believing on Him, yet understood so little about Him; it shows us that that interest, which will not be satisfied till His people are with Him in His Father’s house, was quite independent of their intelligence about His person, His origin, and whether He was going; yet must we turn to other Scriptures, if we would learn the different characters He sustains in relation to His people, who came to earth, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and who, though seated on the right hand of the Majesty on high, still stoops to serve. John 14 assures us that His interest in His saints on earth will never flag; other Scriptures particularize His ministry whilst in heaven.