Servus Servorum
(No. 2514)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 25, 1897.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 6, 1885.
"I am among you as He that serves." Luke 22:27.
OBSERVE, dear Friends, that our Lord, in order to impress a great
practical Truth of God upon His 12 Apostles, refers them to Himself. He
very often does so, quoting His own doings as an example to His
servants. Does not this fact give us a hint that there is someone
greater than a man here, for no mere man, modest and true and
right-minded, would continually make himself the object of imitation!
We would not consider it right if we found Abraham, or Moses, or David
constantly pointing to himself as an example. Such a course is very
proper for certain persons in certain special cases as, for instance,
Paul might occasionally allude to himself when he was addressing his
own converts, but even then rarely doing it–and doing it with extreme
diffidence. But our Lord acts thus very often and with the utmost
possible naturalness! Neither did it ever suggest itself to anyone of
His people that there was anything immodest in His doing so. Such an
idea never occurred to us because we have always recognized in Him
something which entitled Him to speak thus, something which rendered it
quite right that He should so speak. He is Master and Lord! He is very
God of very God! He is perfect! He is out of the lists of ordinary men,
He rises like a lone Alp above us all and when He speaks as He does in
the words before us, the very fact that He does speak without our
feeling any objection thereto proves that there is a something
altogether unique about His Character, and that something, I believe,
is the existence of perfection, and the evidence of Deity combined with
His Humanity.
At any rate, dear Brothers and Sisters, this is a matter of fact in our
holy faith, that the best lesson for a Christian to learn is to be
learned from Christ, Himself. I am afraid that in these days some are
preaching in a lop-sided way. Years ago Christ was set forth almost
exclusively as an example. "Concerning the Imitation of Christ" was the
great matter of public discourse–and many books were written upon that
important theme. But, inasmuch as in those days they forgot and
undervalued the Sacrifice of Christ and did not preach Justification by
faith in His precious blood, their preaching was but dim and
inefficient and Christ was not largely imitated, after all, although
men were bid to imitate Him. Now, we preach His sacrifice–in many of
our places of worship the Atonement of Christ is very clearly
proclaimed and the plan of salvation by virtue of His precious blood is
very widely declared with more or less of clearness, for which I thank
God. But we must take care that we do not forget that Christ is our
Example as well as our Atonement–and that, while by His death we live,
the life which we live is to be conformed to the life of the Son of God
who loved us and gave Himself for us. He did not merely come to save us
from the guilt of sin, but He came to save us from the power of sin. He
does not merely bring us pardon, but He brings us holinessand He comes
to make us like Himself. This, indeed, is the end of His life and of
His death–that we might grow into His image and become truly
replicas–repetitions of Christ according to our degree, among the sons
of men.
I want, therefore, to say to you who are Christ's people–As He has
saved you, follow Him! If you are washed in His blood, be like He! If,
indeed, He is your Master and Lord, obey Him! In all that you do, ask
yourselves this question, "What would Christ have done under these
circumstances?" And then act according to the answer which God's Word
and your own conscience give you. "As He is, so are we, also, in this
world." And if we fulfill our destiny to the glory of God and the honor
of our Redeemer, we shall make men see in our own proper persons what
Christ was when He was here–"holy, harmless, undefiled and separate
from sinners." Christ always points us to Himself. If He bids us trust
Him,
He also bids us follow Him. If He bids us hope in Him, He also bids us
obey Him and be like He is. And they who will not have His holiness
shall not have His Atonement! If we do not care to be like He is, we
cannot be saved by Him.
The particular evil at which our Lord aimed when He uttered the words
of our text was the evil which is so common in the Church, even down to
the present day, that is, each man seeking to be somebody. We are all
born greatthe first time–it is only when we are born the second time,
born from above–that we come to be little. When we were born the first
time, we were so great that we were really nothing–but when we are
born a second time, we are so little that we are everything in Christ!
At first, self seeks to gain the mastery. It has a head that must wear
the crown and feet that must be shod with silver slippers. Self will
wear no sackcloth, it must be clad in silk at the very least. Self
always exalts itself above all its fellows–it even pines after the
Throne of God, for self has the ambition of Lucifer and will never be
satisfied, however high it mounts. Now, our Savior wants, in His
disciples, that self should be crushed, that all desire to be great
should be quenched and that, instead of all of us wanting to be
masters, we should see which of us can be servants! If we are as Christ
was, we shall catch the spirit which made Him say, "I am among you as
He that serves."
I. To that point I bend all my strength just now and, first, I want to
speak a little upon our Lord's position among His own followers–"I am
among you as He that serves."
The 12 Apostles came together to the Last Supper. There was usually a
servant or slave in the room to wash the feet of the guests, but there
does not appear to have been such a person on that occasion. Peter did
not offer. Even John did not think of it. Thomas was probably
considering who ought to do it and Philip, the arithmetician of the
Apostles, was calculating how much water it might take–but nobody
offered to do it. Everybody's business, you know, is nobody's business,
so nobody offered to wash anybody's feet. They had already taken their
positions, reclining about the table when, without any suggestion from
anybody else, the Master Himself rose from their midst, laid aside His
garments, took a towel and girded Himself with it, poured water into a
basin and went from one to another–and washed their feet. After He had
done that, and was again reclining with them, He said to them, in
effect, "I am among you as the slave, the domestic who does the most
menial work. You see that I am." They could not contradict it, for He
had actually and literally taken that position among them.
But, dear Friends, this act of our Lord's was no novelty! What He did
literallythat evening, He had been doing ever since they had formed a
community! He was always the servant of them all. He was constantly
looking out for their interests and laying Himself out to do them good.
They did not come to Him to bring Him anything–they came to receive
from Him. They did not come to teach Him, or even to comfort Him with
their company. They all came for what they could get from Him and to
learn the Truth of God from His lips, some of them hoping to be led by
Him to a kingdom which they did but dimly understand, but they were
all, as it were, sitting at a table all the time they were with Him,
being fed with heavenly and spiritual food. And He was all the while
their servant, washing their feet, bearing with their ill manners,
sweetly correcting their mistakes and always patient, notwithstanding
their slowness of learning. He could truly say, not only of that supper
night, but of His whole life, "I am among you as He that serves."
When Christ thus spoke, He called Himself not merely a servant, one
that serves, but specially the servant–the deacon, the attendant, is
really the word. "I am among you as the waiter. You are the gentlemen
who sit at the table and I am the servant who waits upon you." Our Lord
meant to remind the Apostles by this act that He had always taken among
them the very lowest place. He had never exercised any sort of
domineering authority over them, He had never been exacting in His
demands upon them. He had never sought His own comfort at their
expense, but He was always meek and lowly in heart–always seeking
their welfare rather than His own. There was not one of them but knew
that this was true. He was less than the least among them, although He
was greatest of them all! As the old writers used to say, He was servus
servorum, the Servant of servants.
A servant, you know, is one who has to care for other people. When she
gets up in the morning, it is not her work to look to her own comfort.
The true servant in the house glides along quietly, watching to see
what can be done for the comfort of all the inhabitants. Such a person
forgets herself, or himself, in thinking of others. This is just what
our Lord Jesus did–He never seems to have given Himself a thought, He
was only thinking of the poor multitudes that gathered about Him and of
the sick folk that He could heal and of the humble few that came into
His more intimate acquaintance, and called Him Lord and Master.
Wonderfully unselfish was He whose whole care was for others and who
could truly say to His disciples, "I am among you as He that serves."
A true servant ignores his own will. He does not do what he would like
to do–he does what his master tells him to do. He is engaged as a
servant and he lives as a servant. And he obeys the will of him who has
employed him. Was it not just so with our Lord in the whole course of
His life? "I came not," He said, "to do My own will, but the will of
Him who sent Me." From His childhood, He must be about His Father's
business and, until His last hour, when He could say to His Father, "It
is finished," He never had two businesses in hand. His one sole concern
was to take upon Himself the form of a servant, to become obedient unto
death, even the death of the Cross. Beloved, I cannot imagine a better
picture of a servant than the full length portrait of Him who is truly
Lord of All! "King of kings" is a title full of majesty, but "Servant
of servants" is the name which our Lord preferred when He was here
below!
A servant is one who bears patiently all manner of hardness. Many
servants have had to endure a great deal of hardship and, sometimes,
much misjudgment and harshness. But this blessed Servant of the Father
bore cold, nakedness, hunger and even death in His servitude. And
though He was despised and rejected by the very men whose good He
sought. Though He was maltreated, maligned and slandered, yet He still
never turned aside. even for self-defense. He held on in His holy and
sacred course as Servant of all. I do not know how to put this Truth of
God as I would like to, but I want you to recognize that He, who this
day sits on the highest Throne in Glory amid a hierarchy of angels,
adored of blood-redeemed spirits, was among us here below as the
Servant of His own servants! Your Blessed Lord, whose face outshines
the sun at noon-day, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, who is this day
Head over all things to His Church–your Lord, who shall shortly come
with myriads of saints and angels to judge the world in righteousness,
was, when He was here, nothing more than this–"He that serves." That
was His position.
II. I have entrenched upon what I meant to make the second subject of
discourse, namely, THE WONDER OF THIS POSITION, for it is among the
greatest of all wonders that Jesus, the Lord of All, should have become
the Servant of All!
Very briefly let me suggest to your minds that the marvel was all the
greater as He was Lord of All by nature and essence. Our Lord Jesus was
Divine. He was "God over all, blessed forever," "Son of the Highest,"
that Eternal Word, without whom was not anything made that was made.
Yet to His disciples He says, "I am among you as He that serves." "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God." "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father), full of
Grace and truth." Truly, it was a marvelous condescension on our Lord's
part!
Remember, too, that Hewas infinitely wise. There was never another
teacher like Christ, for He could answer every question and solve every
difficulty. Those piercing eyes of His looked through every secret
place and revealed the darkest mysteries of human life. Then, surely,
they set Him on high in the church of His day, they made Him professor,
they paid Him every homage! But, did they? No. He said, "Though I am
Rabboni, the Great Master, yet I am among you as He that serves." Is
this how you treat your wise men, O you gracious ones? Do you set them
to wash the disciples' feet?
Recollect, also, that He was immaculately pure and incomparably good.
There was never such another Man among all the sons of men! There can
never be another Character so charming as His. All perfections meet in
Him to make up one perfection! All the sweets of the highest morality
and spirituality are blended in Him to make one perfect and essential
sweet! Yet He is among us as the One that serves. There was a certain
preacher who cried out in his sermon, "O virtue, if you were once
embodied, and should come down among mankind, all men would worship
you!" But see, here isVirtue perfected and Incarnate–and down among us
serving as a Servant! This is how man treats the Perfect One–and it is
a great wonder.
Besides that, the Lord was our superlative Benefactor. He was here
simply to bless us. Eyes, lips, hands, feet–all scattered
benedictions. He was a sun in the midst of human darkness. His every
thought was a beam of light and comfort for mankind. Yet He could say,
"I am among you as He that serves." In order to be our Benefactor, He
takes the very lowest place and men were content to keep Him there and
let Him wash their feet. Oh, 'tis strange, 'tis passing strange, 'tis
amazing, yet true!
It is amazing, too, that He should be a servant among such poor
creatures as they were. I have heard of some who have been willing to
wash the feet of saintly men, but these disciples were a band of poor
sinners. I have heard of some who would have been willing to perform
menial offices for great philosophers, or men of high dignity. But
these disciples were mainly a company of Galilean fishermen who had
lately left their boats and nets, or peasants fresh from the soil of
their fields full of all the faults and infirmities natural to men of
their class. Yet our blessed Lord said to them, "I am among you–you
fishermen, you countrymen, you poverty-stricken men–I am among you as
He that serves." O gracious Master, You were humble, indeed, and it did
well become You! You seem, despite Your ineffable Glory, to be quite at
home when You are acting as slave to Peter and James and John, taking
their soiled feet into Your pure hands and washing them clean.
III. Now, in the third place, let us inquire what is the explanation of
this wonder? Why did our Lord Jesus Christ, when He was among the
twelve, take the place of Him that serves? Why did He, who was Lord of
All, become Servant of
All?
First, because He was so truly great. The little man is always jealous
lest he should be treated as little. The little selfish being tries to
wriggle himself into notice somehow or other. He needs to be observed
and then he wants to do something for which he may have a vote of
thanks–and he would like it to be proposed in very special terms. Do
you expect him to wash any men's feet? Well, he might wash the feet of
gentlemen, in a golden basin, with a crystal basin, rose water, and a
damask napkin. Oh, yes, my lord would do it that way very prettily and
think a great deal of his condescension! But actually to take the feet
of poor men into his hands and to wash them–to really do some such
service to those who need it–he could not manage that! He is so little
that he could not rise to such a dignified position. Brothers and
Sisters, it was because our Lord was so superlatively great that He
could do little things, that He could stoop and be lowly. It is in the
nature of such a great heart as His to be willing to do any necessary
thing for those whom it loves.
But the second answer to the question is this. Our Lord was among men
as One that serves because He had such immeasurable love. Love is
always happiest when it can do something for its object. It is no toil
for love to labor for that which it loves–it would be slavery to it to
be withheld from so delicious an exercise! Look at the mother with her
child–even with all the many trials she has with it–it is so dear
that she counts it a relaxation rather than a bondage to take care of
her own beloved offspring! And have you never known a loving woman sit
by the bedside of her sick husband? The nights have been long and
dreary but she has not left him whose life was ebbing away. The candle
has burnt low and the daylight has peeped in through the blinds, but
there she is–still sitting–and unless she verily faints away through
sheer exhaustion, you cannot get her from that sick room, for love
holds her there and keeps those weary eyelids from dropping down and
makes her feel it to be a sad joy, a grief but a pleasure to be near
him whom she loves.
And our blessed Lord was so full of love to us that nothing seemed a
stoop to Him. "For the joy that was set before Him," the joy of
blessing His people, "He endured the Cross, despising the shame." "Will
I wash their feet?" He seemed to say, "that is very little. I will wash
them altogether in my heart's blood. I will bear their sins in My own
body on the tree and will be, indeed, among them as He that serves to
the fullness of a sacred service such as never was exhibited before or
since." It was love, it was wondrous love, excessive love, that would
not let Him stay in Heaven amid the splendors of His royalty, but made
Him come to earth, amid the sorry surroundings of penury and grief,
that He might save us!
IV. Now, lastly, I am coming to what I have been driving at all the
while and that is, THE IMITATION OF OUR LORD'S HUMILITY. I suggest to
you at once the power by which you shall learn to imitate your Lord. If
you get His love in your hearts, you will always long and wish to take
up a position like His and be among your fellow Christians as one that
serves.
If we are to imitate Christ, it will involve, dear Friends, that we who
are saved by Him should joyfully undertake the very lowest service. If
there is a door to be kept, if there is a path to be swept, let us
aspire to that dignity. If there is a class of men more degraded than
another, let us wish to go to them. If there is a rank of women more
fallen than another, let us pray and labor especially for them. If
there are any members of the Church that are more neglected and
despised than others, let us be most attentive to them. If there is
somebody who really is quite a worry when we visit her, let us visit
her. If there is a person who really is so exceedingly poor and,
perhaps, so very dirty that it takes a good deal of self-denial to go
and sit by her bedside when she is sick, let us go. If we are to be
like Christ, we shall all be eager for the lowest work, we shall all be
seeking who can take the lowest place. If you want this pulpit, dear
Friends, you can have it if you can fill the position better than I do.
But then, perhaps, you might not! But there will not be much
competition for the lowestplace. If you become a candidate for that
position, you will get it. There are not likely to be too many
applicants for the post and, by degrees, one and another will edge out,
so I recommend you, if you really want the place that Christ would have
you take, that is, the very lowest position in the Church of God, to go
in for it, for you will get it.
You have all heard of David Brainerd, the great missionary to the Red
Indians. He was seen, one day, lying in his hut, teaching a little Red
Indian child to say, "a, b, c." Somebody said, "What? Is this David
Brainerd teaching that little dunce his letters?" "Yes," he said, "I
have prayed God that, as long as I live, I might be useful. And now I
am too weak to preach, I am too feeble to do anything else but just
teach this little child the alphabet. And I shall keep on doing
something for my Master till I die." So, dear Friend, if you cannot
teach the thousands, teach two or three! If you could not even venture
on two or three, yet teach your own child, or look after somebody
else's child, some gutter child, some Arab of the street! Be as your
Master would have you be, "as he that serves," by seeking to fill the
very lowest office in His Church.
Show the same spirit, also, in being at all times lowly in your esteem
of yourself. You know the gentleman who is always being insulted, I
know him very well, indeed–you could not wink an eye at him but you
would insult him! He has a very thin skin–you must mind how you
thinkwhen you are near him–he is always being treated in a
disrespectful manner. Nobody ever seems to treat him as he ought to be
treated in the place where he now is. If he were to get among people of
greater sense and better education, he says that there he should be
respected. I almost wish he would go–still, I must not say so,
because, perhaps, we can mend him if we let him stay and all of us seek
to do him good. But, Brothers and Sisters, do not any of you be of that
character, but be among those sensible persons of whom a disrespectful
thing could not be said because they would not treat it as
disrespectful!
Some time ago a man said a very unkind and untrue thing of me, and I
felt quite pleased because I thought that if he had known me better, he
might have said something worse. But I was quite satisfied to take the
bad thing as it was. I never told anybody about it and I do not intend
to, for it really did not trouble me at all. As far as I remember, I
slept as long that night as I had done before. There is no use in
believing that you are such an important person that the wind must not
blow on you, because the wind will blow on you! Do you not find it so?
Well, suppose that we do not have any dignity. Suppose that we, each
one, say, "I am among you as he that serves. Now, then, find as much
fault as you please." In wet weather, one of the most useful things in
a house is the doormat–and a doormat never complains of persons wiping
their boots on it–because it was put there for that very purpose. And
if you are quite willing to let people wipe their dirty boots on you,
you will come to feel, "What a capital man I am! How beautifully that
man cleaned his boots on me just now! He found great fault with me, but
he was not finding fault with somebody else just then. It did not hurt
me and it might have hurt somebody else, so I am doing good service in
bearing what, after all, does not so much offend me now I have brought
my mind to it." So, have a lowly estimate of yourself, for then you
will be like Christ, who said, "I am among you as He that serves."
Furthermore, Brothers and Sisters, may I earnestly inculcate upon
Christians that we should always be seeking to do good to others, for
that is what Christ meant. He made His disciples recline at the table,
but He waited on them. It was His high office to be the lowest among
them! Now, Christian people, look out for opportunities of doing good
to others. "I do not know," says one, "that I get much good out of the
Church." But that is not the point! The question for you to ask is,
"How much good have I done to the Church?" for, after all, our being
here is not with a view of getting so much out of it, but putting so
much into it. The Christian man's way of living is by giving, for he
realizes that "it is more blessed to give than to receive."
If you really want to serve somebody, there is a wide field open to
you. You need not go to Africa to do it. You can stay in your own house
and serve somebody there. It seems to me that a Christian should be
trying from morning to night what he can do to bless other people for
their good. It should be the mother's ambition to make the children
happy and to train them for Christ. It should be the father's wish that
all under his care in the house should enjoy being at home and should
think that there never was such a home as he makes. It should be the
girl's wish that brothers and sisters at home should be glad to think
that Mary is there, for she is quite a light in the house. And the
brother should make it his joy to do everything that can minister to
the comfort of his mother and sisters. In fact, this is the point
wherein Christians would carry Christianity on to a greater triumph–if
they, each one, sought the good of others.
But some are so grumpy, so snappy, that they cannot do even a good
thing without doing it badly! If they do you a favor, you feel that it
is just the same as if they had offended you. Let it not be so with us,
dear Friends! Let us seek to exhibit an amiable, gracious, loving
spirit–not by pretending to have it–but by reallyloving others and
desiring their present, their future and their eternal welfare. This is
what Jesus did when He said, "I am among you as He that serves."
Let us do the same as far as in us lies. In a word, dear Brothers and
Sisters, let us imitate our Lord Jesus Christ in being willing to bear
and forbear even to the end. The true Christian is the man or woman
who, when he is reviled, reviles not again–when he is falsely accused,
scarcely thinks it worth his while to answer–who often foregoes his
rights–and is willing to do so. He or she is one who is not for self,
not even for justice to himself, but is willing to bear and suffer
wrong rather than inflict wrong.
Someone, perhaps, says that I am teaching you hard lessons. Yes, but if
you are the children of the Lord Jesus Christ, this is the kind of
lesson that you will love and try to practice! And as you become
proficient in it, there will be a peculiar sweetness stealing into your
spirit. I pray God that we may have the mind of Christ, that we "may be
blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst
of a crooked and perverse nation." If any treat you ill, love them all
the more! If they make you angry, try to get over it as quickly as
possible. "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." Pay them off the
next day by doing them some kindness which you would not have done if
they had not treated you badly. Always try to speak as well of
everybody as you can. When you hear anything against them, cut it in
halves–and cut each half into two more halves–and then throw all away
as if you had never heard it! Go through the world with the full
conviction that there are some good people in it and that if there are
not, it is time that you should be one and should help to increase the
number by exhibiting a holy, humble, gentle, gracious spirit. If you
have this mind in you, your Lord will be glorified and men will say,
"Is this a Christian? Then let me be a Christian, too!"
God help you to do so, for Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE22:1-39.
Verses 1, 2. Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is
called the Passover. And the chief priests and scroll sought how they
might kill Him; for they feared the people. Dastardly fear often drives
men to the greatest crimes. He who is not brave enough to be master of
his own spirit and to follow the dictates of his own conscience may do,
before long, he little knows what. Because of the fear of the people,
the chief priests and scribes were driven to compass the death of
Christ by craft and to bring Him to His death by the cruel betrayal of
Judas, one of His own Apostles.
3-6. Then entered Satan into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being of the
number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief
priests and captains, how he might betray Him unto them. And they were
glad, and covenanted to give him money. And he promised, and sought
opportunity to betray Him unto them in the absence of the multitude.
Was it not a sad thing that the betrayer of Christ should be one of the
twelve? Yet deeply trying as it must have been to the heart of Christ,
there is something useful about even that horrible transaction! It says
to all the professing Church of Christ, and it says to us who claim to
be Christ's followers, "Do not think yourselves safe because you are in
the visible Church. Do not imagine that even holding the highest office
in the Church can prevent you from committing the basest crime. No, for
here is one of the twelve Apostles, yet he betrays his Master!
Sometimes we have found this betrayal to be a source of comfort. I have
myself desired, in receiving members into the Church, to be very
careful, if possible, only to receive good men and true. Yet, though
pastors and elders of the Church may exercise the strictest watch, some
of the worst of men will manage to get in. When that is the case, we
say to ourselves, "No new thing has happened to us, for such a sinner
as this marred the Church from the very beginning." Here is Judas, when
Christ, Himself, is the Pastor, when the twelve Apostles make up the
main body of the Church. Here is Judas, one of the twelve, ready to
betray his Master for the paltry bribe of 30 pieces of silver–the
price of a slave. Yes, we might have been put out of heart in building
up the Church of God if it had not been for this sad but true narrative
concerning Judas and his betrayal of our Lord.
7, 8. Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be
killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the
Passover, that we may eat. Notice how carefully our Lord respected the
ordinances of that dispensation so long as it lasted. The Passover was
an essential rite of the Jewish faith and our Lord, therefore, duly
observed it. Learn here, dear Brothers and Sisters, to esteem very
highly the ordinances of God's House! Let Baptism and the Lord's Supper
keep their proper places. You do them serious injury if you lift them
out of their right places and try to make sav-ingordinances of them.
But, in avoiding that evil, do not fall into the opposite error of
neglecting them! What Christ has ordained, it is for His people to
maintain with care until He comes again. And if He kept the Passover
even when, in Himself, it was already on the point of being fulfilled,
let us keep up the ordinances which He has enjoined upon us. If any of
you have neglected either of them, let me remind you of His gracious
words, "Thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness," and, "This do
you, in remembrance of Me."
9-13. And they said unto Him, Where do You want us to prepare? And He
said unto them, Behold, when you are entered into the city, there shall
a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house
where he enters in. And you shall say unto the good man of the house,
The Master says unto you, Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat
the Passover with My disciples? And he shall show you a large upper
room furnished; there make ready. And they went, and found as He had
said unto them: and they made ready the Passover Observe in this
passage an amazing blending of the human and the Divine! No mention is
made of either as a matter of doctrine, but incidentally our Lord's
Divinity and Humanity are most fully taught. Here is Christ so poor
that He has not a room in which to celebrate the most necessary feast
of His religion. He has made Himself of no reputation and He has no
chamber which He can call His own. Yet see the Godhead in Him! He sends
His messengers to a certain house and tells them to say to the good man
of the house, "Where is the guest chamber?" It all turns out just as He
said it would be and He is welcomed to this man's best room and to the
furniture thereof. Jesus speaks here as did His Father when He said to
Israel in the olden time, "Every beast of the forest is Mine and the
cattle upon a thousand hills." All the guest chambers in Jerusalem were
really at Christ's disposal–He had but to ask for them and there they
were–all ready for Him! Here we see the majesty of His Deity but,
inasmuch as He had no room that He could call His own, we also see the
humility of His Manhood.
14-16. And when the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve Apostles
with Him. And He said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this
Passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not any
more eat thereof until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. This was
to be His last meal with His disciples before He died. And He had
looked forward to it with great desire. It was a most solemn occasion
and yet to Him a most desirable one. May something of the Master's
desire overflow into your hearts, Beloved, whenever you are about to
partake of the sacred feast which He instituted that night!
17-20. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and
divide it among yourselves: for I say unto you, I will not drink of the
fruit of the vine, until the Kingdom of God shall come. And He took
bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave unto them, saying, This
is My body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me.
Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new
testament in My blood, which is shed for you. Do you see how this new
memorial was blended with the Passover, how it melted into that social
meal which formed part of the paschal celebration? There was a cup,
then bread, and then the cup after supper, so there was a gracious
melting of the one dispensation into the other. We see our Lord's
wisdom in thus leading His children on from step to step, without a
break, conducting them from one line of service to another and a still
higher one.
21. But, behold, the hand of him that betrays Me is with Me on the
table. This was a sad and solemn fact, yet it has often been so since
that night. The nearer to Christ, the farther from Him–so has it
sometimes happened since. He who was, in some respects, the highest in
the College of the Apostles became the lowest in the ranks of the
children of perdition.
2, 23. And truly the Son of Man goes, as it was determined: but woe
unto that man by whom He is betrayed! And they began to inquire among
themselves, which of them it was that should do this thing. Let us also
pass that question round among ourselves–
"When any turn from Zion's way, (Alas, what numbers do)! Methinks I
hear my Savior say, 'Will you forsake Me, too?' Ah, Lord, with such a
heart as mine, Unless You hold me fast, I feel I must, I shall decline,
Andprove like them at last. The help of men and angels joined Could
never reach my case
Nor can Ihope relief to find But in Your boundless Grace. What anguish
has that question stirred, If I will also go?
Yet, Lord, relying on Your Word, I humbly answer, No."
God grant us more Grace, that we may be held fast by the records of
love!
24. And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be
accounted the greatest Let me read you these two verses together. They
strike me as being very remarkable. Here are two questions–"They began
to enquire among themselves, which of them it was that should do this
thing," that is, betray their Lord. "And there was also a strife among
them, which of them should be accounted the greatest." What poor
creatures we are! How we are tossed with contrary winds! The new
question comes up and yet the old question, which ought to have been
smothered by it, still remains there! It is possible that Luke is here
alluding to some dispute which the Apostles had previously had and now
the Lord, remembering that even in the ashes of contention lived the
fires of ambition, would quench the last sparks of the evil fire.
25. And He said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship
over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called
benefactors. The people are compelled to use sweet terms to express a
very bitter bondage, so they call their tyrants, "benefactors."
26. 27. But you shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let
him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that does serve. For
which is greater, he that sits at meat, or he that servesTThe guest, or
the waiter at the table?
27-31. Is not he that sits at meat? But I am among you as He that
serves. You are they which have continued with Me in My temptations.
AndIappoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father has appointed unto Me;
thatyou may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom, and sit on thrones
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.
As our Lord Jesus looked upon His eleven Apostles, He felt that their
time of greatest trial was fast approaching. Beyond anything they had
ever endured before, they were now to be put into the devil's sieve and
Satan would toss them to and fro, and seek, if possible, to destroy
them!
32. But I have prayed for you, that your faith fails not.–"I have made
you, Simon, a special object of My prayer. All the brotherhood will be
tried, but for you I have especially prayed, for you, who seem to be
the strongest, are the weakest of them all, so I have prayed specially
for you, that your faith fails not."
32. And when you are converted–"When you are restored"–
32-39. Strengthen your brethren. And he said unto Him, Lord, I am ready
to go with You, both into prison, and to death. And He said, I tell
you, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that you shall
thrice deny that you know Me. And He said unto them, When I sent you
without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked you anything? And they
said, Nothing. Then said He unto them, But now, he that has a purse,
let him take it, and likewise his scrip, and he that has no sword, let
him sell his garment and buy one. For Isay unto you, that this that is
written mustyet be accomplished in Me, And He was reckoned among the
transgressors: for the things concerning Me have an end. And they said,
Lord, behold, here are two swords. And He said unto them, It is enough.
And He came out, and went, as He was accustomed, to the Mount of
Olives; and His disciples also followed Him.