The Objective of the Lord's Supper
(No. 2942)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 1905.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 2, 1877.
"For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you proclaim
the Lord's death till He comes." 1 Corinthians 11:26.
IT seems to me that the Lord's Supper should be received by us often.
When the Apostle says, in our text, "As often as you eat this bread,
and drink this cup," and our Lord said, in instituting the ordinance,
"This do you, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me," I will
not say that their words absolutely teach that we should frequently
come to the Communion Table, but I do think they give us a hint that if
we act rightly, we shall often observe this Supper of the Lord. Once or
twice in the year can hardly be thought to be a sufficiently frequent
memorial of one so dear. In the early Church, it is possible that they
broke bread every day–the expression, "breaking bread from house to
house," may signify that. From the records preserved in the Acts of the
Apostles, it appears that when the saints came together on the first
day of the week, they usually broke bread. If there is any rule as to
the time for the observance of this ordinance, it surely is every
Lord's day. At any rate, let it be often. Do not, dear Friends absent
yourselves long from the Table, but since your Lord has instituted this
Supper as a necessary and admirable reminder of His death, take care
that you celebrate it often.
This Supper is, according to the verse before our text, to be received
by all Christians. "This do you, as often as you drink it." It is not
to the Apostles, nor to a few men who shall dare to call themselves
priests, but to the members of the Church at Corinth and, by
implication, to the members of all Christian Churches, that the Apostle
wrote, "For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord's death till He comes." Though it is but half a dozen
of the very poorest and most illiterate Christians who meet together to
break bread, they are helping to proclaim Christ's death till He comes.
It is the duty and the privilege of all the people of God–not merely
of some of them–to observe this ordinance!
It is to be observed by eating and drinking, not by eating alone, as in
the Roman Catholic church! "As often as you eat this bread, and drink
this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes." It is most
strange that the Papists should have taken away the cup from the
"laity" so-called, since our Lord never said to His disciples
concerning the bread, "Eat you all of it," but, as if He foresaw that
this error would arise, He did say concerning the cup, as He presented
it to His Apostles, "Drink you all of it." If you leave out the cup,
you have marred the ordinance and, as I shall have to show you
presently, you have robbed it of a great part of its meaning. In the
Roman Catholic church–Roman Catholic, did I say? Why there is another
church, nearer home, that is twin sister to it and is getting very much
like it! And there, too, it is taught that looking at the cup does the
spectators good. It is not necessary that your should "communicate,"
but if they see the "priest" lift the cup, it will do them great good.
This is a new way of blessing souls. Salvation used to be by the
hearing of the Word, but now, forsooth, it is to be by seeing fine
sights! But the Apostle says, "As often as you eat this bread, and
drink this cup"–not as often as you look on as spectators, but as
often as you actually become partakers in this symbolic feast, "you
proclaim the Lord's death till He comes."
You notice that our translators have put this sentence in the
indicative, but it is probable that the marginal reading is more
correct and that it may be read thus, "As often as you eat this bread,
and drink this cup, show you the Lord's death till He comes."
Endeavorto do it–realize that you are doing it–let your feelings be
appropriate to the meaning of the ordinance–"show you the Lord's death
till He comes." As often as true Believers meet together to eat this
bread, and drink this cup, they do show, both to themselves and to all
who look on, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just in passing, notice that it is bread that they eat and it is wine
that they drink–nothing is said about transubstantiation here! But "as
often as you eat this bread"–and it is bread and nothing but
bread–"and drink this cup," which still remains but a cup and its
contents just what they were before–"you proclaim the Lord's death
till He comes."
This will suffice upon the words of the text. And, now, the doctrine
that I want to draw from it is that at all times when we come to the
Communion Table, we show or proclaim the death of Christ. That is the
great end and objective of the Lord's Supper–to set forth–to yell out
anew–to proclaim afresh the death of our Lord Jesus Christ!
I. First, let us consider HOW THIS ORDINANCE DOES PROCLAIM THE DEATH OF
CHRIST.
It is all very simple. There is nothing but bread broken and eaten, and
wine poured out and afterwards drunk. How can this proclaim the death
of Christ? Well, it does. It has done so ever since it was instituted
and there are multitudes of Believers who delight to see that death set
forth by it!
First, it sets forth the painfulness of Christ's death. It is death
that is represented by these emblems, for there is the bread and there
is the wine, both separate from one another. When the flesh and the
blood of a person are together, they do not present to us the image of
death. But the bread, which represents the flesh, altogether separate
from the wine, which represents the blood, is the picture of death and
death in a violent form–death by wounding, by bleeding. The separation
of the life-blood from the body is the form of death which is
manifestly set forth here to all onlookers. To my mind the very bread,
as we break it, seems to say, "Thus Christ becomes our food." Bread has
to pass through many tortures before it becomes food to us. The wheat
was sown in the ground. It was buried, it sprang up, it was exposed to
cold winds and to hot sunshine before it ripened–and then it was cut
down by a sharp sickle. After being cut down, it was threshed, then it
was ground into flour, then the dough was kneaded into bread which was
baked in an oven and cut with a knife–all of which processes may be
used as images of suffering. So the broken bread which we eat at the
Communion sets forth the suffering of Jesus. And the juice of the grape
also sets forth suffering, for the clusters from the vine are flung
together into the winepress and trod by the feet of men, or otherwise
pressed until their life-blood spurts forth. Even so was the Savior
pressed in the winepress of Jehovah's wrath till His blood was poured
forth on our behalf. This Supper sets forth to all who choose to see
it, the painfulness of Christ's death.
It sets forth, next, that it was a death of a peculiar kind, a death
for others, just as that bread is for us to eat and that cup is for us
to partake of. So we say, by this ordinance, to all who look on and
especially to ourselves, "When the Lord Jesus died, He died for all His
people." We here declare that we believe in Substitution–that Christ
died, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." And
that He, "His own Self bore our sins in His own body on the tree." That
is the teaching of this Supper, that Christ's death was a painful death
and a death on behalf of others.
This Supper also shows that we believe the death of Christ to be
acceptable to God. Why do we spread this Table here in the place where
we customarily meet for worship? Is this also an act of worship?
Assuredly it is and one of the highest kind! But we should not dare to
put these memorials of the death of Christ before the Father if we did
not know that the Father had accepted Him. But "it pleased the Lord to
bruise Him" and He was pleased with the Sacrifice which His Son
offered. He smelled a sweet savor of rest in the death of His dear Son.
Therefore, when we worship Him in the most humble manner and after the
most solemn fashion, we say to the Lord, "We know that You have
accepted the Atonement offered by Your dear Son and we set Him forth
before all mankind as the accepted Sacrifice before His Father's face."
And I think that we also mean to say by this ordinance, that Christ's
Sacrifice is complete and perfect. We would not wish to show it to
others if it were not worthy of being looked at! If it were incomplete,
we might well keep it in the background until Christ had finished it.
But because the cry, "It is finished," rang out from the lips of the
dying Sufferer of Calvary, we rejoice to set forth His death to all who
come this way! Behold and see that He has not partly paid the price,
but He has paid it all! Look here–He has so finished His atoning work
that He has spread a feast to which His servants may come and rejoice
with exceeding joy! If the Sacrifice were not finished, it would not
yet be feasting time. But it is complete and, therefore, do we proclaim
it forth after this fashion.
Another great Truth of God that we teach to everybody who sees us at
the Communion Table is this–Jesus Christ has died and we live upon His
death. This bread and this wine are the emblems of His broken body and
His shed blood and, therefore, we eat them and drink them, and so say
to you that Christ's dying is our life. Whenever we want to get
spiritually stronger, we always feed upon the Truth that Christ died
for us. Do any of you deny the Doctrine of
Substitution? We tell you that it is the very essence of our
being–that, henceforth, it has become the wellspring of life to us! We
could not be happy–we could not have any peace–if that were taken
away from us! My heart speaks now in words of truth and soberness and
says to you, "There is no Truth which I dare to deny, but, concerning
this Truth of God of the Substitutionary Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it
would be absolutely impossible for me to doubt it." Tortures and racks
may tear away the strings that are bound about my heart, but they can
never make me relax the hold that I have of Jesus Christ my Lord! No,
the Lamb of Calvary, bleeding in our place, has become essential to our
very being and we cannot, we must not, we will not becloud that blessed
Doctrine of His Substitutionary Sacrifice! Is it not all-in-all to us?
We also say to dear friends who may look on at this feast that the
death of Jesus Christ has now become to us the source of our highest
joy. We are not about to celebrate a funeral. When we come to this
Table, we do not come in mournful guise. I know that it has pleased the
authorities of certain churches to make men kneel before what they call
the altar, but why have they to kneel? Is there any passage of
Scripture in which there is even the shadow of any teaching which looks
that way? At the Passover, the Israelites stood with their loins girt
and their staves in their hand. Why was that? Because they were
expecting to go out of Egypt and were not, then, out of the land of
bondage. He who is under the Law, when he eats his Passover, must eat
it with his loins girt and with his staff in his hand. But how did the
disciples eat the Lord's Supper? Why, reclining in the easiest posture
possible! It was a most solemn supper, but it was a supper. It was the
ordinary meal consecrated by the Lord to the great purpose of setting
forth His death! And to make us kneel to receive it is, to my mind, to
take away a great part of the teaching of it! We should sit at the
Communion as easily as we possibly can–as we would at our own
table–because "we which have believed do enter into rest"–and part of
the teaching of the Lord's Supper is that now, in Christ, we have
perfect peace and we rest in Him as we feed upon Him. This ordinance is
a feast, not now a subject for sorrow, but a theme for delight!
And once more, Beloved, when we come to the Lord's Table to proclaim
Christ's death, we show it as the bond of Christian union. The point of
union among Christians is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am
afraid that it will be many long years before we shall get all
Believers to agree concerning Baptism. I hope right views of that
ordinance are spreading, but it does not seem to me to be a point where
all Christians are likely yet to unite. But, concerning our Lord's
death, all who really are His people are agreed! If we are in Him, we
rejoice in that grand foundational Truth, "that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures," and we delight to think that by His
death He has redeemed us from death. So, dear Brothers and Sisters, if
you cannot meet your fellow Christians on certain doctrines because
some of you are strong men in Christ and others are but babes–and the
babes cannot crack the nuts or eat the strong meat upon which swine
feed–you can all unite in Christ! He is like the manna which suited
all the Israelites in the wilderness– young or old, they could all
feed on the manna and so can all the saints feed on Christ! And when we
sit at the Communion Table, we say to all the world, "We are all one in
Christ Jesus. We do not come to this Table as Baptists, or
Episcopalians, or Methodists, or Presbyterians–we come here simply as
those who form one body in Christ–they who agree to show forth to all
mankind the death of our adorable Lord."
II. Secondly, let us consider WHY THE LORD HAS TAKEN MEANS TO SHOW THIS
TRUTH.
There are a great many important Truths in the Bible and every Truth of
God ought to be kept in remembrance, but it is not concerning every
Truth that the Lord has appointed an ordinance to keep it in memory.
The Doctrine of Election is one that we firmly believe, but we have no
special token, type, or symbol to set it forth.
It is the death of Christ which is set forth by this memorial Supper.
Why was that chosen? I answer, because it is the most vital of all
Truths. Concerning the sacrificial death of Christ there must not be
tolerated any dispute in the Christian Church. That must forever stand
as a settled Doctrine of the Gospel. The atoning death of Jesus Christ
once put away, you have taken the sun out of the Church's Heavens.
Indeed, you have taken away all reason for the very existence of the
Church of Christ! I think it was Dr. Priestley, a Unitarian, who had a
brother who was a sound Calvinistic Divine and who came and visited
him. And he agreed to let him preach for him one Sabbath morning, on
condition that he promised not to preach on any controversial subject.
The good man gave the promise, but rather regretted, afterwards, that
he had done so, yet he managed to redeem his promise and also to clear
his conscience, for he preached on the next Sabbath morning from this
text–"Without, controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was
manifest in the flesh," from which he proved that the Godhead of Christ
is a Truth about which no controversy could be allowed. We put the
Doctrine of His Substitutionary Sacrifice in the same category–these
is no true Christianity without it! You have given us merely the shell
and the husk if you take away this great central Truth of the
Gospel–God's Justice vindicated by the death of His dear Son and, on
that ground, free pardon published by the Grace of God to the very
chief of sinners who believe in Him! This Doctrine, which some despise
and decry, is the very essence of the Gospel of Christ! We have no
question with regard to the truth of it, neither do we speak with bated
breath concerning it, for our Lord Jesus instituted this Supper in
order to keep this Truth of God before men's minds because it is the
point above all others that is vital to the Gospel.
Another reason is because so many combat this Doctrine. It has been the
Hougomont of the great Waterloo which has been fought against Christ.
All His adversaries rally against this Truth. When any man becomes
unsound upon other points, if you probe deeply enough, you will find
that he has become unsound upon the Doctrine of the Atonement. The
Substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ is the one thing which His enemies
are aiming to overthrow. They cannot endure it! They profess to be
greatly offended by our frequent use of the word, blood, yet that word
is one of the most conspicuous words in both the Old and the New
Testaments, so we will still say, "Without shedding of blood is no
remission," and, "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from
all sin." This Communion Table sets forth the broken body and shed
blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and so brings His atoning
Sacrifice before men's minds–and thus His Church, so often as she
observes this ordinance, proclaims Christ's death in the teeth of all
opposers–and this she means still to do "till He comes"!
No doubt the Lord also instituted a symbol for the maintenance and
propagation of this Truth because it is a most blessed one to sinners.
Poor souls, there is no comfort for you till you know that Christ died
in your place. Your conscience, if it is really awakened, will never be
pacified with ceremonies! Nor will it be contented with moral precepts
which you cannot carry out. Nor will it be lulled to sleep with the
idea of your own religiousness ever saving you. Your awakened
conscience makes you ask, "How can God be just and yet pardon me?" And
it is the martyred body of your Lord that answers that question–
"Till God in human flesh I see, My thoughts no comfort find. The holy,
just, and sacred Three Are terrors to my mind."
But when you come to see Christ on the Cross dying instead of you, then
will comfort come into your mind, O distracted seeker–but not till
then! Therefore is it that God bids His ministers preach Jesus Christ
and Him Crucified and, therefore is it that as often as we come to this
Table, we proclaim His death because sinners need that beyond
everything else.
And, Beloved, there is another reason, I think, why this Truth of God
was selected to be set forth in this memorial Supper, namely, that it
might certify the Truth to your own soul What arrow will ever pierce
the heart of sin unless it is dipped in the blood of Jesus? When I see
sin punished on Christ, I see the evil of it. When I see Christ dying
for my sin, I see the great motive for my dying for my sin. When I
behold His griefs and pangs on my behalf, I see a reason why I should
make abundant sacrifices in order that I may glorify Him. Beloved, the
death of Christ is the great sin-killer and he who truly knows it and
understands it, will feel its sanctifying power!
At the same time, this Truth greatly glorifies God. When do you ever
praise God so well as when you, a poor guilty sinner, stand at the feet
of the Cross and see that Christ died there for you? The sweetest songs
in all the world are those that are sung around the Cross by sinners
saved by Sovereign Grace. And each one sings unto the Lord, "Wash me in
the fountain and make me whiter than snow. Then shall every part of my
being praise You and my whole nature shall break forth in ecstatic joy
magnifying and blessing the name of the Lord who is able to put away
such offenses as mine through the precious blood of His dear Son." You
will thus be enabled to glorify God when you come to this Table and
meditate on the great atoning Sacrifice by which your sin is forever
put away.
I feel that I can say, without boasting, that my ministry and this
ordinance agree well together. I have long preached to you Jesus Christ
and Him Crucified. I have fully preached to you His vicarious
Sacrifice. And when you come to this Table, you can realize that the
Truth which I have preached to you links on to this ordinance. But how
anyone can piece together a dry philosophy and this service, I do not
know. Having left out the grand fundamental Doctrine of Atonement, how
they can make anything but a farce of the Communion, I cannot even
guess! I should think they might as well abolish it from their services
and let the symbol go when the substance has already gone! But it
cannot be so with us,
for we feel that God would have His people always think of Jesus! He
would have them often speak of Jesus! He would have them continually
bear witness to the death of Jesus and, therefore, He makes this
Communion to be the sweetest of ordinances to point us, with unerring
finger, to Christ on the Cross!
III. Now, thirdly, will you please take notice of THE PERPETUITY OF
THIS ORDINANCE AND THE REASON FOR THAT PERPETUITY? "You do proclaim the
Lord's death till He comes" When He comes, we shall not need these
symbols, for we shall have the Master, Himself, with us, but, " till He
comes" we are to observe this ordinance.
What do I learn from this? Why, dear Friends, that His death will be
efficacious "tillHe comes." You are not called to show to the world
something that is worn out. You do not come to this Table to set forth
to the people who will look on something whose force is spent. Oh, no!
You can still sing–
"DDear dying Lamb, Your precious blood
Shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Is saved to sin no more!"
And every time any of you who are unconverted, but are seeking the
Lord, see this Table spread, you should say to yourselves, "Those
people believe that there is still efficacy in Christ's blood, or else
they would not keep up the observance of that Supper." Yes, we do
believe just that, and we believe that Jesus is able to save you now if
you come to Him–able at once to speak peace and pardon to your heart
if you do but trust Him!
Another thing I learn from our text is that as this Supper is to be
celebrated "till He comes," it shows that there will always be a Church
of Christ to celebrate it. There always has been a Church of Christ
since He founded it. In the darkest Popish days, Christ always had His
little Church to observe this ordinance. In the catacombs at Rome, in
the mountains of Bohemia, in the Vaudois valleys, in the wild glens of
Scotland and in almost every land, in the simple breaking of bread and
the pouring out of wine Believers still remembered Christ's death even
though they met together at the peril of their lives! And right on down
to these brighter days in which we can meet two or three at a time, or
hundreds or thousands at once to break bread and to drink wine in
remembrance of our dying Lord, there has always been a Church of Christ
and there will always be a Church of Christ! So do not despair however
dark the days may yet be. Neither Rome nor Hell, itself, can put out
the candle which has been lit by the Lord! There will be a Church of
Christ "till He comes."
It is true that there will always be people to oppose this Doctrine and
one reason why you are to continue to observe this ordinance is because
there will always be some people who will deny Christ's substitutionary
death. Dear Friends and fellow-helpers in the Lord, it seems such a
sweet thing to me to think that all the communicants at this ordinance
tonight will be helping to preach a sermon upon our text! I alone must
do the talking, but you who will presently gather around the Communion
Table will unite in this act, by which we shall all say, "Christ died
on Calvary's Cross. Christ died for us!" And all the other Truths that
I have been mentioning to you–by the very eating of the bread and the
drinking of the wine, you will proclaim again that there are some who
believe in the bleeding Savior–some who still believe in Him as dying
in their place! Let others deny it if they will, you will maintain that
testimony.
Beloved, this ordinance is to be perpetual, because Christian hearts
will always need it. There were some people, a little while ago, who
were getting so wonderfully perfect (in their own estimation) that I
thought, at the time, they would soon give up the observance of
ordinances. I read of one of them who said that he did not pray any
longer, for his mind was so perfectly sanctified and conformed to the
will of God that he did not need to ask anything of God! Poor
fool–that is all I can say of a person in such a state of heart as
that! When any man gets beyond the need of prayer, he has urgent need
to begin his Christian life over! And it is the same with those who
have got beyond the need of ordinances. Christ knew that we should
never, in this life, be able to do without outward ordinances. He knew
that His people would be forgetful, even of Himself, so He gave us this
double "forget-me-not"–this sweet memorial of His death, that as often
as we observe it, we may observe it in remembrance of Him.
Moreover, the world, itself, will always need this ordinance. There
will never come a day when the world will not need to have the
Crucified Christ set before it. There will never be an hour in which
there will not be breaking hearts that need consolation, wandering
souls that need reclaiming and others who are seeking self-salvation,
who will need to be taught that salvation lies in Another–and is to be
found only in the bleeding Lamb of Calvary. May God help us to
maintain this testimony for the world's sake, for the poor sinner's
sake, for our own sake and for Christ's sake "till He comes."
IV. I have done when I have made one more remark, which is this. If
what I have said about this ordinance is true, then, LET US ATTEND TO
IT. If in this way we set forth Christ's death–if our coming to the
Communion Table calls attention to that great fact–if we unite in this
act of fellowship in testimony to the death of Christ, let us attend to
it.
What shall I say to some of you who, I trust, have Christ as your
Master, but who have never yet obeyed this command of His? Let me ask
you whether He has ever given you exemption from the observance of this
ordinance and let me also ask you whether, as He though it wise to
ordain this ordinance, you ought not to think it wise to observe it?
Did He institute it in order that you might neglect it? Has He
instituted any ordinance which it is right for His people to neglect?
Do you know how much you have already lost through your disobedience to
your Lord's command? You tell me that it will not save you. I know
that. And you know as well as I do that you should not come to the
Communion Table if you thought it would save you, for none are invited
to come but those who are already saved! But I should like you to look
at this matter in the way in which a poor young man spoke of the other
ordinance instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ.
He had not all his wits, but the Grace of God had been at work within
him and, as he lay dying, his chief regret was that he had not been
baptized. His sisters said to him, "Well, but you know, Isaac, that
baptism will not save you." He answered, "I know that very well, for I
am already saved. But," He added, "I expect to meet the Lord Jesus
Christ very soon and I should not like Him to say to me, 'Why did you
not do that little thing to please Me?'" There is much force in that
remark. The smaller the thing is, the greater reason is there why we
should attend to it directly, lest we should be supposed to have said,
"I would not do even that little thing to please Christ." If coming to
the Communion Table would save you, of course you would come out of
sheer selfishness! But if your religion is nothing but selfishness, may
the Lord have mercy upon you and give you a far better one! It is the
privilege of those who are saved to show their obedience to Christ and
their love to Him by coming to His Table. Do you think that you can
look Him in the face and say, "My Lord, You have instituted this
ordinance to be observed in remembrance of You, but I have never
observed it"? May He not look upon you and say, "It is but a small
thing and it is for your soul's good–can you not do that for Me?" You
ought to question whether you are in a right state of heart if you can
be negligent of this command of your Lord.
But I must also speak to those who do observe the ordinance in a
fashion, but who do not enter into the true spirit of it. Those who
come rightly to the Table proclaim Christ's death "till He comes," but
I am afraid that there are, at all Communion Services, some who do not
think aright concerning Christ's death. I always feel very sad, when I
am presiding at this ordinance, if I find my thoughts wandering away
from the last dread scene upon the Cross. I would rather not be at the
Table of my Lord than be here thinking of something else beside His
sufferings and death. What can be the use of the outward ordinance if
inward and spiritual Grace is lacking? Beg the Lord to restrict all
your thoughts to the Cross. Make this your prayer, "Bind the Sacrifice
with cords, even with cords to the horns of the altar," and let that
Altar be the broken body of your Lord upon the Cross. Of Him let me
think, and in Him let me rest all through the Communion Service, and
let me see to it that I do reverently, humbly, heartily proclaim His
death "till He comes."
Come then, Beloved, unworthy as you are, come to His Table! Come
trembling because of your sin, but rejoicing in His Sacrifice and
grateful for His great love! Come and trust Him over again! Come and
give yourselves up to Him once more. Come and renew your vows of
affection and devotion. Come and put your finger into the print of the
nails and thrust your hand into His pierced side. No, more than that,
say what the spouse does as she begins the song of songs, "Let Him kiss
me with the kisses of His mouth: for Your love is better than wine."
Seek to get near to Him, to come into close contact with Him and when
you do so, hold Him fast and do not let Him go, but call together your
friends and Christian Brothers and Sisters and say to them, "Here is
the Master! Come with me and let us together have sweet fellowship with
Him." If, tonight, at the Communion Table, I might thus lay hold of the
great Angel of the Covenant, I think I should feel inclined to hold Him
till the break of day, as Jacob did at Jabbok. And if He should make my
sinews shrink, yet would I bless His name for condescending to tarry
and wrestle with me! If you can get into contact with Him, make this
your resolve, that you will hold fast and will say to Him, "I will not
let You go, except You bless me."
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:
PSALM 22:1-9; MATTHEW27:33-44.
Psalm 22:1. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?What a dolorous
cry! How terrible it must have been to have heard that cry! How much
more terrible to have uttered it! For the dear Son of God, the
Well-Beloved, with whom the Father is always pleased, to be forsaken of
His God was, indeed, unfathomable grief!
1. Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My
roaring? It seems as if the Savior's voice and almost His mind had
failed Him, for He calls His prayer, "roaring," likening Himself to a
wounded beast. When any of You cannot pray, or think You cannot,
remember these words of your Lord! If He, the Ever-Blessed Son of God,
speaks of His own prayer as a, "roaring," what must ours be? You know
that Isaiah spoke of his own prayer as being like the chattering of a
crane or a swallow, or the mourning of a dove, as if there were no
articulate utterance about it. But to the ears and eyes of God, there
is music in a sigh and beauty in a tear. As our Lord had to pray like
this, do not wonder if we, sometimes, should feel that God has forsaken
us. If there were such dark clouds for Christ, there may well be some
for us also.
2. O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You hear not; and in the night
season, and am not silent If we remember Gethsemane and think how Jesus
prayed there, even to an agony and a bloody sweat, shall we wonder if,
sometime, our prayers seem to be put on one side and we do not
immediately receive answers of peace to them? Yet, You see, our Lord
kept on crying to God both day and night.
3. But You are holy, O You that inhabits the praises of Israel Settle
it in your hearts that whatever God does, He is holy. Never harbor a
thought against Him, never imagine that He is hard, or unjust, or
unfaithful. That cannot be, so if the worst comes to the worst, never
let your faith have any question upon this point.
4. 5. Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted, and You did deliver
them. They cried unto You, and were delivered: they trusted in You, and
were not confounded. Look back and see how God helped our ancestors.
Recall how, in the past ages, the Lord always was the Deliverer of all
those that trusted in Him. Was a righteous man ever finally forsaken of
God? Since the world began, has not the Lord, sooner or later, appeared
to deliver His children? It is wonderful to hear our Divine Master
pleading in this fashion! But most wonderful of all is that next
verse–
6. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the
people. There is a little red worm which seems to be nothing else but
blood when it is crushed. It seems all gone except a blood-stain and
the Savior, in the deep humiliation of His spirit, compares Himself to
that little red worm. How true it is that, "He made Himself of no
reputation" for our sakes! He emptied Himself of all His Glory and if
there is any glory natural to manhood, He emptied Himself even of that!
Not only the glories of His Godhead, but the honors of His Manhood He
laid aside that it might be seen that, "though He was rich, yet for our
sakes He became poor."
7, 8. All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip,
they shake the head saying, He trusted on the LORD that He would
deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him. Or, as
the passage is quoted in Matthew, "Let Him deliver Him now, if He will
have Him."
9. But You are He that took Me out of the womb: You did make Me hope
when I was upon My mother's breasts. This is a very amazing thing. I do
not think we remember as we ought that for years after our birth, we
could do nothing to help ourselves, yet we were taken care of even
then. He who has passed safely through his infancy need not be afraid
that God will not help him through the rest of his life. And if we
should live so long that we come to a second infancy, the God who
carried us through the first will carry us through the second! He has
already done so much for us that we are bound to trust Him for all the
future. Now let us see, as I reminded You just now, how this passage is
referred to in the Gospel according to Matthew.
Matthew 27:33, 34. And when they were come unto a place called
Golgotha, that is to say a place of a skull, they gave Him vinegar to
drink mingled with gall: and when He had tasted thereof, He would not
drink This was a stupefying draught which was usually given to
prisoners about to die in order to mitigate their pain and, therefore,
Christ would not drink it, for He was determined to suffer even to the
bitter end. He did not come to have any mitigation of His agony when He
was offering His Atonement for us. And so, "when He had tasted thereof,
He would not drink."
35. And they crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, They parted My
garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots. This is a
point upon which we cannot say much, but, to the peculiarly sensitive
soul of Jesus, it must have been a great part of His shame thus to be
stripped of every garment and hung up before the sun.
36, 37. Andsitting down theey watcheedHim here; andset up over His
heeadHis accusation written: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. By
their own confession, He died for being a King and He died for being
too greatly good, too royal in His love. He, being King of kings, died
that you and I might live forever and be kings and priests unto God.
38, 39. Then were there two thieves crucified with Him, one on the
right hand, and another on the left And they that passed by reviled
Him, wagging their heads. Not only they that sat there, such as the
scribes, and Pharisee, and soldiers, and they that hung there, the
thieves that were crucified with Him, but the passers-by reviled Him,
indulging in a sneer.
40-43. And saying, You, that destroy the Temple, and build it in three
days, save Yourself If You are the Son of God, come down from the
Cross. Likewise also the chief priest mocking Him, with the scribes and
elders, said, He saved others: Himself He cannot save. If He is the
King of Israel, let Him now come down from the Cross and we will
believe Him. That is the cry of the mockers today. If we will but give
up the Atonement, men say that they will believe in Christ. His
Character is so excellent that they will accept Him as an example, (so
they say), but they will not have His Godhead, nor His precious blood!
This proves that they are enemies, for they use the same language as
His bitterest foes did when He hung upon the Cross. As for the scribes,
they were learned in the Psalms and, therefore, they quoted what we
have already read.
43, 44. He trusted in God, let Him deliver Him now, if He will have
Him: for He said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also which were
crucified with Him, cast the same in His teeth. Thus the Master passed
through bitter trial and ignominy for our sakes.