YE WHO PASS BY

Jim MacFarlane

Lamentations 1: 12; Mark 15: 22-32; Luke 10: 30-35; 7: 11-17

The prophet Jeremiah, in the passage which we have read, addresses himself to those who “pass by”. The world is full of people who pass by and it has probably always been thus. Move through any concourse and you will be among people who are passing by. They all have their preoccupations; if you were to enquire, you might discover where they were going and what was concerning them. All sorts of things may be going on around them, but these are not of importance to them; they are passers by. Shopkeepers lay out their windows in a way that seeks to catch the attention of those who pass, in the hope that, although people may have other things on their minds, they may digress for a moment to consider the shopkeeper’s wares. Alternatively, there may be an incident in the street, which brings the ambulance or the police, and attention will be diverted in this direction. The incident will require the full attention for the ambulance man or the policeman to its detail, because this is their duty, but, for the rest of the people in the throng, it will be a matter of momentary distraction and quick return to the activities which were preoccupying them; they will continue to be passers by. Distractions such as we have imagined seem no more than momentary diversions from the real issues of the time, but even they are temporary. Life moves on, as people say, and tomorrow’s all-absorbing issue will be different from today’s and last year’s completely forgotten. For the most part, people are passers by with short-term preoccupations which have not lasting significance.

If you address those who pass by in the words used by the prophet, I think that you are unlikely to gain much attention. He says, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” The answer is probably, ‘Yes, it is nothing to us’, particularly in view of what follows this question from the prophet. “Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, whom Jehovah hath afflicted in the day of his fierce anger”. There is no record of any reaction on the part of Jeremiah’s hearers but his question and the appeal which follows it are arresting. They have been preserved to us in these memorable lines of Holy Scripture and they have an enduring force and significance. They refer in a prophetic way to the sorrow which belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ and this accounts for their continuing significance. I would like to be able to convince everyone on whose ears these words of the prophet fall that they can no longer proceed as passers by but that they must turn aside and give attention to the words spoken by the prophet. This is not some minor human diversion but an account of the sufferings of One who was dealing with God. “See if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, whom Jehovah hath afflicted in the day of his fierce anger”. A call to consider such extremity of sorrow, because of the way in which the wrath of God was being endured, compels attention.

The passage which we read in Mark’s gospel gives the fulfilment of the verse in Lamentations. I chose to read in Mark because he tells us in verse 29, “they who passed by reviled him”. Jesus here was the sufferer who is represented in Lamentations and in the midst of what He was enduring there are passers by “who reviled him, shaking their heads, and saying, Aha, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in these days, save thyself and descend from the cross”. No doubt some would be regular passers by at this spot and would know it as a place of execution of criminals. Two robbers were crucified with Jesus and seemed to attract no comment. Notice was taken of Jesus, however; His presence there was not a matter of transient indifference to passers by. Like all passers by, they doubtless had objectives which had nothing to do with what was happening at this crucifixion scene but when it was presented to them they found that it compelled a response. Whether they understood it or not, nothing compared in significance with what was proceeding here at the cross. This was the event that is described in the epistle to the Hebrews as what happened “once in the consummation of the ages”. The response was to revile Him, shaking the head. The word goes on to say that “in like manner, the chief priests also, with the scribes, mocking with one another, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save”. However indifferently they may have approached the scene, the passers by found themselves aligned with those whose furious hatred had demanded the crucifixion of Jesus. My desire is that as the word comes in the preaching of the glad tidings, none would attempt to take the position which only recognises the historical and cultural impact of Christianity. The immensity of what took place at the cross is such that no one can take a position of detached, objective indifference.

The section which we have read in Mark’s gospel refers to Jesus’ first three hours on the cross, when the full extent of the wickedness of man was exposed. Even in their mockery, the chief priests and scribes bore testimony to His having saved others and the work which He would accomplish between the sixth hour and the ninth hour would secure the moral basis for salvation. In verse 33, Mark tells us “when the sixth hour was come, there came darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour”. During that period, even passers by would be arrested. They would be prevented from pursuit of their objectives by the darkness: compelled, in complete ignorance, to acknowledge the immensity of what Jesus was undertaking on the cross. Jesus alone knew what passed during these three hours, as he endured the judgment of God in respect of sin. Another gospel writer refers to the piercing of His side, after He had died, and His response to this final act of human brutality in the shedding of His blood, which laid the basis for remission of sins. Consequently, the word in the preaching of the glad tidings seeks not only to arrest passers by as to the incomparable greatness of what proceeded on the cross but also to engage them with the significance which it has for them. God is favourably disposed towards you because of the greatness and completeness of what was accomplished by Jesus and the remission of sins can be embraced by you simply by the exercise of faith in Him.

My desire is that you would have the sense of being at the focus of the interest of heaven and it is for that reason that I read in Luke’s gospel. Chronologically, it comes before the crucifixion and it is a parable, but what it does make very clear is the attitude of God. It refers to two passers by, one a priest and the other a Levite, who encountered a man who had been set upon by robbers. I suppose that, in those days, the best prospect of having the restoring kindness of God communicated to this man lay in an encounter with a priest. He had a prominent part in a system which had been set up by God to give man the opportunity to establish his righteousness before God by his own works. The completely ineffectual response of the priest, as one of the highest representatives of this system, bears testimony to the entire failure of man under these arrangements, “and in like manner also a Levite, being at the spot, came and looked at him and passed on on the opposite side”. The Levite was provided to give support to the priest but is found no more effective. Theirs was only the superficial historical momentum of a system whose value was in what it represented of all that would be established in Christ. Neither had the capacity to meet the needs of a man in a half-dead state; neither was capable of anything more than passing on. Someone then arrived who was different, “But a certain Samaritan journeying came to him”. This was not one who could only pass on but rather one who was journeying, moving with purpose, whose destination involved all that is implied in “the consummation of the ages”. The Samaritan was representative of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. You might imagine that, with a destination which was to involve so much, he would have had less time than the two who preceded him to deal with someone who had fallen among thieves but he had both the capacity and desire to turn aside and provide all that this man needed. If you feel that you have needs which cannot be met by the best human prospects, I would desire to point you to Jesus, the One who is symbolised by this distinguished Samaritan; He will not simply observe your condition and pass on. He is moved with compassion towards you and His resources are rich. The Samaritan did not produce a first aid box which might supply minimum necessities. He “came up to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine”. These are rich things and they are poured in; there is no indication of limitation here, “and having put him on his own beast, took him to the inn and took care of him”. There is a sense of wealth with this man to meet immediate circumstances and a wealth which can be conveyed to the innkeeper in order to secure the future. He took him to the inn and he had the kind of currency which was acceptable to the innkeeper. Would oil and wine be the most suitable things to offer to the innkeeper? These were the resources which met the needs of the man in the extremity of his half-dead state. The means by which he would be sustained in the inn were different and such was the wealth of the Samaritan, that he was able to provide these too. The two denarii which he gave to the innkeeper and his promise to him were to ensure that the man was fully set up until his return. Those who accept that their sins have been removed by the work of Christ on the cross cannot allow their lives to be motivated by principles whose moral character is sinful and the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey order to provide the energy for life. He will be here until the Samaritan returns.

My mind turned to the incident in chapter 7 because of the way in which the Lord Jesus encountered a situation of extremity and refused to be a passer by. This is not a parable; it is the historical account of the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus. The widow and the crowd which went with her were understandably preoccupied with the severe pressure under which they found themselves and, in the circumstances, it might seem difficult to reproach them for passing by without any recognition of Jesus, but He would not allow them to be passers by and He would not Himself be a passer by. He did not wait to be consulted and intervened directly. “And the Lord, seeing her, was moved with compassion for her, and said to her, Weep not”. You might wonder at such an exhortation to someone who had just lost her son, she herself a widow, but He did it as moved with compassion, just as the Samaritan was, and the capacity of the Lord Jesus to move effectively in support of His exhortation became so powerfully evident, “and coming up he touched the bier, and the bearers stopped”. How close He came; He did not give an instruction from a distance but moved so close as to be able to touch the bier and in a manner that made the bearers stop. What authority His manner must have conveyed and its final expression is in His word to the youth and its immediate life-giving effect. In chapter 10 of Luke’s gospel the man was in a half-dead state and the skill of the Samaritan was sufficient to restore him. You may feel that your case is so extreme that it is beyond healing. It can be no more extreme than what is represented in the widow’s son and my desire is that you would have the sense of Jesus’ willingness to come near to you, because He is moved with compassion towards you, and to restore life to you by His power. Accept it by faith; blessing came in Luke 7 because the service of the One who would not be a passer by was accepted.

The man in Luke 10 was brought into the full, practically sustaining wealth of the system of which Christ is head and which is ministered by the Holy Spirit here. A result further to the raising of the widow’s son in chapter 7 is that “fear seized on all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has been raised up amongst us; and God has visited his people”. Life was restored to an individual and a worshipping company emerged. Faith in Christ not only guarantees your eternal security and your present blessing but God’s desire is that, as in the path of faith, you should be brought into an arrangement where there is response to Him. At the beginning of the chapter it says, “many of his disciples and a great crowd went with him”. A little further on there is reference to the very considerable crowd of the city with the woman. May you find yourself transferred from the crowd which accompanied the woman, with the sense of hopelessness which belonged to it, to the company which moved with Christ. That is a very great blessing and may it be the portion of every one of us.

BO’NESS