PRIESTHOOD AND SERVICE (9)
[p. 73] PRIESTHOOD AND SERVICE (9)
JT In our consideration of the preceding chapters, we have been able to think of the ever increasing extent of Christ’s ministry. Its effect became general; we noticed on Saturday that the relations at Capernaum were good between the gentiles and Jews, and there was understanding between them. These relations were in accord with the ever-increasing influence of the ministry of grace; these very relations existed between the centurion and his bondman. The centurion’s faith resulted in the fact that Christ’s service would extend through all the world; as was said, the Lord had only to say one single word. Our attention was drawn to the character of faith, that which recognised in Christ universal power. The centurion got help in connection with his own occupation, for he was connected with the emperor. Grace uses our circumstances to teach us. In the same time that the testimony was rendered to grace, there was testimony too to the power of Christ to raise the dead. It says, “on the following day”, as if it were a question of extending the truth. The city of Nain speaks of the world in its attractive side, a side well known to the young man in question. What the young people think about the world we admit fully, but death is there. If the centurion recognised the universal power of Christ through His word, the widow of Nain typifies the needs of humanity. What exercises parents have for their children! It was better that this young man should have died than that he should be made part of this world system, but the Lord gives him life and restores him to his mother. It says that he “began to speak”. What I have just said is to stimulate interest as to Christ and as to His service.
PL So that we recognise His blessed service, like wisdom’s children.
JT “Coming up he touched the bier, and the bearers stopped”. Carrying a young man to his grave is a sorrowful occupation, but the principle of carrying applies to all the young ones.
NKM Would you develop that a little?
JT We ought to carry our young ones in faith and in prayer until the Lord comes in; when the Lord touched the bier, the bearers stopped. He said to him, “Youth, I say to thee, Wake up”; this is a matter of the young people here, being in the midst of an attractive world.
PL The name ‘Nain’ means, What is beautiful.
JP What application do you make for us as to the death of this young man?
JT First of all, it is a very serious thing for the young ones to be here in an attractive world. There is a poem which says, ‘Where every prospect pleases, And only man is vile’. Death stalks everywhere; it is a very solemn thing facing all the young. “The dead sat up”, he was truly dead, but he sat up and began to speak. Certainly what he would have to say would be very interesting, for he would speak of the new world and not of this one. The Lord speaks of those “who are counted worthy to have part in that world, and the resurrection from among the dead”, (Luke 20:35).
ThD Were those who were carrying the dead man aware that they were going to meet Jesus?
JT I do not think so at all.
ThD This is different from the case of the paralytic in chapter 5.
JT Yes, it says, “As he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother, and she a widow, and a very considerable crowd of the city was with her”. It was an ordinary happening. “The Lord, seeing her, was moved with compassion for her, and said to her, Weep not”. That shows how much the Lord takes account of the exercises of parents in connection with their children who are [p. 75] growing up. There was no power at the gate to prevent death from entering. The government can take energetic sanitary measures and try to reduce the mortality, but all that tends to prolong man’s life on the earth but a little. Death still exists; death reigns. Here it is not the case of a man having lived some seventy years, but of a young man, so this is a very solemn passage for the young ones. However, the Lord is there with deliverance; very often He delivers the young ones on account of the exercises of their parents rather than because of their own. The result accords with the influence of Christ being more and more extended. “Fear seized on all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has been raised up amongst us; and God has visited his people. And this report went out in all Judaea concerning him, and in all the surrounding country”. Then we come to the separation between the old system and the new; the old system is going to disappear and henceforth it is a question of what is new. “All the people who heard it, and the tax-gatherers, justified God, having been baptised with the baptism of John; but the Pharisees and the lawyers rendered null as to themselves the counsel of God, not having been baptised by him”, (verse 29). The old system had proved itself apostate; complaint was always either of John or of the Lord. Then the Lord says, “Wisdom has been justified of all her children”, (verse 35). The new system was to be set out by the woman considered at the end of this chapter.
PL Love was going to gain the ascendancy, subjectively.
JT This subject therefore is of great interest for us. It is not a matter of the universal influence of Christ, but of the way in which His ministry brings out love in the individual.
ThD Can one see the two systems in the Pharisee on the one hand and the woman on the other?
JT Exactly. Love is seen in adverse surroundings.
[p. 76] It is like a challenge to our hearts; we have believed in the Lord, now, what place has He in our hearts? There is no doubt at all that the countries which have accepted christianity have changed in a radical fashion, but from the exterior point of view. But material for the assembly is in the place which the Lord has acquired in the heart. Light is not material for the assembly; it can be effective in an outward way, but love is the evidence of formation internally. The apostle Paul said, “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha”, (1 Corinthians 16:22). That shows how God looks at things; there can be light and reception of grace, but if there is not love, there is curse at the Lord’s coming. God is not mocked. So Luke introduces this beautiful example of love as the product of Christ’s service. We have no proof at all that this woman had met the Lord before. She had heard Him spoken of, and when she learned that He had come in to this house, went there herself. She had braved the icy atmosphere of the Pharisee’s house, in order to get close to Jesus. It was not here to touch Him in order to receive the power which goes from Him; if this woman touches Him, it is to pour all she possesses at His feet.
ThD It seems to me that her heart was touched before she had the understanding of the forgiveness of her sins.
JT In this case what comes into evidence is not light but rather the work of God. Light in its activities often goes further than the light which has been received, and so love shows itself where there is a lack of intelligence. It is like gold mixed with dross, precious gold is there although it is not purified. Love acts spontaneously and knows how to behave itself.
Ques Would you say a few words on the way in which the Lord spoke to Simon about this woman?
JT Everything fits in with the service of grace. All that was in Christ was at Simon’s disposition as well as the woman’s. That the Lord had accepted an invitation from such a man showed that grace was reigning. All that God was in Christ was there for Simon when the Lord was at his table. Besides that, he had before his eyes evidence of the woman’s love for Christ. Wisdom, therefore, is justified of all her children; Simon was evidently not a child of wisdom since he did not justify wisdom.
PL Could one say that the woman was justified by her works?
JT Yes, exactly. She justified wisdom, which is very important; she justified the Lord in the cause for which His feet had brought Him into the world. In the book of Acts, we see in the same way how wisdom is justified by her children; the principle is developed and extended. In the Acts it is not so much what the saints had been commanded to do, but simply what they were doing.
Rem Love takes the initiative.
HBx Can one say that love is intelligent?
JT Love has instincts which are suitable. Wisdom has been justified, not by those who listen, but by all her children. So then there are those who love wisdom: “I love those that love me; and they that seek me early shall find me ... I walk in the path of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasuries”, (Proverbs 8:17; Proverbs 8:20,21). You see what joy this woman secured for the Lord. How He speaks of her. She is persecuted, but He defends her. Jesus can put her forward as a model: “Seest thou this woman?” He says to Simon, and shows him all that she was in the eyes of heaven. If there is then one such in a locality, the Lord draws the attention of others to it. Then it says, “And turning to the woman”; this movement of Christ shows the honour He confers upon those who love [p. 78] Him.
ThD Four things are mentioned about this woman: her tears, her hair, the kisses, the myrrh. “Standing at his feet behind him weeping, began to wash his feet with tears; and she wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the myrrh”. Would you say a little on these four things?
JT First of all, love produces feelings and emotions. These feelings are perfectly expressed in the Lord Himself, and it is remarkable that John, who is concerned with the Lord’s Person, dwells on the consideration of those feelings. Every feeling developed in the presence of Christ gives us a certain character; we can therefore contribute to the music. David was the great leader of music in the Old Testament, and he excels in weeping. David’s mourning exceeded that of Jonathan: “They kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded”, (1 Samuel 20:41). On another occasion at Ziklag, it states that he wept with the people, until they had no more power to weep (1 Samuel 30:4). These divinely produced feelings make ‘instruments of music’ of us, in the hands of Christ.
JP In what sense are you speaking of music?
JT In a spiritual sense, as that which brings out best spiritual emotions. We know how much music affects us naturally; that is not what I am speaking of now, but of what music represents in a spiritual sense. The Psalms are often headed, “To the chief Musician”, and 1 Chronicles 15 speaks of the “chief ... for the music”. So there must be music that the “chief Musician” may have His place among us. Tears which are shed for Christ refer to the inward emotions of a person, whereas hair is an outward glory. All that one is, both inwardly and outwardly, is placed at the service of Christ. She covered, it says, His feet with kisses, with fervent kisses; tears speak of deep emotions and the kiss is the formal expression of affection. Then, too, she anointed His feet with ointment, with myrrh. Instinctively she [p. 79] knew of the suffering way of Christ, which all shows us that the Lord’s heart is gladdened when we think of Him, and this is basic to the assembly as a vessel of testimony in the world. The Lord, then, discerning the opposition in Simon’s heart, throws out a challenge to him, “Seest thou this woman?” Then the Lord turns to the woman; there is an object in this world towards which He turns, and towards which He draws attention.
PL We have four thoughts in the two epistles to the Corinthians which bring out what is connected with the assembly of God publicly in this world. Paul speaks of his tears (2 Corinthians 2:4): of the woman’s hair (1 Corinthians 11:15); of kisses, “Salute one another with a holy kiss” (1 Corinthians 16:20); we read, too, these remarkable words, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:10), the sufferings corresponding to the myrrh.
JT Some may think that we give too much place to the assembly, but we see here the Lord turning towards this woman. One would love to encourage the young ones to take account of spiritual persons and to see how they love to exalt Christ. The Lord said to Simon, “I entered into thy house”; He has given us most numerous occasions to show our love for Him. “I entered into thy house; thou gavest me not water on my feet”: that is a living appeal to us today, the Lord, as it were, putting Himself within our reach so that we may be able to witness to Him of our love. Here is one who had just displayed her love: “She has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair”. He continues, speaking to Simon, “Thou gavest me not a kiss”. The beloved in the Song of Songs 8:1 speaks in this way, “Should I find thee without, I would kiss thee”. This woman responds something like that; the Lord is within the reach of Simon, and Simon gives Him no kiss, for there was no love in Simon for Christ. You can invite the Lord to your home, but that does not suffice, it is nothing to Him if love is not there. The Lord says of the woman, “Her many sins are forgiven, for she loved much”.
NKM Her love is like a reason for which her sins are forgiven.
JT If there is none of these evidences of love, you can doubt if there has been conversion.
ThD What was Simon’s object in inviting the Lord?
JT Much was being said about the Lord in the world, and Simon thought it was his duty to invite Him. In the course of the history of the testimony kings and emperors have accepted Christ in an outward way: christianity has become a force in the world, but what underlies all that? Is there love for Christ there?
NKM It is easy to be in line with the public. “A great prophet has been raised up amongst us” (Luke 7:16), whereas love shines where there is reproach.
Rem It is when one commences to exalt a rejected Christ that persecution appears.
NKM Simon doubted even if He were a prophet: “If he were a prophet”, he said.
JT And the greater part of those who have nominally accepted Christ doubt now. Our position, therefore, as knowing and loving Christ is quite distinct; he who has love is governed by love, and it is in one who loves that the Lord can confide. Then it says in the beginning of chapter 8, “Afterwards”. What we see in chapter 8 is based on what precedes, where we have the existence of those who love Christ. “The twelve were with him, and certain women who had been healed of wicked spirits and infirmities, Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, who ministered to him of their substance”. All these persons love Christ, they love wisdom and inherit substance. The new system is fully established as witness.
[p. 81] PL On one hand, the love seen in the women holds the system together, while on the other, the light shines in the twelve.
JT A certain selection is made, as though the Lord was seeking round about this precious metal, love; He goes from town to town and from village to village seeking those who love Him.
NKM “Preaching and announcing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God”. What is the difference between the terms, preaching and announcing?
JT There is a measure of authority in preaching; the preacher is the representative of God. To announce the kingdom of God is to present all that is at the disposition of man. Preaching is based, so to say, on gift: “How shall they preach unless they have been sent”, (Romans 10:15). Announcing is another matter; the kingdom is announced in its characteristic features. Mary Magdalene is spoken of, and she is probably the woman in chapter 7, as one from whom seven demons had gone out, which is an allusion to the judgment which had taken place in her. Demons can be cast out of an unconverted person, but the work of God in Mary had made it impossible for the presence of demons, that is why it says that they had gone out from her.
PL Judas could not remain in the presence of Christ, and he went out.
NKM The fact that demons go out is proof of the work of God.
PL It is the power which drives out the old earthly affections.
HBx These women portray holy sensibilities for the Lord, which is pleasurable to Him. The fulness of the heart is expressed by harmonious notes.
JT The “chief Musician” knows how to use them.
NKM David was a skilful player of the harp.
HBx Thinking of the subject which is occupying [p. 82] us, service, can one say that it is carried on in a harmonious way by these women? It is touching to see that the Lord uses in His service instruments which would appear the least qualified.
NKM One is ashamed if set alongside this woman of chapter 7. We see what the Lord says to the Pharisee, and then what He says to the woman. What does He say to us? He could say to us, “Thy sins are forgiven”, but could He add what He says to this woman?