CHAPTER 12
[p. 180] CHAPTER 12
We have had three parts of the Lord’s life. Now we are coming to the closing part. He has to die in order to bring believers into participation in what He is in. This cannot be except by death. The Adam man must be set aside. In Mark all is to show out the qualifications of a servant: what a Servant He was and how to perpetuate it. This parable shows that the way the Lord was dealt with was not a sudden thing. They grew bolder in wickedness. The Lord quotes, “The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner”. When one thing fails God has another in reserve. The stone becomes the head of the corner. We get the church. We have what was in the mind of the Master Builder.
It is a great thing to see that though man thinks he carries his point, it is really only to make way for God. In Peter it is connected with “living stones”. Paul calls it the chief corner stone. All endowment now is from the One who is Head of the corner. But christians went back to Judaism. “Without the camp” is outside everything of the constituted order. He will complete everything presently. The top stone shall be brought back with shouting, but He is now the Chief Corner Stone. The great thing in connecting the Lord with heaven is that we know Him in the scene that suits Him, and because He is there we have a place there; though we are in the scene that does not suit Him, yet our associations are where He is. What was the character of the man who was healed in Acts 3? He was “walking, and leaping, and praising God”.
This passage, “Render to Caesar”, has been quoted to show that we have a right to be in the world, but it was a reproach to them that they had the Roman penny. It was the condemnation of Israel that Caesar’s coin was circulating. They rejected the Lord [p. 181] and were under bondage themselves. They wanted Him to say, if He was king, they must not pay tribute to Caesar. But it was a mark of submission to God and the Lord accepts it as such. It has been used as an excuse for worldliness, and to show that we have two positions here - one to God and another to man. But no! I am a christian always, and never anything else! There is no such thought as two things for a christian; I must do all to God and for the Lord’s sake. The rule for concession is in self-denial, never in self-gratification. If I dine with one who cannot in conscience eat meat, I should say, I go with you, I deny myself for your conscience. But if you ask me to go with you to a flower show, I say, No! I cannot go with you there. When there is restriction for restriction’s sake, the man is sure to indulge himself in some other way. You will find a person who is overstrict on one side is overlax on another. Let thine eyes look right on, not to the right hand nor to the left. In Proverbs 15: 19, the antithesis of slothful is not diligent but righteous. The point is not if you go slow or fast, but if you are going right.
In verse 18 the Sadducees come to Him. We get the three principal shepherds - Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians - the leaders. Now all are convicted! Verse 25, “as the angels which are in heaven”, little is known as to the future state. We have Christ’s state now, and we shall be like Him by and by. His state and His place are mine now. My place is where He is. This mortal shall put on immortality. It is an entirely new race. God has done with my old nature. My trouble is that I have not done with it yet! If we were more self-denying we should escape a great deal of suffering. I do not say of discipline, for the more faithful we are the more we are disciplined.
No man after this durst ask Him any question, for His ministry was over. In the scribe (verse 32) we have one side of the remnant, he is faithful in the thing he [p. 182] is in. A remnant is marked by being true to that for which the period or dispensation is peculiarly distinguished. In a regiment of forty, two kept the colours - those two were the remnant, not the thirty-eight who lost them. “As a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof”, Isaiah 6: 13. One might say it is the same old oak, but not the same leaves. I call the testimony the colours. It is what characterises this period - the presence of the Holy Spirit and Christ’s place our place. Hence separation must accompany the testimony.
The Lord quotes Psalm 110 to show that He has ended here, and is called to go up on high - the widow presents the other side of the remnant character. She gives up all her living to what was God’s on the earth at the time. She says, I give up all I have to preserve God’s interests on the earth. Anna, in Luke 2, and this widow are each a pattern of the remnant of their day. The one greeted the Lord as He entered the temple, the other is seen by Him as He went out from it for the last time. She gave all she had. Others give what they can spare. It is not a question of your property - but do you give yourself? Some will freely expend their property, but will not expend themselves - will not take the servant’s place. This woman is not thinking of anything but of that which is His interest at the moment. The Lord does not look upon the amount given, but upon what it is to the person. It is the cost to you He looks at. Are you ready at all costs to carry the colours? A departed brother used to say, It is easy to love Him, but are you ready to lose everything for Him and for the sake of His interests on the earth? If His interests are not your object on earth, your centre is wrong, and you will be wrong in your own house and in everything. Anna departed not out of the temple and the Lord [p. 183] came into it. The scribe and the widow here make up the characteristics of the remnant - the one shows the energy, the other condition.