CHRIST IN HEALING POWER AND IN SYMPATHY
CHRIST IN HEALING POWER AND IN SYMPATHY
It is important to apprehend the distinctive place and character of each of the gospels. God has been pleased to give to us four, written by different persons; at first sight one might not discern the character and position of each, but it is very important to seek to do so, otherwise you do not really understand any one of them.
The gospel of John has a marked character of its own. I look upon it as that upon which, in a sense, all the gospels turn. It is different from every other gospel. You may, of course, find things in John which are recorded in the other gospels, but it has a character quite different from all, and might almost be called the backbone of all. An apprehension of the gospel of John greatly helps you to see the position of any other gospel. Christ is the one great figure in all the gospels, but in John we have, undoubtedly, Christ presented to us in the light of a divine Person, specially in relation to the Father. John is the one employed by God to present Christ to us in the distinctiveness of His Person and as declaring God. A great many things depend upon that — benefits to man, and so on; but what characterises the gospel is the Son in relation to the Father. You will recall one expression that frequently occurs on the lips of Christ. He calls Himself the Sent One of the Father. He is the Sent One, not merely to confer benefits on man, but, as the first point of His coming, to do the will of Him that sent Him. “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me”. Again, He says, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”. It is the Son presented to us in relation to the Father. Specially in chapter 5 we see how Christ opens up the relations which subsisted between Himself and the Father. “The Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth”. I have said that John is the backbone of all — I mean in the way in which [p. 104] Christ is presented to us in His Person as the Son, who had become a Man that He might come, sent of the Father.
In the other gospels we see Christ more in relation to men. It is one thing to apprehend Him in relation to the Father, but it is important also to apprehend Him in relation to men. The result of that is, that the history of man can be taken up afresh in Christ. That thought gives their peculiar character to the gospels of Matthew and Luke. In Luke the history of man is taken up in Christ, the Head, and in Matthew the history of Israel. You get a remarkable expression in the beginning of Matthew: “Out of Egypt have I called my son”. That passage gives the idea of the history of Israel being taken up anew in Christ. In the providence of God it was ordered that His Son should go down into Egypt, not merely to escape the wickedness of Herod, but “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet”. Certain things happened in regard of Christ, as one may say in a natural way, but to suppose that He went down to Egypt only to escape the wickedness of Herod would be very low ground. It was that the history of Israel was taken up afresh in Him. The importance of it is, that it affords a fresh standing ground for Israel. The same holds good in speaking of Christ as the Head of every man, it affords a new standing-ground for man — a ground on which he can be with God. Every one who recognises Christ as Head has a standing-ground with God. The Head is there for every one to accept. If I accept Him as Head, God cannot reject me, because the Head is divinely appointed. God would have “all men to be saved”. The Mediator is the One by whom any man can approach God, and it is an impossibility that God should reject any man who accepts the Head. He is available to every man.
The coming of Christ as the true Israel, the true vine, gave to Israel a new standing-ground before God. You see in the parable of the vine that those who believed in Him were the branches. They had a new place in the [p. 105] true vine.
I make these remarks as preliminary; and there is one further remark I would offer. The history of Israel was taken up in Christ, but at the same time the advent of Christ was bound to bring about new and unexpected developments. I can shew you that from the scripture we have before us now. Christ being light from God was bound to test every man down here. He was the true light, and every man was tested by Him. It follows upon that that there must be new developments, as we see in the beginning of this chapter. The mass of the people who professed to be the people of God was rejected; but on the other hand there was faith found in the gentile who recognised Christ, and the gentile was brought into blessing in connection with the fathers. That is what I mean by a new and unexpected development; it is realised in the church. No Jew could have expected that the gentile would be joined with him in blessing. A Jew would not have entertained that thought for a moment, but it is that which has come to pass; and that development was according to the counsel of God, though it was brought to pass very much through the perversity of man. Christ came to His people, but they received Him not. The mass of them was perverse and lawless; they did not accept the light that came to them; but there was faith in the gentile which recognised Christ as God.
What I want to touch upon in the beginning of the chapter (verses 2 - 13) is the position of the Lord. I sum it up in one word: it was God here. And God acting as God. That is what we see in the earlier part of the passage. It was not the presentation of God morally in nature as in christians, but God presented to man in a substantive way — God manifest in flesh — none the less God. It is a point of importance to be held in the present day. There is an attempt abroad to fritter away everything in Scripture in bringing all to a footing where it can stand on a level with the ideas of man. But God is presented here in a Person, and in such a way that man can take account of Him; and now when He begins to [p. 106] act He does not act according to the laws of nature. The Lord had to encounter what I should suppose is not according to the laws of nature. I do not think leprosy was according to the laws of nature nor death — Christ had to meet something that was abnormal. There are many such things in the world, many things morally and physically abnormal. Undoubtedly physical results may follow moral departure, so one is not astonished to find things that are abnormal.
The leper is, I think, a picture of Israel, leprous in the eyes of God. I should call that abnormal, and so I should speak of death. All fall under its power, I own, but I do not for a moment believe death is the proper, normal condition of a man. Well, we get God here, Emmanuel, God with us, and taking account of things. What do you think His purpose was? It was to bring back man into consistency with moral laws; to bring back man from the lawlessness in which he was, under the influence of divinely appointed laws; to bring him back under the moral sway of God. It was that which Christ had in view in the leper and in the centurion, and, in fact, in all the miracles which He did. It was to bring man under the application of laws which have their seat in the love of God. All moral laws have their source in divine love. Moral laws are of God, and must have their seat in His nature.
Now just a word about the leper and the centurion. The presence of the Lord here was bound to test everything and to prove its character. If God came into His own creation it was likely enough to bring about a revolution. God did not come into a world that recognised Him, but into one which had departed from Him, and it was bound to bring about a moral revolution. In the leper and the centurion there was faith. The Lord says of the latter, “I have not found so great faith”. But there was faith also in the leper. But the faith of the leper was accompanied with an “if”. “If thou wilt”. We do not see that in the centurion. He had not a doubt of the will of the Lord. There is no “if” on his part;
[p. 107] but on the part of the leper faith was there. The Lord answers both. It was a great mercy for the leper (and for many another too) that he had faith — the Lord healed him for a testimony; but the faith of the centurion was the better. The Lord was equally ready to respond to the faith of both. But what was likely to be the result of that was that Jew and gentile must be found on one common ground. The leper was healed on the ground of the compassion of Christ. He could say, I had no merit, I was a leper, my condition was hopeless, and I have been healed simply as a question of divine compassion. Now the centurion comes forward, and he recognises that Christ is God; what can the leper say? Can he find fault with Christ or with the centurion if he was only an object of compassion himself? Can he complain of God having compassion on a poor gentile? It was impossible. His faith was less than that of the centurion; he had nothing to recommend him to Christ save that he was a subject for compassion. He appealed to Christ, and the Lord healed him and cleansed his leprosy; he could not complain if the gentile came forward and asked for and gained the Lord’s compassion too.
People are amazed in the present day at wireless telegraphy. Here the word of the Lord touches one who is far off and he was healed. The servant was healed immediately.
My point is, that the presence of God here in Christ was bound to bring about a moral revolution, because the Jew was really only a subject for the compassion of God, and on the other hand, faith was found in the gentile. The leper was healed on account of need. It was his misery and leprosy, his appeal, that the Lord took account of. But then there was the same need in the gentile. There was faith there, and the Lord responded to his faith.
Now you can understand what the Lord says consequent on that (verses 10 - 12). You can see the kind of company you get in the kingdom. The Lord took account of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because they were men of [p. 108] faith, all of them. The Lord recognises their place there. Christ is supreme in the kingdom of heaven. He is the Sun of righteousness. As the sun is supreme in the physical heaven, so Christ is supreme in the kingdom of heaven. You get Christ, and the followers of Christ, and those coming from the east and west, from every direction, who will have their place there, while the children of the kingdom are left outside. They are spoken of in that way because they had been brought up in expectation of and relation to the kingdom. They were tested by the presence of God. The children of the kingdom would not have Him, but there were those who followed Christ, and the gentile was brought in with them.
Christ was the true Israel, and the true Israel is identified with the church. God took up the true Israel, beyond all doubt, in the remnant that was brought into the church. Who could impugn the faithfulness of God when God brought the remnant who were attached to Christ into heavenly blessing? Who could lay a charge against His fidelity? But on the other hand, no one could attach blame to God when He brought in the gentile too, because Israel as a mass had departed from God. That is why I spoke of a new development which the presence of Christ brought about. We have a foreshadowing of the change here. God is righteous, but He is also faithful. His people Israel are taken up in blessing — those who were attached to Christ — and the church is now the Israel of God. But when you consider the state of the people to whom Christ came, there was no lack of faithfulness on the part of God in bringing the gentile into association with His people. The apostle takes this up in Ephesians. You are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God (Ephesians 2: 19, 20). That is what is foreshadowed here.
These two miracles are of the greatest interest to my mind, as shewing the true position of things in the mind of God: the Jew, a leper — an object of compassion — and [p. 109] faith in the gentile. That is what Christ answered as God down here. God must be God, and the Jew has not a word to say against the fidelity of God, nor against the gentile.
Now if you look a little further on (verses 14 - 17), you get a reason given from Scripture why Christ did those things. It is blessed to see the comment of the Holy Spirit upon things. You get the comment of the Spirit here upon what Christ did. They were miracles of mercy without stint or limit; but what was the reason? “That it might be fulfilled ... Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses”. Those miracles of mercy which the Lord performed were that that might be fulfilled. Miracles expressed what God was. The interest is not simply in the miracles; the healing of the people in that day would not be much benefit to you and to me, but if they bring out the heart of Christ, what Christ is and what God is, they are of very great value to us — more so even than to those who were healed in that day. The Lord did not wait for their conversion. His miracles were without stint; but “himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses”. That is the point I come to.
In the early part of the chapter we have Christ very distinctly as Emmanuel, but now I think we get Him on another side. I might venture to say on the sympathetic side. If I speak of the attitude of God to men, the thought is compassion. The leper and the centurion appealed to His compassion; He was divine and responded to it. But here it is not the response of Christ to an appeal, but a crowd of afflicted and oppressed people who came into His presence and He healed them. The point of instruction is to let us into the knowledge of Christ in another aspect, and that is in sympathy in regard to man. It is a very wonderful lesson to learn. Things would not be complete if we only had the conception of the Lord answering to man’s appeal down here to deliver those who were oppressed. It gives another thought of Christ when we understand that He had sympathy. He had a sympathetic feeling in regard to what men were suffering [p. 110] under, all that lay upon men. He was outside of it Himself; so far from being under it He was healing those who were under it; but we learn that Christ entered in mind into all these things by which men were affected. It has been most beautifully expressed: ‘He suffered in His spirit what He took away by His power’. He could only bear them in His spirit.
I use the word sympathy advisedly. It gives us another view of Christ. We get something very touching in the ability of Christ, because He had become a real Man, to enter sympathetically into all that which pressed on man down here. I think it leads up to the priesthood of Christ.
It says in Hebrews 2: “He himself hath suffered being tempted”. I think we often place too literal a meaning upon Scripture words. Many things must have tried the Lord here. We are tempted by evil, which the Lord could not be. What tried the Lord must have been of another character. He did not have to resist temptation, as we do, but “He ... suffered being tempted”. You may say that it must refer to the direct temptation of Satan which the Lord had to meet. Undoubtedly the Lord did suffer when Satan tempted Him; but I think the Lord suffered by everything He saw about Him. No doubt the unbelief of man tried Him. We read of His being angry because of their hardness of heart. We also find Jesus weeping at the grave of Lazarus. He was affected by the presence of death here and man’s inability to meet it. It was no doubt to a large extent that which tried the Lord here. When He was tried He suffered. The working of that with regard to us is, that He can sympathise.
He was surrounded by all those sick people, and He healed them all. It has been said there are three classes of trial of which most people have experience more or less. There is bereavement, trial in circumstances, and in bodily affliction. The Lord knows what we labour under and can sympathise with us. He healed all these people, but He suffered in sympathy. This is of all moment to us. The Lord does not now take away our [p. 111] sicknesses. When He comes in glory and power His people will not suffer by sickness; He will be the great Healer, the great Physician; but He does not now take away our sicknesses and weaknesses. But when He did take them away here on earth He suffered. Hence it is not difficult to understand how the sympathy of Christ can touch His people at the present time, and He is able to succour them that are tempted. People are sorely afflicted and tempted but they have the sympathy of Christ, and it is a proved sympathy.
I have touched on these things just to shew you what is true in the present moment. These things came out in the Lord’s ministry here on earth, but they lead up to what is true in Christ at the present moment; we apprehend that God was manifest in the flesh; the true Israel is secured in the church, and that to my mind proves the fidelity of God; and the very experience through which the Lord was passing in the exercise of His power was proving His ability to sympathise with His people in their infirmities. Thus He is able to succour them that are tempted. He succours us so that we may not be overwhelmed by that to which we are exposed down here. It is a great thing to know what Christ was here on earth, it has not passed away. We have not exactly the same circumstances, but there can be no change in the Lord. All is recorded in order to present Christ before us and to lead us to the apprehension of what Christ is at the present time as giving effect to the purposes of God. The gentiles have been brought in, the children of the kingdom have been cast out. But we also get the capability of Christ to sympathise with His people.