(ii) WHY?
Mark Richards
I have been thinking about this passage in Luke’s gospel; it speaks of two men who were walking away from Jerusalem and they were downcast, they were sad. The events that had just taken place – the Lord Jesus had just been crucified and buried and there was much upheaval in the city and these two were asking a question Why? “They conversed one with another” and it is this question “why” that I’ve been thinking about. Events happen and it’s good sometimes to ask God why things are allowed. Why was this Man Jesus, who we read of here, taken from them? They had lost somebody that they had loved, put their trust in this Man, Jesus. They had all their hopes in this Man, and He was taken from them and they were asking the reason why. We do not understand sometimes God’s reason. It is good sometimes to ask God why. Every believer, I think, will be able to testify that asking God the reason why, sometimes you get the answer quickly, sometimes it takes a long time and you have to look back and see how God has worked out His wondrous plan. Here we know these two men were walking along, talking, and Jesus draws near to them. He draws near and helps them, and opens their eyes. As we know later “their eyes were opened” (v 31). How wondrous that the Lord Jesus had drawn near. And this question Why, I have been asking it myself. The Lord has been pleased to take our sister. Naturally, we wonder why. What she could offer here as a mother, as a helper in the meeting, her testimony here to friends and neighbours, these shall all be remembered. But as our brother has said, her work here is complete, and the Lord has been pleased to take her. God’s wondrous ways – and they are wondrous – He has a plan and it is perfect, and it will all be worked out and will all be complete, and we can take comfort from this. How we have known our brother and the family, how they have been comforted and strengthened, how they will have known the Lord drawing near to them in these difficult times, how our sister experienced this as well – our Lord drawing nigh. You could tell it on their faces, and what a comfort it is for every believer to have this knowledge that the Lord will draw near in times of need. And now, as we have already said, God’s wondrous plan is being worked out. The plan is that there will be joy, soon. Our sister will be raised, and every believer who has died in Christ will be raised as well. What a time of joy that will be. There is a hymn that we sing:
The sky, not the grave is our goal. (Hymn 238)
That is the portion for every believer, and it is a wondrous knowledge to have the fact that the believer’s pathway is marked out. There is another hymn:
We’ll praise Him for all that is past,
And trust Him for all that’s to come. (Hymn 23)
I was thinking how our sister would have known God as her rock, and as her fortress and deliverer, her shield (see Ps. 18: 2). These are words that she could have said. She knew these, she knew the Saviour, she knew Him well and everything that went on, and she had her trust in this. This position is open to everyone here in this room, in this city today. God’s plan is being worked out. And God wants to bless each and every one. That is His desire, and that He will get the praise. May it be so for His Name’s sake.