HEADSHIP (1)
HEADSHIP (1)
JT I suggested this scripture because it furnishes us with an example of how the Lord leads His people into the apprehension of Himself as Head. He acted in that capacity in the house in Emmaus, conveying a suggestion of headship in what He did, then immediately vanishes out of sight, with the result that the effect intended was produced. The suggestion proves effective with the two, so that they at once leave for Jerusalem. In dwelling on the passage, we shall find that which helps to adjust us in regard to the headship of Christ.
CAP What is the prominent thought in headship?
JT Wisdom is the great feature. The headship of Christ involves that those who recognise it are never at a loss, never baffled, there is always a way before them, a way OUT and a way IN. That side of it that relates to extrication is largely negative. The vanishing of the Lord implied that Emmaus was not the sphere in which headship was to be enjoyed. Otherwise He would have remained. It is in a spiritual sphere that you see headship in its fulness. It is of a spiritual nature; hence the epistle to the Colossians, being the great epistle for headship, gives us the desire of the apostle that the saints should have spiritual understanding.
CAP Had these two disciples ever known the Lord as Head before?
JT Well, they had had opportunity to know Him as such in a way. They had doubtless seen Him break bread before, and seen Him in circumstances in which wisdom shone, but until the way out had been made by His death the thought of headship could not be operative. The question of righteousness [p. 297] must be settled before a way can be made out of the world. The two already had light in their souls. All they do and say shows that they were quite conversant with the things that had come to pass, and in measure they were affected by them. “Did not our heart burn within us”, they say afterwards, so that they had an intuitive sense that there was that which they had been in contact with which caused their hearts to burn.
RG What character did the Lord assume in following them?
JT He was the Shepherd. There is no idea of headship until you reach the house sphere. His thought was to send them back to the sphere to which headship applies. When one has strayed one has to be pursued. The sheep was on the mountains and the Shepherd sought it. These two were not unconverted, as we speak, they were saints whose home had a pull on them, a stronger pull on them than the assembly.
RG Does the Lord assume that they should have known where the centre was?
JT All He had said in John 13 and parallel passages was to the effect that they were to keep together, not to isolate themselves, not to go home; it was no time to go home. The epistle to Corinthians recognises the home, it has a place there, it is there you eat and drink; but this was no time for going home; all is uncertain as to the interests of Christ, and we should keep together. The Lord saw the line they were on. Things on which they had built great hopes had collapsed; they had centred great hopes on Christ, and these seemed to have failed. But the Lord said they were “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?”
CAP What had they not [p. 298] believed?
JT Evidently they had mistaken the spirit of Scripture or neglected it. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things”, the Lord says.
CAP They had not received the truth of resurrection.
JT The nail in a sure place involves Christ in resurrection.
RG The Jew had continually the glory of the kingdom before him.
PL They say, “we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel”. Were they to lose those thoughts now for the mind of the Head?
JT Yes, evidently.
GN Shepherding was to lead to a point where Christ would be recognised as Head.
JT Yes. In a sense the sheep character was to give place to that spiritual intelligence which was to make them capable of discerning the Head. Spiritual understanding would mark them. While the Lord “went with” the two disciples, headship was not seen. “Jesus himself (not another) drew near and went with them”. That was not headship. It showed shepherd care. Then He is “constrained” to enter the house, and there takes His place as house-father. He reckons on their spiritual intelligence; it was there and had to be touched, had to be appealed to; and in taking His place as house-father, and giving thanks, He touched this. The spiritual understanding comes into evidence in the sequel.
PL Affections are quickened by the Head, so that we are not “slow of heart”.
JT No, not slow of heart or foot. They rose up at the same hour of the night. At the present moment there is a good deal of comment made in the world as to the position that divine principles have led saints into. The secret of people being puzzled is because there is no spiritual understanding. They can observe certain outward things which command [p. 299] their attention, but the secret is hidden. The assembly position involves spiritual understanding; headship involves it too. That is the explanation of it all. “The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands” (Proverbs 30:27). The saints have spiritual understanding, and can discern the movements of Christ.
GN When they were in the house, a spiritual trait was manifested in Christ, which they, on their part, spiritually discerned.
JT Yes. In breaking the bread He had in mind not to eat thereof, but to convey a spiritual thought.
AN Do you mean that the service of Christ to them was in order to lead them to come into the sphere of headship?
JT Exactly.
AN How does this apply to us; has His service to us this character?
JT Yes, and in that sphere you get the unfolding of the manifold wisdom of God. In Emmaus it was a mere suggestion, but sufficient to set them going. “They rose up that same hour”, showing how quickly the thing acts on us when we are genuine.
AN If we have light it becomes a key to the situation, and shows how the Lord meets us.
JT The Lord may graciously come into a man’s house as He did here, but not to stay there. He is Head in His own sphere.
AN Does headship apply in an individual way?
JT It is in order to draw an individual to the centre. You want to see it in its own sphere; to see Christ in His own sphere.
PL Is that where He “enters into his glory”?
JT “Ought not Christ to have suffered those things and to enter into his glory”. It is that now really. He has that which answers to Himself in the assembly. The idea of the manifold wisdom of God is very wonderful to see. It is remarkable how the [p. 300] evangelists, especially John, call attention to believers going to their own homes. When you go to your own home, so much comes to mind, your business, money, family; all these come to mind in connection with one’s home; whereas in connection with the assembly, a man has Christ and his brethren before him; they enter into the mind.
WH Do we touch it in the Supper?
JT Yes, we touch one feature of it. The emphasis lay on “the breaking of bread”, that left the impression on the hearts of the two. What you speak of most is what affects you most.
CAP What was the point of contact?
JT I think it was a reminder of what they had seen Him do before He died. The features of Christ were there. There was a peculiar familiarity about the action that only those who had previous experience of Christ could have discerned. A stranger would have noticed nothing. It was sufficient to remind them of Himself, but, more than that, it reminded them that He had a sphere. If Christ obtains a footing in the heart, a lot of other things come into the mind, hence they thought of Him and of the eleven. They went to the eleven and those with them; they were reminded of the sphere of Christ’s interests. It is wonderful when the thought arises in the heart for the first time, that the Lord Jesus whom I love has a sphere of His own. It is then, that you want to reach it.
CAP What is the character of those who form that sphere?
JT This chapter does not contemplate that side. The Lord’s intent was to bring about normal conditions among the saints. They were not really adjusted. For the marks which characterised them, however, we must go elsewhere. They get no message from Christ here, not even one sent to the company, whereas in John 20 Mary receives a message and is [p. 301] sent to the saints with it. The point here is to show how adjustment takes place. If the Lord gives you a little light, what effect is it to produce? Your heart refers to the circle in which it is to be known fully.
CAP Outside of that, there is no spiritual understanding.
JT No, I think not; and more, what marks everything outside is shortage. Now, a shortage in spiritual things is fatal; shortage in natural things may be made up, but not in spiritual things. The principle of what is spiritual is, “for to every one that has shall be given ... but from him that has not, that even which he has shall be taken from him” (Matthew 25:29). The five virgins found themselves short of oil and they could get no supplies.
JS Shortage means not going on to the full thing.
JT Coming short is equivalent to nothing; it is worse than nothing. Incompleteness is what marks Antichrist. It began with Sardis. “I have not found thy works complete” (Revelation 3:2).
GN The two here were in danger of being incomplete.
JT I was thinking rather of systematised religion, and that is more serious. In systematised religion there is incompleteness as regards works and shortage as regards supply. It is fatal, there is no reparation for that.
RD What is your thought in regard to Sardis?
JT We get there the suggestion of Antichrist. He is incomplete. Six means incompleteness as regards spiritual things from God’s point of view.
RD Sardis did not go on to headship; the movement that resulted in that did not.
JT It just amounts to that. Protestantism never went back to “Jerusalem”, as the two who returned from Emmaus. An arrangement was made [p. 302] by which professing Christianity would have a recognised place in the world. It is utterly inconsistent with the headship of Christ. For that you must go out of the world.
GN “All seek their own” (Philippians 2:21). The shepherding referred to preserves us from that.
JT The Lord’s care is needed when we are prosperous or advancing. The government of God is marked by fairness, and righteousness, but the shepherding of Christ runs along with that, so that these things shall not damage us. These two had no doubt more light than any one in Emmaus, and the Lord saw to it that they did not settle down, not even for a night. It would have been more difficult to get them away next night.
RG They get more of Himself when they respond.
DD You alluded to Colossians?
JT Colossians gives the collective thought. The apostle there shows that headship is to be apprehended and held in the soul; some were “not holding the head”, the apostle says.
DD What about Paul’s prayer “that their hearts might be comforted ... unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding” (Colossians 2:2)?
JT In Corinthians Christ is said to be made unto us wisdom. It is objective. All wisdom is in Christ. Paul’s prayer in Colossians is that the saints should have it subjectively. We are to be children of wisdom, so that we are not baffled. In the circle of the brethren you see the working out of it. You get impressions of Christ at meetings that you do not get elsewhere. One has known what it is to go to the meeting uncertain as to things, but in the recognition of Christ in the assembly one finds these things become as clear as noonday. One should always hold the Head as an individual; it is the secret of your certainty as to divine [p. 303] things.
HH There would be no shortage if we were in the good of the truth of Colossians. We should be filled with wisdom.
JT Influences were at work to bring in a shortage, to bring in something additional to Christ which would work to the shutting out of Christ.
Rem The two at Emmaus discerned that Christ was the same Person as before He died.
JT “Jesus himself drew near”. At Jerusalem He comes into the company and impresses on them, that it is “I myself”.
AN Can you give us a little more help as to headship? If it is not confined to the assembly or to our being together, how would it work out practically when we are not together?
JT I think, in the way you look at everything. You may sit in your room, but you think of Christ and of the brethren; you always have them in your mind, and you are affected according to the measure in which they are in your heart. Thus, in looking at Christ, and the saints in relation to Him, you are open for light.
AN Has this any connection with fellowship, and the way one acts in relation to fellowship?
JT You always think of the saints in that connection. Holding the Head means that you have Christ in your heart and the saints in relation to Him. I would not limit it to the saints as together, it is the attitude of your mind.
Ques Where was Asaph in Psalm 73? Did he see the Head?
JT When he went into the sanctuary he got spiritual understanding. Nothing was said to him, but there was a suggestion as to the order of man God had before Him. Strife and murder are going on outside, but before God is an order of man pleasing to Him. The Psalmist came to see that, and says, “then understood I their end”. The end of the man [p. 304] outside appears to him now. All might seem as if it were to continue, but the Psalmist sees it is not so. That is not exactly headship, but the end of things is seen, and that affords great comfort, if one is disturbed by conditions here. The apostle says, “we see Jesus” (Hebrews 2:9), though we do not yet see all things put under Him.
GN Why were such pains taken to establish the fact that it was a real Man in resurrection?
JT It is essential to know that our Head is a Man. The two at Emmaus returned to the eleven; it does not say to the company, the eleven were recognised.
R.D. Why was this?
JT They had respect for the authority of Christ. The eleven are singled out and made prominent. They represent His authority, they were trustees of His interests, so to speak. Then it adds, “and those that were with them”.
RD As owning Christ as Head I would be prepared always for control.
AN What is the essential difference between Head and Lord?
JT Lord simply stands for authority. If your will is active it has to be subdued. I should not go so far as to say the two disciples needed to be subdued, but I think it is a nice touch that they are shown to us as respecting the eleven. Young Christians never get on if they disregard authority. Authority is necessary as a safeguard. The eleven represent divinely appointed authority.
RW Authority is seen in the remark, “I say to this one, ... Do this, and he does it” (Luke 7:8).
JT It is a mark of God’s work in the soul where divinely appointed authority is recognised. The two here would contribute to the company. They had light, and like bees, they bring what they have gained to the hive; “they found the eleven”. Some [p. 305] people do not seem to succeed in finding the eleven! “They found the eleven gathered together and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed and has appeared unto Simon”. The company was talking about resurrection and the Lord appearing to Simon, showing that the Lord was signalising Simon as the leading apostle. The company was on right lines, and now the two contribute their quota. “They told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread”. That was an additional thought, that was not made known to Peter in the same way, but to them; it was additional light.
PL The principle of mutual contribution in the assembly is based upon holding the Head.
JT Yes, each one holding the Head.
RW Why is the distance, 60 furlongs, alluded to?
JT The Lord knows how far you have gone or how far you mean to go. When a brother or sister turns back, they have a definite end in view, that is usual; they have a place before them. Here, the Lord made as though He would have gone further. The Lord knows the distance, and He would go any distance to get you back.
CAP The result of the Lord’s activities is that He puts everyone in his right place.
JT On the adjustment side, this is a remarkable chapter. The Lord knows just how far you mean to go. He knows how far you have already gone and you may mean to go further; and you will, if He does not overtake you.
GN We see how this prepares for John 20.
JT Luke does prepare for John. Light comes to us in abnormal circumstances, whereas John presents things from the normal side. In John the disciples are not terrified. John represents the saints as having to look after themselves. This precedes [p. 306] John 20. You cannot get the benefit of what is brought out in that chapter unless you find the centre. The disciples spoke of resurrection, yet they were terrified by the Lord’s presence.
RW As a result of the Lord’s activities, the company is prepared to receive Mary’s message.
JT You see here the shepherd spirit of Christ in following the sheep.
PL Why does the Lord refer to Moses and the prophets in addressing the two; and later, in the company He includes the Psalms?
JT Moses and the prophets refer to testimony; you might say they represent the Old Testament as a witness.
PL Is it that we get the Man in the Psalms, His sensibilities and affections?
JT Moses and the prophets would bear adequate testimony to the glory of Christ. The Psalms present an additional witness. The Psalms, as you say, give the Man.
PL And they suppose that headship has produced discrimination.
JT In the first reference to the Scriptures, the point is, that they are a witness, an adequate witness; in the second, the teaching is the point. “Thus it behoved Christ to suffer”, is more teaching.
PL First, the authority of Scripture to recover us; and then the unfolding of Christ for the heart’s delight.
Ques What is the difference between wisdom and spiritual understanding?
JT The latter has reference to power to take things in; but having wisdom, you know how to apply things, like Bezaleel. One enables us to understand; the other to apply.
PL You embrace the ideal and act upon it.
JT Yes; you act upon it. In the manifold wisdom of God there is variety in the [p. 307] assembly.
RD And there it is seen in operation.
JT Christ is light to the soul; there is no eventide now. Like the seventh day, it knows no evening. There is no eventide in this circle. The Lord followed the two disciples. He sought them in His shepherd care. He is not insensible to our eventide. Ephesians 5:14 gives the day. “Wake up, thou that sleepest ... and the Christ shall shine upon thee”.
GN In verse 50, Bethany is associated with His being carried up to heaven instead of Jerusalem.
JT Bethany is connected with the remnant. We get a dispensational thought in Bethany. It is the place where the Lord found human sympathy. The mount of Olives suggests the retreat He found with the Father.
RD The result of all the Lord’s care is that we make a Bethany for Him in our affections.