THE LORD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
[p. 463] THE LORD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
Luke 2:27 - 32; 46 - 49; Luke 19:45 - 48
These scriptures speak of the Lord Jesus in the temple, in three different settings. It is not the inside or most holy place that is in mind here, but the general position, the general temple buildings into which the Lord had access. He did not have access into the holiest or even into the holy place, not being a priest after the law, although it would appear that His betrayer had access inside, for he cast down the thirty pieces of silver there. That would indicate the irregularity of the government of the house of God, for when it was a question of the betrayal of Christ the limitations attaching to the house were very secondary. The result is that, when the issue is Christ, the religious privileges and order become secondary.
But the Lord had access to the temple in an outward way, and these three scriptures furnish us with what characteristically marks His presence in the temple according to this evangelist. There are other mentions of His presence in the temple, but these three furnish that which governs the whole matter in this gospel. What should be observed first of all is the advance from chapter 2. The conditions become more adverse to Him. If we carry that down to our own days, it is imperative that there should be priestly conditions in what has the place of the temple of God. This is especially imperative where Christ is seen in a small way as in chapter 2:27. In chapter 2:46 He is seen in an increased measure. Priestly conditions were not there, but He is there Himself in priestly power even as a Boy. That is, priestly conditions are required in the place if Christ can be there at all, even in a small way. Then there are conditions where He has greater strength and [p. 464] scope. (I am speaking now of Christ in testimony, not His personal position down here.) There are conditions where His testimony has power and scope to take care of itself, so to speak, and of the rights of God too.
The second scripture in chapter 2 shows that priestly conditions were wanting where they should have been peculiarly, for in truth they did exist in Mary His mother, but they had lapsed, which is often the case with us. There is no opposition seen, but a great want of priestly care and consideration for Christ. Then in the third scripture we have actual opposition in the temple. But He is now seen in fulness of strength as a Man, having scope and power in Himself to deal with conditions in the temple; and He does deal with them.
Now I come to these points in the order in which I read the scriptures, first in regard of priestly conditions where things are small in the testimony. I use the word testimony because Christ is seen in this way in all these scriptures. It is a question of testimony in every instance. How essential are priestly conditions when the testimony is in a small way, meaning perhaps that it has just begun or had a small effect! How incongruous it would have been to heaven and all who are spiritual if the Lord Jesus had come in as a Babe into the temple without finding priestly hands there! How wanting the whole scene would have been! How utterly out of keeping with what had been divinely intended, that, coming in as a Babe, as He did, He should find coldness and opposition! God would speak to us, now, I believe, as to this point, for where things are small, where the work of God has just begun, or has not had a very great effect, aside from priestly conditions the work must cease; it must, as it were, die out. I am not speaking of Christ personally; I am speaking of Him in a way that is figurative of conditions that may be found, and are being found, at the present time.
Here in Luke’s gospel there was a real movement. No one can read this chapter and the preceding one without being impressed with them, and yet it is a movement in outward smallness. In chapter 1 we have the inner side, the shrine, as we may call it, and a priest there. Gabriel came there — a remarkable fact — to announce something, something small, but what was sought after, for Zacharias had evidently prayed for John — a male child. But he failed in faith. The position was disappointing to heaven, for the angel represented heaven. There had been prayer, and Zacharias was a righteous man, his wife a righteous woman, blameless, of a certain order in the priesthood, serving too at the hour of prayer, offering incense; and yet the scene was peculiarly disappointing to heaven. Gabriel was a full representative of heaven, and he came to enhance the position, and instead of that he finds the whole position disappointing. The priest was in his place, outwardly doing what he should do, but inwardly unbelieving. A very searching matter! And then the judicial dealings of God make the matter outwardly worse; for the priest became dumb. This that I am saying now is not something beside the mark, it is a question of answering to the mind of heaven, of remembering our prayers, and expecting God to act. If we pray for something for the promotion of the testimony, God may have to say that disciplinary matters must intervene; judicial matters must intervene before they can be reached. I am not to be simply an onlooker, or one that has forgotten the things that have been required from heaven, but to go through the thing in discipline. We are to wait with patience, as it says. Zacharias failed in that, and the whole position was disappointing. It would be the last thing that those who love God would desire, that the position in which they are responsible personally should be found wanting.
[p. 466] But it is not so in chapter 2. We find there that the parents of Jesus — Mary and Joseph — are acting their part; they bring the Babe in according to the divine principle governing the position. The true priest begins really in that way; he says, “I myself with the mind serve God’s law”, (Romans 7:25). There is no question of what that specific law may be. The point is whether it is God’s, whether it is something from God that governs what I am to do. The true priest begins that way, and Mary and Joseph began that way; they were observing what God required as to their part in the matter. They brought the Babe in, and in the temple was found a true priest. Heaven is not disappointed now. How disappointing it would have been had the conditions been what they became later! But it was divinely ordered that there should be no disappointment; the matter was too serious, too important. It was a question of the Son of God, but still in a small way as to what is seen outwardly, analogous to what is current in regard of the testimony, but nevertheless essentially interesting to heaven. Priestly conditions were imperative there; so Simeon was the man. The Babe was there and Simeon was there; he was in Jerusalem but he was in the temple at the right time. As the Child is brought in he knows what to do. It is often the case in these analogous circumstances that a small work of God is just small in our minds, and regarded as of but little account and unworthy of the great exercise that is really imperative so that it might go forward. Simeon was of that mind. It was revealed to him. The position was of God, as in every such case, and God acts in these cases; but Simeon was truly a priest and in his place as needed. This brings up the practical thought that the testimony often suffers through brethren moving about, travelling aimlessly maybe. We cannot afford to expose the testimony. Sacrifice may be needed; heaven loves [p. 467] that. Heaven is watching the testimony with the greatest intentness, and is disappointed when it finds us slack and uninterested. “With whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?” (1 Samuel 17:28) one said in a haughty spirit to his brother. David said he left them with the keeper; they must be protected. The testimony must be protected, and protected by suitable hands.
Now Simeon was on the spot. He was characteristically a man in Jerusalem; but then he might be in Jerusalem and not in the temple. He might be a priest truly and not in the temple when he was needed. The point is to be where I am needed. Anna, too, came in at that hour; she did not miss it. Simeon took the Child in his arms. We have often commented on this beautiful scene — really there is no scene more beautiful: a true priest of God prepared for the occasion and now in it, on the spot, with priestly garments, priestly feelings! Not only did he know how to handle the Babe, but he knew how to receive God’s thoughts about the Babe. That is the next thing. The best thoughts any priest can have about Christ are not the full thoughts of God. But one wants to be equal to receive the thoughts of God for the particular time. So varied are the glories of Christ, so attractive, so excellent, that, in every incident in which God intervenes and says something, it is different! The variety is so great, the glories so extensive and varied! So it is not only that I am at the meeting, but I am where I am needed to be, and able to receive divine impressions about Christ, and able to speak of them too, able to communicate. How great a thing it is, dear brethren, to be ready to receive the divine thoughts about the holy Person, and then to communicate them.
So the Spirit of God tells us about this pattern man — Simeon. In regard of the testimony in a small way, particularly in initial stages or where the testimony [p. 468] has not had much success, there is great need for the priest to be there day and night, like Anna, night and day in the temple. She would not miss anything. She spoke of Him; she spoke about Christ. We are not told what she said, but we are told what Simeon said. He had the communication and knew how to convey the communication. What meetings we should have on these lines, as able to take in divine thoughts, and to convey divine thoughts about Christ! The Babe is brought in according to divine order, according to the law of God, and He is handed over to the priest. The priest is taking Him on; a man in communication with heaven, a man conversant with the reception of divine thoughts, for “it was revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ”, and now he has Him in his arms. How beautiful is the scene! We only transfer it to any brother or sister, especially a brother in assembly taking on the divine thoughts presented in Christ in smallness, however small, and then taking divine thoughts into his mind, immediately transmitted into his mind from heaven. Think of the freshness, think of the glory that shine under those circumstances!
So he says, “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people”. What great thoughts were transmitted to his mind! The Babe is not yet active; He is, as it were, passive, but He is the Lord’s Christ, and the priest’s soul is flooded with light about Him — “a light for revelation of the Gentiles”. We in the Western parts live in the view of heaven tonight. Is it too much to say that what I am speaking of from Luke 2 applies to this meeting? What is heaven looking at here? The Gentiles, in ourselves, are brought into the view of heaven. Think of being on that ground before God! Christ has done it. “A light for revelation of the Gentiles”. It is the [p. 469] unveiling, the taking away of the veil so that God looks upon us, not only in complacency in a potential way, but in an active sense. Christ has brought us in before the heavenly gaze. “A light for revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel”.
That is the feature I would present in these verses. What heaven is looking for in every assembly meeting is the bringing in of what is so pleasing, what Christ has effected. As it is said, “One God, the Father, of whom all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him”, (1 Corinthians 8:6). That is the position. We are for the Father here, particularly as in assembly; we are for the Father, but instrumentally by the Son. The one Lord has brought us in. All this enters into what we have in those verses, and I commend them in this way as most needful, so that we may, as in assembly, be there in a priestly sense, ready to receive heaven’s thoughts about Christ, the Father’s thoughts. There would be nothing stale, nothing marked by platitude. All is fresh and new, bringing fresh impressions of the many glories of Christ.
Now in verse 46 the conditions are not so good. There is another view; the Lord, as it were, has to take care of Himself. I am speaking now analogously of current conditions. It is humbling that there should be such retrogression in believers, particularly such a distinguished person as Mary, for she is seen in chapter 2 as a priest. And now she and her husband are together. They had been up to Jerusalem, and “the boy Jesus”, as He is called, went up with them, and they left for home talking to their fellow-travellers, but nothing about Jesus. He is not introduced at all; or, if He is introduced, they are speaking of Him theoretically, not consciously. They thought He was in the company, but He was not, and so they went back with a certain amount of parental resentment. Think of being resentful of [p. 470] Christ! They thought He was in the company, and now they went back sorrowing. It was in mutual parental love; the parents are looking for their son and sorrowing, as they say, but with a measure of resentment. Their state is unpriestly. We often find it reflected in our locality, and the Lord has to look after Himself. I am speaking now of the testimony, and it has to look after itself. At twelve years of age, He is able to do it, and so is the testimony at this age. But the Spirit of God holds up here a picture of what happens, the state of theory, for if they spoke of Him at all on the way home it was theoretically. They thought He was in the company, but He was not. There was no priestly feeling expressed at all — parental feeling, in a way, but merely natural. They ultimately find the Lord in the temple, and there is nothing against Him there, thank God! The doctors are there as in a normal condition of things, but with no particular attention to Him — to Christ. The meeting goes on, the usual things are done as the meeting proceeds, and we go home, but there is nothing at all, as far as the priests are concerned (or those who should be priests), nothing new or fresh. But then the Lord shines. He is sitting where He should be at that age, and this is, of course, a pattern for all boys and girls. He is sitting where He should be, sitting among the teachers. They are not viewed here as reprobates. There is no antagonism to Christ; but whatever comes that is worth having is from this holy Boy. Nothing at all is recorded of what the doctors said. We have a record of what Mary said to Him, and distressing it is! “Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing”. We are not let off, dear brethren. You might say she was doing her best. But she was not doing her best; she was really a priest, but had lapsed, and that is the difficulty very often. She was just giving vent to her natural parental feelings at the moment. Her priestly [p. 471] state is submerged; though it is there, thank God! So there is hope for every true priest, that although priestly state may be covered over it will come to light. The Lord says, “Did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?” So the position here is that He is able to take care of Himself, for which we may thank God, for, applying it to any condition in a locality, the ground is held.
We had communications in the early part of the chapter, but now the Lord is speaking about His Father, and as we are together that is one of the finest thoughts — to hear Him speak either to or about His Father. In John 14, John 15 and John 16, the Lord Jesus speaks about His Father, speaks much about Him; in chapter 17 He speaks to Him. Here He is speaking about Him, “Did ye not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” What light, dear brethren, shines! Did anyone ever speak in the temple like that before? Never! It is entirely new and fresh. The priests are lacking, not opposed, but the priesthood is not in evidence, and it should not be so. Instead of Mary and Joseph advancing in priesthood, they are retrograding. If the priesthood retrogrades and dies out, what will become of the testimony in the place? We may carry on in our regular routine, but there is no freshness, no word about the Father, no reception of immediate communications about the Son, about the Father, no word from the Son about the Father. Dear brethren, we cannot afford to lose these things.
Now in the last chapter Christ is acting in a judicial way in the temple. The temple, we may say, is becoming worse and worse. We begin with a priestly condition and go on to an unpriestly condition, and now we arrive at a hostile condition, and the Lord has to have recourse to judicial action. This is a solemn matter. Chapter 19:40 brings out His glory, His greatness as entering Jerusalem. He said, “If these shall be silent, the stones will cry out”. God is never [p. 472] short of what He needs in that sense; there would be always what is new. God acts in power and brings about what He needs in a sovereign way, but I am speaking now of the continuance of what is needed, and increase in that continuance.
The Lord enters the temple and finds a commercial state of things in the temple of God, persons selling doves, sheep and the like in the temple. He cast them out. We see the increasing power in the testimony as the conditions become worse, for the testimony must go through, and we want to be in it. He cast out the actual merchants, the persons, the buyers and sellers, not here the commodities as in John’s gospel. There it was a scourge of small cords; He cast out the things being sold and bought, and rebuked the persons selling and buying, but here He casts out the sellers and buyers. It is so serious that we have a commercial state of things where Simeon once held Jesus in his arms in a true priestly way, receiving communications from heaven about Him, where he conveyed those communications. There are now buyers and sellers of doves and sheep, a Canaanitish condition. The Lord has helped us in recent years, calling our attention to the incongruity of the merchant spirit amongst us. There may be a trading of the word of God for instance, making merchandise of the holy things of God. The Lord will not tolerate it, and if He calls attention to it He follows it up. He quotes from Isaiah 56:7, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations”. Instead of being a house of prayer where God makes His people rejoice, now it is used for merchandise, and the Lord is dealing with it. Luke does not mention the scourge of small cords, for he usually presents the gracious side; but, still, the offenders are cast out, and then the Lord teaches them. He creates conditions for teaching. He was not teaching in the temple in chapter 2, but hearing and asking questions. But [p. 473] now it is the full thought; He has dealt with the evil and He proceeds to instruct.
So, dear brethren, under these circumstances what is needed is teaching what this is and what that is, according to God. The word is, “They shall be all taught of God”. (John 6:45). That is real teaching, for who teaches like Him? He uses instruments, but the teaching is of God, and it is to prevent the recurrence of these things. Now that the Lord has brought things on to a right basis for us, let us proceed. The true means on His side is teaching. “My people are destroyed”, it said elsewhere, “for lack of knowledge”. (Hosea 4:6). The Lord proceeds to teach in the temple, and presently says, “There shall not be left stone upon stone”, (Luke 21:6). But while the position stands the teaching goes on, and it will go on, and we want to be in it. Let us learn all we can, and impart what we have learned according to our measure. “Freely ye have received, freely give”, says the Lord, (Matthew 10:8).