⬇ EPUB

THEY TWO WENT ON

Andrew Burr

I seek to add something to the idea of two, about "they two went on", 2 Kings 2: 6. I have been thinking about it since a reading where we looked at the burial of Jesus and those who had part in it, especially Nicodemus. Nicodemus is identified three times in John's gospel and on the first two occasions alone. It refers in John 19 to "Nicodemus also, who first came to Jesus by night" (v 39). On that first occasion he has to learn a very personal and individual matter relating to new birth and the initial work of the Spirit in him, a point at which all of us have begun, and a point which all of us have to accept as a beginning. It is not one that we had part in, exactly: it is a beginning of something that does not have its origin in what we are in the flesh.

In the middle of John's gospel, Nicodemus has to take a stand and show where he is in relation to the Lord Jesus under reproach. He cannot wait there for others to speak with him, but he has to identify himself with Jesus, which is also very important. It relates to his public testimony. Chapter 19 relates more to the development of his inward exercises. New birth is one thing but burial is another. They are lessons which have to be learnt in the life and pathway of the believer. It may be that we would begin to progress more quickly if the lesson of burial was more freely and fully faced. I do not say that as feeling I have nothing to learn as to it. We have been reminded what a solemn thing it is that Jesus has been cut off. The condition in which His pathway was lived has ended in death, and with it the flesh has ended before God. It has come under His judgment and is removed from His sight.

All these things are salutary and severe. They challenge so much that belongs to our natural lives and we are slow to face them. Death is a matter from which we shrink - the coldness of it, the power of it, these are things we feel. Nicodemus had them thrust upon him. There was another one earlier on who had had the cross laid upon him. Nicodemus came to the point where the matter of burial could no longer be avoided, it had to be faced. What a comfort it is to find in John's gospel that when he faced it there was a brother to face it with - a good man, an honourable man, a just man, a brother; someone whose support for him in the council perhaps had not been as overt as one might have expected, but in relation to the burial of Christ, a brother associated with him in what it entailed. So, there were two of them and they went on. They faced a needed service having to be undertaken of the gravest kind, but faced it together. What a wonderful thing it is that even in elation to things that are intensely personal, the idea that has been brought before us, of two going on.

It was in the light of this that I refer to this passage in Matthew's gospel. It is often taken up administratively, and it is often taken up in a rather negative way, but I just draw attention to its message that two may go on. Firstly, we have two who do not agree; they are in dispute about some matter, one has sinned against the other; but the object is that the two, as going over the matter with one another, might go on, and thus that they might be two where the Lord's presence would be known. If the brother is not gained, then the matter is taken up by another two, the brother offended and another, or perhaps two others, who are already together - "take one or two besides". How much we see when we look at this passage. The Lord has in mind what is normal, not what is residual as we sometimes suggest. I think He has in mind the functioning of what has been drawn attention to, two going on. The Lord wants the two involved in the difficulty to go on. If not, that one of them should find someone else to make two, or better still another two going on. Their object, perhaps the three of them, would be to bring the offender in the assembly into functioning - to be one of two or more agreeing as to any matter on the earth. What a wonderful contrast, and out of all proportion to the difference of which the Lord first speaks, that there might be two going on to whom the Father would be prepared to give anything.

These very encouraging things relate to the passage already read (2 Kings 2: 9). It speaks of the double portion of the prophet's spirit, these are things that the Father would give and then in addition to what the Father would give, the Lord's own presence is assured.

Let us look at the scripture in this light. I do not bring it forward because I have any matter such as we have in verse 15 in my mind, but rather to show how the Lord keeps bringing forward two going on. My desire is that fellowship might be taken up in that way. The two going on is the next step from what is individual. The three would help us to keep from special friendships and anything of that kind. It is fluid who the two may be, but they are what is immediately available. The two represents our point of contact with fellowship and what is collective, two going on.

This is clearly what the apostle has in mind in Philippians. He starts with these two ladies whom he exhorts to be of the same mind; that is he exhorts them to be two going on. And in order to give weight to his exhortation he joins a brother with him in it, making two already going on - "I ask thee true yoke-fellow". Think of being a yokefellow with Paul, bound by the same yoke, serving the same Master, engaged in the same work, ploughing the same furrow; two going on. Then he brings in another, making the two or three. We have in Matthew one that takes one or two besides, and Paul is able to take two, "Clement also". He is another one who readily takes his place in this yoke, someone who has contended "along with me in the glad tidings". Then Paul goes on to speak of yet more yoke-fellows. What a concept he has in his mind. It is brought to bear upon this matter so that all of them, including the two to whom he first speaks, might be going on.

May He bless the word.

LONDON

24 March 1998

← Previous 5 of 5 Next →