II (iii)
II (iii) James Alex Gardiner
It is very blessed, beloved, to know that the Lord Jesus is available to all, to every single person in the room. He is available to us, because Luke presents Him as a neighbour. What a neighbour Jesus is! Matthew and Mark probably have the Jews in mind initially but Luke is a Gentile. He is the only Gentile who writes in the Scriptures, and when the Lord Jesus is brought into the temple to be circumcised, Simeon says He is "a light for revelation of the Gentiles..." - that is us - "and the glory of thy people Israel", (chap 2: 32).
We find here somebody who found rest. There is a moral way to rest, beloved. The parable begins with “a certain man" who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. It is a downward path, going from the great area of privilege right down to the world. But what is in the world? - Jericho, the city of the curse. Jerusalem is the place of God's favour. Typically it speaks of the church, of the assembly, of the place where God has rest. He has chosen Zion, He says. He says, "This is my rest for ever'' (Ps 132: 14), God resting in Christ, resting in Christ and the church. How beautiful that is! "A certain man", He says, "A certain man descended...” Let us, each one of us, ask ourselves, are we on that road? Have we found Jerusalem too straitened for us? The Neighbour will provide all that is needed for you to live in the liberty and joy and blessedness of what is proper to Jerusalem.
So the man is met by "a certain Samaritan". You can try religion, the priest and the Levite. The man was robbed, so obviously he had something to take, you might say, evidence of assembly features with him. They stripped him, robbed him, left him in a half-dead state. That is what happens, beloved, when you start on that downward road, the descending road. But, oh, beloved, the Neighbour is available. "But a certain Samaritan journeying came to him". This is the new covenant. Have you ever heard of the new covenant? It is not demand; it is supply. He binds up his wounds. He does not ask him any questions. He does not interrogate him. Binding up his wounds, he pours in oil and wine. He sets him on His own breast and takes him to the inn. That is another divine provision. These sections that I have referred to are loaded with divine resource, all under the hand of the Neighbour. He puts him on his own beast. Think of that? He walks alongside of him. Very blessed to have the Neighbour walk alongside of you and carry you on His own beast, prove the wonderful kindness and grace of Jesus! You did not deserve it. Who did deserve it? Thank God for recovery! That is the day we are in when we are learning (and the Lord would teach us and instruct us) how to live in Jerusalem, how to live at the level of the assembly. So he is in the inn and there is the innkeeper there and the man has been healed. It has often been said, and rightly said, that while Luke is medical, he is not exactly surgical. Healing is in mind. You have been wounded? Who has not been wounded? Healing is available under the hand of the Neighbour.
So it goes on in the moral sequence. The Lord says, "Which now of these three seems to thee to have been neighbour of him who fell into the hands of the robbers? And he said, He that shewed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, Go, and do thou likewise". Very blessed to move as Christ has moved!
Now, we come on to what our brother has been speaking about, because Mary finds rest. Martha is burdened and heavy-laden but she has not come to Christ. Maybe you are like that; maybe I am like that. It says she was "distracted with much serving". She is not thinking straight. We need to have our thoughts adjusted beloved and brought into line with God's. She virtually says to the Lord, You are not paying attention to me. Look at all I have to do! Martha was "distracted with much serving" but Mary finds rest. She sat at His feet and listened to what He had to say. She does not intrude her own thoughts, her own ideas, her own burdens, into the situation where Christ in His headship is being experienced. Mary sat at His feet. Oh, how blessed that is! It is available to all. There is room for every single person, every single Christian, at the feet of Jesus, and He is prepared to speak to every single one because He is not partial in that sense. He loved the assembly and gave Himself for it, not part of it, but all of it, and as we move on this line, beloved, we will find out place at His feet. Listen to what He has to say! Do not intrude! Weigh up what He has to say! You will find that you have chosen the good part. God puts it on your responsibility and on mine. It is a wonderful thing that God has never abrogated man's responsibility, so that you are responsible and the Neighbour has the means to help us not only to fulfil that responsibility but to overcome it and to go on to the enjoyment of the great things of God. So she sat at His feet.
These women in the gospels are extremely interesting persons. We have read of Mary in Simon the leper's house. In the previous chapter there is a poor widow who valued the treasury. She casts in two mites and all these stones and buildings have to come down in the presence of such moral glory. I would commend this to each one of us. Choose! You have to weigh it up. Go into the sanctuary! Put your ideas into the balances of the sanctuary! Weigh them up, in that sense, in the presence of God, and choose the good part! Be definite! Think of choosing! And it will never be taken from you. Think of the blessedness, beloved, of eternally enjoying the presence of Christ and listening to His word, and what flows out from that is bound to be testimony! So the next thing, when we experience this, is that we need to become like Him. We need to pray. It is very interesting the number of times that the Lord Jesus prays in this gospel in the holy dependence of His manhood, and somebody has caught on. This is the extension of Mary. The disciple says, "Lord, teach us to pray". He will teach us to pray, beloved. We need to learn to pray and in our prayers we are expressing our own needs, our own desires, our own appreciation distinctively of God and whatever it might be we need, and in that situation, amongst other things, personality emerges. You have taken on Christ in some measure and what is coming out are the features that are proper to Jerusalem.
Then you are asking for something. You are in need, and it goes on to say at the end of the section, "How much rather shall the Father who is of heaven... ". That is what we need. Have you ever asked for more of the Holy Spirit? It is given to you. "How much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" There is power to overcome every single obstacle. Every true heart, every pure heart, every heart that calls upon the Lord out of purity of affection will find guidance and direction and power and resource to live at the level f Jerusalem. That is what this Gentile physician has in mind and so he closes his gospel with an allusion to the fact that the temple was filled and they never ceased praising and blessing God.
How wonderful that is! The method of the teaching is very wonderful, but it is to be experienced in our souls. Then I am sure, like our sister, we will find rest and upbuilding and change taken on as we sit down at the feet of Jesus and listen to His word, because we are looking upon the glory of the Lord with unveiled face.
May the Lord comfort and help our beloved brethren and all the relatives! We are glad to see everybody here today. And so is the Neighbour. The Neighbour is available to every single person. It is up to you and Him. It is up to you to choose whether you want this part or whether you do not want to go further than the inn, whether you want to remain on the Jericho road. It is entirely your matter. He is not forcing anybody. But the appeal of His love and the attractiveness of what He sets forth is to draw our hearts into the blessedness of what is in God's mind for us. May the Lord bless the word!
KIRKCALDY
1 April 1998
At the burial of Mrs Frances Gardiner