CHRIST AS FOOD
J. R. Cumming
I desire the Lord’s help to say a few words as to that verse in John’s gospel, what the Lord said as to Himself, “I live on account of the Father, he also who eats me shall live also on account of me”. A very wonderful statement! Maybe we cannot say very much about it; maybe we do not know too much about it either. I would just like to preface that by referring to this scripture in Luke’s gospel. It is the mount of Olives here in Luke’s gospel. It is Gethsemane in Matthew and Mark, which we understand accentuates the pressure. Gethsemane, we understand, was a part of the mount of Olives; so it is the same place. But Luke, under the Spirit’s touch, stresses that He went forth “according to his custom to the mount of Olives”.
So the Lord Jesus here is an object for our hearts and our affections as we think about Him. There were those who went with Him, followed Him, but the stone’s throw is mentioned here. It is anticipative of what the Lord was actually to endure on the cross. The Lord Jesus went through it here, in all the holiness of how He felt about it, and it is a touch to our affections, I think, to see the Lord here in the extremity of what was so pressing upon Him.
He was at the mount of Olives, and in that position He says, “Father”. He was a blessed, unique Man in relation to the will of the Father in all the demand of love, and yet He was able for it. That involved the way He went, but it is so fine when you read these words, “Father, if thou wilt remove this cup from me—but then, not my will, but thine be done”. Oh the perfection of what this brings to our hearts freshly and always should touch us. On the one hand it is the area of pressure and sorrow, and yet it is that blessed Man in the relationship of what He was to the Father, and that in the enjoyment of a communion which was distinctive.
That is the way love has gone, it is anticipative of what was involved at the cross, and that was only a few hours ahead. The Lord Jesus went through it here in His spirit as to all that it meant, and in the holiness that marked Him in regard to all that was going to come upon Him. He felt that; “if thou wilt remove this cup from me”. That is said to the Father. And then the blessed obedience that comes in these following words—“but then, not my will, but thine be done”.
Well that is the way it has been taken up, beloved brethren. It is a wonderful thing to think about the Lord Jesus measuring sin’s distance. God could measure the distance. I think it has been said somewhere in ministry that at our very best we do not know too much as to our judgment of sin; maybe we have to deepen in that. But here was sin’s distance measured by a blessed Man. That involved the totality of the sacrifice that was going to be offered up; but sin’s distance was measured in a Man. He was taking that up and going through with it and all the suffering involved. It is for us to be affected by it; to take our place in affection for Christ in the testimony that is here for Him now. He was the only One that could go this way; but as having gone that way, the way is clear so that you and I can follow in the testimony.
It says here in John chapter 6, “As the living Father has sent me”, that is a very delightful phrase; I do not know whether the expression, ‘the living Father’, occurs anywhere else, although there are references to the living God. Oh think of the delight of that word being recorded here! There was absolute committal to the will of God without any deviation at all, everything was carried through in perfection by Him, “As the living Father has sent me and I live on account of the Father”. That note of Mr. Darby’s is very searching, he says that the sense is ‘by reason of what the Father is and his living;’ ‘I live by reason of his being and living’. It takes some understanding; he says it is not just ‘by’ or ‘through’, it is something more deep than that. It is a wonderful thing that the Lord Jesus should think to put it to us in this way, that He lives “on account of the Father”. Think of all that that life meant to the Father; think of all that was, you might say, exactly as He would desire it; everything was there in perfection and yet that life was given up. It is a wonderful thing for us to think about.
There is always a need for us to be morally affected by what we read. The perfection of Christ is wonderful for us to be affected by, to see it, you might say objectively. We have to see that; Christ is distinctive in that way, but it should have a moral effect on us. We can see in Luke 22 that the disciples were with the Lord in these circumstances, and they all went to sleep; they certainly were not living as He says in verse 57 of John 6, “he also who eats me shall live also on account of me”. That is what the Lord wants, persons who take this matter up, “he also who eats me”, I suppose, would be appropriating that One to ourselves. He says when that is done, “he also who eats me shall live also on account of me”; in other words, that same idea would be in us as it is in Christ perfectly; everything there from the Father, and everything carried through in the believer as feeding on Christ.
‘Eating Me’ is more than a round of meetings, and I want to be careful in what I say, but I speak to all of us, and to our young people here too with us tonight. We can settle very nicely into a way of things in the meetings, and I am not decrying the meetings, but that is not necessarily eating Him. We can live on the exteriors of the fellowship, but I am rather tested by a remark of Mr. Taylor where he says, that a true believer must evidence a matter of independency. You say, that is surely not right, we should not be independent. What would you do if all the brethren went wrong? What would you do? All the brethren went wrong in Luke 22, they were sleeping. What are you going to do if the test comes in your life? Mr. Darby said once that he was prepared to go on alone. Paul said at the end of 2 Timothy, “At my first defence no man stood with me, but all deserted me. May it not be imputed to them”, 2 Timothy 4: 16. I take it that would be the brethren; he would not be worried about other men at that point; he would not be looking for support from other men; it would be the brethren, they all forsook him. What is left? “But the Lord stood with me”—that is eating Me. He knew the Lord was with him. I think we have to come to certain things in our lives, and I am subject to the brethren in what I am saying, but I feel it very much that we could go on in an outward way, but the Lord speaks to us at times in many, many ways, and it is all to this great end, that we should find reality in our link with Christ, so that nothing can come in between Him and each one of His own personally, no matter what happens. I think it is vital. That would preserve us from being just nominally in the position of fellowship, good and all as that may be, and good as all the meetings are, we are not criticising these benefits, but if we are living only in these, then we are missing out in the vital part as to what Christ should be to us personally. I just want to leave that with the brethren. Let us see to it that we in our time know that, “he also who eats me shall live also on account of me”.
I suppose Mary in a certain way displays the thing. There was Martha busy with all that was to happen, and we sometimes can be very, very busy about the meetings also, and the meetings can be very busy too; Mary does not say anything but she is just absorbing His word. I think she was really on the line of appropriating Him, and as having taken that part it was never going to be taken from her. After all, beloved brethren, if we are here for a few years, what are we growing up to, if it is not a knowledge of divine Persons? There is nothing else that will remain. So let us be exercised that we are marked by this line of formation after Christ, and to know what it is, as He says here, “he also who eats me shall live also on account of me”. Wonderful end! May we know it for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Edinburgh
20 August 1991