LUKE 24 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 242] LUKE 24 (NOTES OF A READING)
AMH When considering this part of the chapter we do not want to ignore what immediately precedes, for it has a bearing on the subject; that is in the two going to Emmaus, the Lord conversing with them and finally going in with them and making Himself known in the breaking of bread. You have in a way an illustration of what takes place at the Supper.
Often with us there is the idea that certain preliminaries are required, and the reason is that we have not sufficiently recognised the character of the Supper, which in itself is preliminary. The Supper is the preparation for the assembly. The Lord saw that it was necessary for us, as coming from our wilderness conditions, to have something to open the way for assembly functioning. The. Supper is the institution for that purpose. We may not have wandered into the country, but we need this touch from the Lord. It is normal for the Lord to make Himself known to us in the breaking of bread. The touch of the Lord is some spiritual thought of Himself and often develops throughout the Supper as we follow it.
At the commencement of our meeting we do not need an introduction. We may begin with a hymn, which is a kind of carry-over from the previous meetings, and an expression of joy; the Supper is introduced as an ordinance to start us, and taking it thus at the beginning gives time for development as under the Lord’s leading.
Rem The breaking of bread you refer to was at Emmaus in a house.
AMH The immediate effect is that they are found in the company. “And rising up the same hour, ... they found the eleven, and those with them, gathered together”. The breaking of bread puts us together. The Lord shows Himself in the breaking of bread, and there is an immediate transition [p. 243] from the individual to the collective position, which is proper. The Supper adjusts us as coming from our various homes, it puts us together, and the Lord has introduced it for that purpose.
CAC The Lord has done much for us in giving us to see that it is a normal summons which brings the saints together in assembly character. Is there any other?
AMH Anything else would be introduced by ourselves, and that would be foreign to the Lord’s mind.
CAC It is very beautiful that the Lord should have thought of such an exceedingly simple act for us to do: “This do in remembrance of me”. But it requires that those who love Him in every locality where His name is called upon should be unified in doing it. There is nothing sectional about it.
AMH Naturally we each dwell in our own separate surroundings, but the Lord’s supper is the unifying element. When the Lord was here He was the unifying element, but now He has provided for His absence.
CAC And also that we should do something: “This do in remembrance of me”.
AMH You attach importance to the fact that we are all doing something.
CAC Yes, and everything outside of what is set forth in that is excluded by the words, “remembrance of me”. There is nothing more unifying than that. It is the appeal of the Lord to all that love Him, and if listened to would practically unify all the saints in every place.
AMH Because while the bread speaks of His giving His body for us and primarily bears on what we are locally, it would include all He gave Himself for — all the saints, and in our minds we include all.
CAC And it must be taken up locally, because if it is not, there will be no concrete expression of the divine thought at all.
Jos. S. You mean it is not possible for all believers to meet together in one [p. 244] place?
CAC The idea is that it is done locally, and the one bread and one cup themselves suggest that the saints would respond to the Lord and do what He says in relatively small companies.
AMH It is a very local matter here. These two had got adrift from their brethren, but the Lord showing Himself to them awakens immediately the normal sense of the company to which they belong, and they return to Jerusalem to the ordered condition of things. They fall in with what they find there, and say certain things in line with what is being said.
CAC Was there development suggested in the Lord’s movements in chapter 24 as compared with His institution of the Supper in chapter 22? In that chapter the bread and cup spoke of the Lord in death, but in chapter 24 He is leading them by a moral road which ends in the revelation of Himself as risen. I was wondering if the breaking of the bread in chapter 24 did not carry us further than the loaf and the cup in chapter 22, as bringing us, in the apprehension of our souls, to Christ as risen. Does not the breaking of bread in chapter 24 suggest His death as that by which He comes to a new position and condition as risen? Would it not embody in a striking symbol all that was substantiated in Himself as risen? He had been showing them how all the Scriptures referred to Himself. And the loaf in chapter 24 would set forth all that is established in Himself as risen, and He is known in relation to that, so they go back to the company. It had a unifying effect, and the company was gathered in the light of Himself risen.
AMH It shows how the light adjusts; they get a view of the Lord as risen, and it carries their minds to those who recognise Him as risen.
CAC Is not the development of spiritual intelligence very prominent in Luke’s gospel, especially so in this chapter? Hence the great detail connected with the scope of Scripture, how all the scriptures speak concerning Himself, and more particularly as bearing upon Himself as risen ([p. 245] verse 27). I was wondering whether that would not put us outside the present world system altogether.
AMH Would it bring the tabernacle system into view? The death of Christ as severing us from one scene, and resurrection bringing another world into view in Him?
CAC We must seethe thing established on the ground of the death of Christ before we are prepared to touch the resurrection sphere.
AMH The death of Christ gives the right basis for everything and conveys the impress of the love of Christ to our hearts, carrying captive our affections, and displacing all expectations from the scene in which He died. All this is now in Him. How far would you carry that in relation to the loaf? I suppose it includes the idea of the saints: one body.
CAC I thought we had a further development when we come to resurrection and the Lord’s movement in resurrection; we are then on another footing altogether. Is not the close of the gospels designed to bring the saints in their affections on to the ground of being risen with Christ? The disciples at the end of the gospel were brought in their affections to taste of being risen with Him. They could be in the company of a risen Man in an out-of-the-world condition. This would challenge all our hearts. Do we know that, to be collectively, not simply individually, in association with a risen Man?
AMH It is not easy, evidently. The disciples were afraid — in their minds and feelings they were still on this side of death.
CAC And the Lord would take extraordinary pains to verify Himself to us as risen, in our affections collectively, so that we may be in concert with One who is alive out of death. One feels how little one knows of this, but how can we be really in testimony here unless we do know something about it?
Rem In John 20, Thomas is not there, and the Lord comes in again when [p. 246] he was there.
CAC Yes, He would bring them all the way in John, but it is as far as Bethany only, in Luke.
AMH What is all the way?
CAC It has often been said that the saints were gathered in John 20 by a message given to Mary: “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”
(John 20: 17). That is all the way; you can never get further than that, it is the terminus.
AMH When He comes among them in John’s account He shows them His hands and His side. What would that indicate?
CAC That calls attention to Himself as the One whose mighty hands had carried into effect all the purposes of the Father’s love; those purposes are only carried out and brought to pass in the power of the blood and water which flowed from His side, which effected not only complete expiation but also purification. So He can say of the saints, “Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. We cannot go higher or further than that. That is further than Bethany!
AMH So in showing His hands it is like saying, “It is finished”. He had all the purpose of God in view when on the cross.
CAC In Luke it is not His hands and His side but His hands and His feet.
AMH Would His hands there have relation to His service to us?
CAC Yes. His hands would represent His service of grace; I think we have seven touches of His hands in Luke, bringing out the perfection of the service of grace which He has rendered on God’s part to men. His feet would represent His blessed movements by which He has brought to light what God is — the God of grace.
AMH Is there some thought of the Mediator — the feet suggesting God brought to us through Christ?
CAC I thought so, and the object in view in chapter 24 is that the saints should be made competent to carry on the [p. 247] service of grace. Jerusalem and the temple position are in view, not the upper room.
AMH Is there continuation of service there (see verse 47)?
CAC Yes, and Jerusalem in Luke’s gospel has a certain dignity. In John it is discredited, but the end of Luke is more in keeping with Isaiah 2: 3.
AMH It is more connected with the assembly here; that is, on earth.
CAC It is the public position of the saints in the testimony of grace; is it not well that we should hold all this in our affections in connection with the Lord’s supper? The whole of Scripture is consummated in Himself as risen, but it is all in view of setting up the saints in a public position in testimony, so that we break bread in the morning in view of the gospel meeting at night.
AMH Here He leads them out as far as Bethany. We may say, ‘We did not get to the Father this morning’, but He may have the testimony in view and something to be worked out in the saints, to strengthen us during the week.
CAC It is a great loss to us if we do not entertain that view of the Lord’s supper. It stands in relation to the testimony, something for God here which derives its strength from the loaf and the cup and the apprehension of Christ risen. We need to be strengthened for the continuation of the blessed service of Christ.
AMH So the assembly in that way is the continuation of Christ as the anointed vessel. I think we are rather limited in giving thanks for the loaf. What would you say would help us? It is not just the death of Christ, but Himself risen enters into it.
CAC “In remembrance of me”. The “me” is out of death. The emblems speak of Christ in death, but the “me” is out of death. When the evangelists wrote the gospels what a sense they must have had in their souls that the One about whom they wrote was risen and glorified. Every verse was written in the light of the now risen and glorified Man. So we break the bread in the deep and blessed consciousness that [p. 248] He is risen. This would help to put us clean outside of the world, not only in its profane, but in its religious aspect.
AMH So in Revelation 5 the Lord is seen as a Lamb standing as slain. He is living, but is identified as having been slain, and He takes the book and gives effect to what is written in it.
CAC I think this chapter adds something to what has been set forth in the Supper as instituted in chapter 22. It would suggest that the Lord’s death has been His way to an entirely new position.
AMH Paul says, “I received from the Lord ...” (1 Corinthians 11: 23, 24). He speaks from a risen Christ. Beautiful to have that before us!
CAC Would that not liberate our hearts for some of the developments suggested earlier?
AMH It would certainly put a stop to all preconceived thoughts. If we start with the Lord in resurrection, what may He not lead us to? We must leave it to Him as to how He is going to proceed. I suppose the loaf in a way is extricatory, and the cup would put us together in the fulness of satisfaction. Would the cup bring in a satisfying portion so that God is magnified?
CAC Yes, and the thought of the saints having a common portion. It takes a great deal of divine workmanship to bring us into what we have in common. We are naturally so self-centred. After being carnally self-centred we become spiritually self-centred. We never get on until we begin to say “we”. It is the first ray of light in a believer’s soul when he begins to say “we”.
Jos. S. It is the bread which we break.
CAC Yes, you cannot think of doing it alone. You must say “we”, and when you say it in your soul you have touched the assembly, a unified company with great wealth, and you are bound up with that company, and there cannot be anything sectional about it. All the blessed truth of Ephesians can only be taken up by us as saying “we”.
AMH It is interesting to see that the first experimental plurals in Romans are “our Lord” in the end of chapter 7 and “those” in chapter 8: 1, after the “I” question has been settled.
CAC Yes, you get many “I’s” and “me’s” in chapter 7, and many of us live there. We may think we are out of it, but as long as we say “I” we are in it. You cannot say “I” about the things in chapter 8. You have things there in common with all saints, and this puts the thoughts of the assembly in your affections and you cannot think of anything less than all believers being in it. If I have the Spirit of God, I cannot possibly isolate myself from the millions on earth who have the same Spirit. You have done with all sectarian thoughts then! All that has been brought to us in the death of Christ is a commonwealth; it belongs to the “we”, the whole company. “Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body”; “The cup of blessing which we bless”; “The bread which we break”. It is a universal “we”, and all Christians are supposed to break that bread and bless that cup; if not, they have not come to the most elementary thought of christian blessing.
AMH Yes. It is a great thing to think of coming together in assembly.
CAC Yes, the great catholic truth is to be held, and it can only be truly held as in separation from what denies it in a practical sense. There may be only twenty or thirty people prepared to recognise it, but what they recognise is universal, and if all believers recognised it, all would be unified.
AMH We hold it for them.
CAC We hold the spiritual valuables as being the property of all the saints — all the blessed things in Scripture belong to them — so we are always to be catholic in our outlook.
AMH You would think that when the Lord came in it would be a wonderful time, but it is not always so. The disciples were frightened, and if we are not moving [p. 250] collectively, confusion arises. But we should all get an impression of the Lord and follow it up, and He would decide how far it would be developed on any particular occasion, do you not think?
CAC The truth bound up in the assembly is like an ocean and each meeting like a thimble let down into it. The divine thought is that in every place saints should be together for the Supper, and then the whole realm of divine wealth would become available to us.
AMH You cannot expect to get through the whole on each occasion.
CAC Oh, no indeed! It is what will fill eternity, and it is impossible to condense it all into one hour on a Lord’s Day morning!
AMH When the Lord comes in there is often the feeling of confusion and fear with us, as here. The Lord may give a touch which attracts us, and we feel unequal to following it up, but if we waited on Him in relation to what He presents, we should get an understanding of Himself that we never had before we came to the meeting.
Rem “They gave him part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb”.
CAC Whatever we may have locally is partial: “part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb”. The Lord presents to us the fulness of the divine thought, the whole loaf. But if we had our beloved brother Paul here, he would say, “We know in part”. What they gave Him would represent what there was by the working of God. It was there, and the Lord would say, ‘Now I can appreciate and enjoy that’. What an encouragement that the Lord would look around in any company and challenge us to bring out the wealth that is there. It is only partial, but the Lord would have it and enjoy it. He would give us a sense that what is effected in our souls is a positive satisfaction to Him. The risen One can come into the midst of His own to appreciate what is with us by the grace and work of God. Does that not draw your heart out to Him?
[p. 251] Is there something in us that can give satisfaction to the risen Lord, that He can feed upon and appreciate? Thank God there is! Then He can lead us on; there is no point from which you can be led on unless you have something the Lord can enjoy; then there is something to lead us from.
AMH Would the fish suggest the sovereignty of God in an abstract and hidden way, and the honeycomb local conditions?
CAC Yes, the fish in the gospels suggest the sovereign action of God in taking out of the world what is for Himself; but then every cell in the honeycomb is fitted together. It is collective. It is the divine thought that we should all fit together perfectly. If the flesh and nature were eliminated, we should all fit together perfectly and be filled with the grace of God — all that is known in Christ. He would say, ‘It all came from Me, but you can give it back to Me and I can enjoy it’.
AMH Would His body given for us (Luke 22: 19) involve all that the laying down of His life meant, and that what He brought here is now available to us?
CAC I thought when the Lord said, “This is my body which is given for you”, He was suggesting to us the amazing results of His incarnation — the whole blessed result of a divine Person having come down here to take up a body. How far-reaching and measureless it is! And all is to be taken up in assembly. It is so good to get away from our naturally restricted thoughts, for we are in the midst of a profession filled with the restricted thoughts of the mind of man, and we want to get outside of that into a region where things are illimitable as the result of Christ’s death, and of everything being substantiated in Himself as risen.
AMH “He led them out as far as Bethany, and having lifted up his hands, he blessed them”. Would that convey a deepened sense of what the Lord had been here, now linked up with Him risen? It is like a meeting closing with what the Lord had in His heart for them, for on [p. 252] that particular occasion that is the closing note.
CAC Yes, they learn from His priestly service in connection with this new order of things. It was at Bethany that He was first apprehended by one soul in the power of His resurrection. The Lord loved Bethany because it was there where the truth of His resurrection was apprehended. Mary anointed Him for burial, but with His resurrection in view.
AMH There was a home there for Him. Do you think the thought of a home for Christ may be a good note to finish our meeting on? Is it the Lord’s mind that we should always reach the thought of the Father? It is the highest note, but one hour is very short to compass the whole range of divine thoughts, as you have said.
CAC I think what you may get in the local assembly at any particular meeting is not known. You should know what will transpire up to the breaking of bread. It is a fixed order. We come together to do a certain act — to break bread, and not for preliminary exercises; that is the first thing before you, but afterwards you do not know what will happen. In christendom there is just a formal service, often piously carried out, and things are restricted.
If you think of all the wealth that divine love has bestowed upon the assembly, you will realise that only a little part can be touched on one occasion, and the question is what part of it the Lord will enable us to touch on any particular Lord’s Day morning. We look to have the present conscious joy of some part of what will be our eternal blessedness and to serve God in our praises in relation to it, but we do not know beforehand exactly what it will be, for this depends on the present leading of Christ as Head, and it also depends on the spiritual conditions which are found on our side.