“BEFORE” AND “AFTER” THE LORD’S SUFFERINGS
J. N. Grace
A simple thought, beloved brethren, as to these two references to the sufferings of our Lord.
The twelve would never forget this time when the Lord gathered them round Himself, placing Himself at table just on the eve of His departure out of this world. The twelve would be representative of all that Jesus had in this scene at that time. And as the Lord drew near the time when He was to suffer and die, He wanted them with Him. “With desire”, He says, “I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer”. There never had been a passover like this one. All that the type looked forward to was about to be seen in actuality in what the Lord was about to go through. Luke does not present the sufferings of the Lord from the point of view of the abandonment, the forsaking by God. It is a more modified view, connected with His suffering from men and along with men; not that the other does not enter into it, but it is not emphasized, because Luke, writing as he does both in his gospel and the Acts, has the assembly particularly in mind. Therefore the teaching of the Lord in respect of His sufferings is intended to strengthen us in view of any little bit of suffering any one of us might go through. When we think of the Lord, however much we may feel that suffering comes on us, it cannot be compared with what came upon Jesus.
So the Lord, knowing all that the passover set forth, says, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you”. What a point that was that the Lord Himself should eat this passover with them before He suffered. His sufferings were emphasized, but from the point of view of their being able in some way to penetrate into them. None of us could penetrate into the atoning sufferings—the forsaking of God. In this gospel the Lord goes forth to the mount of Olives.
Gethsemane as such is not named, as it says in verse 39, “And going forth he went according to his custom to the mount of Olives, and the disciples also followed him”, and it goes on,
“And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and having knelt down he prayed”, as if to indicate that the Lord’s sufferings set out by Luke are within our range. Well, it just appeals to me, beloved brethren, that we should give more consideration to the sufferings of Jesus. We are near the close of the dispensation; what lies ahead none of us knows. But it is a wonderful encouragement and strengthening to the heart to contemplate Jesus in these last few hours of His life, as it says, “before I suffer”.
The other scripture is “after he had suffered”. What tremendous happenings there were between those two points, before He suffered, and after He had suffered! But He had His own with Him here. It is just an indication how the Lord would love to have us in full sympathy with Him and in His movements, first His movements into death at the point where He introduces the Supper, the memorial, that is what Luke gives us. It shows how the Lord loves to have us with Him in the celebration of the Supper, the calling of Himself to mind. So He takes the loaf and He takes the cup and He says, “This do in remembrance of me”. Oh to have the Lord in the blessedness of His own Person a little bit more in our hearts! We would never miss a gathering if we possibly could. The Lord is gracious, He knows our cares, but He looks for a desire in our hearts that corresponds with His own, and I think it is as we are together that we get
fresh, living impressions of the Lord after He suffered. There is in this section what is before He suffered, but then the institution of the Supper means that the Lord was looking forward to the time when we would be here and when He would not be here, because there would be no point in the remembrance of the Lord when He was here. The Supper was not celebrated in the time of the forty days. It was given for the time of His absence; so it just means we love to be together.
I think that is a word that belongs to the assembly— together. Paul gives it to us. When we
“come together”—a fine word. Not just physically, but together spiritually; we have a regard, an affection, for one another. So it is not just so many persons in a place, but think of a number of brethren like this— together; together in our spirits, together in our affections, and our one desire, as our brother said in his prayer, is to hear His voice, to make way for Christ; and He will come. Think of Him coming as the Lord did in Acts 1!—“to whom also he presented himself living, after he had suffered, with many proofs”. And this is still going on; the Lord is still presenting Himself, not corporeally—in the forty days He did that. But then the appearings that Paul gives us lead on to the last appearing to Paul himself. “To me also”, he says (1 Corinthians 15: 8), and Paul, although an apostle, is a pattern for us and therefore an indication that the Lord would continue that down through the dispensation, that our hearts would love Him and remember Him and recall Him in His own way.
So here in Acts 1 it says, “to whom also he presented himself living”—living! How blessed it is, dear brethren, to know that our Lord is living, and the presentation of Himself is not just by way of doctrine, although that enters into it as necessary, but as we meet together and as the Spirit
helps, then there is a presentation of Christ living. That means that no two meetings will ever be the same, because of the presence of Christ. There is a touch of life about a presentation of Christ that could only come from Him; and it is “after he had suffered”. I think the sweet odour of His sufferings is carried forward, and every time the Lord appears it will attach our hearts to Himself. We would never forget what He has been through; rather it is that the Lord would strengthen our hearts that He has been through everything and come through, and He is a blessed, living Man, and whatever we may have to go through, the appearance of Christ would strengthen us that we may be here according to His own desires in the testimony.
So it strengthens our desires, does it not, as we think of the Lord desiring to be with His own before He suffered? What it would promote in our hearts is a desire to be with Him after He has suffered. So we want the Lord, and we want one another, and here they were, a company, one hundred and twenty in Acts 1; they just came together. I think they just came together because they wanted Christ. They missed Him, they expected Him, I think, and therefore faith was operative, as it should be as we come together every time, faith operative with us that the Lord Himself will appear. So it says, “being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things which concern the kingdom of God”. Then He speaks of “the promise of the Father”. A wonderful thing, is it not, that this is just how the Lord thinks of us, thinks of His own? He speaks of the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit. The Lord is encouraging us increasingly to value the presence of the Holy Spirit and His operations among all those who belong to the Lord, for the Spirit of God is operating over a wide area. I could think, in a sense, of nothing
more choice in regard of the Holy Spirit than that He should be spoken of as “the promise of the Father”. You think of the Father, who He is, His glorious place in the economy of love, representing God, as He does, in the economy. How much the Lord speaks of the Father.
These are the choicest things in the universe really, and they emanate from the Father, and this is the choicest promise the Father could give.
And He says they were “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promise of the Father, which said he ye have heard of me”. Then the Lord goes on to say that, the Holy Spirit having come upon them, they were to be His witnesses.
Well, it was just, dear brethren, that we may be encouraged by a sense of all that happened between these two points and it bears upon our encouragement in view of our continuance in the testimony; and the more we think over it the more we will appreciate the sufferings of Christ and the more we shall want to be together.
Word in meeting for ministry, Melbourne
19 June 1984