36 - Luke 12:37

’Verily I say unto you, That he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.’ -Luke 12:37

It is very remarkable how our Lord was able to give instruction to the Church of the far future in words addressed to the little company of disciples who attended on his ministry. It is wonderful how appropriately they acted the part of our representatives, as though they were delegates from all future generations of Christians to receive and convey the words of Jesus. Yet they had no thought of this at the time. They heard for themselves, and were simply intent on getting their own hearts filled and their own lives influenced by the doctrines. And in fact it was in this way that the words addressed to them became fruitful in blessing to the Church of after times. Those words would have profited us little if they had not entered into and controlled the lives of the apostles. God’s truth requires a highway of faith; its pathway is through the hearts and lives of believers.

Here we find Jesus speaking in the most natural tone imaginable of the coming of the Son of man. He is there in the midst of them, and yet talks of his coming to them as something future, and something to be constantly looked for. Is he only half come? Do we look for another? Is not he himself the Son of man, the long-expected Messiah? Well, in one sense he is only half come. You know the prophecies of the Old Testament and the terms in which they depict the kingdom of the Messiah. You remember how they describe the Messianic reign as incomparably glorious and universally triumphant; how all nature is represented as becoming jubilant in the day of that glorious dominion. You follow Jesus of Nazareth from town to town, from village to village, not in state and pomp and external glory, but with great quietness and unobtrusiveness. He performs miracles, it is true, but they are miracles of quiet beneficence, works of mercy in behalf of lepers and paralytics and demoniacs, for the most part men of the poorer classes. And after he has left a town or a district, things go on very much as they have always done; his words dwell in the hearts of a few, but the majority have turned to their old occupations and habits as though no ripple of influence had stirred their hearts. And thus it seems likely to go on. That mighty and all-subduing influence which we would have looked for, where is it? "Where is the Messianic sceptre that is to strike terror to the hearts of all the nations, tribes, and tongues of earth? The Son of man is yet to come in his glory. There is to be a time when his servants shall be by themselves, and when it shall behove them to live in constant expectation of his coming, and in preparation for it. He is first to be taken from us; how, we know not; but he is to go away, as when some lord goes to a far country to find a bride, and his servants are commanded to wait for the happy advent of the bride and bridegroom, and have all things in readiness, so that it may be made manifest that even when absent he lives in the regard and deference and affection of his servants. Blessed are those servants whom the lord when he cometh, shall find watching, with loins girded and lamps burning. They will not have been told beforehand in what day, in what watch he will come; all they know is that he is coming, and may come at any moment. Some who profess to be the servants of the Lord Christ will, in those days of prolonged expectation and deferred fruition, give melancholy proof that their devotion to the Master was merely ostensible. They would have had patience to wait for a little; their faith in his return would have held out if it had not been subjected to a severe test. What floods of time roll by and bring him not; all things continue as they were from the beginning; why should we stand in awe of a mere semblance of authority? deprive ourselves of liberty when not the slightest reason appears for it? deny ourselves of many gratifications because of this most shadowy possibility? Evidently, the intention is that we should take matters into our own hands; act as plenipotentiaries; administer the affairs of the Church according to our own ideas. The Master is withdrawn that we may have mastery, and seek our own honour and advantage.

Look on this picture and on that, and tell me which best describes the churches of the present day. From the day of Pentecost the apostles and their fellow-Christians watched with girded loins and blazing lamps for the return of Jesus in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels, in his own glory, with myriads of saints in light. And what is singular is, that the more they had fellowship with Christ, and spiritual communion with him, realizing his gracious presence, and daily receiving communications of his love, the more ardently they looked for his advent in glory. On the other hand, they who had little faith and spiritual life, and who could only conceive of Christ as far away on high, in unknown mansions of his Father’s house, were little affected by the doctrine of his future advent. It is as Christ is formed in our hearts, that he is to us the hope of glory. He that has this hope in Him, purifies himself even as he is pure. But how is it with the churches of this time? Is it difficult to find communities of so-called Christians, great world-wide churches, answering to the description of the servant who said in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming, and then began to beat the men-servants and maid-servants, and to eat and drink and be drunken? What have we here but priest-craft and self-will, and pride and violence and self-indulgence? We need not go far to find examples of this. How is it with us? Are we among that blessed number who, if the Lord of glory should appear to-day, to-morrow, or ten years hence, or at any time you please, would be found doing his very will as though he had been present all the time, and acting in all respects as faithful stewards? Then, the glory of that hour shall be our glory. Then shall it be seen that there was the highest wisdom in serving such a Master, and in not using for ourselves at all the liberty left us. Who ever heard of a prince who, bringing home his bride, makes a feast for his retainers, and waits on them at table? But something like this shall be seen when Jesus comes to his own. Not that he will demit his glory; but there will be a startling revelation of the way in which he has arranged for the exaltation and felicity of his waiting ones. His waiting servants shall be as his bride in honour and glory; and his bride shall be as himself.