Luke 14

Chapter 14. The Sufferings of the Son of ManDuring the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. (Hebrews 5:7)The picture which Luke gives us of the sufferings of Christ is characteristic and touching. His Anticipation of His Sufferings and Longing for Sympathy “And he said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’” (Luke 22:15). The shadow of the cross was failing upon Him, and His spirit shrank from the strange horror of a great darkness. He clung closer to His beloved disciples and longed for their fellowship. This sacred feast which He was now instituting was to be through coming ages a commemoration of His sufferings and death. With deep tenderness, He took the cup and passed it on and down the line of ages. One day He is going to take it back again when the line will be completed and He will drink it anew with all the company of the ransomed in the kingdom of the Father. His Message to Simon “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31-32). Here again we see a fine touch of His perfect humanity in His tender sympathy with His people in their temptations. What a fearful picture He gives of the roaring lion who goes about seeking whom he may devour, and how vividly Peter himself has reproduced the figure in his own epistle as he warns his brethren against “a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). As the wild beast shakes its victim until it is shaken to death, so the devil was waiting to shake Simon and his brethren in his fierce and cruel hate. The figure of the sieve is most suggestive. The process of sifting throws out everything that is good and leaves behind nothing but the chaff. Satan’s object is to shake out of us all goodness, all faith and hope and leave us a desolated ruin. But how unselfish the Master’s love. He had already anticipated Peter’s danger. He had already prayed for him through his fearful test. “I have prayed for you… that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32). But Peter was not to be delivered without his own earnest cooperation. He was not to be carried like a baby or an invalid, but was to stand upon his own feet and triumph by his own faith. That prayer of Christ saved Peter from the fate of Judas. Oh, that we might have the same spirit as the Master and stand with one another in the hard places of life, saying to the tempted and tried, “I have prayed for you… that your faith may not fail!” The Agony in the Garden “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:43-44). What a realistic picture of mental anguish leading to physical suffering and exhaustion and of the dependence of the suffering Savior upon heavenly relief as the angel came to strengthen Him. The mystery of that agony has been often approached by reverent minds who have sought to fathom its awful meaning. Far be it from us to presume to dictate, but let us ask our readers to consider well the parallel passage in Hebrews 5:7 which describes this season of mysterious suffering. The common idea is that our Lord was praying against the cup of anguish which He was about to drink as the Savior and Substitute of sinful men; and that His human nature, shrinking from the fearful draught, was seeking if possible some way of escape consistent with His Father’s will, and finally, when that could not be, His higher will yielded in complete submission and His prayer remained unanswered. In this view, Christ’s agony in the garden is simply a pattern to us of submission to the will of God when our prayers too remain unanswered. But when we turn to this passage in Hebrews, we find that His prayer was answered—He “was heard because of his reverent submission” (Hebrews 5:7). We are told also that what He asked for was to be saved from death. There can be no doubt that the passage in Hebrews refers to the agony in the garden. There is no other incident in the Savior’s life that could, by any means, be adjusted to that reference. Now when we turn to the Gospel narrative, we find as Christ entered the garden that an awful shadow fell upon Him, and He cried out, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Mark 14:34). We find Him also saying a little before, “But this is your hour—when darkness reigns” (Luke 22:53). Putting all this together, it would really seem as if the adversary had made a fierce attack upon our Lord in the garden with the purpose of destroying Him before the time, and so prevent His voluntary offering of His own life a little later on the cross. We know that Christ always had regard about what He called His “time.” “My time has not yet come” (John 2:4), and He frequently avoided the plots of His enemies as they sought to destroy Him before His time had come. It would seem therefore as though Satan had made one last terrific onslaught with the purpose of taking His life there and then in the Garden of Gethsemane, and that it was against this that Jesus pleaded and struggled and “was heard because of his reverent submission” (Hebrews 5:7). His life was preserved. An angel appeared strengthening Him, and He rose up and went forward with the remaining duties and sufferings of those last hours and at last laid down His own life on the cross according to His previous announcement: “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again” (John 10:18). In this view, the incident is full of encouragement and inspiration. We, too, are subjected to the attacks of our cruel enemy who would often seek to crush us before our work is done. But in the strength of Him who suffered there, we also may overcome and finish our life work so that we shall have “nothing to do but to die.” His Look Upon Peter “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times’” (Luke 22:61). All the evangelists make much of our Savior’s expression of countenance. There must have been something very significant in His look on that present occasion. There was everything to give that look a tender and awful meaning. The disciple, whom He had forewarned, was at that very moment rudely and brutally denying Him and even insulting His very name, and, just a moment before, the signal that the Master had given him had fallen upon his ear with the crowing of the cock in the adjacent yard. That look must have meant not only the severest reproach but the most tender compassion. It must instantly have carried back Peter’s thought to what the Master had said at the supper table and reminded him of the promise, “I have prayed for you… that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32). Hastening from the court, and overwhelmed with his conflicting feelings, Peter burst into tears of reproach, penitence, and unspeakable sorrow. But that look had saved him from despair, and, instead of Judas and his awful fate, Peter comes back again a little later to receive the forgiveness of his Lord and to be more than reinstated in his old place of trust and service. How tenderly that look has been interpreted by John Newton in its application to us in our personal dealing with the Savior: I saw One hanging on a tree In agony and blood, He fixed His loving eyes on me As near the cross I stood. Sure, never till my latest breath Can I forget that look; It seemed to charge me with His death Though not a word He spoke. A second look He gave which said: I freely all forgive, My life is for thy ransom paid, I died that thou mayest live. His Message to the Daughters of JerusalemJesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “they will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ “For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:28-31) What finer picture could we have of unselfish suffering? In the hour of His extremity, the Master was lifted above His own terrible situation by the thought of the greater peril of these loving and sympathizing women who were weeping for His fate. To His loving heart, the sufferings which He was about to endure were simply a measure of the sufferings which they should have to bear for the guilt of rejecting Him, and He added the terrific figure, “If men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:31). Briefly paraphrased, this figure means: “If I, innocent and dear to God, the Father’s beloved Son, am going through such an awful tragedy when I stand in the place of sinful men, how much worse shall be the sufferings of sinful men themselves who reject My salvation, when they stand for themselves in the place of judgment they deserve?” The sufferings of Jesus Christ are an awful measure of the sinners’ peril and doom and the most fearful expression yet which the Father’s judgment has represented in the “wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6:16). His Prayer for the Forgiveness of His Murderers “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’” (Luke 23:34). This is peculiar to Luke. How beautifully it is in keeping with the gracious spirit of His Gospel as a revelation of the mercy of God. He had taught His disciples to love their enemies and pray for them that “mistreat you” (Luke 6:28). Now it is His turn to live it out Himself and to show that even under the most fearful pressure it is possible to love and to forgive, but it is only possible if we have the Spirit of Christ Himself dwelling in us. Here human nature utterly fails, and only the heart of Christ within us can meet the great demand of such a love. Was the prayer of Christ fulfilled? Certainly it was, as was witnessed in the multitudes that were saved on the day of Pentecost and the conversion of Saul himself, the most bitter of all His enemies. What a beautiful picture it gives us of Christ. He tries to find something extenuating even in the worst of men. “They do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34), He cries. His love will discover some excuse or palliation. Truly, there is no love like the love of Jesus. Oh, for a heart like His! The Committal of His Spirit to the Father “Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last” (Luke 23:46). The loud voice of which this verse speaks was not used to utter this final prayer, but rather to shout the previous words, “it is finished” (John 19:30), which John has related as His dying utterance. That was a shout of victory as He announced to the universe that His work was accomplished and His victory won. But now, doubtless, His voice sinks to a whisper, and into His Father’s ear alone He breathes this dying prayer, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). How beautifully it proves the voluntariness of Christ’s sufferings. He gave up His own spirit. The devil tried to take it, but failed; and now victorious He yields it Himself. How clearly it also teaches the immortality of the spirit. There is something in us that cannot die. It is said of Him, “he was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). A moment after death, His spirit was more active than before and so will ours be. Oh, brother or sister, where? Finally, what a pattern for the dying saint. His work all done; his warfare accomplished; every promise fulfilled and nothing left but On Jesus’ breast to lean his head And breathe his life out sweetly there.