Luke 16

Chapter 16. The Parting ScenesWhen he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. (Luke 24:50-51)After the meeting with the Lord at Emmaus, the disciples returned immediately to Jerusalem to tell their brothers the joyful news that the Lord had appeared to them. But as they entered the closed upper chamber, they were anticipated by the greeting, “The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon” (Luke 24:34). We have no particulars of this meeting with Simon except the hint which the angel gave in his first meeting with the woman, “Tell… Peter” (Mark 16:7), and also the reference by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:5, “he appeared to Peter.” Somewhere and some time that morning He had met the brokenhearted disciple and passed some confidential word that never has been told to other ears. Then the two disciples told their story of the walk to Emmaus and the meeting there, but even while they spoke, the Lord Himself appeared, entering through the closed doors and suddenly standing in their presence. From the mysterious shadow form, they shrank back with dread and took it for an apparition. But immediately His reassuring voice declared, Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. (Luke 24:38-39) And then, still further to reassure them, for we are told, “they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement” (Luke 24:41), He called for food and ate before them a piece of broiled fish which probably was left from their evening meal. No longer could they doubt that it was indeed their Lord Himself strangely changed in many things and yet the very same Jesus. The Manifestation Nowhere in the records of the resurrection have we a picture at all approaching in realistic vividness this picture of the risen Christ. Speculation must, of course, curb all irreverent or presumptuous boldness in attempting to define and describe the resurrection life of our blessed Lord, and yet there are touches of intense humanness here which the Holy Spirit surely intended that we should realize and draw comfort and inspiration from. While on the one hand, there is much that is mysterious and supernatural and His body was possessed of powers that belong to a higher sphere of human life: passing at will through closed doors, transporting Himself in a moment to distant places and rising by the impulse of His own will without effort, in spite of the law of gravitation, until His glorified body floated away into space. While all this is true, yet on the other hand the print of the nails and the mark of the spear were still apparent. His corporeal frame was tangible to the touch of their hands and He insisted that they should examine and handle and see. There were bones and flesh in His material form. It was an actual substance as real as their own bodies. There would seem to have been an absence of blood, for He speaks only of flesh and bones. Was it that the blood was the corruptible mortal life and that He left it behind as the ransom for our lives, and that the resurrection body has some higher vital fluid than the blood which sustains our life? While He did not need the nourishment of food, yet He could eat the broiled fish. He could taste the sweetness of the honeycomb (see Luke 24:42). He could share any of the physical attributes of our humanity. How gloriously real all this makes the Christ to us. This Man, with a body like our own, has passed out of sight, but not out of existence. He is still the same Jesus and will forever be the most glorious and perfect Representative of our humanity. This Body is the Head of our body, and from it we can draw the physical strength and life we need. It was of this He was speaking in the sixth chapter of John when He said, “Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me” (John 6:57). And when they wondered how any one could eat His flesh and drink His blood, He explained that all this was to be made plain after His resurrection; that it was in His risen body that this was to be fulfilled. “What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (John 6:62-63). Have you learned to draw your life from this living One and find in Him the source of strength for every physical as well as every spiritual need? This glorified Christ is also the pattern and type of our glorified humanity. As He is, so shall we someday be. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:48-49) Into the fullness of this glorified life, humanity cannot enter until after the resurrection. And yet even now “the spirits of righteous men made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23) doubtless enter into a very real and conscious blessedness waiting for the fullness of their glory when He shall be revealed as our coming Lord and King. “What we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). The Illumination This brings us back to more ordinary planes. His manifested Presence may not be always visible, but there is one place where we can always find Him and that is in His holy Word. And so He immediately began to give them the key to the Scriptures and made it possible for them henceforth always to find Him there. “This is what I told you while I was still with you,” He says, “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). It is remarkable that He uses the same general division of the old Scriptures which was used among the rabbis. The Law was the first division containing the writings of Moses. The Prophets constituted the next division containing the historical portions and the prophetic Scriptures. And the Psalms finished the subdivision including not only the Psalms of David, but the other poetical books of the Bible, Job, Proverbs, Song of Songs, etc. And so He takes up the three divisions and gives them a lesson in Bible study, the details of which are not recorded, but the substance of which no doubt forever remained in their minds and hearts as the foundation principles of the entire New Testament teaching. It is not difficult for us, in view of the deeper teachings of the apostles, to imagine the substance of that wondrous message which they heard for the first time that day from the Risen Christ. How their hearts must have burned as He explained to them the sacrifice of Abel, the offering of Isaac on Mt. Moriah, the blood of the Pascal lamb, the wondrous types of the Jewish tabernacle, the great high priest and his robes and functions, the Day of Atonement, the scapegoat and all the bloody sacrifices and varied offerings of the Mosaic economy. And then would follow the prophetic psalms, the 53rd chapter of Isaiah and the varied pictures of the coming Messiah in Jeremiah, Zechariah, Malachi and the other prophets, until at last they understood that “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day” (Luke 24:46). But a lamp was necessary as a key for the full understanding of the sacred volume, and so we read, “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). Oh, what a light shines upon the sacred page when the Holy Spirit reveals to the hungry heart that wondrous Face that shines on every page of the prophetic Word, and the truth becomes dear that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). The story is told of some children who were trying to make the pieces of a mechanical map fit together. Vainly and patiently they adjusted the blocks, but they could not get the lines rightly to meet or the counties and countries to fit into their places. At length one of them turned over some of the blocks and noticed a picture on the other side. “Why,” he said, “here is a picture of George Washington on the back of the blocks. Let’s try and fit that together.” This was an easier task, and it was not long until George Washington stood out from the floor, in the little mosaic picture of 100 blocks, a perfect figure. Then it occurred to them to turn over the blocks, leaving them exactly where they were, and as they did so, the map was complete. The face of the man was the key to the adjustment of the map. In a far higher sense, it is true that the Lord Jesus Christ is the key to the whole Bible. Study it scientifically, philosophically, theologically, critically and you will never be satisfied; but put the pieces together until there stands out the face and form of Jesus Christ, and lo, the problem is solved, the message is plain, the Book is as simple as A, B, C and sweet as the very heart of love. Have you learned this solution to the mysteries of the Bible? Has it become to you the Love letter of your Bridegroom’s heart, And mirror of your Savior’s face. The CommissionNow comes the Master’s commission for their ministry and service, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:47-48). This is the proclamation of a universal amnesty for the whole human family, and especially for the Jewish nation which had crucified Him. He now authorizes them to go forth and proclaim through His name forgiveness to every abandoned soul throughout the whole wide world and to begin with His very murderers. The remarkable feature about this is that the message to Israel is here committed to the Gentiles. Luke is the Gospel, not for the Jew, but for the Gentile, and the fact that this commission should be found here rather than in Matthew is most significant. Have we Gentile Christians been true to our trust for Israel, and have we given the message “first for the Jew, then for the Gentile” (Romans 1:16)? Through every generation this is our first responsibility: to offer this risen Christ to the men whose fathers crucified Him and to leave upon each individual the responsibility of accepting or rejecting Him, one by one. Have we been faithful to this trust as opportunity has come to us and the brethren of our Lord, according to the flesh, have crossed our earthly path? They will not all accept it. A strange veil is upon their hearts. We will often wonder at the indifference and hardness of heart that seems to coolly ignore the call of their Savior, but all the same He wants us to give them the message, to afford them an opportunity and to leave upon them the responsibility of accepting or rejecting Him. Sometime they will meet Him again when He comes in glory and when there will be no doubt left upon their minds that He is their rejected Messiah, and then their eternal future will hang upon the question, “How did you treat the message of salvation which My servants brought to you in the days of time?” The Promise of the Spirit For this great trust that He is committing to them, He now promises to them a special divine equipment and enduement. “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). He calls it “the promise.” It is indeed the promise inclusive of every other, because everything that the Christian’s heart can need is summed up in the Holy Spirit. Do we want cleansing and purity? He is the Spirit of holiness. Do we want joy and peace? All true joy is in the Holy Spirit. Would we have our hearts fired by love? “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5). Is it power for service? “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:8). Would we know how to pray until our prayers bring an answer from above? “The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26). “The Spirit helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26). There is nothing which is not covered by the promise of the Holy Spirit. Have you claimed, have you received the promise of the Father? This is spoken of also as an enduement. The word “endue” means clothe. It is not a personal characteristic or a result of culture and education. It is a direct, divine enabling. When the Holy Spirit comes to us, the power He gives is not our power, but His. We wear it as a robe, recognizing Him as the Source and maintaining the attitude of personal dependence by simple faith. They were bidden to tarry until they should be endued with power from on high. This does not imply in our case that God is not immediately ready to give us the blessing of the Spirit, but we are not always ready. The tarrying prepares our hearts to receive Him, shows to us our deeper need, enables us to put aside the things that hinder and makes room for the deeper and fuller blessing. Have we met these practical conditions? Have we claimed the promise of the Spirit? Have we been endued with power from on high? Are we in the attitude of tarrying and habitually waiting on the Lord for the fresh anointing which we need for every new service and emergency? The Parting At length the hour for parting comes. There is no announcement that He is to leave them, but perhaps there is an instinct such as that which came to Elisha before his master was taken up into heaven. But apparently it is as at other times, as He appears to them and leads them out as far as to Bethany. We are not told that it was exactly at Bethany, but it was in that vicinity, and as far from Jerusalem. He was still talking to them and His hands were raised in benediction as had often been the case before at His partings; but now, as He blesses them, He gradually rises before their very eyes, calmly majestic, with His face shining with love, His eyes perhaps moist with tears, His hands still stretched out in benediction, higher and higher and higher while their strained eyes follow Him with intense, absorbing attention until a floating cloud intervened and He had disappeared behind it, and they woke from the spell to realize that at last He had gone away into heaven. What words could express the sweet and solemn fragrance of that last parting attitude and those extended hands above their heads in loving benediction. As He blessed them He was parted from them. Their last sight of Him was an attitude of blessing. He had come with blessing. His Sermon on the Mount had opened with nothing but beatitudes. His messages were always love, and now His last act was blessing. Some day, when He comes again, He will take up the echo once more and His words will be, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). Are you included in that blessing? It is for all that will accept Him, and the only curse which yonder heavens hold for mortals is a fearful anathema on those that do not love Him. God save you from ever coming under the lightning breath of this fearful curse, “If anyone does not love the Lord—a curse be on him. Come, O Lord!” (1 Corinthians 16:22), that is, accursed when the Lord shall come.