Luke 22

Luke 22:26

Master Cold-Rice He that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.—Luke 22:26.In a royal or titled family it makes a big difference whether you are born first or second. The king’s eldest son succeeds to the throne. The eldest son of a nobleman gets the title and the largest share of the estates when his father dies, while the younger sons may have a very much smaller share, and be even rather poor. In families that have not titles and property there is not much difference between older and younger children. Indeed the younger children often have the best time, because the eldest is expected to help to take care of them and to be responsible for them.But in some countries it is different. In Japan, where they have rules for everything, they have very decided rules for the position of the different members of the family.

The Japanese are a very polite nation, and are very particular about proper behavior, not only in society, but at home. As soon as a baby can run about he is taught good manners.

He learns how to bow properly, and how to behave with respect to his elders. And he has a great many elders, for there the members of the family live together even after they are grown up and married and have children of their own. The wives must obey the husbands, and all the women in the family must obey all the men. Not only must the children obey their grandparents and parents, and all the older people of the family—the aunts and uncles—but the younger brother must obey the elder brother, and the younger sister the elder sister.It used to be tradition the younger must always give in to the elder, and at meals must be helped last. But the very little children did not have to wait. So an unusual name is given in Japan to the second son.

He is called “Master Cold-Rice.” This is because it is supposed that as he has to wait till all his elders and also the babies have been helped, his rice will not be very hot when he gets it.Now there is a little parable in this name. In every family there are times when one must give way to another, and be content with the second best instead of the best.

This is what we may call eating cold rice.If you notice you will very often find that in some families one boy or girl never offers to give up to others, and is never expected to do it. Why? Because everybody knows that he will make himself so disagreeable that they would rather make a sacrifice than bear his crossness and unpleasantness. Perhaps there is a picnic or an excursion. Everybody cannot go. But nobody supposes that he will be the one to stay.If he is playing a game, he is never pleased unless he has the leading part. At table he wants the nicest of everything. He always has the most comfortable chair, and he demands the first turn to read the new magazine.

It becomes a family habit to let him have what he wants, because it is easier to do so than to make him give up. But he is not a boy anybody loves. He grows more and more selfish, always grasping at what he wants, and never thinking of others. He may succeed in life, but it will be a poor kind of success, not worth having, and he will have few friends.Now, it is worth while thinking who generally eats cold rice in your house. You will notice that there is one person who is always ready to give up. If anyone has to stay behind, she thinks she does not want to go. If there is anything you like very much, she likes you to have her share too. And you will notice that, as often as not, that person is Mother.But is it right that the unselfish people should always have to make the sacrifices?

There will always be times when somebody must do it, but in future, instead of saying, “I don’t see why I should have to do that,” suppose you say, “Somebody must do it, why should not I?” Take your turn at being Master Cold-Rice.

Luke 22:51

The Man Who Lost A Little And Gained Much He touched his ear, and healed him.—Luke 22:51·This is one of the most wonderful miracles that Christ performed, and the wonderful thing about it is that it was quite unsought. In one sense Christ performed a far more marvelous miracle when He restored Lazarus from the dead or healed the lepers, but in these cases somebody prayed to Him for His aid. Here the miracle was performed upon a man who was Christ’s enemy, and who was even at that moment treasuring in his heart feelings of bitter hatred towards Him.What do we know of this man whom Jesus healed? We are told that he was the bond-servant or slave of Caiaphas, the high priest, and that his name was Malchus. That is all the actual information we have, but we can pretty well guess what kind of man he was.Malchus was a bond-servant. He had never known what real freedom was.

Men had mistrusted him and looked down upon him, and their suspicion and scorn had probably bred in him a spirit of cunning. But he was clever, and he had managed to get into favor withCaiaphas, who was a cruel and crafty man.

He had very likely become confidential servant to the high priest. Perhaps he had helped him to carry out his wicked schemes. He had probably been sent by Caiaphas to the Garden that night as a spy in order to see that the arrest was properly made. At the same time he took the opportunity of giving expression to his own hatred of Jesus. The fact that Peter attacked him shows that he must have insulted Christ in some way.This, then, was the man whom Jesus healed. We all know the story.

We can picture the scene—the dark garden lit up by the weird glare of torches, the soldiers and police armed with their swords and staves, the rough mob in the background swaying to and fro, Malchus with his face of hatred pushing to the front, the excited disciples, Christ, calm and kindly amidst the throng.We do not know how Malchus insulted Jesus. He may have snatched a cord from his companions and endeavoured to bind Him.

He may have aimed a blow, or merely gibed. Whatever he did, it was enough to fire the impulsive anger of Peter. In a flash he drew his sword, and with the intention of slaying the man who had insulted his Lord, he succeeded in severing his ear.But Christ rebuked Peter. “Put up again thy sword into its place,” He said; “thinkest thou that I cannot beseech my Father, and he shall even now send me more than twelve legions of angels?” What were eleven poorly-armed disciples against a company of soldiers and an angry mob? Christ was able, if need be, to call down help from above. But that was not the will of His Father. His kingdom was to be no earthly one, won by the sword, but a heavenly one, gained by love.

So Jesus touched the wounded ear and made it whole again.We wonder what Malchus’ later history was. We are not told, but we can imagine it.

One thing is certain—he could never be quite the same again, for Christ had touched him. For the first time somebody had done him a kindness, and that person was the one whom he had injured, the one from whom he least deserved kindness. Christ touched him, and I like to think that, at that touch, all his hatred passed away and gave place to humble gratitude and shame. Christ healed him, and I like to think that, in that moment, his spirit as well as his body was made whole, that the bitterness of a lifetime vanished before a love so big and so forgiving.And if Christ could forgive Malchus, He can forgive us too. Sometimes we get the idea into our heads that we must be good before Christ will have anything to do with us. That is quite a mistaken idea; it is quite the opposite of what Christ Himself told us: and the longer we hold it, the longer we shall stay away from Him.Once upon a time there was a little girl, six years old, who had said the same prayer every night ever since she could remember—the prayer her mother had taught her.

But one night when she had finished that prayer her mother told her she might say one of her very own. What do you think she said? “Dear Jesus, love me when I am naughty.”Wise little girl!

She knew just what she wanted and needed. But perhaps she didn’t know that that is just what Jesus does. He loves us when we are naughty, loves us when we are hurting Him, loves us, forgives us, and makes us good again.

Luke 22:54

How To Follow Peter followed afar off.—Luke 22:54.Who is your favorite apostle? Most people have one. A great many choose the apostle John. They say that John was the apostle who was most like Jesus Himself. He followed his great Master most closely. He was the apostle of love, and he was the apostle whom Jesus loved best.Now, to give away a secret, I have always had a great weakness for the apostle Peter. Poor Peter! He was so well-meaning and so blundering.

He was always putting his foot in it. He was always getting into difficulties because of his warm heart and his impulsive tongue. And he was always so sorry when he had done wrong. I think if John was first in Christ’s heart, Peter must have been a good second.I said that, of the disciples, John followed Christ most closely. That is true in more senses than one. When we speak of one person following another, we sometimes mean that he is literally following a few paces behind on the street, but just as often we mean that the person we speak of admires the other and tries to copy him and imitate him in so far as he can.Today I want to tell you how following at a distance, in the literal sense of the word, caused the apostle Peter to get into terrible trouble.You remember the crowd of Jews and Roman soldiers who burst into the garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus.

You remember how, when they led Him away prisoner to the high priest’s house, all the scared and horrified disciples fled—all except two. One, whose name we are not told, followed Christ closely, and because he was known to the high priest got admission to the high priest’s palace.

That disciple is supposed to have been the apostle John. The other followed afar off. It was the apostle Peter. And just because he followed at a safe distance he got into trouble. If Peter had been taken prisoner along with Christ he would have been bold as a lion, but because he got separated from his Master he committed a sin which he regretted all the rest of his days. He turned coward and denied that he knew Christ at all.It happened like this. Christ was taken into the high priest’s house for examination. This house, like many Eastern houses of today, was built round four sides of a courtyard.

The courtyard was open to the sky and it was entered by an archway in one of the walls. In the archway was a gate which was opened and closed by a gate keeper. John, who had entered the courtyard with Christ, noticed Peter hanging around outside the archway, and asked the gate keeper to let him in. It was a chilly night in April, a fire had been lit in the center of the court, and Peter, who was shivering from both cold and misery, drew near to warm his hands at the glow. Round the fire were gathered some of the men who had helped to arrest Jesus. They took no special notice of Peter, but, as the flames leapt up, the blaze shone on Peter’s face.

The gate keeper who had let him enter, and who was going off duty, happened to pass at that moment. She paused and pointed to Peter. “That man is one of the prisoner’s followers!” said she.

In a moment of fear, came Peter’s answer, short and quick, “Woman, I know him not.”Sick with horror at his denial, the ashamed apostle crept into the dark shadow of the archway. But even there he was not safe. The new gate keeper and a friend were talking together over the arrest, and the friend looked sharply at Peter lurking in the shadow. “Surely,” said he, “you are one of the prisoner’s disciples.” And again Peter said, almost without thinking, “Man, I am not.”Once more he felt sick with shame, and once more he stepped away from the danger spot. Where could he go? It was growing chillier as morning drew near, and with a kind of reckless despairing what-does-it-matter-now-what-happens feeling the miserable apostle joined himself once more to the crowd round the fire. He plunged boldly into the conversation, ready to brazen out the whole thing; but he forgot his strong north-country accent, he forgot that his was a face easily remembered, and soon the men were taunting him and badgering him. “Why, of course you were with Him!” cried one; “I saw you with Him in the garden,” said another.

And Peter, mad with fear and misery and despair all mixed together, answered with an oath, “I tell you I know not the man.”His oath was still ringing through the courtyard when Christ, who was being led away from His examination before the high priest, passed the group at the fire. He heard Peter’s oath, He heard his words, and He turned and looked at him.

And suddenly Peter realized that the rooster was crowing, and that Christ had prophesied the night before that ere the rooster crew twice Peter would deny Him thrice. And that gentle, sad, reminding look from Jesus broke Peter’s heart, and he went out and wept bitterly.That is the story of Peter’s denial, boys and girls. And as I said before, it all arose from Peter’s following afar off.It is a dangerous thing to follow afar off. One of the chaplains who was at the front during World War I tells in one of his books how the men, when they went into the trenches at night, had to keep in touch with each other and follow the guide closely lest they should lose their way. One night the leading man of a half-battalion lost touch with the man in front of him. As a result he took the wrong turning and the rest of the battalion followed in platoons.

Round another turning they went and round another, till, without knowing it, they worked round in a circle to where they had started. The first man caught the sound of the footsteps of the last man and round again they sped.

And it was a full hour till that half-battalion discovered that, like a playful kitten, it had been chasing its own tail.Something like that happens to those who lose touch with Christ. If they do not openly deny their Master like Peter, they spend their lives to no purpose. They never do the splendid work they might, because they are not in touch with Christ. At best they are following afar off.Shall I tell you how we ought to follow Christ if we want to be truly His disciples? Let me tell you by a story.In a certain Scottish village there lived a quaint little girl who, when she went out with her mother, used to walk, not side by side with her, but immediately behind. Later people began to notice that the little girl always tried to plant her feet exactly in the footprints of her mother.

Often it meant a long step for her short legs, but she managed it somehow. At last, one day, someone who understood little girls and how to talk to them, asked her why she did it.

She hung down her head and whispered shyly, “Because I love her.”Dear children, that is the whole secret of following closely and following faithfully. Love Christ well. If you love Him well, and keep close by Him, no evil can harm you, and, God helping you, you will be spared the temptation that came to Peter because he followed afar off.