WE have now reached the well-known mission of John the Baptist to the Lord. We were observing that His ministry is the discovery of Himself, because everything about Him was infinitely truthful. So also it is a high_ way cast up before us by which to reach the blessed God. If man seeks by wisdom to reach Him, His answer is, " I dwell in the thick darkness; " but when we follow Him through Jesus, we get Him in His full glory.
Now John sends his messengers to inquire, "Art Thou He that should come, or look we for another." There is such a thing as faith, and the patience of faith. Abraham illustrated both these. He was called out to listen to the promise in the starlight night, and he believed God; that was simple faith. Afterward, he was called on to give up all he hoped in,-that was the patience of faith. That is where John failed. He believed and pointed out the Lamb of God; but the prison was too much for him. He was a choice servant; but he failed in this, and did not like being passed by, when all others were being attended to. He was offended. Therefore he sends this unbelieving and rather a little bit of an insulting message. It was very faulty, but the Lord bore with it. He stood as the champion of God's rights in the world, but He passed by every insult to Himself. This was part of His moral perfectness. He does not resent John's insulting style, but sends a word home to him that none but he could understand. "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me." He couched His rebuke in such terms that none could decipher it but the conscience of John. If I find out a fault in anyone, nature disposes me to go and whisper it in the ear of a neighbor. The blessed Lord did exactly the contrary. He saw that John was not quite prepared for what the service of Christ brought upon him. If another trespass against you, you ought to rebuke him, but take care to tell him his fault " between him and thee alone." It is as if the Lord had written an admonishing letter in a language that none but John could understand. Then it is equally beautiful when He turns to the multitude. He paints two or three dark grounds to set off John to them. The first is a reed, and on that He shows out John; then kings' courts; then all that are born of women. He. is presenting these things, that John might shine out in relief. How perfect the Lord's path is! He sends a message of rebuke to John's conscience, and then turns round and sets him out in every costly way He can. Now what is meant by " He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." Did you ever look upon John as greater than Moses or David? No. It is not the person the Lord speaks of here, but this secret-that God's ways are always advancing, as from the prophetic to the evangelistic. In this way John was greater than all that were born of women. He was not personally above Moses, but he stood in an advanced stage of God's dispensational purposes. So now, every saint, however feeble or strong, is in a higher dispensational condition than John, Moses, or David. The light of His unfolding purposes shines brighter and brighter. You stand in the resurrection, and in the risen glories of Christ; and will anyone tell me that that is not a higher place than Moses took?
In the 31st verse He looks at the generation and says, "Now what are you like?" How He delights to hang over His servant John! He has got John before Him here, and He puts him in company with Himself: "We have come to you, children of the market-place, both piping and lamenting, and you have neither danced nor wept.' The hand of God is very skilful in touching the instrument, but he can get no, not one note of music in return. That is you and me; for the Lord is delineating our common nature, and He says God's finger has touched the instrument, in every possible way, and He can get no answer. " In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing."
Let us pause for a little at the 36th verse. Did you ever consult the occasions on which the Lord is seen at different tables? We see Him at' the Pharisee's, Levi's, Zacchaeus's, the two disciples going to Emmaus, and at the table at Bethany. What an interesting theme for meditation, to see the Lord sitting and forming one of a family scene in this social world of ours! He occupies each table in a different manner. In chapters vii. and xiv. of this gospel, He sits at the tables of two Pharisees, in the character that He had earned outside. He goes there, not to sanction the scene, but because He is invited. One Pharisee may have a better apprehension of Him than the other, but He goes in on the credit of the man He was when outside. He continues the teacher in the chapter before us. He has a right to be a teacher or a rebuker, because it was in that character He was invited when outside. Then we see. Him at the house of Levi. Levi had been called, and left all and followed Him, and was so impregnated with the mind of the one he had invited, that he puts publicans and sinners at the table with Him. The Lord sits there, not as a teacher, but as a Savior. How beautifully He can thus morally transfigure Himself! Then, when the Pharisees complain, He pleads for Levi and the poor publicans with him, " I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." In the house of Zaccheus what do we get? Zaccheus had just been moved by a desire to see Him, and unbidden He calls him by his name, " Come down Zaccheus." He went in as one that had been desired, and would gratify that desire. "You have looked for a passing sight of me, and I will abide all day with you." Do you look around in the gospel for these glittering rays of His moral glory? He does not violate His character in any of these. He goes to Zacchaeus, as one who would cherish and nourish an infant desire, till it broke out into "Lord, the half of my pods I give to the poor." He watered it, till it bore that beautiful fruit.
Now we come to look at the disciples journeying to Emmaus. Here we get two, I will not call them backsliders, but two who had got under the power of unbelief. "O fools, and slow of heart," He calls then], but He does not leave them till He leaves them with kindled hearts. It was a kindled heart that said, " Oh, do not leave us," and He stays till He left them, in spite of the nightfall, going back to Jerusalem to tell that they had seen the Lord.
Last, we see Him at Bethany, not here as a teacher or a Savior, but as a familiar friend, one who adopts completely the sweet and gracious truth of the Christian homestead, and He would have left the family scene as He found it, if Martha had not stepped out of her place. She might have been a housekeeper still, but the moment she leaves her place and becomes a. teacher, He will rebuke her.
In the case before us, in the Pharisee's house, we have two persons. This is the most complete expression we get in the gospels of a consciously accepted sinner. She came, knowing that her sins were forgiven, and bringing everything with her she had-her heart, her person, and her wealth. This is a beautiful witness of what we should be if the sense of salvation was simple with us. The Lord entered into Simon's reasonings, but they were lost on the woman. One loves the soul that is resting peacefully in the conclusion " I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." If the reasonings of a doubtful mind are lost on you, happy are you! So happily have thousands reached this conclusion, that they cannot understand the reasonings of others. She is occupied with her joy. Another thing: when the Lord speaks to Simon about her, it is of what she has done; when He speaks to her ear it is "Thy faith hath saved thee." It was not her love but her faith that saved her. Was it that cold word? Do you ever suspect the Lord of treating you coldly? She might have thought it a cold word, but go behind her back and hear His words: " Simon, do you see her?" was that a cold heart? So if in His direct immediate providence He seems to deal coldly with you, just go behind, what is behind your own back, so to speak. Do not judge Him by His providence to your face, but by the love that never, no, never forsakes you, but has recorded in His book every cup of cold water given in His name. Let us pray that He will keep us near Him. We want, inside, to be as near to Christ as ever we can get, and outside, to go on from victory to victory in His name.