But the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, had prepared
everything for the burial of His Son, who had glorified Him by giving
Himself up to death. He is with the rich in His death. Joseph, a just man,
who had not consented to the sin of his people, lays the Lord's body in a
tomb that had never yet been used. It was the preparation before the
sabbath; but the sabbath was near. At the time of His death the
women-faithful (though ignorant) to their affection for Him while
living-see where the body is laid, and go to prepare all that was needed
for its embalming. Luke only speaks in general terms of these women: we
shall therefore enter on the details elsewhere, following our Gospel as it
presents itself. The women (chap. 24) come, find the stone rolled away, and
the sepulchre no longer containing the body of Him whom they had loved.
While perplexed at this, they see two angels near them, who ask why they
came to seek the living among the dead, and remind them of the plain words
which Jesus had spoken to them in Galilee. They go and tell these things to
all the disciples, who cannot believe their account; but Peter runs to the
sepulchre, sees everything in order, and departs, wondering at that which
had come to pass. In all this there was no faith in the words of Jesus, nor
in that which the scriptures had spoken. In the journey to Emmaus the Lord
connects the scriptures with all that happened to Himself, shewing to their
minds still lingering round the thought of an earthly kingdom, that
according to these scriptures God's revealed counsels, the Christ ought to
suffer and enter into His glory, a rejected and heavenly Christ. He awakens
that ardent attention which the heart feels whenever it is touched. He then
reveals Himself in breaking bread-the sign of His death: not that this was
the Eucharist, but this particular act was linked with that event. Then
their eyes were opened, and He disappears. It was the true Jesus; but in
resurrection. Here He Himself explained all that the scriptures had spoken,
and presented Himself in life with the symbol of His death. The two
disciples return to Jerusalem.
The Lord had already shewn Himself to Simon-an appearance, of which we have
no details. Paul also mentions it as the first with reference to the
apostles. While the two disciples related that which had happened to them,
Jesus Himself stood in their midst. But their minds were not yet formed to
this truth, and His presence alarms them. They cannot realise the idea of
the resurrection of the body. The Lord uses their confusion (very natural,
humanly speaking) for our blessing, by giving them the most sensible proofs
that it was Himself risen; but Himself, body and soul, the same as before
His death. He bids them touch Him, and He eats before their eyes.
[see note #45] It
was indeed Himself.
An important thing remained-the basis of true faith: the words of Christ,
and the testimony of scripture. This He sets before them. But two things
were yet required. First, they needed capacity to understand the word. He
opens their understanding therefore, that they might understand the
scriptures, and establishes them as witnesses that were not only able to
say, "Thus it is, for we have seen it"; but "Thus it must needs have been,
for so hath God said in his word"; and the testimony of Christ Himself was
fulfilled in His resurrection.
But now grace was to be preached-Jesus rejected by the Jews, slain and
risen again for the salvation of souls, having made peace, and bestowing
life according to the power of resurrection, the work which cleansed from
sin being accomplished, and pardon already granted in thus bestowing it.
Grace was to be preached among all nations, that is to say, repentance and
pardon to sinners; beginning at that place, with which indeed the patient
grace of God still owned a link, through the intercession of Jesus, but
which could only be reached by sovereign grace, and in which sin the most
aggravated rendered pardon the most necessary, by a testimony which, coming
from heaven, must deal with Jerusalem as it dealt with all. They were to
preach repentance and remission of sins to all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem. The Jew, a child of wrath, even as others, must come in on the
same ground The testimony had a higher source, although it was said "to the
Jew first."
But, secondly, something more therefore was needed for the accomplishment
of this mission, that is, power. They were to tarry at Jerusalem until they
were endued with power from on high. Jesus would send the Holy Ghost whom
He had promised, of whom the prophets also had spoken.
While blessing His disciples, heaven and heavenly grace characterising His
relationship with them, Jesus was parted from them, and carried up into
heaven; and they returned to Jerusalem with joy.
It will have been remarked that the narrative of Luke is very general here,
and contains the great principles on which the doctrines and proofs of the
resurrection are founded; the unbelief of the natural heart so graphically
painted in the most simple and touching accounts; the disciples' attachment
to their own hopes of the kingdom, and the difficulty with which the
doctrine of the word took possession of their hearts, although, in
proportion to their realisation, their hearts opened to it with joy; the
Person of Jesus risen, still a man, the gracious One they knew; the
doctrine of the word; the understanding of the word bestowed; the power of
the Holy Ghost given-all that belonged to the truth and to the eternal
order of things made manifest. Nevertheless, Jerusalem was still recognised
as the first object of grace on earth according to God's dispensations
towards her; yet she was not, even as a place, the point of contact and
connection between Jesus and His disciples. He does not bless them from
Jerusalem, although, in the dealings of God with the earth, they were to
tarry there for the gift of the Holy Ghost; for themselves and their
relationship with Him He leads them out to Bethany. From thence He had set
out to present Himself as King to Jerusalem. It was there that the
resurrection of Lazarus took place; therethat the family, which present
the character of the remnant-attached to His Person, now rejected, with
better hopes-in the most striking manner received Jesus. It was thither He
retired when His testimony to the Jews was ended, that His heart might rest
for a few moments among those whom He loved, who, through grace, loved Him.
It was there that He established the link (as to circumstances) between the
remnant attached to His Person and heaven. From thence He ascends.
Jerusalem is but the public starting-point of their ministry, as it had
been the last scene of His witness. For themselves it was Bethany and
heaven which were connected in the Person of Jesus. From thence was the
testimony to come for Jerusalem herself. This is the more striking when we
compare it with Matthew. There He goes to Galilee, the place of association
with the Jewish remnant, and there is no ascension, and the mission is
exclusively to the nations. It is a carrying out to them, what was then
confined to the Jews and forbidden to be carried further.
NOTE.-In the text I have strictly followed the passage; I add some
developments here, connecting this Gospel with the others.
There are two distinct parts in the sufferings of Christ: 1st, that which
He suffered from the efforts of Satan-as man in conflict with the power of
the enemy who has dominion over death, but with the sense of what it was
from God in view,-and this in communion with His Father, presenting His
requests to Him; and 2ndly, that which He suffered to accomplish expiation
for sin, when actually bearing our sins, made sin for us, drinking the cup
which the will of His Father had given Him to drink.
When speaking on the Gospel of John, I shall enter more on the character of
the temptations; but I would notice here, that at the commencement of His
public life the tempter endeavoured to turn Jesus aside by setting before
Him the attractiveness of all that which, as privilege, belonged to Him,
all that might be agreeable to Christ as man, as to which His own will
might work. He was defeated by the perfect obedience of Christ. He would
have Christ, being Son, go out of the place He had taken as servant.
Blessed be God he failed. Christ by simple obedience bound the strong man
as to this life, and then returning in the power of the Spirit into Galilee
spoiled his goods. Putting away sin and bearing our sins was another
matter. Satan then departed from Him for a season. In Gethsemane he
returns, using the fear of death to throw anguish into the heart of the
Lord. And He must needs go through death; and death was not only Satan's
power but God's judgment on man, if man was to be delivered from it, for it
was man's portion; and He alone, by going down into it, could break its
chains. He had become man, that man might be delivered and even glorified.
The distress of His soul was complete. "My soul is exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death." Thus His soul was that which the soul of a man ought to
be in the presence of death, when Satan puts forth all his power in it,
with the cup of God's judgment as yet unemptied in it: only He was perfect
in it; it was a part of His perfection put to the test in all that was
possible to man. But with tears and supplications He makes His request to
Him who had power to save Him from death. For the moment, His agony
increases: presenting it to God makes it more acute. This is the case in
our own little conflicts. But thus the thing is settled according to
perfection before God. His soul enters into it with God; He prays more
fervently. It is now evident that this cup-which He puts before His
Father's eyes when Satan presents it to Him as the power of death in His
soul-must be drunk. As obedience to His Father, He takes it in peace. To
drink it is but perfect obedience, instead of being the power of Satan. But
it must be drunk in reality; and upon the cross Jesus, the Saviour of our
souls, enters into the second phase of His sufferings. He goes under death
as the judgment of God, the separation of the soul from the light of His
countenance. All that a soul which enjoyed nothing except communion with
God could suffer in being deprived of it, the Lord suffered according to
the perfect measure of the communion which was interrupted. Yet He gave
glory to God-"But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of
Israel." The cup-for I pass over the outrages and insults of men: we may
spare them-the cup was drunk. Who can tell the horrors of that suffering?
The true pains of death, understood as God understands it, felt-according
to the value of His presence-divinely, as by a man who depended on that
presence as man. But all is accomplished; and that which God required in
respect to sin is done-exhausted, and He is glorified as to it: so that He
has only to bless whosoever comes to Him through a Christ who is alive and
was dead, and who lives for ever a man, for ever before God.
The sufferings of Christ in His body (real as they were), the insults and
upbraidings of men, were but the preface of His affliction, which, by
depriving Him as man of all consolation, left Him wholly in the place of
judgment as made sin, to His sufferings
[see note #46] in connection with the
judgment of sin, when the God who would have been His full comfort was, as
forsaking Him, the source of sorrow which left all the rest as unfelt and
forgotten.
