'Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask Him.' He knows all our
difficulties and perplexities. Perhaps it is His supernatural knowledge
that is indicated in the words before us, or perhaps it is merely that
He saw them whispering amongst themselves and so inferred their wish.
Be that as it may, we may take the comfort that we have to do with a
Teacher who accurately understands how much we understand and where we
grope, and will shape His teaching according to our necessities.
He had not a word of rebuke for the slowness of their apprehension. He
might well have said to them, 'O fools and slow of heart to believe!'
But that word was not addressed to them then, though two of them
deserved it and got it, after events had thrown light on His teaching.
He never rebukes us for either our stupidity or for our carelessness,
but 'has long patience' with us.
He does give them a kind of rebuke. 'Do ye inquire _among yourselves_?'
That is a hopeful source to go to for knowledge. Why did they not ask
Him, instead of whispering and muttering there behind Him, as if two
people equally ignorant could help each other to knowledge? Inquiry
'among yourselves' is folly; to ask Him is wisdom. We can do much for
one another, but the deepest riddles and mysteries can only be wisely
dealt with in one way. Take them to Him, tell Him about them. Told to
Him, they often dwindle. They become smaller when they are looked at
beside Him, and He will help us to understand as much as may be
understood, and patiently to wait and leave the residue unsolved, until
the time shall come when 'we shall know even as we are known.'
In the context here, Jesus Christ does not explain to the disciples the
precise point that troubled them. Olivet and Pentecost were to do that;
but He gives them what will tide them over the time until the
explanation shall come, in triumphant hopes of a joy and peace that are
drawing near.
And so there is a great deal in all our lives, in His dealings with us,
in His revelation of Himself to us, that must remain mysterious and
unintelligible. But if we will keep close to Him, and speak plainly to
Him in prayer and communion about our difficulties, He will send us
triumphant hope and large confidence of a coming joy, that will float
us over the bar and make us feel that the burden is no longer painful
to carry. Much that must remain dark through life will be lightened
when we get yonder; for the vision here is not perfect, and the
knowledge here is as imperfect as the vision.
Dear friends! the one question for us all is, Do our eyes fix and
fasten on that dear Lord, and is it the description of our own whole
lives, that we see Him and walk with Him? Oh! if so, then life will be
blessed, and death itself will be but as 'a little while' when we
'shall not see Him,' and then we shall open our eyes and behold Him
close at hand, whom we saw from afar, and with wandering eyes, amidst
the mists and illusions of earth. To see Him as He became for our sakes
is heaven on earth. To see Him as He is will be the heaven of heaven,
and before that Face, 'as the sun shining in His strength,' all
sorrows, difficulties, and mysteries will melt as morning mists.