TEXT: "_Salute no man by the way._"--Luke 10:4.
Luke is the only one of the Evangelists giving us the account of the
sending out of the seventy. The others tell us that Christ called
certain men unto him and commissioned them to tell his story; but in
this instance after Jesus had said, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the
air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head," he
calls the seventy and sends them forth prepared to endure any sacrifice
or suffer any affliction if only they may do his will. And when he had
said unto another, "Follow me," but he answered, "Suffer me first to go
and bury my father," Jesus said unto him (Luke 9:60-62), "Let the dead
bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And
another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid
them farewell which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him,
No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for
the kingdom of God." From this expression of the Master we quite
understand that no other service, however important it may seem to us,
is to come between us and our devotion to him. And in the expression
concerning the man having put his hand to the plow and looking back we
have one of the strongest illustrations that Jesus ever used. He does
not say that if any one puts his hand to the plow and turns back to
some other form of service he is not fit for the Kingdom of God, but
what he says is this: If any man has his hands to the plow and simply
looks back he is not fit for the Kingdom; and this for two reasons:
First: Because no man could plow as he ought to unless he would keep
his eyes straight ahead of him, and
Second: No man could plow if he has his mind fixed upon something else.
Jesus wants his disciples to know that his work is the important work,
that nothing can surpass it. Not only is it wrong for us to turn away
from him to any other service but it is a sin even to take our eyes off
of him to gaze upon anything else. Under such sharp teaching as this
he sends forth the seventy.
Let it be noted, first, that he sent them forth two by two. Perhaps
one was sent because he was strong in the opposite direction from his
fellow laborer. Who knows but one could speak and the other could
sing? Certainly one was the complement of the other. And they went
forth with burning hearts to give the message of Jesus. That
illustration in the New Testament where four men brought the sick man
to Jesus is along the same line. Two men might have failed utterly,
three men would have found it difficult service, for four men it was
easy.
I once made my way into the office of a doctor to ask him to come to
Christ. The meetings were in progress in the church and I thought he
was interested. He received me kindly, but firmly declined even to
talk of Christ and I left him, utterly discouraged. The next night the
man gave his heart to Christ, and for this reason, I believe. We had
made him in a little company of church officers a subject of prayer,
and you cannot pray earnestly for one for any length of time without
speaking to him concerning his soul's salvation. Without having had a
conference four men determined to see the doctor, and they all called
upon him within two hours of time. When the first came he laughed at
him; when the second came his prominence in the business world at least
commanded the doctor's respect; when the third came, having driven four
miles in from the country, he began to be interested; and with the
coming of the fourth there was awakened in him a deep conviction. He
closed his office, went to his home and before the evening hour of
service came had accepted Christ.
We have practically the same commission as the seventy. "As the Father
hath sent me even so send I you," said Jesus to us. These conditions
are as true to-day as in those days in the work of the seventy.
The harvest is great. There possibly never has been a time when more
people are absenting themselves from the church than at the present
time. These men and women are fit subjects for the Gospel. The
seventy went as the messengers of peace, so may we go. There are
troubled hearts all about us, there are those who are in despair, men
and women who are saying, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace, while
ours is the very message of peace. Jesus said to them, "Carry neither
purse nor scrip nor shoes," for their dependence was upon him. So must
it be to-day. Not upon method nor upon skill must we depend, nor upon
the schemes of men, however successful they may have been in the past,
but upon him. In those days the men were sick and troubled, in these
days they are dead in sins and as his messengers we carry the message
of love.
I
This expression of the text meant very much to the Oriental, for as a
matter of fact the salutation of the Eastern people frequently took a
half an hour of time, and sometimes an hour would be consumed. They
touched their turbans, fell upon their knees, saluted one another with
a holy kiss, talked together concerning their own interests. These
things were a part of the salutation. Jesus says to the seventy,
"Salute no man as you go." They were not bidden to be impolite--this
is farthest from the spirit of the Christian--yet they were
commissioned to be about the king's business and the king's business
required haste.
The idea of the text is that there must be definiteness of purpose in
Christian work. When Elisha kept his eyes fixed upon Elijah there came
to him as the result the mantle of Elijah and he was clothed with
power. When Gehazi followed Elisha's command and as he went to the
home of the Shunammite saluted no one he became the forerunner of life
to the child. And when Paul said, "This one thing I do," and nothing
could swerve him from his path of duty, he became the mightiest
preacher in the world's history since Christ. But let it not be
thought for a moment that we are advocating a gloomy religion; far from
it.
I like the story of the little girl who went one day into her
grandfather's room to ask him to read to her and found him asleep with
his head upon the back of the chair, his Bible upon his knees and the
sunlight coming through the window at the proper angle to cast about
him a halo of glory, and she ran to her mother saying, "I have been in
grandpa's room and I have seen God." If as a Christian the people of
the world can have any thought other than this, that we at times at
least remind them of Christ, something is wrong with our Christian
experience.
There were two sides to the experience of Jesus. In one we see him at
the wedding rejoicing with those that did rejoice, making wine out of
water and contributing to the happiness of all those who were present.
In the other instance we see him upon the mountain side and crying out,
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" with an almost breaking heart.
When Charles G. Finney was in Utica there came down to see him a woman
who was concerned for the town in which she lived. She returned to her
home and through days and nights found it impossible either to eat or
to sleep because she realized the lost condition of those about her.
At last when she was so weak that she could not pray, she had rest only
when those about her prayed for her. When Mr. Finney reached that town
one of the greatest revivals in his history as an evangelist was the
result.
I was one day engaged with other pastors in an eastern city in a Gospel
campaign. The ministers were preaching in turn each day and when it
came my time to preach I could find in all the audience scarcely one of
my people. Up to that day the interest had been remarkable, but
somehow from that day on, although people had been converted by the
hundred, there was no perceptible spiritual impression. When the
meetings had closed one of the prominent society leaders of my church
came to explain to me why she was away from the service and she said,
"I gave my afternoon reception and the people of our church were
there." When I told her that I felt that as a result of that afternoon
reception our own church had lost a blessing she seemed utterly amazed;
and yet to this day I am firmly persuaded that hundreds of people might
have come to Christ if we had not in that day grieved the Spirit.