'And there was also a strife among them, which of them
should be accounted the greatest. 25. And He said unto
them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over
them; and they that exercise authority upon them are
called benefactors. 26. But ye shall not be so: but he
that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger;
and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. 27. For
whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he
that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am
among you as He that serveth. 28. Ye are they which
have continued with Me in My temptations. 29. And I
appoint unto you a kingdom, as My Father hath
appointed unto Me; 30. That ye may eat and drink at My
table in My kingdom and sit on thrones judging the
twelve tribes of Israel. 31. And the Lord said, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he
may sift you as wheat: 32. But I have prayed for thee,
that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. 33. And he said unto Him,
Lord, I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison,
and to death. 34. And He said, I tell thee, Peter, the
cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt
thrice deny that thou knowest Me. 35. And He said unto
them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and
shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.
36. Then said He unto them, But now, he that hath a
purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he
that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy
one. 37. For I say unto you, that this that is written
must yet be accomplished in Me, And He was reckoned
among the transgressors: for the things concerning Me
have an end.'--LUKE xxii. 24-37.
It was blameworthy, but only too natural, that, while Christ's heart
was full of His approaching sufferings, the Apostles should be
squabbling about their respective dignity. They thought that the
half-understood predictions pointed to a brief struggle immediately
preceding the establishment of the kingdom, and they wished to have
their rank settled in advance. Possibly, too, they had been
disputing as to whose office was the menial task of presenting the
basin for foot-washing. So little did the first partakers of the
Lord's Supper 'discern the Lord's body,' and so little did His most
loving friends share His sorrows.
I. Our Lord was not so absorbed in His anticipations of the near
Cross as to be unobservant of the wrangling among the Apostles. Even
then His heart was enough at leisure from itself to observe, to
pity, and to help. So He at once turns to deal with the false ideas
of greatness betrayed by the dispute. The world's notion is that the
true use and exercise of superiority is to lord it over others.
Tyrants are flattered by the title of benefactor, which they do not
deserve, but the giving of which shows that, even in the world, some
trace of the true conception lingers. It was sadly true, at that
time, that power was used for selfish ends, and generally meant
oppression. One Egyptian king, who bore the title Benefactor, was
popularly known as Malefactor, and many another old-world monarch
deserved a like name.
Jesus lays down the law for His followers as being the exact
opposite of the world's notion. Dignity and pre-eminence carry
obligations to serve. In His kingdom power is to be used to help
others, not to glorify oneself. In other sayings of Christ's,
service is declared to be the way to _become_ great in the
kingdom, but here the matter is taken up at another point, and
greatness, already attained on whatever grounds, is commanded to be
turned to its proper use. The way to become great is to become
small, and to serve. The right use of greatness is to become a
servant. That has become a familiar commonplace now, but its
recognition as the law for civic and other dignity is all but
entirely owing to Christianity. What conception of such a use of
power has the Sultan of Turkey, or the petty tyrants of heathen
lands? The worst of European rulers have to make pretence to be
guided by this law; and even the Pope calls himself 'the servant of
servants.'
It is a commonplace, but like many another axiom, universal
acceptance and almost as universal neglect are its fate. Ingrained
selfishness fights against it. Men admire it as a beautiful saying,
and how many of us take it as our life's guide? We condemn the
rulers of old who wrung wealth out of their people and neglected
every duty; but what of our own use of the fraction of power we
possess, or our own demeanour to our inferiors in world or church?
Have all the occupants of royal thrones or presidential chairs, all
peers, members of Parliament, senators, and congressmen, used their
position for the public weal? Do we regard ours as a trust to be
administered for others? Do we feel the weight of our crown, or are
we taken up with its jewels, and proud of ourselves for it? Christ's
pathetic words, giving Himself as the example of greatness that
serves, are best understood as referring to His wonderful act of
washing the disciples' feet. Luke does not record it, and probably
did not know it, but how the words are lighted up if we bring them
into connection with it!
II. Verses 28 to 30 naturally flow from the preceding. They lift a
corner of the veil, and show the rewards, when the heavenly form of
the kingdom has come, of the right use of eminence in its earthly
form. How pathetic a glimpse into Christ's heart is given in that
warm utterance of gratitude for the imperfect companionship of the
Twelve! It reveals His loneliness, His yearning for a loving hand to
grasp, His continual conflict with temptations to choose an easier
way than that of the Cross. He has known all the pain of being
alone, and feeling in vain for a sympathetic heart to lean on. He
has had to resist temptation, not only in the desert at the
beginning, or in Gethsemane at the end, but throughout His life. He
treasures in His heart, and richly repays, even a little love dashed
with much selfishness, and faithfulness broken by desertion. We do
not often speak of the tempted Christ, or of the lonely Christ, or
of the grateful Christ, but in these great words we see Him as being
all these.
The rewards promised point onwards to the perfecting of the kingdom
in the future life. We notice the profound thought that the kingdom
which His servants are to inherit is conferred on them, '_as_
My Father hath appointed unto Me,'--that is, that it is a kingdom
won by suffering and service, and wielded by gentleness and for
others. 'If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.' The
characteristics of the future royalty of Christ's servants are given
in highly figurative language. A state of which we have no
experience can only be revealed under forms drawn from experience;
but these are only far-off approximations, and cannot be pressed.
The sacred Last Supper suggested one metaphor. It was the last on
earth, but its sanctity would be renewed in heaven, and sadness and
separation and the following grief would not mar the perfect,
perpetual, joyful feast. What dim visions of rule and delegated
authority may lie in the other promise of judging the twelve tribes
of Israel, we must wait till we go to that world to understand. But
this is clear, that continuing with Jesus here leads to everlasting
companionship hereafter, in which all desires shall be satisfied,
and we shall share in His authority and be representatives of His
glory.
III. But Jesus abruptly recalls Himself and the Twelve from these
remoter prospects of bliss to the nearer future of trial and
separation. The solemn warning to Peter follows with startling
suddenness. Why should they be fighting about precedence when they
were on the verge of the sorest trial of their constancy? And as for
Peter, who had, no doubt, not been the least loud-voiced in the
strife, he needed most of all to be sobered. Our narrow limits
forbid our doing even partial justice to the scene with him; but we
note the significant use of the old name 'Simon,' reminding the
Apostle of his human weakness, and its repetition, giving emphasis
to the address.
We note, too, the partial withdrawal of the veil which hides the
spirit world from us, in the distinct declaration of the agency of a
personal tempter, whose power is limited, though his malice is
boundless, and who had to obtain God's permission ere he could
tempt. His sieve is made to let the wheat through, and to retain the
chaff. It will be hard to empty this saying of its force. Christ
taught the existence and operation of Satan; but He taught, too,
that He Himself was Satan's victorious antagonist and our prevailing
intercessor. He is so still. He does not seek to avert conflict from
us, but prays that our faith fail not, and Himself, too, fulfils the
prayer by strengthening us.
Faith, then, conquers, and withstands Satan's sifting. If it holds
out, we shall not fall, though all the winds howl round us. We are
not passive between the two antagonists, but have to take our share
in the struggle. Partial failures may be followed by recovery, and
even tend to increase our power to strengthen other tempted ones, by
the experience gained of our own weakness, which deepens humility
and forbearance with others' faults, and by the experience of
Christ's strength, which makes us able to direct them to the source
of all safety.
Peter's passionate avowal of readiness to bear anything, if only he
was with Christ, is the genuine utterance of a warm impulsive heart,
which took too little heed of Christ's solemn warning, and fancied
that the tide of present feeling would always run as strong as now.
Emotion fluctuates. Steadfast devotion is chary of mortgaging the
future by promises. He who knows himself is slow to say, 'I will,'
for he knows that 'Oh that I may!' is fitter for his weakness. Very
likely, if Peter had been offered fetters or the scaffold then and
there, he would have accepted them bravely; but it was a different
thing in the raw, cold morning, after an agitating night, and the
Master away at the far end of the great hall. A flippant maid's
tongue was enough to finish him then.
It is sometimes easier to bear a great load for Christ than a small
one. Some of us could be martyrs at the stake more easily than
confessors among sneering neighbours. Jesus had spared the Apostle
in the former warning of his fall, but He spoke plainly at last,
since the former had been ineffectual; and He addressed him by his
new name of Peter, as if to heighten the sin of denial by recalling
the privileges bestowed.
IV. The last part of the passage deals with the new conditions
consequent on Christ's departure. The Twelve had been exempt from
the care of providing for themselves while He was with them, but now
they are to be launched into the world alone, like fledglings from
the nest. Not that His presence is not with them or with us, but
that His absence throws the task of providing for wants and guarding
against dangers on themselves, as had not been the case during the
blessed years of companionship. Hence the injunctions in verse 36
lay down the permanent law for the Church, while verse 37 assigns as
its reason the speedy fulfilment of the prophecies of Messiah's
sufferings.
Substantially the meaning of the whole is: 'I am on the point of
leaving you, and, when I am gone, you must use common-sense means
for provision and protection. I provided for you while I was here,
without your co-operation. Remember how I did so, and trust Me to
provide in future, through your co-operation.'
The life of faith does not exclude ordinary prudence and the use of
appropriate means. It is more in accord with Christ's mind to have a
purse to keep money in, and a wallet for food-stores, than to go
out, as some good people do, saying, 'The Lord will provide.' Yes,
He will; but it will be by blessing your common-sense and effort. As
to the difficulty felt in the injunction to buy a sword, our Lord
would be contradicting His whole teaching if He was here commanding
the use of arms for the defence of His servants or the promotion of
His kingdom. That He did not mean literal swords is plain from His
answer to the Apostles, who produced the formidable armament of two.
'It is enough.' A couple are plenty to fight the Roman Empire with.
Yes, two too many, as was soon seen. The expression is plainly an
intensely energetic metaphor, taking line with purse and scrip. The
plain meaning of the whole is that we are called on to provide
necessary means of provision and defence, which He will bless. The
only sword permitted to His followers is the sword of the Spirit.
CHRIST'S IDEAL OF A MONARCH
[Footnote: Preached on the occasion of the death of Queen Victoria.]
'And He said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles
exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise
authority upon them are called benefactors. 26. But ye
shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you,
let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he
that doth serve.'--LUKE xxii. 25-26.
There have been sovereigns of England whose death was a relief. There
have been others who were mourned with a certain tepid and decorous
regret. But there has never been one on whose bier have been heaped
such fragrant wreaths of universal love and sorrow as have been laid
upon hers whom we have not yet learned to call by another name than
that which has been musical for all these years--the Queen. Why has
her people's love thus compassed her? Surely, chiefly because they
felt and saw that Christ's ideal of rule, as stated in these words
of our text, was her ideal, which she had gone far to realise. Here
is the secret of her hold upon her people. Here is the reason why,
from almost all the world, tributes have come, and as has been well
said, 'They that loved not England loved her.'
Now it would be impossible for me to speak words remote from the
thought that has been filling the nation's mind in these days. I can
add nothing to the many eloquent and just appreciations to which we
have listened in this past week, but I can draw your attention to
the underlying secret which moulded and shaped that life. And it
becomes the pulpit to do so. We Christians ought to infuse a
Christian element into everything. We should 'not sorrow as others,'
nor should we admire as others. We all unite in praising her, but
eulogiums which ignore the ground of the virtues which they extol
are superficial and misleading. I ask you to turn to the revelation
of the secret of the nation's love and sorrow suggested by the words
of my text.
Christ sets forth, in two sharply contrasted pictures, the world's
ideal of a king and His ideal. The upper room was a strange place,
and the eve of Calvary was a still stranger time, for disciples to
squabble about pre-eminence. The Master was absorbed in the thought
of His Cross, the servants were quarrelling about their places in
His Kingdom. Perhaps it was the foot-washing that brought about the
unseemly strife that arose among them, each desiring to hand on the
menial office to another. Jesus Christ did it Himself; and to that,
perhaps, refer the touching words which Luke gives as following the
text; 'I am among you as he that serveth,' with the towel round His
loins, and the basin in His hand.
The world's ideal of a King.
Now, the one picture which He draws for us here, the world's ideal
of a king, is the portrait familiar enough to all who know anything
about that ancient order of society, of tyrants and despots, in
Assyria, Babylonia. Pharaohs and all the little kings round about
Judaea; the vile old Herod and his equally vile brood, were recent
or living examples of what the Master said when He sketched 'the
kings of the Gentiles,' They 'lord it over them.' Arrogant
superiority, imperious masterfulness, irresponsible wills, caprices
ungoverned, an absolute oblivion of duties, no thought of
responsibilities--these were the features of that ancient type of
monarch: and which, in spite of all constitutional hedges and
limitations, there is abundant room for the repetition of, even in
so-called Christian countries.
And then, side by side with that, comes another characteristic:
'They that exercise authority upon them are called "benefactors."'
They demand titles which shall credit them with virtues that they
never try to possess, and live in a region filled with the fumes
from a thousand venal censers of a flattery which intoxicates and
makes giddy. A king in Egypt, very near our Lord's time, had borne
the title 'benefactor,' the very word that is employed here; even as
many a most ungracious sovereign has been called 'Your Most Gracious
Majesty.'
The position tempts to such a type. And although the world has
outgrown it, yet, as I have said, there is ample room for the
recurrence to the old and obsolete form, unless a mightier hindrance
than human nature knows, come in to prevent it. An ancient prophet
lamented over the shepherds of Israel 'that do feed themselves,' and
indignantly asked, 'should not the shepherds feed the sheep?' He
meant precisely the same contrast which is drawn out at length in
these two pictures that we have before us now.
The Christian conception.
'Ye shall not be so.' The Christian conception is in sharp contrast
to, and the Christian realisation of the conception, should be the
absolute opposite of that type to which I have already referred. 'He
that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger'; that
suggests modesty and meekness of demeanour in bearing the loftiest
office. 'And he that is chief as he that doth serve'; that expresses
an activity, not self-regarding and self-centred, but ever used for
others. The simple words of Jesus Christ are the noblest expression
of, and, as I believe, have been the mightiest impulse in producing,
the modern recognition which, thank God! is becoming more and more
pronounced every day amongst us, that power means duty, that
elevation means the obligation to stoop, that true authority
expresses itself in service. We see that conviction growing in all
classes in England. Those who are lifted high are learning to-day,
as they never learned before, the responsibilities and obligations
of their position. And those who are low are beginning to apply the
principle as they never did before, and to test the worthiness of
the lofty, highly-endowed, wealthy, and noble, by their discharge of
the obligations of their position. And although it anticipates what
I have to say subsequently, I cannot but ask here, who shall say how
the Queen's example of authority becoming service has steadied the
Empire, and made a peaceful transition from the old type of
authority to the new, a possibility? Although not directly stated in
my text, there is implied in it another thought, namely, that whilst
power obliges to service, service brings power. He that uses his
influence, his authority, his capacities, his possessions, not for
himself, but for his brothers, will find that by the service he has
garnered in a harvest of authority, and power of command which
nothing else can ever give.
Christ's ideal of a monarch.
And now I may turn, without passing beyond the bounds of the pulpit
on such an occasion as the present, to look at the great illustration
of the Christian ideal which the royal life now closed has given. I
venture to say that, without exaggeration, and without irreverence,
our Queen might have taken for her own the declaration of our Lord
Himself on this occasion, 'I am among you as one that serveth.' She
served her people by the diligent discharge of the duties that were
laid upon her. During a strenuous reign of sixty-three years, she
left no arrears, nothing neglected, nothing postponed, nothing undone.
In sorrow as in joy, when life was young, and the love of husband and
family joys were new, as when husband and children were taken away,
and she was an old woman, lonelier because of her throne, she laboured
as 'ever in the great Taskmaster's eye.' That was serving her nation
by the will of God. She served her people by that swift, sincere
sympathy which claimed a share alike in great national and in small
private sorrows. Was there some shipwreck or some storm, that widowed
humble fisherfolk in their villages? The Queen's sympathy was the
first to reach them. Were the blinds drawn down in some colliery
village because of an explosion? The Queen's message was there to
bring a gleam of light into darkened homes. Did some great name in
literature or science pass away? Who but she was first to recognise
the loss, to speak gracious words of appreciation? Did some poor
shepherd die, in the strath where she made her Highland home? The
widowed Queen was beside the widowed peasant, to share and to solace.
Knowing sorrow herself only too well, she had learned to run to the
help of the wretched. Dowered doubly with a woman's gift of sympathy,
she had not let the altitude of a throne freeze its flow.
She served her people yet more by letting them feel that she took
them into her confidence, spreading before them in the days of her
widowhood the cherished records that her happy pen had written in
the vanished days of her wifehood, opening her heart to us in mute
petition that we might give our hearts to her. She served her people
by the simplicity of her tastes and habits in these days of
senseless luxury, and fierce, sensuous excitement of living. She
served her people by the purity of her life, and so far as she could
by putting a barrier around her Court, across which nothing that was
foul could pass. 'He that worketh iniquity shall not tarry in my
house,' said an ancient king on taking his throne. And our Queen, to
the utmost of her power, said the same; and frowned down--stern for
once in a righteous cause--impurity in high places. Una had her
lion, and this protest of a woman's delicacy against the vices of
modern society is not the least of the services for which we have to
thank her.
Let me remind you that all this patient self-surrender had its root
in Christian faith. She had taken her Lord for her example because
her faith had knit her to Him as her Saviour.
Therefore she, as no other English sovereign, conquered the heart of
the nation, and was best loved by the best men and women. Never was
there a more striking confirmation of the truth that whoever in any
region reigns to serve will serve to reign.
And now, before I close, let me remind you that the principles which
I have been trying to express grip us in our several spheres, quite
as tightly as they do those who may be more largely endowed, or more
loftily placed than ourselves. There is no ideal for a Christian
monarch which is not the ideal also for a Christian peasant. That
which is the duty of the highest is no less the duty of the lowest.
For us all it remains true that what we have we are bound to use,
not for ourselves, but as recognising both our stewardship to God
and the solidarity of humanity; to use for Him, that is to say, for
men. This is the secret of all high, noble, blessed life for
evermore.
And, brethren, whilst I for one heartily rejoice in the growing
consciousness of responsibility which is being diffused through all
ranks of society today, and, bless God, for one impulse to that
recognition which, as I believe, came from the life now peacefully
closed, I shall be no doubt charged by some of you with old-fashioned
narrowness if I reiterate my own earnest conviction that we can rely
on nothing to bring about a thoroughgoing, a widely-diffused, and a
permanent altruism--to use the modern word--except the force that
comes from the motive which Jesus Christ Himself adduced, in this very
conversation, when He said, 'I am among you as he that serveth.' There
is our example, aye! and more than our example, lodged in Him, and
available for us, by our simple faith in Him. In love that seeks to
copy, lies the only power that will cast out self, that 'anarch old,'
from his usurped seat in our hearts, and will throne Jesus Christ
there. It needs a mighty lever to heave a planet from its orbit, and
to set it circling round another sun; and there is nothing that will
deliver any man, in any rank of life, from the dominion of self,
except submission to the dominion of Him who, because He died to
serve, deserves, and has won, the supreme right of authority and
dominion over human life.
To use anything for self is to miss its highest goodness, and to mar
ourselves. To use anything for Christ and our brethren is to find
its sweetest sweetness, and to bless ourselves to the very
uttermost. Self-absorption is self-destruction; self-surrender is
self-acquisition.
If we can truly say, 'I am among you as he that serveth,' if all our
possessions suggest to us obligations and all our powers impose on
us duties: then be we prince or peasant, rich or poor, entrusted
with many talents or with but one, we shall make the best of life
here, and pass to higher authority, which is nobler service
hereafter. Be the servant of all, and all are yours; serve Christ,
and possess yourselves--these are the lessons from that royal life
of service. May we learn them! May the King walk in his mother's
steps and hearken to 'the oracle which his mother taught him!