I almost hesitate to use the word, but there seems a distinct ring
of thanks in the expression, and in the connection. And we need not
wonder at that, if we rightly understand it. There is nothing in it
inconsistent with our Lord's character and relations to His
disciples. Do you remember another instance in which one seems to
hear the same tone, namely, in the marked warmth with which He
acknowledges the beautiful service of Mary in breaking the fragrant
casket of nard upon His head?
All true love is glad when it is met, glad to give, and glad to
receive. Was it not a joy to Jesus to be waited on by the
ministering women? Would He not thank them because they served Him
for love? I trow, yes. And if any one stumbles at the word
'grateful' as applied to Him, we do not care about the word so long
as it is seen that His heart was gladdened by loving friends, and
that He recognised in their society a ministry of love.
Notice, too, the loving estimate of what these disciples had done.
Their companionship had been imperfect enough at the best. They had
given Him but blind affection, dashed with much selfishness. In an
hour or two they would all have forsaken Him and fled. He knew all
that was lacking in them, and the cowardly abandonment which was so
near. But He has not a word to say of all this. He does not count
jealously the flaws in our work, or reject it because it is
incomplete. So here is the great truth clearly set forth, that
where there is a loving heart, there is acceptable service. It is
possible that our poor, imperfect deeds shall be an odour of a sweet
smell, acceptable, well-pleasing to Him. Which of us that is a
father is not glad at his children's gifts, even though they be
purchased with his own money, and be of little use? They mean love,
so they are precious. And Christ, in like manner, gladly accepts
what we bring, even though it be love chilled by selfishness, and
faith broken by doubt,--submission crossed by self-will. The living
heart of the disciples' acceptable service was their love, far less
intelligent and entire than ours may be. They were joined to their
Lord, though with but partial sympathy and knowledge, in His
temptations. It is possible for us to be joined to Jesus Christ more
closely and more truly than they were during His earthly life. Union
with Him here is union with Him hereafter. If we abide in Him amid
the shows and shadows of earth, He will continue with us in our
temptations, and so the fellowships begun on earth will be perfected
in heaven, 'if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be
glorified together.'