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THE KING’S BUSINESS
effrontery o f Judas, and by the. anticipation o f the cross and the desertion o f all the disciples The meaning o f the bread and wine and the purpose and thought o f the Lord’s Supper itself, we have treated in the parallel accounts o f the institution of the Lord’s Supper, and will not take it up again here. The thought that stands out prominently in Luke’s account is our Lord’s wishing to be remembered by His disciples after He was gone. It was because He so loved them that He wished to be remem bered by them. And He wished to be remembered especially as the One w;ho had offered His body and shed His blood for them. What ingratitude it is on our part if we neglect to remember Him in the way in which He has bidden us remember Him. A fact o f which Jesus had been aware for a long time, viz., the perfidy o f Judas (John 6:70, 71), came before Him suddenly at the time o f the feast and filled His soul with anguish (cf. John 13¡21), and He exclaimed in deep sorrow, “ Behold, the hand o f him that betrayeth me,-is with me on the table.” Judas’ perfidy was one of the bitterest parts in the cup that Jesus drank (cf. Ps. 41:9; 55:12-14). Jesus loved Judas; He gave him opportunity after opportunity for repentance; He only let him go when He must, and then it was with a great heart-ache. Judas, married to his worldly ambition, disappointed in the carnal hopes that had first drawn him to Jesus, faith and selfish loyalty turned into, greed and hate, conscience stifled, spurned the love that sought to save him, and the apostle became a thief and a murderer, and so may we if we love the world rather than Christ (James 4 :4 ). Is it not often true today as we sit at -the Lord’s table, that the hand o f him that betrayeth Jesus is with Him on the; table?' Each one of the apostles seems to have gotten a glimpse o f the evil possibilities of his own heart (v. 23; cf* Mark 14:19). A Judas is hid den in each one o f us, but the grace o f God is sufficient to give us victory. Sunday, March 5 . Luke 22 : 24 - 30 . -How strange and startling it seems that
we make ready?” (v. 9, R. V .)- This is a question that we too may well take up. Our Lord Jesus has a desire to eat with us as well as with them, and we do well to ask Him where He would háve us make ready. He gave them very specific direc tions whereby they might find the right place. He did not give the name o f the man at whose house the supper was to be eaten, but it has been conjectured with a large degree o f probability fn favor of the conjecture that it was Mark’s -father. Presumably the reason for His givin'g the directions in this seemingly blind manner was in order that Judas Iscariot might not know before hand where the Passover was to be kept and so bring his band there to arrest Him before the time. Whether this man who opened his house to the Saviour to keep the Passover with His disciples is known to us or not, he is known to God, and “he shall in no wise lose his reward,” Just as the two disciples who were sent for the c o lt.“ found even as He had said unto them,” so did these two, and so will every disciple who goes on Christ’s errands. It seemed most improbable that they would meet a man bearing a pitcher o f water, for that ordinarily was a woman’s work, but Jesus said they would, and they did. There were other seeming improbabilities in what Jesus told them, but it matters not how improbable His words may seem, they will always come true to the letter,. “ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His word shall not pass away.” In the face o f all improb abilities^" it is the part o f wisdom as well as the. part o f faith to say, “ I believe God that it shall be even as it has ,been spoken to me” (Acts 27:25). They found the word true because fhey did as they were bidden, and so put it to the test. Saturday, March 4 . Luke 22 : 14 - 23 . Our Lord tells His disciples that He had looked forward to this last supper with them with great expectation and longing. On the whole it was an occasion o f joy, though the joy was marred by the unseemly strife o f the disciples for pre-eminence (Luke 22:24-27), and by the presence and
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