April 1929
179
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
They had probably been invited to come in by Levi that they might get to know Christ. [We are very apt to use the term “sinners” for such people, forgetful that we are all sinners ourselves.] THEY FOLLOWED HIM—Probably attracted by His purity and love. Real goodness is always attractive to the sinful, even though they will not confess it. Note that He never avoided their company; nor should we if our purpose is their salvation. In that case we need not fear defilement from the con tact ; real purity is not.soiled that way; and neither our pride nor our prejudice should hinder us from the quest or from the self-sacrifice involved in it. 16— SEEING HIM EAT—They would not sit down with the company, lest they should be defiled, but stood and looked on. [The Pharisees, whose name means “separated,” formed a sect who looked down upon all but themselves in their self-righteous ness, and who cumbered the Law of God with endless traditions, rules, and ceremonies.] SAID TO HIS DISCIPLES—Why were men so shy of going to Him for information? Was there something; about Him that distinguished Him from His fellows? WHY EATETH HE—It was not “respectable” or dignified; moreover there was the chance of defilement. The good of others was of no account with them, compared with their own reputation and salvation. Not so can souls be saved or men spiritually benefited : if we would be true servants of Christ we must avoid alike the Pharisee’s self-righteousness and his self ishness. 17— AND JESUS HEARING—Not, probably, with His physical ears, for the question would be asked in a whisper and semi-privately; but He always hears all we say, even in secret (cf. Ps. 139:4). THEY THAT ARE STRONG, etc.—The Pharisees considered themselves strong in their keeping of the law and did not imagine that they had any need of the Physician; indeed, if they had really been so they would have had none. RIGHTEOUS PERSONS—He truly did not come to call such, for there were none to call, and to those who imagined them selves righteous His call would have been in vain. BUT SIN NERS—Then He came to call u s! This is man’s title to salva tion : He came to save sinners; then He must save me, for I am a sinner. Let the devil’s suggestion that I am too vile to be saved be met and defeated by this declaration: “He came to call sinners, of whom I am one!” REPENTANCE—Which the Pharisees needed as much as the Publicans or the “sinners” ; for we must ever remember that “repentance” in the New Testament does not mean sorrow for sin, but simply a “change of mind.” 18— THE DISCIPLES OF JOHN AND OF THE PHAR ISEES WERE FASTING—The disciples of John were a separate body during his lifetime and were ascetic, like the Pharisees. John’s Gospel was not a Gospel of liberty, but only of repentance and good works. WHY DO THE DISCIPLES, etc.—Christ came “eating and drinking,” and they were offended. Men are always suspicious of a liberty they do not themselves possess,,, . 19— THE SONS OF THE BRIDECHAMBER—i.e., the friends of the Bridegroom who were called to the wedding. (John himself had referred to Him as the Bridegroom, cf. Jno. 3 :29.) WHILE THE BRIDEGROOM IS WITH THEM—His presence is productive of such joy that fasting is precluded. 20— -SNATCHED AWAY—The Greek word indicates vio lence. This is the first public intimation of the manner of His death. IN THAT DAY—His absence shall cause them to mourn, and their fasting will therefore be not merely ritualistic (as that of the Pharisees too often was), but real. True fasting, whatever its outward manifestation, is to be first of all of the heart. 21— A PATCH OF A BIT OF UNDRESSED CLOTH— Probably because it would shrink and tear the old material. Christ had come to bring a new garment, i.e., a new life, and it could not be grafted upon the old religion of mere outward ritual and salvation by observance. THE RENT IS MADE WORSE—An admixture of the two would end in greater spirit ual chaos, as indeed it does when tried. 22— NEW WINE INTO OLD WINESKINS—The new wine would ferment and burst the skins. This refers to the inner, as the garment to the outer, life. The new religion needs a new creation to contain it. So the old cannot be grafted on the new and the new cannot be contained in the old. INTO NEW WINESKINS-—(cf. 2 Cor. 5:17 and Rev. 21:5). A new race and a new world are necessary to contain Christianity; the former is formed of all true believers in Christ, and He is mak ing the other in His own good time.
23— THROUGH THE GRAINFIELDS—They would be wheatfields. We learn from St. Matthew that the disciples were hungry. He was there, yet He suffered them to be hungry. He Himself was sometimes an hungered, and His servants must learn sometimes to share His privations. “The servant is not greater than his Lord.” 24— THE PHARISEES—They appear to have dogged His footsteps everywhere; they must, therefore, have seen His works and heard His teaching; yet they did not profit by it. The man who simply hears the truth to cavil at it, never profits thereby; a docile, teachable heart is needed if the Word is to benefit us. NOT LAWFUL—It was not the taking of the ears that was un lawful in itself (cf. Deut. 23:25), but according to their maxims the plucking was a kind of reaping and the rubbing a kind of threshing, which might not be done on the Sabbath Day. The Pharisees had hedged the Sabbath round with endless, petty dis tinctions and prohibitions, so that it had become a day bf slavery rather than a day of joy. 25— HAVE YE NEVER READ—He puts them , on the horns of a dilemma, for they themselves justified David, on the ground that the law must be broken to save life; and David’s was a real breach, not of their glosses upon the Divine Law, but of that law itself. 27— -THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN,.etc—He so far justifies David’s action and yet at the same time con demns their making the Sabbath a mere burdensome bondage, but He by no means abolishes the Sabbath or its sanction. It was made for man, but it was made what it was made for man. The Pharisees erred in that they forgot that “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” There is no justification here for the excision of one of the Ten Commandments from the Moral Law. 28— LORD OF THE SABBATH-—Another claim to be Divine, for none but God could be Lord of the Divine injunctions. It is also a claim to regulate its observance and to judge His own servants as to their observance of it. Reaping What We Sow Y \7E once heard Moody preach on “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” Some of his points were: (1) A man shall reap the same kind as he sows. (2) He shall not reap more than he sows. Here is a story to the point which we take from an exchange: Many years ago there lived in Lockport, N. Y., a member of Congress, who had in his home a Christian servant girl, who, by her industry and integrity, won the esteem of the entire family. By and by she married a shiftless, drunken carpenter, and was soon supporting him by her own labors. Her former employer, wishing to do her a permanent good, decided to build her a house on a lot which he owned. And to encourage her husband, he gave him the job, without revealing the purpose he had in view. The Senator left for Washington, and the carpenter spun out his work through the fall, winter and spring, cheating his employer in every way he possibly could. In both materials and workmanship the house was a botch job from foundation up. When the Senator returned in the early summer the builder informed him that the house was finished, and boastfully added, “There isn’t a better house on Pioneer Hill than that of yours.” “Very well,” said the benefactor, “then you go home and tell your wife to.move into it immediately. And here is the deed to her for the property. So you see you will have a nice house as long as you live.” The man was dazed by the discovery that instead of cheat ing his employer he had been cheating himself. And as the defects of the home became more and more apparent with the lapse of time, he was repeatedly heard to say, “Oh, that I had known it was my own house that I was building !”—Christian Witness.
“O tender Shepherd, climbing rugged mountain, And wading waters deep, How long would’st Thou be willing to go homeless To find a straying sheep ?” “I count no time,” the Shepherd gently answered, “As thou dost count and bind The days in weeks, the weeks in months; My counting Is just—until I find. And that would be the limit of My journey; I’d cross the waters deep, And climb the hillsides with unfailing patience— Until I found My sheep.” — Sel.
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker