Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. LukeMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. Luke
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Luke -- Commentaries
Further, this great promise assures us of the supply of all wants
that are only permitted to last long enough to make a capacity for
receiving the eternal and all-satisfying food which Christ gives the
restful servants. Though 'they hunger no more,' they shall always
have appetite. Though they 'thirst no more,' they shall ever desire
deeper draughts of the fountain of life. Desire is one thing,
longing is another. Longing is pain, desire is blessedness; and that
we shall want and know ourselves to want, with a want which lives
but for a moment ere the supply pours in upon it and drowns it, is
one of the blessednesses to which we dare to look forward. Here we
live, tortured by wishes, longings, needs, a whole menagerie of
hungry mouths yelping within us for their food. There we wait upon
the Lord, and He gives a portion in due season.
The picture in the text brings with it all festal ideas of light,
society, gladness, and the like, on which I need not dwell. But let
me just remind you of one contrast. The ministry of Christ, when He
was a servant here upon earth, was symbolised by His washing His
disciples' feet, an act which was part of the preparation of the
guests for a feast. The ministry of Christ in heaven consists, not
in washing, for 'he that is washed is clean every whit' there, and
for ever more--but in ministering to His guests that abundant feast
for which the service and the lustration of earth were but the
preparation. The servant Christ serves us here by washing us from
our sins in His own blood, both in the one initial act of
forgiveness and by the continual application of that blood to the
stains contracted in the miry ways of life. The Lord and Servant
serves His servants in the heavens by leading them, cleansed to His
table, and filling up every soul with love and with Himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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