Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. LukeMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. Luke
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Luke -- Commentaries
But all that, remember, is only half the story. Our Lord here is not
giving us a complete view of the retributions of the heavens, He is
only telling us one aspect of them. Repose, society, gladness,
satisfaction, these things are all true. But heaven is not lying
upon couches and eating of a feast. There is another use of this
metaphor in this same Gospel, which, at first sight, strikes one as
being contradictory to this. Our Lord said: 'Which of you, having a
servant ploughing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by,
when he is come from the field, go and sit down to meat, and will
not rather say unto him, make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird
thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward
thou shalt eat and drink.' These two representations are not
contradictory. Put the two halves together like the two pictures in
a stereoscope and, as you look, they will go together into one solid
image, of which the one part is the resting at the table of the
feast, and the other part is that entrance into heaven is not
cessation, but variation, of service. It was dirty, cold, muddy work
out there in the field ploughing, and when the man comes back with
his soiled, wet raiment and his weary limbs a change of occupation
is rest. It is better for him to be set to 'make ready wherewith I
may eat and drink,' than to be told to sit down and do nothing.
So the servants are served, and the servants serve. And these two
representations are not contradictory, but they fill up the
conception of perfect blessedness. For remember, if we may venture
to say so, that the very same reason which makes Christ the Lord
serve His servants makes the servants serve Christ the Lord. For love,
which underlies their relationship, has for its very life-breath doing
kindnesses and good to its objects, and we know not whether it is more
blessed to the loving heart to minister to, or to be ministered to by,
the heart which it loves. So the Servant-Lord and the servants,
serving and served, are swayed in both by the same motive and rejoice
in the interchange of offices and tokens of love.
III. Mark the earthly service which leads to the heavenly rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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