Matthew 9:35–38; Matthew 8:16–17; Luke 10:25–42
Good morning, brothers and sisters. Indeed. May the Lord make the words of the theme a reality, even throughout this conference, that He may break forth an unlimited amount of light and truth in that eternal Word. So would you join me in a word of prayer before we read the Scriptures and have our meditation?
We are so grateful indeed, Lord. We confess that You are our Lord, the Lord of the harvest. You are compassionate, Lord. The reason we are here is because one day You drew us by that grace, by that love, by that compassion.
And we thank You, Lord, because, as we sang, our expectation as we gather this morning is that You would unveil more of Yourself. Our prayer is that Your Holy Spirit would take hold of this time; that Your Holy Spirit would enable the speaking, the hearing, the translating of the Word, that all may be enabled by Your Spirit, in order that we may behold the Lord Jesus, that we may see You more, that further truth and light from Your Word may reach our hearts. Would You do that, Lord? We pray for Your glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
And we would like to start by reading from our theme verse, the first of our three passages, Matthew chapter 9.
I will read the verses before we come to the theme verses, verses 36 to 38. I will start from verse 35.
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
And if you go to the previous chapter, Matthew chapter 8, verses 16 and 17:
When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”
Finally, we would like to read a somewhat more extended passage in Luke chapter 10. Our brother already mentioned last night one of the various places in the Gospels where the compassion of the Lord is mentioned—here in a parable, but pointing to the Lord. So if you would turn to Luke chapter 10, starting from verse 25.
And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” So he answered and said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Verse 38:
Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Well, as you can tell, we have just read the first of the passages of our theme in this conference, which is at the end of Matthew chapter 9. And I would like to concentrate mostly on these verses this morning, and to use the parable that we read as an illustration for certain of the things that come out in that passage.
Now, I think it is important to look at the context in which this passage, Matthew 9:35–38, is inserted in the Gospel of Matthew. There is something that I believe is really important. As you know, sometimes as we study the Word of God, the structure itself is there to reveal something of the message of the Word of God. And I would like to point out a few things. I hope this does not come across to you as something technical. I believe it is something really important if we are to see the message of these verses.
Let me just start by saying this. Matthew has a very distinctive structure, and it is very easy to discern. If you read the Gospel as a whole, you will see that there are five main sections in the Gospel of Matthew, followed by an account of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And those five sections are very easy to detect, because they end with a similar phrase. The phrase is not identical, but the same idea is always there. It is almost like a marker that Matthew, inspired by the Holy Spirit, left. And as you see each one of those phrases, you say, “Okay, a section is being demarcated at this point.”
The phrase, essentially, is something along the lines of, “When Jesus had finished speaking these words,” or something similar to that. Now, when you see that phrase, you see, “Okay, this is a section,” and you find five of those sections, from chapter 1 to chapter 25. And then the rest of the Gospel is the account of His death and resurrection.
Now, each one of those sections has a similar structure, and it is quite easy, actually, to detect it. You just read them and compare them and say, “Yes, the same structure is in each one of these sections.” And the structure is essentially this. The first half of the section is a series of events, of works, of deeds that the Lord Jesus is doing. The second half is a discourse of the Lord Jesus, His words being recorded. That is essentially the Gospel of Matthew: five of those sections, each one of them with the same structure—the works of the Lord followed by His words.
Now, the passage that we read belongs to the second of those sections in the Gospel of Matthew. And I think I owe it to you just to show you the markers. I am not going to show you the five markers of each section, but I want to show you the markers that demarcate the section we are considering. We are not considering the whole section. Let me start from there. But because the words that we want to consider belong to that section, and they stand at a critical point in the section, I think we need to take a look at this. So let me just show it to you.
In Matthew chapter 7—and this is the end of the Sermon on the Mount—this is the marker of the end of that first section of the Gospel of Matthew. And it reads, verse 28:
And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching.
There you have the marker. A section has ended. A new one is starting. It starts, actually, in chapter 8, which is the one that we are considering. The other marker for our section is chapter 11, verse 1:
Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.
So there you have it. Those are the markers that delimit the section in which the passage we want to consider is inserted.
Now, here is the interesting thing, the really eye-opening thing, about the passage we want to look at, the end of chapter 9. It is inserted precisely in between the two halves of the section: between the works of the Lord Jesus, chapters 8 and 9, and the words of the Lord Jesus, the discourse of the Lord Jesus, which is chapter 10. Which, incidentally, has to do with the charge. If you read carefully, that is the structure of our section.
The whole section we are considering—or rather, the passage we are considering sits in a section that, in a way, has as its whole theme the Lord of the harvest and His charge. If you look at the works of Christ in chapters 8 and 9, you will see such a picture of the Lord of the harvest, a picture of what He does, a picture of what is behind what He does.
When you read chapter 10, you have the charge proper. He chooses the twelve, and He commands them. He gives them essentially the same ministry that He had. But the little passage that we are considering as the theme for our conference is in between the two.
So I am always reminded of sandwiches, right? Dear brother Christian Chen loved to show us sandwiches in the Bible. And he used to say, well, if you think of the first half as a piece of bread and the second as another, that portion in the middle is like the meat of the sandwich. It gives character to the whole thing. It lets you understand the spirit of the whole section.
Now, it is not my intention to go through the whole section this morning. However, I thought it really important to point out to you, from the very beginning, that at the very core of the second major section of the Gospel of Matthew you have the words we are considering, and they give character to the whole thing. It is about the Lord of the harvest. It is about His charge given to us.
Now, by the Lord’s enabling, what we would like to do today is to consider the Lord of the harvest Himself: what He does, and why He does it. And tomorrow, as the Lord enables, we would like to consider the charge that comes out, of course, of the Lord of the harvest Himself.
So it is probably a good thing, since we are considering this passage in this second section of Matthew, that we take a quick look, almost like a recap, of what is happening in those initial chapters of the second section, chapters 8 and 9. What do you find there? Essentially, a description of what He is doing. And when you get to chapter 9, verse 35, which we read, you have a summary of what He is doing. Let me read it again, so that the summary becomes fresh in our minds. Matthew 9:35:
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Three things are mentioned: teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and third, healing every sickness and every disease among the people. That is the summary of the ministry of the Lord.
Now, when you look at the beginning of this section, the second section, chapters 8 and 9, you see that that is precisely what the Lord Jesus is doing. Actually, chapters 8 and 9 concentrate on the third part of that summary. You will find the Lord Jesus doing many healings, casting out demons, doing the works described in summary in verse 35. You will see that expanded in chapter 8 and chapter 9. And that is what the Lord Jesus, what the Lord of the harvest, is doing.
I have no intention of going over every single event in chapters 8 and 9. But I will just remind you quickly, and I hope your memory is somehow awakened, or refreshed, on these matters. Even if you run your eyes quickly over those two chapters, you see that there is a quick succession of the works of the Lord Jesus: ten miracles. Most of them are healings. On two occasions, demons are being cast out. On some occasions there is the exercise of authority over nature. But mostly it is a ministry of healing. Even the casting out of demons, you could say, falls in that category in some way. And in quick succession you have all those scenes enumerated. Let me refresh your memory.
How does chapter 8 begin? It is right after the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord comes down, and Matthew records that a leper comes to Him. You remember the story, right? And the leper says, “If You will, You can heal me.” And here something unexpected happens, something that is, in a way, breaking the law—that Levitical law. Our Lord Jesus not only says, “Yes, I am willing; be healed,” but He touches the leper.
You know, the Levitical law would never allow that to happen. A leper was an outcast. He had no right to live in society. Anyone should avoid him, let alone touch him. And here is the Lord Jesus. Amen. And He is not only restoring him at a distance, but touching him. Do you see a picture of something here?
Remember, when you get to the verses we are considering, they are the summary, and they explicitly mention the compassion of the Lord. They are summarizing the things He has been doing. He sees the multitude. As He looks at them, what does He see? He sees them as sheep that are distressed, that have no shepherd. And He is moved with compassion.
Doesn’t that picture of a leper being touched by the Lord Jesus go way beyond just a demonstration of power—which it is? There is no question about it. Who can do that? Do you see that it goes way beyond demonstrating the power that He had? An X-ray of His heart. “I am willing; be healed.” He touches him. That is the Lord of the harvest. That is His compassion, brothers and sisters.
And then you have—again, I am not going to go over all of it, but just to refresh your memory—quickly after that, the account of the servant of a centurion. He is paralyzed. He is suffering in an awful way, as some translations would have it. And the Lord Jesus, again, heals that man. After that, He meets Peter’s mother-in-law. She is burning with fever. Our Lord Jesus, again, touches her. It is almost as if He is going out of His way to demonstrate that there is something more here than just the exercise of some sort of healing power. There is something behind that being demonstrated.
Isn’t that a picture of our condition? We are like that by nature. We are pretty feverish, running after this, running after that. And you know, if you have ever had a fever—which I think you have—things become pretty cloudy. Things become pretty meaningless. You are in a fog. You see what the Lord of the harvest came to do: to restore, to bring meaning, and so forth.
He meets the demon-possessed, or the two who were demon-possessed, in the account of Matthew. And there He is, delivering them. Isn’t that our story, brothers and sisters? I am not saying that you were necessarily demon-possessed before you met the Lord. But regardless, we were under the control of the enemy. We were on his team. I don’t care what your background is, what your past is. We are born by nature in that boat. That is precisely what the apostle Paul says in Ephesians 2. You remember? We all, he says, walked according to the prince of the power of the air—Satan—according to that spirit of disobedience, under the control of Satan.
Our Lord had compassion. He delivered us. And now we can experience the glorious liberty of the sons of God. That is a picture, brothers and sisters. And again, I am not going through all ten. But the quick succession of those ten events, ten mighty miracles, mostly of healing, gives you a picture of the Lord of the harvest Himself. What is He doing?
But it is quite interesting that in the middle of that account you find the verses we read in chapter 8, which are, in a way, almost parenthetical, almost an insertion. And those verses are explaining—not so much simply that He did it. They are explaining what He is doing, but they go to the bottom of the essential nature of what our Lord Jesus was doing, which you see in all those healings.
And what is it? Of course, there is a quotation, as you remember, from Isaiah 53. But let me read it to you again. In Matthew 8:16–17 you have the account:
When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”
Our Lord Jesus, taking our burden upon Himself. If you want to know, that is the parenthesis. That is the explanation of the nature that underlies all those healings, all that the Lord is doing. He is taking upon Himself the burden, the misery of human experience.
But, very interestingly, we have to emphasize that when He does that, it is never something remote. It is not something being done as if He is keeping Himself afar, keeping Himself at a distance. There is a touch. There is our Lord Jesus—almost, you know, think of the healing of the leper. You know the reason you would not touch a leper is that there is something highly contagious there. And almost in a terrible way, you have our Lord Jesus willing to take upon Himself that burden, that misery, that infirmity, almost in a substitutionary way. That is what our Lord Jesus is doing.
Now, just let me open a small parenthesis again on this matter, because it could be a little perplexing, or surprising, to us: why would Matthew quote from Isaiah chapter 53? Of course, that is a great chapter of the cross. It is perhaps, in the whole Bible, New Testament or Old Testament alike, the greatest chapter that describes in the greatest detail what our Lord Jesus was doing on the cross.
Now, why would Matthew quote, in the context of the healings in Jesus’ ministry—why would he quote Isaiah 53 as a fulfillment of those healings in His ministry? The question is, “But wait a second. Isn’t that something that has to wait until the cross to be done? How do you reconcile that?” And he says, “This is fulfilling what Isaiah said,” that He took upon Himself our sorrows and our griefs. That is the wording in Isaiah.
It seems that the answer which allows us to reconcile those things is kind of very simple. In a way, the healings that we read in chapter 8 and chapter 9—which are a summary of His ministry; don’t forget, that is my main point here; that is what He came to do—those healings anticipate what the cross will accomplish in its fullest sense.
So, in a way, we can never say that the fulfillment is being exhausted in chapter 8 and chapter 9. When Matthew says, “This is a fulfillment,” it is a fulfillment that, in a way, yes, is of the same nature as what He is going to do in the fullest way when He dies on the cross. That is the nature, brothers and sisters, of what He came to do.
In a way, you could say that all those healings, moved by His compassion, are like signs. Isn’t that the special word in the Gospel of John? They are in the same category. They point to something much greater than what they are in themselves. You can never say, “Okay, that is what He came to do. Here is a man suffering from leprosy. He is going to restore him, and that exhausts the thing.” No. It points to something much, much deeper that He is going to do in the spiritual realm, and it is going to be fulfilled on His cross. But yes, they are of the same nature, in that sense. He is taking upon Himself the burden, the misery. That is the compassion of the Lord of the harvest.
So one way to look at this would be this: what He did in their physical bodies is a picture of what He came to do in our souls by His finished work. Do you get that? In that sense, they are signs. In that sense, they are pictures. They point to something much larger than the benefit those sufferers are receiving right there—to what He is going to do in our souls.
Now, of course, I don’t mean to say for a second that our Lord Jesus cannot, or does not, heal us physically. Not for a second. I am not saying that at all. Of course He can heal us physically. Of course He does. But the benefit of a physical healing—of course, if you just think about it for three seconds, you will say, “Okay, He healed those people. That’s wonderful.” And then they live for another thirty years, forty years. I don’t know how old they were. Let’s say that they lived like Moses to 120, and died as healthy as Moses, right? As vigorous as Moses. But that was the extent of it. If the whole thing is physical, that’s it.
Oh no, brothers and sisters. They are signs of something so much larger that He does in our souls. And whatever He does in our souls is eternal. It remains forever.
Do you remember the words of our Lord Jesus to the disciples after He spoke to the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4? You have that whole story: the disciples go to get food, and they come back. Strangely enough, they find our Lord Jesus refreshed. He was tired from that trip. You remember how it goes. And because His physical tiredness, which was very real, was the occasion for Him to start the whole conversation, to reach out to that woman. And then the disciples go there to get food, they come back with food, and our Lord Jesus somehow is refreshed, and they say, “Master, please eat,” right? And our Lord Jesus goes into an explanation of the harvest. Let me just read the verses for you. That’s John chapter 4, verses 35 and 36:
Do you not say, “There are still four months and then comes the harvest”? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life.
That is the nature of the harvest that He came to gather. It is something that is eternal. It is something way more than a physical benefit, you see. That is the nature of His ministry.
Now, I have to confess to you, I don’t know what to make of what our brother shared with us last night. If he was stealing my message—certainly he didn’t steal anything from me. Oh, but there was something tremendously eye-opening when our brother shared with us, to me at least.
Because when you read Matthew chapters 8 and 9, you could say, well, yes, the compassion of our Lord consists in taking the burden upon Himself, which is absolutely true. That is what He is doing. But you see, there is something that goes so far beyond taking the burden—which you could say is the negative side. You have such a beautiful picture, which our brother shared with us last night.
When you compare the instances in the Synoptic Gospels that mention the compassion of the Lord Jesus, and you just put them side by side with the Gospel of John, what do you have? You put the healings of the Lord, His seeing the sheep scattered, side by side—as our brother has encouraged us to do, and as he has so well explained—with “I am the good shepherd.” And then the feeding of the five thousand: the Lord has compassion on them. That’s the Synoptics. “I am the bread of life.” And then the blind being healed: the compassion of the Lord is explicitly mentioned. “I am the light of the world.” The raising of the son of that widow in Nain: “I am the resurrection and the life.” Now put that side by side, and it gives you a much fuller picture of the work of our Lord Jesus, of His compassion.
He is not just taking the burden of our misery, which is very real, and He does take it. But He goes beyond that. He is imparting something of Himself. He is, in some way, giving something of that inexhaustible I AM, that immeasurable I AM. Something of Him is being given. It is the blessed exchange. How else to describe it? The blessed exchange of the gospel.
He takes my burden. He takes such an unfair exchange, by the way. But of course, that is the mercy, the grace, the compassion of our Lord. He takes your misery. He takes your limitation. He takes your burden. Nothing positive there. That is all He is taking upon Himself. And instead of that, He is giving Himself to you. The I AM.
Do you see what His compassion is at the end of the day? Do you see that when you look at those healings in Matthew chapter 8, you can see that in each one of those healings the same principle applies, of course? When He heals the leper, it is not just taking his misery upon Himself, but imparting His holiness, His purity, to that man—someone who should never, ever be allowed in the presence of God, or even in society, restored, receiving something of Christ Himself. That is His compassion.
When He takes away the fever, instead of the meaninglessness, the fog of that condition, He gives the meaningfulness of His life. Now you know where you are going. Now you know how to live. How much meaning, how much sense, there is in that. Life itself is Christ being given to us. That is His compassion, brothers and sisters. On the one hand, taking our burden; on the other, giving Himself to us. The Lord of the harvest.
Well, I just want to say one thing about our passage before we take a look—if we have any time, and I think we do—at the parable, which I think is such a picture of the Lord of the harvest in His compassion.
But if you think again of the passage in Matthew chapter 9, our theme verses, the first of the three key passages we were given, there is a kind of progression in that passage that is so meaningful for understanding the Lord of the harvest and His charge. I am not going to go into the charge per se this morning, as I told you. However, I think that, since we are considering this passage, we need to mention this. It is really important.
Let me start by saying this. I think it was G. Campbell Morgan. He said something, as he usually does, something really wonderful about the passage we are considering, Matthew 9:35–38. He said, well, if you were to explain what is behind the work of redemption of our Lord Jesus—we are seeing what He did, the taking of our burden, the imparting of Himself—but what is behind it? How do you explain it?
And he goes on to say the following, and it is really eye-opening. Because there is a common conception, I should say, that is not necessarily untrue, but that misses the point if you come to think about it. What is behind the work of His redemption? And a lot of people would say, well, you know, what is behind that is the righteousness of God, the holiness of God. Because, of course, when our Lord Jesus is dying on that cross, the righteousness of God is being satisfied by that payment, vicarious, in our stead, that He is making. Finally, God’s righteousness can be satisfied. His holiness can be fully satisfied.
But you see, if you make the righteousness and the holiness of the Lord the reason for His redemption, there is something that is being missed—a big point. And our brother comments something like this. Well, think about it. What if God had decided to wipe us out and start afresh? “Here I made this man, this humanity, for Me, for My glory, for fellowship. They turned their back on Me, and they are completely messed up.” And we are. Would there be anything wrong, anything unrighteous, if He just judged, destroyed, and started afresh? He could have done it.
You see, behind the redemption of our Lord Jesus, at the end of the day, is compassion. It is the love of God. It is the love of Christ. That is the ultimate explanation. If you just stay with the righteousness, which is there, and the holiness, which is there, but you make that the central point, you miss the whole thing. It is a love that surpasses understanding that is behind our salvation.
And when you get to our passage, again, it is summarizing the wondrous things that the Lord Jesus is doing in love and compassion—taking the burden and giving Himself. He goes out of His way. There are at least three things being said there in the passage under consideration. There is a movement, in a way.
First, you see that His compassion is explicitly mentioned, and that is verse 36:
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them.
That is the explanation of why He did what He did. But then there are two other things that, in a way, are not the charge, but that lead to the charge, and they are crucial if you are going to consider this matter of the charge. He calls the disciples to see things as He sees them. Did you notice that? It is almost like an invitation.
What does the Lord Jesus see when He looks at the scattered sheep? They are distressed. It is as if the picture is of sheep that are lacerated, wounded, as our brother mentioned, left to their self-destruction, because that is the reality if we are left to ourselves. We are on our way to that. Isn’t it wonderful that our Lord sees that? And He sees, beyond that, through that, a harvest to be gathered.
I think most of us—for sure, I—would have given up long ago. The sheep are too stubborn. That’s it. They want that? Go have it. He sees beyond that condition, to a harvest to be gathered. He sees human beings made in the image of God, marred by the fall, but with all the possibilities once they are redeemed. He sees it, and He goes after that. That is the heart of the Lord of the harvest. That is what is behind what He did—the why.
And then a wondrous call to the disciples. That is when He speaks, notice, in verse 37. Then, after it mentions His compassion—and it is interesting: it does not say that the Lord said anything, but it is so obvious that when those disciples saw the Lord Jesus looking at them, there was no need for Him to say anything. They saw in His eyes eternal love, mercy, compassion.
And then our Lord says to those disciples, as if to invite them to see things as He does, “The harvest truly is plentiful.” He transfigures the whole thing. You see broken people. Difficult? That is oftentimes all I see. He sees a harvest, because He knows what His compassion can do.
There is a phrase in that wonderful hymn of Charles Wesley, “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”: “the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace.” Oh, He knows that His grace will triumph, in countless lives, in the “many” of Isaiah 53. And when that grace, when that compassion, reigns—what a harvest.
When He invites the disciples, “Would you see as I see? Would you look at them from My point of view?” And out of that there is the request, the command: therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. You see the progression: from His compassion, to an invitation to see as He does, to pray. But none of this is yet the charge per se. The charge is given actually in chapter 10. This is the second half of this section of Matthew—the second section, Matthew 8, 9, and 10. That is the charge per se. I am not going into it today.
But I think I need, just since we are considering these verses, to pave the way. By the Lord’s enabling, we would like to look at the charge—not necessarily from chapter 10, just a touch or two. But what I would like to do with you now is to go very quickly through that wondrous parable of the Good Samaritan, and the setting of the parable, which allows us to see, in such a clear way, the extent of that compassion.
So we just read the story, and you remember: there you have this interpreter of the law, this lawyer. And he comes to the Lord Jesus with this question, which has a bad premise in it to start with. “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Do you detect the problem there? Do you detect a bad premise? The premise is, “Yes, I think I can do something, and I am going to earn eternal life.”
And our Lord Jesus, in His love and wisdom—I am not going to say He is going along in a misleading way. Nothing that He says is misleading, but He is going along. He is not stopping him in his tracks and saying, “Hey, this is a completely messed-up question.” Yes, He directs that man to the law, in a way. “So, okay. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? What do you read in the law? What is your interpretation of it?” And the man gives Jesus a perfect summary of the law: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” That is perfect. That is what our Lord Jesus Himself, when He was asked the same question later, in that last week before His crucifixion, answered in exactly the same way. There is nothing wrong there.
And then the Lord Jesus says something that may sound a bit surprising to us. He says, “Do this and you shall live.” Oh, wow. This may sound theologically contradictory, almost, if we read it superficially. What is the Lord Jesus saying to this man? That he can be justified by works of the law? Is that the point? And obviously, the answer is no.
But our Lord Jesus, in a way, is trying very gently to correct the false assumption, or the false premise, behind the question. And He is going to do that slowly, step by step. But just notice one thing. When our Lord says, “Do this and you shall live,” there is nothing untrue in that sentence. Because if we were able to obey the law perfectly—to do those two things in a perfect way—yes, anyone who was able to do that: God is not an unrighteous judge. God would judge you, and He would justify you. He would absolve you. You would be safe, of course. So there is nothing untrue when our Lord Jesus says, “Do this, and you shall live.”
But the question is, can anyone do that? Just think of the two things. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind.” Those are faculties the Lord gave to us—your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength. It is as if the Lord is saying, “You own what the Lord gave you. You acknowledge that. You give it back to Him.” That would be the right thing for all of us to do. Does anyone have the perfect record? Does anyone have a record that is even close?
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Oh, boy. It is even worse. I don’t know. Sometimes I think so. It is as if He is saying, you are going to take care of the need of the person right beside you—sometimes a difficult person, sometimes a person you don’t like so much, who is still your neighbor. Take care of his need, or her need, with the same thought, with the same energy and time, that you give to yourself. Is anyone like that?
Our friend thinks he can do something to inherit eternal life. And you know what? That is not because he has a problem. This is our problem, brothers and sisters, by nature, as human beings. This was Adam’s problem, wasn’t it? They sinned, and the first impulse they have is, “Oh, there is something wrong.” They realize they are naked. “Let’s fix the problem. Let’s sew an apron of fig leaves. We can do something.” That is our nature, our fallen nature. We think we can solve the problem.
A blindness came into the human race, and it is so much worse than blindness. You see, because immediately, when the Lord Jesus says, “Do this and you shall live,” there is a second question that is as bad as the first, as misguided as the first one. Wanting to justify himself—in any case, trying to justify himself—he says, “Okay, who is my neighbor?”
And some have suggested that what this man is probably trying to do is justify himself. He is trying to say to Jesus, “Now, yes, I still qualify. I can still meet those requirements. But I need to tamper a little bit with the definition of who my neighbor is. If I can define the limits of that—okay, if I can say, ‘This one that I like, this is my neighbor; oh, this one, forget it’—if I fail to love the ones I don’t see as my neighbor, then I’m still okay. I’m still justified.” How messed up is that? But, brothers and sisters, this is human nature at the end of the day.
And remember one more thing, since we were talking about things that are messed up. What was the intention of this lawyer when he approached Jesus to begin with? He comes to test Jesus. And the word means he is trying to set a trap for our Lord, perhaps trying to make Him say something. He is a lawyer, an interpreter of the law. And he is perhaps hoping—maybe this Jesus, who says a lot of suspicious things, by the way. It is awful, right? He has meals with the tax collectors. This is unheard of. What kind of person is that? He says that you can enter today into the kingdom if you are poor in spirit, because theirs is, today, the kingdom of heaven.
In the Jewish mind, if you work hard to obey all the six hundred and I don’t know how many precepts of the law, then maybe one day you are going to inherit eternal life. So this Jesus—he is trying to set a trap. There is enmity in the whole dialogue. A little bit of dishonesty. Trying, if he can, to diminish the requirement: “I’ll be okay. I’ll justify myself.” There is blindness: “I can do something.”
And if you go back to Adam, by the way, you are going to see those three things crystal clear, as daylight. The blindness was there: “We can do the apron thing.” And then the Lord comes down to the garden. Isn’t that something? And He says, “Adam, where are you?” Well, you know, he had already sewn the apron. But his answer is, “Well, I heard Your voice, and because I was naked…” How well did this self-righteous project work? I will ask you. And then he starts the dishonesty: “Well, you know, it was my wife, not me.”
Remember, it is not his problem. It is our problem. That is our fallen nature. And then there is an undertone of enmity against God already developing, even in the garden: “the woman whom You gave me.”
Our Lord Jesus proceeds to answer that question at face value. That is what He is doing, isn’t it? He answered the question, “Who is my neighbor?” But, as so often in His words, there is something multi-layered. He is addressing the real issue behind the question. And the parable is doing exactly that. It is one of the most beautiful allegories you are going to see in the Word of God. Because, at the end of the day, it is almost as if the Lord is saying to this man, “Okay, you think you can obey, you can do something and inherit eternal life. Yes, that’s your premise, right? But let me show you your condition. Let me start from there.”
What if you are like that man who fell into the hands of robbers and was left to die? No power. Nothing he can do. Completely helpless. See, that man doesn’t need law. You see, he doesn’t need instructions: do this, do that. He needs a Saviour.
But remember one thing. This man in the parable, most likely, is a Jew. Strangely, he is not going from Jericho up to Jerusalem. It is the other way around. He is going from the city of the great King, departing to that place of curse, Jericho. That is the wrong direction. But most likely that person is a Jew.
And, you know, there is something in history that is well documented. The Jews had an absolutely visceral dislike of the Samaritans. They hated them. They couldn’t stand them at all. I heard one brother saying that there was a prayer in one of the many Jewish books of their traditions, a Jewish saying: “Lord, grant that in the resurrection there will be no Samaritan there.” That was one of their prayers. It is supposed to be a devout prayer. That is the extent of the enmity.
And in the parable, the one who is helping, of course, is a Samaritan, the despised one. One of the worst insults a Jew could hurl at another person—maybe the insult of last resort, I don’t know—was, “You are a Samaritan.” And of course, in John chapter 8, you remember, that is exactly what they said of the Lord Jesus: “You are a Samaritan.” Absolutely insulting.
Now, in the parable, it is this despised, insulted one, the one who is hated, who takes the initiative to go and rescue someone absolutely helpless, absolutely incapable of changing anything. But seeing him—the text says—he had compassion on him.
Brothers and sisters, if we just stay with the account at the end of Matthew chapter 9, we may get the impression that those poor sheep who are distressed and afflicted, in need of great help, are just victims, that they are just poor innocent victims. In a way, it is true. We are victims of Satan. Oh, but the problem goes much, much deeper than that. At the end of the day, we by nature have something against God, against the Lord Jesus. There is blindness: “I can do something.” There is dishonesty. It is to that person that this Good Samaritan is going to come, to save and to care for.
Brothers and sisters, that is the compassion of our Lord Jesus. That is the extent of a love that surpasses understanding.
Our time is almost over. I just want to see one last thing before we close, something that perhaps we don’t realize, we are so used to this story—the story of Martha and Mary. Have you ever asked yourself why Luke put that story right there? Why, right after that wondrous parable, which is probably second only to the prodigal son, the most well-known parable of our Lord Jesus—why did Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, of course, put that story right there?
Let me just point you, before we go there quickly, to how the whole dialogue with that lawyer ends. At the end, our Lord Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.” In a way, this is speaking of the charge, isn’t it? You go to that one who is broken, who is helpless. Do the same. Love with that kind of love.
But the question then becomes, where do you get the power to obey such a charge? Is it possible? If our Lord Jesus said it, yes, it is. But I think we need to see at least two things.
I think the simpler answer, from the story itself—the parable ending with “Go and do likewise,” the charge—the simple answer to where that capacity comes from would be this: once you receive such mercy and such compassion, there you go. There you have the power. If you receive that, you cannot be the same anymore. You will be able to learn to love your neighbor, even as our Lord did. Never to the same degree, of course, but something of the same nature, enabled by such grace given to us.
But then you have the story of the two sisters, juxtaposed, just side by side. Why is that? Well, perhaps there is a second secret in this matter of where we get that power to go and do likewise, to fulfill the charge.
And the wonderful thing to me in that story is the attitude of Mary. She was sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And it is very interesting—forgive the technicality—but something most translations do not bring out is the imperfect tense of the verb. It is not that she listened to the word of Jesus once, that she heard it—“Oh, great, I got that. Okay, nice to be with You, Lord.” No. She was listening. The imperfect tense, of course, speaks of something that was continuing. She delighted in that.
Could this be the true attitude of someone who was captured, captivated, by His love, as we sang? Could this be how we respond to such compassion as was given to us? In that continual fellowship with the Lord, in His Word, by listening, by receiving—oh, there is a grace, there is a power.
And the story, of course, also has a warning for us. Because you have Martha, also a disciple, also someone who loves the Lord. But you see that there is something not quite right with that dear sister. The picture we have of Martha is of someone who, at the end of the day, is overcome by a critical spirit. Do you realize that? It is amazing. It is amazing to the point that she is rebuking even the Lord, in a mild way. She is very angry with her sister, because in her estimation, “Oh, why is my sister not doing this or that or the other? Why is my brother not doing that?” You know, brothers and sisters, that is a warning for all of us.
Yes, we have received such mercy, such great compassion, from the Lord of the harvest. But if a distance comes between us and Him, if that continuous fellowship with Him is broken, there is always a risk that a different spirit will develop. And you know, I cannot think of anything more opposed, more antithetical, to compassion than the critical spirit that, unfortunately, is oftentimes so prevalent among the Lord’s people. Sometimes in very quiet ways: a closing of our hearts, and a starting to question. “Why is my brother not doing this? Why is my sister not doing that? They should be doing this. They should be…” Oh, no.
It is the Lord of the harvest who sends. He also determines the sphere of service, the specifics of that “go and do likewise.” They are all in His hands. And every time there is a critical spirit in our hearts, somehow we lose the reality that we are just sinners saved by grace. We love to sing that hymn, “Only a Sinner, Saved by Grace.” Oh, but sometimes we can be so uncompassionate to one another, so judgmental, so critical.
If there is an awareness of the love that reached out to me, of the extent of my brokenness—because I am just like the lawyer; again, that is my point. It was not his problem. The blindness, the whole shebang: it is our problem. That is our nature in Adam. But now, in Christ, compassion has been given. Have we nurtured that fellowship with the Lord of the harvest? Are we continually at His feet? Oh, that would be the antidote to any critical spirit.
It is impossible for us to be at His feet, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and not be changed. You know what happens? You are transformed from glory to glory into His image by the Lord the Spirit. That is what happens. If you are sitting, occupied with Christ, like Mary, you are going to be like Him: the power to go and do likewise. Allow any distance, and quickly we become Martha. That’s natural for us, you see? I am not surprised when I see that in my heart, when I see myself criticizing. I know that is my MO if I am left to myself.
Oh, the privilege that we have to abide, to be continually at His feet, to listen to His words. May the Lord speak to us.
Lord, we do pray that, indeed, You would take these poor words, Lord, and impress something of Yourself upon us. Our prayer, Lord, is that once again You would allow us to see something more of Yourself, of Your heart, of the compassion that was given to absolutely undeserving ones such as we are. And yet, Lord, we find ourselves the object of a love that will never let us go, a love that surpasses understanding, of goodness and mercy that will follow us every single day of our life. What else do we need? We pray for grace to be occupied with You, and that out of that there will be, Lord, the power to obey the charge. In Your precious name. Amen.
Many of us would like just to stay here and be before the Lord, as He has just spoken to us. But we would like to stay on schedule, so that when we get into our groups we can really carry forward what the Lord is saying to us. And so we are going to go ahead with a couple of announcements, and then we will go to our groups, where we will continue to share and pray as the Lord is revealing Himself to us.
Just a couple of announcements, because we don’t have another chance to give them. This afternoon, during the rest time, the pool will be open from 1:30 to 3:30. Also, thirty minutes before the afternoon fellowship, which starts here at 3:45—at 3:15—the bookstore will be open for purchases. Now, there is a self-checkout arrangement if you want to look into that. But specifically, for half an hour before that meeting, and then for half an hour after the evening meeting, the bookstore will be open.