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A Lovely Correction for Great and Chief Ones

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A Lovely Correction for Great and Chief Ones

8 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransomfor many" (Matthew 20:28).

Dear reader, when you read these words, it will still be the Passion season and also the month of the year in which we have our Prayer Day. Much is necessary for our daily lives, especially when we have families with children. Mothers know what is required every week to feed them, and the fathers have the task of earning their daily bread. One of the petitions in the prayer that the Lord Jesus taught His disciples when He was with them is, "Give us this day our daily bread."

What is the only ground upon which we can receive the maintenance and upholding of our daily life? It is then necessary that men receive a childlike dependence on the Lord for their daily food and drink, housing, and clothing. Through our deep fall in Adam we have forfeited everything, also our daily bread. Yet it has pleased the Lord, in the maintaining of His honor and glory, to open a way for fallen creatures to be restored unto Him and to receive His Fatherly care and sustenance for all the needs here below.

What is that opened way, or who is that way? For this let us give attention to the words quoted at the beginning of this meditation. These words are the answer of the Lord Jesus Christ to ten of the disciples who were moved with indignation against the other two. We read in the gospel of Mark that the two were James and John, the sons of Zebedee and Salome, and that they had asked the Lord whether they might receive a place at His right and left hands in His kingdom and glory. It was proof they believed He would one day come in His glory and great majesty. In Matthew we read that their mother asked this for them. However, to make sure they would have an excellent place with Him, they wanted to reserve that place.


Do we know what we ask on Prayer Day? Do we know to whom we are speaking in our prayers?


Is it not wise, dear reader, to be prepared for that time? But do you think it was a request similar to that of one of the malefactors on the cross? Or was it like the work of the wise builder in the parable of Matthew 7, who prepared for the storms? No, not at all. Their motivation was completely different. It was not that they did not know that only in Him there was help and safety, for they had already forsaken everything and followed Him. They also could say with their heart, "To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." Yet, one thing was so hidden for them, namely, in what way they would become partakers of His glory. The Lord Jesus taught them that when He answered their request. He first said, "Ye know not what ye ask."

Do we know what we ask on Prayer Day? Do we know to whom we are speaking in our prayers? For He then answered them further by pointing them to His coming suffering and death, that deep way of humiliation because of the sins of all those who are given Him by the Father, also the sins of John and James. It was the way o f His suffering and death to satisfy the Father, who would maintain the divine justice and would smite Him with the sword of His righteousness (Zechariah 13:7).

The places at His right and leff hands are in that respect very costly places. As apostles they would also suffer with Him and because of Him, but this would in itself merit them nothing. In this regard notice Peter's question in Matthew 19:27, Christ's answer in verses 28 to 30, and also His instruction in Matthew 20:1-16. The only reason that one will ever sit at His right and another at His left hand is not because a mother or a father asked this, even a converted parent, but it is given only to them for whom it is prepared of His Father.

Dear reader, throughout the entire history of Christ's suffering and death we meet the carnal conceptions of His disciples in regard to His kingdom. The words He once uttered to Pontius Pilate, that His kingdom was not of this earth, was a lesson, and is a lesson, so difficult to learn for us all. However, we need to learn this lesson shall it be well for our immortal soul.

To teach them further, He took the example of a worldly kingdom, speaking in verse 25 of the princes of the Gentiles and how they exercise dominion over their people. This is not wrong in such a kingdom, but it is even very biblical. But with regard to His kingdom, which is not of this world, it is so completely different.

The ten disciples were moved with indignation against their two brothers because they feit that with their request, and their mother's, the two sought dominion over the others. They were trying to make themselves great, greater than others, by the place at His right and left hands. But read then the words of that beloved Mediator to His disciples and church, "But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."

How deeply rooted that sin of pride is! It is also a hidden sin, through our deep fall in Paradise. We feil through pride, and we feil in pride, and only God can discover it, for otherwise we will live in it and also die in it. Christ died for this sin in the state of His humiliation in the accursed death on the cross. For whom? The text says, "For many." But who are they? They are those who learn not how humble they are, but how proud. Oh, here is the gospel of a Mediator who humbled Himself, "who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:6-8). Is this not then a lovely correction for great and chief ones, as we all are by nature, with no exceptions?

Do we believe this? Reader, again we may have the Passion weeks and again a Prayer Day. When faith comes in our heart as a work of the Holy Ghost, our prayer for the new season will be without any rights in ourselves. But then, by faith, our pleading will be not only for our souls (although that is first), but also for the body, with all the needs for this life. Then the only pleading ground is Jesus Christ and Him crucified, God's mercy towards such miserable, guilty, unworthy forgetters and wasters of His benefits. It is through that way that God Himself has revealed a humiliated and risen Mediator. That ransom is sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world.

Oh, ask that God instruct you, that you may learn to know what you really are before Him, and that these Passion weeks observed in our churches year after year will not one day testify against us. Ask Him to open your blind eyes, so you might cry to heaven for that knowledge.

Church of God, every year you again have the opportunity to hear about Him and His mediatorial work. Let Him be the only ground of your hope and salvation. Then you will have in Him the fulfilling of all your needs for time and for eternity. He is for His church their all-sufficient ransom. While the world shall end every year in greater confusion, He will be your shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

What a wonder that He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Who is able to proclaim Him as He is? May He open our mouths on the pulpits, in the catechism classes, in the schools, and in the homes, to preach and to speak of the unsearchable riches of Christ.

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Bekijk de hele uitgave van maandag 1 maart 2004

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's

A Lovely Correction for Great and Chief Ones

Bekijk de hele uitgave van maandag 1 maart 2004

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's