Peter
answering said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon bar-Jona:
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, who is in
heaven. And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and on this rock I will
build my assembly; and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou mayest bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven, and whatsoever thou mayest loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Then charged he his disciples, that they should say to no man that he was the Christ.
From that time Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go away
to
*
[The Greek word can be translated] - Soul or life.
And after six days Jesus
taketh with [him] Peter and James and John his brother, and
bringeth them up into a high mountain apart; and he was transfigured before
them, and his face shone as the sun, and his garments became white as the
light. And behold, there appeared unto
them Moses and Elias talking with him.
And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here;
if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for
Moses, and one for Elias. While he was
yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out
of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear
him. And when the disciples heard it,
they fell upon their faces, and were exceedingly afraid. But Jesus came to [them] and touched them,
saying, Arise and be not afraid. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw
no man, but Jesus only.
And as they descended from the
mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no one until the Son
of man be risen from the dead. And the
disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes,
that Elias must first come? But he answered
and said unto them, Elias indeed cometh and shall restore all things; but I say
unto you, that Elias is come already, and they did not recognize him, but did
unto him whatsoever they would. So also
the Son of man is about to suffer from them.
Then the disciples understood that he spake to them of John the Baptist.
And when they came to the
multitude, there came to him a man falling on his knees to him and saying,
Lord, have pity upon my son, for he is a lunatic and suffereth
sorely: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water; and I
brought him to thy disciples, and they could not heal him. And Jesus answered and said, O faithless and
perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with
you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus
rebuked him, and the demon went out from him; and the child was healed from
that hour. Then the disciples came to
Jesus apart and said to him, Why could not we cast it
out? And he saith unto them, Because of
your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye
have faith as a grain of mustard-[seed], ye shall say unto this mountain,
Depart hence to yonder place, and it shall depart; and nothing shall be
impossible to you. But this kind goeth
not out, except by prayer and fasting.”
- The Numerical Bible.
-------
Here,
then, while
That
the Christ would be the Son of God, Scripture had again and again declared. The second psalm expressly represents Him as
rejected by men, yet owned of God as His Son by nature, yet in manhood, and to be (in spite of all opposition) King at last on Zion. And this is the Scripture which with one
accord the disciples quote, after the first appearance of the apostles before
the rulers of the Jews, when dismissed, they go to their own company (Acts 4: 25-28).
Similarly,
according to Isaiah, the virgin’s Son would be Immanuel, and this no mere or
hyperbolical name: the Child born, the Son given, upon whose shoulder was to be
the government in
His
deity, though born in
Other
scriptures there were to shame
Striking
it is, too, that John, His most intimate disciple, speaks of Life so much. And with Peter, if we look at his first
epistle, we shall find that “living” is a
characteristic word. A “living hope,” “the living word,” “living
stones” built up upon the “Living Stone,” living unto righteousness, living according to God:
all these harmonize with his confession of Christ here; while some of them
carry us right back to the confession itself or to the Lord’s words in response
to it. They combine to assure us of the
Presence in which he had lived and walked, and of its
power over him.
The
Lord answers immediately: “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona:
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, who is heaven. And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter (Petros), and upon this rock (
Peter’s
faith is thus a divinely given faith, the fruit of a divine revelation to his
soul, and thus he is a true “bar-jona,” (son of a dove,) born of the Spirit of God; and,
Israel having rejected Christ, he must have a new place provided for him, and
for those of like faith. Thus he becomes
Peter, a stone in a new spiritual building which will be Christ’s
assembly. It is not yet said that this
is the house of God, which in
There
is no question here, then, to raise or to settle: the “prophetic scriptures
have settled it for us in anticipation, before it was raised. The assembly called out to Christ, is built
upon Christ, and every way His assembly: relationship to Himself
is now the whole question. And He being
the Son of the living God, the gates of hades - of death - [the underworld of
the waiting dead] - cannot prevail against it [Him]. Death has
prevailed over the whole human race, but in the Son of God become Son of man, a
new and eternal life has come into humanity, annulling, for those who believe
in Him, him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. For these death is abolished, and life and
incorruption are brought to light through the gospel.
Here,
then, the assembly stands, upon the rock of resurrection, though resurrection
has not yet been mentioned in connection with it. But Christ, says the apostle, is marked out
Son of God by resurrection [out] of the dead (Rom. 1: 4). Life is thus not in Him simply, but in Him
meets the power of death and vanquishes it: the assembly (though in the
meanwhile on earth) belongs to the other side of death, yea, to heaven: the
gates of hades open in vain for it.
This
is not, therefore, as
But
under all this, and shining through it, there is a higher truth, as has been
already said: the Church is that in which, first of all, the power of life over
death, death itself made to minister to it and sustain it, comes out in its
full character. The eternal life has
come in Christ in its perfection, but in Him as a corn of wheat which, falling
into the ground and dying, brings forth fruit in which it is perpetuated and
multiplied. This is, of course, John’s
doctrine, or that of his Gospel rather, and Paul also must come in to give it
full utterance; but it is wrapped up here in the Lord’s first announcement of
the Church to Peter.
He
is going to build it. His words are as yet
but prophecy, not a declaration of what He has done, or is doing, but of what
He is going to do. Between that and the
present lies for Him, as He begins now to declare explicitly, that awful valley
of the shadow of death through which a deeper death darkens, - an uttermost woe
which He alone can bear, a depth in which no foot but His could find
standing. Then the “light of life” will have come, the weight be removed from of man’s
heart, the cloud from his path, but more, - the veil rent which covers the
sanctuary, he will draw near to God, distance done away for ever, to where the
full glory of God in a Human Face shall greet and bless and glorify him with its
radiance. This is what Christianity
means for us even here; and oh that one could tell it out, but it is
impossible. Christ must be for Himself
the Speaker, and every one must hear from His own lips, find in His own face, drink in from His own love, that else ineffable reality.
From
the announcement of the assembly (or, as it is commonly called the Church*) and
of Peter’s place in it, the Lord goes on to speak of the Kingdom and his place
in it: two things which are surely connected together, while they are
different, and of which it is important to see both the connection and the
difference. Here also there has been on
both sides as much confusion of thought as in the former case,
and far more widely spread. We shall do well therefore to examine with the more
care the meaning of what is here before us.
*While in common parlance we may still use this term,
it is important in all interpretation of Scripture to keep to the true word,
“assembly,” which if it had been always adhered to, would have done much of itself to prevent some of the perversion of thought which
has connected itself with the other.
Church, as is perfectly well known, comes from the Greek Kuriake “of the Lord” which (as is evident) leaves out the very
thing which ecclesia defines, and so permits to free substitution of other
thoughts in its place.
A
common confusion is that of the Church and the Kingdom, and which has both
proceeded from and led on to very serious confusion in other respects. We have already seen sufficiently what the
Kingdom. is, to be delivered from the possibility of
any absolute identification of them. It
certainly was not the Church which John the Baptist proclaimed to be “at hand.”
The
Kingdom in its Old Testament character being for the time set aside, on account
of Israel’s rejection of the King, the “assembly”
which Christ owns as His, in the day of that rejection, becomes the recognized
people of God; and in the same relation to the “Kingdom and patience” that Israel will yet have in relation to His “Kingdom and glory.” Still the
Kingdom and the people are very different thoughts; although in any picture of
the Kingdom we necessarily see the people.
So it has been in that history of the Kingdom which we have had put
before us in the parables of the thirteenth chapter. But there even, if we have been able to
interpret them aright, the people before us in the first parables are not the
same people as in the closing one at all; and the Kingdom, while changing in
character at the close, goes on beyond the time of the “assembly,” of which we have been speaking, altogether.
Church
and Kingdom are not, then, even for the present time, the same though it may be
urged that (in the same way as with
The
Kingdom, it is plain, in its mystery-form, is established in the world, not by
any open act of divine power, but by the sowing of the ‘word of the Kingdom’ in the hearts of men.
It is thus not territorial, as the kingdoms of the world are, but a
Kingdom of the truth, a sphere of discipleship; which may be, however, merely
outward and nominal, a profession true or false, which the end will
declare. This is plain by the parables
that have been before us. Its blessings
are thus conditional, dependent upon character and conduct, as the parable of
the unforgiving servant especially declares (chap. 18).
That
it is administered by men, as representatives of the absent King, the Lord’s
words to Peter here are clearly in proof, for the keys of the Kingdom are
committed to him: not, I believe, distinctively, but as connected with that
place which the Lord had just assigned him.
As his confession of Him was just that of the others - of all true
disciples, so the place of a stone in Christ’s spiritual building was not
Peter’s alone, but that of all disciples; and the keys of the Kingdom go with
this: the Church (that is) administers the Kingdom. In the eighteenth chapter, the power of
binding and loosing, given here to Peter, is given to the assembly as a whole (ver. 18): and when we consider what the power of the
keys implies, we shall find that in fact it is not peculiar to Peter at
all. The two statements here go
perfectly together, and as Peter is but a living stone founded upon the Rock,
Christ Jesus, so every living stone is thus a Peter, and addressed as such
through him.
After
all that Rome and ritualism and even more evangelical systems have found in
these keys, it may be hard to credit such a view as this; and with many it has
been customary to point to Peter’s eminent place on the day of Pentecost in
opening the Kingdom to the Jews, as afterwards in the person of Cornelius to
the Gentiles. But an eminent place may
be fully allowed him in this way, while yet we deny him any exclusive place;
and in fact we cannot exclude others on the day of Pentecost; nor even at
Caesarea allow that this was the sole use of the key in relation to the
Gentiles, any more than the use of another key than that which before had opened the Kingdom to the
Jews. One act did not surely exhaust the
service of the key, nor to open the door twice require two keys. Can it be thought
that the door once opened simply remained open, and needed no more opening? On the contrary, I believe it
can be conclusively shown that the administration of the Kingdom, which these
keys stand for, is not yet over, is not all come to an end in one initial
authoritative act. Men still receive and
are received in; and if the power of the keys speaks of admission into the
Kingdom, and the Kingdom be the sphere of discipleship, then the key is in fact
but authority to disciple.
Now
there are keys, not simply a key; and so, if we are right, a double way of
doing this is implied. The first is what
the Lord Himself speaks of as “the key of knowledge,” and which He reproaches the lawyers for taking from
the people (Luke
11: 52). Similarly in this Gospel He denounces the
Pharisees for shutting up the Kingdom of heaven against men. “Ye neither go in yourselves,” He tells them, “neither suffer ye those that are entering to go in” (Matt. 23: 13).
But
while the key of knowledge is thus the first and fundamental form of what is here,
it is not the whole. There is also an authoritative reception, which the Lord
has enjoined, and which, just as submission to authority, is most suited in
entering the Kingdom. Baptism is thus “unto Christ” (Rom.6: 3),
and “unto the
name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 8: 16), an open “putting on of Christ” (Gal.
3: 27). It is thus a bowing to the authority of the
King, as entering the Kingdom: “Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling
upon the name of the Lord,” says
Ananias to Saul (Acts
22: 16). But the Lord Himself most distinctly puts the
two keys together when, after His resurrection, with all authority given to Him
in heaven and earth, He sends out the eleven with the commission of the King,
saying: “Go and
disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I
am with you alway, even unto the completion of the age” (Matt. 28: 19, 20).
All
this is in perfect harmony with the words to Peter here, and sufficiently
explains them. Thus read, they are in
the highest degree appropriate to the occasion upon which they were spoken, as
introducing to the new state of things which was at hand. Their very character as outlining, rather
than filling in, leaving much to be explained at an aftertime, is perfectly
suited to their introductory position.
This is not, however, all that the Lord announces here; He adds, “And whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven:”
words which have been perhaps as much in contention as to their meaning as any
of those connected with them here.
There
need be no doubt that the terms “binding” and “loosing” have reference to, and are indeed but the
application, in a Christian manner, of those in use among the Rabbins, and the Lord’s extension of them to the assembly
in the eighteenth chapter shows absolutely that such power as is implied in
them was not simply to belong to Simon Peter. Two or three gathered to Christ’s name have
exactly the same authority, the same sanction of their acts; in either case the
Lord rises the very same words: “Whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth” or “loose,” “whatsoever ye shall bind,” or “loose, on earth shall be bound (or loosed) in heaven.” If this were the communication of even
apostolic power to Peter, then every two or three gathered to Christ’s name
have similar apostolic power. No one
doubts, of course, that Peter had this; no one, I suppose, would claim it for
the two or three. That is not in
contention: the question is solely now of what these words convey. The same
words must have the same meaning, if there is to be any certain meaning in
words at all: the application, or limitation, must be found in the connection. Not even the Romanist would say that there was
to be absolutely no limitation, even in Peter’s case; and if any did, he would
have (if he would be consistent) to say exactly the same of every little
gathering to the name of Jesus. No one
certainly could press a conclusion in the one case that would not have exactly
the same title to be pressed in the other.
Now,
if we seek the limitation in the context, that in the case of the two or three
is easily seen to be to cases of discipline needed to maintain the Lord’s honour
in their midst. The assembly does not
define doctrine, and has no right to “teach for doctrine the commandments of men.” Christ alone
is the authoritative Teacher, by His Spirit, and all we are brethren (chap. 23: 8). But the assembly has to maintain by a holy
discipline what is due to Him who is Head and Lord, and whatsoever is truly
bound in this way is bound in heaven. Here
moral conditions also, in the very nature of things, impose a limitation: for
to “bind” a saint to do evil cannot be authorized in heaven,
and it would be wickedness to maintain this.
When
we take this back with us to Simon Peter’s case, we shall find similar
limitations. The context does not speak
of the discipline of an assembly, but of administration in the Kingdom of
heaven. This is not the Church, but the
sphere of individual responsibility to the Lord, and hence the individuality of
the assurance, “thou” not “ye.” The connection here is with the keys of the
Kingdom, - with discipling into it: here individual
teachers teach, and disciples baptize. There
is no limit to any class that Scripture gives us, except the limit of capacity,
and no control over others recognized except as all are subject to the common
discipline of which we have been speaking.
Peter,
therefore, in what the Lord says to him here, is not the apostle, but the
confessor of his Lord. In his faith he
does not stand alone, but is the representative of others. As Peter, the living “stone,” he does not stand alone either. In his use of the “keys”
he is not alone; and in teaching and baptizing, the sanction of heaven is put
upon what is done on earth; but nowhere apart from such necessarily implied
conditions as we all own must come in the case of two or three gathered to the
Lord’s name.
There
is really no special difficulty in all this. The difficulties have been created for us by
ecclesiastical views and claims which have grown up, as the Church, in the
decline of spiritual power, came to lean upon external supports and to adopt a
legal system as a refuge from license - the boat, as easier than walking on the
water. Alas, it must be confessed it is; but oh, that Peter might here be suffered
to speak to us of what he found in his walk upon that boisterous sea to meet
His Lord, and of that Hand stretched out to meet him when the storm was beyond
his strength, with the words which rebuked, not his rashness in walking there, but the little faith that had made it
to appear but rashness.
All
this already tells of rejection of the King. Now He declares it to them in plain words such
as He had not uttered yet. Those who
have just expressed their faith in Him as the Christ are now told that they are
not, to utter this to any man. There is
no hope as to the nation, and He shows them that He must “go to
Thus
quickly are the thoughts rebuked of those who would put Peter upon a throne of
infallibility above all others. He is
now sunk down into a mere ordinary man, with nothing but the thoughts of men, nay,
an instrument of Satan to tempt the Lord Himself. Satan too would willingly have spared Him that
Cross that He foresaw: for all the counsels of God hung upon it. From one side it was, indeed, but the awful
wickedness of man; but from another the display of the glory of God, at once in
righteousness and in love towards men. Peter
knew not yet his own need, nor yet the unique place and dignity of his Master. He is praying God to be propitious to Him who
is to be Himself the one propitiation for others; and to spare Him that by
which propitiation could alone be wrought. Thus human wisdom may mistake its way, and
human affection set itself against the path of divine love. And thus may the same man who has just now
been drinking in, in faith, the revelation of God, without any consciousness of
the transition, presently with equal zeal and earnestness be listening to the
adversary! How we need constantly to
pray, “Search me, 0 God, and try me!”
But
the Lord not only declares His own path; He announces it as the path also of
all His followers. What was peculiar to
Himself in it, the cup that none but Himself could drink, He does not speak of,
and here there is indeed an infinite difference; but as far as man’s part in it
is concerned, He warns us all, “If any one will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his
cross and follow Me. For whosoever will
save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake shall find it.” Thus the
conditions of discipleship are laid down with the most decisive plainness, for
all without exception. It is a world
which has crucified Christ through which our path lies, and we have to make up
our mind to face it. It is evident that
He does not hold out any hope of the world changing, nor therefore of the path
changing. The style of its opposition
perhaps may change - even in His case it varied; but the opposition itself,
proceeding from its unbelief in Him, could not possibly change, except by that
unbelief being given up: and that would mean, of course, the world ceasing to
exist, in all that which, according to Scripture, constitutes it the “world.”
Its
moral characteristics the apostle John describes for us, where he says that “all that is of the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2: 16). When men are
no more characterised by these things, then the world (as such) will have
ceased to exist. We know that this has not taken place, however, and Scripture
never contemplates such a state before the Lord comes, at least. The path still exists for us, therefore: and
the conditions of the path exist.
The
Lord calls upon His people, therefore, to take their life in their hand, if necessary
in order to follow Him. We must not “will” to keep it, if we “will” to follow Him.
That is to be the spirit of our discipleship, and with the implication,
of course, that we shall be tested as to it.
We know how fully the generations immediately following the days of the
Lord on earth were tested - how often the cross and the sword and the flame
made His people fully understand the conditions which He here proclaims. Can we fairly refuse the application to
ourselves to-day? or to ask - whether there is not
still, and for all of us, such a test remaining? or if
the spirit of such discipleship must not be found with us at least in order to
abide the test?
Our
lot may be cast in so-called Christian times and lands, and the arm of open
persecution may seem to be, if not shattered, at least so weakened, as to
permit us to look upon a test of this kind, for most of us, as hardly to be
made. Christian profession is mostly in
repute; Christians themselves are in high places of authority, the government
as a whole would not wish to be considered other than Christian. The world still exists, but, as the parables
we have considered show, and as we all must recognize, has changed its
tactics. As Pharisees and Sadducees
followed John when all the rest were doing so, so the world largely follows
Christ now, after its own worldly fashion.
The Church too, bids for popularity, and does not disclaim but is glad
of the alliance. Amid all this, is it not possible for the spirit of
discipleship any longer to find a cross, when the Church and the world unite to
say, “Lord, Lord,” and you are only asked not to
take too seriously the things that He says?
Some
way it must surely be that the Lord’s words here must have to us also, if we
are disciples, some present application - and that straightforward obedience,
in the laxest and easiest times, would (even on that very account) find penalty
of some real kind in seeking to follow Christ according to His word rather than
popular interpretations of it. If this
be not just the losing life, this cannot make it less imperative for one to
suffer it; and good it is to go back in thought to times in which men in
reality “suffered
the loss of all things,” and even “counted them but dung that
they might win Christ.” There can be no question that the Christ they went
after in that way seemed to them unspeakably glorious; and for us it will be
well indeed if, being the same Christ, He shine as bright.
The
Lord closes here with that appeal to consider the soul’s value which has rung
through so many hearts since then: “For what shall a man be profited if he gain the whole world
but lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul?” The question needs no answer: the
impossibility to answer it is the answer. He adds, that it is the Son of man, soon
to come in glory , who
will render to every one according to his doings. Some of those standing there,
moreover, should not taste of death until they saw the Son of man
coming in His Kingdom.
The
reference made by one present at the Transfiguration (which now follows) to
this as making visible “the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1: 16)
should settle all question as to meaning of the last quoted words; opinions as
to which have been, however, most various. The great variety has all arisen from taking “the Son of man coming in His
Kingdom” in a non natural way as
applying to the destruction of Jerusalem and the going out of the gospel and
its successes, - both entirely different things. The “Son of man coming in His Kingdom” is a plain reference to the
vision of Daniel (7: 13, 14), which indeed in like manner has been interpreted as
applying to the “gospel dispensation,” or the
Kingdom in that “mystery” form in which we have
seen it in the parables of the thirteenth chapter. But this is not the Kingdom of
the Son of man as Daniel and the New Testament agree in representing it. We find the expression, no doubt, in the
interpretation of the parable of the “tares of the
field” (ver. 41) but
only when in time of harvest the end of the present time is reached, and the
Son of man (having come) sends forth His angels to gather out of His Kingdom
all things that offend and those that work iniquity, and cast them into the
furnace of fire. Then, clearly, the gospel dispensation will be over, and the
Kingdom will have taken its open and millennial form.
That
the Kingdom of the Son of man is not the present one, the Lord’s words to the overcomer
in Laodicea (Rev. 3: 21) make absolutely
plain, in which He distinguishes between the throne on which He had sat down with His Father - where no mere man could ever sit - and His own throne, which He will share with His [overcoming] people. The
opening vision (chap. 1: 13) assures us that
it is as “Son of man” that He is speaking here. Thus, then, the “Son
of man coming in His Kingdom” cannot refer to the present period.
The
second epistle of Peter again helps us as to the meaning of the transfiguration,
when it speaks of our being called “by glory and virtue”
(1: 3).
Glory at the end awaits us, to be
reached by a pathway of trial, which necessitates “virtue”
(or “courage”) to endure it. The apostle
evidently refers to what is recorded in the Gospel here, the transfiguration
being directly spoken of in the latter part of the chapter, as we have already
seen. In it he could not but realize the
call of the glory. That which is at the end of the course is in it brought before the disciples at
the beginning, to animate and strengthen them in view of what has just been declared
as to the conditions of discipleship, and he can appeal it in proof
that “we have not
followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His majesty: for He
received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came to Him such a
voice from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son. in
whom I am well pleased; and this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we
were with Him on the holy mount.” Thus it is the goal before them that
is here exhibited to them, but the glory of the Kingdom, not the still more wondrous
glory of which John speaks, “the glory of the Only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father.”
It is the human side that is here dwelt
upon, though of course one cannot be separated from the other. John does not give us the transfiguration,
because the Only begotten (as such)
cannot be transfigured.
The
“after six days” with which the account begins, both here and in Mark,
(in Luke differently expressed as “about an eight days
after,” has reference, I believe, to the final character of what the
scene here pictures, after the time of labour and of overcoming is fulfilled. The three disciples whom alone
the Lord takes up with Him to witness it, point out to us the need of intimacy
with Him such as only the comparatively few possess, if we would enjoy such
disclosures. The “high mountain”
most probably was Hermon, which was near Caesarea
Philippi, but it is not named, and were this certain,
we could base nothing on it. Earth has
in fact no knowledge of the elevations where such visions of the future may be
enjoyed, though even yet it is not so poor as to be without them; and at these
times and places it is still the Lord Himself who puts on special glory before
the eyes of those so blest as to behold it, and who is the glorious Centre
around which all else revolves. So it surely will be in the day of
His coming which is here before us. His face will shine as the sun,* for with Him the day will come - the blessed day in
which the watch-night ends; and His apparel will be as the light, for it is
with the light the sun apparels itself. It
is God who is manifested in Him, and God is light. Earth is no more an outcast, but brought nigh.
* Notice, that it is only Matthew that says this. Mark draws attention altogether to His
garments. Luke says, His countenance was
altered, and His raiment was white and glistering. The dispensational character of Matthew is
here again strongly marked.
Another
thing takes place which strikes them with special wonder. “And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking
with Him.” In the two other Gospels there are slight
differences which yet must have significance: Mark says, “Elias with Moses;”
Luke, in evident accordance with the character of the truth as he presents it,
presses the fact of men being in such a place: “two men, which were Moses and Elias.” In Matthew the lawgiver and the prophet of
judgment because of the broken law, are mentioned in the natural order to
remind us of this relation to each other. And they are talking with Jesus: so they had
been, we may say, all through the centuries. Law in its fulfilment and law in
its non-fulfilment, both alike required and foretold Him whose coming as the
Priest-King is the full end of them reached. With Elias judgment itself
is in view of restoration, and the last note of the Old Testament prophecy ends
with the announcement of his preparation work. Thus Moses and Elias have each a special
suitability in connection with this anticipation of the coming of the King. The ages are thus seen all through in harmony;
and with power in the hand of Christ eternal harmony is perfectly secured.
Peter’s
voice breaks in, even here, and with words which show how he has failed to
realize the meaning of the glorious vision. Terribly like his would-be
followers to-day, he would enshrine the saints alongside of Christ, and make
the Kingdom which is to come a present thing; giving,
moreover, his help as if it were needed to accomplish this! But here he is stopped at once, and
by an overwhelming spectacle: “There came a bright cloud and overshadowed them”
- the well-known token of the Divine Presence as it had led Israel of old
through the desert, and dwelt in the sanctuary, - “and behold a Voice out of the
cloud which said: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him.” No wonder
that, “when the disciples heard it, they fell on their
faces, and were sore afraid.” It
was, in fact, the holiest of all unveiled. They stood where, only once a year, and with
covering incense and atoning blood, the feet of the high priest alone might
stand. And they were but men of the people, no sacrifice in their hand, no
covering incense, and the glorious Presence, which had long been absent from
the temple, - nay, had never appeared since the captivity in
Yet
all else was changed from the time of the shaking mount. Nor was it the Law which was now proclaimed to
them, a law which brought but the knowledge of sin, and was, indeed, its “strength” (1 Cor. 15: 56). This Voice
pointed them but to the Son of God, whom Peter had but just now confessed as
this, their own gracious Master; to put Him in His rightful place, and separate
Him from all their misconceptions - from the misconceptions which, alas, have
nevertheless followed Him since, and still follow Him. Moses and Elias had but been drawn thither by
Him who had drawn them also, and opened heaven to them. Moses cannot open heaven, Elias brings but
fire out of it, though he himself is caught away there: in Christ, the Son, the
Father’s Name is revealed, the object of the Father’s heart is found, communion
with God is attained, the throne of God becomes a throne of grace, His “Kingdom righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (Rom. 14: 17). In all this
He is alone, and thus alone is to be heard.
He
comes now, therefore, and touches them, and says what He alone is able to say
to such as we are, “Arise, and be not afraid.” And now all
else has disappeared: they see no man but Jesus only.
Here we have, then, the central
features of the Kingdom, as Christ Himself will introduce it. In Moses
and Elias, the dead and the living saints are represented; the glory in which
He is seen is that of the Son of man; and the glory of His Father is also
here. Thus the hearts of the disciples are strengthened in view of the cross by
the knowledge of the end before them. “The knowledge of His
glory” is given to
sustain them by the way: “glory and virtue” are
linked together as principles of the divine calling; for “if we suffer, we shall
also reign with Him.”
After
all, as yet even these favoured disciples know little of what
is implied by this glorious vision; and the rest seem not to have
been prepared for it in any way, so that it is forbidden to be told them. It would not have given light, but dazzled. They themselves, as Mark tells
us, did not know what the rising [out] from the dead of which He spoke could mean; yet it was
to be so soon the heart of their message.
That Elias was to come and restore all
things, as the scribes declared, they could not reconcile with the fact that
Messiah was here, and as to the general condition nothing seemed accomplished. Elias they had just seen, but in what different
connection! and the very glory of the heavenly vision
only seemed, doubtless, to show the more the darkness of things on earth. They turn to Him with this question, which He
answers with the assurance that Elias
was indeed to come and to restore; but he had already come unrecognized,
and men had treated him according to what was in their hearts. So too the Son of man was presently to suffer
from them. And then they know that He
has been speaking of John the Baptist.
But in fact it was difficult for them
to reconcile what was so opposite: Messiah
upon whom all depended for them, yet cut off and
having nothing. And the divine
purpose could not fail; but how could
they imagine a victory by defeat, a
cross as the way to glory?
The
weakness and folly of man (which are but his perversity) are now exhibited
among those who have received Christ, and have received from Him also a power
which they are not competent to use. It is this which the case of the lunatic child is evidently intended to
impress upon us. The
disciples had been applied to, to cast out the demon, for which they had had
authority given them by the Lord, and they had failed to do so. The father brings his child to Christ with
this statement; and it is this which forces from Him the groan over a “faithless and perverse
generation” by whom the love which
bound Him to them was made to suffer through their unbelief. Seldom does the Lord exhibit to us so clearly
the trial of un-congeniality which was His amid His chosen associates. Here it is openly exhibited, and the occasion
was such as to require that the cause of a failure which had been manifest
should be manifest also.
But
He remained still, only the more seen as
the unique dependence of His people. “Bring him to Me,” is the
assurance of resources that cannot be overtaxed, at the command of a love that
cannot be too absolutely relied on. Accordingly
the demon departs, and the child is healed. Matthew does not give us the details which we
find in Mark, but leaves thus the main point clearer, the glorious power so freely
used, where disciples have failed, with all else. But the failure must be searched out, and the
disciples themselves inquire about it. They
are not conscious of the cause of it, which the Lord had already implicitly
declared, and now does explicitly: “Because of your little faith: for verily I
say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto
this mountain, Depart hence, and it shall depart; and nothing shall be
impossible to you.” This implies, of
course, that we are on the path of His appointment for us: for, indeed, faith
is impossible for any other; and the suggestive figure of the mountain speaks
clearly of the disappearance of the most firmly rooted obstacles in a path like
this. In the path of self-will and self-indulgence,
how vain would it be to expect anything of this kind! And this the closing words here show: for “prayer is vain” we ask and have not, when we “ask amiss, to consume it upon
our lusts” - or “pleasures” (Jas. 4: 3) and
“fasting,” if it is to have any spiritual
value, implies self-mortification. People often speak of having (or not having) faith for the path; the truth
is, we must have the path for faith: faith for any other path than God’s is plainly an impossibility.
The
responsibilities of the Kingdom follow, by an easy transition, upon the
principles of it as thus declared; closing with a view of the rewards of grace
in which love will satisfy itself at the end of the way. We have here, not merely the fact that there
are such, but the doctrine as to them - a most important one - and giving us a
precious and wonderful insight into heaven itself, which is a sweet and how
fitting conclusion to all this part. After this the Lord presents Himself
openly to
-------