Feeding the Five Thousand
And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude— Mat_14:19
The Only Miracle Recorded in All Four Gospels
This is the only miracle recorded in each of the four Gospels, and we must take that as a token of the profound impression which it made. To us, the raising of Lazarus is more astounding than this mountain feast; but had we lived in Galilee, and heard the common talk, we should have perhaps found that this miracle was graven deepest on men's hearts. Most of the other miracles had been seen by few. There was no crowd near when the Nain widow got her son again. When Lazarus awoke, there were only the village neighbours present. But here five thousand lips had eaten, and five thousand lips would talk, until in every farm house and cottage this miracle would be a household word. That deep impression is registered in the fourfold narrative.
Only a word is needed to describe the miracle. Partly to avoid the dangerous neighbourhood of Herod, and still more, to refresh His overstrained disciples—for there is nothing like a day with Christ among the hills for making a worried heart itself again—Jesus and His disciples cross the lake, and steer for the quiet hills by the north shore. Alas! there was to be little rest that day. The folk had seen them launching. They hurry round by the north end of the lake, meeting and mingling with the pilgrim-companies making for Jerusalem to keep the Passover. And as the prow of the boat grates on the beach, and Jesus and His disciples step ashore, God's great cathedral of the mountainside, whose roof is heaven and whose organ music is the sea, is thronged with a vast and eager congregation. Then Jesus heals, and teaches, and in the evening feeds them. Which done, the stars come out, and the crowds are scattered, and the disciples are rowing homeward to Capernaum, and Jesus is on the mountainside in prayer.
Christ's Compassion
Note first that this miracle had its roots in Christ's compassion. When He stepped ashore and saw much people, we read that He was moved with compassion towards them. And all the healing, and teaching, and feeding of that memorable day sprang from that pity in the heart of Christ. And that is the glory of divine compassion it is the source and spring of noble deeds. Often we pity where we cannot help. But the compassion of Jesus sprang into action always. It set Him healing, teaching, feeding hungry men, and it still draws Him to the same service. Is Christ my compassionate High Priest today? Then He will help me in my struggle to be true. He will lift me up when I have failed and fallen. He will feed me when my soul is starving.
One Food for All
Mark, too, there was but one food for all these thousands. The rich were there, journeying to Jerusalem, and the poorest of the poor were there, from the rude huts by the lakeside. Yonder were the quick merchants from the cities, here lolled the farmhands from the fields. There was a mother crooning to her babe, and here were the children romping on the green. Old men were there with the first glow of heaven about them, and young men with the first glow of earth. Yet Jesus fed them all with the same bread. The strange thing is that no one scorned the victual. All ate, and all were filled. No swift relays of courses had ever been so sweet as the single dish with Jesus on the hill.
Now the wonderful thing about Christ—the living Bread—is that He satisfies us all.
What a great gulf between the Jew of Tarsus and the ignorant fishers of Bethsaida! What a world between the gentle Lydia and the rude jailer at Philippi! Yet the power of Christ that made a man of Peter was no less mighty in the heart of Paul; and the love of God that won the love of Lydia conquered the jailor too. In all love, says a thinker, there is something levelling; and the love of God is the great leveller of the ages. It knows no social barriers. It is not powerless where temperaments differ. It comes to all, this one glorious Gospel of the grace of God, and all may feed and be satisfied.
Jesus Uses Gifts Men Bring Him
Again note, that in satisfying the needs of men Christ uses the gifts which men bring Him. Had Jesus so willed, He could have made bread out of the stones. In times past, God had called water from the rock, and brought manna from the windows of heaven, and I do not know why God in Christ might not have summoned these hidden stores again. But Jesus' miracles were acted parables, not wrought to amaze, but to instruct. And so He takes what the disciples give Him, and uses that to feed the crowd. It is often Christ's way to help the world through men.
It is His plan to bring the Kingdom in through us. And if we take our gifts, however poor and humble, and lay them freely at the feet of Jesus, He will so bless and multiply and use them that we shall be amazed, and recognise His hand.
The Bread Increased in the Breaking of It
I see, too, that it was in the breaking that the bread increased. A wonder-worker would have touched the loaves, and made them swell and multiply before the crowd. But Jesus blessed, and broke, and gave to the disciples, and as they brake the bread, it increased. It was through the blessing that the miracle was wrought, and through the breaking that it was realised. And ever, through the breaking, comes the increase, and in the using of our gifts, with God's blessing, are our gifts enlarged. Trade with your talent bravely, and it shall be five. Power springs from power, and service out of service. Never try to do good, and you will find no good to do. Do all the little good you can, and every day will bring a fresh capacity and a new opportunity, until you find that "there is that scattereth and yet increaseth."
Careful of the Fragments
And lastly, note that Jesus was very careful of the fragments. One would have thought that Jesus was too rich to trouble Himself about the fragments. Surely it was but labour lost to sweat and stoop and stumble in the dark, to fill their wicker baskets with the scraps. But Jesus is imperious. "Gather the fragments that remain," is His command. And the twelve disciples, who a little before had been sent out to heal and teach and preach the Gospel, had now, in the presence of the thousands, to set about sweeping the crumbs. It was a splendid discipline. Someone has said that if two angels came to earth, the one to rule an empire, and the other to sweep a crossing, they would never seek to interchange their tasks. And our own poet has told us that:
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine,
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,
Makes that and the action fine.
But was that all? I think not. It was not merely to discipline the disciples that Jesus commanded the fragments to be gathered. We cannot read the story of His life, but we detect a care for the fragments through it all. The fragment of a day, how He employed it! The fragment of a life, how He redeemed it! The fragment of a character, how He ennobled it! Yes, that is His great passion—to love and lift our fragmentary lives till they are brought into the image of His own.
RISEN WITH CHRIST
"If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God."-- Col_3:1 (R.V.).
IF SOME one will say, "Ha, there's the rub! I'm afraid that is not true of me; my life is sinful and sorrowful; there are no Easter chimes in my soul, no glad fellowship with the Risen Lord; no victory over dark and hostile powers." But if you are Christ's disciple, you may affirm that you are risen in Him! With Christ you lay in the grave, and with Christ you have gone forth, according to the thought and purpose of God, if not in your feelings and experience. This is distinctly taught in Eph_2:1-10 and Rom. 6.
The whole Church (including all who believe in our Lord Jesus) has passed into the light of the Easter dawn; and the one thing for you and me, and all of us, is to begin from this moment to act as if it were a conscious experience, and as we dare to do so we shall have the experience.
Notice how the Apostle insists on this: "You died, you were raised with Christ, your life is hid with Christ. Give yourself time to think about it and realize it."
The Cross of Jesus stands between you and the constant appeal of the world, as when the neighbours of Christian tried to induce him to return to the City of Destruction. This does not mean that we are to be indifferent to all that is fair and lovely in the life which God has given us, but that the Cross is to separate us from all that is selfish, sensual, and savouring of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1Jo_2:15-17).
Set your mind on things above (Col_3:2). "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." With many of us there is little attempt to guard our thoughts. The door of our heart stands open, with none to control the ingress or egress of the tumultuous throng of thoughts that wander in and out. If only we would ask the Holy Spirit to control our thoughts, so that we might think only the things that are true and of good report, a wonderful change would pass over our life (Phi_4:7-8).
Realize that Christ is your life--He is in you! See to it that nothing hinders the output of His glorious indwelling. Never mind if the world of men misunderstand you. Some day your motives and reasons will be manifested (Col_3:4).
PRAYER
Grant, most gracious God, that we may love and seek Thee always and everywhere, and may at length find Thee and for ever hold Thee fast in the life to come. AMEN.
Luke 9:22
The Son of Man must suffer many things
Christ foreseeing the Cross
I. We have here set forth in the first place our LORD’S ANTICIPATION OF THE CROSS. Mark the tone of the language, the minuteness of the detail, the absolute certainty of the prevision. That is not the language of a man who simply is calculating that the course which He is pursuing is likely to end in His martyrdom; but the thing lies there before Him, a definite, fixed certainty; every detail known, the scene, the instruments, the non-participation of these in the final act of His death, His resurrection, and its date—all manifested and mapped out in His sight, and all absolutely certain.
II. OUR LORD’S RECOGNITION OF THE NECESSITY OF HIS SUFFERING. He does not say “shall,” but “must.” His suffering was necessary on the ground of filial obedience.
The Father’s will is the Son’s law. But yet that necessity grounded on filial obedience, was no mere external necessity determined solely by the Divine will.
God so willed it, because it must be so, and not it must be because God so willed it. That is to say, the work to which Christ had set His hand was a work that demanded the Cross, nor could it be accomplished without it.
For it was the work of redeeming the world, and required more than a beautiful life, more than a Divine gentleness of heart, more than the homely and yet deep wisdom of His teachings, it required the sacrifice that He offered on the Cross.
III HOW WE HAVE HERE ALSO, OUR LORD’S WILLING ACCEPTANCE OF THE NECESSITY. It is one thing to recognize, and another thing to accept, a needs-be. This “must” was no unwelcome obligation laid upon Him against His will, but one to which His whole nature responded, and which He accepted. No doubt there was in Him the innocent instinctive physical shrinking from death. No doubt the Cross, in so far, was pain and suffering. But that shrinking might be a shrinking of nature, but it was not a recoil of will. The ship may toss in dreadful billows, but the needle points to the pole. The train may rock upon the line, but it never leaves the rails. Christ felt that the Cross was an evil, but that never made Him falter in His determination to hear it, His willing acceptance of the necessity was owing to His full resolve to save the world. He must die because He would redeem, and He would redeem because He could not but love. So the “must” was not an iron chain that fastened Him to His Cross. Like some of the heroic martyrs of old, who refused to be bound to the funeral pile, He stood there chained to it by nothing but His own will and loving purpose to save the world. And oh I brethren; in that loving purpose, each of us may be sure that we had an individual and a personal share. He must die, because “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
IV. notice here our LORD’S TEACHING THE NECESSITY OF HIS DEATH. This announcement was preceded by that conversation which led to the crystalizing of the half-formed convictions of the apostles in a definite creed—“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” But that was not all that they needed to know, and believe and trust to. That was the first volume of their lesson-book. The second volume was this, that “Christ must suffer.” And so let us learn the central place which the Cross holds in Christ’s teaching. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
On the humiliation and sufferings of Christ
Why does the Saviour say He “must suffer”?
I. It was at that time, and in the sense our Saviour then spake it, necessary for this reason, because otherwise the prophecies that went before concerning Him could not have been fulfilled. This reason our Saviour Himself gives (Mat_26:53; Mar_14:48; Luk_24:26; Luk 24:44). The same reason is alleged also by the apostles in their preaching (Acts 1Pe_1:10).
II. The death of Christ was necessary to make the pardon of sin. But the death of Christ was necessary, at least in this respect, to make the pardon of sin consistent with the wisdom of God in His good government of the world, and to be a proper attestation of His irreconcilable hatred against all unrighteousness.
III. The practical inferences from what has been said are as follows.
1. This doctrine concerning Christ’s dying for our sins is a strong argument for the indispensable necessity of our own repentance and reformation of life.
2. The consideration of Christ’s giving Himself a sacrifice for our sins is, to them who truly repent, an encouragement to approach with confidence to the throne of grace in our prayers to God through Him (Rom_8:32).
3. The death of Christ is a great example to us of patient suffering at any time in well-doing, when the providence of God shall call us to bear testimony in that manner to His truth (1Pe_3:17). (S. Clarke, D. D.)
Romans 1:6
Among whom are you also,.... The Romans, though they were the chief, were among the nations of the world to whom the apostles were sent; and since Paul was called to be an apostle, and had, as others, grace and apostleship, and particularly the apostleship of the uncircumcision, or was ordained a teacher of the Gentiles, more especially he was an apostle to them, and as such was to be regarded by them. This seems to point out what they were originally; they were among all nations which lay in darkness; and were without Christ and hope, and God in the world;
but now,
the called of Jesus Christ. The calling here spoken of is not to an office, or a mere external one by the ministry of the word, but an internal special call by the grace of God; and which is irresistible, efficacious, and unchangeable, and is an high, holy, and heavenly one; by it persons are called out of darkness into light, out of bondage into liberty, out of the world, from the company of the men of it, and the sinful pleasures thereof, to fellowship with Christ and His Saints, and off a dependence on themselves, and their own righteousness, to the grace and righteousness of Christ, and to eternal glory.
The persons so called are the elect of God, who are secured in Christ, and redeemed by him, and who has a concern with the Father and Spirit in the calling of them: hence they are styled, "the called of Jesus Christ"; they are called by him, and after his name; he has an interest in them; as they were before his chosen and redeemed ones, they are now his called ones; as Jacob and Israel of old were named of God, מקראי, "my called", Isa_48:12; so these were named Christ's called ones; and who by calling came to be partakers of Him and of His Grace.
“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.”
- John_15:9
As the Father loves the Son, in the same manner Jesus loves his people. What is that divine method? He loved him without beginning, and thus Jesus loves his members. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” You can trace the beginning of human affection; you can easily find the beginning of your love to Christ, but his love to us is a stream whose source is hidden in eternity. God the Father loves Jesus without any change. Christian, take this for your comfort, that there is no change in Jesus Christ’s love to those who rest in him. Yesterday you were on Tabor’s top, and you said, “He loves me:” to-day you are in the valley of humiliation, but he loves you still the same. On the hill Mizar, and among the Hermons, you heard his voice, which spake so sweetly with the turtle-notes of love; and now on the sea, or even in the sea, when all his waves and billows go over you, his heart is faithful to his ancient choice. The Father loves the Son without any end, and thus does the Son love his people. Saint, you need not fear the loosing of the silver cord, for his love for thee will never cease. Rest confident that even down to the grave Christ will go with you, and that up again from it he will be your guide to the celestial hills. Moreover, the Father loves the Son without any measure, and the same immeasurable love the Son bestows upon his chosen ones. The whole heart of Christ is dedicated to his people. He “loved us and gave himself for us.” His is a love which passes knowledge. Ah! we have indeed an immutable Saviour, a precious Saviour, one who loves without measure, without change, without beginning, and without end, even as the Father loves him! There is much food here for those who know how to digest it.
May the Holy Ghost lead us into its marrow and fatness!
The Pearl of Great Price
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it— Mat_13:45-46The Pearl in Ancient Times
Although the pearl is still held in high esteem, it does not now occupy the place which once belonged to it. In the old world, at any rate in the East, it was the most precious of all precious stones. The diamond was not unknown to the ancients, but it was too rare for effective illustration. Its introduction here would have had little meaning for the disciples to whom this parable was spoken. The measure of value which we give the diamond was by them associated with the pearl, and the comparison of the kingdom to a pearl was one that they would understand at once. Many stories were current in the East of fabulous prices being given for pearls. The most famous of antiquity were Cleopatra's, which were valued at $400,000 apiece. And the story of one of these is current yet, even where the queen is but a name, for have we not all read how she dissolved it, and drank it when at supper with her lover? It is very probable that the Old Testament ruby is in reality our pearl. When it is said of wisdom that her price is above rubies, it is likely that "above pearls" is the true rendering. And if this be so, it gives an added meaning to the comparison of the kingdom to a pearl, for between the kingdom of heaven and true wisdom there is a very slight difference indeed. There were very curious fancies in the East, too, about the way in which the pearl was formed. It was thought to be a drop of dew which had fallen from heaven into the open shell. And according to the hour at which it fell, and the brightness and the darkness of the sky then, was the perfection or imperfection of the pearl. Now of all this Jesus Christ makes nothing, and where He makes nothing we should not make much. His parables live because they have their roots, not in fancies, but in simple facts. Yet, as His hearers scattered to their homes and meditated on the story of the pearl, may there not have been some who thought on Hosea's text, "I will be as the dew unto Israel"?
The Finder Was a Seeker
Now the first thing to impress us in the parable is that the finder of the pearl had been a seeker. He was a merchantman seeking goodly pearls—that was his business as it was his quest. In the preceding parable of the hid treasure there is no mention and no thought of seeking. The man is walking abroad one summer morning, when unexpectedly he finds the treasure. But here there is no stroke of sudden fortune, no unexpected joy of treasure-trove; it is the business of the merchant's life to gather pearls, and he is a seeker before he is a finder. Probably it was his father's trade, for callings were generally ancestral with the Jews. Or else as a boy his fancy had been caught by the beauty of the stones in some bazaar. But at any rate this was his calling now, and for his calling he had been nicely trained, so that with eager heart and open eye he ranged from market to market of the East. There was a certain nobleness about the man, too. He had no traffic with inferior articles. It was goodly pearls he was in search of; such as were not goodly he despised. And so in a large and honourable way, a man of business of the worthiest kind, he gave himself to the search of what was goodly and, searching, found a better than the best.
Now, as we look abroad on human history we see it is so with the finding of the Kingdom. There are some who light upon it unexpectedly; there are others who win it after weary search. How many there are like the man who found the treasure who have been tolerably contented with their lot. They did not ask for much, nor look for much; they were never visited by high ambitions. They would have been satisfied to have moved on, surrounded by the comforts of their homes, and only praying to be undisturbed in the even and quiet tenor of their days. But God refused to leave them undisturbed. Something happened, and everything was changed. It may have been some message that aroused them. It may have been some trial or some sorrow. And the old barriers were swept away, and the old contentment was no longer possible, and the need of the living God grew very strong, and the things of eternity grew very real. Such, for instance, was the Samaritan woman who came up to Jesus sitting by the well. Little she reckoned on all that was to happen when she set out with her pitcher from the village. All unexpectedly she lit on Christ, and found in a moment a better than her best, just as the man, sauntering in the field, lit unexpectedly on the hid treasure. Now, with such a case as that, contrast the case of the Apostle Paul. What an unwearied search his life had been for peace of conscience and for spiritual liberty. He was a merchant seeking goodly pearls, unwearied and undaunted in his search; he gave himself to the search of what was goodly and, searching, found a better than his best.
He Found What He Was Looking For
I think, too, we must notice this about the merchant, that it was along the line of his quest he made his great discovery. All his days had been spent in seeking pearls, and it was a pearl of great price he found at last. Many must have been the rarities he saw as he travelled among the riches of the Orient. In India, when his journeys took him there, his eye would be sated with barbaric splendours. Yet to all that our Lord does not refer, nor does He indicate that the man so much as saw them. The merchant's object was procuring pearls, and it was a pearl of great price he found at last. Now we might draw from that the simple lesson that we commonly see what we are looking for. It is he who has eyes for every common flower who will detect the rarity upon the hedge-bank. But I think that we may read a deeper lesson, and it is that if we are seeking what is goodly, then the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, when we discover it, will be found in the direction of our quest. Christ Jesus never contradicts the best. He comes to crown and to complete the best. He never says to any earnest seeker, "That weary search of yours is all in vain." It is not in vain if it be for goodly pearls, for the final blessing also is a pearl, the very same as has been sought so long, yet pure and precious beyond the highest hope. In the first ages of the Christian Church we light on a deeply interesting figure. His name was Justin, and from the death he died he is known to history as Justin Martyr. Well, Justin has told us how he came to Christ, and never was there a more fascinating story. Hungering for peace and spiritual liberty, he passed from school to school of the philosophers. And some were cheats with an eye upon his fees, and others bade him study mathematics, and the best of them, for all their wisdom, were powerless to give him the peace for which he longed. And then one day as he walked by a lake shore he met with an aged and venerable man. And the man, reading his trouble in his face, entered into conversation with him. And he spoke of Christ, and of the work of Christ, till the heart of Justin began to glow within him, and he saw that here was all he had been seeking, and what others had been so powerless to give. Justin had been seeking goodly pearls; he had scorned delights and lived laborious days; and now he had discovered the great pearl, and in that finding all his past was crowned. For all he had sought for with such painful toil, and all he had hoped to win by his philosophy, and all he had struggled for through weary years, became his own when he discovered Christ. A man is always on the Kingdom's avenue when he is inwardly true to what is highest. Let him have worthy and unselfish aims, and his face is always set towards Jerusalem. And that is why, when in the chill of doubt, a man's first duty is to be living nobly, for only when one is seeking goodly pearls does the best lie along his line of search.
The Absence of the Mention of Joy
It is notable also that in this parable our Saviour does not say anything of joy. That is one of the minute, and I think intentional, differences between our parable and the preceding one. When the man has found the treasure in the field, immediately for joy he goes and acts. It is such a surprise he can scarce believe it real, and his heart throbs with the wonder of it all. Now here there is a thing of equal value and an act of similar and swift decision, and yet the joy that thrills in the one parable is not mentioned in our parable at all. I do not think that means that it was lacking. It means that the joy was of a different kind. In the one case it was tumultuous joy. In the other it was very quiet and deep. In the one case there was excitement in it, and the swift surprise of unexpected fortune. In the other there was the inward satisfaction that what had been long dreamed of had come true. The first was the joy as of a day in spring after a season of dark and wintry weather, when the contrast so intensifies the joy that the whole of nature seems to thrill with it. But the other was the quieter, fuller joy of a perfect morning in the height of summer, when for days the earth has been very warm and beautiful, and the sunset has given promise of the morn. Now in the realm of spiritual experience we are often conscious of a kindred difference. Sometimes when men have suddenly found Christ there has been a gladness about them that nothing could restrain. But when discipleship has come as the last stage of a long period of quiet preparation, then there is less disturbance of the feelings and fewer outward signs of the great change. When the lame man was healed at the Gate Beautiful he leapt and ran, he was so full of gladness. His healing was such an unexpected thing that his joy was overwhelming in intensity. But had it come to him as the last stage of a long period of medical attention his gladness would have been not less real, but of a quieter and less obtrusive kind. Let no one then doubt his being in Christ because the acceptance was very quietly made. The vital thing is making the decision; it is not the feelings that go with the decision. Our greatest decisions oftentimes are made in such a strange quietness of the heart that none could ever tell what was transacting save by the results of subsequent days.
Seeking Many, Found One
Once more, while this merchant was seeking many pearls, it is notable that he was led at last to one. The crowning possession of his lifelong search was not a multitude of things, it was one thing. With the treasure hid in the field it was not so; that treasure would consist of many things. Armlets and necklets and jewel-hilted swords would lie in the chest beside the hoard of coin. But in our parable the thought is different. It is not a string of pearls that is discovered; one pearl rewards the seeking of a lifetime, and one pearl gives perfect satisfaction. Now, brethren, in the Kingdom of our Lord we see what at once recalls to us both parables. No treasure hidden in any field can be more various than the Kingdom's riches. And yet the joy of the Kingdom is just this, that all its riches are treasured up in Christ, and that everything that the heart needs for satisfaction is to be found in Him and Him alone. What are some of the things that a man needs if he is to have the secret of sweet peace? He needs the pardon of his sins. And he needs fellowship. And he needs a love that will not let him go. And he needs to be assured in his dark hours that there is some hidden meaning in the burden. And he needs to learn that death is not the end, but that everything shall be perfected beyond. At different times of life these needs arise. They vary in urgency with varying hours. We pass from the call of one need to another, as we pass from winter to the call of spring. And the wonderful thing about Jesus Christ is this, that as these needs successively arise the man who looks to Him to have them satisfied never in any hour looks in vain. In Him is all the pardon of our sin. In Him is the strength made perfect in our weakness. He is the way, the truth, the life, the resurrection, the Shepherd, the vine, the door, the hope of glory. He is all we need and more than all we want. He is wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. All that we need is treasured up in Christ, who is the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
And this is the reason why in Jesus Christ there is such satisfaction for the soul. For we are never at rest until our life is unified, and till our many searchings become one. There is no peace for the man whose life is broken; whose objects are many and whose aims are diverse. If he has to go hither and thither on his quest, he must ever lack the secret of stability. It is only when life is harmonised and unified, and when one Lord can satisfy the soul, that in the busiest round there is a peace which the world cannot give and cannot take away. That was one of the failures of old pagan-ism-men were distracted by their many gods. That was one of the triumphs of the Jew—his life was one, because his God was one. But in Christ the secret of the purest Jews has become the choicest treasure of the humble, for there is not a thing we set our hand to but we can do it heartily as to the Lord. All seeking outside of Jesus Christ is the seeking here and there of goodly pearls. It is a noble search, but at its noblest it leaves a man unsatisfied and restless. "Come unto me,…and I will give you rest." Art thou careful and troubled about many things? One thing is needful. This one thing I do. There is one pearl. We are complete in Christ.
To Gain the Pearl, Great Sacrifice Was Needed
In closing, let us notice this, that to gain the pearl great sacrifice was needed, yet even from the standpoint of a business man that sacrifice was perfectly reasonable. It was not a wild and heady speculation. It was not an unwarrantable plunge into the dark. The man sold all that he had for the one pearl, yet it was a sane and rational transaction. He had not been trained through all these years for nothing. He saw at a glance the value of the one. Had you spoken to this merchant about sacrifice, I think he would hardly have thanked you for your sympathy. "Sacrifice," he would have said, "I never thought of that. I suppose that in one sense it is a sacrifice. Yet if you knew half as much as I do about pearls you would congratulate me on the best bargain of my life." Brethren, I do think that sometimes we put too strong an accent upon sacrifice. We dwell on what we would lose by being a Christian. We dwell too little on all that we would gain. For this is certain, that whatever has to go, and whatever sacrifice one may be called to make, the hour in which a man comes out for Christ is the hour of the best bargain of his life. Like Peter, he may have to give up his nets, or like the rich young ruler, his great fortune. Like Paul, he may have to give up his legal righteousness; like Augustine, the darling object of his passion. Yet, like Peter and Paul and Augustine and Livingstone, the man who has won the pearl by what he gave will find that all he has sacrificed is nothing compared with the infinite worth of what he won. "He that keeps his life shall lose it." Hold to it miser-like, and it is gone. "But he that loses his life for my sake shall find it," unto life eternal. So does the figure of sacrifice retire, till God shall have decked her in a bridal garment, and she come forth again, all joy and praise, with life eternal written on her brow.
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”
- Mat_5:9
This is the seventh of the beatitudes: and seven was the number of perfection among the Hebrews. It may be that the Saviour placed the peacemaker the seventh upon the list because he most nearly approaches the perfect man in Christ Jesus. He who would have perfect blessedness, so far as it can be enjoyed on earth, must attain to this seventh benediction, and become a peacemaker. There is a significance also in the position of the text. The verse which precedes it speaks of the blessedness of “the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” It is well to understand that we are to be “first pure, then peaceable.” Our peaceableness is never to be a compact with sin, or toleration of evil. We must set our faces like flints against everything which is contrary to God and his holiness: purity being in our souls a settled matter, we can go on to peaceableness. Not less does the verse that follows seem to have been put there on purpose. However peaceable we may be in this world, yet we shall be misrepresented and misunderstood: and no marvel, for even the Prince of Peace, by his very peacefulness, brought fire upon the earth. He himself, though he loved mankind, and did no ill, was “despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” Lest, therefore, the peaceable in heart should be surprised when they meet with enemies, it is added in the following verse, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Thus, the peacemakers are not only pronounced to be blessed, but they are compassed about with blessings. Lord, give us grace to climb to this seventh beatitude! Purify our minds that we may be “first pure, then peaceable,” and fortify our souls, that our peaceableness may not lead us into cowardice and despair, when for thy sake we are persecuted.
