Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Apr 1956

The closing part of the Lord's earthly ministry was spent in the borders of Judea beyond Jordan. This period of His ministry is thought to be covered in

Luke, from about Luke 9.51 to 18. 30. The journey from Galilee thither took

Him through a part of Samaria, and we are told that the inhabitants of one of the Samaritan villages would not receive Him (Luke 9.52).

John tells us the cause of His retiral to Perea, because the Jews were bent on killing Him. In John 10. we are told that "the Jews took up stones again to stone Him" (verse 81), and that "they sought again to take Him: and He went forth out of their hand" (verse 39). The net which they were spreading to catch the Lord could not be drawn round about Him unless He allowed Himself to be taken.

He knew that He must die on the day of the Passover, and with that divine wisdom which ever characterized all His ways, He would retire from Jerusalem so that with the utmost exactness He would fulfil every detail that was promised, prophesied and typified of Him in the Old Testament Scriptures. That the Lord was the true Passover Lamb we learn from 1 Corinthians 5.7, but that word concerning the breaking of the legs of those who were crucified that day shows it also. The Spirit says "that the scripture might be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken" (John 19.36), they brake not the Lord's legs. But where is this scripture? It is in that word concerning the Passover lamb, "neither shall ye break a bone thereof" (Exodus 12.46), which is repeated again, "nor break a bone thereof" (Numbers 9.12). John 19.36 is a free rendering of what was in the mind of the Spirit when He gave instructions to Moses, and when He caused Moses to write the words in the book of the law.

It was to the place beyond Jordan where the Lord was, and where John the Baptist had at the first been baptizing, that the sisters, Martha and Mary, sent to the Lord to tell Him of their brother. His decision to return to Judea and to Bethany which was so near to Jerusalem filled the disciples with alarm. So certain were they that death was in His and their cup that Thomas said to his fellow disciples," Let us also go, that we may die with Him." Thus He came from beyond Jordan to Bethany.

The raising of Lazarus was, I judge, to be the final and consummating miracle of the Lord's public ministry. In it He proclaimed Himself to be the Resurrection and the Life, the Raiser and Quickener of the dead in general, and of those who were His own in particular. It was an act of infinite goodness to the sorrowing sisters, but it was also one that produced the bitterest hatred in His enemies, for John 11 which tells of this outstanding miracle tells also of the council of the chief priests and the Pharisees and, on the counsel of the chief priest, Caiaphas, "from that day forth they took counsel that they might put Him to death" (John 11.49.53). They hated Him for His words and for His works, which was true also of Joseph the son of Jacob, that beautiful type of the Lord.

When He had raised Lazarus He returned to the country near to the wilderness to a city called Ephraim with His disciples (John 11.54, 55). There He remained until the passover was at hand. On His journey to Bethany, to which He came six days before the passover (John 12.1), He passed through Jericho. He was the true Israel (see Isaiah 49.8-6, where the Lord is called "My Servant, Israel") who crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, not to pull down its walls and destroy its inhabitants, save Rahab and the rest, but to save those that believed in Him, such as Bartimaeus and Zacchaeus. Have we not dwelt long and pleasantly on these stories, and found much in them to rejoice our hearts as we have thought on how the Lord fully answered the longing of the hearts of the blind beggar and the publican?

From the house of Zacchaeus, He, with His disciples and Bartimaeus and all, Bartimaeus now seeing the way wherein he should walk, both physically and spiritually, began the steep ascent from the Jordan valley to Bethany, and then to Jerusalem, Gethsemane and Calvary. He arrived at the home of Martha, I think, on the evening of the day before the sabbath.

As the Lord and His disciples ascended the steep road from Jericho to Bethany, in the vicinity of Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples to a nearby village, and there they would find an ass with a colt both tied in the open street. whilst Mark and Luke speak of the colt only, Matthew tells us of the mother ass and her son. He was going to ride upon that unbroken son into Jerusalem, but in the kindness which ever characterized all the Lord's ways, He would not separate the mother and her son. It may be asked by the reader, Why call the colt a son? This is the word that is used in the Greek for "foal."

"Tell ye the daughter of Zion,

Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, Meek, and riding upon an ass,

And upon a colt the foal (Huion, son) of an ass" (Hupozugion, a beast

of burden) (Matthew 21.5).

It may be difficult, perhaps impossible, for us to conceive, how the Lord "sat on them" in His triumphal ride into Jerusalem, but that the mother and her son walked side by side with the Lord of all as their Rider is a fact. How many sons owe so much to their mothers, that day of the Lord's triumphal return to Zion will reveal! Blessed are the mothers and blessed their sons who walk together, under the authority of the Lord. Truly the Lord hath need of such still!

But both were tied before the Lord's disciples came. The Lord did the finding and the disciples did the loosing. It is said in John 12.14, "Jesus having found a young ass sat thereon." It was tied outside the door. That is where we all were tied-outside the door. We had no power to unloose the cords which bound us, no power to get inside, but the Lord found us, and in due time a disciple or disciples loosed us. The A.V. says that it was in" a place where two ways meet." The R.V. says that it was in "the open street." The Greek says, "Epi tou amphodou." This word is a composite of the preposition Amphi, around or about, and Odos, way, and may signify a place where several ways cross or two ways meet. If there were two ways then one led to the Lord and the other did not, and if there were many ways meeting in that open space, then one led to the Lord, down which the disciples came, and the other ways led away from Him. Here in the experience of each sinner is that which calls for decision. Will he go the way that disciples would lead him, that is to Christ and that by faith in Him? or will he follow another way which leads from Christ to darkness, to death and doom? How vital it is that disciples should go according to the Lord's leading to find the sinners that He has found! Has He found someone, and is He wanting to send YOU to find the one that He has found? What a glorious work to find those whom the Lord has found!

It seems to me that it was on the Friday evening, as we call it, the night before the sabbath, that the two disciples found the mother ass and her son, and brought them to the Lord. Then they rested on the sabbath, and in the evening, when the sabbath was past, "they made Him a supper there," when Martha served (ever willing and capable in service), Lazarus sat at meat with Him, and Mary (sweet and spiritual Mary!) brought out her treasure to bestow it upon the Lord, "a pound of spikenard very precious" (John 12.1-8). She anointed His feet, the feet that had walked all the way to her home and to her, the feet that were soon to walk to Calvary and to be nailed there for her. These feet that were to be cruelly pierced she gently stroked and smoothed the precious ointment over them. Then she wiped them with the hair of her head. Had we been there we should have wept at the sight, but can silently weep still as mentally we join that godly company in their exercises that evening.

The next morning, the first of the week, the asses were brought, the disciples spread their garments upon them, and also their garments in the way, and the triumphal procession began to Zion. This was the day that the Lord had made, and many voices caused the valley of the Kidron to ring with loud Hosannas. The King was truly on the way, not to reign, but to die.

J. Miller | Apr 1956
Jottings