We do not often speak of the tempted Christ, or of the lonely Christ, or of the grateful Christ, but in these great words we see Him as being all these. He treasures in His heart, and richly repays, even a little love dashed with much selfishness, and faithfulness broken by desertion.
He has had to resist temptation, not only in the desert at the beginning, or in Gethsemane at the end, but throughout His life. He has known all the pain of being alone, and feeling in vain for a sympathetic heart to lean on. How pathetic a glimpse into Christ’s heart is given in that warm utterance of gratitude for the imperfect companionship of the Twelve! It reveals His loneliness, His yearning for a loving hand to grasp, His continual conflict with temptations to choose an easier way than that of the Cross. They lift a corner of the veil, and show the rewards, when the heavenly form of the kingdom has come, of the right use of eminence in its earthly form. Verses 28 to 30 naturally flow from the preceding. Luke does not record it, and probably did not know it, but how the words are lighted up if we bring them into connection with it! Men admire it as a beautiful saying, and how many of us take it as our life’s guide? We condemn the rulers of old who wrung wealth out of their people and neglected every duty but what of our own use of the fraction of power we possess, or our own demeanour to our inferiors in world or church? Have all the occupants of royal thrones or presidential chairs, all peers, members of Parliament, senators, and congressmen, used their position for the public weal? Do we regard ours as a trust to be administered for others? Do we feel the weight of our crown, or are we taken up with its jewels, and proud of ourselves for it? Christ’s pathetic words, giving Himself as the example of greatness that serves, are best understood as referring to His wonderful act of washing the disciples’ feet.
It is a commonplace, but like many another axiom, universal acceptance and almost as universal neglect are its fate. What conception of such a use of power has the Sultan of Turkey, or the petty tyrants of heathen lands? The worst of European rulers have to make pretence to be guided by this law and even the Pope calls himself ‘the servant of servants.’ That has become a familiar commonplace now, but its recognition as the law for civic and other dignity is all but entirely owing to Christianity. The right use of greatness is to become a servant. The way to become great is to become small, and to serve. In other sayings of Christ’s, service is declared to be the way to become great in the kingdom, but here the matter is taken up at another point, and greatness, already attained on whatever grounds, is commanded to be turned to its proper use. In His kingdom power is to be used to help others, not to glorify oneself. Dignity and pre-eminence carry obligations to serve.
Jesus lays down the law for His followers as being the exact opposite of the world’s notion. One Egyptian king, who bore the title Benefactor, was popularly known as Malefactor, and many another old-world monarch deserved a like name. It was sadly true, at that time, that power was used for selfish ends, and generally meant oppression. Tyrants are flattered by the title of benefactor, which they do not deserve, but the giving of which shows that, even in the world, some trace of the true conception lingers. The world’s notion is that the true use and exercise of superiority is to lord it over others. So He at once turns to deal with the false ideas of greatness betrayed by the dispute. Our Lord was not so absorbed in His anticipations of the near Cross as to be unobservant of the wrangling among the Apostles.Įven then His heart was enough at leisure from itself to observe, to pity, and to help. So little did the first partakers of the Lord’s Supper ‘discern the Lord’s body,’ and so little did His most loving friends share His sorrows. Possibly, too, they had been disputing as to whose office was the menial task of presenting the basin for foot-washing. They thought that the half-understood predictions pointed to a brief struggle immediately preceding the establishment of the kingdom, and they wished to have their rank settled in advance.
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It was blameworthy, but only too natural, that, while Christ’s heart was full of His approaching sufferings, the Apostles should be squabbling about their respective dignity.
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