The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 8

nnd enith, Deliver from going down into the pit: I have found a ransom." It is be who ever liveth, the God-Man, to make intercession. "Yet not," as has been remarked, "ne though the Father and the Son had different minds concerning sinners, not as though the counsels of the Father were wrath, and of the Son mercy: for righteousness nnd love nre not qualities in him who is Righteonsness and who is Love; they cannot, therefore, be set the one against the other, since they are his essential Being." Yes, "if any man ~in, we have nn Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Riia!hteoue." But there is a secondary reference not to be overlooked. Before Jesus left the world to go to the Father, he promiRed to send the Holy Ghost as another Advocate; not nnother in the sense that he would be a different Person, but in the sense that he would be his other self-a Divine presence inhabiting the Church which is bis body, and revealing and glorifying him. All faithful souls, anointed with the sevenfold gifts of this Paraclete, are joiued with him in interce~sion for the unfaithful and unfruitful. The prayer of the Church is the voice of the Holy Ghost-Christ's voice echoing from human hearts. And the whole Bible is charged with the thought that, for the sake of the elect, because of their life and work and cry to heaven, judgments impending over the earth are stayed. Intercession is not a merely beautiful and becoming function; it is the power which binds "the whole round earth by golden chains about the feet of God." " Cut it down; why mischieveth it the ground? . . . Lord, let it alone this 7ear also." 3. Finally, God's times and spaces-what are they 1 "These three years 1 come." The three years have been supposed to signify the epoch of the natural law, the epoch of the written Law, and, finally, the epoch of grace; Moses, the prophets, the acceptable year of the Lord's comiug; the three years of Christ's ministry; childhood, manhood, old age. Whatever may be the value we att.lch to these expla- nations, the fact denoted is the long-suffering of God. Notice the two aspects of the waiting: to judge, bnt be gracious, and to judge and condemn. The latter is the "strange work." In grace, God comes silently; for condemnation, he comes, first crying aloud by his threatenings, "I am coming quickly," that the opportunity for the Inter- cessor may be given. First, the axe is laid at the root of the tree; there it lies, ready, yet the blow is deferred. "Cut it down;" yet a little longer-" this year also." Vers. 22-30.-The question and the answer. "He went through the cities and villages." 'fhe circuits into which the ministry of Jesus was divided are most interest- ing. "He went about doing good." One feature is suggested by the evangelist's sentence. The village is not overlooked. If the de~ire had been merely to gain influence, he would have limited the teaching to the city. "Win the great centres of the populations; thus you will establish your reputation; thence the light will radiate to the obscurer places; "-this would have described the method of the action. Christ had another method. The small hamlet, no less than the crowded town, was the scene of his labour. It was the passion for souls which inspired him. The human soul, under all outward conditions, was one and the same to him. "The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." Note the direction of the face. He is "journeying towards Jerusalem." The shadows of Gethsemane and Gol?;otha are lengthening. Ever before him, and now pressing on his heart, is the thought of the decease that he should accomplish. It is the occasion at once of the Saviour's sorrow and the Saviour's joy, The teaching would have been little without the forecast of the sacrifice; apart from the sacrifice, it loses its power. Jerusalem and its cross is the reference ever present to the Christian minister, whether in city or in village. In one of the places visited, the Lord is accosted by e. person of whom the only notice is, "Then said one unto him." But the incident is instructive. It reminds us of (1) a kind of question that is to be discountenanced; and (2) a kind of practical exhortation that is to be enforced. I. A KIND OF QUESTION THAT IS TO BE DISCOUNTENANCED. There is no reason to doubt the good faith of the interrogator. He is reverent in his inquiry, "Lord." '!'here is nothing captious in his tone. He is the type of many earnest minds, puzzled over the problems of human life and destiny-minds that feel the pressure of the thiugs which circumscribe the opportunity of multitudes, the bars which seem to interpose between men's souls and salvntion, the limitations arising from imperfect knowledge und untoward condition; nod, looking far and near over the ever-pouring throng, a.sk,  THE GOSPEL ACCORDING 'l'O ST. LUKE. [en. xm. 1-3,3.