The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 99

Vers. 22-25.-The brief day of opportunity. The thought of our Master in this passage (as I understand it) is this:" 1 have been asked when the kingdom of God will come: my reply is that it has come already; that you have not to look about in this and that direction; here, in the midst of you, impersonated in him that speaks, is the kingdom. It is present in the Present One. But," be says to his disciples," he is present in a very strict sense. The time will soon be here when you will greatly long for bis fellowship, and yon will not be able to possess it. Do not believe those who will tell yon tha.t the Son of man is still on earth; it will not be true. His life below will be of the very briefest; it will be but as a lightning-flash which passes through the· dark- ened heavens in a moment, and is gone again; so brief will be bis stay, so soon will he be gone. But before he goes he must suffer many things; much must be done, for much must be endured, before his short day is dfJne." L THE BRIEF DAY OF oua Loan's OPPORTUNITY. When we think of the long centuries that preceded, and of those that have already succeeded, the day of Christ, we may well regard hie short visit to our world as a mere flash of light for transitori- ness. What were those few months of his short stay among men compared with all those dark ages, and to all those that have been illumined by the light which his truth has shed upon them I But, transient as it was, it sufficed. It does not take long to utter or to illustrate t-he most Divine and the most vital truths; it did not take long to undergo the most mysterious and the most availing sorrows-it took but a few agonizing hours to die the death of atonement. Into that short day of opportunity our Divine Redeemer compressed: 1. The utterance of all needful truth-all the truth. we need for our guidance into the kingdom of God, and for our passage through life and death into the kingdom of glory. i. 'l'be illustration of every human grace; the living of a human life in all its perfect loveliness and grandeur. 3. '!'he endurance of sorrow such as constituted him for ever the Man of sorrows, and the High Priest of human nature, touched with tbe feeling of our infirmities (Heh. iv. 15). 4. 'l'he dying of that dc,ath which is the all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. A few months of time sufficed to complete his work and make him the Divine Teacher, Leader, Friend, Saviour, of the whole race of man for all time to cowe. II. OUR BRIEF DAY. 1. Measured by hours, our day is very brief. Human Jifo is ahurt at tlie IL•ngeet. We are "but of Jestcrday," aud to-mc,rrow we shall not be. en. xvrr. 1-37.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. J03