BY THE REV. D. MACFARLANE, DINGWALL.
“But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them.”—Luke xxiv. 29.
THE two disciples on their way to Emmaus, which was sixty furlongs, or about seven and a-half miles from Jerusalem, met with Jesus, who conversed with them about the important matters which occupied their minds, and they desired to have more of His company, when they came to the end of their journey that day. “And when they drew nigh unto the village whither they went, He made as though He would have gone further. But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them.” From these words we may notice—
I. That those who have derived benefit from Christ’s teaching, and enjoyed His sweet fellowship, desire more of this.
II. That they use words and arguments to obtain the privilege; and
III. Christ’s willingness and readiness to grant them their desire.
I. The two disciples spoken of here, one of whom was Cleopas, derived much benefit from the company of Christ: He made their hearts burn within them with joy. He did this by expounding the Scriptures to them, the Scriptures concerning Himself. Christ is the sum and substance of the Scriptures; they testify of Him. The books of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms testify of Him, and He opened up to them the Scriptures. The Word of God properly expounded is the means in the hand of the Spirit to convince and to convert sinners, and to edify, sanctify, and comfort believers. In preaching, the work of ministers is to expound the Scriptures and to apply them, so far as teaching is concerned, to the various conditions and cases of their hearers. Christ, in His discourse here as well as elsewhere, has set an example before us which we ought to follow.
II. Means are to be used to keep up fellowship with Christ when He condescends to visit us. One of these means is prayer—”Abide with us.” Christ’s
fellowship is so sweet and beneficial that it awakens the spirit of prayer in His people to constrain Him to abide with them. Although He is willing to be with them, and has promised to be with them, yet He will be enquired of by prayer to vouchsafe this benefit to them. If you would have Christ to abide with you, pray without ceasing. Be diligent in the use of the other means of grace, but be often at the throne of grace, and cherish the spirit of prayer, and exercise it, even when you are not on your knees in the attitude of prayer.
The argument the disciples used was—”It is towards evening, and the day is far spent.” By this they seemed to have respect to the comfort of the wonderful friend that had met them; but there is no doubt that their own comfort and happiness were also kept in view. Little was the comfort their entertainment of Christ would afford Him compared with the entertainment He would give them by His presence and conversation. Though they did not yet know of a certainty—though they may have had some idea of it—that He was the One they mourned after, yet the effect of His discourse on the subject, on which their mind was set and exercised, endeared Him to them so much that they desired more of His company. “It is toward evening and the day is far spent” is an argument well fitted for us to employ at this season of the year, and should remind us of the end of our life in this world. We have, therefore, more need to constrain Christ to abide with us.
III. Christ’s willingness and readiness to hear the prayer of His people, and to grant them the blessing they want—”And He went in to tarry with them.” It is now He makes Himself known to them as He who was dead, and is alive again, to die no more. They entertain Him to food. The three of them sat at meat. Christ, no doubt, at the head of the table. He blessed the food and brake it, and gave to them, “and their eyes were opened and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight.” This food was not a sacrament, but a common meal, so if we have Christ with us at our common food, it will make us truly happy, and enable us to eat and drink to His glory.
We are not quite sure that Christ actually ate any of this food, though it is evident that “He ate food afterwards with His disciples” (verse 42), and we are not sure that the two disciples ate either, for we read that they rose the same hour, and that Christ vanished
out of their sight, and returned to Jerusalem. They were so overjoyed that they might have forgotten that food was before them on the table. They talked to each other of how their hearts burned with love and joy, while Christ talked with them by the way, and while He opened the Scriptures to them. The spiritual feast they got for their souls would have a great effect on their bodies, so that, though they were living without food in search of Christ before returning home from Jerusalem, they could make the journey back to that city again without food for their bodies, while their souls were so richly supplied with the true bread that came down from heaven. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
It may be remarked that this gracious manifestation of Christ to the two disciples was preceded by a darkness, which seemed to deprive them of all hope—”But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel.” When the natural night has reached the point of time when it is darkest, then the light of day is not far off. So it is spiritually. When the believer comes to the darkest pitch of night, then Christ, the Son of Righteousness, will appear to him to dispel his darkness, and to give him comfort that will surprise him, and make him truly happy—make his heart burn within him with joy unspeakable and full of glory! He shall then know that it is Jesus, his own Saviour. The manifestation is so sweet and precious that he cannot but pray, “Abide with me.”
Another thing worthy of note is that when Christ makes Himself known to the believer, he is enabled to recall to his mind past experiences of the Lord’s loving-kindness to him. He remembers the days of old—”Did not our hearts burn within us when He talked with us by the way?” It is to be observed also that the two disciples made no delay in going to give the news of Jesus to others, especially to His disciples. Those to whom Jesus makes Himself known cannot but proclaim His praise to their fellowmen. The love of Christ constraineth them. It is to be noticed, moreover, that though the Saviour vanished out of their sight, as to His bodily presence, He left so much of His spiritual presence with them that they had His fellowship still with them, giving them at this early stage of their experience to learn to live by faith and not by sight, and also to show them that He can and will manifest Himself to His people on earth when He is, as to His bodily
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presence, in heaven. We may enjoy His communion now. He is nigh by His spirit in His Word and ordinances, though He is personally in heaven.
When Christ comes to a poor soul that is truly seeking and needing Him, He makes up all his needs and wants, raises his mind from all things that are not worthy of his attention, and sets it upon Himself as the all in all. Christ heals all his diseases, dispels his darkness, removes his unbelief, solves his perplexities, rescues him from the entanglements of his temptations, and gives him true liberty of soul, yea, and of body also. If he is old, he feels himself young; if he is weak he feels himself strong; if he is in poor circumstances he considers himself as possessing all things—”All things are yours.” Christ meets all his needs. Without Him he can do nothing; having Him he can do all things. This is really the case with the believer to whom Christ reveals Himself, and whom He favours with His sweet fellowship. And though these sweet manifestations of Christ to His poor people are not frequent and long continued, yet they are means of making them go from strength to strength, till they appear at last in the heavenly Zion, to be for ever with the Lord. They are stepping-stones on the way, and Ebenezers they set up in the wilderness with the inscription—”Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” They are an earnest of the inheritance in the state of their minority, and pledges to assure them that when they shall have finished their pilgrimage in the wilderness of this world, they shall be put in possession of the glorious inheritance prepared for them in heaven.