"The Master has come, and is
calling for you." (John 11:28).
These familiar and memorable words were spoken at Bethany
on a very different occasion from that of a Communion Season. But they may
be warrantably and appropriately adapted as a summons and invitation to the
Great Feast of love.
Jesus at all times is invisibly near to His own people.
As doubtless, though unseen, He marked every tear of sorrow in that Bethany
home during the mysterious "tarrying days" beyond Jordan—so on His throne in
Heaven is He still ever imparting and manifesting, by His grace and Spirit,
the comforting sense of His presence. But there are times and seasons when
He draws especially near; and at no time nearer, or more graciously, than at
this His own blessed Sacrament of Communion. In these memorials of His
bleeding love, He is evidently and impressively "set forth crucified and
slain." In the preaching of this blessed Gospel I hear of Him. In the
Holy Ordinance of the Supper I am privileged emblematically to behold
Him. There, as in the case of Mary and Martha, He summons me to His feet, to
listen, on that hallowed ground, to utterances of love and promises of
glory. He takes me, as He did them, to a Grave—but it is that of no
human friend. It is the Sepulcher into which He Himself entered as my Surety
and Substitute. It is to see the Grave-stone rolled away forever; and over
these symbols of suffering to hear Him proclaiming, as He did to the Bethany
sisters, that He is Himself the Resurrection and the Life, and that because
He lives, His people shall live also.
How does the summons sound in my ears? "The Master
has come." Do I—can I—respond to the Name? Am I able, experimentally, to
rejoice in Him as 'Rabboni, my Master,'—an all-sufficient Savior—whose blood
has purchased a full, free, everlasting remission of my sins; and whose
intercession is so prevalent at the right hand of God, that I am warranted,
as I meet Him at this Bethany-gate of love, to say in the words of Martha's
first utterance—"I know that even now whatever You will ask of God, God will
give it to You"? Yes! that mourner of Bethany presents me with a divine
watchword, a golden key for the Table of Communion. The riches and promises
of grace are to be there, in visible emblem, spread out before me—the
garnered blessings of Salvation "hidden in Christ," and whatever be my
trial, or weakness, or infirmity, I am encouraged to behold the Scepter of
the Heavenly King stretched forth, with the challenge and invitation—"What
is your petition, and what is your request?"
"I will hear what God the Lord will speak—He will speak
peace unto His people." I will go to His appointed Ordinance, and there
unburden and unbosom to Him all my needs and necessities. He will not send
me empty away. "Jesus wept."—He wept tears of sorrow as He stood before
Martha and Mary in the Bethany graveyard; but this day He is to manifest
Himself, in significant symbol, as shedding, not His tears, but His blood.
He gives me the blessed pledge and assurance that He will, after the
greatest of all boons and blessings—the gift of Himself, freely dower
me with every lesser mercy. The Table is about to be spread; the Feast is
prepared; the oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. As, in
the name of the rich Provider, I listen in thought to the summons, as if
from some herald-angel—"The Master has come, and calls for you," be
it mine to respond—"I will go into Your House with burnt offerings, I will
pay You my vows." Lord, to whom can I go but unto You, You have the words of
eternal life! Bring me to Your Banqueting-house, and let Your banner over me
be love! Hide me in this Cleft of the Rock, and let all Your glory pass
before me!