Luke 22:35-38 And he said to them, When I sent you without purse, and money, and shoes, lacked you any thing? And they said, Nothing.… There is no teacher who has been so well beard, and none that has been so much honored and obeyed, as Jesus Christ. Yet there can have been few who have been so much misunderstood as he has been. We have our attention drawn by the text to - I. CONTEMPORARY MISUNDERSTANDING. 1. By the apostles themselves. (1) On this occasion their Lord wished to intimate to them, in strong and forcible language, that to whatever perils and straits they had been exposed before, the time was now at hand when, he himself being taken from their side and the saddest foreshadowings being fulfilled, they would be subjected to far severer trials, and would be (in a sense) cast on their own defences. The apostles, mistaking his meaning, put a literal interpretation on his words, and produced a couple of swords, as perhaps meeting the emergency! (2) On a previous occasion (Matthew 16:5-8) the Lord warned them against "the leaven of the Pharisees;" and they supposed him to refer to their neglect in forgetting the bread! (3) They completely failed to apprehend his meaning when he foretold his own sufferings and death (Luke 18:31-34). 2. By his disciples generally. (1) They could not comprehend what he meant by "eating his flesh and drinking his blood (John 6:60). (2) They completely misunderstood the end he had in view, the character of that "kingdom of heaven" of which he spoke so much. (3) They did not enter into the great redeeming purpose for which he came. 3. By his enemies. (1) In so small a matter as his saying recorded in John 2:19; (2) in so great a matter as that recorded in John 18:37. II. SUBSEQUENT MISUNDERSTANDING. In how many ways has the Church of Christ, since apostolic days, misunderstood its Lord! It has done so in regard to the meaning of particular words; and in regard to the great end he had in view (the nature of his kingdom); and in regard to the means and methods he would have his friends employ. How pitifully and how painfully has it misunderstood him when it has interpreted his reference to the sword of the text (ver. 36), and his use of the word "compel" (Luke 14:23) as justifying every conceivable cruelty in the furtherance of his cause! III. MODERN MISUNDERSTANDING. Judging from what we know has been, we conclude that it is likely enough that we also misunderstand our Master. 1. We may fail to reach the true significance of his words; we may find out, further on, that they have another and a larger meaning than that we have been ascribing to them. 2. We may mistake his will as to the object we should work for, or as to the right and the wise methods we should adopt to secure our end. 3. We may be wrong in our judgment of what Christ is doing with ourselves and with our life; we may misread his Divine purpose concerning us. There are three principles which we shall do well to keep in mind in our endeavor to understand the Divine Teacher. The thought of Christ is (1) profound rather than superficial: (2) spiritual rather than sensuous; (3) comprehensive and far-seeing (reaching through time to immortality) rather than narrow and time-bounded. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. |
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