And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives. And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.
What a beautiful view, in a short compass; is here given of the Lord Jesus Christ! Never fatigued, nor weary in his labor of love, though in body sometimes, as we find, (John 4:6) obliged to sit to rest himself. And, in the period we are now arrived at in his history, Jesus knew what exercises, both of soul and body were opening before him. Blessed Lord! the temple bare witness to thy fatigue by day, and the Mount of Olives of thy exercises and communion by night. Oh! how truly lovely and engaging thus to behold Christ, while acting as the Surety and Representative of his people!
REFLECTIONS
My soul! in beholding this poor widow, whose charity of soul the Lord himself hath recorded, and made her history memorable in his Church forever; learn how very costly and precious in thy Jesus sight, is the love of man, when flowing from the love of God. Oh! who would not wish, among the children of the Lord, to give a cup of cold water, when we have nothing warmer to offer, in the name of a disciple, than to build alms-houses and give thousands, without an eye to Christ.
Blessed Lord! how truly awful was thy prediction concerning the once beloved city; and how truly verified was the whole! Most fully was God the Father's sentence accomplished on Jerusalem, when he said, in relation to his dear Son, For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish. And, in the instance of Jerusalem, how awfully fulfilled! Lord, grant that all thy redeemed ones, preserved by sanctifying grace, and gathered out of the city of destruction may be enabled by thy renewing mercy and free salvation, to watch and pray; and be accounted worthy in the alone blood and righteousness of Jesus, to escape all these things, and to stand before the Son of Man!