ABSENT AND PRESENT
‘A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me.’
In the first part of the sentence our Lord evidently referred to the time during which His bodily Presence would be hidden from them by reason of His death and burial.
So far all is clear. But what did the Lord mean when He said, ‘I shall see you again’? The time was at hand when a different kind of contact would be possible, and intercourse would begin. After His Ascension, the disciples would feel that He was near them always. They would make Him the partner of their lives as truly as they had done in the days of His earthly sojourn. They would come to feel that, though in one sense they had lost Christ, yet in another and a higher sense they had found Him; that though He was no longer visible to the bodily eye, yet with the spiritual eye they could see Him, and rejoice in the spiritual vision vouchsafed to them with a joy which no man could take from them.
There are certain truths which are plainly suggested by our subject, all of them essential to true Christian life.
I. We ought to depend less than we are accustomed to do on the supports of earthly and bodily companionship.—These we know are very real, very blessed, and often very full of comfort and joy. But they are, in their nature, uncertain and transient. Their value changes in altered circumstances and in varying conditions of life.
II. However dark and apparently hopeless any period of life may seem, a Christian ought to cherish the confidence that God is in possession of the future.—There is a work which God intends us to do, a place He intends us to fill. We are not really so dependent as we are tempted to think on the help or companionship of any one. Separation means grief and strain and the bitter sense of bereavement and loneliness. The disciples of Christ felt this keenly, and we must pass through a like experience. But it is very instructive to remember, on the one hand, the despondency, the sinking of heart, the perplexity, the misery of the friends of Christ on the night of the betrayal; and, on the other hand, to consider the great work in the future which God intended and enabled them to do. All life is individual life. God has His plan for each one of us, and He will strengthen us to carry it out. No earthly loss, however great, can, of itself, defeat God’s purpose, and no earthly sorrow, however crushing, can wrest our future from His Hand.
III. If in one sense it is true that Christ left this world at His Ascension, in another sense it is equally true that He did not leave the world at all.—The spiritual sight which was promised to the disciples is promised also to us. The experience of Christians in all ages has proved how true it is that, though the earthly Presence is withdrawn, those who love Him are still able to see Him in another and better way.
—Bishop J. Macarthur.
Illustration
‘There was one consequence of the Lord’s departure which the disciples had not conceived of at all. He was anxious to make it clear to them. Another companionship than His was prepared for them. It would not be an outward and visible companionship, but, for that very reason, its value would be greater. The Divine Spirit would enter into them, and His Presence with them would be permanent, unchanging, secure against all the risks and disturbances which attach to outward relationships. The Spirit could not come to them till Christ had gone away. As long as Christ was with them, they would naturally cling to the outward Presence. They lacked as yet the power to apprehend and rely upon inward and spiritual help. It was inevitable that it should be so. We all instinctively cling to what is visible, and to the things with which we have contact through our bodily senses.’
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE LITTLE WHILE
The disciples did not know what our Lord meant. Our Lord heard their reasonings, and He came and explained to them that ‘little while.’
I. The ‘little while.’—Yet it is not so easy for us to understand it perfectly, and we must reason with ourselves even as the disciples did. Some people have thought that our Lord merely meant that there should be a spiritual seeing of Him, and that in that spiritual seeing they should have perfect rest and perfect joy; that Christ should be all in all to them. But can we limit it in that way? Our Lord was speaking of the time when the Jews should rejoice because He, the great Destroyer of the peace of Jerusalem, the One Who attacked all the corruptions of the Jewish Church, was hanged upon the Cross. Did the disciples see Him? Was not that a little time? Did He not rise again on the third day, did He not at once appear to them? So that we have an explanation of the first ‘little while’ perfectly clear to our minds and thoughts. It was simply this, the world rejoiced because the Christ was dead; the disciples wept because the Christ was dead. They looked upon Him now, they saw Him with them, they heard His words, and He had told them that a little while hence He would be passing away, and they should see Him no more. Is not that the explanation of the first ‘little while’?
II. God’s ‘little while.’—But when we come to the second ‘little while,’ there is a difficulty as to what our Lord meant. He was to go to the Father, yet do we not see Christ now? The disciples saw Him as He rose from the dead. We, too, see Him upon that Cross which is our glory, and He is to us the living One, because He was the dead. When He rose from the grave He only proved to us that the Father accepted His sacrifice, and because He had borne the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors, therefore He had come out victorious with a victory that would last for ever and ever. Christ is to us a source of constant blessing, the source of all our consolation. He lives in our faith, and, if we have any hearts, He lives in our love, He lives in our life. So when the disciples saw Him again their joy was full, because they knew that Christ had risen. And their joy was to remain that which no one could take from them; it was to last for ever. So it has ever been; and all the greatest and most devout thinkers upon this verse have been of opinion that the ‘little while’ in which Christ promised to be seen again is the ‘little while’ of God which lasts on in the Christian Church until Christ shall come again.
III. The sight of Christ.—So, too, do we not see Christ? What do we mean by saying at the end our prayers, ‘Through Jesus Christ,’ unless we see Him? It is, indeed, a sight of faith, but it is the sight the Spirit gives us of all the love, power, beauty, and work of Christ. Let us ask God the Holy Spirit to paint for us the living Christ more perfectly, to show us the praise of that endless love, and to cast His bright beams upon our own reading concerning the Blessed Lord. It is just so that we must pass the ‘little while’ here until there comes, in the soft shades of night, the voice which says, ‘Come up hither,’ and we go and meet our Lord in the bright beams of His own light.
Rev. S. Bache-Harris.