Our Lord's example teaches us what sort of employment is always, perhaps so far as we can pursue it, the most useful to our souls; it shows us, at any rate, what business there is which we can none of us safely neglect altogether; for that which Christ did always,Christ's servants cannot certainly be justified if they never do. And this business consists in mixing with others, not in the mere line of our trade or calling, and still less for mere purposes of gaiety; but the mixing with others, neither for business, nor yet for pleasure, but in the largest sense of the word, for charity.
I. It will, then, be seen how many persons there are who have need to be reminded of this duty. They who really live mostly to themselves are indeed in these days very few, and embrace only that small number of persons whose time is principally spent in study; that is, men who are devoted to literature or science. But those who, while they mix with others, yet do it in the line of their business, or for pleasure's sake, include a very large portion of the world indeed. Statesmen, lawyers, soldiers, sailors, tradesmen, merchants, farmers, labourers all are necessarily brought much into contact with their fellowmen; there is no danger of their living in loneliness. And persons of no profession the young, and women of all ages, in the richer classes especially they desire society for the pleasure of it; they think it dull to live out of the world. For it is very possible that neither of these two large classes of people may mix with others in the way that Christ mixed with them; they may do it for business or for pleasure, but not for charity.
II. To those, then, who are not inclined to be idle, but who, whether from necessity or from activity of mind, are sure to have plenty of employment, nay, who are so much engrossed by it that it leaves them, as was the case with Christ, "no leisure so much as to eat," it becomes of great consequence, not only that they should be as busy as Christ was, but that part of their business, at least, should be of the same kind; not only that they should be fully employed, but that their employment may, in part at least, be of that sort, as, when they fail, they cause them to be received into everlasting habitations.
T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. ii., p. 164.
Reference: Luke 5:31. D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels,p. 95.
Christian Mutual Tolerance. Christ is here claiming for His disciples that their spiritual life be left to unfold itself naturally; that they be not fettered with forms; that they be not judged by religious traditions and old habits; that they be free to show themselves glad when they have cause of gladness, and that their expressions of sorrow and their self-discipline follow their feeling of sorrow and their need of discipline.
I. Christ's vindication of freedom to all His disciples. We cannot ante-date maturity nor hurry experience. Endeavour not to force a young and vigorous, even though incomplete, Christian character into the mould and habit of an older one, which may perchance, in its turn, be too despondent, too cheerless; but rather notice and admire how God develops each according to its own vitality, and appoints to each its proper sphere and mode of service. There is a work to be done by the young, and God has given them the impulses for it. Their native energy will be always breaking through their conventionalities; the new wine will burst the bottles. Put the new wine into new bottles, and both will be preserved.
II. Christ's plea for consideration of one another. Be patient, Christ is saying to those who were offended at the exuberance of His disciples; they will not always be as joyous as they are now. The realities of life and the variations of Christian experience will surely take away from younger disciples the undue exaltation which shocks the elder saints. Without your schooling they will pass through much tribulation. They will be sober enough, subdued enough, by-and-by. While the more sombre Christians attempt to bind their sadness as a law on the whole Church, there will surely be strife and bitterness, insincerity, unfitness for the stress of the Christian conflict. But the life which Christ develops in its own fitting forms will give the joyous, confident Christian, matured by painful discipline, sympathy even with those whose sadness is the sadness of doubt. He will be very gentle with them, for His own life has taught Him that without full and abiding confidence in Jesus religious experience must be a gloomy thing. The new wine is better than the old. Not only is Christianity better than Judaism; even under the Gospel the new days are better than the old. God gives His best blessings latest. "Thou hast kept the good wine till now."
A. Mackennal, Christ's Healing Touch,p. 218.
References: Luke 5:33. F. W. Robertson, The Human Race andOther Sermons,p. 190. Luke 5:33-39. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 69; D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels,p. 106. Luke 5:35. J. Keble, Sermons from Lent to Passiontide,p. 410. Luke 6:1-12. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xi., p. 95; A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 88; F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven,p. 82.Luke 6:1-49. E. Aston, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxv., p. 327. Luke 6:6-11. Homilist,vol. vi., p. 166.