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‘And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.… Immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.’
Luk_13:11-14
Our text is an illustration of the verse, ‘I am found of them that sought Me not.’ Here is grace, amazing grace, sovereign grace, grace much more abounding, as St. Paul would say. Nature transforms soot into diamonds and mud into opals and sapphires; grace works greater marvels as the heavens are higher than the earth.
I. Christ still uplifts men.—Those sunk in sin are suddenly arrested and lifted up. The habits of a lifetime are reversed: profane songs give place to hymns of praise. The forces of heredity are driven back; the Stronger Man expels the strong man armed; old things pass away, all things become new. The Gospel is still the power of God. Christ moves down the ages with the tramp of a conqueror, and stoops with the tenderness of a mother to uplift the fallen.
II. Those who are lowest can be raised up by Him.—Christ appears at His best when man is at his worst. Have you ever noticed water-lilies grow? The root is perhaps in eight or ten feet of muddy water: the sun draws it out of those dark depths, and the bud bursts into a blaze of white and gold, and lo! it becomes a companion of the sun which has drawn it of darkness into its own marvellous light. Never look at a water-lily without thinking of St. Peter’s words: ‘He has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.’
III. All this is a matter of experience.—It is a matter of experience that Christ uplifts those who have fallen into sin, and can in no wise lift up themselves by any power of their own. He uplifts those who are crushed and broken-hearted with sorrow, and turns the dark night into the morning. He uplifts those whose minds are clouded with distressing doubts and whose feet are bleeding and sore, and by His Spirit teaches them to find answers to all their hard questions at the foot of His Cross.
Rev. F. Harper.
Illustrations(1) ‘Charles Kingsley asked Turner how he came to paint “The Storm at Sea,” his masterpiece of colour and arrangement. “I painted it,” replied Turner, “under the stimulus of a personal experience. I was, at my own desire, lashed to the mast of a ship in a gale off the coast of Holland that I might study every incident in detail.” ’
(2) ‘Seneca, the philosopher, who seemed not far from the Kingdom of God, confessed the feebleness of his Stoicism, and pleaded with a pathetic cry, “None of us has strength to rise; and oh that some one would stretch out a hand!” Some One stretched out His Hands on Calvary to lift up the fallen.’