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‘(He) said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.’
Luk_24:46-47
I. The whole burden of the words is this—His dying work, His resurrection power, the sin of man shown in His light, the forgiveness of man given for His sake: ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and should rise again, and that repentance’—the recognition, the confession, the forsaking of sin—‘and then remission’—amnesty, pardon, welcome, peace with God—‘should be preached in His name.’ All other blessings, but these first. For these He suffered. For these He was exalted. He is enthroned, ‘a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance and remission.’ And this, not to one race or type of manhood rather than to another. Semite, Hamite, Turanian, Aryan, all have sinned, and all must thus be called and blessed. The message was alike to ‘begin at Jerusalem,’ specimen and type of whole regions of the Orient, and to extend ‘to all the nations’ of every continent and every sea.
II. As the Master, so the servants.—In the apostolic writers we have chosen types of character profoundly varied. In the regions and races they address, in speech and in epistle, we have chosen samples of the world. The Hebrew is there, and the Athenian, the Roman, the Levantine, the Galatian Celt, the Phrygian of the remote Lycus, enamoured of the theosophy of the remoter East. To them messages are sent by men as different in cast of character and trend of thought as Paul, and Peter, and John. But every messenger to every tribe and mission sends a gospel which, however rich, and varied, and locally adjusted in its circumference, is the same thing at its centre; it is the preaching of the Cross.
III. Is this old gospel of the Cross a narrow gospel?—Yes; just as narrow as the gate and as the way of which our Master spoke of old. Is it a narrow gospel? No; in its beating heart, warm with the blood of the Atonement, there lie, always ready for infinite expansion, all the blessings, for eternity and for time, lodged for us by the Father in the Son, and liberated for us by the sacrifice of His death; for ever blessed be His Name. In that Name our missionaries, ‘the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ,’ go to all the nations. They go to teach them many things, yea, all things which He has commanded. They go to gather and to combine; to minister the Lord’s ordinances; to build up men in the Lord’s Body; to equip His disciples for His service; to lead them out into His holy war. But first and most they go to preach, and to glorify, His Cross. For themselves, that Cross, borne for their own salvation, is the Divine peace and power for their suffering as for their witness. In that Sign they conquer.
Bishop H. C. G. Moule.
Illustration‘ “From error and misunderstanding” so runs the Litany of the Moravians, “from the loss of our glory in Thee, from coldness to Thy merits and Thy death, preserve us, gracious Lord and God.” ’