Are you Discouraged in Devotion? - Chambers, Oswald
Luke 18:23
1. Have you ever heard the master say a hard word?
And when he heard this . . .
Have you ever heard the master say a hard word? If you have not, i question whether you have heard him say anything. Jesus Christ says a great deal that we listen to, but do not hear. When we do hear it, his words are amazingly hard. These words were so hard that his very disciples were staggered and they that heard it said, who then can be saved? Jesus did not seem the least solicitous that the rich young ruler should do what he told him. He made no attempt to keep him with him, he simply said sell all that thou hast, . . . And come, follow me. Our fuss over other souls is nearly always an evidence that we have not the slight- est trust in god. Our lord never made a fuss over anyone, and the reason he didn’t could not have been that he was callous or indifferent, or that he was not tenderhearted, or that he did not understand every detail, but the fact remains that he did not make a fuss over anyone. He never pleaded, he never cajoled, he never entrapped; he simply spoke the sternest words mortal ears ever heard, and then let it alone. The rich young ruler was a clean, moral, fine, vigorous young man, with a desire for all that was noble and true, but he did not expect to hear what he did. Have i ever heard a hard word of Jesus? Has he said something to me personally that i have deliberately listened to not something i can expound or teach and say this and that about, but something i have deliberately heard him say to me? In all probability the rich young ruler was in a more wholesome state of mind towards Jesus than were his own disciples who had left all and fol- lowed him, because they had left all and followed Jesus without hearing one word that he said, and at the end of three years they said, what is this that he saith?
. . . We cannot tell what he saith, and then they all forsook him, and fled. This man did understand what Jesus said, he heard it and sized it up from height to depth, and it broke his heart. He did not go away defiant or in unbelief, he went away sorrowful, thoroughly discouraged. He had come to Jesus full of the fire of earnest desire and the word of Jesus simply froze him. Instead of the word of Jesus producing an enthusiastic devotion, it produced a heart-breaking discouragement. And jesus did not go after him, he did not plead with him, he let him go. I wonder what we would have done? We would have written him letters, given him little booklets, asked other people to look after him, meaning by it all to get him to retrace his steps. Jesus did not do any of that, and i will tell you why he did not our lord has a perfect understanding that when once his word is heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. The terrible heartbreak is that some of us prevent its bear- ing fruit in actual life. We hear his word, some of us heard it months ago, years ago, we heard it distinctly and in enthusiasmnot realising exactly, as this man did, what Jesus said, but more after the manner of the disciples we said, yes, i will follow. Then we began to size up what it was we heard, and instead of its producing a great alacrity and devotion, it produced discouragement, and the lord has gone on his way. I wonder what we will say when we do make up our mind to be devoted to him on that particular point? One thing is certain he will never cast up anything at us, but we will be thoroughly ashamed that we actually weighed any other consideration in the balance when once we heard his word.
2. Have you ever been expressionless with sorrow?
. . . He was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.
The rich young ruler went away expressionless with sorrow, there was not a word to say; he did not go away defiant neither did you, and neither did i; he went away sorrowful. It is a bad thing to go away cheerful from god. To say, oh yes, i will do it presently, god will bring his providence round, shows we have not understood anything. This man had not the slightest doubt in his mind as to what Jesus said, no debate as to what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow that had not any words. Have you ever got there? Has gods word come to you about something that is a very dear possession to you, something you are very rich intemperament, personal affinity, relationships of heart and mind? Then you have very often been expressionless with sorrow, and you will be worse before you get to the end, and the lord wont cajole, he wont caress, he wont go after you, he wont plead, he will sim- ply repeat every time he meets you on that point, if you mean what you say, these are the conditions . . . Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor.
There is a general principle here and a particular reference. We are always in danger of taking the particular reference for the general principle and evading the general principle. The particular refer- ence here is to selling material goods. The rich young ruler had deliberately to be destitute, deliberately to distribute, deliberately to discern where his trea- sure was, and devote himself to Jesus Christ. The principle underlying it is that i must detach myself from everything i possess. Many of us suppress our sense of property, we don’t starve it, we suppress it. Undress yourself morally before god of everything that might be a possession until you are a mere conscious human being, and then give god that. That is where the battle is fought in the domain of the will before god, it is not fought in external things at all. Is he sovereign lord or is he not? Am i more devoted to my notion of what Jesus Christ wants than to himself ? If so, i am likely to hear one of his hard sayings that will produce sorrow in me. What Jesus says is hard, it is only easy when it comes to those who really are his disciples. Beware of allowing any- thing to soften a hard word of Jesus. It is a terrible thing to see how we keep Jesus christ waiting. We serve god, but there is a draw- back, and it is that drawback which Jesus gets at by his talk when once we come to him as this man did. We twist his words and debate about their mean- ing, we discuss his teachings and expound his gospel, and all the time we leave him absolutely alone because at the center of our heart there is the gnaw- ing grip of one of his hard sayings that keeps us sorrowful, and he waits till we come and lay it all down. All the time in between has been utterly wasted as far as Jesus christ is concerned, no matter how active we have been, or how much we have been a blessing to others, because none of it has sprung from devotion to him but from devotion to an idea. I can be so rich in poverty, so rich in the consciousness that i am nobody, that i will never be a disciple of Jesus christ; and i can be so rich in the consciousness that i am somebody that i will never be a disciple. Am i willing to be destitute of the sense that i am destitute? This is not the application of the principle to a rich man, but to those of us who are not rich men. Am i possessed of the possibility of riches on other lines? Rich in the inheritance of a particular type of temperament, and has the hard word of Jesus come against that? The thing in you and in me that other people like and esteem and laud is the very thing that makes us unable to do what Jesus says. You cannot do it unless you are willing to reduce yourself to a mere consciousness, and then give that to him. He is bringing you to the place of resigning yourself, not of resigning things or people, there might be a sense of the heroic about that. It is not giving up out- side things, but making yourself destitute to yourself and that is where the discouragement comes in. It is not a question of being willing to go straight through, but of going straight through. Not a question of saying, lord, i will do it, but of doing it. There must be the reckless committal of everything to him with no regard for the consequences. Discouragement is disenchanted self-love, and self-love may be love of devotion to Jesus. My devotion to Jesus must altogether efface my consciousness of devotion to him.