Matthew 11

This sermon was preached in June 2006 at Capitol Hill Baptist Church

Matthew 11:2-30. Mike Gilbart-Smith

“Lord Darlington wasn’t a bad man. He wasn’t a bad man at all. At least he had the privilege of being able to say at the end of his life that he made his own mistakes. His lordship was a courageous man. He chose a certain path in life, it proved to be a misguided one, but there, he chose it, he can say that at least. As for myself, I cannot even claim that. You see, I trusted. I trusted in his lordship’s wisdom. All those years I served him, I trusted I was doing something worthwhile. I can’t even say I made my own mistakes. Really, one has to ask oneself, what dignity is there in that.”

So said Lord Darlington’s butler at the end of his career serving his misguided employer in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, “The Remains of the Day”. You may have seen the movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thomson. You see, it turned out that Lord Darlington whom he had served for 30 years, had been a traitor.

We are used to disappointment. Like the restaurant I came across as a child that advertised on a huge sign outside, “T-bone, 50c” Only when you’ve parked up and got out of the car can you read the small print: “With meat, $10”
But the greater the investment the greater the disappointment.
The automobile that wasn’t quite as reliable as the salesman implied.
But when one has entrusted one’s entire life in another, and that trust is misplaced, then one is left with bitterness.
Better, says Lord Darlington’s butler, to make your own mistakes than to entrust yourself to someone else who takes the direction of your out of your hands.
I wonder if you have ever had such thoughts about Jesus.
Have you wondered whether you can really place your entire life in his hands? Whether you can submit your entire life to his service?

There is nobody who calls for a more total investment of our lives than Jesus. How can we be sure that serving him is not just another exercise of false expectations and of false trust that will lead us at the end of our lives to look back with bitterness and disappointment?
How can we know whether Jesus is really worth following?

Well, over the next three weeks we will, Lord willing, be looking at three chapters in Matthew’s gospel.

And they are taken up with the nature of Jesus and his kingdom. Here we shall find people whose expectations have not been met. We will find others who become increasingly hostile to his kingdom. We find all but Jesus confused as to why the kingdom seems in so unimpressive. Yet in the first of these three chapters, Chapter 11, we will find material that will help us to see that Jesus is indeed trustworthy.

Turn to Read Matthew 11
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2When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples 3to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"
4Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy[b]are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 6Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."
7As John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: "What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings' palaces. 9Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10This is the one about whom it is written: " 'I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.'[c] 11I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. 13For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15He who has ears, let him hear.
16"To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: 17" 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge and you did not mourn.' 18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' 19The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions."
20Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21"Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths.[d] If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."

25At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
27"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
So, how can we be sure that Jesus is worth following?
Well, Matthew invites us to open our eyes to the real Jesus. There are five things that we are going to open our eyes to look at together to encourage us that this Jesus is indeed deserving of our full allegiance.

11:1-6 Look at Jesus’ miracles!
§ Don’t let false expectations blind you.

It seems that even John the Baptist, who had already pointed out to his disciples that Jesus was the promised Messiah, was at least a little confused.

Read 2-3

2When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples 3to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"

It wasn’t just that John’s spirits were dampened by his imprisonment by Herod. It was that John knew his Old Testament. He was perplexed, because had he read that when the Christ, that is the Messiah came, there would not only be miracles and good news. There would be justice. And here John was, wrongly imprisoned precisely because he was speaking out against the injustice of Herod stealing his brother’s wife.
John doesn’t understand how the Messiah would allow such injustice to continue.
The messiah was long awaited, but this was an unexpected set back. Should he expect someone else, or was this really all there was to the Messiah?

Read 4-6
Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."
Jesus does not merely answer John’s question. He goes back to scripture to prove his answer. All that Jesus said resonates with the prophecies of the coming Messiah in the book of Isaiah.
He is doing two things here.
1) Look at the evidence
The things that Jesus is doing are all signs of the coming Messiah. If you have doubts about who Jesus is, then keep reading the eye-witness accounts of him found in the gospels. Nobody could do the things that he does but God himself. Who makes blind people see? Who makes the lame walk, the leprous cured, the deaf hear – all by a mere word. Who can raise the dead – it was so extraordinary that nobody could deny it was happening. Even those opposed to Jesus could deny that what he was doing was utterly supernatural – and so we see them in chapter 9 attributing the miracles to demons rather than God.

But Jesus is doing more than merely listing the miracles he’d done to prove his identity. He’s alluding to the very passages that are getting John confused that speak both of good news and judgment. He alludes to at least four passages in Isaiah that you could look up this afternoon. 26,29,35,61.
Listen as Isaiah 61 to see just how Jesus is using the Old testament.

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, [a]
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
John was right to expect that the Messiah would establish justice by bringing about the day of God’s vengeance. But Jesus stops short of quoting that part of the verse.
Rather, there is to be a gap. A time dedicated to the preaching of good news to the poor, before God’s ultimate judgment. A time that would allow for people coming to repentance and faith in Jesus before it was too late.
This gap is great news, for if Jesus brought about God’s vengeance when he came then there would have been no time for any one of us to turn away from our lives of selfish independence, and entrust ourselves to him.

We too need to be sure that we have right expectations of what it means to follow Jesus. We do not yet live in the time when Jesus has righted all wrongs. We too will be called to suffer for Jesus’ sake.
When we speak of the good news about Jesus we need to make that clear. If we suggest that all will be well in this life if people follow Jesus it will raise false expectations that will lead only to disillusionment.


If you are not a Christian, I wonder what it is that is stopping you from entrusting yourself to Jesus. Is your reluctance to serve him due to an unconvincing life that he lived – why would such a miraculous life be unconvincing? Might it be because you want to live a life making your own mistakes, rather than living for someone else, however great He is?
Christian, what if you are meaning to follow Jesus, but the Christian life isn’t quite what you expected. Perhaps you are struggling with the fact that the church you have joined is just full of sinful people. Perhaps you didn’t realize how wearing it would be to face continual ridicule from family members, and you wonder, is it really worth following Jesus? Is he really who he said he is if he will let me suffer like this?
John gives us a good model of how to deal with our doubts. Jesus does not ask us to brush our doubts under the carpet, nor to unthinkingly embrace them. If we come to Jesus trustingly, we will find that he can stand up to our questions – he may correct our misapprehension of him, but our faith in him will emerge the stronger. Jesus does not rebuke honest questions. He speaks God’s word into them.
When we are tempted to think that Jesus is not worth living for, we should be realistic about the cost of following Jesus. But we should ask whether his miracles show that he deserves our allegiance.
Secondly,

2) 11:7-15 Look at his witnesses!
§ Don’t let popularity blind you.

Jesus turns from addressing John’s doubts to addressing the crowds who had heard him and now knew of his imprisonment.

Read 7-10

7As John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: "What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?
8If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings' palaces. 9Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10This is the one about whom it is written: " 'I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.'[c] 11I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist;

Why did people listen to John in the first place? “You didn’t go and see John because he was saying what everyone wanted to hear, blowing about with the crowd like a reed swayed by the wind. You didn’t go to hear John because he had political clout…” No, you listened to him because he told you the truth, however uncomfortable that truth was.
He’s a prophet, and prophets have always been unpopular, because God’s truth is unpopular. Of course he isn’t in the palace, but in the dungeon!

In fact John was the greatest of the prophets, not because his words were more eloquent, or his teaching any more inspired than the others.
He is the greatest of the prophets because he didn’t just say ‘The Messiah is coming’ he said “behold the Lamb of God”. He identified the messiah.
And stunningly Jesus says that those living this side of the cross, once the kingdom has been inaugurated, are greater even than John the Baptist. Again, he is not saying that we have greater faithfulness. But we know not just that Jesus came to save his people, we know how he has done it.

We know that we have all rebelled against our maker, preferring to live for ourselves than to entrust ourselves to him. We know that God is rightly angry with us for this, for we owe him everything, and that he is intent on punishing all such rebellion with a punishment we could not bear in all eternity.
But this side of the cross of Jesus we know how Jesus has saved people from that punishment. For he went to the cross taking the punishment of all those who would ever trust in him – and yet God raised him from the dead, and calls us all to turn from our rebellion, and put our trust in his Son who has died and is risen.
Thus there is a massive difference between the Christian and the Non-Christian. We are all rebels. But the Christian is someone who has received forgiveness for their rebellion, and so has entered Jesus kingdom. The rest of the world is still rebelling and still faces God’s judgment.
That message will never appeal to those who remain committed to serving themselves. Only those who have worldly appeal will win worldly success. And the good news about Jesus tells us to stop living for this world for there is a better one to come for those who will trust in Jesus.
Christians, we need to be very careful that we don’t become most excited when we feel that we have political influence or worldly appeal. We will have misunderstood the nature of Jesus’ kingdom.
Jesus was not here to bring political justice, but to bring sinners to repentance. Now, it is a good thing for Christians to be concerned about justice in this world – we serve a just God. But that is never to be a primary aim. We are living for another kingdom, where full justice will reign – but not until Jesus returns.
In the meantime, the normal state between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world will be one of conflict. That I think is the meaning of verse 12.
12From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.
The kingdom of God keeps growing by the power of God. But those who will not submit to Jesus’ rule will keep fighting against it.
Why is it that of all people in the world Christians are the most despised? There is no rational reason for it, unless it be that our attempts to follow Jesus highlight the world’s rebellion against him.
John had recognized that the kingdom was forcefully advancing – but he failed to see that it would not immediately overcome all forceful opposition. Rather the opposition will grow, until we find crowds crying out “crucify him.”
But this conflict is not an unforeseen strength that Jesus hadn’t anticipated, as John fears – rather this conflict is the very way in which Jesus will establish his kingdom. For Jesus is the king who establishes his kingdom by laying down his life for his people. And by his death he will populate his kingdom entirely with those who had been his enemies.
But that will not be the end of the story.
13For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15He who has ears, let him hear.
John’s expectation of coming Judgment was right. He is the Elijah who was prophesied in Malachi to herald the great and terrible day of the Lord. There will come a time when it is too late to change allegiance and join submit to Jesus.
John was not popular, but he spoke the truth – in fact he thought it worth giving his life to remain faithful.
When you are facing doubts about whether Jesus is worth living for, have you considered those who through history have been persecuted for the sake of Jesus? The millions of people who known Jesus well enough to know that he is worth following even if that means being hated, or even being killed.
One such martyr in the 2nd century was the aged Polycarp – before he was burned alive he was told that he could save his life if he reproached Christ. Polycarp replied, "Eighty six years have I served Him, and He never did me any harm: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?"
When you doubt, speak to those who have followed longer than you. Speak to those who have suffered for Christ and found him trustworthy still. Read Christian biographies. Look at the integrity of those witnesses.
3) when you are doubting that Jesus is worth following,
3) 11:16-19 watch out for dishonest arguments
16"To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: 17" 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge and you did not mourn.'
You know the kind of games that children play – the ones that aren’t really games but traps. Like when the boy in the youth-group came up to me and said, “how do you keep an idiot waiting?” “I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
That’s the kind of game these children were playing in the market place. Sitting down until an unsuspecting victim comes along. They ask them to join in with the game. They play a tune. “We’ll provide the music, you do the actions,” they say. But when the child starts to dance to the music, they say, “Why are you dancing! It’s funeral music, you’ve really embarrassed everyone at the funeral now.” Or if in fact the victim pretends to mourn at the funeral music they say, “What are you being so miserable for, this is dancing music – it’s a wedding feast!”
Well, that’s a bit of fun for a children’s game. But it is tragic when people write Jesus off with childish games rather than honestly examining him.
The questions that you have about Jesus: are they questions that you have because you really want to know the answers – are they real hurdles to trusting Jesus more deeply? Or are they merely convenient excuses?
You will always be able to come up with another question.
One way to note whether your questions are genuine is whether they are consistent.
Those who were against Jesus we hugely inconsistent.
18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' 19The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions."
We should mourn with John over our rebellion that would incur God’s anger. But Jesus’ ministry is one of great joy and celebration, because in Jesus alone is there a place of God’s anger to be averted.

But those opposed to Jesus did the opposite. They had no intention of mourning over their sin, and no intention of celebrating the coming of the king.
I hear the same criticism about Christians today. One the one hand people say – “the problem with Christians is that they are so nauseatingly joyful.” And the next thing is that the problem is that they are too serious about sin, and therefore make everyone miserable. Well, you can’t have it both ways! Yet, in almost all extended conversations with non-believers about the gospel, this kind of inconsistency comes to the surface very quickly.
Look out for convenient arguments designed to protect yourself from the reality of who Jesus is. Be aware that we will have a sinful bias to protect ourselves from the truth. We want to believe the lie that we are designed to live for ourselves.
In a rare moment of honesty Aldous Huxley looked back on his motivation for his nihilistic philosophy.
“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know. It is our will that decides how and upon what subjects we shall use our intelligence. Those who detect no meaning in the world generally do so because, for one reason or another, it suits their books that the world should be meaningless.”
Huxley knew that if he could convince himself that life was meaningless he could adopt whatever sexual and political freedom he wanted.
We should recognize that this bias doesn’t stop as soon as we start to follow Jesus.
As we discuss with Christians who disagree with us, are we more concerned about winning an argument, and so will use any argument that seems appealing, or are we more concerned about knowing and loving the real Jesus, and so we will ensure that we are handling the Scriptures carefully and faithfully.
Wisdom is not founded on convenience, but on truth – it is not proved right by the opinion polls. It is not proved right by the ability to win an argument. It is not proved right by making other opinions look stupid. It is not proved right by sounding attractive.
Wisdom is proved right by her actions.
In the end it will become clear whether we are following the real Jesus by whether or not we live a life in submission to his rule.
Perhaps you feel that you are beyond fooling yourself to that degree – perhaps you feel you are more balanced and more objective.
Perhaps you are tempted to think that even your doubts about Jesus are not only honest – they are rational.
Forthly, we must
11:20-24 Look at the blindness of unbelief!
§ Don’t let unbelief blind you
20Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21"Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths.[d] If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."

There is the world of difference between honest questions, like those that John had, and the committed unbelief of the cities that had seen Jesus’ miracles.
It is the difference between saying, “I just don’t understand!” and saying “I just don’t want to know!”
When you are doubting whether Jesus is worth following, ask honest questions.
An honest question is a question that is looking for an answer. Unbelief asks questions too: but has already decided that there can be no satisfying answer. People have often said that faith is blind. But it is unbelief that is blind. Thus unbelief is to embrace blindness.
The majority of Jesus miracles were performed in towns that rejected him. Why would people be so blind in the face of such overwhelming evidence?
Because knowledge of Jesus is not merely intellectual. It is moral.
Read 21
"Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
To recognize Jesus as the Messiah is to turn away from our own pretensions to belong to ourselves. It is to repent of them, and to submit to his Lordship.
Jesus warns us. We are in a terrible situation. John’s beliefs about impending judgement were correct. He was the one who was preparing the way for the coming Messiah, who will judge the world.
As we read earlier in the service, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?”
We may not have seen the miracles that Jesus performed. But we are even more privileged. We have heard eye witness reports of jesus’ death and resurrection. Thus it will be more bearable for Sodom on that day than it is for those who hear the gospel and in the face of such great news, walk away.
Jesus’ warnings of impending judgment are real. He warns us because he does not want us to be blind to the eternal realities that we face.
When facing doubts about Jesus, look out for the blindness of unbelief. It will keep you from thinking about the infinite difference between heaven and hell. Don’t embrace such blindness.
Rather then look up. For Jesus does not speak of judgment without speaking of a way to escape. Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?
Jesus invites us to be those who will stand, if only we will come to him in faith.





11:25-30 Look to Jesus’ invitation!
§ Don’t let pride blind you!

25At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
27"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Some people have suggested that a belief in the sovereignty of God in saving people is a demotivator for evangelism. Jesus didn’t think so. In fact, God’s sovereign action in salvation is the only thing that gives us any confidence that anyone might possibly accept the message of the gospel.
We’ve just seen in our passage that human nature is so radically committed to rebelling against the Lordship of Jesus that even if he performed thousands of irrefutable miracles on Capitol Hill still people would find reasons not to believe. If even physical miracles cannot overcome unbelief then what hope do we have by loving persuasion in evangelism! We clearly have no ability to making God known to anybody.
Yet we can have confidence because God himself is committed to making himself known. He is able and willing to open people’s eyes and remove their unbelief.



Jesus rejoices both that God hides, and that he reveals himself.
He rejoices that God hides himself from some because it shows up human wisdom for what it is. It shows that the most learned person has learned nothing if he has learned nothing of God’s kingdom.
- We live in an age that values education but has no idea of what wisdom is. I’ve spoken to people with PhD’s from the greatest university on earth who had never thought about how they might be ontologically different from apes. It wasn’t that they had come to the conclusion that they were the same, it was that they had never even thought of the question. They had never even considered the possibility that they are spiritual beings.
My friend, unless you know how you can be in a right relationship with God, you know nothing.
Yet Jesus also rejoices that God has seen fit to bring those who, in the terms of this world are utterly unimpressive into his kingdom. He has revealed how they can be joyful and cherished members of God’s kingdom, rather than rebels against it.
How?
Only through Jesus.
27"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God. He is not just like the prophets who spoke God’s word, or like John the Baptist who identified the Messiah, or like Christians who preach the gospel. He has a unique knowledge of God, that only he can have, because of all men only he shares his life with God. And the whole reason Jesus came was so that he could bring people into the knowledge of God. He has done everything necessary to do that by his life, death and resurrection.
If you do not receive your wisdom from Jesus, then, however streetwise you are, the bible insists that you have no significant wisdom at all.
Yet there is good news.
Jesus offers a right relationship with God to you.

Perhaps our doubts about whether Jesus is worth following no longer spring from doubts about who he is. Perhaps we have been reassured that he is the Son of God.
But do we believe that it is really a joy and a privilege to serve him? We know that without him we will end up facing God’s judgment. But do we still have niggling doubts that somehow serving him is the necessary price we need to pay in order to escape judgment, but that it is a chore – that it would somehow be even better if we could live for ourselves and still escape judgment?
Every temptation we will face this week is a temptation to embrace the lie that it is no joy to serve Jesus.
But listen to Jesus’ words.
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
The rest is not, as I heard someone suggest recently, a chance to get away from the stress of life and relax. It is rest from the weariness of the burden of our commitment to sin. When God took Israel from slavery in Egypt and brought them into the rest of the freedom of the Promised Land, it was just to be a small picture of this greater freedom that Jesus offers. It is not the freedom of an easy life. It is not freedom from all opposition and persecution – not yet at least. It is the freedom from living as if we were God. It is freedom from believing the very first lie – that God’s rule is malicious and we’d be better of making our own mistakes. It is the freedom to enjoy being the creatures God made us to be. Creatures whose capacity to know, love and obey God is brought to life and enjoyed.
When you are tempted to doubt that it is a joy to follow Jesus, will you hear Jesus’ words. His yoke is easy. His burden is light, not because he will make no demands of us, but because his demands have become a joy and a privilege, and at every point he will help to carry the load. For the great load of the guilt of our sin he has already taken to the cross.
Pilgrim’s progress

Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Isaiah 26:1. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.
He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.
Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, “He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.” Then he stood still a while, to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. Zech. 12:10. Now as he stood looking and weeping, behold, three Shining Ones came to him, and saluted him with, “Peace be to thee.” So the first said to him, “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” Mark 2:5; the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with change of raiment, Zech. 3:4; the third also set a mark on his forehead, Eph. 1:13, and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which he bid him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate: so they went their way. Then Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing,
“Thus far did I come laden with my sin,
Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in,
Till I came hither. What a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
Blest cross! blest sepulchre! blest rather be
The Man that there was put to shame for me!”


My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.