10. Likewise--on the same principle.
joy, &c.--Note carefully the language here--not "joy on the
part," but "joy in the presence of the angels of God." True
to the idea of the parables. The Great Shepherd. The Great Owner
Himself, is He whose the joy properly is over His own recovered
property; but so vast and exuberant is it
(Zec 8:17),
that as if He could not keep it to Himself, He "calleth His friends and
neighbors together"--His whole celestial family--saying, "Rejoice WITH ME, for I have found My
sheep-My-piece," &c. In this sublime sense it is "joy," before
"or in the presence of the angels"; they only "catch the flying
joy," sharing it with Him! The application of this to the
reception of those publicans and sinners that stood around our Lord is
grand in the extreme: "Ye turn from these lost ones with disdain, and
because I do not the same, ye murmur at it: but a very different
feeling is cherished in heaven. There, the recovery of even one such
outcast is watched with interest and hailed with joy; nor are they left
to come home of themselves or perish; for lo! even now the great
Shepherd is going after His lost sheep, and the Owner is making
diligent search for the lost property; and He is finding it, too, and
bringing it back with joy, and all heaven is full of it." (Let the
reader mark what sublime claims Himself our Lord covertly puts in
here--as if in Him they beheld, all unknown to themselves, nothing less
than heaven in the habiliments of earth, the Great Shepherd above,
clothed in a garment of flesh, come "to seek and to save that which was
lost")!
JFB.
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