LOOKING AT JESUS

By Pastor Glenn Pease

CONTENTS

1.     THE UNIQUENESS OF JESUS  Based on John 7:25‑46

2.     OUR EXCELLING EXAMPLE   Based on John 13:1‑17

3.     HIS STEADFAST FACE  Based on John 19:1‑16

4.     THE GENTLE ENCOURAGER Based on Matt. 12:9,15‑21

5.     THE ANGRY KING Based on Matt. 21:1‑17

6.     THE MASK OF THE MASTER    MARK 1:21‑28

7.     THE GREAT PHYSICIAN  MARK 2:1‑12

8.     THE HANDS OF THE HEAD Based on Mark 6:1‑6

9.     THE MIND OF THE MASTER Based on Luke 2:40‑52

10.   FOCUS ON FEET Based on Luke 7:36‑50

11.   JESUS HAD A SENSE OF HUMOR Text for starting Luke 10:21

12.   OUR DETERMINED SAVIOR based on Luke 9:51‑62

13.   OUR KING'S GLAD FACE  Based on Luke 19:28‑44

14.   THE KING IN TEARS   Based on Luke 19:29‑48

15.   HIS HIDDEN FACE  Based on Luke 24:13‑35

16.   THE TRIUMPHANT KING Based on John 12:12‑19

17.   THE FACE OF CHRIST  Based on II Cor. 4:1‑6

18.   JESUS IS EVERYTHING  Based on Rev. 1:5

19.   WHO IN THE WORLD IS KING? Based on Rev. 1:5

20.   WORTHY IS THE LAMB  Based on Rev. 5:1‑14

1.     THE UNIQUENESS OF JESUS  Based on John 7:25‑46

   An advertisement that was originally printed in the Miner's Magazine as a serious add was later published by the Reader's Digest as humor.  The ad read,  "Wanted:  Man to work on nuclear fissionable isotope molecular reactive counter and three‑phase cyclotronic uranium photosynthesizers.  No experience necessary."  Of course, it was a joke.  No one is that unique.  On the other hand, how can you find anyone with experience in a field that never existed before? 

     The New Testament has a similar problem in the spiritual realm.  The complex task of saving sinners, and yet remaining just an absolutely loyal to his nature of  holiness was God's problem.  Of course, it is only a problem from our point of view.  In His eternal wisdom it was solved before the world began.  The job called for an extremely unique person.  He had to be fully man, for only a man could live a perfect human life.  If he was not truly man, the life he lived would not be truly human.  Yet, only God could insure that such a life could be lived.  The paradox is that only God could do what was necessary, but it could only be done as a man.  The solution could only be Jesus Christ‑the God‑Man.  All the paradoxes and problems of the relationship of God and man are resolved in Christ who was both.

     Robert C. Moyer wrote, "In Jesus divine omnipotence moved in a human arm.  In Jesus divine wisdom was cradled in a human brain.  In Jesus divine love throbbed in a human heart.  In Jesus divine compassion glistened in a human eye.  In Jesus divine grace poured forth from human lips."  Jesus was the most unique of all men, but not just because He was God, but rather, because He was really man.  That is, He was the only complete example of ideal manhood ever seen on this planet.  Adam was the only other man who was ever perfect in his manhood, and he fell.  Jesus alone lived a perfect human life.  Jesus was unique, not just because He was more than a man, but because He was fully a man.  He was the man par‑excellence. 

     We need, therefore, to stress His humanity as He did of Himself.  His favorite name for Himself was the Son of Man.  In the bureau of standards in Washington there is a gold bar exactly one yard long which is the standard by which every measuring instrument in the United States is judged.  There has to be one, and only one, final absolute standard.  Jesus is that standard in the realm of human life, morality, and character.  As deity He was no standard for human life.  Only as man did He become our standard and ideal.  In the incarnation the human ideal became real. 

      Herman Horne points out that realism and idealism are combined in Jesus Christ.  He writes, "Human nature at its possible best gives us the ideals for man.  If we want to know what the ideals of man's complete living are, we must know what human nature is at its best; what it's elements are; what it is possible for each element to attain in its development.  Thus the real is the basis of the ideal; the real at its best is the ideal; the real is the actual; the ideal is what is possible for the real to become.  Such idealism as this has its feet on the ground; is practical.  Idealism without reference to what the real can become is visionary."  Christian idealism is based on the real of Christ.  Jesus is the example of what the real man can become.  He is the ideal which we shall attain, for we shall be like Him when we see Him as He is, according to John. 

     Meanwhile, it is our task to learn of Him, and strive toward His ideal manhood.  Paul said in Eph. 4:12‑13 that the gifts of Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers was, "For the equipment of the saints, for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."  He is our standard, and we are to measure up to Him as the goal of all our study, listening, worship, and service as Christians.

                O Man of the far away ages,

     O Man of the far away land,

More art Thou than all of the sages,

     More art Thou than creed or command.

To crown Thee we need but to know Thee;

     We need but to live Thee to prove,

For time nor decay can o'er throw Thee‑

      Humanity's ultimate Love.

                                                       Author unknown

     Jesus has no competitors in the field of perfect manhood.  Hunter Blakely writes, "Men can conceive nothing higher than to be Christ like.  It is significant that non‑Christians all around the world have been revising the character of their deities with one purpose‑‑to bring them into conformity with Christ.  Mohammed is not compared with Buddha, nor Confucius with Krishna, but one in all are brought before the moral masterpiece, and the question has to be answered, is it Christ like?"  

     Jesus is universal because of the perfect balance of his manhood.  He combines in his life and character every type of human goodness.  He fits into every age and culture.  Whatever goodness is being emphasized in a particular age it will be found exhibited at its best in Jesus.  This uniqueness of Jesus in combining every value of manhood in perfect balance can be abused.  All men have to do is take one aspect of Jesus and exaggerate it as the whole, and ignore the facts that bring balance, and thereby have a Christ for their cause.  W. A. Vissert Hooft, former president of the World Council of Churches, an author of numerous books, gives concrete examples of this abuse. 

     He writes, "...There is an 18th century Jesus who looks strangely like a dignified free‑mason, and a 19th century Jesus, who resembles in all essentials an enlightened democrat of the liberal variety.  There is the revolutionary Jesus of the Communist Barbusse, the pacifist of Tolstoy; the militant Jesus of the Kiser.  There is the Aryan Christ of H.S. Chamberlain and the "German Christians;" the Jewish Christ of the liberal Jews, the Russian Christ of Dostoievsky.  The Indian Christ of Radakrishman.  Some of these portraits are better than others.  Some are naive or cynical attempts to exploit Jesus for some cause which has no imaginable relation to his message and mission.  Others are attempts to honor him by bringing him into the closest possible relation to the concrete realities of our time.  All, however, reveal a tendency to use this man for some extraneous purpose which originates, not from him, but from some other source." 

     It is good for us to be aware of this as we study Jesus.  Wherever there is power there is exploitation and abuse, and in Jesus Christ there is great power, for even as a great man, apart from his deity, his influence is great.  If you can persuade others that Jesus backs your program and ideas, you have the best possible support.  Let us keep in mind, therefore, that Jesus Christ is the perfect man with perfect balance.  No cause has exclusive claim on Christ, nor does the advocate of any particular virtue.  Perfect balance must characterize any true study of the character and teaching of Jesus.

     Take the question of whether Jesus was manly or womanly in character.  Some authors will dwell exclusively on his strength and courage.  Others will magnify his compassion, gentleness, and loving care of children.  Both are right, but both are wrong if they imply their picture is the whole of Christ.  Jesus combines in his personality the ideals of both sexes.  Perfect manhood must combine the virtues of male and female.  How could Jesus be the example and standard for all if he had none of the feminine ideals in his character.  Westcott wrote, "Whatever there is in men of strength, justice, and wisdom; whatever there is in women of sensibility, purity, and insight, is in Christ without the conditions which hinder among us the development of contrasted virtues in one person."  Failure to keep this balance led to the feminine virtues of Jesus being forgotten in the Middle Ages.  Jesus was presented as just and severe.  Men longed for tenderness and compassion also, and the result was that Mary was exalted to provide these qualities.  Mariolatry could have been avoided had a full picture of Christ been presented to men.

     In reaction to the Christ of severity a pietistic Christ was developed.  Sentimentalism characterize the Christian, and Christ was made effeminate.  Men left the church to the women and children, for they sensed Christ had  nothing to offer to fulfill the masculine aspirations of life.  We are still suffering from this defective portrait today.  A balance view of Christ would reveal he is the perfect ideal of both the masculine and feminine.  He redeems the best in both.  Christ has done more to lift womanhood to a level of dignity and respect than all the religions of the world combined.  We should rejoice that Christianity is a woman's religion, for our mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters are women, and in Christ they can be the best of women.  Women feel that no man really understands their feelings, and they are probably right, but Jesus, the unique and perfect man, understands completely.

     There is no male and female in Christ, for he combines both in one complete whole.  This is why we see women following Jesus, and being loyal to him all the way even through his crucifixion.  It is good and wonderful that this is so, but men must also see the masculine Christ.  The Christ in our text could make such an impression on the officers sent to arrest him that they were afraid to lay hands on him.  When they reported back to the Pharisees without him, their reason was, "No man ever spoke like this man."  This is the testimony of his enemies.  They said he was the most unique of men.  He spoke with such authority, power, and certainty.  He was a leader of men and captured the allegiance of strong men like Peter, and zealous men like Simon the Zealot.  He offered men a challenge that called for the best that a man can be.  Jesus calls all men to heroism.  He calls him to take up the cross and follow him.

     The history of heroic men is the history of those who have followed Jesus Christ. Our first conviction about the manhood of Christ must be that he was unique. Not only did no man ever speak like him, no man ever lived like him. Grace N. Crowell wrote,

“One man alone to change the ways of men!

One humble man to draw the world to him!

Never before, nor will there be again His like‑

The stars made fade, and the sun's light dim,

And still no one will walk as once he walked,

Among the lowly, healing every ill,

And still no man will talk as once he talked,

To teach mankind to heed God's holy will.

Never a man like this‑no one at all

Moves as he moves within a circling light.

Head‑high above all others, straight and tall

He stands, imbued with power and with might.

He is the one, o men, who sacrificed

His life for ours‑‑the loving, living Christ.”

     It is when we see Jesus as one of a kind in his humanity that we most see the reality of his deity. He was the most unique of men.

2.     OUR EXCELLING EXAMPLE   Based on John 13:1‑17       

  You cannot imitate what you do not know.  Any parrot who learns to swear does not reveal its own character, but rather that of its owner and example.  To copy or imitate by definition implies an original to go by.  It is the original that determines the nature of the copy.  This concept is not limited to paper, metal and material objects.  It applies to human lives as well.  Practically all of life is an imitation of one philosophy or another, one principle or another, one person or another. 

       We are not living totally unique and original lives, for we are all following patterns that existed before, and they were lived by millions before we were born.  The better we are acquainted with the pattern the more we conform to it as a copy.  This, of course, explains why Christians can often be so unlike Christ, and so much like the world.  They are so much more acquainted with the world.  The example of the world is constantly before them, and they begin to imitate that pattern.  The example of Christ is one to which they are so seldom exposed that there is little chance for imitation. 

       The painter who would imitate Rembrandt, or the musician who would like to be a copy of Beethoven must immerse themselves in the works of these men.  They will succeed only to the degree that they know the original they seek to imitate.  It is obvious that this holds true for the Christian life as well.  How can we be Christ like if we do not know what He was like, and how He lived, and what He taught? 

       Every experience that life brings is an opportunity to imitate Christ, but how can we do so if we do not know how He would respond?  He had a home, He played, He worked, He went to school, He had joys and blessings, He faced embarrassment and trials, and He had social pressures.  He had to take a stand on social and political issues.  He lived a genuine involved and complicated human life filled with decisions, and it is worth all of the effort needed to become acquainted with His life.

       Before we launch out into this sea of living water we need to chart our way so as to stir clear of the island of liberalism that attracts so many as a landing spot, and from which they do not depart again.  What I am referring to is the fact that the liberal element as far back as the 18^th century has made much of Christ as an example.  They cannot be surpassed in their stress on Jesus being the supreme example of humanity.  It was a very attractive religion, but unfortunately, even though it was Christ centered, it was not Christianity.  It was because the Christ it exalted was divorced from His deity.  His example and teaching was isolated from His atonement, and this left Him as an example period, and not the Savior and Lord. 

        Understandably, the Evangelicals opposed this diluted theology, and stressed the atonement.  When ever the life of Christ was mentioned they would say, “Yes, but His death was more important.”  The result of this emphasis was a neglect of the lessons we are to learn from our Lord’s life.  James Stalker, the evangelical author of Christ Our Example, said, “It is time to object to these divisions.  Both halves of the truth are ours, and we claim the whole of it.”  Why should we be robbed of any of God’s precious truth in Christ just because it can be perverted and abused?  To let error have the monopoly on any truth is an evil, and a departure from God’s will.

        We cannot rightly ignore any part of inspired revelation.  It leads to the philosophy that says, “Ignorance is the mother of devotion.”  Certain truths are confusing to the people, and so the way to keep peace in the church is to keep people ignorant.  Such was the thinking of many in the past, and it worked.  There was only one casualty and that was the truth.  The result was a loss of true Christianity.   No amount of peace is worth that price.  As evangelicals we dare not yield to the temptation of ignoring and hiding any part of God’s Word just because it can be perverted.  Even the deity of Christ was once so exalted for the purpose of denying the reality of Christ’s humanity.  In fact, this was the first heresy in the early church.  No one could be so foolish as to ignore the deity of Christ just because it can be abused.  We are to hold forth all of God’s truth. 

       This long introduction is to clarify what we are doing.  We want it clear that what we will be studying is vital and important, and it is given by God for our instruction, but in itself it is an inadequate Christianity because Christ as our example will not save us.  We must know Christ as Lord, and we must yield our lives to Him as our Redeemer, for it is only from within the family of God that He is our example.  Once we become a child of God by accepting Christ as Savior there is no higher goal in life than to be like Him. 

        This is the witness of the whole New Testament.  “Learn of me,” “Follow me,” said Jesus.  “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ.”  “Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us.”  Jesus said, “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.”  All we do is to be a pattern of what Christ did.  Rom. 15:2 says, “Let everyone please his neighbor for his good to edification, for even Christ pleased not himself.”  Col. 3:13 says, “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”  When we can appeal to the example of Christ for any attitude or conduct we stand on solid rock, for what is Christ like is eternal. 

       And now to our text and to a specific case in which Jesus is our example.  This passage is a logical place to begin since no one can miss it.  Jesus states plainly in verse 15 that the purpose of His action was to give His disciples an example to follow.  We have here one of the most basic passages in the Word of God, for Jesus goes to special lengths to become an example of humility.  It doesn’t sound like such a big issue, but John tells us if all was written that might be about Christ, the world could not contain the books.  If half a chapter of his 21 can be devoted to this lesson on humility, that means it is certainly a major issue from God’s point of view. 

        Humility seems like such a dull virtue because of our misconceptions.  Like the Greeks and Romans, we don’t have much time for self-depreciation.  Like them we equate humility with weakness, cowardice and inferiority, and none of these are attractive.  All of these false concepts are shed quickly, however, when we look to Christ our example.  Humility is not stepping on yourself, or degrading yourself. Jesus never did either of these things. It is a surrendering of yourself to be most useful. Humility means availability. The humble man is not so wrapped up in himself that he is never available for the needs of others. Proud people are too busy with their own agenda, but humble people will take time out of their own pursuits to meet the needs of others. They are the volunteers who do not have to do it, but they do because it needs to be done.

        Did humility in Christ mean a low self-estimate?  Was Jesus like the Carthusian monk who was describing his little known order to a stranger saying, “As for learning, we are not to be compared to the Jesuits, when it comes to good works, we don’t match the Franciscans, as to preaching we are not in a class with the Dominicans, but when it comes to humility we are tops.”  Such a concept of humility is naturally laughable, for it means to specialize in inferiority.  If this was true humility, it would be an easy virtue to attain, for the only requirement would be to do nothing.  He who can most magnify his inability becomes the most humble.  This foolishness has no part in the humility of Christ.  No one has ever had such a high estimate of himself.  Jesus said, “A greater than Solomon is here.”  He said, “I am the light of the world.”  He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Me.” 

        Look at our text where Jesus is emphasizing His humility.  Does He lower His self-estimate?  Not at all.  In verse 13 He says that my calling me Lord and Master you are right.  That is just what made His act the highest example of humility.  It was His superiority which made His act of washing their feet a great example of humility.  It is not humility for a servant to do so, but it is for a master to do so.  He did not hold on to His superiority and fear to stoop lest He lose it.  True humility is to use all of your ability to serve.  It is false humility to say you cannot serve when you really are able.  True humility is to say I will stoop to do the job. 

       Humility is being strong and using that strength to lift the weak.  It is to wise and intelligent and using your gifts to teach the less fortunate that they might share the values of your advantage.  True humility does not say I am nothing, but it says I am something by the grace of God, and I can be used of God to help others be something as well.  Humility puts the best of men into the service of the rest of us that we all might be lifted to higher ground.  The disciples needed this virtue because they had the typical attitude that to be special and superior should put you in a privileged position of being served.  They wanted to reign and not serve, but Jesus made it clear that privilege and special ability is only of value when it is used to serve.

        Jesus is the greatest possible example of true humility.  He did not grasp at equality with God, but as Phil. 2:7-8 says, “But made of himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men....He humbles himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”  The greatest act of service in history was by the King of Kings when He died for the sins of the world.  Albert Schweitzer said, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.” Jesus laid down His life as an example of just how much He loves us, and there is no greater example of love than this in the universe. He is our excelling example.

        Someone has said that a good way to gain humility is to read the help wanted ads.  You will be surprised how many positions there are which you are too ignorant, too unattractive, or to old to fill.  This is the false and negative kind of humility.  We look to Christ as our example, and He teaches us a positive type of humility that says I have ability and blessings which I will use, not for self-glorification, but for the edification of others.  Christ like humility is a virtue of power and strength and not the popular concept of anemic withdrawal. 

        A Christ like definition of humility is, the willingness to give one’s self and any superiority he may have to the service of others.  The highest profession on earth, from God’s point of view, is to be a servant.  We haven’t begun to expound the text, but have just seen the over all purpose of it.  We want to look at one detail lest we have a misconception.  There are Christians who take this message literally in terms of the example Jesus used to teach His lesson.  They continue to wash one another’s feet in obedience to His words in verse 14.  It is certainly not wrong to do so, but it severely limits the application when the context makes it clear that the act was filled with a non-literal spiritual significance. 

       In verse 7 Jesus shows that His act is symbolic of a higher spiritual significance beyond the literal act of washing.  The question of verse 12 asks if they know what He has done.  Certainly they knew what He had done, but the meaning was what was important.  The washing of feet was just a method of demonstrating the principle of humility, and of the superior serving the lesser.  They could continue to use feel washing as a method of service because it was a real necessity and a part of their daily lives.  To continue it in our culture is not really a service, for we don’t need our feet washed when we are invited to eat with someone.  We do not wear sandals, nor do we set low on couches with our feet near our food and another.  It becomes a mere ceremony as an end in itself, and it can lead to the false view that one has fulfilled his obligation to be humble by doing so.  Jesus certainty did not take up such a large portion of revelation to teach us to wash one another’s feet.  He is teaching us to follow His example as a total way of life by giving ourselves to the service of others.  This is Christ like humility, and He is our excelling example.  

3.     HIS STEADFAST FACE  Based on John 19:1‑16

You never know when something embarrassing will happen to you.  We are constantly on guard, for we do not like to be humiliated.  Mrs. Howard Field was walking to a near by funeral home for the funeral of an old acquaintance when she saw an Easter bonnet that caught her eye.  She went in and purchased it.  She felt it was improper to carry it into the chapel, so she asked an usher to take care of it for her.  You can imagine her dismay when she saw it being placed on the coffin with the flowers.  At the grave site she hoped to recover it, but she was too embarrassed to do anything, and so she watched her new Spring hat lowered into the ground.  She hardly knew the woman being buried, but she was weeping as sincerely as the immediate family. 

     Her embarrassment was real but hidden.  In other situations we cannot hide, and we are embarrassed by what is beyond our control.  The poet gives an example:

I sat next to the Bishop at tea;

It was just as I feared it would be.

His rumblings abdominal

Were simply phenomenal,

And everyone thought it was me.

     Then there are the deliberate efforts to get a laugh at the expense of others.  It can be funny to embarrass others.  This is the motive behind roasts and many other types of humor.  We do this frequently as men.  It is part of our sense of humor.  Sometimes it borders on the cruel, however.  For example, Bernard Shaw was browsing in a secondhand book shop when he found a copy of one of his own books peeping out at him from a dusty shelf. He looked at the inside cover and found it was an autographed copy he had given to a friend.  He bought his own book just so he could return it to the friend with these words on the flyleaf‑ "With renewed compliments of Bernard Shaw."  You can imagine the embarrassment of the friend. 

     The desire to humble another can be just good fun, and when people are friends it can be good for a laugh, even for the one embarrassed.  But there is also sadistic side of this that we see dominating the whole scene of the trial of Jesus.  John chapter 19 is just one embarrassing scene after another as the church and state try to manipulate each other by means of humiliation.  Pilate represents the state.  He is the power of Rome, the secular Gentile state.  In the other corner of the ring are the chief priests and officials of Israel.

They are the church, or the religious establishment in the legal conflict over the issue if Jesus is worthy of being sentenced to death. 

     It is one of the greatest paradoxes of history that the state tried hard to release Jesus, but the religious leaders would not let the state do what was just, but used the power of humiliation to compel Pilate to send Jesus to the cross.  Let me share with you the clear facts of this great paradox of that pagan secular state trying to do the right thing, but the clever religious people thwarted justice, and manipulated the state to join them in the evil plot to officially murder the only perfectly innocent man who ever lived.

      Pilate was a pagan, but he knew when a man was innocent, and he knew Jesus was just such a man.  In fact, the Gospels tell us Pilate acknowledged seven times that Jesus was innocent.  We see three of them in our text.  In verse 4 Pilate said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing Him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against Him." In verse 6 he says it again, "As for me, I find no basis for a charge against Him."  In verse 12 we read, "Pilate tried to set Jesus free."  The Gospels confirm that Pilate found no fault in Jesus, and that he did seek to release Him.  Even his own wife had a dream about Jesus and warned Pilate not to sentence Him.  He tried every trick in the book to set Jesus free. He even gave the people a choice to let Barabbas or Jesus go free.  He thought for sure they would choose Jesus rather than a known violent killer, but they did not.

     The record is clear, Jesus was killed by religious people and not secular people.  The religious leaders forced Pilate to give the order to Crucify Jesus.  They embarrassed him into it.  Here were the people who had the promise of God to have a Messiah sent to them, and they demanded that the state put this Messiah to death.  There is no guarantee that in a conflict between the religious and secular that the religious will always be right and the secular wrong.  Pilate was a pagan but he was right.  Jesus was innocent of any crime.  So why did he give in and sentence Jesus to death?  It was because of the clever minds of the Jewish leaders.

     They knew that Pilate dreaded the thought of being embarrassed before the Emperor Tiberius Caesar.  It would be humiliating to have Caesar get a report that he had let a rival king live when the Jews were clamoring for His death in order to be loyal to Caesar.  Caesar was touchy about rivals as most tyrants are, and Pilate would feel more comfortable standing before him naked than with the charge against Him that He was a traitor in supporting a rival ruler.  The Jews knew this and they shout in verse 12, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.

     These hypocrites hated Caesar and would gladly see an opponent take his throne, but they knew this threat would be more than Pilate could defy.  They were right, and Pilate was humiliated into handing Jesus over to be crucified.  He played by their dirty rules to the end, however.  Even knowing Jesus was innocent, he had Him flogged and mocked, and presented to the Jews as a pathetic king.  He hoped to embarrass them by mocking their fear of Jesus.

     In verse 5 Pilate brings Jesus out to the Jews looking so pathetic with His crown of thorns and purple robe, and he says, "Here is the man!"  He was saying that here is the man you so fear.  He is really dangerous looking isn't He?  No wonder you want Him dead so bad.  He is so fierce and threatening.  But his plan did not work.  They were too cold hearted to slink away in embarrassment.  Pilate could not embarrass them to back off their plot.  They were harder‑hearted than himself, and he gave in instead.  But he got in the last punch in this battle to embarrass.  Verse 19 says Pilate had a notice fastened to the cross that read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."  The Jewish leaders protested, but Pilate would not give in on this, and he said, "What I have written I have written."  They were embarrassed by the message that they were killing their own king, but they went ahead in spite of it.

     Here is another paradox.  The Jews were as determined to get Jesus to the cross as He was determined to get there.  Jesus had set His face steadfastly to get to the cross, and not all the power of Satan and evil men combined could make Him swerve from this path.  But those who despised and rejected Him had the same goal, and they were equally determined. They would not let their law or Roman law stand in their way.  Compassion and justice meant nothing to them.  They were hard as steel, and nothing could stop them from getting Jesus to the cross. 

     The paradox is, you have the forces of evil and the forces of good aiming for the same goal, which was the cross.  Can evil and good have the same goal?  Of course they can. We see it all the time.  In every election we see good people and evil people fighting for the same candidate.   Even the Mafia wants a certain candidate to win, for they feel he is more likely to benefit them.  The drug dealers and pimps vote for someone too, for they feel that someone will be to their advantage.  Good and godly people can want the same candidate to win also, but for very different reasons, but both have the same goal and can be out supporting the same man.  The fight for freedom can mean freedom of religion, freedom of the press, but also freedom to use drugs, or practice anti‑social behavior, and so forces for freedom to do good or evil have the same goal.

     So we see Jesus and His opponents aiming for the same target‑the cross.  Their motives are radically different, of course.  Jesus is going to the cross because that is the only way He can atone for man's sin and reconcile man to God.  The Jews want Jesus on the cross to get Him out of their hair so they can go on with their legalistic religion that enables them to manipulate people.  A goal is not a bad one to aim for just because evil men aim for it as well.  The motive is what matters.  Jesus did not reason that these wicked leaders want me crucified, and so if that is the goal of evil men I must resist it and find another way.  On the contrary, Jesus sided with the evil Jews and did not give Pilate the support he needed to stand against them.

     Pilate is desperately searching for some way to get Jesus released.  He even violated Roman law in his efforts.  He had Jesus flogged and mocked as a an innocent man in hope of placating the Jews, but it didn't work.  Then he took Jesus back inside to talk privately, and Jesus refused to answer him.  Jesus was uncooperative with Pilate, not because He had anything against a man doing his best to be just and fair, but because He did not want Pilate to succeed in helping Him escape the hands of these wicked leaders.

     Jesus is our advocate, which means He is our lawyer before the court of God, and He pleads our case and seeks acquittal for us as guilty sinners.  But here He is being condemned as an innocent man, and He does not speak in His own defense.  Poor Pilate‑

his perfect prisoner is siding with his perverted prosecutors to assure His condemnation. Pilate did not have a chance.  He was embarrassing alone, for he was the only man who cared that Jesus was innocent.  All His disciples had forsaken Him, and there was not a single witness in His defense.  Jesus would not even defend Himself, and so Pilate gives in to what seems inevitable and condemns an innocent man to the cross. 

     Jesus embarrassed Pilate too by His refusal to cooperate, but Jesus also comforted Pilate and let him know that He understood his dilemma.  Jesus knew Pilate had no real choice, for Jesus would not let him save Him from the very goal He was determined to reach.  Even if Pilate could change the minds of the Jews he could never change the mind of Jesus.  He was going to the cross one way or another.  But notice the comfort Jesus gives him in verse 11.  Here is another paradox, for we see the prisoner comforting the judge who is about to sentence Him to death.  Don't feel too bad judge, its and awful thing you are forced to do, but the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of the greater sin. The choice you are making to condemn Me is wrong, but the real crime is in the hearts of those who are forcing you to do it.

     Jesus is saying that not all are equally guilty in this wicked plot.  Some are victims like Pilate.  Others are the master minds, and they will be held accountable for the greater evil. By so saying, Jesus is in essence telling Pilate I know you are the only good guy in this whole legal maze.  You can count on it, I will not hold it against you.  The prisoner is letting the judge off the hook.  Pilate knew this and fought like crazy to get Jesus released, but he could not do it.  The best he could do was to embarrass the wicked schemers who forced him to be a partner in their evil plot.

     The New Testament makes it clear, the primary guilt for sending Jesus to the cross falls on the Jewish leaders.  The evidence is overwhelming.  Yet the tragedy of this truth is that Christians have used it to promote anti‑Semitism.  Jews have been called Christ‑killers, and have suffered repeatedly at the hands of bigoted Christians who have the reasoning power of a cutting board.  To hate all Jews because of what the Jews did to Jesus is as foolish as holding all white men responsible for killing the Indians buffalo.  Crimes of folly and prejudice of the past are not pasted on through the genes making future generations guilty of those crimes.  Besides this, Jesus forgave from the cross even that generation who were fully guilty.  Anyone who holds any Jew responsible for the death of Jesus today is as blind as those Jews who really were guilty of history's greatest legal

injustice. 

     Some of history's greatest Christians were filled with prejudice against the Jews because they refused to let the spirit of Christ be their guide.  Luther, for example, was terribly anti‑Semitic.  It is easy to find plenty of New Testament evidence to support being anti‑Semitic toward that generation of Jews who crucified Jesus.  But to carry that attitude beyond that generation should embarrass the Christian.  If is does not, that Christian is exhibiting the very blindness that made the Jews who crucified Jesus so despicable. 

     What we need to see is that this hatred of Jesus by the Jewish leaders was His final hurdle to overcome to get to the cross.  This is where other men would fail.  I don't know about you, but I would have a hard time choosing to suffer one minute from a paper cut on the finger, let alone crucifixion, for people who so despised me.  This was the final test of the love of Christ.  Could He go through with the plan to die for men when they could be so cruel?  He could, and He did.  Here is the proof that love is the strongest power in the universe.  Hate met love in a head on collision, and love just kept on going pushing hate off the road.  They could not stop Jesus from loving them.  They were as cruel, brutal, and hard‑hearted as man is capable of being, yet Jesus did not call ten thousand angels to wipe them from the face of the earth.  He said,  "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."  Then He died for them that they might be forgiven and restored to fellowship with God.

     Their hate was as black as coal, but His love made them able to be made as white as snow.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, could stop Jesus from loving even the most unlovable of men.  We do not even know what love is until we study the love of Jesus and see the love of God reflected in His face.  In the Old Testament the highest source of glory was the awesomeness of God's glory in creation.  "The heavens declare the glory of God...."  But now in Jesus we  have a far greater glory.  The sun, moon, and stars are still wonders to behold, but the cannot give us the light we can get from the face of Jesus.  Paul says it in  II Cor. 4:6, "For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

     If you want to know how to think and act in any situation, look to the face of Jesus, and ask, what would Jesus do?  This is not always easy, but there is no better way for guidance for in the face of Jesus is all the light we need.  It  will lead us to choices and attitudes where love will conquer all the evil and prejudice we struggle with.  The face of Jesus was marred by unbelievable cruelty.  Verse 3 tells us the mocking soldiers used His face as a punching bag.  He was bruised and blackened, and the crown of thorns would send blood  running down His forehead.  Jesus knows what it is to be an abused person, and to be violently hurt by brute force for no good reason.  Yet we do not see His face bitter with resentment.  He was surrounded by faces of horrible hatred who with sadistic determination would not be satisfied until Jesus was crucified.  Yet the face of Jesus was calm with a love even more determined than their hatred.

     Fritzgerald asked Tennyson, as they looked at the marble busts of two famous men, "What is there in the face of Dante which is absent from the face of Goethe."  The poet responded, "The Divine."  The presence of God makes all the difference in the world, and that was what we see in the face of Jesus.

God of sun and stars and space,

We can your glory trace.

But your best we can embrace

In your Son's loving face.

     Jesus met every hate filled face with a look of determined grace.  If you want to know how to face life with all of its burdens and problems, turn your eyes upon Jesus and look into His face and you will receive the light you need to go the way that pleases God.  The face of Jesus becomes the sun of our spiritual solar system.  On the Mt. of Transfiguration the face that Jesus had for all eternity past, and which He will have for all eternity future, broke through His limited earthly face, and we read this in Matt. 17:2, "His face shown like the sun." 

     Jesus had to endure every indignity men could devise to embarrass Him and humiliate Him, and create on Him a face of bitterness.  They did make His face ugly and repulsive, but they could not, by their vile and violent behavior, wipe the light of love from His face. Christina Rossetti, the great poetess, wrote,

Is this the face that thrills with awe

Seraphs who veil their face above?

Is this the face without a flaw,

The face that is the face of love?

Yes, this defaced, lifeless clod

Hath all creation's love sufficed,

Hath satisfied the love of God,

This face the face of Jesus Christ.

     There is an old legend that when Adam was driven from the Garden of Eden he asked the angel who stood guard with flaming sword, what shall I bring back to God when I return?  The angel replied, "Bring him back the face in gave you in the garden, and I will let you in."  Sin had changed the face of man.  The inner corruption distorted his external features.  We see it full blown in the trial of Jesus.  The ugly hatred of man is seen at its worse.  In their rebellion against God they marred the face of His Son.  But Jesus refused to let the externals change His inner face.  He remained calm, loving, and endured it all that He might have a face worthy of entrance again for man into the paradise of God.

     Do you realize that the vision of the face of Jesus is one of the key blessings of heaven? In John 17:24 Jesus prayed, "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see My glory...."  The ultimate answer to this prayer is revealed in

Rev. 22:3‑4, "No longer will there be any curse.  The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him.  They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads." 

     The most beautiful face in the universe forever will be the face of Jesus, for this is the face that made it possible for man to return to paradise and to fellowship with God.  Man did his very worst to embarrass and shame the face of Jesus, but He came through with a face aglow with love.  Jesus passed the final test and refused to forsake the goal of the cross because of shame and embarrassment.  May our Lord's example motivate us to set goals in our service for God, and then pursue them like our Savior did with His steadfast face.

4.     THE GENTLE ENCOURAGER Based on Matt. 12:9,15‑21

   Harry Reichenback in the book World's Most Spectacular Hoaxes tells of his grand deception in promoting Francis Bushman.  Bushman was a small time actor in Chicago, but Reichenback was able to get his salary raised to a commanding figure.  He took Bushman to New York and carried 2000 pennies in his pockets. As they walked along 42nd street toward the Metro office he dropped handfuls of pennies.  At first only children came running to pick up the coins, but so conspicuous was the commotion that soon everybody was following them.  By the time they reached Metro the streets were milling with crowds.  When the officers of Metro looked out of the window they judged Bushman's popularity by the vast throngs that had followed him, and he received a 1000 dollar a week raise without an argument.  Reichenback confesses, "The fact was, not a living soul in the mob knew Bushman."

      Jesus was tempted to get mixed up in a clever scheme something like this in which he would exploit the crowds of his day.  The only difference is that he did not have to fake popularity  He could have the real thing.  Satan said to him, "Jump off the pinnacle of the temple and you will be preserved from injury."  Such a sensational stunt would have had the crowds clamoring after Jesus to be their king.  Satan had some great ideas for promoting the popularity of Jesus, but Jesus refused to give heed to any of his schemes.

      One of the strangest paradoxes of Scripture is that Satan sought constantly to promote the popularity of Jesus.  Satan wanted it shouted from the housetops that Jesus was the Son of God.  He wanted Jesus to be ruler over the kingdoms of men, and longed for a revolutionary movement in which the people would put Jesus on the throne as their king.  All through his ministry Jesus had to fight the efforts of Satan to promote his popularity, and derail him from his purpose.  Jesus did not hesitate to perform spectacular miracles for great crowds such as feeding the 5000. His healing ministry was not behind closed doors, but in public places.  Yet, there is the mysterious effort of Jesus to suppress an all out proclamation that he was the Messiah.  Jesus wanted this message saved until after his death and resurrection.

      People were coming to all kinds of conclusions about him.  Some said he was John the Baptist revived; others that he was Elijah or Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.  All agreed he had to be a great person, but only a few knew he was the Son of God.  After Peter said, "Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God," we read in Matt. 16:20, "Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ."  Jesus deliberately suppressed the fact that he was God in human flesh.  Jesus was over 30, and so 30 Christmas' have already gone by, and no one had ever celebrated one of the greatest event in human history.  It was because Jesus did not permit this good news of the incarnation to be proclaimed. 

      Jesus even had to use his supernatural authority over demons to keep them from blabbing the greatest news on earth.  In Mark 3:11 the unclean spirits cry out, "You are the Son of God."  In verse 12 we read, "And he strictly ordered them not to make him known."  Jesus was the first person to try and silence the preaching of his deity.  Friend and foe; disciples and demons, were anxious to make it known, but Jesus was always telling them to be quiet concerning his true identity.  We haven't looked at all the occasions on which Jesus urged people to hold down on the publicity concerning him.  It is frequent enough to be conspicuous.

      What is behind this mysterious behavior which we see again in our text?  It seems so strange and even senseless, for verse 14 tells us that the Pharisees were taking council to kill him.  Verse 15 says that great multitudes followed and he healed them all.  Then verse 16 hits us with a strange charge that they not make him known.  Who in the world was left to tell?  This is like trying to hide the sun.  The whole nation was either out to kill him, or receive life from him.  Great multitudes were following him, so it is obvious that the cat is out of the bag.  Somebody has already let it slip that Jesus is where the action is.  He was the most popular person in Israel, yet he never stopped trying to prevent further promotion. Even when the fire of his fame was raging uncontrollably across the Judean landscape, he still tried to throw a wet blanket on the desire to make him known.

     Did Jesus ever do anything more mysterious and unusual than this?  I know of nothing to match it, and if it was not for Matthew we might never have guessed why Jesus did it.  In verse 17 Matthew tells us that the motive behind this behavior of Jesus was to fulfill prophecy.  This is the largest Old Testament quotation in Matthew, and it reveals to us the quality of character the Messiah was to exhibit to be pleasing to God.  It matches the manner of his birth.  Such a humble way for any child to be born, but how much more so for the Son of God?  Such a humble beginning implies that his purpose in life was not to be showmanship.  No spectacular calling of attention to himself, but rather, obscurity was to characterize most of the life of Jesus.  When he did begin his public ministry it was with no ambition to be a mighty leader with masses bowing before him.  He had all the potential of being the great rabble rouser who could have stirred his people to follow him in conquest.  Jesus did not exploit that potential, for that was not his purpose.

     Jesus intended to conquer, but not like any other conqueror who had ever lived. His method was sheer folly to the world and still is today, but Jesus goes on reigning while the mighty mock him and then disappear into the dust of oblivion. No strategy, they say, could be more stupid than that of recruiting the weak and the poor, the sick and the oppressed. Jesus let his enemies capture him and crucify him while he wasted his time with the misfits of society. Hitler knew better that this, and so does every tyrant who ever lived. They know you get rid of the weak and the deformed, for they are hindrances to victory. People only count when they are powerful and can help the cause. The rest can be eliminated. This is a practice commonly practiced by tyrants.

     Nature is pointed to as a justification for this strategy. Nature eliminates the weak. The survival of the fittest is a law of nature, and men who have no higher revelation than what they see in nature are led to act on the level of the brutes. The Christian does not look to nature, but to the author of nature, who made man in his image, and of infinite value above the world of nature. Persons are not just animals, but are the creatures with the potential for partaking of the divine nature, and, therefore, they are to be treated with dignity and respect however weak they may be.

      Armed with this view of man, the Son of God entered human history with a totally unique strategy for conquering the world.  He would not use force and destructive weapons to crush the weak and helpless, but would stress gentleness and encouragement of the weak.  Military men have always mocked, and will continue to mock this strategy of the prince of peace right up until the victory, and the meek inherit the earth.  All other conquers come with great noise and commotion, but Jesus seeks to conquer quietly. 

     Verse 19 says he will not strive nor cry, nor will any man hear his voice in the streets.   Jesus was not a rabble rouser, and one who went looking for an encounter with those opposed to him.  He did not stand in the streets and denounce  his opponents.  In verse 15 we see that when he knew his opponents were out to get him he withdrew himself.  He had no desire for a noisy showdown.  He was a man of peace who would retreat to avoid trouble if necessary.  The Hebrew word in this quote from Isaiah means that he will not scream under excitement.  So many when they are unjustly attacked become loud and boisterous, and begin to denounce their attackers, but Jesus calmly slipped away.  On the positive side it was the same.  Many who draw crowds and do a great work want to crow about it to the world.  Jesus was not interested, but would slip away in silence, and ask his praising fans to join him in this virtue, and not make him known.

      It was just a part of the character of Christ.  He was not interested in the power of noise.  He was interested in the superior power of silence and gentleness.  Men have gone far by arrogant boasting, and shouting in the streets, but they were not going the same direction as Jesus.  Deep and lasting power cannot be based on noise.  Truth works quietly like the silent power of the sun. An unknown poet wrote‑

How silently the great stars shine,

How silently the dawn comes in,

How silently in forest depths

The oak to massiveness doth win.

The noblest powers are quiet all,

And He who comes the soul to greet,

He shall not strive, He shall not cry,

Nor shall His voice sound in the street.

      The Speaker's Bible says here, "The mission of Jesus was to save rather than destroy, to build up rather than to pull down.  His method was not that of the axe and hammer, but of the slow working leaven and the seed growing silently.  And his strength lay not in heroic courage or desperate activity, but in the gentleness of an exhaustless love and in the patience of a divine pity."  This gentleness and pity is so vividly portrayed in verse 20.  Who in all history has ever been so gentle and soft hearted that he would not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick? Jesus was an extremist in gentleness, even when we recognize that literal reeds and wicks are not meant, but rather, weak, broken, wounded and despairing people.

       When Jesus encountered a person who was badly bruised, such as the shameful woman who wiped his feet with her hair, his word of condemnation could have broken her, but instead, he treated her with gentleness, and she was healed.  Martin Luther wrote, "He does not cast away, nor crush, nor condemn the wounded in conscience, those who are terrified in view of their sins; the weak in faith and practice; but watches over them and cherishes them, makes them whole and affectionately embraces them."  A bruised reed is a symbol of what is weak and worthless, and of no use to anyone.  What everyone else would break, Jesus seeks to save and restore to usefulness.

      Jesus was not one who needs to see great fire, or he gives up.  Even if there is only smoke, he will take interest and seek to rekindle the flame.  Most people have a tendency to want to give up and dump people when they cease to burn brightly, but Jesus will shelter that smoldering wick, and by gentle encouragement seek to fan a spark of fire into a renewed flame.  Jesus specializes in those that others give up on and forsake.  The Spartans killed the sickly and deformed, and Plato was all for exterminating the weak.  But for Jesus no human being is to be broken, no matter how maimed in body or spirit.  Not even a sparrow falls without God's notice, and of how much more value is even the weakest of men? 

      Jesus came into history with a special ministry to the weak, needy, and oppressed.  In Matt. 11:28‑29 we read his own commentary on his character of gentle encouragement.  Jesus said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."  This sounds like slushy sentiment to the self‑sufficient worldly person, but to the wise such gentleness is the greatest power on earth.  Someone said, "Gentleness!  More powerful than Hercules."  Henry Martyn, the great missionary, said, "The power of gentleness is irresistible."  Jesus knew this and still does, and that is why he refused to be a noisy rabble rousing leader.  His power was in gentleness.

      That is why the Lamb of God is such an appropriate symbol of Christ.  That is why the dove is such an appropriate symbol of the Holy Spirit.  The world, and often even Christians, feel that the only way to conquer in any battle is with noise and force.  The Prince of Peace entered history to demonstrate the folly of this strategy, and set in motion a ministry of gentle encouragement that would conquer the world.  Men who count for time and eternity are men who exhibit the character of Christ in this respect.

      Abraham Lincoln as a young lawyer rode the circuit with a party of friends who were also lawyers.  One day as they rode past a grove of trees they noticed a baby bird which had fallen from its nest and lay fluttering by the roadside.  After they had gone a short distance Lincoln said, "Wait for me,  I will be right back."  He turned around, rode back to the helpless bird, and tenderly took it up and put it on the limb near the nest.  When he rejoined the group one of them laughingly asked, "Why did you bother yourself and delay us with such a trifle as that?"  Lincoln respond, "My friend, I can only say this‑that I feel better for it.  I could not have slept tonight if I had left that helpless creature to parish on the ground."  It is no wonder that God used Lincoln to perform a multitude of compassionate deeds that made him the most kind and gentle president of our nation.

      Gentleness is equivalent to greatness according to God's judgment.  Jesus in whom all power in heaven and on earth resided was the most gentle of men born of woman.  Yet his birthday and the seasons surrounding it is often characterized by roughness, pushing, and shouting.  We live in constant tension, and everyone bears a burden, but few are kind and gentle.  Observe people in stores and you will see why the world is in turmoil.  A grandmother looking at a toy horse asked two clerks coming back from their break if there was a box for the toy.  "O no" one said  indifferently.  The frustrated grandmother cursed and threw the horse into the toys breaking the wheel off the bottom.  A frustrated husband following his wife sees her slip down an isle to look at something which he feels is irrelevant to their purpose.  In anger he forgets he is in public and shouts at her,  "You get sidetracked so often you don't know which end is up," and he heads for a different destination in a huff.  These are normal daily events in the life of the average American.  What nobody needs is more of the same.

      What everybody needs is the gentle and kind concern and encouragement of Christlike character.  It is very little honor to Christ to celebrate his birthday and not exhibit his character.  May God help us to be among those who put Christ in Christmas by being Christlike toward others.  This will be a powerful witness that will encourage people to consider Christ seriously as their Lord and Savior.  Gentle encouragement will win trust as it did for Christ. 

       A Christlike character is the greatest gift you can give to the world.  Christians sometimes doubt the power of gentleness, but history clearly supports it.  Henry Morehouse, a young preacher began his ministry among miners in North England.  Ike Miller, a rough and wicked man who threatened to break up the service came to hear him.  He preached on the love of Christ.  When the meeting was over some of the old men gathered around him and expressed their regret that he didn't preach right.  You should have warned him of his dreadful danger, and frightened him for his wickedness.  That soft sort of preaching on love won't do him any good.

       Meanwhile, the big miner had entered his home and called his wife and children whom he had often abused in his drunkenness.  He knelt down and prayed the only prayer he had ever heard in distant days from his mother.  "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon a little child; pity my simplicity, suffer me to come to thee."  There was only one cord left in his hard heart and gentleness touched it, and he awoke to salvation.  Men have been won by other methods, but none has been more effective than the Christlike method of being a gentle encourager. The coming year, and every year will be a better year if we exhibit gentle encouragement in relation to all whom God will bring across our path.

5.     THE ANGRY KING Based on Matt. 21:1‑17       

     Boleslaus II was the king of the Polish Monarchy, but he didn't like the job.  One day while hunting he slipped away from his companions and disguised himself as a common laborer in marketplace.  He hired the use of his shoulders for carrying burdens for a few pence a day.  A search was made, of course, and when his majesty was found there was an indignant cry among the elite that he should debase himself by so vile an employment.  He responded that the weight he bore in the marketplace was nothing compared to the crown. He said he slept more in the last four nights than during all his reign.  He told them to choose whom they would to be king, for he was through with the madness.  He was forced, however, against his will to return to the throne and reign. 

     In his book Royalty In All Ages, Thiselton‑Dyer tells of many kings in history who have longed to get out from under the crown and escape from the robes of royalty, and live among the common people.  In contrast to this, Jesus was a king who all His life lived among the common people, and only at the end did He ever wear a crown, and then it was a lowly crown of thorns.  Jesus was born king of the Jews, but all His life He managed to do what so many kings have tried to do and failed.  He managed to disguise Himself and dwell among the people, and learn of their needs and longings in life.  No son of royalty ever got to know his people better than did the Royal Son of David.  He not only lived among them, he was one of them.

     There were times in His public ministry when the crowds were so excited about His miracles that they tried to take Him by force to make Him king, but Jesus avoided this.

Right up to the final week of His life Jesus remained a king in disguise totally removed from all that had to do with royalty.  Palm Sunday, however, brings us to that one day, at the beginning of His final week, where He removes the disguise and proclaims Himself to be the king‑the Royal Son of David; the promise Messiah, and the King of Israel.  This act did not sever his roots from the soil of the common man, however.  In fact, everything about Palm Sunday exalts the common man, and everything common.  Jesus  never became a royal snob who looked down on any man.  The very way in which He rode into Jerusalem revealed Him to be a king of the common people, and not one who would cater to the elite and powerful.

     Jesus did not ride into the holy city on a noble Arabian stallion to appeal to the military like any other king would do.  Instead, He rode on a colt.  Matthew tells us this was to fulfill the prophecy of Zech. 9:9 which says, "Tell ye the daughter of Zion, behold, thy King cometh unto thee meek, and riding upon a donkey and upon a colt a foal of a donkey."  Jesus did not come as a king of war, but as a king of peace.  He came in the tradition of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  They were not men of war like the kings of Israel. They were men of peace.  Only once was Abraham forced into military action.  Jesus too was forced into violent action on this occasion, but primarily the Patriarchs and He were  men of peace.

     The colt was symbolic of the fact that Jesus was a king of peace, and a king of the common people.  Jesus is a king who exalts the lowly, and the poet describes even the donkey responding to those who mock his worthless hide. 

Fools!  For I also had my hour;

     One far fierce hour and sweet;

There was a shout about my ears,

     And palms about my feet.

     The Apostles that Jesus chose were common men, and if you check the backgrounds of the great men He has used in history, you will find lowly tinkers like John Bunyan and William Carey, or shoe salesman like D. L. Moody, or the great Scottish preacher Alexander Whyte who was born out of wedlock.  He was unwanted by men, but Jesus wanted him and used him, for he was, and is, the king of the unwanted.  And it was because he did care for the common man that he was so angry on that first Palm Sunday.  Jesus was very seldom angry, but on this occasion He was so filled with righteous indignation that He could not be content to give only a verbal lashing to the offenders as He had done before. Here we see Jesus engaged in violent action to express His anger.

     Before we examine the cause of this unusual display of emotion, it is important that we note first of all that nobody was hurt by Jesus.  There was no injury inflicted upon any man or animal.  Jesus upset some of the furniture, and drove out those who were corrupting the house of worship, but there is no hint of any suffering He inflicted.  It is important to note this so that we do not link His action with any kind of revolutionary tactics that destroy, injure, and kill.   No such violence can be justified by pointing to this passage of an angry king.  The only thing Jesus hurt was the pride and pocketbook of these corrupters.  The only blood Jesus ever shed was His own.  Keeping this in mind avoids misconceptions where this passage can be abused by justifying violence.

     The anger of Jesus was the righteous anger of a king who saw a system which deprived His people of their right to worship, and robbed them of what little wealth they possessed.  If there is anything that is clear in Scripture, from one end to the other, it is the fact that God despises any system which discriminates and is a respecter of persons.  God will not tolerate injustice to the common man.  When Jesus saw the corruption that had developed in the temple, it made His royal blood boil, and He struck a blow for the rights of the people.  Jesus started the long history of the battle for the common man to have equality, and religious and economic freedom.  If you study the history of social reform and civil rights, you will discover that most of the great leaders have been men and women who acknowledge this angry king as their Lord and Master.

     We only have this one portrait of Jesus in anger, but it is all we need to tell us how he looked upon injustice.  It gives us a balanced picture of the perfect man.  We see He cannot truly be perfect by being always kind and gentle.  There are times in life when a just man encountering injustice must in anger strike a blow to stop it, or be guilty of the sin of omission.  It would be a sin to see evil and not try to stop it if you had any power to do so.  Jesus as the king of Israel now had the authority to cleanse the temple of its racketeers, and He does so.  This angry act of indignation is a clear evidence that Jesus is declaring Himself the King of Israel.  He was the highest authority in the land. Doubtless,

it was a shock, not only to the money changers and officials of the temple, but to His own Apostles. Many would be frightened by His anger, and they would want to give this advice.

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,

Why have you suddenly gone so wild?

If its true the house of prayer

Has been corrupted anywhere,

Why not go through regular channels,

Appoint a committee‑discuss it on panels.

If you continue this stepping on toes,

You'll create for yourself a host of foes,

And a future filled with many woes.

     Jesus knew that this show of authority would lead Him straight to the cross, for it was an attack on the establishment.  He made a whole new group of enemies by this action of anger.  Before this cleansing of the temple the priests had little to do with Jesus.  The Pharisees were His primary enemies, for He violated their legalistic system, and debated their interpretations.  Later the Saducees began to oppose Him because He became a political nuisance.  But now, after He invaded the realm of priestly authority, He brought their wrath upon Him also.  Luke tells us about after the cleansing in Luke 19:47.  "The chief priests and the scribes and the principle men of the people sought to destroy Him." Their only problem was the crowds of common people who loved Him, and this made the leaders afraid.  Jesus was a hero king among the masses.

     For Jesus to deliberately oppose all of the authority of Israel, and, thereby, to guarantee a departure for Himself out of the world, He had to have a very good reason for what He did.  Jesus had always lived a balanced life.  He was not a fanatic.  A fanatic becomes all excited about things which are really of no great importance.  Jesus is not angry over some mere triviality here, but issues of basic importance.  He could deal calmly with people who had fallen into personal sin, but here was organized sin.  It was deliberate and planned injustice, and no righteous man can look upon an evil system and remain calm.

     In the first  place, the whole system of selling sacrifices turned the court of the Gentiles into a stable instead of a place of worship and prayer.  Jesus quoted from Isa. 56:7 where the prophet said, "...For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."  Jesus said this ideal was not fulfilled because the court of the Gentiles had been turned into a den of robbers.  The racket of selling and changing money, and the noise of animals made it impossible for the Gentiles to have a place of reverence for prayer and worship.  Business had pushed worship right out the door, and God's purpose in the temple was being destroyed by greed. 

     This discrimination against the Gentiles, and the indifference of the Jewish leaders to their rights to a place of worship, made Jesus angry.  He had come into the world to be the Savior of all men.  He came to die for the sins of the world.  He was to be a universal Savior and king, and it gripped Him to see the temple of His Father being used to discriminate against the Gentiles.  This cleansing of the temple was just temporary and Jesus knew it.  He knew the corruption would continue and that the temple would have to be destroyed.  But He spoke of a new temple, the temple of His body.  Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up said Jesus.  As the Son of God and as the King of Israel, He was going to fulfill God's purpose for the temple in His own body.   He would create a temple which would truly be for all people.  Jesus would fulfill the ideals God had for Israel, but which they failed to accomplish.  They were to be a channel by which God would reach the whole world with His plan of salvation.  They forgot why the court for the Gentiles was there in the first place.  They let their greed for profits destroy the purpose of God.

     Another thing that made Jesus angry about the whole setup was the fact that it robbed the common people of their money.  The animals and birds sold for sacrifices had to be bought with special temple money, and to get it you had to exchange your regular money for it.  The fact that Jesus called it a den of robbers makes it clear that they were gypping the people in the exchange.  They had a monopoly and nobody could do anything about it. Many people may think that Jesus was too other worldly to be concerned about economic matters, but this is not so.  Jesus was very concerned about money.  When people's money was taken from them unjustly, or with  inadequate return, it made Him angry.  God's wrath fell on Israel in the Old Testament because of unfair business practices.  In the second chapter of Amos we read, "Because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes‑they trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth‑and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined."  Like Father, like Son‑ the very things that made God angry in the Old Testament make His Son angry in the New Testament.

     King Jesus was going to establish a temple and a religion which no longer depended on sacrifice, or any material objects that had to be purchased.  He would end the sacrificial system by His own sacrifice, which was once for all, and which would abolish forever the need for sacrifices.  There is no longer any need for special things or special places to worship God.  All that is necessary under the kingship of Christ is free.   Never again would the common man need to depend upon a human system to worship God and gain His best.  It is true that clever men were still able to keep the masses in ignorance about this liberty in Christ.  They would set up again many corrupt systems even in the church.  The church became a den of robbers many times, but the fact remains that the angry king set us free from all man made systems of corruption.  That is why it is so vital that the Bible be kept available to the common man in all the world. 

     Verse 14 shows that Jesus gave His service to the people without charge.  He healed them freely.  He could have set up a booth and made a fortune for His healing, but there is not one record of Jesus ever accepting a payment for any of His miracles of healing.  He  was the king of the common man‑a king who came to set them free from the bondage of sin, and all of the man made burdens of religion.  That is what makes Palm Sunday a day for rejoicing.  John Wesley wrote,

Rejoice, the Lord is king, your Lord and king adore;

Mortals give thanks and sing, and triumph evermore.

Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;

Rejoice, again I say, rejoice.

     The leaders of Israel rejected His kingship and plotted to crucify Him.  They did not realize that the cross was the road by which Jesus planned to ascend to the throne as universal king.  He said, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men to Me."  The cross is where He gained the right to be the king of all men, for there He did what no other king could do for men.  He died for their sin and set them free.  He is the King of Kings because He is the Lord of Liberation.  He, and He alone, can save kings, for He alone has defeated the kingdom of darkness and death which has power over kings as well as all other men.

     He alone deserves the allegiance of all men, for He is the only king who ever lived that made it possible for all men to enter the realm of royalty.  John said, "But to as many as received Him to them He gave the power to become the sons of God."  What other king ever invited the masses of common men to join His royal family and become joint heirs with Him.  There is no other king like Jesus, and that is why God exalted Him to the throne of the universe, and gave Him a name above every name.

The head that once was crowned with thorns

Is crowned with glory now;

A royal diadem adorns

The mighty Victor's brow.

The highest place that heaven affords

Is His by sovereign right;

King of kings and Lord of lords,

He reigns in perfect light.

     Scripture says He must reign until all enemies are put under His feet.  In other words, the glorious king is still an angry king as he was on that first Palm Sunday.  He is still fighting against those who hinder the progress of His kingdom.  What does the king want? He wants what God has always wanted.  He wants us to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.  He is a king of relationships, and not one of pomp and ceremony.

      Justinian had a great church built in Constantinople.  It required ten thousand masons to build it.  Marble was ransacked from the whole Roman Empire.  Justinian walked through the completed church on the day of its dedication in the year 538.  He exclaimed, "Solomon, I have surpassed thee."  He had, and it was the supreme expression of Byzantine art, say many scholars.   But is that what the King of Kings really wanted according to His own actions on Palm Sunday?  What our king wants is for us to make Him Lord in our lives, and to look upon all people as He did.  The Christian who sees people with compassion, and longs to be a part of the answer that leads them into a relationship with God in Christ, has caught the message of Palm Sunday.  If you want to be great in the eyes of your king, you will be a servant, and minister to the needs of people in all classes.  If you do this  you will please your king, and in relationship to you, He will never be an angry king. 

6.     THE MASK OF THE MASTER    MARK 1:21‑28

  There is an old story called the magic mask.  It is about a powerful lord who ruled over a great domain who became so hard and cruel that ugly lines deepened into his face.  On a tour of his country one day he saw a surprisingly beautiful girl, and he longed to take her as his wife.  But he was appalled as he looked into the mirror and saw the hard and cruel lines in his face.  He could never win her love with such a face, and so he called for a magician to make him a mask of thin wax that would make him look kind and loving.  The artist agreed to do it if he promised to pray daily to the God of love to change his heart and make him loving toward his subjects. He said he would and the mask was made.  The lovely girl became his wife, and they enjoyed a remarkable period of peace and prosperity.  He became a truly loving ruler, and the people marveled at the change in him.

     He finally became so bothered by his deception of the wife he loved so dearly that he begged the magician to remove the magic mask.  It was with fear and trembling that he then went to the mirror.  But to his delight he did not need the mask any longer because the ugly lines on his face were gone.  His changed heart and spirit had changed his face, and he had a loving face even without the mask. 

     We all have to wear a mask at times to hide the ugliness of our negative spirit.  If we let people see all that we are all of the time, it would not be a pretty sight, and so we mask ourselves and put on a good front that is pleasant and acceptable.  In contrast to many Halloween masks that are put on to scare people with their grotesque faces, we put on a mask to protect people from the real scariness in us. Only God can see us totally naked in our soul and still love us.  We need to mask some of who we are to be acceptable on the human level.  So wearing a mask of some sort is very common.

     The proof of this is that Jesus Himself, the sinless Son of God, wore a mask.  Jesus hid His identity as long as He could, and did so in a very conspicuous manner.  The first thing we need to do to get to the bottom of this mystery of the Master's mask is to establish that there is, in fact, a mystery.  Let's begin by looking at‑

1.  THE REALITY OF THE MASK.

     The first hint we have of this mask is the encounter Jesus has with the demonized man in the synagogue.  When the evil spirit in this man cried out at Jesus, "I know who you are‑the Holy One of God," Jesus did not say, "Speak up, this is just the kind of publicity I need right now."  Instead, He said, "Be quiet!"  Other translations have it, "Shut up!"  He stopped this positive testimony to His identity, and cast the evil spirit out.  Now if this was just an isolated incident we could ignore it and not try to read anything into it of significance.  But this was just the beginning of a pattern Jesus followed. 

     Notice verse 34:  "And Jesus healed many of various diseases.  He also drove out many demons, but He would not let the demons speak because they knew who He was."   I can see if He would not let them speak because they didn't know what they were talking about, but it says He would not let them because they did know what they were talking about.  The demons could identify Jesus, and so He stopped them,

for He was not ready to take off His mask and be known for who He was. 

     Even two such mysterious incidents could be over looked as a possible idiosyncrasy of Mark, but when we see Jesus going out of His way many times to protect His identity, then we have to face up to the reality of His mask.  Look at verses 43‑45.  Jesus had just cured a man of leprosy.  It was a marvelous miracle, and one that could bring a lot of publicity.  But note the response of Jesus.  "Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning."  Note, it was not a polite suggestion, it was a strong warning.  And the warning was, "See that you don't tell this to anyone."

      You would think that whatever His reason for trying to keep His identity a secret, that those whom He healed would be grateful enough to cooperate with Him.  But one of the paradoxes of the Gospel account is these very people that Jesus warned and begged to keep His secret were the biggest blabber mouths in His life. This man went out and spread the word and the result was Jesus could no longer enter a town openly.  He had to stay out in lonely places it says.  His life was negatively affected by this very man who received new life from Him.  Jesus did him life's biggest favor, and in return he made life miserable for Jesus. 

     But the mystery is, why did Jesus want to keep His identity a secret so bad that He worked at it overtime?  We will try to solve this mystery after we demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt the reality of the mystery of the Master's mask.   We have only looked at the first chapter.  What if we can show that Jesus kept up this battle to hide His identity over and over again?  Let's look at chapter 3:11‑12.  "When ever the evil spirits saw Him they fell down before Him and cried out, you are the Son of God.  But He gave them strict orders not to tell who He was." 

     Jesus was perpetually trying to keep evil spirits from telling who He was.  Evil spirits were especially a threat because they knew His identity perfectly.  The mask did not fool them at all.  His whole incarnate body did not hide from them the reality that He was the eternal Son of God.  He had to use His authority as Lord over the spirits to keep their mouths shut and maintain His secret.  People were guessing all sorts of things about Jesus.  Some said He was John the Baptist, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.  In spite of all the blabber mouth spirits Jesus was succeeding to fool everybody with His mask. 

     Jesus has just raised a little girl from the dead, and all who saw it were astonished and we read in 5:43, "Jesus gave them strict orders not to let anyone know about this.."  In this case Jesus was able to suppress His wonder working power.  It is one of the few occasions where He succeeded to get the cooperation of others.  But look at 7:36, where after He healed a deaf man, it says, "Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone.  But the more He did so, the more they kept talking about it." 

     Jesus had a terrible time trying to keep His mask on.  But in spite of almost consistent disobedience to His wishes, He was able to keep people guessing.  They did not really know who Jesus was.  Elijah or one of the prophets were popular guesses, but then one day Jesus asked Peter who do you think I am?  Peter gave his great confession in Mark 8:29:  "You are the Christ."  Peter was the first to acknowledge that Jesus was the Messiah.  He saw beneath the mask of this wonder worker, and knew this was the Messiah.  You would think Jesus would then end His masquerade, but not so.  In the very next verse Mark 8:30 we read, "Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about Him." 

     This was no game with Jesus.  He has been very seriously avoiding exposure of His true identity through His whole ministry.  One of the greatest mysteries of the life of our Lord is that He was the primary hindrance to people knowing He was the long awaited Messiah.  Don't blame the devil for this or his demons.  Don't blame the Pharisees or the fickle masses.  The facts are clear:  Jesus wore a mask and prevented the knowledge that He was the Messiah from spreading.  What few people did come to that conclusion, He warned to keep quiet.  All the demons that would have proclaimed it, He silenced.  The number one cause why Jesus was never received by Israel as their Messiah was Jesus Himself.  His disciples were instructed to keep it quiet.  Now if this is not a mystery to beat all mysteries, I don't know what a mystery is.  There can be no question about the reality of the Master's mask.  But now we need to seek an answer to this mystery, and look at‑

II.  THE REASON FOR THE MASK.

     It is real all right, but why in the world would the Messiah Himself be the primary suppresser of the good news that the Messiah had arrived?  He was the answer to millions of prayers, and now that all these prayers were finally answered, Jesus would not let the people know by taking off His mask and proclaiming, "Look!  It's me, the Messiah!"  He never did that, and it was all clearly a part of a pre‑conceived plan. 

     It was His intention that only a few would ever see behind His mask and know without a doubt that He was the Messiah.  He only took Peter, James, and John up to the Mt. of Transfiguration where they saw Jesus glow with the light of deity, and talk with Moses and Elijah, and hear the voice of God saying, "This is my Son whom I love.  Listen to Him."  None but these three had such clear evidence of who Jesus was, but they were not allowed to share this unique experience with anyone.  Mark 9:9 says, "As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead."  The next verse says they kept the matter to themselves.  The secret of Jesus was to be kept until after His resurrection, and so His own disciples were muzzled. 

     Obviously we are dealing with a major strategy in the whole purpose of Christ coming into this world.  Keeping His identity a secret is a vital part of the plan of salvation.  And it really does make sense when you think about it.  If Jesus would have taken off the mask and let the whole world know the truth of who He was, there is no way He could have ever been sacrificed for our sins.  No Jew could ever dream of killing the Messiah.  If He had permitted this message to be broadcast over the land, He would have been followed with such enthusiasm that there would be no chance of Him being despised and rejected of men, and offered as the Lamb of God for the sin of the world.  Even the Pharisees and Saducees would have been willing to die for Him. 

     So Jesus had to do what the Messiah was to do and fulfill the Old Testament prophecies.  Yet, at the same time keep it hidden that He was, in fact, the Messiah.  What we have here is the mystery of concealed revelation.  He was ever revealing  that He was the Messiah by doing what only the Messiah could do, yet ever keeping it a secret that He was the Messiah.  He was like the Lone Ranger, and people were always wondering, who is that masked stranger.  Jesus never took off the mask, and so there was always the mystery in people's minds:  Yes He seems like the Messiah, yet we do not know if He really is.  He does not say I am the Messiah.  He seems like He might be, yet maybe He isn't.  This was Jesus succeeding as the popular, yet hidden Messiah. 

     Why such a strange strategy?  It was the only way Jesus could have it both ways. He could be the Messiah, and yet be also the suffering servant who would die for the sin of the world.  It was cleverness on the highest level.  Jesus had to work hard for the chance to die for us.  The demons sought to destroy the plan of God by trying to expose Jesus.  Disobedient people also tried to foul up His plan by their spreading the news that He must be the Messiah.  Fortunately, His disciples did cooperate with Jesus, and they went along with the secret.  This seems so crazy.  The demons were preaching the deity of Christ, and the disciples were suppressing it, and it all makes sense.  If Jesus would have become only the Messiah of Israel, He could not have become the Savior of the world. 

     So what we  have here is Jesus sacrificing the good for the better.  He had to wear His mask and keep His identity as Messiah a secret in order to achieve a far greater goal of being the redeemer of the whole lost race of man.  If Jesus had had the limited goal of saving only Israel, then none of this mystery would have been necessary.  He would have proclaimed Himself Messiah, and the story would not have ended in death and resurrection, but in an earthly kingdom for the people of Israel with Jesus as their king.

      I have read some authors who say the reason that did not happen is because the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah.  But the facts are, that did not happen because Jesus rejected that limited kingdom.  The scope of His salvation was not limited to Israel, but His love went out to all the world.  He had no intention of being a king of the Jews only.  He intended to be kings of all kings, and be Lord of all peoples.  That was His goal all through His life, and that is why He wore the mask and refused to settle for anything less than being the Savior of the world. 

     No wonder the demons would have loved to derail His salvation plan by getting the Jews to go wild over Jesus as their Messiah.  If they could have limited Jesus to one segment of the human race, they would have won the largest portion for hell.  Jesus refused to allow them to interfere, and so the first thing He did with demons was to shut them up when they exalted Him for who He really was.  They tried to take off His mask, but they did not succeed.  Jesus was able to remain hidden enough so that He made it to the cross.  The cross was the reason for all the mystery of the mask. 

     The failure of the leaders of Israel to receive Jesus as their Messiah was not a frustration of the purpose of Christ, but a fulfillment of His purpose.  The cross was the goal of Jesus in all that He did.  It takes the very mind of God to figure out how to become amazingly popular, and yet still be hated enough to be crucified.  It takes divine cleverness to be able to fulfill all the prophecies of the Messiah, and yet still keep people in dark about it so you can be rejected and fulfill an even greater plan.

     When Jesus prayed on the cross, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do," He was expressing the success of His mask.  Nobody but a few disciples knew that He was really the Messiah.  Those who crucified Him did not know even though Jesus clearly fulfilled all prophecy.  He revealed that He was the Messiah, yet He also concealed it, and, therefore, they never realized they were crucifying their own Messiah. 

     None but the wisest can both reveal and conceal a thing at the same time, but that is what Jesus did.  It was essential to His plan of salvation.  Paul confirms this in  I Cor. 2:7‑8.  "...we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.  None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."  In other words, without the mask Jesus wore He never would have made it to the cross. Your salvation and mine, and that of the whole family of God depended upon this mysterious mask of the Master.  We have been saved by a masked man.

     Jesus fought through His whole ministry to prevent the good from robbing Him of the best.  If He became too popular, and if too many people would have acknowledged Him as the Messiah, it could have ruined His greater goal.  He had to avoid fulfilling the dreams of the Jews in order to fulfill His own dream of being the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.  Sometimes that dream was hanging by a thread as the people tried to take Jesus by storm and make Him king. He had to use His supernatural power to avoid that kind of popular uprising. 

     Don't ever waste your emotional energy feeling bad that Jesus was never accepted as Israel's Messiah.  The reason He wasn't was He fought it with all the cleverness and power of His divine mind.   He masked His Messiahship, and all the power of hell could not rip that mask off, try as they did.  Satan's only hope of maintaining control of the earth and mankind was to prevent the cross.  This is the hidden battle that is going on all through the life of our Lord.  Satan was trying to get Jesus limited to a earthly lordship where Satan would still be in control.  Satan wanted Jesus to be the most popular man in Israel.  Leap from the temple and let the people carry you to power.  Bow down to me and receive power over the nations.  Satan wanted Jesus to take off the mask and let it be known He was the Messiah.  This was the point of all the temptations, and Jesus had to fight constantly to keep His mask on. 

     This explains those mysterious sayings of Jesus about His parables.  Jesus had a  paradoxical purpose in His teaching with parables.  He told them in order to make truth simple to understand, and at the same time make truth so obscure that people could not understand.  The parables were part of His mask.  Listen to Mark 4:11‑12."He told them the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you.   But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding..." 

     Jesus explained His parables to His disciples so that they could understand them, but they were puzzles and riddles to the leaders of Israel.  This was not by accident, but by plan.  Had they understood, they would have make Him their Messiah.  Jesus kept them confused and puzzled on purpose to fulfill His greater plan for the whole world.  Whose fault was it that Jesus was not accepted as Israel's Messiah?  It was His own fault, for this was His plan.  Anybody who hates Jews for rejecting Christ and crucifying Him has a screw loose somewhere, for this is the way Jesus planned it.  You just as well hate Jesus for getting Himself crucified, for He planned it, and then cleverly orchestrated His whole ministry to make sure it happened.  If you want to blame anybody for the cross, blame Jesus, for He had a thousand chances to escape it by removing His mask.  But He kept it on to be our Savior.

     Which would you rather have Jesus be:  The Messiah of Israel or the Savior of the world?  By means of His mysterious mask He became both, and the result is both Jews and Gentiles can forever say, Thank God for that masked man who outwitted the subtle serpent and the wisdom of men to be our Savior.  He avoided the limited destiny that others would have forced on Him to fulfill that greater destiny His Father had planned for Him, that He might be King of kings and Lord of lords with a name above all others. 

     So much of the life of Jesus is explained by solving the mystery of the mask.  I use to look at Jesus before Pilate and wonder why Jesus did not speak up in His defense. Why be silent when you can speak out and do a miracle and reveal your power?  It never made sense to me that Jesus would be so passive when so much injustice was happening.  But now I see, for Jesus would  not let all the power of hell make Him remove His mask, for that was the key to His getting to the cross.  

     Jesus could have made Himself King of Israel with no problem.  He could have had the Pharisees and Saducees bowing to Him and swearing allegiance.  If Jesus had wanted no higher goal than to be the Messiah of Israel, He could have easily achieved that ambition.  But Jesus chose to sacrifice that goal to be the Savior of the world. 

     He had one last chance as He hung dying on the cross.  He could have called legions of angels to come to His rescue.  He could have ripped His mask off and said, "Look you blind sinners.  I am the Son of God.  Nobody does this to me and gets by with it."  And He could have wiped out the whole lot of them.  But Jesus refused to remove the mask.  He died looking like a common criminal.  One Roman Centurion

got a peak under the mask and saw who He really was and said, "Truly this was the Son of God."  But it changed nothing, for the rest saw only the mask and they crucified Him. 

     To the end He wore His mask because of His love for all mankind.  If saving men meant so much to Jesus, there is certainly something missing in our love for Jesus if we are not motivated to share this good news of His love.  Paul said he would become all things to all men that he might win some.  Paul would wear any mask and be what he had to be to win men.  Are we willing to play different roles in life to touch others for Christ?  Jesus paid an awful price to wear His mask for us.  Are we willing to wear a mask for Him?  We need to learn how to relate well to anyone God brings into our lives that we might in some way touch them for Christ.  This was a goal Jesus had in mind all along, and it will help us cooperate in fulfilling the ultimate purpose of the mysterious mask of the Master. 

7.     THE GREAT PHYSICIAN  MARK 2:1‑12

  People who survive great dangers and diseases are often creative people who do the unusual.  Robert Muller, in his memoirs, Most Of All, They Taught Me Happiness, tells of how creative he became under pressure.  In 1943 he was a member of the French Resistance.  Using the name of Parizot, he infiltrated a government agency, and was able to gather information on German troop movements.  He was tipped off that the Nazis were on to him, and coming to arrest him.  He fled to the attic of his office building.  Gestapo men were soon searching the premises.

      Muller knew he had to come up with a plan to survive.  So he took off his glasses, and slick down his hair, and grabbed a file folder, and walked down stairs. He walked right into the office where his secretary was being interrogated.  He asked her what all the excitement was about.  She didn't bat an eye, but said the gentlemen were looking for Parizot.  "Parizot!"  He exclaimed.  "I just saw him a few minutes ago on the fourth floor."  The Nazis rushed upstairs, and Muller was led to safety by his friends.  

     Cleverness and creativity are the keys to surviving what seem like hopeless situations.  We see it in the realm of diseases also.  Senator Frank Church of Idaho was told at age 33 that he had incurable cancer, and he was given 6 months to live. He decided to take chances, and he submitted to a new radiation treatment just being developed.  He also decided to take chances, and be creative with his life.  He went into politics and sponsored risky legislation on civil‑rights and the environment. He was the first Senator to publicly oppose the Viet Nam war.  He did eventually die of his cancer, but not until 1984, which was 37 years after he was given 6 months. 

      The point is, people who are clever and creative, and who chose to do the unusual, are the people who experience the exceptional in life.  They survive when others parish.  They are restored to health when others die. The paralytic in Mark 2 is just such a man.  He was bed ridden, and yet he got his body where men with two good legs could not get.  Jesus was surrounded by people, and no one could even get through the door into the house, let alone, near to Jesus. 

Even Zacchaeus's idea of climbing a tree would not work here, for Jesus was in the house.  We don't know if it was his idea, or that of his friends carrying him, but they were like an ancient ambulance team who got their patient to the doctor on time.  When the normal route is closed, you need to come up with a creative alternative to reach a goal.  This team recognized that sometimes you have to start at the top and work down, and that is what they did. 

     They created a skylight before anybody thought of such a thing, and let their patient down through the roof right into the presence of Jesus.  They had no doubt what would happen, for Jesus, as far as the record reveals, never had a sick person in His presence that He did not heal.  We have no hint that any sick person ever went away saying, "I am not healed."  Nor do we have any record of Jesus ever walking away from a sick person, and not healing them.  They knew if they could just get him into the presence of Jesus, their labor would not be in vain.  Their faith in Jesus motivated them to be clever and creative. 

      I've read this account many times, and I always read verse 5 in a restricted sense.  Jesus seeing their faith responded and healed the paralytic.  Their faith, always meant to me, the faith of the friends who let him down.  Some make a big point of this being their faith, rather than his faith.  It is true, if it would have said his faith, the friends would be excluded.  But saying, their faith, does not exclude his. The their, is plural, and could refer to all five of the team, including the young paralytic himself.  There is no reason why he should be excluded, as if he was just a lump of clay, with no say in what his friends were doing.  For all we know, he was the coach, and the whole thing was his idea from the start, and the roof route was his creative choice. 

     All we know for sure is, there were many paralytics who never walked again, but here was one who carried his bed home that day.  He was the exceptional paralytic.  He was aggressive in his search for a miracle.  We have all had experiences where it was hard to get into see the doctor, because he or she was so busy.  That was the problem with this paralytic.  When he got to the place where Jesus was, he realized he should have made an appointment.  The line of those ahead of him was long, and his only hope of seeing the doctor was aggressive cleverness. 

     This morning we want to look at this event from the point of view of the doctor's response to this most aggressive patient.  Keep in mind, it is aggressive patients who are often a pain to the doctor, who are the most likely to get well.   Let's begin with a negative aspect from the doctor's point of view, and look at‑

I.  THE DISTURBANCE OF THE DOCTOR.

     I've often thought that one of the hardest aspects of being a doctor is the perpetual interruptions.  They can be doing one thing, and get a call to do another, at anytime of the day or night.  They can have a waiting room full of patients, and get called away to deliver a baby, or some other emergency at the hospital.  Being interrupted can put a lot of stress on people. 

     In our text, you will note that verse 2 tells us that Jesus was preaching to the crowd.  He was preaching the word, and nobody likes to be interrupted in the middle of a message.  This is highlighted by the police report concerning the New Testament Baptist church in Stockton, Cal.  It seems that Oscar MacAlister interrupted the morning message by shouting at the pastor that he was getting out of hand.  After the service pastor Murphy Paskill had an idea on how to prevent further such disturbances.  He got a revolver, and shot MacAlister for four times.  The pastor was booked on charges of attempted murder.  We do not know if he was as poor as preacher as MacAlister thought, but he was obviously a very poor shot. 

     The point is, interruptions can be very disturbing.  They can add so much stress to life that they become a cause for illness.  Rabbi Joshua Liebman wrote the popular book, Peace Of Mind, that started the avalanche of such books.  He was so swamped with calls and letters from people who wanted his help to get peace of mind, that he lost his own peace of mind.  He tried to help all who interrupted his life with a cry for help, and in just three years he was dead at age 43. 

     Perpetual disturbance can be deadly.  That is why Jesus very wisely got away from the burden of dealing with people's problems perpetually.  He was a physician who healed Himself by getting rest for restoration.   But we see also, that He handled interruptions in His life as opportunities.  It was a radical disturbance to have the roof torn away while you are preaching, but Jesus was not overly disturbed by this disturbance.  He was preaching the word of God, but he recognized that even the best things in life can be set aside to deal with the emergency of the moment.  If you are having your devotions, and are in prayer, and your child comes crying with a cut finger, it is not an offense to God to leave you devotion to care for the cut. 

     Jesus was a good emergency doctor.  He took this radical disturbance in stride, and gave it His full attention.  What Jesus demonstrates here is that we can decide to make an interrruption in our life a burden or a blessing.  It was a very rude thing to do, to come in through the roof.  It is not only not appropriate in polite circles, it is not appropriate in any circle.  Jesus could have been offended, and He could have complained, and gotten the whole crowd to be critical of this team of disturbers of the peace.  Instead, He turned it into one of His greatest messages.  By healing this paralytic, Jesus not only demonstrated His power to heal, but His authority to forgive sin, and even more important, His willingness to do. 

     The crowd learned more that day about Jesus then they would have had this disturbance never taken place.  This paralytic became a powerful object lesson for the Greatest Doctor who ever lived.  If we are going to be like Jesus, we need to ask of every interruption in our lives, "How can I use this for a blessing?"  Next look at‑

II.  THE DIAGNOSIS OF THE DOCTOR.

     Diagnosis is a Greek word used only once in the New Testament in Acts 25:21. It refers to a judgment based on thorough knowledge.  Jesus judged immediately that this young man was a paralytic because of sin, for he did not say this to most of His patients, which He said to Him:  "Son, your sins are forgiven." 

     Jesus called him son, and so he was a young man, and so his illness was not age related nor accident related.  He was obviously a victim of a disease somehow related to his life‑style.  You can break nine out of the ten commandments that do not directly relate to illness, but one does, and that is sexual immorality.  Sexually transmitted diseases have been a major health problem all through time.  Aids is one of the most talked about diseases of our day.  But there is also Herpes, which is epidemic, affecting 20 million Americans. 

     Gonorrhea is the most prevalent bacteria infection on earth, with over one hundred million cases a year.  Syphilis is another major social disease, and this is likely the disease of the young paralytic of our text.  Syphilis leads to many other illnesses, and by 1876 it was discovered that if it moved to the spinal cord it could cause complete paralysis.  It is the only social disease I could find that could lead to paralysis.  The Greek words used to describe this mans disease are paralutikos and paraluomai.  Out of 14 uses of these two words in the New Testament, ten of them refer to this young man.  He is the most paralyzed man in the New Testament, and Jesus says it was because of sin in his life. 

     Sin and sickness are sometimes directly linked.  Immorality and illness are linked. Defiance of God's laws and disease, often go hand in hand.  Here is the immoral man made conspicuous by his paralysis.  Note, Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven."  He used the plural of sins, for seldom is an immoral person immoral just once.  The man's life‑style was an open invitation to infection. 

     My problem here is, how can Jesus be so forgiving of such an immoral person? It seems that Jesus is just too lenient with some sinners.  I think we all feel like the elder brother at times, and wonder how the father could let the prodigal son off the hook so easy, and welcome him home, when he knew he wasted his substance with harlots.  He was immoral, and yet dad took him back like he was still a virgin.  There are some hard things to grasp about forgiveness, and one of them is, how can you do it, and still escape being soft on sin.  Christlike forgiveness almost seems immoral to us at times, and makes being forgiving very hard. 

     Jesus diagnosed this man immediately as suffering from a sin caused disease, and yet, without a call for repentance, or a lecture on holiness, or at least a brief condemnation, He healed him, and did so by forgiving his sins.  It was not his mistakes, his poor judgments, his inadequacies, but his sins.  I have stuggled with this for years, for Jesus seems to take sin too lightly at times.  Another famous example being the woman taken in adultery.  But then I began to look at Jesus in the light of His major role as the Great Physician.  A doctor is a healer, and his or her task is not that of judging the patient, but of helping them to be healed.  The reason Jesus was 100% successful in the area of healing, when He was not in preaching or teaching, is because in healing there was never a distinction between those who were sick because of their sin, and those who were sick just because they were a part of a fallen world.

     Jesus never failed to heal people who deserved what they were suffering, because they brought it on themselves, because of their sin.  This explains so many of the mysteries of the world of healing.  There is no discrimination in healing.  It falls into the same category as the sun rising and the rain falling on the just and the unjust.  Healing is not a gift God gives only to His own children.  Unsaved people can be healed as well as the saved, for the same laws of health work for them, as for the Christian.  They can receive miracles also, for miracles also have laws by which they operate. 

     In the next paragraph the Pharisees are upset with Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners.  We are talking about prostitutes here, and people who are immoral, and who spread the sort of diseases that lead young men to become paralytics.  Jesus responds in verse 17, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."  Jesus never asked anything of His patients except the nature of their illness, and if He diagnosed it as sinned caused, He never hesitated to heal, for the sick need to be healed, and that is a need He always met regardless of the cause.

     Not only does this mean non‑Christians can be healed, it means Jesus supports all the medical efforts to heal all diseases, even those that are caused by sin.  Many Christians are involved in ministering to those with aids, a usually sin caused disease.  This is a legitimate ministry for those with the compassion of Christ.  I abhor the folly that leads to such a disease, but at the same time, I must applaud those who seek a cure for aids.  It seems that to do so is to be soft on the sin that leads to it, but it is the spirit of Jesus as the Great Physician.  If aids is the judgment of God, then how can a Christian be concerned about healing those who come under His wrath?  This has been the same question all through history on leprosy, syphilis, and many other diseases. 

     We need to see that you can know a disease is a direct result of defiance of God's will, and still seek for the healing of that disease.  This is so clearly illustrated in Num. 12 where Miriam is cursed with leprosy for her critical stand against Moses. She was facing a horrible fate, and Aaron, her brother, pleaded with Moses not to hold this sin against them, for he too was a part of the criticism.  He pleads, "Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with flesh half eaten away."  What a gruesome fate.  Moses did not say, "She made her bed let her lie in it.  She suffers the just reward of her sin and folly."  Instead, knowing it was God's judgment on her sin, He prays in Num. 12:13, "O God, please heal her!" And God answered that prayer, and she was made clean, and only had to suffer 7 days of shame outside the camp. 

     Jesus had the same attitude toward those clearly under the judgment of God.  The paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda was an invalid for 38 years.  Jesus did not hesitate to heal him, but after He said to him in John 5:14, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."  Sin led to his disease, and again, it was likely a sexually transmitted disease, yet Jesus healed him.

     The evidence is clear: Disease discrimination is as inconsistent with Christlikeness as is race discrimination.  It does not make any difference if one is suffering from personal sin, or from just being a part of the sinful world, the sick need the physician, and all are to be cared for and healed.  A Christian nurse or doctor, or any of us, need not feel we are compromising our faith if we care for, and loving seek the healing of, people who are suffering as a direct result of their sin. 

     Pat Boone writes about his experience with a Jewish pornographer in Las Vegas. He was facing gall bladder surgery, in feared he would die.  He read one of Pat's books and called him up, and asked him to pray for him.  Pat not only prayed for this man, so out of the will of God, he got him to pray for himself.  When he went in for his surgery they could not find the gall stones on the x‑rays, and he was sent home. He was a happy and healed man, and Pat got him to reading the Bible, and learning about the Jesus who healed him.  At the time of his writing the man had not yet received Christ as his Savior.  Was he right to help a godless man like that to find healing?  Would not the world be better off had he suffered a just judgment, and died? 

     The answer to both questions is yes.  Yes the world would be better off without him, and yes it was right to seek his healing, even if he never does come to Christ, and eventually dies as a lost man anyway.  Why is this right?  Because in healing there is to be no discrimination.  Christian, Jew, Moslem, or Atheist:  They are all to be dealt with in compassion, and if possible, by medicine or miracle, be delivered from their disease. 

     The Christian has the right, and even the obligation, to make a distinction between people in many areas of life.  You do not have to cooperate with all people in their projects or life‑style.  You do not have to let your children date unbelievers. You have to discriminate in dozens of ways, and refuse to let homosexuals be Sunday schools teachers, and camp counselors.  Life is loaded with valid discrimination, because light and darkness cannot share the same space.  But when it comes to healing, there is a universality about it that cannot be escaped. 

     It is doctor's orders.  Whatever the diagnosis, and however related to sin, the Christian healer does not discriminate.  The Christian healer heals all.  Jesus is the universal physician, and because it is so, the non‑Christian may also experience his healing power.  Medical missionaries minister to many non‑Christians around the world.  They heal more non‑Christians than anybody, and they always have, because it was the way of, and the will of, our Great Physician. 

8.     THE HANDS OF THE HEAD Based on Mark 6:1‑6

     Albrecht Durer was the son of a Hungarian goldsmith who wanted to study art.  He could not do so, however, because his father had a large family and had the well known problem of too much month left at the end of the money.  Finally, however, his father let him go to try and struggle through on his own.  He found an older man who was also trying to become an artist, but was poor like himself.  They became friends and lived together, and studied together.  It was a discouraging business, and they were getting nowhere.  The older friend said to Durer, "One of us should make a living for both of us while the other studies.  After a while this process can be reversed." 

     Durer agreed to the plan and volunteered to be the first to work, but the friend insisted since he had a chance to work in a restaurant he would begin.  This older friend washed dishes, scrubbed floors, and spent many hours at menial labor to help Durer.  At last Durer sold one of his wood cravings and came home with the money.  He told his friend it was his turn.  The older man tried to paint, but his muscles were stiff, and his joints were enlarged.  He just didn't have the touch.  His hands were working hands, and not artist hands. 

     One day Durer saw his friends hands folded reverently and said, "I will paint your hands as they are now, folded in prayer, so the world will know my appreciation for your noble, unselfish character."  Those hands became the famous praying hands so popular as modern symbols.  Few people realize, however, that the hands symbolize more than prayer.  They stand also for dignified labor and dedicated love. 

     These hands could very well represent the hands of Jesus, the Head of the church, for no hands have ever more worthily expressed the dignity of labor and the dedication of love.  We could look at each of these separately, but it would be an artificial division, for labor and love went hand in hand in the life of Christ.  One of the big questions of Bible students has always been, what did Jesus do from age 12 to 30?  There are 18 years of silence where nothing is recorded of His life.  We have one statement in our text, however, that shatters that silence with a loud revelation, and gives us an answer to the question‑

What was He doing all the time?

From boyhood then to early prime?

     The answer is, He was working with His hands.  He was a carpenter.  When Jesus came back to His hometown of Nazareth where He spent those silent years, the people were amazed at His wisdom and power.  They could not believe it, and said, "Is not this the carpenter whose whole family is still with us?"  In other words, they were saying, here is one of us, a common laborer in the community who has come back.  How is it He has all this education and leadership ability when we know He has only been a carpenter?  We have here then a clear witness to the fact that Jesus labored with His hands. 

     It is not surprising since all Jewish boys were taught a trade by their fathers, and though Joseph was not the literal father of Jesus, he was His father in every other way.  He taught Jesus all he knew.  Tradition says that Joseph died at the age of 111 when Jesus was 18 years old.  This meant that Jesus as the oldest boy in the family would have to work to support Mary in raising the other children.  Some feel the other children were by a previous marriage of Joseph.  Some feel they were only cousins.  Others simply accept those children as ones that Mary bore to Joseph after Jesus was born.  This last view is the simplest, and can hardly be a bad conclusion, for they are called the brothers and sisters of Christ.  If the Biblical writers feared anyone would draw the conclusion that Mary had other children they certainly did not do anything to prevent such a conclusion. 

     It really doesn't matter, however, for the fact is, Jesus had a family to care for.  For all practical purposes Jesus knew what it was to be a father.   With Joseph dead He had to be the bread winner.  He could not go off preaching until He had fulfilled His responsibility as the oldest son to His family.  When the Bible makes it clear that he who does not provide for his own is worse than an infidel, we certainly do not expect the Son of God in human flesh to go off on a spiritual mission and leave his family to starve.  Before He could begin the job of building the temple not made with hands, He had a job to do with His hands, and that is what Jesus did during those years of silence.

     They are silent, for they were years of just commonplace normal living.  Most of His life was like that of the average person, and not filled with crowds, miracles, and perpetual excitement.  Jesus did nothing unusual in those years, for here are His home town people saying what has happened?  This is our community carpenter.  How is it He is so wise and powerful all of the sudden?  He had not done anything before this to draw their attention to His uniqueness.  That is why they are silent years, for there was nothing unusual to record.  Jesus lived the common life of a laboring man.  He dignified labor as no one else ever could.  The poet wrote,

If Jesus was a carpenter,

     On plane and bradowl leaning,

Then workman's tools of every kind

     Glitter with heavenly meaning.

     Jesus would seek the best way to do a job.  He would use tools to make His work more effective.  Man's love for tools and gadgets to build and create with are a legitimate aspect of life, for even the Son of God used tools as a carpenter.  This aspect of His life colored His ministry of teaching.  Jesus spoke often of wise builders.  Jesus built houses before He built His church, and He used the principles of one for the other.  He said that wise builders choose a good foundation first.  He builds on the rock and not on the sand.  

     Jesus practiced this in building the church.  He laid a solid foundation, and then selected men like Peter, the rock, to build on, with himself as the chief cornerstone.  Jesus also talked of men who foolishly began to build before counting the cost.  They had to stop before they finished and let the project go to ruin.  Jesus was a master builder.  He made sure of adequate supply to build His church.  He paid the price for all sin, that any person of any age in history might become a living stone in His church.  None will be left out due to lack of funds, for Jesus paid it all.  Every man is a potential stone in the church being built by the Carpenter of Nazareth.  As a carpenter Jesus made many doors, but the door He made of Himself is the most marvelous.  All of those years He made doors out of wood, and His last big project was also made out of wood, the wood of the cross.   Never did any carpenter do with wood what Jesus did upon the cross. 

     In this project His hands played a major role.  They were not shaping the wood, for they were nailed to the wood.

Those heavenly hands that on the tree

Were nail'd, and torn, and bled for me.

Here was His greatest labor of love.  He used those hands to work for years to provide for His family, but on the cross in unmeasurable love He sacrificed His hands, and His whole self to provide atonement for the sin of all men.  Here He laid the foundation that nothing can destroy.  His hands became a primary symbol of this great act of love because they bore the imprint of the nails.  It was the nail pierced hands that Jesus showed to doubting Thomas to convince him He was the crucified but risen Christ.   He who pounded many a nail had nail scarred hands, not because He was a carpenter, but because He was a Savior. 

     Many feel that the two men on the road to Emmaus recognized Jesus at last because when He broke break they saw His nail pierced hands.  The hands of the crucified but risen carpenter are the hands of security.  We can have no security in our riches, or in the fact that we have a great and powerful country.  These are but tools in the hands of men.  Disease and death can easily snatch us from the hands of men, but Jesus said of His own, "Nothing shall pluck them out of my hands."

The hands of Christ seem very frail,

For they were broken by a nail,

But only they reach heaven at last

Whom these frail, broken hands hold fast.

     These hands that flung the worlds in space, and fashioned nature's beauty in every place, and formed the whole of the human race, also fulfilled the plan of grace.  It was the hands of Christ that reached out to save Peter from sinking into the sea.  Only His hands can lift us and keep us from sinking.  The hands of Christ symbolize, not only security, but service.  Jesus used His hands for the service of others, both in the carpenter shop, and in His ministry.  Notice how often Jesus takes a sick person by the hand and lifts them up well.  How often Jesus lays His hands on the sick, and with a touch restores them to health.  His hands were healing hands.  Jesus as the head of the church is now in heaven, but His hands are still on earth, for the church is His body.  This means that we as believers are to continue to be the hands of Christ in a world that needs hands of service, and hands with a healing touch.

    It has been proven that everyone of us has the power of healing in our hands, but we so seldom use it because we are so seldom conscious that our hands are to be tools in the hands of Christ.  Many children have problems because they lack the security that comes with the touch of their father's hands.  We need to put our hands on our children's heads, and put our arms around them, and by touch communicate our love.  We cannot do it with words alone.  Hands play a major role in communicating love.  Reuben K. Youngdahl wrote, "In East Africa a group of natives, having made a long journey seeking medical care, walked right past a government hospital to reach a mission hospital.  When asked why they had walked the extra distance, when the government hospital had exactly the same medicine, they replied, "The medicine may be the same, but the hands are different." 

     The hands of Christians should express the touch of Christ.  Jesus specialized in the personal touch, and those who would be instruments in His hands will pray as a poet has written,

Give strength to lift the wounded up,

     And warm our hearts so much

That through our hands each one may feel

     The healing of Thy touch.

     When Phillips Brooks died his people hired a sculptor to fashion a memorial.  He took his hammer and began to work, but three times he had to start over.  He just couldn't get it to come out right.  Finally, it came to him what to do.  He first fashioned a figure of Jesus, and then made the figure of Brooks with the hand of Jesus on his shoulder.  Those who knew Brooks were very satisfied, for they said, "That's how it was.  Jesus was always first with Phillips Brooks, and His hand, it seemed, was always on his shoulder." 

     During the closing months of World War II a group of American soldiers helped rebuild a partially bombed Cathedral in Southern Europe.  One GI was assigned the task of repairing a marble statue of Christ.  It had been knocked over, and the hands were broken off.  He was not able to find the broken pieces in the rubble.  He concluded that the statue would have to be discarded, but then he got an idea.  He made a plague and hung it on the statue which said, "I have no hands but yours."  Jesus wants to lay His hands on us that we might be moved to use our hands to do His will in the world.

Yours are the hands of God.

How did you use them today?

Did they crush or caress?

Did they ruin or bless?

How did you use them today?

Yours are the hands of God.

The hands that He lent you to use.

Did they reach out in greed,

Or to meet someone's need?

Did you use them to heal or abuse?

Yours are the hands of God.

Use them well as you travel life's way.

Turn with love to each task,

For one day God will ask:

What did you do with My hands today?        

Levent Surleau

9.     THE MIND OF THE MASTER Based on Luke 2:40‑52

    A teacher began his Sunday School class by starting a discussion.  He said he was reading in the Bible about a living dog and a dead lion, and he asked the class which they would rather be?  There was a pause, and then Jack spoke up and said, "I'd rather be the living dog.  It's better to be alive than dead any day."  Alec spoke up and said, "Oh, I don't know about that.  A dead lion has been a living lion while a living dog will be a dead dog someday.  I think I'd rather be the dead lion."  A third child had just sat in silence, but then he responded, "Well, I'd like to be a little of both.  I'd like to be a lion like the one, and alive like the other."  I am sure the teacher was surprised at this clever solution.  Children can often surprise us with their ability to answer questions in ways that we would not think of.

     This was the case with Jesus when He was a child.  One of the very first impressions we get of Jesus is that He was a brilliant boy.  He had a keen mind, and Luke makes a point of this fact.  In 2:40 he writes, "The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon Him."  Luke goes on to show just how sharp His mental growth was by telling us of His experience in the temple with the scholars.  In verses 46‑47 he says that Jesus was listening and asking questions, and all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and answers.  Jesus was only 12 years old, but He was already a diligent student, and was able to carry on intelligent conversations with mature theologians. 

      We are not to read into this that Jesus was putting the teachers of the temple to shame by His superior wisdom.   The language indicates that He was a student.  He was learning from them, but was a very keen student with provocative questions and perceptive answers.  Luke closes the chapter with another reference to the growth of Jesus in the four basic areas of manhood:  The physical, the intellectual, the spiritual, and the social.  We want to focus on His intellect. 

     The very fact of the growth of Christ in knowledge and wisdom is a clear demonstration of the reality of His full humanity.  As a child He was not only not the omniscient God that He was in pre‑incarnate state, but He was not even a mature man.  Jesus was a true child, and was immature and ignorant of a great deal about life.  He had to learn and mature by means of study, observation, and by asking questions and listening to others.  This is one obvious reason why we do not have any record of the words and acts of Jesus as a boy and a young man.  In that state when He had not yet grown to full maturity of wisdom and perfection of mind, His words were not of eternal value.  His wisdom at that point was not worthy of being recorded for all generations, for it would not yet be greater than the wisdom of the scholars of His day.

     Jesus waited until His preparation was complete to begin His ministry of public teaching.  His years of silence up to that point were years of profound preparation in thought.  Jesus was not just killing time.  He had a mother and family to provide for, but He was also developing His mind through the study of Scripture.  Jesus only had three and a half years of ministry, but He changed the world because He developed quality of thinking.  His mind was in perfect accord with the mind of God before He acted.  We can never know the IQ of Jesus, but we can assume that as a strong healthy child with the pure human heritage of Mary, and the perfect divine heritage of the Holy Spirit, that He was a genius.  Apocryphal stories have Him teaching astronomy and other sciences of the day, and there is no reason to doubt that Jesus could have done so.  It is only doubtful that He did because this was not His ministry.  He did reveal, however, that He was a well educated man, even though He did not attend any formal school of higher education.

     In John 7:15 we see the response of the people to the teaching of Jesus in the temple.  "The Jews marveled at it, saying, how is it that this man has learning, when He has never studied?"  G. Campbell Morgan comments:  "The emphasis of their question lay, not upon the spiritual teaching of Jesus, but upon the illustrations He used, and upon the evident acquaintance with what was then spoken of as learning.  It was not that they were overwhelmed by t a sense of His spiritual insight, for, then as now, men knew that spiritual insight often belonged to those who had no learning.  They were impressed by the beauty of His expression, the wealth of His illustration, and His evident familiarity with those things, to become acquainted with which, men gave themselves up to long courses of study.  The mind of Christ was refined, cultured, and beautiful..."

     Jesus was self educated, and was an intellectual of His day.  He knew His nations past history well through His study of the Old Testament.  He used it often in His teaching, and for sake of argument He could refer back to the stories of Naaman, and the widow of Zarephath.  He was alert to the contemporary events, and He used them for illustrations, as in the case of the Galileans whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices, and the 18 on whom the tower of Siloam fell.  He was exceptionally perceptive in the use of nature and the common events of life for illustrating spiritual truth. 

     Jesus was a student of all times, and He was aware of what was, what is, and what was to be.  The point we are emphasizing, however, is that He was this as a man and not as God.  He emptied Himself of His omniscience when He became a man, and clearly took upon Himself the limitations of finite intelligence.  When He was a child in Nazareth He, like Paul in Tarsus, spoke like a child, thought like a child, and acted like a child, but as He matured He put away childish things.  Jesus had to develop His capacity just as all men do.  Percy Ainsworth said, "Nazareth was silent concerning the great One who had stooped to share its lowly life, because it did not know that He was great, or that He had stooped."  He was only an ordinary carpenter to them until He began to express His wisdom and power in teaching and miracles.

     Jesus had wisdom superior to any man who ever lived.  Solomon had this distinction before, but Jesus said a greater than Solomon is here, and He was referring to Himself.  His wisdom and knowledge was supernatural in that it was often beyond what even a perfect could know, but it was nevertheless human knowledge in the sense that it was possible only because of His perfect relationship to God.  What I am saying is one of the paradoxes of Christ's humanity.  Both His growth and wisdom and His perfection of wisdom demonstrate the full reality of His humanity.  His growth and limitation show Him to be like us, but His perfection shows Him to beyond us, but as an ideal to which we can strive, because He reached that point by developing to its full capacity the relationship of one's humanity to God.  To put it simply, everything that Jesus did and knew which was supernatural, He did as a man, and thus revealed the possibilities of manhood in perfect relationship to God. 

     S. D. Gordon in Quiet Talks About Jesus states his view of this same idea.  He says of Jesus, "He was as truly human as though only human....In His ability to read men's thoughts and know their lives without finding out by ordinary means, His knowledge ahead of coming events, His knowledge of and control over nature, He clearly was more than the human we know.   Yet until we know more than we seem to now of the proper powers of an unfallen man matured and growing in the use and control of those powers we cannot draw here any line between human and divine.  But the whole presumption is in favor of believing that in all of this Jesus was simply exercising the proper human power which with Him were not hurt by sin but ever increasing in use."  This is all the more likely when we consider that men who were imperfect and sinners were endowed by God with supernatural knowledge and power. 

     Men before and after Jesus did miracles, and foresaw the future.  Jesus said men after Him would do even greater things than He did.  Jesus demonstrated the great potential of manhood in the realm of the mind if it is centered on God and His will.  The secret of the wisdom and power of Jesus was in His total dependence upon God His Father.  Listen to His own words in John 5:19‑20.  "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing, for what ever He does, that the Son does likewise.  For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all that He Himself is doing, and greater works than these will He show Him, that you may marvel." 

     The perfect submission of His manhood to God allowed His humanity to be an instrument of supernatural knowledge and power.  Knowledge in a human mind becomes a force for God in the world when the mind is open to God's leading to fulfill His purpose.  If intellectuals are often fools, and promoters of evil, it is not due to their being intellectuals, but due to the lack of their vision of God and yieldedness to His will. 

     Jesus would have us learn all we can to the glory of God.  All knowledge can be so used.  Jesus was a keen user of logic, and He used it constantly in His teaching to persuade, and in His arguments with His opponents.  Jesus would have us develop our minds as instruments for God's purpose, even as He did.  He said to His disciples that they should be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.  He urged men to come to Him and learn of Him.  He was the fulfillment of the ideal man of the Old Testament.  He was a man of knowledge and wisdom.  John says He was  full of grace and truth.  Paul says that in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  The mind of Christ has had a great impact on this world, greater than any other mind.  His church has done more to influence the intellectual development of mankind than any other institution. 

     Bill Harvey wrote,

He never wrote a book with pen and ink,

But with His life, He caused more men to think

Then any other man.  He never played

Upon an instrument, and yet He made

More hearts to sing and made more fingers glide

Along the string and ivory and guide

More melodies of praise to Him than all

The symphonies this world could e'er recall.

Neither architect nor artist He

Was ever called in rugged Galilee,

And yet, a steeple seldom points above

But what a builder has been thinking of

The Carpenter, the Craftsman of Ages.

He built and He is building yet, and sages

Who are wise still recognized this King

And say He's Lord of all; of everything.

     He is Lord of our minds, and He commands us to love God with all of our mind.  Paul says that we are to let the mind of Christ be in us.  To learn of and submit to the mind of the Master is to begin a journey toward the highest possible intellectual development of your humanity.           

10.   FOCUS ON FEET Based on Luke 7:36‑50

   Centuries ago the Danes decided to invade Scotland.  They very cleverly moved their great army in the night so they could creep up on the Scottish forces and take them by surprise.  In order to make this advance as noiseless as possible they came barefooted.  As they neared the sleeping Scots, one unfortunate Dane brought his foot down on a bristling thistle.  He let out with a roar of pain that was like a trumpet blast which rang through the sleeping camp. 

The Scots were alerted, and quickly grabbed their weapons, and the Danes were driven back. 

     One could say that they came within one foot of victory, but one foot led to their defeat. The thistle from that time on was adopted as the national emblem of Scotland. Feet are vital for the onward march, but they can also be your foe and lead you to defeat because of their weakness.  Not all have the feet of the Kentucky backwoods farmer who never wore shoes.  One day he came into the cabin and stood by the fireplace with his callused feet.  His wife said, "You'd better move your feet a mite, you're standin on a live coal."  He replied, "Which foot?"  Unfortunately, most foot soldiers do not have feet that tough.  Even Achilles, the great Greek warrior, had one weak spot, and that was the heel of his foot.  It was by means of an arrow in his heel that he was brought to defeat.  Our feet determine whether we stand or fall in more ways than one. 

     The statue, or government, or organization, with feet of clay is easily toppled.  When we want somebody to become independent, we tell them to stand on their own two feet, and to get both feet on the ground.  The unstable position and shaky argument puts a man where we say he doesn't have a leg to stand on.  All of the many texts about the Christian walk and the Christian stand make clear that feet are essential equipment for the Christian life, for you cannot stand or walk without feet. 

     The feet can bring you to defeat, or they can march you to victory.  Either way the feet play a major role in every life, and that includes the life of our Lord.  There are 27 references to the feet of Jesus in the New Testament.  That is likely a greater focus on feet than you will find in the biography of any other man.  Biblical times were times of far greater foot consciousness.  There are 4 Hebrew and 2 Greek words for feet.  There are 162 references to feet in the Old Testament, and 75 in the New Testament.  Feet were just more conspicuous in that world where walking, marching, and cleaning of feet, and sitting at the feet of others, were daily events.

     The feet of Jesus were exposed, and so more people beheld the feet of Christ than other great men of history.  The feet of Jesus were the center of so much of His activity.  In Matt. 15:30 we read, "Great crowds came to Him, bringing the lame, blind, the crippled, the dumb and many others, and laid them at His feet, and He healed them."  Mary became famous for sitting at the feet of Jesus and soaking in the wisdom of His teaching.  Many were laid at His feet unable to walk, and Jesus lifted them up and stood them on their own two feet again, and enabled them to walk and be restored to the world of folks with feet that would function again.  Only those who have lost the ability to walk can appreciate how beautiful it must have been to be laid at the feet of one, who because He created feet could fix them, and make them work again.  

     "I cried because I had no shoes till I saw a man who had no feet," is a popular saying, but here were crowds who wept for joy, for those with no feet walked away from the feet of Jesus having been made whole.  Walking is being revived in our day for health and exercise, but in the day of Christ walking was a necessity, and that is why one of the most frequent miracles of the New Testament was that of making the lame walk.  To be put back on your feet was to be given new life.  We take our feet for granted, and do not often consider that they are one of the wonders of creation.

     Leonardo da Vinci called the feet, "A masterpiece of engineering and a work of art."  There are 26 bones in each foot or 52 in both, and that is one forth of the bones in our body.  By means of these instruments the average person by the age of 55 has walked 70,000 miles, or 2 and one half times around the world.  Gilette Burgess may sound silly, but he was rightly amazed when he wrote‑

My feet, they haul me round the house,

And hoist me up the stairs.

I only have to steer them, and

They ride me everywheres.

     Another poet wrote some lines that became more well known.

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And departing leave behind us

Footprints in the sands of time.

     Jesus did so more than any other who has ever lived, and we want to sit at His feet and focus on them, for His footprints have changed the course of history. Every place the feet of Jesus touched have become places of deep interest, study, and research. We cannot look at all 27 references, and so we will only get a foot in the door of this lowly yet lofty subject. We will focus on the feet of Jesus from the point of view of them being instruments of sovereignty, suffering, and of service. First lets look at His feet as‑

I. INSTRUMENTS OF SOVEREIGNTY.

     Many ancient monuments picture the kings with their feet on the necks of the vanquished to show they are sovereign and victorious.  They have the enemy in complete subjection.  The feet are symbols of power.  We see this very thing in Joshua 10:24 where we read, "When they had brought the kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had come with him, 'come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings.' So they came forward and placed their feet on their necks."  This was to encourage the commanders and give them assurance of victory over the enemy. 

     We see Paul doing the same thing on a spiritual level for the soldiers of the cross.  He writes in Romans 16:20, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet."  The image of the song Onward Christian Soldiers is very biblical, for Christians are to march forward like an army of foot soldiers conquering territory that is under the power of Satan, and liberating those he holds captive.  Our feet are weapons of warfare, and by means of our feet we are to gain victory and sovereignty over Satan.  In Epb. 6 where Paul describes the whole armor of God that we are to put on, he does not neglect the feet, but urges us to have our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel.  The point is that foot power was, is, and will ever be, a primary power, for the feet of our Lord will forever be a place where we worship His majesty and glory.

     Paul in I Cor. 15;25 says of Jesus, "For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet."  The last enemy to be destroyed is death, and when this final foe is fully vanquished the whole universe will be under the sovereign feet of Christ.  This is the plan of God that Paul explains in Eph. 1.  He says that this is why God raised Jesus and exalted Him to His own right hand, "..far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church."  He who has the most powerful feet is the head.

     When the Apostle John was caught up to see a vision of the ascended Christ he was very conscious of his Lord's feet.  In Rev. 1:15 he says, "His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace."  And in verse 17 he says, "When I saw Him I fell at His feet as though dead."  One day all who loved Jesus will experience the wonder and joy of falling before His sovereign feet. 

Lo, at His feet with awful joy

The adoring armies fall!

With joy they shrink to nothing there

Before the eternal all.

     Whenever you fall at the feet of Jesus you have arrived at a high point in your spiritual life.  William Cowper wrote,

Tis joy enough, my all in all,

At thy dear feet to lie;

Thou wilt not let me lower fall,

And none can higher fly.

     We many never in time walk where Jesus walked, but all who submit to His Lordship will walk with Him in white, and our feet will walk with His on golden streets, and all over a redeemed and perfected earth.  Following the footsteps of Jesus will be forever, for His feet will our guide for all eternity.  We will sit at His feet; worship at His feet, and serve at His feet with joy forever and ever.  "Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow.  We will follow the steps of Jesus wherever they go."

     When Jesus comes again He will come, not with the feet of the lowly carpenter, but with the feet of a sovereign Lord.  His feet will then be instruments of sovereignty as all will bow before His feet and acknowledge Him as sovereign.  B. Whitney Allen wrote,

Down the minster aisles of splendor,

     From betwixt the cherubim,

Through the wond'ring throng with movements                       Strong and sweet,

Sounds His victory‑trend approaching

     With a movement far and dim‑

The music of the coming of His feet.

He is coming, O my spirit,

     With His everlasting peace,

With His blessedness immortal and complete;

He is coming, O my spirit,

      And His coming brings release.

I am waiting for the coming of His feet.

     No one can fill the shoes of Jesus, for He alone will finally conquer this world, and all will be under His feet, for His feet are instruments of sovereignty.  Next, we see His feet as‑

II. INSTRUMENTS OF SUFFERING.