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 18th
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.