Meditations on Christ, the
Believer’s Example (Part VIII)
Christ’s Responses to Man’s
Sinful Behavior (Continued)
In Part VII of this series, we
discussed three of Christ’s responses to the sinful behavior of those about
Him:He rebuked those with wrong thoughts about Himself, He patiently
instructed those who were self-centered, and He showed anger toward hypocrites
and those who dishonored His Father. We conclude this section with one
additional response to sin.
He did not protest injustice.
Herod "sent and beheaded John in the prison. And his head was
brought in a charger and given to
the damsel; and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took
up the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus. When Jesus heard of it, He
departed thence by ship into a desert place apart" (Matt. 14:10-13).
"When Pilate saw that he
could prevail nothing,… he … washed his hands before the multitude, saying,
I am innocent of the blood of this just Person…. And when he had scourged
Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified" (Matt. 27:24-26).
In these two passages we find two
cases of gross injustice perpetrated by the leaders of Israel— one against John the Baptist and the other against Christ Himself. In neither case does
Christ raise a word of protest or threaten to appeal to higher authorities. The
day is yet to come when Christ shall return in all power and glory to establish
His kingdom over all the earth. Everything will be made right in that day. His
will be a reign of righteousness (Isa. 32:1), of unwavering justice.
It should not surprise us if we,
or our fellow believers, experience suffering because we do what is right in
God’s eyes (Matt. 5:10) or simply because we are Christians (Matt. 5:11,12; 1
Pet. 4:16). Even though we may be treated unjustly and unfairly, may our
response be to "Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is [our] reward
in heaven" (Matt. 5:12) and to "glorify God on this behalf’ (1 Pet.
4:16). May our response be like the prayer of the early Christians when
beginning to face persecution:"And now, Lord, behold their threatenings,
and grant unto Thy servants that with all boldness they may speak Thy
Word" (Acts 4:29). And may our response be like the martyr Stephen’s as he
was being stoned:"Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts
7:60).
Christ has not left us an example
of fighting and protesting injustice but of patiently suffering it as we await
"the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour
Jesus Christ" (Tit. 2:13).
Christ’s Work and Ministry
He labored unceasingly. Let us
take a look at one day in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus (Mark
1:21-34). It was the Sabbath day, and the first thing He did was to enter into
a synagogue in Capernaum and teach. While in the synagogue He cast an unclean
spirit out of a man. From the synagogue He went with James and John to the home
of Simon and Andrew, where He healed Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever. As the
sun was going down, people from the entire city began gathering at the door,
having heard of His healing powers. And "He healed many who were sick of
divers diseases, and cast out many devils" (verse 34).
Now after a day like that you
might think that He would have slept in the next morning. But no, "In the
morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out and departed into a
solitary place, and there prayed" (verse 35). Then He went on to the next
town, and preached in synagogues throughout Galilee, healing and casting out
demons.
On another occasion the Lord took
His disciples to a desert place to rest a while, since they hardly had
opportunity to eat because of the crowds of people demanding attention. But the
people quickly caught up with them, and what did Jesus do? He "was moved
with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd,
and He began to teach them many things." He spent the entire day in this
way, and then miraculously provided food for the whole multitude that evening
(Mark 6:30-44).
We tend to pamper ourselves,
don’t we? We like to take days off. We like to sleep in. We look forward to
retirement so we don’t have to work anymore but can relax and play. But Christ
is our example, isn’t He? While it is true that we do need times of rest and
relaxation, let us look always to the Lord for wisdom as to the use of our
leisure time. May the Lord help every one of us to develop creative ways of
using our leisure hours, our holidays, our vacation weeks, and our retirement
years to draw closer to Himself, to strengthen our marriage and family
relationships, to reach out with the gospel, and to help and encourage our
fellow Christians both locally and afar off.
He instructed His disciples. The
four Gospels are filled with Christ’s instruction of His disciples. What a vast
array of topics He covered! He taught them concerning Himself, His relationship
with His Father, His imminent return to His Father, and the sending of the Holy
Spirit. He taught them the way of salvation, eternal security, and eternal
life. He taught them about the end times, heaven and hell, the need to be
preparing and watching for His return, and being on guard against false
prophets. He taught them dependence upon God and how to respond to trials and
persecution.
He taught them how to be a
testimony of salt and light to the world. He taught them about self-judgment
and how to deal with others who sin. He taught them to live in obedience to God
and to display the same attitudes and behaviors (such as humility, meekness,
mercy, and forgiveness) as He did. He taught them to be heavenly-minded, rather
than covetous and materialistic. And He taught them also to seek the approval
of God rather than that of man.
We are not all gifted as
teachers, but all who are concerned about the spiritual welfare of the
believers around them—whether in the home, at work, or in the assembly—ought to
become "apt to teach" (1 Tim. 3:2; 2 Tim. 2:24) through diligent,
prayerful study of God’s Word. The Israelites were instructed:’These words
which I command you this day shall be in your heart; and you shall teach them
diligently unto your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your
house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise
up" (Deut. 6:6-9). Timothy’s mother Eunice and grandmother Lois taught Him
the holy Scriptures when he was a child (2 Tim. 1:5; 3:15). The Apostle Paul,
upon teaching Timothy, his son in the faith, urged him to pass along what he
had learned "to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also"
(2 Tim. 2:2). And the older women are exhorted to "teach the young women
to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children…"(Tit.
2:3-5).
He often spoke in parables. In
order to capture the attention of His audience and to get the people to think,
Jesus often spoke in parables, that is, used events from everyday life to
illustrate spiritual truths. He used illustrations from farming (sowing, harvesting,
and storing crops, planting vineyards, the leafing of fig trees), animal
husbandry (being a shepherd with a sheepfold, searching for a stray sheep),
fishing, domestic science (baking bread, fixing dinner, mending old clothes),
financial dealings (losing money, finding buried treasure, buying jewelry,
investing money, wasting one’s inheritance), and pleading a matter before a
judge.
Christ is our example. May the
Lord help us to develop and use appropriate parables, illustrations, and object
lessons as we minister God’s Word so as to enhance the hearers’ understanding
and memory of the Word.
He asked probing questions.
Besides parables, another approach Jesus used to get His listeners to think was
asking probing questions. Here are a few examples:"What was it that you
disputed among yourselves by the way?" (Mark 9:33). "Why do you call
Me good?" (Mark 10:18). "Who touched Me?" (Luke 8:45). "Is
it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good or to do evil? to save life or to destroy
it?" (Luke 6:9). "How can you believe, who receive honor one of
another, and seek not the honor that comes from God only?" John 5:44).
"Will you also go away?" (John 6:67).
In a similar vein, He got their
attention by making startling statements and challenging demands:"It is
not meet to take the children’s bread and to cast it to dogs" (Matt.
15:26). "One of you who eats with Me shall betray Me" (Mark 14:18).
"Go, call your husband" (John 4:16).
In like manner, may the Lord help
us, when trying to instruct others in the truth of God’s Word, not just to
rattle on and on, but to punctuate our teaching with probing questions to help
our listeners to pay attention and to think about what we are saying.
For example, when explaining the
gospel to an unsaved person, it may be helpful to ask questions such as,
"How would you describe your relationship with God?" "If you
were to be taken to the gate of heaven and the Lord Jesus were to ask you,
should I let you in?’ what answer would you give?" "What do you think
it means to be born again?"
He used the Scriptures
frequently. Even the Lord Jesus didn’t stand up and demand that the people
listen to Him. He very frequently referred to the holy Scriptures, with which
His Jewish listeners were well acquainted, and either explained the passages or
used them to convict the consciences of the hearers.
In each of the three temptations
in the wilderness, Jesus rebuffed Satan by quoting an appropriate scripture
(Matt. 4:4,7,10). When the disciples or the Pharisees asked Him questions, He
often answered them from the Scriptures (Matt. 19:4-6,18,19; Mark 2:25,26;
12:24-26; Luke 6:3,4; John 10:34). He used the Scriptures to describe and
condemn the sins of the people (Matt. 21:13). And He quoted prophetic
Scriptures that were being fulfilled at the moment or about to be fulfilled
(Matt. 21:16; 26:31; Luke 4:18; 7:27; 24:44-46).
Christ is our example. May we get
in the habit of referring frequently to the Word of God in our discussions with
others. There is power in the Word (Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12) that far excels any
thoughts, opinions, or reasonings that we may express.
He ministered personally by touch
and word to those whom He healed. Jesus was not an impersonal "miracle
machine." He entered personally into the lives of those whom He healed.
Jesus touched the leper (as risky and defiling as it may have been) and spoke
to him, ‘Be clean" (Matt. 8:3). He touched the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law
and "the fever left her" (Matt. 8:15). He spoke to several blind men
and touched their eyes (Matt. 9:27-30; 20:30-34; Mark 8:23; John 9:6,7). He put
His fingers into the ears and touched the tongue of the deaf man with a speech
impediment (Mark 7:32,33). He cast out an evil spirit from a man, then
"took him by the hand and lifted him up" (Mark 9:26,27). He laid His
hands on the woman who was bowed together, and spoke to her, "and
immediately she was made straight" (Luke 13:13).
A message of "I care for
you" is conveyed in a touch—be it a handshake, a hug, or a pat on the
shoulder—along with a personal greeting. As we minister to the sick, the
hurting, the prisoners, the social outcasts, let us make sure this message of
care and concern gets across.
He performed many of His miracles
in private without a stage. Unlike many so-called "faith healers"
today, Jesus did not announce healing services to be held in the local
synagogues or public gathering places. Often He healed people right where they
lived (Matt. 8:13,15; Luke 17:12-14; John 9:1-8), with no fanfare, sometimes
with little or no audience (Luke 5:14), and often urging the healed person not
to spread the word around (Matt. 9:30; Mark 7:36; 8:26; Luke 8:56).
Even though at times large crowds
of people came to Jesus for healing, the overall picture we have of Him is One
who shunned publicity and often sought to escape the crowds. Many of His
miracles seem to have been done simply as expressions of the deep compassion He
had for the people of Israel (Matt. 14:14; 15:32; 20:32; Mark 1:41; Luke 7:13).
No doubt He also performed miracles to support His claims to be the Son of God
come down from heaven, and to authenticate His teaching.
Christ is our example. When we
engage in Christian service, when we use our spiritual gift, do we seek thereby
to draw attention to ourselves, or to magnify and glorify God? Jesus instructed
His disciples not to perform their acts of charity, their prayers, and their
fasting so as to impress man. Those who do such things "that they may have
glory of men… have their reward." On the other hand, if we serve the
Lord in secret, our Father "who sees in, secret Himself shall reward [us]
openly" (Matt. 6:1-18).
His work was always the best.
Jesus never did anything by halfway measures. When He healed Peter’s
mother-in-law she didn’t have a long period of convalescence. Rather, "she
arose and ministered unto them" (Matt. 8:15). When He "rebuked the
winds and the sea…there was a great calm" (Matt. 8:26). When He
multiplied the five loaves and two fishes, all 5,000 men plus women and
children ate and were filled. And as evidence that everyone had their fill,
there were twelve baskets of food left over (Matt. 14:19-21).
And when He turned the water into
wine at the wedding feast, that wine was of higher quality than the wine that
had been provided originally (John 2:10).
Christ is our example. May we
always seek the Lord’s help to do the very best job possible in everything we
do. "Whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God…do it heartily, as to
the Lord" (1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:23).
Conclusion
May every blood-bought child of
God be so challenged and motivated by the remembrance of all that the Lord
Jesus Christ has suffered on our behalf at the cross, and of the place He has
won for us in the glory for all eternity, that we may dairy grow in our desire
to be like Him, to follow His example, to walk as He walked. Nothing could
bring our blessed Saviour greater joy than to see the members of His body and
His bride expressing His mind (Phil. 2:5) and conformed to His blessed image
(Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18).
FRAGMENT Oh, to be Christlike!
When you are the subject of unjust treatment, harsh criticism, or the Father’s
hand of discipline; when you stand to lose material gain or worldly applause
rightfully due to you—think of One who never clamored for His rights.
"When He was reviled, He reviled not again" (1 Pet. 2:23). B.
Gunning