In the shop of Nazareth Pungent cedar haunts the breath. 'Tis a low Eastern room, Windowless, touched with gloom. Workman's bench and simple tools Line the walls. Chests and stools, Yoke of ox, and shaft of plow. Finished by the Carpenter, Lie about the pavement now.
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In the room the Craftsman stands, Stands and reaches out His hands.
Let the shadows veil His face
If you must, and dimly trace
His workman's tunic, girt with bands
At His waist. But His hands —
Let the light play on them;
Marks of toil lay on them.
Paint with passion and with care
Every old scar showing there
Where a tool slipped and hurt;
Show each callous; be alert
For each deep line of toil.
Show the soil
Of the pitch; and the strength
Grip of helve gives at length.
When night comes, and I turn
From my shop where I earn
Daily bread, let me see
Those hard hands — know that He
Shared my lot, every bit;
Was a man, every whit.
Could I fear such a hand
Stretched toward me ? Misunderstand
Or mistrust? Doubt that He
Meets me in full sympathy ?
" Carpenter ! hard like Thine
Is this hand — this of mine:
I reach out, gripping Thee,
Son of man, close to me,
Close and fast, fearlessly."
(2) The second answer is made by God. " This is my beloved Son." The people of Nazareth claimed Him as theirs. He is one of us, they said. God's answer is. He is not yours. He is Mine. The time may come when He will be yours also ; He is not yours yet. He will be yours when you know that He is not simply an addition of one to the population of Nazareth ; He will be yours when you know that He is not merely a man, but the Son of man. Meanwhile He is Mine; He is the Son of God. This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
This answer is not so popular in our day. It is not so compre-
364 MY LORD AND MY GOD
hensive ; it is said to be not so comforting. The great merit, we are told, of regarding Jesus as simply one of us is that we can then be sure of His sympathy. But is it enough to be sure of His sympathy ? Must we not also be sure of His power ? It is one thing to know that He is willing ; is He also able to help us in every time of need ? He who is the beloved Son of God has all the sympathy for us that the kindest-hearted man could have ; and, much more than that, He is able to succour them that are tempted.
^ When our Lord Jesus Christ became Man, He identified Him- self with humanity, in all its weakness, in all its sorrow, and (in a figure) in all its sin. An unflagging outpouring of sympathy, an untiring energy of benevolence, a continuous oblation of self- sacrifice — that was the life of the Son of Man upon earth. Many a man has borne his poverty more bravely because Jesus Himself was poor ; again and again it has helped men in the furnace of temptation to think that
He knows what sore temptations mean, For He has felt the same.
And the mourner in dark and lonely hours has found comfort in the remembrance that Jesus wept at a human grave, and knows all the bitter longings of his soul.^ His question still, to every sufferer who needs relief, to every sinner who needs pardon, is, " Believest thou that I am able to do this ? " And the reply still is, " Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief."
(3) The third answer is again the answer of the people — " This is indeed the Saviour of the world." It was the answer given by those Samaritans who had discovered for themselves that Jesus could both sympathize and deliver. It was the answer of those who had had personal experience of His saving grace and power. " Now we believe," they said to the woman of Samaria, " not because of thy speaking: for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world." They had taken the answer of the inhabitants of Nazareth and the answer of God the Father and had put them together. He was both the carpenter and God's Son.
And this is the final answer. There is no possibility of going beyond it. The answer of the inhabitants of Nazareth is short- sighted and very partial. God's answer is partial also, since it has
' S. 0. Lowry, Lent Sermons on t?u Passion, 55,
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to wait our response before it can be made complete. But it is not short-sighted. It has within it the promise, as it has the potency, of the salvation of the world. It is God's own expres- sion of the momentous fact of history : " God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." It only waits for that fact to have its fulfilment — " that whosoever believeth on him may not perish but have everlasting life." The answer of the people of Samaria is complete and it is final. All that has yet to be done is to have its contents declared and appropriated. What does Saviour involve ? And how is the Saviour of the world to be recognised as mine ?