292 CHARACTER OF CHRIST
CHARACTER OF CHRIST
of a trust and a reverence that are nothing than religious (Mk 2", Lk W, Mt 10»- IS^"). He passes verdicts upon their inner state that are not less than DiWne in their insight and their absolute- ness (Lk 9"-''^, Mt 9-*). He makes demands which no one has a right to make who does not know Himself to be completely the organ of the Divine authority (Mt 4'' 9» 19=' 1(F). He claims to be the arbiter of the final destinies of men (Mk 8®, Mt 7"-^ 13-" 16=', together with the undoubted teaching of the so-called eschatological discourses Mt25''-), a function which in the OT belongs not even to Messiah, but to Jehovah alone (Jl 3'-, Mai 3' 4'). Such a consciousness, whose intensity sug- gests, if it does not prove, a unique constitution of the person of Christ, throws into high relief aspects of the character of Christ which seem at a cursory glance incongruous with it.
(1) Loicliness. — The self-assertion of Jesus is not the assertion of a self independent in its power and dignity, but of a self which has no interest save the cause of God, no glory that is not His. At the heart of the self-assertion of Jesus there is profound self-renunciation. It would be a mistake to describe Jesus as selfless. He has a self, which He might have made independent of God, which, however, in perfect freedom of act, He sunendered wholly to God. The lowliness of Christ, accord- ingly, is not mere modesty or diffidence. It is the quality of a self, at once asserted and denied. This paradox is carried out during His whole career. In youth, when the purpose of His life is being formed, there is no irritable self-conscious- ness. In manhood, when the knowledge of His mission is clear and full, and the spiritual distance which sejiarated Him from other men is obvious to His inward eye, there is no outward separateness of manner. Tlie life of the common people was His life, wthout any trace of condescension or
no sense of incongruity on His part between what He was and the world He lived in. In His teach- ing He is able to attack pride without any risk of having imputed to Him a pride more subtle and more ottensive. More remarkable still. He offers Himself as a pattern of the very humility He is inculcating, without raising any suspicion of un- reality. The words, 'I am n'leek and lowly in heart' (Mt 11="), on the lips of any other liian, would refute the claim they make. In His case it is not so. They mean that the self which lays its yoke on men is'already cruciHed, and lias no claim to make <in its own fipli.ilf. Towrird the close of Hislif.i it^o|"'" ^'■'•'■'■« i- -'^en, V hen, at the Last Sup]..'!-. Ill full rniiMinii-iir-- .,1 lln persoual dig- nity, lie »a>liea the Let .4 ih.i-e who. He knew, would fail Him in the eml, and of one by whose impending treachery His own ^^ ould soon be nailed to the cross.
(2) 6'0)mV?--m?c»c,?,s.— With His idea of m.in and His conceiiti'.ii uf Ili^ v.rrutinn. it v,.i- ihi|..,,,iM,. for Jesus tu n-j.MrJ liunnii ] .ri ~, m, , ' 1 1 ■, - ..ili.:
than sacred. All th.- .iu.~ mi h-.v!,:',' :
ingly, He paiM vith -crupuh.u, .x.n t ii u 1... It would be Mi|i'illuous to searcli in tlie narratives for i]i-t line, ,it His justice, honesty, and truth. The di-tiiirih. 11. -s of His calling kept Him apart from the e.ile-i:i--tical and political institutions of His country ; but He was careful not to disturb them, even when He felt most critical of them (Mt 17=^-=', Mk 12"), and the charge of rebellion was readily seen by I'ilate to be baseless. The same distinctiveness deprived Him of a business career, and, therefore, of the sphere wherein many virtues are most severely tried ; but it is note- worthy tliat the disciple company had a treasurer,
whose duty it was to take care of the money in- trusted to him, and whose dishonesty became a step toward Calvary (Jn 12^). Towards individ- uals His attitude was wholly without respect of jiersons. He paid men the honour of being per- fectly frank and fearless in all His dealings with tlieni. He did them the justice of lettin" them know the judgment He passed upon them. Herod, Pilate, the Pharisees, stood before His bar and heard their sentence. His fairness is never more conspicuous than in His dealing with Judas, whom He would not permit to suppose that he was unde- tected, Jesus fully recognizing that a man's proba- tion can be carried on only in the light.
But there is due to human nature more than the strictest honesty or truth. Jesus' authority over men, instead of leading Hira to be careless in the handling of a soul, impelled Him to an exquisite carefulness which extended from the needs of the body to the more delicate concerns of the mind. If He imposes heavy tasks, He remembers the frailty of the human frame : ' Come ye apart, and rest awhile ' (Mk 6^'). If the coming grief saddens His companions. He turns from His own far deeper sorrow to still their tumultuous distress : ' Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid' (Jn 14'). If He must rebuke. His reproaches pass into excuses : ' The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak ' (Mt 26^'). Most lovely of all is His treatment of those who nii"ht seem to have for- feited all claim to respect. He laboured by a more emphatic courtesy, a more tender chivalry, to bind up the broken self-respect, and to rebuke that insolent contempt of the sinful and degi"aded which so deeply dishonours God. Before the ideal in publican and harlot He bowed in reverence, and constituted Himself its resolute defender.