November 18

The gentleness of Christ. - 2 Corinthians 10:1.

IT was predicted of the Saviour, that “a bruised reed he should not break, and the smoking flax he should not quench.” And when his person and work were typified, the image under which he was set forth was a lamb, and the emblem of his Spirit “a dove;” and his whole mission consisted in “going about doing good,” and in “giving his life a ransom for many.” If we turn to his miracles there were displays of his grace and compassion, as there were also of his omnipotence. Who can read his history without feeling this?

Here he has compassion upon the multitude because they had nothing to eat, and had come from afar and he made the hungry-men, women, and children, in a secluded scenery, on a fine summer evening-sit upon the grass, and miraculously fed them with five barley loaves and a few small fishes. Here a blind beggar sitting by the wayside, finding that he was passing by, cried, “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me;” and “the multitude rebuked him, and told him to hold his peace; but Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be brought to him.” The sun in nature once stood still to enable a great general to finish a great victory; here the Sun of Righteousness stands still while an act of kindness is performed, and he the performer too. “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” “Lord, that I might receive my sight.” And Jesus said unto him, “Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.”

There is one thing worthy of special notice with regard to the character of our Saviour’s miracles; it may be called the tenderness and the delicacy of kindness they displayed. For example, the young man of Nain was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; had our Saviour, when he had compassion on her, ordered him to become his follower and attendant, and taken him away, she even then would be grateful. She might have said, “He would have been the greatest support on which I could have leaned as I walk down into the valley of years, and travel toward the tomb of my husband; but it is enough; he is alive.” But what did Jesus? “He delivered him to his mother.” When the demoniac was dispossessed he came to the Saviour, and besought him that he might be with him; and he would have been a monument of his power, a trophy of his mercy; but the poor man had been more than dead to all his friends and relations a long time, and they would be glad at heart to see him, and therefore Jesus says, “No; go home to thy house, and tell what great things the Lord hath done for thee; and how he hath had mercy on thee.”

We see the gentleness of Jesus Christ in his behaviour towards those who were his own disciples; though they often tried him and offended him, yet he bore with their miscarriages; hence it is said, “Having loved his own which were with him in the world, he loved them unto the end.” When in the garden of Gethsemane he found them sleeping, he said, “The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” When Peter denied him, he turned and looked upon him with a look of love that melted him into contrition, for the look said to him, Peter, with all thy faults, I love thee still, and am going to die for thee; and Peter “went out and wept bitterly.”

Nor was this grace and goodness confined to his disciples; “He went about doing good.” To the woman who was a sinner weeping over her sins, he said, “Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee; go in peace.” When the Jews rejected him he wept over them. When they were driving the nails through his hands and feet, he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do;” and when a malefactor, a thief, and probably a murderer, who was hanging by his side, prayed, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom,” then he heard the gracious answer, “Verily I say unto thee, to-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”