At the outset of His public life Our Lord willed to be baptized as a common sinner. He shunned the applause of men as when, after feeding five thousand people by working a miracle, He dismissed them and went, all alone, up the mountain to spend the night in prayer. He escaped when they wanted to make Him king, but He went up to Jerusalem when He knew they were going to put Him to death. He strongly insisted in His training of His apostles that they should imitate Him. If they did an almsdeeds, they should not let their left hand know what their right hand did. Let them shun the evil example of the Pharisees, who did all "in order to be seen by men." "They have received their reward," He told them a pitiful reward it was, the fleeting word of the approval of men.
This, then, is the mind of Christ concerning Himself and His mode of acting. As has already been seen, He despised human applause. If He fled from it, He did so, not because there was, or could be, the slightest danger of pride or self-glorification in His case. But in this, as in all else, He would give us an example. Here too He seeks our sympathy; He wants to see in us that mind which was in Christ Jesus, a mind that, enlightened by grace, recognizes the worthlessness of men's opinions and in all things seeks only the divine approval and the divine blessing.
He taught that men should rejoice greatly when they were ignored, despised, passed over and forgotten. They will feel the sting of these things, it is true, but let them beware of hardening under the trial. Rather, let them be persuaded that they are sinners, deserving nothing better, deserving, indeed, something immeasurably worse.
Our Lord practiced what He preached. At the same time, He complained of the rudeness and lack of attention He experienced in the house of Simon the leper. "Thou gavest Me no kiss . . . My head with oil thou didst not anoint ......" There is no resentment in this reproach, no trace or suggestion of selfpity. But He spoke in this way in order to show Simon that his carelessness was duly observed and to warn him against a repetition of the fault.
He is a stranger to human respect. He never hesitates to speak straight, to attack vice in even the highest places, whenever He finds opportunity. His outspokenness won for Him the implacable hatred of the leaders of the people and they hounded Him to His death. He was too sincere for compromise, too great for their cramped little minds, too broad in His range of vision, too ruthless in His condemnation of sin, too easy to forgive the sinner, too subtle and quick in argument, too outspoken in speaking the truth, too strong in the power He wielded over the people.
Jesus is perfectly conscious of His position of superiority. He sees at every moment the goal and purpose which has brought Him to earth. He knows what means to use to reach it. He cares for nothing else except that that divine purpose be accomplished. So He will never be turned to right or to left by fear of what others may do or think. Once sure that the end is right and the means lawful, He continues, without perturbation or hesitation, to advance towards His objective.
The Jews could not understand Him, or, rather, they were unwilling even to try. They were forced to recognize that He was elevated far above them, but the recognition resulted, not in humility - which is truth - but in an increase of envy and pride. They had no sympathy with Christ. They saw and judged everything from a totally different angle. "They loved the glory of men more than the glory of God."
Jesus, give me true independence, independence of men's opinions and judgments when they run counter to Yours. Jesus, when my pride is humbled teach me to recognize how fitting it is that it should be brought low. Give me a heart and a mind like Yours, that will be right in our heavenly Father's sight, and then let me despise whatever is contrary to these.
Summary:
1. The mind of Christ concerning His heavenly Father.
2. His inexhaustible patience in dealing with all classes of men, even the most perverse.
3. The mind of Christ concerning Himself and His divine mission.
Thought:
Christ wept in the midst of His triumphal procession because He realized how much men lacked sympathy with Him.