6
They came together. We come together too
We can be just the same - listening to Him,
praying with Him, watching for Him coming
again.
We may be in company of many brethren, with
just a few or even quite alone, yet we can feel
that we are in the company of many. The
Father, Son and children – all together in one.
The two examples
Pilate washed his hands!
It is possible to do the same with our brothers
and sisters. To be less concerned about their
Pilate Washed His Hands ... but Jesus Washed Their Feet!” ... continued ~
welfare, or standing alongside in their times
of distress. To be more concerned to secure
our own position.
Jesus washed their feet!
It is also possible to do the same to our
brothers and sisters. To serve them in the most
menial of ways, stooping down, putting off our
personal needs and serving one another.
A final word
“...by this will ALL men know that you are MY
disciples, in that you have LOVE one for
another.”
The Altogether Lovely
I
t is a comforting thought to know that Jesus
was ‘one of us.’ He was no angel sent down
from heaven to play an acted part in human
affairs – he was a human who had to carve out
a character by the same methods as every
other man. To think that he was of the same
clay as we are! What a reassuring thought it
is. Yet the thought is reassuring only when we
realize what Jesus made of himself.
It is true that he had the same raw material
to work on as we have, and the same nature
which can attract us so strongly towards sin
and away from God, but oh! what a work he
accomplished in the formation of his own
character. What perfection was the result of
his labours – what an image of God he
portrayed in himself.
It is necessary at times to realize that Jesus
Christ was the son of a Jewish woman – that
he was a seed of Abraham and an offspring of
Adam. There is a sense of kinsmanship when
we appreciate that he was cut out of the same
stratum of human clay, but there the compar-
ison ends. We must not unduly emphasize this
aspect of Jesus Christ – we must ponder over
what he became. We know how from nature’s
clay the most delicate piece of Dresden ware
as well as the coarsest mug is made. Yet how
unalike they are! In the one is infused all the
artistry and skill of a master hand – painted
with the sure touch of an expert – glazed with
a whiteness of dazzling purity – slender and
beautiful in shape. Everything is a delight to
the eye and the senses.
In the other we have a roughly made piece
of craftsmanship, revealing the unskilled
methods by which it is made. The shape is ugly
and the china thick and coarse – the glazing is
uneven and in places the clay shows through.
There is no painting on it to relieve its hard
lines and it has only one redeeming feature –
its usefulness. Put them side by side and mark
the contrast. That is how we appear when we
put ourselves by the side of Christ.
To think that such “a thing of beauty” as the
life and character of Christ could have been
fashioned out of clay! To think that the very
handiwork of God has been executed upon the
life of one man – that the lines of that char-
acter should be exactly true to the pattern of
God. No flaws there – no weaknesses of the
flesh in that character – no “almost perfect” –
no “good enough” about that life’s work. But
when we look into our own lives, what do we
find? We find the crude contour of the ill-
shaped mug – no delicate lines of beauty, now
– no hand painted work of God – even the
glazing which covers the natural clay is not
uniform, for in many places we find the flesh
and its lust working through the character
which the new man is endeavouring to make.
What a “patchy” job we are in comparison
with Christ!
| From an old magazine