Christ, the Lover of Men
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
The endeavor in this study will be to seek the heart of the Saviour, discovering His attitude toward different classes of men among whom He lived and moved during His life on earth.
We will seek to discover whether the Lord Jesus was partial to the rich or to the poor. Whether in His choice of followers, He was open toward all.
Did Christ live the life of a shut-in? Did He pull the garments of His holiness and superiority close about Him, and stand aloof from the common rabble? Did the populace feel that He was unapproachable, unresponsive, and unsympathetic to their need?
In answering these questions we should remember that Christ was God manifest in the flesh, that He was the possessor of all things because all things were made by Him, and in Him all things consist. He was Son of God worshiped by angels, the very center of the glories of Heaven. He knew all things; He had all power.
As we approach this theme, we wish to lay two verses before you. The first is in Luke 4:1-44. Christ entered the city of Nazareth where He had been subject unto His parents, and had dwelt as a Child. Now, however, He was a man; He had been baptized, and was entering upon His ministry. On this memorable day, He stood in the synagogue and read from Isaiah, where it was written:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18-19).
This verse proclaims Jesus Christ as a preacher to the poor; as a healer of broken hearts; as a deliverer to captives; as a restorer of sight to the blind, and as setting at liberty the bruised.
Our second Scripture is Acts 10:38. It reads: "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil."
It is a marvel of marvels to follow the footsteps of the Saviour and to watch His dealings, with men. He might have taken the common attitude, saying: "What is that to me?" That, however, was farthest from His purpose. He demonstrated for ever the fact that "no man liveth unto himself." The burden and the pain of the populace were His. He shared their poverty, entered into their distresses. He bore their diseases, and carried their sorrows.
Our Lord was a sympathetic Lord. He was a lover of mankind. Even the little children were not repulsed by Him. He carried the lambs in His bosom. He said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
It will be most interesting to follow the topics as they develop distinct classes of life among whom Christ moved, and observe His attitude toward each.
"Rest of the weary, joy of the sad;
Hope of the dreary, light of the glad;
Home of the stranger, strength to the end,
Refuge from danger, Saviour and Friend.
Pillow where, lying, love rests its head!
Peace of the dying, life of the dead;
Path of the lowly, prize at the end;
Breath of the holy, Saviour and Friend."
I. CHRIST AND THE POOR (Mark 10:49)
A blind beggar sat by the wayside. That he had nothing to recommend him except his poverty and his rags, we are quite sure. His addition to any company would have added nothing to it by way of honor and dignity. He was a man whom most people passed by; others, would drop into his tin cup, a nickel, and pass on their way. The Lord Jesus came by. He was en route to Jerusalem to die. The burden of a great world of sin lay heavy upon His heart. He was intent on reaching the final issue of His life.
As Christ moved along the way with great crowds thronging Him, a cry was heard, coming to Him over the heads of the populace. The cry was, "Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me." The record says, "And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called."
As the Lord healed the blind man that day none could say of Him, that His ear was deaf to the cry of penury.
There sat by the highway a beggar. A queen, beautifully attired and riding in her chariot, was en route to her coronation. She gave orders that the blind beggar should be taken out of her pathway. She wanted nothing by the way of sorrow, or of suffering to mar the glory of her enthronement. How different was our Lord. He was on His way to be crowned, and crowned with thorns, and yet, He bade the blind man to be called. It was true, that the poor had the Gospel preached unto them.
Charles H. Spurgeon said, that a little orphan one day sat by his side and hugged up close to him as he was talking to a friend. After a while, Mr. Spurgeon spoke to the lad saying, "What do you want, my boy?" He said, "Mr. Spurgeon, if you were an orphan boy, and on visitor's day, you did not have any uncle or aunt, or anyone to bring you a present or to come to see you, what would you do? 'cause you see, that's me." Charles H. Spurgeon said, that it was the boy's poverty and need, that appealed to him. He replied, "I will be your friend, your uncle, and your auntie, and when visitor's day comes around, I'll come to see you and bring you a present."
Thank God, for the Christ who loved the poor and came to seek and to save that which was lost.
"Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us
O'er the world's tempestuous sea;
Guide us, guard us, keep us, feed us,
For we have no help but Thee;
Yet possessing every blessing,
If our God our Father be."
II. CHRIST AND THE RICH (Mark 10:21)
In the same chapter where Christ spoke to the poor beggar, He also spoke to a young ruler, who was rich. That Christ loved the poor, we know. There is abundance of proof for this. However, some are continually crying "down the rich." Swinging their red banner they cry, "Down with the plutocrats." We need to catch the spirit of Christ toward the rich.
There was a young ruler who came to Christ, saying unto Him, "Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" As Jesus Christ looked on him, He loved him. Christ loved him because he was a man of lofty ideals, and of splendid morals. However, the Lord did not say unto him, because he was rich, "Come, * * and follow Me." He did say, "One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasures in Heaven; and come, take up thy cross, and follow Me."
The Lord Jesus loved the rich man, but He was unwilling to let down the bars in order to secure his discipleship.
We need to remember that the rich, from a spiritual viewpoint, are quite as much neglected as the ultra-poor. Many a man who has much of this world's goods, and is the soul of honor and of integrity, feels absolutely isolated from the things of God.
Wilbur Chapman on one occasion felt constrained to visit a rich man. Through a blizzard he drove ten miles to the man's residence. The man of large means met him cordially at the door, took him in his library, and when he was seated said, "I suppose, Mr. Chapman, you want my check." "No," said Dr. Chapman, "I have simply come to ask you to receive my Lord as your Saviour. I want you to become a Christian." The rich man went to his window, stood gazing without for ten minutes. Then, with tears in his eyes, he turned and said, "Dr. Chapman, I thought no man cared for my soul." Let us not neglect the rich.
III. CHRIST AND THE OUTCASTS (John 8:11)
All have followed with us thus far as we have spoken of Christ and the poor, and Christ and the rich. We come now, however, to quite a different matter. There are some who are moral derelicts, drifting on the sea, far away from contact with the populace. Some of these are vile outcasts, like this woman who fell at the feet of Jesus. They are social outcasts, because they have broken the laws which govern decent society.
We wonder if the Lord Jesus would receive to His heart of love, a woman whom the people have isolated to hell's half acre, and have hedged her in as one utterly unworthy of respect.
It was such an one who was dragged before Christ by the Pharisees. With a curl on their lips they said to Christ, "Moses in the Law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest Thou?" This they did to tempt Christ. Stooping down, as if to hide the shame upon His countenance, Christ wrote on the ground as though He heard them not. When they continued asking Him, He quietly raised Himself and said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." When all had gone, being convicted in their own conscience, Jesus asked the woman, "Where are those thine accusers?" She replied that they had gone. Then said He, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."
As Christ sat at meat in the home of Simon, a poor woman who was a sinner stood at His feet weeping, and wiping away her tears which fell on His feet. Simon found fault with Christ, but we know how He rebuked Simon, and then He said to the woman, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." Let us love those whom the Lord loves, and seek to save those whom He seeks to save.
"While I hear life's rugged billows,
Peace, peace is mine!
Why suspend my harp on willows?
Peace, peace is mine!
I may sing, with Christ beside me,
Though a thousand ills betide me;
Safely He hath sworn to guide me:
Peace, peace is mine!
IV. CHRIST AND THE PUBLICAN (Luke 15:1-3)
There was in Jewry a particular class of sinners who were especially despised. They were known as the publicans. They were considered disloyal to the higher ideals of Judaism, and they were frequently national outcasts because they were favorable to Rome, in that, they served the government, which was oppressing Israel.
A publican and a Pharisee stood praying. The Pharisee was parading his piety, and applauding his own good deeds in the sight of God. The publican would not so much as lift his face to Heaven, but, beating upon his breast cried, "God be merciful to me a sinner." The publican went away justified rather than the other.
In today's Scripture the publicans and sinners were eating together. Christ came and sat down in their midst and ate with them. This act filled the Pharisees with indignation, and they cried out against Him, saying, "This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them."
Early in the history of the church, it is said that a scoffer named Celsus said to Origen, "The reason I cannot receive your Christ is because He received sinners." "Yes," responded Origen, "My Christ receiveth sinners, but He saves them from their sins."
In justifying himself for eating with publicans and with sinners, Christ told that marvelous parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. It was when the prodigal boy was a great way off, that his father saw him, ran, had compassion, and fell on his neck and kissed him.
May God put into our hearts love for the political refugee. No man can be so far from God, but that he can be saved. "Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow."
Sinners Jesus will receive;
Sound this word of grace to all
Who the Heavenly pathway leave,
All who linger, all who fall!
Now my heart condemns me not,
Pure before the law I stand;
He who cleansed me from all spot
Satisfied its last demand.
Christ receiveth sinful men,
Even me with all my sin;
Purged from every spot and stain,
Heaven with Him I enter in.
V. CHRIST AND THE POPULACE (Matthew 14:14)
We have spoken of Christ and the poor, of Christ and the rich, of Christ and the outcast, and of Christ and the publican. In each case we have considered more individuals as representative of a class. We now consider the great masses as a whole. A world lying in sin and in shame; a world that knew not and owned not God.
It was this great world that God so loved. It was into this world of people that Christ came. Our key verse says, "And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them."
What was there in the populace that pulled strongly on the heartstrings of Christ. It was their hunger, their thirst, their sickness, and their utter helplessness, To Him they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Christ moved among men as a lover of men. Their sorrows were His sorrows; their heartaches were His.
On one occasion, the great day, the last day of the feast, when the multitudes were thronging Jerusalem, Jesus stood and cried saying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink."
Once again, the Master beholding the masses borne down with their burdens cried, saying, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
There is a verse in the Old Testament that sums up all of these. It reads, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God."
After His resurrection, Jesus Christ pronounced His great commission, saying, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Let us not be satisfied till the last man of our generation has heard the Gospel.
"Ho! all ye heavy-laden, come!
Here's pardon, comfort, rest and home;
Ye wanderers from a Father's face,
Return, accept His proffered grace;
Ye tempted ones, there's refuge nigh.
'Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.'"
VI. CHRIST AND THE BACKSLIDER (Luke 22:31-32)
One of the hard things we have to bear is the infidelity of supposed faithful friends. It is said that when Brutus, the personal friend of Caesar, approached him, dagger in hand, that the emperor was entirely overcome and vanquished.
With what pathos did Paul write, "All they which are in Asia be turned away from me"! Then he wrote, "Demas hath forsaken me."
As Christ neared the hour of His passion, He began to be exceeding sorrowful, saying, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me." Then again Christ said, "All ye shall be offended because of Me this night." Peter very vehemently said, "Though I should die with thee, yet I will not deny thee." Likewise so said they all.
We know the sad story. They all forsook Him and fled. Judas betrayed Him with a kiss; Peter followed afar, and the others fled.
What was Christ's attitude? To Judas he said, "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" Toward Peter, Christ merely turned and looked with an unspeakable pity. Peter had cursed, and said, "I know not this Man of whom ye speak."
What was the aftermath? When Christ was risen from the dead, He said to Mary, "Go * * tell My disciples and Peter."
First of all, as our key verse shows, Christ said to Peter, "I have prayed for thee." Later Christ turned and looked on Peter. Then, afterward the Lord sent a special message to Peter; next Christ appeared to Peter, and finally Christ came unto the eleven as they returned from fishing, and restored unto Peter his work, saying, "Feed My lambs," "Feed My sheep."
We would not encourage backsliding, but we thank God, that the Lord remembereth our frame. He knoweth that we are dust. We thank God, again, that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
"Weary wanderer, stop and listen,
Happy news we bring to thee;
Jesus has prepared a banquet;
Come, and welcome thou shalt be.
Make no longer vain excuses,
Jesus calls, and calls thee now;
Come, for everything is ready;
Weary soul, why waitest thou?
Are thy sins a heavy burden?
Come to God, confess them now;
He is willing to forgive thee;
Ask, receive, why waitest thou?
On the loving arms of Jesus
Wouldst thou lean, and trust Him now?
Let Him cleanse thee at the fountain;
Come at once! why waitest thou?"
VII. CHRIST AND THE PHARISEES (Matthew 23:37)
We now approach a people who were sinners above any of the others we have mentioned. They were not sinners so much from the moral viewpoint, nor were they sinners because they were irreligious. The scribes and the Pharisees were super-religious. They would compass sea and land to make a proselyte. They delighted in making long prayers in public places. They even paid tithes into the treasury of the synagogue.
The sin of religionists, however, is great, because they carry out a form without a heart; they parade religious rites, but they know nothing of the vital heart love and power of the Lord they profess to follow. The Pharisees were good at binding burdens on other men's shoulders, which they would not lift with one of their own fingers.
These men kept the Passover but denied the Christ, the Passover Lamb. They set themselves against the Son of God, and went about to entrap Him with subtle questions. They finally paid false witnesses to accuse Him that they might deliver Him to death.
The darkest anathemas in the whole Bible, against any individual or set of individuals, were spoken against these Pharisees. Christ called them a "generation of vipers," and "whited sepulchres." Against them He pronounced a series of woes.
It seems now that the merciful Christ had at last found those toward whom He could show no pity, but not so. To these very leaders of Israel He cried, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not!"
Surely, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should be saved.
"'Call them in' the poor, the wretched.
Sin-stained wanderers from the fold;
Peace and pardon freely offer;
Can you weigh their worth with gold?
'Call them in' the weak, the weary,
Laden with the doom of sin;
Bid them come and rest in Jesus;
He is waiting 'Call them in.'
'Call them in' the Jew, the Gentile;
Bid the stranger to the feast;
'Call them in' the rich, the noble,
From the highest to the least:
Forth the Father runs to meet them,
He hath all their sorrows seen;
Robe, and ring, and royal sandals,
Wait the lost ones 'Call them in.'
Follow on! the Lamb is leading!
He has conquered we shall win;
Bring the halt and blind to Jesus;
He will heal them 'Call them in.'
'Call them in' the brokenhearted,
Cowering 'neath the brand of shame;
Speak Love's message, low and tender
'Twas for sinners Jesus came:
See! the shadows lengthen round us,
Soon the day-dawn will begin;
Can you leave them lost and lonely?
Christ is coming 'Call them in.'"
AN ILLUSTRATION
THE WONDERFUL JEWELS
A lady who had lost all her health in following the gaieties of the fashionable world was reclining on her bed, longing for the society and pleasure that she once enjoyed. She told her sick-nurse to fetch the box that held her jewels, so that she might amuse herself in recalling to her memory the festive seasons when she had worn them to the admiration of so many. "Now, nurse," said she, "would you not like to have some of these jewels?"
"No, ma'am, not at all, for I have jewels much finer."
"How can that be, nurse? Mine are the finest jewels in the land. Where are yours? You never wear them."
The nurse held up her Bible, saying, "My jewels are in here!"
The lady, thinking that there were some hidden away in the book, said, "Take them out and show them to me."
"Why, ma'am, my jewels are so precious, I can only show you one at a time." Then she opened her Bible and read "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (Philippians 4:11.)
She told her of the treasure that she had in Heaven; how that, though poor, she had a loving Father, who provided for her, and the great happiness that she had in Him, and how she was patiently waiting for the Kingdom to come.
"Why, nurse, I never heard anything like that; how happy you must be to feel as you do! I wish I could do the same."
The next day the lady said, "Nurse, I should like to see another of your jewels; the one you showed me was beautiful."
The nurse again opened her Bible, and read "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." (1 Timothy 1:15.)
From the few words that followed, the lady's heart was opened to feel that she was a sinner, that Christ Jesus was her Saviour; and she soon found rest, peace, joy, in believing and trusting Christ Jesus as her Saviour.