4/4/54

Scripture: (Read Romans 13: 8-14)

In the book of Acts, there is a familiar verse. It tells that when the enemies of Peter and John saw their boldness, it surprised them into asking where they had been. Their question was satisfied when they were told that the two men had been with Jesus. [Acts 4: 13]. And yet is it not surprising that such an answer should explain boldness? Why did it not make them timid and fearful? Peter and John had indeed been with Jesus! But where was he at that time? So far as official record at that time went, he had been defeated with finality! His project could be called a failure. His followers had been scattered. Of course there was some story going the rounds about his having been raised from the dead; but there was also another story which seemed much more credible. For it was said, on official authority, that the disciples of Jesus had come by night, while the guard slept, and had carried off his body.

Put yourself in the place of some thoughtful person of that day, turning over in his mind the news of the time. See if you would feel that having been “with Jesus” would necessarily induce boldness. Wouldn’t you think that anyone who had been his follower might instead well have been shrinking off, ashamed? People do not usually boast of their connection with someone who has been publicly executed as a criminal. One would think that they would be ashamed, more than a little fearful, and properly put in their place of subordination. Their boldness proved, for one thing, that they believed the story about his renewed life. And that took courage! It is not the timid who stand up squarely for the facts of the life of Christ.

But the deeply underlying reason for the boldness of Peter and John was that Jesus had left his own impression of boldness on all who knew him. Their Master was bold; and his disciples ought to be. Their Master feared nothing. Never foolhardy, never risking life or favor needlessly, he yet held nobody in awe save God alone. He said what he thought about anybody or anything. Now that is different from shooting off one’s mouth in irresponsible anger, for his thoughts were penetrating and unerringly right. He was well recognized as the most serious foe there could be of the religious hierarchy. He bluntly warned his hearers against the hypocrites who were in power and who claimed special sanctity. He never “toadied” to the rich for an instant. Neither did he “toady” to the poor.

When officials caught him, it was in the easiest way possible. He had gone to a familiar place, out in a well-known garden, without any evasion, and without any Secret Service to stand guard. And this even though he knew a betrayer had left his table that very evening. He had not been afraid. He had not tried to escape. Jesus had not argued his case with the officers. He seems even to have scorned to defend himself before Pilate or Herod. He had gone to the cross without complaint. Nothing baffled him. If they knew anything about him, people knew this much. Those disciples had a bold Master. Perhaps neither his friends nor his foes in that day could have told why he was so fearless. We ought to know why by now.

For one thing, he had the courage of one who is attacking evil. It is the men who stand aside who are afraid. Men in the thick of conflict have not time to be fearful. To them, it is always worth while to do that part of the task which is before them, even if they cannot do it all. Jesus was always at it! The attack on evil always seemed worth while attempting.

His boldness came also from his complete trust in the methods he was using. They were slow methods; but they were sure, and cannot fail. Swords fail; truths cannot fail. Spears can be blunted; great ideas cannot. Power can be destroyed; love cannot. Self-assertion can go astray; self-sacrifice must win. Here was something that the world needed, and he was giving it to the world. That in itself was victory. The very loss of his life would be the saving of it in complete integrity! He knew life and God’s universe well enough to know that his methods were bound to succeed.

But, of course, beyond all else, was his complete trust in his Father, which made the whole way solid under his feet. His errand was not his alone; it was God’s battle. Nothing could finally defeat him. What looked like defeat was bound to turn out a victory in the end. Jesus may have known, in his days upon earth, how seeming defeat could be turned into victory; but his trust in his Father was unfailing and that insured the final outcome.

The matter that presses just now is whether his present disciples can be known for their having caught his boldness. For there is power in his life! We have been thinking, during these Lenten Sundays of some facets of that power. His “gospel is the power of God unto salvation.” There is power in Christian penitence, in Christian hope; in the assurance of Christian commission. There is power to be transformed, and to transform the life around you.

And there is power in Christian love. Jesus was very bold about the power of love. The Master was asked which of the commandments is first in importance. The choice of one that should be considered first may have seemed formidable. There were not only the ten basic commandments which, since the time of Moses, have been fundamental in the law. But there were a host of others -- detailed and interpretive. “The Rabbi calculated that the Law contained 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands.” It would seem to be a highly selective order to say which is the greatest or most essential of 613 laws regulating the life of one who wished to be ethically right!

But Jesus promptly combined the two commandments of Deuteronomy and Leviticus as a summary of the whole spirit of the Law. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength,” that is, completely, with your whole being. And: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

“There is no greater commandment than these,” said the Master. [Mark 12: 30-31]. All other commandments spring, in spirit, from these two. Love is the law of right living. The life of the Master demonstrated it to the full. And the lives of many of his followers have also illuminated this truth. It was Christ’s interpretation of the commandments, that we are to love God with all our heart and soul. One of the marks of a sincere Christian is this love; this loyalty to God. It is an emotion; a commitment. But we are to love God also with the mind. It is an unhappy comment that some Christians appear so much to leave the mind out of it. Moslems, on entering a mosque, leave their shoes outside while at worship within. Some Christians give the impression that they leave their minds outside when going in to worship at church. The first prayer learned by many a child begins, “Now I lay me down to sleep.” And for a host of people, that seems to be the pattern of prayer in their adult lives. “I lay me down to sleep.” But maturing prayer should be a coming awake with all our powers!

A young woman, who had gone off to college, was having some difficulties of spirit as her mind wrestled with the ideas which stretched her comprehension. She finally came to the place where she thought she should write home to her father, who it seems was a minister, capably serving a Presbyterian parish. With some misgiving she wrote, “I think you ought to know that I don’t know what I believe any more. I have begun to question a lot of things about God and Christ and the Bible and what people ought to do. I’m not sure of anything. I’m sorry to tell you this, but you ought to know it.” Her father is reported to have replied by return mail, in this wise: “Your letter has come and it makes me very happy. This is the first time I have seen any evidence that you were really thinking about anything. Go right ahead. Study and learn and think as much as you can. In the end you will have a deeper faith and understanding, for using all of your mind.”

The daughter later remembered that she was a little disappointed that her father was not alarmed about her “faith!” But she came to a real appreciation of his eagerness to have her learn to love God with her mind and strength.

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There is power also in love of one’s neighbor. The earth is full enough of the tragedy of man’s determination to dominate his neighbor; with man’s callousness concerning his neighbor’s need, or his neighbor’s hopes or his neighbor’s self-respect; with man’s scheming to get the better of his neighbor. But whose power is finally the more conclusive: that of Hitler or that of Schweitzer? of Tojo or of Kagawa? of the Roman legions or of the Christians with Paul? Of Pilate or of Jesus?

One of Jesus’ most telling stories has to do with the hypothetical case of a man robbed, stripped and nearly beaten to death on the highway. Two different leaders of his own people, secure in the power of their prestige and deeply occupied with their own business, seeing the unfortunate fellow, nonetheless hurried by. The one who stopped in compassion, fixed up the wounds, gave a cooling drink, took the victim to a hotel, advanced the price of his keep, and provided for his care so that he might recover, was a fellow from the neighboring and somewhat hostile state of Samaria. But no one hearing Jesus’ story could doubt who the “neighbor” to the man who was beaten. [Luke 10: 30-37]. There was love in action -- love of neighbor just the same as love of self. And there is power in it.

Walt Whitman said, “Whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral, drest in his shroud.” But what is “sympathy?” Is it mere fellow-feeling? If no more than that, a whole fellowship would leap over the brink of despair. Even though it be not despair, it might not lift anyone more than the “hail fellow, well met” type of contact.

But Jesus’ kind of love elevates the neighbor to the place in one’s regard where he is not any means, but an end in and for himself. We must love our neighbor as we first love God. We must love our neighbor in God, who “so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.” [John 3: 16].

There is no power in heaven or on earth comparable to the power of love in Christ. His love for us, and in us, is a love of the whole being with strength, and in God, the source of all power.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, April 4, 1954.

Also at Adams-Friendship Union Service, April 8, 1954.