JESUS' RESPECT FOR OUR PERSONALITY
THERE are at least four ways in which one
man can impose his will on another. The first and crudest is by the use of physical
force, supposing one man is stronger than the other. The second is by what we
call a powerful personality. With this one
man can often override another's objection and opposition by the sheer force
of his magnetic, energetic personality. We all know people whom it is hard to
resist for this reason. The third method is by a kind of intellectual superiority.
We know people who overwhelm us with arguments why we should do what they wish,
pressing reasons upon us one after another, till our mind, unable, on the spur
of the moment, to examine them, acquiesces through the sheer weight of evidence
produced. The fourth way is by an appeal to the emotions of the person we wish
to influence. It may be the emotion of their admiration for ourselves‑as
when a person says, ' I'll do anything for you '‑‑or by an appeal
to fear or pity, Probably all these four ways have a value, but, if unduly pressed,
they imply disrespect to the personality of
the other. Let us see how Christ regarded these four methods.
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First of all, think of physical power. Jesus
must have been in touch with resources of physical power which no one else could
tap. The lure of the third temptation reveals that it was possible that He might
have used that power to dethrone Caesar, set up a new government, new rule,
new order. The power of the temptation lay in the contemplation of what force
might be made to achieve. He could end oppression, He could give men justice;
and it might be argued that, if His aim were good, the use of this force would
have been legitimate. Yet the striking thing is that, out of respect for men's
personality, Jesus will not try to win even a righteous cause by force. Even
in His own personal life, hunted from place to place, with nowhere to lay His
head, hampered everywhere by His enemies, defeated by men's lack of faith and
their hard, cold hearts, He still will not use force. The disciples plead that
fire should be sent from heaven, but the Master would have nothing to do with
that method. Towards the end, Peter draws his sword with the impulsive thought
that the cause is righteous and worth fighting for. Tenderly, I think, Jesus
spoke to this lovable, rash, impulsive man, 'Put back thy sword I ' There is
a deep hint in His words, as though He says, ' If I had been going to adopt
the method of physical force I should not have waited till now.' We remember
how St. Matthew's version proceeds after that incident. It goes on to say what
appeals strongly to one's imagination, and sounds an even greater depth of respect
for man's personality:
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'Thinkest thou that I cannot beseech My Father,
and He shall, even now, send Me more than twelve legions of angels ? ' Dr. Rendel
Harris, one of the foremost living scholars of the New Testament, tells us in
his book, As Pants the Hart, that ' for a moment it is clear that Jesus was
looking into a world which He knew even better than this one. Here were twelve
men with Him, eleven of them runaways, and one a traitor. Supposing each man
were replaced by a whole legion of angels. How the kings of the earth would
hide themselves in caves, and in the holes of the rocks, before the glory of
the Lord I ' But it was only for a moment. ' Put up thy sword I ' It might have
been the word to those waiting hosts, eager to burst through, as well as the
word to Peter. One imagines their silent departure in wonder and awe; all the
mighty hosts of heaven held back in order that man's personality might not
be overwhelmed and coerced by a sheer exhibition of force.Turn,
secondly, to the method we call personal psychic force. Think to what a degree
Jesus possessed this I A man will leave his work, his home, his friends, at
two words from the Master : 'Follow Me.' He turns on a crowd hustling Him toward
a precipice, down which they intend to cast Him, and, because of the light in
His eye and the majesty of His bearing, His persecutors fall back on either
side, not one of them daring to touch Him. Are we surprised to hear one man
say to Him, ' I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest'?
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We are not surprised at that, but it is with
tremendous appreciation that one notices the way in which Jesus deliberately
stands away from men, as it were, in order that they may not be persuaded merely
by the magnetism of His personality, hypnotized into decision. He takes precaution
lest the tremendous impact of His personality should throw thern off their balance.
He wants their decision to be their own. So to His impulsive follower He says,
' Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not
where to lay His head.' As though He would say, ' Go home and think about it.
Don't make your decision just because I want you to do it.' And one wonders
whether that same kind of respect for man's personality does not lie behind
His words, It is expedient for you that I go away.'We
must not let our conceptions of the ' Gentle Jesus,' beautiful and true as these
are, blind us to the fact that when He was on earth, and His personality was
manifested in a human body which made it easily apprehended, the‑ impact
of that personality on others was all but overwhelming. By that I do not mean
that men were all attracted. There happened with Jesus what always happens where
you have a powerful personality. There were few neutrals. Men were for or against.
And they were swayed, not by examining the issue in all its bearings and making
a personal choice which recognized all the implications, but were swept into
one or other camp by those almost electrical currents of psychic energy which
streamed from
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Him. So crowds surged round Him, and would
have died for Him. Others withdrew to weave their corporate suspicion, hate,
and fear into a net strong enough to drag Him to death. Jesus knew this would
happen. As He said, He came not to bring the peace of smug, self‑satisfied
complacency, but the sword of division that severs sometimes the most close‑knit
intimacies of life., Knowledge of these facts, and respect for man's personality,
made Him stand away from men in a way that sometimes appears to us crushing
or cold. In reality, He is making reverent room for the sanctities of human
life and the freedom of human choice. Turn,
thirdly, to the method of mental superiority. How easy it would have been for
Jesus to take an attitude expressed in the words of those who say to us, ' Well,
I know better than you do.' Might He not have brought to bear on His followers
such an enormous weight of evidence that they would have been mentally unable
to acquiesce in anything else but His will, or in any other way but His way
? It is most impressive to notice that Jesus never crushed men's minds by the
sheer weight of argument, which they had no trained faculty to disentangle
or co‑ordinate with the rest of their mental background. He led them quietly
step by step, so that the mind could always took back and see the steps it had
taken. It is the difference between being whirled into a new experience by an
escalator and walking quietly upstairs. As Dr. Maltby has
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pointed out, Jesus would not override perplexity
or accept a loyal heart at the expense of a disabled mind. He would rather leave
many things unexplained, and leave them with their mental integrity undamaged,
even though He had to say to them at the end, ' I have many things to say unto
you, but ye cannot bear them now.' His way is perfectly revealed in the journey
to Emmaus, when, refraining from any overwhelming revelation at first, He led
their inquiring minds step by step from familiar beginnings, in which their
minds were at home with Moses and the Prophets, till He could ' interpret to
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.'
Consider, fourthly, the method of appealing to emotion. Emotion is a much misunderstood
thing. To some people it is a thing to be dreaded and distrusted. Do not let
us despise it. No venture of the soul is made without it. A man cannot fall
in love with Christ (which is what being a Christian means) without emotion,
any more than he can fall in love with his beloved without emotion. Jesus used
emotion again and again. Surely one cannot read His words without being stirred
to the very depths. It seems to me that the point is that He never asked a man
to make a decision while his personality Was swept by emotional force. If, in
cooler moments, intellect and will confirmed emotional desire, then a man was
won; but if a man is only won emotionally, then only a third of his personality
is captured, arid when his emotion cools, his
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allegiance will die with it. That is why
Jesus sent that impulsive disciple home to think about his desire to follow,
and that is why it seems to me a mistake, if when men's emotions are roused,
they are swept into some inquiry‑room and required, then and there, to
make some great decision. Would it not be better to wait until intellect and
will confirm emotional desire and the whole man were won for God, even if the
number of decision‑cards signed were less ? I have been deeply impressed
by the way in which Jesus might have won the young ruler by an appeal on the
emotional side‑Jesus' arm through his, and such a word as, ' Don't turn
away like that,' and the thing was done. When Judas shuffled across the floor
of the Upper Room to do his dreadful deed, Jesus, by a single sentence appealing
to the emotion of pity, might have saved both Himself and Judas, but in both
cases Jesus let men go. He used emotion ‑for instance, He spoke words
which kindled fear as no other words can kindle that emotion‑but, out
of a divine respect for human personality, He never pressed for decision while
emotion was at its height, nor coerced a submission by an appeal to admiration,
or pity, or fear.All this has, as I suggested,
a twofold meaning. First, the very nature of God is revealed, for' he that hath
seen Me hath seen the Father.' God might use physical force. He might bring
His angels and sweep through our cities until every man was beaten to his knees.
God could use psychic force. We who have prayed that we might see His face should
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remember that one of these day's He might
conceivably answer our prayer, and, in the splendour of that tremendous Presence,
what would be left of our faculty for judgement, and decision, and choice ?
We should be swept into allegiance. God could use mental force. He could bring
evidence of His reality and power which would break down the mind by the weight
of its truth. One of the most amazing signs of His respect for our personality
lies in the fact that He has put us in a world in which the evidence against
Him is far more obvious than th6 evidence in His favour. God n‑dght use
emotional power. If a modem evangelist can herd people by the hundred into an
inquiry‑room, could not God Himself sweep our being with the fires of
an emotion that would break down all our resistance ? But ‑let us. note,
secondly, that we must not call God cold and distant; we must not complain that
He does not vindicate Himself sufficiently, when His restraint is a sign of
His very respect for our personality. He has eschewed all ways of force pressed
to excess, in. order that our choice of His way may be wholly our own.
I have seen a picture calied " Victory' which
shows a hill‑top, a standard floating proudly from a flag‑staff,
a captain standing with uplifted sword among the remnant of his followers, and
the bodies of the beaten enemy lying around. Many would like to picture in their
minds the victory of God like that. They think of Him with all His enemies under
His feet. I doubt if ever they will be. For in the heaven of heavens they will
be standing by His side with you and me, captured, bound,
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broken down‑by a willing response to
love. His victory is seen on another hill‑top, on which is erected no
proud standard floating in the breeze, but just a wooden cross. There is no
captain standing with uplifted weapon. The Captain of our salvation hangs nailed
thereon, and a weapon has been driven into His side. Even here He does not hang
thus to win a mere emotional pity, but He reveals the long, quiet, suffering,
patient ways of God. The fact that humbles me to the dust and overwhelms me
with shame is that there stands on the threshold of the human life the eternal
Christ, the Prince of Glory, and in His hand are all the forces I have described.
Between Him and the object of His passionate longing is only the frail barrier
of the human will. If He lifted so much as a little finger, our paltry defences
would go down in ruins, but, because of this tremendous respect for our personality,
which reveals the eternal restraint of God, this great Lover of the soul will
never be its burglar, but will wait on the threshold until we ourselves rise
and let Him in. 'Behold,' He says, ' I stand at the door and knock.' What a
respect for personality! What a divine restraint! What a majestic love! I listen
down the corridor of the years for any sound of the dread trumpet of an angel
summoning men to repentance. I only hear the voice of a Baby crying in a manger,
and a whisper from lips tortured by pain, ' Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do.'