Ten Theophanies by William M. Baker

Author:William M. Baker [Baker, William M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2017-10-26T22:00:00+00:00

VII. CHRIST THE MASTER OF BRUTE FORCE.

(B. C. 1160. – JUDGES xiii.)

DOES gravitation itself draw men downward with an almost omnipotence more steady and even than the power of sin? Ninety years have not gone before the Israelites are down again prostrate in the dust, their sin taking outward and retributive shape this time in the persons of their Philistine masters. For a sixth time in Old Testament history, the Son of God comes in visible form to their relief. And now there is this much of evolution toward the days of Mary: that it is to a woman He first makes himself known, —but of that hereafter.

Again He reveals himself as "a man." We cannot look too steadily at Christ as such. And there cannot have been much to distinguish Him in outer appearance from other men of his day. In the case of the impotent man healed by Christ beside the pool, when the Jews asked, " What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk?" he that was healed "wist not who it was." As he lay waiting for the troubling of the water a stranger had said to him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" It is evident there was nothing in this one man of a perpetually passing throng of men—Herodians, Romans, Hebrews, newcomers from all parts of the world—to arrest any special attention to himself. Precisely as if to any other inquirer, seeing nothing in this person to awaken any hope that He could do more for him than any other, the impotent man replies, not using the courtesy even of "Rabbi" or "Lord ": "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool." Even after Christ had spoken to the healed man in the temple, to which he had so naturally hastened to give thanks, all that he could afterward report to the Jews was that it was Jesus which had made him whole, adding not a syllable of description thereto, simply because there was nothing else to say; so plain is it that there was nothing in the face or dress, the aspect or bearing of Christ then or at any time, to divert attention from what He said or did.

When an operation has been performed for the cataract, however successful the operation, the patient is not allowed to use his eyes all at once. For impatient weeks he must wear bandages. Very slowly and cautiously is he allowed to open his eyes, and never at first save in darkened rooms. When Jesus gave their seeing to the blind, this, like everything He does, is perfect. The man born blind, the instant his eyeballs are unlocked, looks up under the broad noon of the brilliant Syrian skies, and sees as any other man does.

The only account he can give of it is: "A man that is called Jesus" has healed him. When pressed upon the subject, all he can suggest concerning his new and wonderful friend is, "He is a prophet.

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