Week 51—Thursday Mark 5:1-13
Week 51—THURSDAY
“SONS OF FACT”
Jesus has been called the Son of Fact. We find striking illustration of his concreteness at the judgment seat. To those on the right he does not say, “You believed in me and my doctrines, therefore, come, be welcome in my kingdom.” Instead he said, “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” These “sons of fact,” true followers of Jesus, were unwilling to obtain heaven through a possible mistake and so they objected and said, “When saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?” And the Master answered, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matt. 25:35-40, KJV, italics added for emphasis). He was not only concrete himself, Jesus demanded a concrete life from these who were his followers.
He told us that a human soul was worth more than the whole material universe, and when he had crossed a storm-tossed lake to find a storm-tossed soul, ridden with devils, he did not hesitate to sacrifice the two thousand swine to save this one lost man.
He did not merely ask people to turn the other cheek when smitten on the one, to go the second mile when compelled to go the one, to give the cloak also when sued at law and the coat was taken away, to love our enemies and to bless them—he himself did that very thing. The servants struck him on one cheek, he turned the other cheek, and the soldiers struck him on that; they compelled him to go one mile from Gethsemane to the judgment hall—he went two, even to Calvary. They took away his coat at the judgment hall and he gave his seamless robe at the cross, and in the agony on the cross he prayed, “Father, forgive them.”
O Blessed Illustration of all your saying, going even beyond all you have said, teach me your secret, and more, give me yourself to live within me so that I can do what you did so graciously do—do it by your grace. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: One deed is worth a hundred words.