Meditating on The Christ

"I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him."--Napoleon

In Christ we see a divine nature and divine attributes that set Him apart from all other human beings. In comparing Him to others we see only contrasts, few, if any, similarities to people we know. When we compare ourselves to Him, we find ourselves coming up far short. Our weakness and sin is exposed in the light of His perfection. His gracious nature forces us to consider our own judgmental and cruel attitude towards others.

Jn 15:22-25

22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

But gazing at The Christ doesn't bring depression or discouragement, it causes joy and hope. In Him we see the fulfillment of all the aspirations of our highest instincts. Living in this world of men, we feel this nagging sensation that things are not as they should be- that something is amiss in the world- and also in our own lives. In Christ we see the answer. His nature shows us human life as it was meant to be. Life before the Fall. The strangeness of His conduct takes your breath away when you take time to carefully consider it. Breathless in a good way. Astounded at the uniqueness, and warmed by the rightness of it all. At every turn and in every moment we see right conduct, right relationships, right response to other's fear or doubt or unbelief. John summed it up well in the first chapter of his Gospel:

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Grace and Truth! Consider the scenes from the life of Christ which show us His gracious nature... mixed with truth. The scene of the woman caught in adultery comes to mind.

Jn 8:8-11

8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]]

He chased off the legalists with His challenge, "let he who is without sin cast the first stone", then when He is alone with the woman we see this tender, gracious question, "Has no one condemned you?" with the tender conclusion, "Neither do I...sin no more".

The heart that yearns for strong unbending truth finds it in Christ. But with it they find this profound and life-changing grace. The world-weary find the answer in Christ. All those things we know SHOULD BE are in Christ.

What happens to our inner life as we consider Christ? Meditation is strongly encouraged in scripture and is given as a prescription for all manner of ills. It also is the secret of the productive and fruitful life.

Joshua 1:8

8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Meditating on the Word of God. What better sections of scripture to meditate upon than the very life of Christ? Looking at His person is always an encouragement on some level. Consider Phil 4:8--whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise. Take any of these and consider Christ... purity. Where do you see purity in His words, His motives, His actions toward others, His internal consistency and integrity. The purity of his discourses with others. etc., etc.

It is quite difficult to write about this. Words seem to fail. How do you describe the inner influence which comes from meditating on the person of Christ? How can you describe the subtle nuances of His person as portrayed in scripture? How can you capture the dramatic uniqueness you see in Him? The alien yet profoundly familiar, like paradise lost.

This fall I've been teaching a series in my Sunday School Class on "Scenes from the LIfe of Christ". I had no idea what I was getting in to. The first thing I noticed was how awkward it was to talk about Him. That may sound strange, but you try it! Try talking about Jesus.

I felt I was on solid ground when recounting the stories from the gospels. And there was a strange response in my heart as the stories mounted up. At first it was just interesting and spiritually stimulating. Then it became profoundly arresting. Recently I am oddly stirred by love for Christ and a genuine desire to worship Him, and a deep desire to speak about Him in a way that is accurate, truthful, and respectful of Him. That has made it even harder to teach the class.

Proverbs 9:

10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,

and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

I've been asking some hard questions. How often do our hearts and minds and words drift from Christ to lesser things. What benefit really comes from focusing on the lesser?

"We need people who can talk with greater passion about what is right with Christ, than what is wrong with the world." - Dwight Edwards, Houston, TX, 11/17/09