Yesterday, I happened to read mails from those struggling in
their lives, a quite an alarming number of them sounding hopeless, worthless and
suicidal and expressing their thoughts of depression. As I was reading I was really moved in my
spirit and started praying Lord, there are so many needy people who are
desperately seeking help, Lord Jesus please send your help to them and save them
and protect their lives.
Just pondering over these things and the reality that every
minister/believer of God have their own situations of problems and worries and
tough situations and trials. As maturing
Christians, we have been trained in our Christian walk to be tough to our own
sufferings and to be tender and compassionate towards others' problems and
needs. We need to grow up to say “we are
hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair;
persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed.” We need to be strengthened
in faith first so that we can become a source of strength to others in need. We have no role model other than Jesus. He is the one we must follow and
imitate.
Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved
children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a
fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.“
As being led by the Spirit of the Lord, I am sharing an
article here, author of which is not known, for the benefit of the Body of Christ.
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JESUS - TOUGH OR TENDER? JOHN 2:12-25, MARK
10:13-16
How many here
went to Sunday School when you were young?
I thought that the vast majority would have. And what was probably the song that you
learnt the most? Jesus loves me this I
know?
Sing: Jesus loves me this I
know, for the bible tells me so, little ones to him belong, they are weak but
he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes,
Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus loves me, the bible tells me so.
Whilst this is
very true it gives the impression because of the lyrics and tune that Jesus is
meek and mild and never gets angry. It’s
such a lovely tune. But I want to put it
to you that Jesus is not some weak woos that gets walked over or never gets
upset. Yes, Jesus talks a lot about
love, and most would think that he speaks more about love than he does about
giving for instance, but even though that’s not true, but we get the
impression that he is always loving and forgiving. But if that all we think he is, then we can
have a wrong perspective and never worry about what we do wrong because in our
view he will not punish us or cause us to face the consequences of our wrong
choices. But we need to have a more
rounded view of Jesus.
Of course we see
this soft, tender side of Jesus in our reading this morning about him blessing
the little children. But, as I say, if
we only ever see him as loving and forgiving, which he is, then we are only
seeing and understanding part of ‘who’ he really is.
Jesus Christ
would have to be one of the toughest people to ever walk on this earth. He went through so much in his life that most
of us would simply crumble under and give up.
He faced very real persecution and ridicule. He faced people who stood against everything
he said. In the end Jesus had to suffer
the kind of physical abuse that probably no one in human history has had to
face before or since. The movie, The Passion of the cross, showed one of the greatest
and most real portrayals of what Jesus went through that has ever been recorded. I feel the beating may have gone on for a bit
long, but when you read passages like Isaiah 52:14 you can certainly understand
what Jesus went through. That verse says that he was not recognizable.
Even on the
cross what he suffered showed that he was no woos. Jesus could have said no and come down from
the cross, but he knew that this was why he came to this earth and he knew this
was the only way mankind could get right with God. So he hung on that cross. He was in utter agony but refused the drink
that would have eased his pain. He
wanted to feel every bit of that suffering for you and me.
But this is not
the toughness that I even want to talk about most this morning. The toughness that I feel we sometimes don’t
think about are those times when Jesus showed real guts and determination to
say and do things that went against the religious norms and leaders of the day
in an attempt to stand up for what was right and godly. Jesus was tough on
those who did the wrong thing. He
made people face the consequences of their wrong actions. In Matthew 21 we read of the time when Jesus
went to the Temple
to pray and found it full of people running a Sunday Market. The same story as recorded in John 2 shows
how Jesus took the time to make a whip so he could use that to drive the money
changers and the stall holders out of God’s house. Even though he was really angry at what they
had done to God’s house of prayer he took the time to prepare what he was going
to do and how he was going to do it. He
came in with his whip and overturned tables and threw people out of the temple because
the people were mocking God’s house.
In Matthew 19
Jesus was asked by a rich man what he had to do to get eternal life. Jesus told him to keep the commandments and
the guy said he had done that since he was young. But then Jesus told him that he had to sell
all he had and give the money to the poor.
Jesus knew that the man was wealthy and that it would be hard for him to
let go of all he owned. Jesus even let
him walk away into an eternity away from His love and grace and forgiveness
because he couldn’t bring himself to give up ownership of all he had. Jesus, if he was tender and soft, could have
said for the guy to give away ten percent of all he had and that would be near
enough. But no. He was tough with him because he knew that
this guy needed to get rid of the hold money had on him so he could give his
whole life to Christ. Jesus knew the
consequences of this guy’s decision to walk away, but he let him, at least in an
effort to teach his disciples a lesson about the hold money and possessions can
have on a person.
But then we can
contrast that tough stance with our other reading from John 2 where Jesus is
asked by his mother to help out the bridegroom of the wedding because he had
run out of wine. Jesus was very
reluctant to do anything because he had not really begun his ministry and
didn‘t want it know who he was. But his
mother was persuasive, as most mothers can be, and he showed his tender side by
producing some excellent wine so the bridegroom looked great instead of being
utterly embarrassed.
So. What can we learn
from the two very important aspects of this character of Jesus? I think there are a number of things as we
look at the various stories in the bible and see how Jesus handled things.
Firstly, Just as Jesus was tender toward the little children so we
need to love and care for children in the same manner. Just as Jesus said not to hinder them from
coming to him, so we must not hinder the children in our family or church
family from finding faith in Jesus. We
need to do all we can to make it as easy as possible for children to learn
about Christ and hopefully come to know him as their Saviour and Lord.
Secondly, we can learn that when we do wrong there will be
consequences. Jesus stood firm in
his zeal for God’s temple and threw out the market people in no uncertain
terms. He stood up for what was right. When we do right we don’t need to worry about
any punishment or bad consequences, we can simply get on with life and living
for God.
Thirdly, Jesus cared for his mother and others more than he cared for
himself, as we saw in the story of the wedding, and did what she
asked. There were times when Jesus chose
to honor others above himself. We too
need to be confident in our faith so we have a humility that honors others above
ourselves. Pride and self-centeredness
should not be part of our character. God honors those who look beyond
themselves and care for others.
Fourthly, Even when Jesus was on his way to work one miracle he stopped
to heal someone else. Even when
we are called by God to go and do something there can be something that comes
along that we might need to deal with along the way. That should not distract us from doing what we
are meant to, but it may be part of the journey that we need to experience.
I can remember J
John from the UK
speaking at the Edge conference a few years ago. Every morning he prays for opportunities to
bless others and share God’s love with them.
He told how one day he was heading to a meeting but even as he was
walking along the street to this meeting, he believed God was saying for him to
get his shoes shone by a guy on the side of the street. He argued with God for a moment saying he
didn’t have time and that he would be late if he did this, but in the end gave
up and did what he felt God told him to do, which is always the best option. He sat there, got his shoes shone, and whilst doing
so struck up a conversation with the shoe shine man. The guy opened up to him about his life story
and J John was able to encourage him and share his faith with him, even giving
him one of his books, before then leaving and going to his meeting. So even if we know God has called us to go
and do something that may not be the only thing he wants us to do on the way. We just need to be open to hearing and doing
what God says.
Fifthly, we may have to suffer for believing in Jesus Christ, but in
the end, we will receive God’s richest rewards for standing firm in our faith. If you read the story of Brother Yun from China in “The Heavenly Man”,
you will soon understand the kind of persecution some Christians do suffer. He was imprisoned for years and was severely
beaten and even went on a complete starvation diet for some 74 days and yet
miraculously survived and he has been a real blessing to millions of people,
and in turn has been blessed himself.
What we need to
understand is that the true Jesus is not tough or tender, he is both. As His brothers and sisters, children of the
same God and heavenly Father, we too must be both tough and tender. We too need to learn to be tough and stand up
for what Christ would stand up for and we need to be as tender as he was in
times and circumstances that require that soft heart and tender approach.
I believe we can
all grow in both these areas. I believe
we can all be a lot tougher when standing up for God’s truth and his
principles, morals and standards, and at the same time we can become more
caring, loving and tender toward those people and situations that need it.
That is the true
heart of God and of Jesus. As we read
God’s word and get to know Jesus Christ we can certainly see that feminine side
where he cares like no other, and yet we also see the masculine side that is
strong and firm.
Let’s not
pigeonhole Jesus and only think of him as some meek and mild weakling who
wouldn’t hurt a fly. But let us see him
as both tough and tender, willing to do whatever is right in the circumstance
he finds himself.
Let’s pray.
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I am sure this article would have been a blessing to you as
much as it has been to me.
Please feel free to share with me your thoughts and comments on this
post. God Bless!!
