Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1073
“For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you are wearied and faint in your minds.” Hebrews 12:3.
WHEN the Hebrew Christians were suffering dire persecution the Apostle could suggest no better support for their faith than this, “Consider Him.” He bade them look to Jesus and compare their case with that of their Lord. Such contemplations would prove a sovereign balm for their distressed minds. A consideration of our Lord and Master is the best conceivable stay and support during persecution. Let us look into that fact for a few minutes. The Believer under persecution should remember that he is suffering no strange thing, but is only enduring that which fell upon his Master before him.
Should the disciple expect to be above his Lord? “If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His household?” If they had received Christ they would have received us, but since they reject both Christ and His sayings, the followers of Christ must expect that both their persons and their doctrines will be lightly esteemed. Remember that in addition to His being our Master, Jesus is also God. Shamefully unrighteous was the opposition of mankind to God, whom by all reasons of right and justice they were bound to reverence—yet He endured with almighty patience the contradiction of sinners against Himself. A word from His lips would have withered them, but, like a sheep before her shearers, He was dumb.
One glance of His eyes of fire would have consumed their spirits, but those eyes distilled tears instead. You are but men—is it much that men should mock you? If God Himself, in the Person of His dear Son has endured the opposition of sinners, who are you, O sons of men, that you should wonder, much less should murmur when you are reviled for Jesus’ sake? Remember, too, that our dear Lord and Master was perfectly innocent. It was a cruel thing that He should be opposed who had done no harm to anyone. “For which of these works do you stone Me?” He asked a plaintive question, as much as if He had said—“I have healed your sick, I have fed your hungry, I have raised your dead. And do you thus requite me! Are stones the only testimonies of your appreciation?” They called Him a drunk, yet well we know He was Temperance itself. They said He had a devil, though He was the Lord of angels. They charged Him with treason, and yet He was, Himself, the King of kings and Lord of all.
Now, Brothers and Sisters, in us there is much that is evil and when men speak evil of us falsely we may say within ourselves, “Ah, had they known me better they might have truthfully found fault with me in some other direction.” You are not innocent, Beloved. Oftentimes you bring the rebuke upon yourselves and the contradiction of sinners against your religion is due to your own fault quite as well as to the world’s opposition to the Truth of God which you love. Therefore if He, the Spotless One, endured, should not you endure who are so far from innocent? Should not you be willing for His sake to suffer persecution?
Remember, too, the loving mission upon which our Master came. He came into this world on purpose to save men. He had no sinister motive, nor even a secondary aim. The glory of God in the salvation of lost souls was all He lived for, and yet for all that, sinners were infuriated against Him and opposed Him with might and main. Now, the good you can confer upon them is slender enough compared with the rich gifts with which the Master’s hands were laden. You come, it is true, to tell them of a Savior, but you cannot save them. You bring glad tidings of good things, but you are only tiding-bearers of the good things your Master actually brought. If they persecuted Him who gave His blood for their redemption, it is not amazing if you, who can only tell what He has done, should bear some of the reproaches that fell upon Him.
We remember, dear Friends, how bitter were the reproaches that assailed Him—how the enmity of man put forth all its cruel force. They were not content with slandering Him in life—they must hurry Him away to death. Reproach broke His heart and He was full of heaviness. Thus they tortured His soul and you have not forgotten their cruelties to Him in Pilate’s Hall where the mental and physical agonies were blended. You cannot forget the nailing to the Cross and the scorn which saluted Him in the midst of His dying grief. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. What have you endured compared with His?
As the poet standing upon the desolate mounds of ruined Rome considering the death-throes of an empire, said, “What are our petty griefs? Let me not number mine.” So may you say, “What are the sufferings of any of the saints compared with the infinite griefs of the eternal Son of God?” His was suffering, indeed. “Consider Him, lest you are weary and faint in your minds.” Yet reflect, Beloved, amid all these sufferings our Lord’s temper remained unruffled. He spoke strong words against hypocrisy and falsehood wherever He beheld them. He spared neither Scribe nor Pharisee, but in those stern denunciations not a single atom of personal anger was blended. He did not denounce them in resentment for their attacks upon Himself, but because they deserved to be denounced and were in themselves too vile to be tolerated. No personal animosity ever ruffled the serenity of our great Master’s spirit.