Mark 10:45

DIVINE MEEKNESS

‘The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.’

Mark 10:45

In our Lord’s day every one knew the pomp and the pride of those provincial governors of Rome, who broke in upon the rich East from out of the imperial city to despoil and devour, and then vanished back to Rome loaded with ill-gotten wealth.

I. The contrast.—In contrast to this we turn to greet the coming of the Son of Man Who enters in upon our earth in the might of a lordship all His own, the lordship of Him Who has everything to give, and gives it all.

II. He gave His life.—He gave Himself. His service was utterly unstinted. He saw that we should demand from Him all that He had. He came as the good Giver, as the Shepherd Who giveth His life for His sheep. And it is this which draws us under the sway of His gracious lordship. We cannot resist the sweet force of that irresistible appeal, ‘Come unto Me, for I am One that giveth all that I am to thee.’ This is the allurement of Christ, by which His sheep are drawn to His feet. ‘I, if I be lifted up from the Cross, will draw all men unto Me.’

III. He was both God and man.—And yet we associate this claim entirely with what we call the humanity of the Lord. But the Catholic faith asserts that Christ Jesus was both God and man; One Who in all His most human actions is still, none the less, the eternal Word of God. His winning grace has in it the potency of God Himself. It is the manifestation of the Word, the revelation of what God is in Himself. If Jesus the Man is tender and meek, then God the Word is meek and tender; God the Word is sympathetic, and gentle, and humble, and forgiving, and loyal, and loving, and true. It is God the Word Who cannot restrain Himself for love of us, and comes with overwhelming compassion to seek and save the lost. The Son of Man is the Son of God; and, therefore, we know and thank God for it, that it is the blessed nature of the Son Himself, in His eternal substance, which found its true and congenial delight in coming not to be served, but to serve, and ‘to give His life a ransom for many.’

IV. The revelation of the Father.—Do we remember sufficiently that it is the Father Whom the Gospel story makes near, makes visible? that in drawing near to Christ, under the strong pressure of the unstinting love, we are being drawn to God, the everlasting Father, made present and intelligible in His Son?

Rev. Canon H. Scott Holland.