In one place we read of Him saying: "Come to me all who are worn out and
burdened down and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me because I am gentle and humble
in heart, and will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is pleasant and my load is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
This certainly sounds nice and comforting,
like the old line about "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild," but in the
chapter previous to the one where He makes this claim, we read of Him saying
something that seems totally contrary to that image: "Whoever loves father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is
not worthy of me, and whoever does not take his cross and follow after Me is
not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life
will lose it and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it!"
(Matthew 10:37-39).
When I attended
seminary I took a class on personality development, taught by a well-known
psychiatrist. Every student was required
to take a personality profile, where we answered hundreds of questions which
were used to graph our personality traits and (possible) disorders. As I recall there were two parallel lines
running horizontally through the chart.
We were told that though our graph may go up and down, as long as we
stayed between this pair of lines, we were considered "normal" (I
recall that I bumped the lines in a few places, though I never crossed them).
Our prof informed us
that he decided once to take the test and answer the questions as he thought
Jesus would have (admitting that this was a dangerous thing to do). He felt there were many places where Jesus
would have crossed the line and been considered as having personality
disorders.
While this may seem
bizarre to many and even blasphemous to some, we should remember that Jesus was
considered by many in His own day as having some problems.
"The Jews answered
and said to Him, 'Aren't we correct in saying you're a Samaritan and you have a
demon?'" (John 8:48).
"When they
heard, some of His own family went out to seize Him, because they were saying,
'He's out of his mind!" (Mark 3:21).
As I look over my many
years of study, I have come to realize that many of my efforts in study have
been to bring Jesus back between those two parallel lines. And as a matter of fact most of the sermons
I've heard (and preached), most of the books I've read, most of the lessons
I've heard (and taught) have at least to some extent, been directed toward that
goal.
I recognize that much
of this effort is legitimate. We need to
attempt to interpret the gospels in ways that we can understand what they
say. We need to use proper exegetical
methods. A few examples:
Jesus used figures of
speech, much as we do. Similes and
metaphors were common. He also used
hyperbole. One task of the interpreter
is to distinguish when Jesus is speaking matter-of-factly and when he is
exaggerating for the sake of emphasis.
We should also
recognize that Jesus had many roles, as the titles given to Him and which He
claimed for Himself show. As a healer he
was gentle; as Lord and King he was demanding.
And of course He was both God and Man as He claimed!
And Jesus knew people
and their individual needs. While often
He spoke in general terms, there were many times when His words were directed
toward a particular individual or group.
He tailored His speech toward the need of those addressed.
And having said all
this, having used all the interpretive tools we have, we are still confronted
with a Savior who frustrates our efforts to fit Him between the lines.
And yet we can trust
Him as the One who loved us enough to die in our place on the cross.
And we can yield to
the seemingly impossible demands that He makes as our Lord and Master.
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