FOLLOW HIS STEPS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26027, 15 December 1945, Page 3

FOLLOW HIS STEPS

Written for the Otago Daily Times By the Rev. Gardner Miller

I have never forgotten the impression made upon my life when I was a boy, after reading Sheldon’s book, “In His Steps.” All through my ministry that book has haunted me. I know how easy it is to argue against the possibility of actually doing what Jesus would do, but I have never been able to argue myself out of the demand that I should attempt to do what Jesus would do. In recent years, after a series of lectures on the book, I pledged myself —and many others did so, too, with me—never to. begin a day without solemnly pledging myself to do, in any circumstance, whatever what I believed Jesus would do if He were in my place. My failures have been many. But when I have been daring enough to carry out my pledge I have experienced some of the most amazing hours and scenes of my life. I am convinced that the adventure of taking Jesus at His word—as far as we can discern that word—is one open to the humblest (perhaps only to such) among us. My thoughts on this theme have been quickened lately, as I worked my way through the first Epistle of Peter. When I came to chapter two and read from verse twenty-one onward, I saw how Peter looked at it; Peter, the man of the impulsive spirit who had been chastened into an obedience that made him a prince of the church. And I notice that when Peter asked his readers to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, he took pains to inform them what it meant to do so. Peter was a very practical man, not much of the visionary in him. To him it meant something very real and definite to follow the Master. And when I read on and see how he goes far enough to suggest that we should follow Jesus to the extent of dying as He died — as Peter himself did—then I realise, with awe, that to follow in the footsteps of Jesus is revolutionary. Now if you will read carefully and slowly verses twenty-one to twenty-four, you will see clearly emerging two factors of immense importance for this adventure of doing what Jesus would do. The first is that we must be prepared to accept, to adopt A Way of Life

that has rules and -regulations and demands altogether different from the life that seems sufficient for most of us. Notice how precise Peter is. He mentions certain things that must happen—we must make them to happen—if we are to do as Jesus would do if He were in our place. For instance, we must not sDeak with our tongue in our cheek." “No guile was found in His mouth.” That is very practical. We shoula say what we mean, and mean what we say. What an amazing change would take place in all our relationships if we always spoke the truth. And you will notice that the matter of honest speech is prefaced by the statement that Jesus “ did no sin.” Here I enter upon very debatable ground, but I have always held it before me as a possibility that a man could so walk and talk with Jesus that in time he would get to that state where he would commit no deliberate sin. He may sin through ignorance, and also because of the mean level of religious life, but would it not be possible to so ao as Jesus would do that a disciple would not consciously sin! And then Peter goes on to say that to follow His steps would also mean that there would be no reciminations; “ when He was reviled, reviled not again.” j , To retort is so natural to us, especially when we have suffered unjustly at the hands of those from whom we least expected such treatment. It takes grace to keep some of us from blurting out what we will do to those who have wronged us. But if we will fellow Jesus, then we must learn to answer reviling with gentleness. It does not mean that you permit your good to be evil spoken of, but it does mean that you will not water down the quality of your goodness by stooping to the questionable practice of giving tit for tat. More than that, the disciple who is in earnest about doing what Jesus would do will accept suffering, no matter how or where it comes, without threatening That is, suffering will not be allowed to produce resentment, and the low outlook that mutters about unfairness and “what have I done to deserve this?” You see how practical Peter is in all this! Did he learn all this through his own experience? Did that masterful man find that he could not feed the sheep and the lambs and be a shepherd to them unless he kept very close to the Good Shepherd of us all? And as he kept close, did he learn how to subjugate himself, how to keep Peter, the brazen, down, and allow Peter, the seeker, a chance _ to explore the wonders of adventuring with Christ? And when he goes on to say (verse 24) that Jesus bore his sins on the tree, I feel that Peter puts his finger right on the spot that so many of us miss, namely, that we must know the reality of redemption at first-hand before we can attain to this high reward of walking with Jesus. Many of us who are attracted very much by the idea of doing what Jesus would do, feeling that it might open up for us some wonderful piece of service that will astonish others, fail even to begin, because we fan to realise that we must be changed within before anything can happen without. It’s the inner revolution that is the womb of the new life, the new adventure. To speak the truth, never to be bitter, never to mutter about the unfairness of suffering, to be willing to die to sin, and so to discipline ourselves that we shall not sin consciously: all that must lie at the very heart of our longing to do as Jesus would do. We have to become like Him; we have to become Him. It seems impossible, but it is not. Where then can we begin? We begin by learning

The Secret of Christ’s overcoming life, and this the second emerging factor. It lay in this that He (verse 23) “ committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously’ [“left everything to Him who judges justly ” (Moffatt) ]. .In other words, Jesus handed over His life entirely to God, and in obedience to the Father He lived all His days. That does not mean immunity from suffering and defeat and death, but it does mean that these things never mastered Him. This may seem like an anti-climax after what I have written. But it is not. It is the one supreme thing few of us do, that is, to hand over everything to God. We sing “I surrender all,” but if we are strictly honest we know we do not do anything of the ld i r know there must be a daily searching and a daily surrender if I am to serve my Master worthily. . . To live like Jesus is, in my opinion, a clear demand from the New Testament. If, then, we are to follow in His steps, then let us see to it that we take the first step, and that is to leave everything, absolutely,* to God. When we do that, the great adventure begins. _