SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1928, Page 17

SUNDAY READING

By

REV. A. H. COLLINS

A BRAMBLE THAT BLOSSOMED. “And both the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying, This Man reeeiveth sinners, and cateth with the.m.” Saint Luke XV. 2. It is noteworthy that some of the I clearest statements of the Christian I Gospel come from the lips of Christ’s I enemies. These words are an illustra- ! tion of the fact. Our text was coined in pride and passion. Wicked hands took those syllables and sought to weave them into a crown of thorns, and 10l time has touched them, and they are changed into a chaplet of glory immortal. Pilate preached a better Gospel than he knew when from the uplifted cross there flashed the words; “Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews.” The crowd that surged around the cross cried, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save,” and they proclaimed a truth which has brought life and hope to a sad and weary world. “This Man receiveth sinners” is the quintescence of the Gospel. The water is the water of life, though the hands that cut the channel were unfriendly. Seneca made it his practice to dine with his slaves, and when challenged to justify an innovation so contrary to Roman custom, and so offensive to Roman pride, he defended himself by saying that he did so because some were worthy, and with others that they might become so. The action and the defence were alike admirable, and read a needed lesson to the proud aristocrats lof the Imperial City. Pharisee and scribe needed the sama lesson, for it seemed to them shocking that Christ should prefer the society of these social outcasts rather than their own irreproachable manners and decorous behaviour. They were unaffectedly surprised at His choice, for it cut clean across their idea of the way good and respectable folk should deal with people who made no claim to goodness. CHRIST’S INFLUENCES. Our Lord offered no defence of His action. Even His accusers did not need to be told that Christ had no sympathy with the sinner’s sin. His most prejudiced critic could not fail to see that Christ’s presence restrained the profanity of the profane, and the violence of the lawless. They knew that Christ carried into the most abandoned society influences that refined and redeemed. They believed Him to be mistaken, but they knew Him pure. He had no likens for vile ways and unclean jests. When Dr. Johnson one night found a fallen woman in a London gutter, diseased, exhausted, and apparently dying, and took her in his strong arms and carried her to his home and nursed her with tenderness, and sought to restore her to health and virtue, no one misjudged his motive. Friend and foe I alike saw in it the action of a simple, ’ great and trusting nature. So here. The jibe of the Pharisee carried no implication of guilt. They judged it a blunder rather than a crime. Just as we sometimes find ourselves laying to a man as a charge that which really constitutes his chief claim to honour, and blaming as guilty weakness that which is proof of power, so the Pharisees condemned Jesus Christ for that which constitutes His eternal praise. For the most desolate and heartbroken could ask no better account of Christ than to say that He receiveth sinful men. If that is true there is no room for despair. MISUSE OF THE WORD “SINNERS.” And now will you consider how it . came to pass that these self-righteous men so completely missed their way in their understanding of the Master! How came it that they blamed Him for the very deed which makes Him every man’s debtor? Instead of pelting them with hard words suppose we try to understand them. Their blunder lay in an entire misconception and misuse of the word “sinners.” It is never easy to preserve the value of words. I sometimes count it half a sin, To put in words the thoughts I feel, For words like nature half reveal And half conceal, the truth within. In their use of the word “sinners” the truth is “half revealed and half concealed.” They used the word in a conventional way which screened themselves. “Sinners” meant people who did not conform ‘to the traditions of the elders. “Sinners” were those who refused to be bound by the stupid interpretations they put upon the law of Moses. “Sinners” were the men who eat with unwashed hands, and walked a few yards too far on the Sabbath Day, and defied the law of Mrs. Grundy. By sin the Pharisee meant a departure from ceremony and ritual, and Jesus told them so in plain speech, but they defaulted in mercy and charity, and their perfunctory observance of moral duty, their blind prejudice and class distinctions, and hectoring vanity were graver faults, and in the great day of Assize the publicans and harlots w’ould enter the kingdom of God before scribe and Pharisee. IN OUR OWN HEARTS. But there is no need to hark back to the first century for examples. The evil is in our own heart. Think of the way we use the word “sinners!” What kind of people do we regard as “sinners?” We reserve the term for men and women in rags, the victims of coarse vice, the vulgar and illiterate, drunkards and gamblers, and “those wicked socialists.” Oh the hollow, the unreal, the unthoughtful way we think of “sinners!” Tens of thousands of smiling and well-dressed folk will stand up in church to-day in graceful pose and picturesque attire and confess themselves “miserable sinners,” and say “there is no health in us,” and they will eay it without a pang of conscience, or a twitch of a facial muscle! The words are nothing more than a figure or speech, and part of the propriety of public worship. There is little sense of personal demerit, little shame, and no burden, no contrition, no resolve on abandonment of the sin confessed.

"Miserable sinners,” oh! yes, we do not mind saying it in general terms, but if anyone should enter into details how angry we should be and how indignant our denial! It is this lost sense of personal guilt that explains a good many other things including false conception of Christ and His salvation. If sin is eimply immaturity, Hke the sourness of an unripe apple,

time will cure that; if sin is only ignorance, the schoolmaster can put it right; if sin is only a skin disease, a doctor may cure it; but if sin means the revolt of my will against the holy will of Holy God, Other refuge hate I none, Hang my helpless soul on Thee. “I preach that which I smartingly believe,” says John Bunyan, and I want to do the same. If the current notions of sin are true, I don’t see the need of Christ to come at all, and His death looks like a waste of sacrificial blood. The Pharisee's false conception led to his false conception of Christ’s saviourhood, and the same is true for us. HOW CHRIST “RECEIVETH.” The other word that stumbled them is the word “receiveth.” “This Man receiveth sinners.”, Jesus Christ read such large meaning into that word. I read in “The Court News” of the day that “His Majesty the King held a reception at Buckingham Palace, and so and so were “received.” I know what that means. It was a showy and costly palaeo function, a State occasion, a stroke of diplomacy that helps to cement the friendship of nations.

But when Christ receiveth sinners how different. In this chapter I read of a father who made a great feast of joy because he had “received” a lost son safe and sound. The word is spelt the same way, but the meaning is not the same. In the one case to be "received” means a stately bow and a formal handshake. In the other case it means welcome, forgiveness, restoration and a new beginning. “This man receiveth rinners” is very wonderful, and beside it stands another ■wonder, for sinners received Him. It was a new thing that the Holy One should companion with the unholy; it was also wonderful that outcast and depraved men sought the presence of one whose spirit breathed nurity as l violets exhale fragrance. “Holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sini ners,” as they knew Christ to be, yet ■ He seemed nearer than any other. He I saw them through and through, yet I showed no scorn, no impatience, no despair. Instead of meeting them with upbraiding and telling them of all the evil things they had done, and all the good things they had missed, He gave them entrance into His deep, pure, trust, and told of what they might yet become. He was so kind, so considerate, so hopeful Because Ho was so divine. He was so human, and because He was so holy He was so merciful The effect was instant. Prejudice turned to confidence, hatred to gratitude, and lawlessness to obedience. Men from whom the Roman lash could not extort a cry, men whom society branded as ‘‘outcast, men who flung back scorn for scorn, men who had abandoned all belief in goodness, fell at Christ’s feet, andconfessed their sin, then rose up to follow Him in newness of life. Jesus believed in these “sinners” and these “sinners” believed in Him! The secret of Jesus was the secret of sincere and robust friendship. He respected men, even reverenced men, and believed that A sinner is a sacred thing, The Holy Spirit made him so. WHAT MAN IS. Some men are fond of talking about “mere man,” and preaching the doctrine of “total depravity.” There is no sueu thing as a “mere man” and “total depravity” is total nonsense. Man is not a child of the devil; he is a child of God, and God wants you to honour your parent. Religion is not a thing apart from life; it is life's highest and best, and we should reach out after the highest and refuse to be imprisoned in evil ways as the Chinese used to bind their girls’ feet. If our teachers would stop denunciation! “Give a dog a bad name and hang him.” Scold a child and you discourage him. Keep mi telling man he is vile and sinful, and. he will justify your verdiet. But believe in man, befriend him, trust and serve him, as Christ did, and however fallen he may be man will respond to the human touch. Down in the human heart, Crushed by the tempter, Feelings lie buried that grace can restore. Touched by a loving hand, Wakened by kindness, Chords that were broken, will vibrate once more.