Our Lord has sorrowfully contemplated the not knowing God, which in the
blaze of His light can only come from wilful closing of the eyes, and
is therefore the very sin of sins. But that, sad as it is, is not all
which has to be said about that blindness of unbelief in Him. It
indicates a rooted alienation of heart and mind and will from God, and
is, in fact, the manifestation of an unconscious but real hatred. It is
an awful saying, and one which the lips 'into which grace was poured'
could not pronounce without a sigh. But it is our wisdom to listen to
what it was His mercy to say.
Observe our Lord's identification of Himself with the Father, so as
that the feelings with which men regard Him are, _ipso facto_, the
feelings with which they regard the Father God. 'He that hath seen Me
hath seen the Father.' 'He that hath loved Me hath loved the Father.'
'He that hath hated Me hath hated the Father.' An ugly word--a word
that a great many of us think far too severe and harsh to be applied to
men who simply are indifferent to the divine love. Some say, 'I am
conscious of no hatred. I do not pretend to be a Christian, but I do
not hate God. Take the ordinary run of people round about us in the
world; if you say God is not in all their thoughts, I agree with you;
but if you say that they _hate_ God, I do not believe it.'
Well, what do you think the fact that men go through their days and
weeks and months and years, and have not God in all their thoughts,
indicates as to the central feeling of their hearts towards God?
Granted that there is not actual antagonism, because there is no
thought at all, do you think it would be possible for a man who loved
God to go on for a twelvemonth and never think of, or care to please,
or desire to be near, the object that he loved? And inasmuch as, deep
down at the bottom of our moral being, there is no such thing possible
as indifference and a perfect equipoise in reference to God, it is
clear enough, I think, that--although the word must not be pressed as
if it meant conscious and active antagonism,--where there is no love
there is hate.
If a man does not love God as He is revealed to him in Jesus Christ, he
neither cares to please Him nor to think about Him, nor does he order
his life in obedience to His commands. And if it be true that obedience
is the very life-breath of love, disobedience or non-obedience is the
manifestation of antagonism, and antagonism towards God is the same
thing as hate.
Dear friends, I want some of my hearers to-day who have never honestly
asked themselves the question of what their relation to God is, to go
down into the deep places of their hearts and test themselves by this
simple inquiry: 'Do I do anything to please Him? Do I try to serve Him?
Is it a joy to me to be near Him? Is the thought of Him a delight, like
a fountain in the desert or the cool shadow of a great rock in the
blazing wilderness? Do I turn to Him as my Home, my Friend, my All? If
I do not, am I not deceiving myself by fancying that I stand neutral?'
There is no neutrality in a man's relation to God. It is one thing or
other. 'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.' 'The friendship of the world
is enmity against God.'
IV. And now, lastly, note how our Lord here touches the deep thought
that this ignorance, which is sin, and is more properly named hatred,
is utterly irrational and causeless.
'All this will they do that it might be fulfilled which is written in
their law, They hated Me without a cause.' One hears sighing through
these words the Master's meek wonder that His love should be so met,
and that the requital which He receives at men's hands, for such an
unexampled and lavish outpouring of it, should be such a carelessness,
reposing upon a hidden basis of such a rooted alienation.
'Without a cause'; yes! that suggests the deep thought that the most
mysterious and irrational thing in men's whole history and experience
is the way in which they recompense God in Christ for what He has done
for them. 'Be astonished, O ye heavens! and wonder, O ye earth!' said
one of the old prophets; the mystery of mysteries, which can give no
account of itself to satisfy reason, which has no apology, excuse, or
vindication, is just that when God loves me I do not love Him back
again; and that when Christ pours out the whole fullness of His heart
upon me, nay dull and obstinate heart gives back so little to Him who
has given me so much.
'Without a cause.' Think of that Cross; think, as every poor creature
on earth has a right to think, that he and she individually were in the
mind and heart of the Saviour when He suffered and died, and then think
of what we have brought Him for it. De we not stand ashamed at-if I
might use so trivial a word,--the absurdity as well as at the
criminality of our requital? Causeless love on the one side, occasioned
by nothing but itself, and causeless indifference on the other,
occasioned by nothing but itself, are the two powers that meet in this
mystery-men's rejection of the infinite love of God.
My friend, come away from the unreasonable people, come away from the
men who can give no account of their attitude. Come away from those who
pay benefits by carelessness, and a Love that died by an indifference
that will not cast an eye upon that miracle of mercy, and let His love
kindle the answering flame in your hearts. Then you will know God as
only they who love Christ know Him, and in the sweetness of a mutual
bond will lose the misery of self, and escape the deepening
condemnation of those who see Christ on the Cross and do not care for
the sight, nor learn by it to know the infinite tenderness and holiness
of the Father that sent Him.