(Palm Sunday.)
Exodus ix. 14. I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine
heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, that thou mayest
know that there is none like me in all the earth.
We are now beginning Passion Week, the week of the whole year which
ought to teach us most theology; that is, most concerning God, his
character and his spirit.
For in this Passion Week God did that which utterly and perfectly
showed forth his glory, as it never has been shown forth before or
since. In this week Jesus Christ, the incarnate God, died on the
cross for man, and showed that his name, his character, his glory
was love--love without bound or end.
It was to teach us this that the special services, lessons,
collects, epistles, and gospels of this week were chosen.
The second lesson, the collects, the epistles, the gospel for to-
day, all set before us the patience of Christ, the humility of
Christ, the love of Christ, the self-sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb
without spot, enduring all things that he might save sinful man.
But if so, what does this first lesson--the chapter of Exodus from
which my text is taken--what does it teach us concerning God? Does
it teach us that his name is love?
At first sight you would think that it did not. At first sight you
would fancy that it spoke of God in quite a different tone from the
second lesson.
In the second lesson, the words of Jesus the Son of God are all
gentleness, patience, tenderness. A quiet sadness hangs over them
all. They are the words of one who is come (as he said himself),
not to destroy men's lives, but to save them; not to punish sins,
but to wash them away by his own most precious blood.
But in the first lesson how differently he seems to speak. His
words there are the words of a stern and awful judge, who can, and
who will destroy whatsoever interferes with his will and his
purpose.
'I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and on
thy servants, and all thy people, that thou mayest know that there
is none like me in all the earth.' The cattle and sheep shall be
destroyed with murrain; man and beast shall be tormented with boils
and blains; the crops shall be smitten with hail; the locusts shall
eat up every green thing in the land; and at last all the first-born
of Egypt shall die in one night, and the land be filled with
mourning, horror, and desolation, before the anger of this terrible
God, who will destroy and destroy till he makes himself obeyed.
Can this be he who rode into Jerusalem, as on this day, meek and
lowly, upon an ass's colt; who on the night that he was betrayed
washed his disciples' feet, even the feet of Judas who betrayed him?
Who prayed for his murderers as he hung upon the cross, 'Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do?'
Can these two be the same?
Is the Lord Jehovah of the Old Testament the Lord Jesus of the New?
They are the same, my friends. He who laid waste the land of Egypt
is he who came to seek and to save that which was lost.
He who slew the children in Egypt is he who took little children up
in his arms and blessed them.
He who spoke the awful words of the text is he who was brought as a
lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before the shearers is dumb,
so he opened not his mouth.
This is very wonderful. But why should it NOT be wonderful? What
can God be but wonderful? His character, just because it is
perfect, must contain in itself all other characters, all forms of
spiritual life which are without sin. And yet again it is not so
very wonderful. Have we not seen--I have often--in the same mortal
man these two different characters at once? Have we not seen
soldiers and sailors, brave men, stern men, men who have fought in
many a bloody battle, to whom it is a light thing to kill their
fellow-men, or to be killed themselves in the cause of duty; and yet
most full of tenderness, as gentle as lambs to little children and
to weak women; nursing the sick lovingly and carefully with the same
hand which would not shrink from firing the fatal cannon to blast a
whole company into eternity, or sink a ship with all its crew? I
have seen such men, brave as the lion and gentle as the lamb, and I
saw in them the likeness of Christ--the Lion of Judah; and yet the
Lamb of God.
Christ is the Lamb of God; and in him there are the innocence of the
lamb, the gentleness of the lamb, the patience of the lamb: but
there is more. What words are these which St. John speaks in the
spirit?--
'And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and
every mountain and island were moved out of their places; and the
kings of the earth, and the great, and the rich, and the chief
captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman and every freeman
hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and
said to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from
the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of
the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be
able to stand?'
Yes, look at that awful book of Revelation with which the Bible
ends, and see if the Bible does not end as it began, by revealing a
God who, however loving and merciful, long-suffering, and of great
goodness, still wages war eternally against all sin and
unrighteousness of man, and who will by no means clear the guilty; a
God of whom the apostle St. Paul, who knew most of his mercy and
forgiveness to sinners, could nevertheless say, just as Moses had
said ages before him, 'Our God is a consuming fire.'
Now I think it most necessary to recollect this in Passion Week; ay,
and to do more--to remember it all our lives long.
For it is too much the fashion now, and has often been so before, to
think only of one side of our Lord's character, of the side which
seems more pleasant and less awful. People please themselves in
hymns which talk of the meek and lowly Jesus, and in pictures which
represent him with a sad, weary, delicate, almost feminine face.
Now I do not say that this is wrong. He is the same yesterday, to-
day, and for ever; as tender, as compassionate now as when he was on
earth; and it is good that little children and innocent young people
should think of him as an altogether gentle, gracious, loveable
being; for with the meek he will be meek; but again, with the
froward, the violent, and self-willed, he will be froward. He will
show the violent that he is the stronger of the two, and the self-
willed that he will have his will and not theirs done.
So it is good that the widow and the orphan, the weary and the
distressed, should think of Jesus as utterly tender and true,
compassionate and merciful, and rest their broken hearts upon him,
the everlasting rock. But while it is written, that whosoever shall
fall on that rock he shall be broken, it is written too, that on
whomsoever that rock shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
It is good that those who wish to be gracious themselves, loving
themselves, should remember that Christ is gracious, Christ is
loving. But it is good also, that those who do NOT wish to be
gracious and loving themselves, but to be proud and self-willed,
unjust and cruel, should remember that the gracious and loving
Christ is also the most terrible and awful of all beings; sharper
than a two-edged sword, piercing asunder the very joints and marrow,
discerning the most secret thoughts and intents of the heart; a
righteous judge, strong and patient, who is provoked every day: but
if a man WILL not turn he will whet his sword. He hath bent his bow
and made it ready, and laid his arrows in order against the
persecutors. What Christ's countenance, my friends, was like when
on earth, we do NOT know; but what his countenance is like now, we
all may know; for what says St. John, and how did Christ appear to
him, who had been on earth his private and beloved friend?
'His head and his hair were white as snow, and his eyes were like a
flame of fire, and his voice like the sound of many waters; and out
of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was
as the sun when he shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I
fell at his feet as dead.'
That is the likeness of Christ, my friends; and we must remember
that it is his likeness, and fall at his feet, and humble ourselves
before his unspeakable majesty, if we wish that he should do to us
at the last day as he did to St. John--lay his hand upon us, saying,
'Fear not, I am the first and the last, and behold, I am alive for
evermore, Amen. I have the keys of death and hell.'
Yes, it is good that we should all remember this. For if we do not,
we may fall, as thousands fall, into a very unwholesome and immoral
notion about religion. We may get to fancy, as thousands do, rich
and poor, that because Christ the Lord is meek and gentle, patient
and long-suffering, that he is therefore easy, indulgent, careless
about our doing wrong; and that we can, in plain English, trifle
with Christ, and take liberties with his everlasting laws of right
and wrong; and so fancy, that provided we talk of the meek and lowly
Jesus, and of his blood washing away all our sins, that we are free
to behave very much as if Jesus had never come into the world to
teach men their duty, and free to commit almost any sin which does
not disgrace us among our neighbours, or render us punishable by the
law.
My friends, it is NOT SO. And those who fancy that it is so, will
find out their mistake bitterly enough. Infinite love and
forgiveness to those who repent and amend and do right; but infinite
rigour and punishment to those who will not amend and do right.
This is the everlasting law of God's universe; and every soul of man
will find it out at last, and find that the Lord Jesus Christ is not
a Being to be trifled with, and that the precious blood which he
shed on the cross is of no avail to those who are not minded to be
righteous even as he is righteous.
'But Christ is so loving, so tender-hearted that he surely will not
punish us for our sins.' This is the confused notion that too many
people have about him. And the answer to it is, that just BECAUSE
Christ is so loving, so tender-hearted, therefore he MUST punish us
for our sins, unless we utterly give up our sins, and do right
instead of wrong.
That false notion springs out of men's selfishness. They think of
sin as something which only hurts themselves; when they do wrong
they think merely, 'What punishment will God inflict on ME for doing
wrong?' They are wrapt up in themselves. They forget that their
sins are not merely a matter between them and Christ, but between
them and their neighbours; that every wrong action they commit,
every wrong word they speak, every wrong habit in which they indulge
themselves, sooner or later, more or less hurts their neighbours--
ay, hurts all mankind.
And does Christ care only for THEM? Does he not care for their
neighbours? Has he not all mankind to provide for, and govern and
guide? And can he allow bad men to go on making this world worse,
without punishing them, any more than a gardener can allow weeds to
hurt his flowers, and not root them up? What would you say of a man
who was so merciful to the weeds that he let them choke the flowers?
What would you say of a shepherd who was so merciful to the wolves
that he let them eat his sheep? What would you say of a magistrate
who was so merciful to thieves that he let them rob the honest men?
And do you fancy that Christ is a less careful and just governor of
the world than the magistrate who punishes the thief that honest men
may live in safety?
Not so. Not only will Christ punish the wolves who devour his
sheep, but he will punish his sheep themselves if they hurt each
other, torment each other, lead each other astray, or in any way
interfere with the just and equal rule of his kingdom; and this, not
out of spite or cruelty, but simply because he is perfect love.
Go, therefore, and think of Christ this Passion Week as he was, and
is, and ever will be. Think of the whole Christ, and not of some
part of his character which may specially please your fancy. Think
of him as the patient and forgiving Christ, who prayed for his
murderers, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'
But remember that, in this very Passion Week, there came out of
those most gentle lips--the lips which blessed little children, and
cried to all who were weary and heavy laden, to come to him and he
would give them rest--that out of those most gentle lips, I say, in
this very Passion Week, there went forth the most awful threats
which ever were uttered, 'Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape
the damnation of hell?' Think of him as the Lamb who offered
himself freely on the cross for sinners. But think of him, too, as
the Lamb who shall one day come in glory to judge all men according
to their works. Think of him as full of boundless tenderness and
humanity, boundless long-suffering and mercy. But remember that
beneath that boundless sweetness and tenderness there burns a
consuming fire; a fire of divine scorn and indignation against all
who sin, like Pharaoh, out of cruelty and pride; against all which
is foul and brutal, mean and base, false and hypocritical, cruel and
unjust; a fire which burns, and will burn against all the wickedness
which is done on earth, and all the misery and sorrow which is
suffered on earth, till the Lord has burned it up for ever, and
there is nothing but love and justice, order and usefulness, peace
and happiness, left in the universe of God.
Oh, think of these things, and cast away your sins betimes, at the
foot of his everlasting cross, lest you be consumed with your sins
in his everlasting fire!