A pious nobleman in England was in the habit of attending a prayer meeting in the country village where he lived, and where a few of the poor people of the neighborhood were accustomed to assemble on a week-day evening. When he first came in they were surprised to see him, and they all rose up at once to offer him the best seat in the room. This troubled him greatly. He gently said to them, “Please take your seats my friends, and have the kindness not to do this again. When I go to the ‘House of Lords,’ I go as one of the lords of the realm. But when I come to this cottage prayer meeting, I come simply as a disciple of Jesus among my fellow disciples, and must be allowed to take any seat that may be empty.” That nobleman was clothed with humility.
“The Humble King.” A French monarch was found one day by some of his attendants engaged in instructing out of the Bible a boy belonging to his cook.
They said it was beneath his dignity as the King of France to be engaged in teaching the child of his cook. His answer was a noble one. “My friends,” said he, “this boy has a soul that is as precious as mine, and it was bought with the same precious blood. If it was not beneath the dignity of my Saviour, the King of heaven, to die for him, it is not beneath my dignity as king of France to tell him what has been done for his salvation.”
That king was clothed with humility. The humiliation of Christ is the fourth lesson taught us by this trial.
The last lesson we learn from the history of the trial is about—the glory of Christ.
Perhaps some may think it strange to speak of the glory of Christ in connection with this part of his history. Here we see him betrayed, and deserted by his own disciples. He is delivered into the hands of his enemies. They pretend to try him. But it is only the form of a trial through which he is made to pass. He is charged with great crimes. These cannot be proved against him. But still he is condemned to the most disgraceful of all deaths. He is handed to the soldiers to do what they please with him. And is it right to speak of the glory of Christ in connection with such scenes as these? Yes. For this was just what Jesus did himself. It was, as he was about to enter on all this humiliation and suffering, when Judas went out from his presence to betray him, that Jesus said:—“Now is the Son of man glorified.” Thus he himself connected the thought of his glory with these very scenes. And surely he was not mistaken. He knew what he was saying.
Now just think what it is in which true glory consists. It is not in wearing fine clothes. It is not in occupying high positions. It is not in having people say fine and flattering things about us. No; but it is in thinking, and feeling, and saying, and doing, and suffering that which is right and according to the will of God. And this is just the position that Jesus was occupying during his trial. He was fulfilling the will of God in things that were the hardest of all for him to do and to suffer. And that was what made him glorious.
If we were asked to point to that part of our Saviour’s life in which he appears to us in the greatest glory, there would probably be considerable difference of opinion among us. Some of us, no doubt, would point to his transfiguration; some to the times when he walked upon the water, or controlled the winds and the waves with his word; and others would point to the times when he healed the sick, or raised the dead, and cast out devils. But it was not so. No; but it was when he was betrayed and forsaken—when he was condemned to death, and mocked, and insulted by his enemies that Jesus appeared most glorious: for it was then that he was showing, in the strongest possible light, his desire to do his Father’s will and the greatness of his love for the people he came to save. It is not clothing, but character that makes us great or glorious. And the more we try to be like Jesus, in doing the will of God as he did it, in this part of his life, the greater will be the glory belonging to us.
