THE FRANKNESS OF JESUS
Jesus was not a whisperer. No one ever saw Him close to His
neighbor's ear, looking stealthily around lest some one should
overhear what He was going to say. He stood upright, looked men
squarely and kindly in the eye, and spoke what He had to say right
out, boldly, frankly, that the whole world might hear; and when He
did speak privately to His disciples, He told them to shout it from
the housetops. 'Truth fears nothing but concealment,' said an old
Church Father, and Jesus spake only the truth. 'To this end was I
born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I might bear
witness unto the truth.' 'What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye
in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the
housetops,' said He. It was against the Jewish law to spread
dangerous doctrines secretly and the punishment was death
(Deuteronomy xiii. 6). This the High Priest and leaders of the Jews
had a right to inquire into, indeed it was their duty to do so,
according to their law, though they had no right to make Jesus
convict Himself. However, that was not possible, for He had boldly
preached His doctrine before priest and scribes as well as His
disciples and the common people, and He answered the High Priest: 'I
spake openly to the world: I ever taught in the synagogue, and in
the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I
said nothing.' This refers to His doctrine, but can it not be given
a far wider meaning? Was not His whole life an open book? Was not
all His conversation such as could be proclaimed openly to the whole
world?
There was nothing dark and hidden about Jesus. He was and is the
Light of the world, and He welcomed the light. He entered into no
secret cabals and councils. He belonged to no clique or party
faction. I really do not believe He would have joined a secret
society, for two reasons. First, because if there was anything wrong
and dark about it His pure spirit, His guileless soul would have
revolted and denounced and withdrawn from it, and second, because if
there was anything good in it, His generous spirit, His loving soul,
overflowing with pity and goodwill, would never have been content
till the whole world knew about it and had the privilege of sharing
in its benefits. A good thing that He could not offer to share with
all men would have ceased to be a good thing to Jesus.
An astute Frenchman once said to our Founder: 'General Booth, you
are not an Englishman, you're a citizen of the world. You belong to
Humanity.' And in this the General was like his Master. Jesus
belonged to the world. He was the 'Son of Man,' the Son of Mankind,
of humanity. No party could claim Him. Thomas Jefferson wrote: 'If I
could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at
all.'
It was this generous, open, world-wide, selfless spirit of Jesus
that made Him so frank in all His speech, so that at the end of His
life and His brief, but complicated, ministry, in which His enemies
had sought in every way to provoke and entrap Him, He could say, 'In
secret have I said nothing.'
And now He wants us to 'follow His steps: who did no sin, neither
was guile found in His mouth who, when He was reviled, reviled not
again: when He suffered, he threatened not.'
If we do this we shall not be talebearers, we shall not listen to,
nor pass on gossip, nor be whisperers. 'A whisperer separateth chief
friends,' said Solomon; and again he said: 'Where there is no
talebearer (Whisperer, margin) the strife ceaseth.' And Paul linked
up 'Whisperers ' -- people who go about saying things in secret that
they are afraid to say out boldly to everybody -- I say Paul linked
them up with fornicators, murderers, backbiters, and haters of God.
(See Romans i. 29, 30.) And when he feared lest he should have
trouble with his corps in Corinth, 'whispering' was one of the
accursed things he particularly feared.
People who speak in secret what they are afraid to speak openly,
wrong their own souls, weaken their own character, and corrupt
themselves, while those who listen are filled with suspicions and
dislikes, destroying the beautiful spirit of brotherly love, which
is open-faced, frank and generous and saving in its power. It
quenches the spirit of prayer, and faith in God and man languishes
and possibly dies; for faith can live and flourish only in an
atmosphere of frankness, of kindness and good will.
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