What Manner of Man is This?

Edwin N. Cross

The Lord Jesusis never recorded in the New Testament as giving expression to a sense of humour or taking part in any foolish jesting. We have God revealing that He will laugh and have the sinful heathen in derision, but that is altogether different to attributing "a good sense of humour" to the Lord Jesus. This is more than Scripture allows, and the circumcised heart should confine itself to the facts that Scripture gives and not give place to fleshly notions or speculations regarding the Christ of God that are all too prevalent in Christendom today.

The Word of God shows that in this world the Son of God was an outcast, the Man of sorrows and the one acquainted with grief. He was here, sowing in tears, weeping over Jerusalem and all who had fallen victim to Satan's subtlety. Strong crying and tears marked His course. Scripture shows Him as a sociable Man, serving all and being available to every one who was in need. He served the poor and weak. His ministry was to do good and to deliver. His oral ministry was of such quality that common people heard Him gladly. The inexpressible sweetness of His words is degraded by thoughts of Christ telling jokes. No trivial utterance left His lips, nor was any joke ever told by Him. He warned His hearers that they would be judged for every idle word spoken. Matters of eternal weight and importance were the subject of His speech-all that the Father gave Him to speak. There was first hand knowledge of heavenly things and these and like themes comprised the subject matter of His conversation. No man on earth ever walked in such a narrow path as the Lord Jesus Christ; and none had such a large heart as He. He was the Blessed (Happy) God, yet here a mourner and a homeless stranger among the sad and weary. The joy He brought was full and lasting; it was not expressed in a fleeting jest.

May He give us grace to speak worthily of Himself in terms found in Scripture. If we truly love His all-glorious and all-beauteous person, we cannot be indifferent to His glory and honour. There is no such thing as neutrality in divine things. It is wrong to reduce Hisspotless, yet true, humanity to what is found among the fallen sons and daughters of Adam.

A careful, reverent and sober consideration of the Gospels will keep us from believing such defective and irreverent ideas. Further help can also be found in Christ-honouring literature. Among the most readable and reverent meditations of His life on earth, is J. G. Bellett's, "The moral glory of the Lord Jesus".