Later on in Matthew the Lord Jesus says, “Take My yoke on you and learn from Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29). Jesus did not say that He was meek and lowly in appearance, but in heart. Many times we may appear so meek and lowly, but within we are high and proud. This can never build up the church life. Our own humanity can only give an appearance, but we do have His humanity within us that is meek and lowly in heart. We should not imitate Him; if we do, we will fail. We must simply feed upon Him as the meal offering. Isn’t this wonderful! This perfect humanity can be our food. Then we will live by what we eat. His humanity will become our person.
In Matthew 12:19-20, there is a quotation from Isaiah: “He shall not strive nor cry out, nor shall anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench until He brings forth judgment unto victory.” I really like these two verses. The Lord’s humanity is so fine, never striving or crying out or making His voice famous in the streets. Many times we like for people to hear our voice. But this is not the Lord’s humanity. Moreover, He would never break a bruised reed, nor would He quench smoking flax. To understand this, we must see something of the background of the Jewish people.
In the days of the Old Testament, the Jewish children made music pipes out of reeds. But when the reed was bruised, it would not produce proper music, so they would break it. Some of us may be bruised reeds which do not produce proper music. But hallelujah, the Lord Jesus will never break such a bruised reed!
The Jews in the Old Testament days also used flax soaked with oil for a torch to give light at night. When the torch ran out of oil, it did not give light any more; it only smoked. Then the user would quench it and throw it away. But Jesus would never do this. Many times some believers are “smoking” because they have run out of oil. Our tendency is to throw them away, but the humanity of Jesus would not. How we need such a humanity in the church life!
We all love the pipe that makes beautiful music. But if someone is a bruised reed that makes a bad sound, we just say, “Break it.” We like one brother because he is so bright and shining, but we do not like another because he is so smoky. This is why many times we are not able to hold the younger and weaker ones. We really need the humanity of Jesus not to break the bruised reeds and not to quench the smoking flax. The Lord’s humanity loves all the bruised and smoking ones. We must have His humanity in the church life. By eating Jesus we can partake of His humanity.
We are all familiar with the story in Matthew 17. Since Jesus was the Son of God, He was free from the tribute paid to God’s temple. He made this clear to Peter. Then Jesus said, “But that we may not stumble them, go to the sea and cast an hook, and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel; take that and give it to them for Me and you” (Matt. 17:27). Jesus was very flexible. He did not have to pay the tribute money, but lest He should offend, He paid it. He made the situation clear to His disciples, but He did not insist. He was clear, yet He exercised Himself in such a flexible way. This is His humanity.
Our humanity is completely different from this. Both the older and the younger ones always insist on their own way. Only the humanity of Jesus can be so flexible. I was in a place recently where both the older saints and the younger saints came to me. The older ones said that they could not tolerate the young people because they were too bold, too loud, and too wild. Perhaps the young people were indeed inclined that way. But do you know what I told the older ones? I said, “You may be right, and they may be wrong, but the Lord Jesus still loves them. Don’t you think that it is much better for them to praise the Lord in this way than to go to the movies?” They had to agree that this was right from that point of view. I encouraged them to be a little flexible and to say some “hallelujahs” with the crazy young people.
Then I turned to the young people. They had told me that the older ones were so dead; therefore, I told them that they needed the older ones for a balance. Without the older ones they would be like a car without brakes. So they agreed to be also a little flexible and to accept the balance from the older ones. Not long ago I received a report from that place. The church life there is now so wonderful. We were told that there is wonderful coordination among the older ones and the younger ones. Both groups had learned to be flexible.
This is the humanity of Jesus. As the Son of God He was absolutely right in not paying anything to the temple, yet He paid. Furthermore, He not only paid for Himself, but also for Peter in order not to offend the people. In the church life, we must learn never to insist on anything, but to be flexible. Then we will not offend others. This is the humanity of Jesus.
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