Later on in Mark 6, we see something more of the Lord’s humanity. When He was feeding the five thousand, He commanded the disciples to make all the people sit down by companies. This was His wisdom. If they had not sat down, the disciples would not have been able to distribute the bread to them. The Lord Jesus did not tell them to sit down in a loose way, but in a very orderly way: “And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties” (Mark 6:39-40). Everything was arranged in order. I do believe that Peter and the other disciples learned in this way how to handle a large number of people. Therefore, it was not difficult to handle the three thousand who were saved at Pentecost (Acts 2:41). They learned from the Lord how to manage such a multitude and how to do things with proper arrangement. To have such an arrangement requires the proper humanity.
The Gospel of John also records something of the Lord’s humanity. This Gospel adds something concerning the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus told the disciples to gather the pieces left over that nothing be lost (John 6:12). Here we see a humanity that is so solid. There is nothing sloppy in His behavior. Most of us would forget about all the fragments, but the Lord was careful not to leave anything in a sloppy way.
In John 7:6, we see that the Lord was always limited by time. “Then Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.” All of us, especially the young people, need to learn not to be so free. Too much freedom indicates lawlessness. Freedom must be within the limits of law. We should not say that our time is always ready. The humanity of Jesus is not always so. His humanity does not have so much freedom. If we learn to partake of His humanity, we will see that there is limitation.
Something more about the humanity of Jesus is seen in John 7:46. The chief priests and Pharisees sent certain deputies to capture the Lord, but when they returned they said, “No man ever spoke as this man speaks.” They had never seen a man like Jesus. We need to be such a man that others would say they have never seen anyone like us. We should be unique, because we enjoy such a unique humanity.
When Lazarus died, we read that Jesus groaned in His spirit and wept (John 11:33, 35). Many times I have thought that Jesus could never weep. But with His humanity, there is a time to weep. We should not be so strong that we never weep. I am afraid that if I were to weep in front of you, you would think that I am not strong. This is a religious concept; sometimes we need to weep. This is the real humanity.
Jesus not only served, but was also willing to wash the feet of His disciples. He “rose from supper and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded” (John 13:4-5). He had such a humanity. He was willing to wash their feet, instead of expecting them to wash His. How we need this humanity for the church life! It is so clear in these Gospels that Jesus’ humanity was the highest humanity. This is the real meal offering.
We must realize again that the major part of the meal offering was food for the priests. If we are going to have the priest’s life, we must take Jesus as our meal offering. There is a real shortage of the priesthood today because there is no food for the priests. Without proper food for the priest, there can be no priesthood. This cannot be just a doctrine among us. We need the life of the priesthood, and the life of the priesthood can be sustained only by this kind of food. This is not an ordinary diet, but a special, extraordinary diet that requires much labor on Christ. We must prepare something of Christ and bring it to the tent of meeting to present to God as a kind of memorial. The remainder will then be our food, and this food will sustain the life of the priesthood.
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