The Character of Jesus

by Charles Edward Jefferson

Among his confessions there are three which must here have our attention. He admits without hesitation that there was a limitation of his authority. One day a man interrupted him with the cry, “Speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me,”

and the reply was, “Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?” There was a realm then in which Jesus was not ordained to act. This was a surprising confession for the Messiah to make. It had been the dream of the prophets that the Messiah should have authority over all the kingdoms of life, that every form of injustice should be trampled under his feet. The nation had long pictured a king who should put an end to the cruel inequalities with which the world was cursed, and measure out

justice with an even hand. And now the Messiah deliberately turns his back on a man who is pleading for justice, saying that into that realm he cannot now enter. Only a strong man is brave enough to d...

impossible for him to do what they have expected of him. Not only did Jesus confess a li...

but also of his power. When two of his disciples asked for the chief places in the new kingdom, he frankly...

the power to select his own prime ministers, because all such matters were hidden in ...

surprising was his confession of ignorance. An ignorant Messiah was to the pious and instructed Hebrew an impossible

But Jesus frankly admitted that there were things which he did not know. For instance, one day he was talking in graphic phrase about the end of the world. He spoke of it so definitely and positively

that it was a natural inference that he knew just when it would take place. To the amazement of his hearers he said, “Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”

It was his nature to tell men everything it was necessary for them to know.

Carry this thought with you in your reading of the New Testament, and it will give you fresh confidence in many things which we believe about Jesus. We believe that he was sinless. Why?

Because of a sentence here and there like, “Which one of you convinceth me of sin?” That foundation might prove somewhat precarious. Shall we think he was sinless because he never committed a sinful act? But how do you know, how can you know,

about his thoughts and feelings and motives, and what proof have you that his motives and feelings and thoughts were always altogether just what God would have them to be? The best reason we h...

fact that he allowed his dearest friends to think that he was. There is in all his talk no trace of regret or hint of compunction, or suggestion of sorrow for shortcoming or slightest vestige of remorse. He taught other men to think of themselves as sinners, he asserted plainly that the human heart is evil, he told his disciples that every time they prayed they were to pray to be forgiven, but he never ...

what was pleasing to God. This is remarkable, unparalleled. All the saints beat their breasts saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” The purer the heart the lower it bows before infinite holiness. Jesus never by word or by act indica...

And when he says that his disciples are going to do greater things than were ever done in Palestine, and that he will be with us always even unto

the end of the world, why should we not believe him? And since he is so frank and open with us why should not we be open-hearted and frank with him? If he tells us truly the things in his heart, why should we not tell him truly the things which

are in our hearts? He has given himself to us: why do we not gi...

THE ENTHUSIASM OF JESUS

Sometimes he did not go to bed at all, remaining all night long upon some hilltop under the stars pouring out his soul to God. He was enthusiastic in prayer, and therefore he was zealous in work.

His words have in them an energy which burns. Again and again we catch expressions in which we

can feel his great heart beating: “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel,” “O woman, great is thy faith!” “I thank thee, O Father!” “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often!” All these are out of the throat of an enthusiast, a man surcharged with feeling.

At the distance of nineteen hundred years from the day on which they were spoken our heart leaps when we listen to them. The rains of the centuries have not put out their fire. But it is not simply what Jesus says, but also what those who touched him ...

Nothing seems so crazy as enthusiasm to a man incapable of feeling it.

No

man can set a crowd blazing unless his own soul is ablaze.

If there was a lethargic temperament in the apostolic company, it was that of Thomas; but even he was so devoted to Jesus that at a crisis in his life he said to his comrades, “Come, let us go and die with him.” That was the feeling of them all.

If you ask for the cause of this enthusiasm, you will find that it has three roots. In the first place, Jesus had a sensitive nature. He was finely organized, his nerves

were delicately strung. There is a vast difference in the make-up of men. Some men are coarse, stolid, heavy. They have sensations but not intense ones. They have the emotions of vegetables. There are other men who are as delicately adjusted as an asolian

harp. Every breeze that blows over them causes them to vibrate and wooes from them music. Such a man was Jesus. No finer clay was ever organized around a soul than that which formed his body, a...