The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

THE MIRACLE OF REPARATION 399
does a work which mediates for His followers with
their bitter antagonists, and becomes a sign to protect
them from the penalty of their own rashness. As for
Himself, He has never needed to make a concession
either to the multitude or to the rulers, and whatever
He suffers at their hands is undeserved. His pain is
vicarious. But it is not so with His followers, for they
have sometimes stirred up the displeasure of their
contemporaries. He heals for the sake of Simon, as
well as to appease the sense of wrong in the soul of
Malchus and to remove the stumbling-block that may
lie in the path of his salvation. And Jesus still
mediates with the world on behalf of a Church which
at the best bears His name unworthily. The son of
the bondswoman still persecutes the son of the free,
and the side of Ishmael in the judgment of society is
often the side of right, reason, statute-law.
There are
even yet scenes in which Esau looks nobler than Jacob
for the Church does not always stand for liberty,
brotherhood, impartial justice.
Jacob, the heir of the
birthright, has a genius for putting himself in compromising
positions.
Ministers even have been known
to preach bloodshed, if it is only done in uniform,
and to excuse raiding and robbery, if the great ones
of the earth are in the secret. But counteractive
reconciliations are at work which must be traced
to the hand of Jesus Himself. In one form or
another the miracle of Gethsemane is continued—the
wounds inflicted by our rashness are so healed that
no scar remains things
;
go on as if the tragic feuds
of the midnight which imperilled such sacred
interests had been forgotten ;
and, in the end, the
world perhaps thinks quite as kindly of the Church