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

THE MIRACLE OF REPARATION 401
every man. Jesus cannot allow Peter, now or hereafter,
to represent Him except upon clearly specified
terms. The holiest saint, if put into the place of
Jesus, may be betrayed into misjudgment, unseasonable
and ill-directed zeal, and perhaps into flagrant
sin. Jesus, in His divine power and love, is above
His disciples, repairing their follies, atoning for their
trespasses, comforting again those upon whom they
have brought misjudged pain, and separating Himself
from all mistakes which compromise His fame.
The beloved apostle himself, perhaps, would scarcely
have pitied this brutal slave, for he did not as yet
appreciate the character of the God-man, and see
how its transcendent greatness needed to be vindicated
by a last gracious miracle. If Jew and Gentile
are to trust in His name it must be set high in the
cloudless sky, and the Redeemer's infinite magnanimity
must be asserted before His foes.
This incident teaches that accountability for faith
in Jesus Christ is determined by what Jesus Himself
does for a man, rather than by the acts of His
half-regenerate disciples. This miracle left Malchus
and the bystanders without excuse for
speaking evil
of Jesus, and restored in their full integrity the
responsibilities which had been disturbed by the
angry impolicy of the Lord's chief apostle. It was
the aim of Jesus to make the words and the works
of His mission charged with light and love to all
men, so to present Himself and His doctrine as
to leave every man without excuse. This act of
healing took away every pretext from those who
might find in the temper of Peter a reason for
estrangement from Jesus, and completed all the
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