| Finding the Way |
Chapter 16 |
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Much of our Master’s teaching has to do with this experience. One of the Beatitudes tells of the blessedness of the meek, those who endure wrong patiently, without complaining. Another tells of the happiness or blessedness of those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. In another teaching the Master bids us turn the other cheek to him who smites us on one, to love our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute us. The lesson of the forgiveness of injuries and of all wrongs done to us is taught over and over again, and to make it still more emphatic and essential is linked with Divine forgiveness of us, so that we cannot ask God to forgive us without at the same time solemnly pledging ourselves to forgive those who sin against us.
All our Lord’s lessons He lived Himself, illustrating them in His own obedience. We say we want to be like Christ, to live as He lived. When we begin to think what this means we shall find that a large part of Christ’s life was the enduring of wrong. He was never welcome in this world. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” He was the love of God incarnate, coming to men with mercy and with heavenly gifts, only to be rejected and to have the door shut in His face. The enmity deepened as the days passed, until at the last He was nailed on a cross. Yet we know our Master bore all this wrong and injury. On His trial, under false accusation, He held His peace, answering nothing to the charges made against Him. On the cross His anguish found vent not in imprecations upon His enemies, nor even in outcries of pain, but in a prayer of love, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
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