The Subordination of Christ

“God sent forth His Son, made under the law.” — Gala-TIANS IV. 4.

The idea is that Jesus never used His full freedom. He observed the religious ordinances of His day. He went to church. He had no need to go to church. He was in direct communion with His Father. He must have felt the temple services to be altogether inadequate, obstructive to the emotions of His heart. It was like a great author reading the work of a very poor author. Yet Jesus was willing to read books. He asked to be baptized. He had no need to be baptized. Baptism was for the cleansing of sin; He had no sin to be cleansed. But He saw the crowd go down to the river, and He resolved to go with them. He wished from the very outset to identify Himself with that which was beneath Him. That river of baptism was for Him the river of God’s pleasures, because it was a source of mental sacrifice. He was above it, had no need to bathe in it. But the people had need. He refused to separate from the people, to be thought of as separate. He insisted on serving during the same hours prescribed for their working-day. He would wear their badge. He would use their implements. He would carry a burden equal to theirs. He would do the same amount of work. He would serve for the same length of time. You will always find Jesus occupying an inferior room to that which He has a right to possess.

My brother, have you considered this field for the imitation of Christ! It is rather a novel field. We often point to Christ as an incentive to fly upward; here we meet Him as an incentive to fly downward. You have moments of spiritual exaltation in which you feel yourself to be lifted above the crowd. You say, “I do not need to go to church; I have a Bible in myself; I have communion with God on the hillside; I have infinitely more light on sacred subjects than the poor creature who occupies the parish pulpit to-day.” Very likely you have. But did it never strike you that there are times in which you ought to accept less light than your own! Did it never occur to you that the people may not be ready for the degree of your light, that a less amount may be essential to them! If it be so, then, my brother, you ought to step downward. Jesus stepped downward — downward into that Jordan which was below Him. You must follow Jesus. You must share the burden of those who are beneath you. It will not do for you to send the lame man into the pool of Bethesda while you remain on dry land. You must go down with him. You must let him feel that you are his companion in tribulation. You must not let him disparage the water in which he is bathing. He will disparage it if you keep away, if you stand loftily upon the bank and survey him from afar. The disparagement will impede the cure. Come down, my brother; come down into the stream!