Christ's Sense of Mystery

“He marvelled because of their unbelief.” — Mark vi. 6.

The acts of the Son of Man are to us miraculous; we marvel at His deeds. But have we ever thought that our acts were to Him miraculous? He marvelled at us as much as we marvelled at Him. True, the cause of the wonder was in each case different. We wondered at His greatness; He wondered at our littleness. Everything is a miracle when it transcends the law of our nature. Our littleness transcended the law of His nature. He could not understand our meanness of heart, our selfishness of aim, our coldness of affection, our absence of enthusiasm, our dimness of faith; He marvelled at it. It was all so unlike Him, that to Him it was a miracle. He saw in it a violation of the law of Divine nature, a suspension of the powers resident in the heaven-born soul. He beheld in it a greater transformation than we beheld in the turning of water into wine; that was but the transforming of matter into matter, this was the turning of life into death. It was the earthliness of that which should be heavenly, the meanness of that which should be majestic, the poverty of that which should be precious, the deadness of that which should be alive for evermore; it contradicted the whole range of His Divine experience, and He marvelled with an exceeding great surprise.

My soul, be not thou a miracle to thy Lord. Be not thou a thing at which He that fashioned thee shall wonder. Be not thou so unlike His nature as to seem to Him a prodigy, an object at which to gaze and marvel. Eather be it thine to enter into union with His infinite order, to be harmonious with His eternal law. Be it thine to catch so much of His likeness that He shall recognise Himself in thee, shall behold as in a glass His own glory, shall rejoice at the sight of that which is familiar to Him. Then shall He wonder at thee no more, for He shall find in thee a kindred life. He shall see in thee the reflex of His own light, the shadow of His own form, the travail of His own soul. He shall behold in thee what the Father has beheld in Him — the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person.