John 1:42

John 1:42

Those words, strange perhaps as they might have sounded for the text of a sermon, must have sounded still stranger when Christ first spoke them to this man. It was a strange thing, indeed, to a man of the East, to whom a name always conveys significant associations, to a member of that Hebrew race with whose sacred literature the thought of change of name was always bound up with the thought of change of life, work, character, or mode of thought a strange thing to say to a man the first time you met him. Nevertheless, I think they show if we think of them, one of those characteristics of Christ that we pass over constantly, but which nevertheless, are second to none in the estimate of what He is and was as a man I mean that insight into human character which marked all His dealings with His friends and with His foes.

I. Peter was impulsive, and he had the faults of an eager temper. He was fickle, he was a man who, when the greatest was demanded of him, failed in a manner we can only describe as feeble, unmanly, and even ridiculous. And depend upon it Christ saw that as well only, He saw what a man of the world would not see, and that is what lay behind; for Christ sees men not only as they are, but as they may be. Christ sees men not only in their actual being, but in their ideal being. Christ sees men not only as they have made themselves, but as He meant them to be.

II. Sympathy plusself-forgetfulness makes up insight, and in the Lord Jesus Christ it was not only sympathy combined with self-forgetfulness, but sympathy associated with an absolute want of taint of selfishness. And that is the reason why His words, why His whole life, are the teaching fit for all ages of the world and for all characters that men may bear. Notice two points of the multiform moral of the story. They are very simple Trust God, Trust men. Trust God, for God trusts you, and in spite of all that you have done to betray Him, He still gives you cause to hope for future labour in His service, and cause to know that you have capacity to do something for your fellowmen and for Him. Trust Him, and learn to trust, from Christ's dealings with Peter, learn to trust more fully your fellow men.

H. C. Shuttleworth, Family Churchman,Sep. 15th, 1886.

References: John 1:42. J. G. Warren, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 177; J. Keble, Sermons for Saints' Days,p. 276; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xv., No. 855; Homilist,vol. vi., p. 399.