Luke 24:36-43
Suggested further reading: Matthew 5:38-48
Our Lord introduced himself to the disciples with singularly
gracious words (v. 36). This was a wonderful saying when we consider
the men to whom it was addressed. It was addressed to eleven
disciples who three days before had shamefully forsaken their Master
and fled. They had broken their promises. They had forgotten their
professions of readiness to die for their faith. They had been
scattered every man to his own and left their Master to die alone. One of
them had even denied him three times. All of them had proved
backsliders and cowards. And yet behold the return that the Master makes to
his disciples! Not a word of rebuke is spoken. Not a single sharp
saying fails from his lips. Calmly and quietly he appears in the midst
of them and begins by speaking of peace.
We see in this one touching saying that the love of Christ
`passeth knowledge'. It is his glory to pass over a transgression. He
delights in mercy. He is far more willing to forgive than men are to be
forgiven and far more ready to pardon than men are to be
pardoned. There is in his almighty heart an infinite willingness to put
away transgressions. Though our sins have been as scarlet, he is
ever ready to make them as white as snow, to blot them out, to cast
them behind his back, to bury them in the depths of the sea, to
remember them no more. All these are scriptural phrases intended to
convey the same great truth. The natural man is continually stumbling
at them and refusing to understand them. At this we need not
wonder. Free, full and undeserved forgiveness to the uttermost is not
the manner of man. But it is the manner of Christ.
Where is the sinner, however great his sin, who need be afraid
of applying to such a Saviour as this? In the hand of Jesus there
is mercy enough and to spare. Where is the backslider, however far
he may have fallen, who need be afraid of returning? Christ is
willing to raise and restore the very worst. Where is the professing
Christian who ought not to be forgiving towards his brethren? The
Saviour's words were full of peace.
For meditation: If Christ gives us peace with God when we
have sinned so greatly, will we be unforgiving towards others?
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