Quiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Following the Christ: 36. The Father's Image in the Common Crowd

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Quiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Following the Christ: 36. The Father's Image in the Common Crowd



TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Following the Christ (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 36. The Father's Image in the Common Crowd

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The Father's Image in the Common Crowd

Have you ever wondered what there was in those common crowds to attract our Lord Jesus? Perhaps if you have ever walked in those narrow crowded alleys called streets, in China or Japan, you may have wondered, sometimes. Tired, dirty, pinched faces, eyes vacantly staring, or else fired with low passion, high-keyed voices bickering and jangling,—all this crowds in and out on every hand. Dirt, disease, low passion, selfishness, apparent absence of anything noble or refined, are all tangled inextricably up with these in human form.

And our Lord Jesus lived in an Oriental world. Is there any world quite like it, except indeed it be the slums of our western world cities, European and American? City slums seem to be our western point of contact with the greater part of the eastern world. What was there to attract the Lord Jesus to these crowds? Their need, you answer. Yes, no doubt, their terrible need did move Him with compassion, to the hurting point.

But was there more than this? Something He said one time has made me think there was something more, a pathetic, tremendous more, that took hold of His heart. Could it be that He saw some lingering trace of the Father's face in these faces? His eyes were very keen. He had seeing eyes. And these men have all been made in the Father's image. Has that image ever been wholly lost?—terribly blurred and scarred by sin, yes; but wholly lost? Do you think so? I think not.

Those wondrous eyes of His looking into men's tired, pinched faces, disfigured with passion or sorrow, or with sheer weariness of existence—did He see something of the Father's face looking appealingly up to be helped out of their sad plight? I wonder. Was it as though the Father's face cried out to Him out of these poor beaten faces? I think so. Do you remember that time when our Lord Jesus associated Himself so closely with just such men and women, in talking of a coming day? He says "inasmuch as ye did it to one of these My brethren, these least, ye did it unto Me." (Mat_25:40.) Listen to those words, "My brethren"! He is thinking of just such crowds as He Himself ministered to, and as you find today in Oriental city and in European and American slum. What is done for them is done to Him. Their need is His need; their cry, His. It's Jesus coming to us in these crowds. Their need is Jesus Himself appealing to us. And the Jesus within us will answer with heart and life to this Jesus coming to us in the pitiable need of the crowds.

I do not mean to use that word "pitiable" chiefly in the bodily sense, though there's so much of that. But it has a deeper meaning. Here is this fair young face turned to yours in the social group, here this strong young man needing nothing that money can buy, but yet very needy, both of them. In their young, eager faces the hidden away image, the not-yet-touched-into-new-life image of the Father looks out asking for help, help out into growth amidst so much that holds back. Inasmuch as your light, tactful touch is given here, it is done unto Jesus. Jesus is helped into the life, the God-image crowded back within is helped to get out into free expression.

You may not be sent to some distant field as young Borden was. Your personal place may be at home. But the crowd, the need, is everywhere; at home, in the social circle, and among the men driven by the passion for business and for pleasure, in this dangerously prosperous land of ours. Need of body even here, and deeper need of spirit. Much more tact is required, Spirit-born tact and patience and alertness, to touch and help these.

But the Spirit will guide. He has a passion for men in their need. He has exquisite tact in touching men under all circumstances. He will take command of your life here as elsewhere. He will lead you into a life of personal service in helping men. And He will lead you in that service. This is the Galilean Ministry which will work out in your experience as the Holy Spirit has control. This is a bit of the "Follow Me" roadway.

These are the four experiences of power and privilege. They are as the great underlying experiences of our Lord's career. The other experiences grew up out of these. These were the warp threads in the loom of His life. The others were woven into these. This is the main road that He trod. It is the main road of this "Follow Me" journey. It is along this road, between its beginning and end, that we shall run down into the valley-road stretches, and run up to the stretches along the hilltops.