John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one
among you, whom ye know not.
John 1:26
The Presence of Christ is Perpetual
It is almost a commonplace to say that the world does not know its greatest
men. To be very near is often to be blinded. It is only afterward, in quiet
reflection, that the large outlines of greatness are detected. Yesterday and
tomorrow may deceive us, and indeed they very often do, but (as Dora
Greenwell says) the real deceiver is today. Now our blessed Lord is
different from the greatest in that his presence is a perpetual presence. He
is constantly moving in the world through the actings of His gracious
Spirit. And that is why such a text as we have chosen is not only true of
the days beside the Jordan, but is true always and to the end of time. There
is an unrecognized Christ in every age. There is an unregarded Presence in
all history. There is a spiritual Power moving in the world, though (like
the wind) men know not whence it cometh. ”There standeth one among you whom
ye know not.”
The Unrecognizable in Our Civic Life
One thinks, for instance, of our civic life—of all that meets the eye in a
great city. If an old Roman were to come back to earth and move through the
streets of one of our great cities, he would feel at home with our bazaars
and barracks, he would say. “We had all these in ancient Rome.” But show him
the infirmary, the alms house, the orphanage, the children’s hospital, and
these he would never recognize. It was the Spirit of Christ that reared the
hospital. It was His hand of love that built the orphanage. And yet how
seldom does the thought intrude into the minds of those who throng the
streets. In every city of our modern world, as by the banks of the Jordan
long ago, “ there standeth one among you whom ye know not.”
The Unrecognizable Ideals of Conduct
Again, think of our ideals of conduct and the unrecognized in them. We might
take a very simple illustration. When some poor useless rascal has an
accident and the doctor is summoned to his side, that doctor at once acts on
the assumption that he must do everything in his power to save his life. Now
why should he save it? Why should he preserve it? Would it not be better to
let that rascal die? I want to know where the doctor got his thought that
the sorriest life is infinitely precious. He certainly did not get it from
his science nor from nature nor from evolution. The preservation of the
rascal is the one thing that evolution does not teach. When I see that
doctor with his sleeves rolled up fighting desperately for a rascal’s life,
I feel that there is the Christ unrecognized. Hr is the light of every man
who cometh into the world. Whenever a man does anything true and tender,
when the fireman enters the flames to save the child, when the common sailor
flings himself overboard to rescue one who is bent on suicide “there
standeth one among you whom ye know not.”
The Unrecognizable Ideals in Our Social Lives
Again one thinks of the social unrest which is so much a feature of our life
today. It is evident that the bad old times are gone. Then the poor were
content to live in hovels, now they are not content. Then they were content
with wretched wages, now they are not content. Then they were content that
little children, untaught, should have their playground in the gutter; but
such things are intolerable now. What lies at the back of that unrest? It is
the dawning sense that the poorest and the humblest have equal rights with
the richest in the land. And to discover where that sense originated-the
infinite value of the bottom dog-is a matter that is worth consideration. It
did not come from Satan; Satan has nothing to do with thoughts that
liberate. It sprang from the heart of the Carpenter of Nazareth. Put the
leaven in the meal and it ferments. Pt the Kingdom of Heaven in society, and
like the loaf, it rises. When I see the heavings of the masses now, the
fermentation, the sava indignatio, I feel that “ there standeth one among
you whom ye know not.”
The Unrecognizable Solver of Our World Problems
Lastly, take the problems of the world, for the world never had more
agonizing problems. It seems to many of us as if the world were getting
ready for the second and glorious coming of the Lord. National hatreds are
not dead. National jealousies were never more bitter. National memories
still rank the wars that have been fought in certain periods of our nations
history. It looks sometimes as if the only power abroad were that of the
prince of the powers of the air-and then come soberer and wiser thoughts.
What of all the movements for disarmament? What of all the racial tensions
and the changes still taking place in that arena? Did the prince of the
powers of the air father these? Someone is moving though we recognize Him
not. He does not strive nor cry nor lift up His voice in the streets. Evil
is always clamorous and strident. He comes as the coming of the morning. So
do I feel through all our great world problems, which sometime chill the
heart, that “there standeth one among you whom ye know not. “
In Celebration of Life in Him,
Dr.Jim DeBruhl, gembeaux@bellsouth.net
