Uncompromised Character
Isaiah 53
Andy Stanley tells the story of when he was 13 and learning the meaning of the phrase, “Actions speak louder than words.” His dad was the Associate pastor of First Baptist in Atlanta when the senior pastor was asked to resign. Charles Stanley was asked to preach on Sundays until a suitable replacement could be found. As he preached, the pews began to fill, young couples started to return, the youth ministry started to grow and volunteerism grew to an all-time high. There was a new excitement in the church. Yet some of the longtime members of the church resented Charles Stanley’s growing influence and popularity. It didn’t help that there was a grass roots movement started to elect him as pastor. The old guard thought he was too young, too evangelistic and too spiritual emphasizing a personal relationship with Jesus. The powerbrokers started to politic to have Charles Stanley removed. People started to take sides. Two weeks before the vote to hire or fire Charles Stanley, Deacon Myers walked up to the pulpit as the Wednesday night service began. He started to talk about the growing controversy and as he did, horror upon horror, he used the word damn. Charles Stanley calmly walked to the pulpit and said, Now you need to watch your language.” With clinched fists the man responded, “You need to watch yourself or you might get punched.” Charles Stanley didn’t back down or step away and then all of sudden Deacon Myers reared back and punched his dad. His dad didn’t retaliate. It was his dad’s response to all this that marked Andy for life. He stepped right back up and stood by Deacon Myers. Andy Stanley said, In that moment I wanted to be that kind of man…. From that moment on, it didn’t matter what anybody said. Because actions speak louder than words.” That event revealed his dad’s character. “When we open the pages of Scripture, we discover that character is defined by the very nature of Jesus Christ- a stumbling block for some but a rock solid foundation for others. Character is the will to do what is right, as defined by God, regardless of personal cost.” Andy Stanley
The third identity we see in the birth of Christ is uncompromised character, the will to do what is right, as defined by God, regardless of personal cost. Virtually all of the religions of the world point to Jesus as the example of uncompromised character. Even the great Mahatma Gandhi, the Hindu leader of India, molded his life around Jesus’ teaching and the Sermon on the Mount. It’s not just that we have a Savior who was born with uncompromised character or even taught about uncompromised character but that he lived with uncompromised character.
Isaiah 53 was written some 700 years before Christ was born, yet it describes the coming of a Savior or Messiah who would be the wounded healer of the world and would have an uncompromised character. Here’s what we see about the character of Jesus.
First, in Jesus we see perfect dependence upon God. When Jesus came to Earth, he set aside all of the privileges, and all of the powers that went with being God. In fact, he said, "I can do nothing apart from my perfect dependence upon the Father. The things I do you will do and greater things than this." Even Jesus’ enemies recognized that Jesus was depending on God alone. They mocked him for it. They didn’t depend only on God—they depended on God through their temple, through their traditions. God wasn’t enough for them and so they mocked Jesus who waited only on God. For each one of us, the secret of faith, and the secret of life, is to be aware of our absolute dependence upon God. This awareness positions us to receive the abundant life God Himself is offering us. When one who follows Jesus, thinks on Jesus, the secret of Jesus’ life was that He was always aware of His dependence upon God the Father. This perhaps was no more evident than when Jesus faced the cross. Jesus had one driving purpose in his life: to do God’s will. But he knew he could not do it on his own. So the night before he died, he prayed, "Father, if it’s possible, get me out of this mess. But, not my will, your will be done." In Jesus, we see the perfect example of selfless purpose.
Second, Jesus showed the perfect example of selfless purpose. Look at how Jesus used his power. Jesus never used it to benefit himself or advance his reputation. He only used his power to heal other people and set the oppressed free. Think about the temptations in the wilderness. The devil was trying to get Jesus to use his power for himself. What was the first temptation? He was hungry. He hadn’t eaten in forty days. The first temptation was, "Use your power, Jesus, to turn that stone over there into a loaf a bread to meet your own need and fulfill your own appetite." Jesus refused. The second temptation was to jump off the pinnacle of the temple, have the angels thus proving to everyone he was who he said he was. Even then, Jesus would not use his power to advance his own reputation. Then Satan said, "To get everything in the world, you don’t have to go to a cross; all you have to do is worship me and I will give you the world." Jesus would not use his power even for comfort and material possession. Even in the midst of pain and suffering as he was dying on the cross, people were standing there and saying, "If you are the Son of God, you’ve got legions of angels at your disposal. Call on them to come down and deliver you in this hour." Yet Jesus refused to leave the cross because he came to die on the cross for our sins, an example for all of completely selfless purpose.
The third characteristic we see of Jesus’ uncompromising character is consistency. Isaiah 53:7 says, "He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth." Start oppressing and afflicting me and you will hear some stuff coming out of my mouth. But "Like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he (Jesus) did not open his mouth." Verse nine (Isaiah 53:9): "They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence." There was no violence on the hands of Jesus. There was no deceit in his mouth. His life was about love and grace. How many times have you opened your mouth before you engaged your brain? You wish you could take it back, but you can’t. With Jesus, his strength and willpower was the rudder in his life. Not his emotion, not his anger or his passions…they were all subservient to the will of his Father.
Every single human being, every leader, has flaws and inconsistencies. Buddha walked out on his first wife and child to go and find enlightenment at their expense. Mohammad was a bloody warrior. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, couldn’t make it in marriage - he and his wife lived apart. He found out about her death when he was on a trip preaching. Martin Luther was anti-Jewish and did not use his influence when he could have to have stopped persecution of Jews. Dr. Martin Luther King had moral lapses. No one is like Jesus. All of us have flaws and inconsistency. Yet in Jesus, there is this perfect congruency of character, an equilibrium where his body, mind and emotions are all submitted to the Spirit. Jesus looked at the religious leaders of his day and said, "For which sin are you going to accuse me of, which inconsistency?" And the only thing people could come up with was blasphemy because he called himself the Son of God. That was it. John 8:46 46. "Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?" They could not prove any sin against him for he was sinless. John Maxwell writes, “Character creates consistency” and Jesus consistent in his character.
The fourth characteristic in Jesus’ uncompromised character is perfect love and compassion. Isaiah 53:5, "But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed." Jesus was the demonstration of grace. He was unlike any religious person I’ve ever met. Do you remember the woman who was caught in adultery? All of the men brought her to Jesus because according to the law, she deserved death. But Jesus said, "I do not condemn you." Then he ticked people off because he said, "I forgive you." Jesus demonstrated perfect love. He not only forgave her but the crowd as well.
Ellen Porter tells the story Mitsuyo a Japanese exchange student coming to live with her family. Her father had written and warned Ellen that Mitsuyo was a willful child but she saw no signs of that at all. She dressed the same each day, was silent while eating at the dinner table and seemed neither happy nor unhappy. She tried to make her feel welcome but she was reserved and unresponsive. Her English was poor at first and trying to communicate was a great effort. Gradually it became easier not to try. For weeks, things went on quietly with Mitsuyo fading more and more into the background. One afternoon, Ellen saw the china dog missing from her mantle. It was only a cheap souvenir but it annoyed her nonetheless. Then she remembered that Mitsuyo was in the living room for most of the afternoon. And then she remembered her daughter repeatedly searching for one item of clothing after another. She asked Mitsuyo about the dog but she denied seeing it. But Ellen thought her eyes looked shifty and so when the girls went to school, she searched Mitsuyo’s personal items, everything except her suitcase which she couldn’t open. From that time on, she watched Mitsuyo closely and much to her surprise realized she didn’t like having a foreigner in their house. She told no one except her husband James who said she should be patient.
In December she agreed to become the decorations for the Church Christmas party which entailed making hundreds of Nativity figures out of felt, pipe cleaner and dime store jewels. They were to decorate the church hall and Christmas tree and then to be sold with proceeds going to the church. Her dining room became her workshop with church friends occasionally coming over to help. Ellen’s daughter and husband weren’t interested. Mitsuyo tried to help but each of her figures looked deformed. One day as the Christmas party drew near, Ellen discovered that some of the figurines she had made were missing. She exploded and stormed into Mitsuyo’s room only to find the missing sheep and cow, Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus. Mitsuyo was in the act of placing them in her suitcase. Ellen shoved her out of the way only to discover missing blouses, t-shirts, tennis shorts, sweaters, scarves and even the china dog. She took the items in her arms and shouted, “Is this way you thank us for opening our home and lives to you? Is it? You little thief! I’m getting you out of my house.”
She went downstairs to call the District Representative of the Exchange Student program. She realized how much anger had built up inside of her and paused to catch her breath and calm down before she called. In the silence, she heard weeping from Mitsuyo. She ought to cry, she thought. But then she thought, “What in the world could have possessed this girl to steal this worthless collection of things?” Looking at the pile, there was the holy family laying on top. She looked at baby Jesus who came to bring forgiveness, love and compassion to the world. Perhaps she should go up and ask her why she had done it. Then she realized that she didn’t really know Mitsuyo. When she got to the room, Mitsuyo was lying on the bed crying. She put her arm halfway around Mitsuyo’s shoulder and much to her surprise Mitsuyo threw herself into Ellen’s arms. “Why did you take these things Mitsuyo? They’re worthless.” She replied, “I was not to keep them. I was only holding them awhile because they were something of you.”
Ellen said, It hit her like a shockwave. She had given her food, shelter, gifts but she had not given herself. She just wanted some part of us that we had withheld- our love. “Always, you made my bed but you didn’t talk to me as you did Jennifer.” Ellen thought, “She had always been a foreigner, someone I treated as a guest but never as a member of the family.” Now all of Mitsuyo’s hurts and fears poured out. She wanted to fit in at school but others thought she was strange because of the way she dressed. She wanted so much to be one of us- just for a little while- that she had taken out things as a symbol of us and a security blanket for the love she was missing. Ellen dried Mitsuyo’s tears and said, “I’ll forgive you if you forgive me.” Mitsuyo laid her head against Ellen’s cheek. The church Christmas party finally came and it was a success. Ellen, Mitsuyo and Jennifer had a hilarious time making wisemen, sheep and the Holy Family. And then she writes, “Who was I to criticize if some were crudely made. We are all crudely made- we are not perfect. Just forgiven.”
