THE EXEMPLARY EXEMPLAR!!!
Welcome to an account which would make the first pages of Ripley's Book of Believe it or not!!! Dr. Evan O’Neil Kane was the chief surgeon at Kane Summit Hospital in New York City. He was 60 years old and had been practicing surgery for 37 years. He was especially interested in anaesthetic. You see, he practiced back in the early part of the 20th century, when the only kind of anaesthetic used was general in nature—and it had its complications. Patients were sometimes left paralyzed and on occasion, they died. Convinced that a local anaesthetic would also suffice for certain operations Dr. Kane tried hard to find a patient willing to undergo a surgery under a local anaesthetic but to no avail (people are generally resistant to “revolutionary” changes). Finally he did discover “a patient” who was willing to help him experiment.
This patient needed his appendix removed, so he was scheduled for surgery. It was February 15, 1921, a Tuesday morning. The patient was prepared and rolled into the operating room. Kane had performed over 4,000 appendectomies. He performed the initial cut. He clamped the blood vessels on the way in while he located the appendix. He then skilfully removed it as he had done many times before. Through it all the patient experienced minor pain, recuperated quickly and was released from the hospital two days later.
Dr Kane had proved his point. It was a milestone in medical history that a person could be operated on under local anaesthetic while still awake. Oh, by the way, did I tell you who the patient was? Dr. Kane himself! Oh Boy..Oh Boy...he had operated on himself to prove a point!!!
Long before Dr.Kane personified “first practice and then preach” ideology our Lord the exemplary exemplar had embodied it (Acts 1:1-look at the inspired sequencing of the words “Do and teach” in the referred Scripture portion) by going “the God-honouring ways” Himself first even whilst showing them. Take for instance his twin command of “Love God and love your neighbour as yourself on which hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 22:35-40). A careful scrutiny of His life would reveal that all along He had been practicing it Himself.
Our Saviour’s life can broadly be divided into three parts...Preparation (at Nazareth), Proclamation (Ministry by and large at Capernaum) and Passion (in Jerusalem). In this message, yours truly endeavours to bring home the truth as to how our Lord diligently went about fulfilling these two commandments in each phase of His life, so that valuable lessons gleaned thereof can be applied in our own life too. Of course, the “greater” aim as always is to lead us to a greater realization of His greatness and greater adoration of Him thereof.
Preparation...
Though not much is documented about this phase in our Lord’s life barring some details in scrupulously-penned Luke’s Gospel (Luke 2:39-52), the Heavenly commendation during His baptism “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17) would leave none in doubt that our Lord was indeed fleshing out these 2 commandments scrupulously during His “preparation” days in Nazareth.
Proclamation...
Let it be said at this stage as to what prayer really is. Prayer is not about merely bringing a lengthy wish-list before our Heavenly Father but it’s more about enjoying a time of deep communion with our Creator borne out of unalloyed love for Him. When we examine the lives of some spiritual giants like Matin Luther and George Muller of Reformation and Bristol orphanage fame respectively...their priorities were well laid out. They would perfectly balance their prayer life with their onerous Ministry responsibilities. The following quotes of these great men of faith bear out this truth.
“I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”-Martin Luther
“I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk about, when I lie down and when I rise up. And the answers are always coming”-George Muller
Well...their inspiration? Their Saviour Himself, who with much to do all in the span of 24 hours would begin the day (even before sunrise...say at 5am) with prayer....an expression of deep love for the Father (Mark 1:35). In fact Mark’s Gospel is also called the “speed Gospel” for the author uses the word “immediately” not less 42 times to describe events in Jesus’ life which would give one an idea of Jesus’ busyness in His Ministry.
After prayer when the needy (mind you...”neighbours” in Jesus’ lexicon are those in need-Luke 10:25-38) would start flocking Him for various reasons from say hypothetically speaking 8 am onwards, He would not give the excuse that He has to “now pray” and be unavailable to them but on the other hand He readily would be available at hand to address their needs. Not for Christ, obedience to only the First commandment at the cost of the second one or vice-versa. He got His priorities right by exercising proper discipline. Period!
Say Christian Minister...is your prayer life well-balanced with your ministry...
Passion...
Nowhere in the Scriptures is the Son’s love for the Father in the “Passion phase” of His life more clearly manifested than in these words of our Lord spoken probably less than 12 hours before His ordeal on the Cross...
I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I “love” the Father...John 14:30-31
Implicit obedience to the Father’s commandments is proof of one’s love for Him (2 John 1:6). Now let’s shift our focus to Calvary. Even as shouts of mockery of “Come down from the Cross, if you are the Son of God” (Matt 27:39-40) rent the air whilst Christ hung on the Cross, rubbing as it were salt to his wounds (Luke 23:35) our Lord consciously chose not to perform a “miracle” of coming down from the Cross which would not only shut the mouths of His enemies but would have guaranteed immediate replacement of Crown of thorns with that of Gold (people on seeing this “miracle” would have accepted Him as “King”). So why did He continue to hang on the Cross? To demonstrate His love for the Father of dying as a ransom for the sins of the World as per the Almighty’s Will (Was not Christ, a Lamb slain before the Foundation of the World-Rev 13:8) and also at the same time to demonstrate His love for the “neighbour” (you and me) who needs redemption from sin. Was not mankind (the neighbour in this context) in a far worse condition spiritually speaking than the Jew attacked and left for dead by the thieves in the Good Samaritan parable (Luke 10:25-38)!!!
Oh how great is our precious Saviour!!! Oh how wonderfully, He fulfilled both the commandments in all the three phases of His exemplary life.
It is said that unless two blades of scissors are put to use, a scissor would be inoperative. Ditto with a Christian’s life! Unless he obeys both the commandments of the NT Dispensation as exemplified by the Master, his life would be aimless (I John 2:6). Dear Friends how are we faring in obeying these two commandments which have been labelled quite rightly by the Biblical scholars “as conjoined twins”. We cannot obey one without obeying the other.
Let’s bank fully on the indwelling Holy Spirit who equips from within with His rich resources to obey these two commandments (Rom 5:5/Eph 3:16). Full steam ahead...Fellow sojourner...
Suresh Manoharan
