How Jesus Walked
“And looking upon Jesus as He walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God.”—(John 1:36).
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering . . . that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind … walk in love … walk as children of light … See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time …”—(Ephesians 4-5).
ONE way to learn the character of God is to study the instructions He has given to His people, for He has given them that we might become as He is. “Be ye holy; for I am holy,” He tells us. “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” (1 John 2:6).
How did our Lord Jesus Christ walk before God and before men during His earthly days? What was there about His steps that caused one to exclaim with wonder and joy, “Behold the Lamb of God!” and another to say, “This Man hath done nothing amiss;” another, “I find no fault in Him;” others, “He doeth all things well;” and the Voice from heaven to say, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”?
May we submit that He walked worthy of the vocation wherewith He was called? He stepped down from the glory that was His from all eternity to take His place as the Son of man and as man’s Redeemer to become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He could say to the heavy laden, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.” He was longsuffering and kind, patient with His ofttimes dull disciples, constantly forgiving, and even on the cross assuring the repentant thief who had but minutes before been reviling Him, “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” He came into the world to save sinners, and therefore He companied with them, received them, ate with them; rejoiced as at Cana of Galilee with those who rejoiced, and sorrowed with the sorrowing even when He was about to turn their sorrow to joy. And as the worthy walk for us, as outlined in Ephesians 4, requires that we employ the gifts He has given to each for the edification of the body of Christ, so He employed His attributes and power ever for edification of them whom He would make His own.
May we submit that He never walked as the Gentiles walk, vainly? His every step was purposeful. His journeys to and fro between Galilee and Judea, around the shores of the Sea of Galilee, into Phoenicia, into Caesarea Philippi, or wherever He went, were not like the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness, but all according to the direction of His Father God, and all with the cross as the ultimate goal. His every step was clean. He could challenge His enemies who constantly observed His path to find some cause against Him, “Which of you convinceth Me of sin?” His words were ever good to the use of edifying, ministering grace to the hearers. No split second of His days brought grief to God, but only joy and satisfaction.
May we submit that He ever walked in love — and that love led Him to Golgotha, to give Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour? His words were perpetually with grace seasoned with salt. He was ever thankful.
May we submit that He ever walked as the Author and the Child of Light? Indeed He was that Light which coming into the world lighteth every man. As long as He was in the world He was the Light of the world, and He Himself ever walked in the light of His Father’s will. When He was about to go back to Bethany from beyond the Jordan after hearing of Lazarus’ sickness, His disciples protested, “Master, the Jews of late sought to stone Thee; and goest Thou thither again?” He answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.” He walked in the sunlight of His Father’s will, for His ear was open morning by morning to His Father’s instructions. “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” Consequently He never stumbled, He never took a misstep, He never swerved aside from the path appointed to Him. The Word of God was a lamp to His feet and a light to His path.
May we submit finally that He walked circumspectly? The circumspect walk delineated for us in Ephesians 5 and 6 requires that we redeem the time, that we understand the will of the Lord, that we be filled with the Spirit, that we be ever thankful, that we submit ourselves one to another in all the natural and temporal relationships in which we find ourselves, in the fear of God.
His walk, His words, His silences, His deeds, His waking and His sleeping bought up His every moment. Not one second of the billion or so seconds He walked this earth was wasted. He redeemed the time, for He was careful ever to know and understand God’s will for Him. He was filled with the Spirit. He was ever thankful, giving thanks even for the bread and cup with which He instituted the Supper which then foretold and now recalls His suffering and death. He thanked His Father that He heard Him at Lazarus’ tomb, for He ever heard Him. Yet He knew that Lazarus’ resurrection and our salvation required that He must cry from Golgotha’s tree, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
How circumspectly He walked in every natural and temporal relationship! When Mary and Joseph sought and found Him in the temple in the midst of the doctors, though they understood not His words about His concern to be about His Father’s business, “He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them,” for He had been placed by His Father in the relationship of a child to them as parents. His relationship with God and with man was perfect. From childhood “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” As Servant He was ever swift to obey the will of Him Who sent Him. As Master He patiently taught His followers, and yet He served them. He taught them humility and love by washing their tired and travel-stained feet. Born under the law, He fulfilled its every jot and tittle. Born into a race in subjection to Roman rule, He observed and taught rendering to Caesar that which was Caesar’s, and to God that which was God’s.
And did He not add luster to the appelation “friend,” when He said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep,” and “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.” He laid down His life for His friends; yes, and for enemies He would convert to friends.
Indeed He glorified every circumstance into which the path His Father marked out for Him led. Every encounter, every relationship glorified God. Truly He walked circumspectly.
One day, the third day after His crucifixion, two of His disciples walked together into the country, talking sadly of His betrayal, trials, and death and the failure in consequence of all their hopes. As they walked and talked Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. He drew them out as to what was on their hearts. Then He began to talk and open to them the Scriptures. Their theme terminated at the cross. His theme was: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” After He had revealed Himself to them in the breaking of bread in their home in Emmaus and had vanished out of their sight they said one to another, “Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the scriptures?”
Today He still draws near and walks with those whose thoughts and conversation are occupied with Him. If we are taken up with Him and with His, but especially with Himself, if we will walk as He walked; we will walk worthily, purposefully, in love, as children of light, and circumspectly.