Wounded by Friends
J. H. Jowett, M. A. Zechariah 13:6 And one shall say to him, What are these wounds in your hands? Then he shall answer… There is no wound so painful as the wound inflicted by a familiar friend. The secret devices of the hireling may be anticipated. The blows of an avowed foe can be healed. The neglect of the proudly indifferent can be endured. But the slight of a friend, the faithlessness of the lover, inflicts a wound for which earth provides no cordial and no balm. "Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me." when, in the palace of the High Priest, in the dim light of the early morning, "one of the officers, which stood by, struck Jesus with the palm of his hand," the wound was only skin deep; but when in the outer court of that same palace a friend called Peter was saying, "I know not the man," the wound was attended with an agony. When the chief priests and elders "gave large money unto the soldiers" to induce them to give false witness, the pangs of the crucifixion were intensified; but when "Barnabas also was carried away with dissimulation," our Lord was crucified afresh. I am not doubting the friendship; nay, it is essential to my purpose that we should quietly assume its sincerity and its strength. I am not now dealing with masked foes, who wear the King's livery, who have caught the King's tones and expression, but who are inwardly fiercely and determinedly hostile to His claim and dominion. No, I speak of His genuine friends, friends as genuine as Simon Peter, and I want to speak of some of the ways in which we sorely wound Him when He abides beneath our roof. 1. We wound our Lord by our destructive zeal. Zeal is a very essential element in the religious life. It is as welcome a thing in the indifferent world as a warm fire on a winter's night. Zeal is genial and heartening. It keeps the affections fresh and radiant; it provides the requisite atmosphere in which all the powers of the life can attain their maturity. If the flame of zeal be in any way corrupted it works against the kingdom of our Lord. If the fire of zeal be kept clean it is the friend of life, if it become unclean it is the friend of death. The pure fervour may so easily become an evil fever! when we assume we are working in hallowed zeal. "Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and we forbade him, because he followed not with us." How friendly was the disposition to the Lord, and how strong and decisive the act! A fiery zeal for truth was being corrupted into a clouded passion for sect. "Master, wilt Thou that we call down fire from heaven to consume them?" How zealous, and yet how blind! It is always so much easier to burn your enemies than to convert them. You know what kind of armour is used by an illiberal zeal. In the supposed interests of the Kingdom we use methods of misrepresentation, misinterpretation, exaggeration — I do not say wilfully, for that would place us outside the ranks of the Master's friends, but blinded by our perverted zeal — and the issue of such warfare is not the discomfiture of the devil but the wounding of the Lord. We detach things from their context. 2. We wound our Lord by our thoughtless kindness. "And they brought unto Him little children, that He should touch them and the disciples rebuked them." The disciples acted in presumed kindness to their Master, and yet how unkind was the ministry! They were protecting the Lord because He was tired, saving Him from the embarrassment of the multitude. Their purpose was right; the means they employed were thoughtless. And it frequently happens that even when our deeds are right, the manner in which we perform them is offensive. We can wound the Lord by the clumsy way in which we serve Him. There are some men who boast of their want of refinement. We are responsible to God both for the man and the manner. It is not enough that we serve Him; we must serve Him in a way that will make no wounds. "Let your light so shine!" It is not enough that the light is shining; we are to take pains that it shines in the right way. There are well-meaning men who throw their kindness at you. All such kindness wounds the Lord Himself. "What are these wounds in Thine hands?" They are the wounds the Master received from the clumsy kindness of His friends. 3. We wound our Lord by our faithlessness when in the warfare of life the odds are against us. It is easy to be His friends when He walks along the palm-strewn ways of Jerusalem, and everybody vies with everybody else in acclaiming Him the King of Glory. But when the crowd melts away, and the minority is very small, it is so easy to become ashamed of the leader and to say: "I know not the man." Our true friends are revealed when we are "down." The nightingale is lovely, not because his song is sweeter than the note of the thrush, but because he sings in the night. And this is just our Lord's friendship; He is at His best when we are at our weakest. If I am in company, and the intercourse is unseemly, am I a friend of the Lord or a deserter? I would far rather be called a prig by the men of the world than be known as a faithless friend of my Lord. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. WEB: One will say to him, 'What are these wounds between your arms?' Then he will answer, 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.'