DAILY READINGS IN LIFE OF CHRIST - J.R. Miller (1890)
May 31. Footprints of Christ
"They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.." Luke 7:22
John wanted to know whether Jesus really was the Messiah or not. Jesus did not present arguments to prove that He was the Messiah — but pointed the messengers to the work He was doing. The best evidence of the divinity of Christ, is not any number of proof-texts gathered from all parts of the Bible and arranged in order — but the works that Christ has done and is doing every day.
An atheist asked a man how he knew there was a God. The man answered by inquiring, "How do I know whether it was a man or a camel that passed my tent last night?" He knew by the footprints. Then he pointed to the setting sun and asked: "Whose footprint is that?"
Look at the footprints of Christ, and see whether they are a man's — or God's. Whose footprints are those by the gate of Nain, by the grave of Bethany, coming away from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea? Whose prints are those by the doors of sorrow, along the path where the leper, the blind, the lame, the demoniac waited for Him? Or look around at what you see now — churches, missions, hospitals, asylums, sweetened homes, cleansed sinners, renewed lives, comforted mourners — whose footprints are these? These works, wrought by Christianity, are the best evidences of Christianity. Christ wants to be judged, not by His claims — but by His works. The world is full today of the proofs of Christ's divinity.
In like manner, we must prove that we belong to Christ, not by getting certificates of church membership — but by showing in our daily lives the unselfishness, the sympathy, the self-denial, the kindness, the love — which were the highest proofs on Christ's own life of His divine mission. We must be able, when people ask us if we are Christians, to say: "Look at my life and my works — and judge for yourselves!"
