Considerateness
CONSIDERATENESS.It was a saying of St. Francis, Courtesy is own sister to Love; but considerateness is more than courtesy (wh. see), for it takes account not only of our neighbours feelings, but of all his circumstances and all his wants. Our Lord knew all men, and knew what was in man (Joh 2:25); and in this knowledge we find Him acting always with the most exquisite care for all their needs. Their bodily needs He anticipates and provides for, as in the case of the hungering multitudes (Mat 15:32, Mar 8:1-3, Luk 9:13, Joh 6:5), where, moreover, He takes care also that nothing of the store He had provided should be lost (Joh 6:12), and in the case of His over-wrought disciples (Come ye apart and rest awhile, Mar 6:31). To which may be added His directions regarding Jairus daughter, when He had raised her from the dead (He commanded that something should be given her to eat, Mar 5:43). Still more beautiful is Christs delicate consideration of mens feelings. Among the many rays of his own glory (Joh 2:11) manifested forth in His first miracle, we must not omit His considerateness for the mortification which the falling short of their wine would cause to His peasant hosts, and His taking care that none save His mother and the servants knew whence the new and better supply was drawn (Joh 2:9). As instances of His considerateness of mens spiritual needs, we may cite His giving scope for the strong faith of the good centurion by not going to his house (Mat 8:5 ff., Luk 7:2 ff.), while by going with Jairus He supports his weak faith, and is beside him when the stunning message reaches him, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? (Mar 5:35); His whole action in the case of the woman taken in adultery (Joh 8:1-11); and His attention to the still deeper need of the woman with the issue of blood, whose faith, great as it was, required to be adorned with gratitude to, and confession of, her healer (Mar 5:29-34). Extreme pain tends to make men forget everything except their own suffering: it only brought out the more the all-embracing considerateness of Christ. His words from the Cross to the Virgin Mother and St. John (Joh 19:26-27) teach, no doubt, the new relationships created for believers by the gospel (Mar 10:30, cf. Rom 16:13; but they exhibit also His considerate care not needlessly to mention a relationship which might so easily have exposed St. Mary to hustling by the mob, or to syllable names which would have been repeated by irreverent tongues. The post-resurrection sayings to Mary Magdalene (Joh 20:15; Joh 20:18), to St. Thomas (Joh 20:27), and to St. Peter, who, as he had thrice denied his Lord, is thrice restored with delicate allusion to, but not mention of, his threefold fall (Joh 21:15; Joh 21:17), are examples no less shining and illustrative. (Cf. Bishop Pagets sermon on Courtesy in Studies in the Christian Character, p. 209).
J. Cooper.