Perfect Mildness

One of the attributes of the Savior that we see in numerous experiences of His life was His serenity.  He was never frantic or frenzied or rushed or agitated.  He was able to go from person to person, from situation to situation, with a calmness that could not be disrupted no matter what stress was placed upon Him.  We see this in particular in the account of His unjust arraignment before the high priest in the middle of the night after Gethsemane.  He answered their questions with complete calmness, and yet still one of the officers “struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so?”  Jesus responded to the abuse with perfect mildness, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smites thou me?” (John 18:22-23) He showed this same serenity as He stood before a very agitated Pilate.  He said to Jesus, likely near the level of yelling, “Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?” The reply of Jesus was so calm and confident—"Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above”—that Pilate seems to have been completely taken aback and “sought to release him” (John 19:10-11).  That Christ could speak with such peacefulness to those who unjustly threatened Him with death in this final day of His life is a testament of the powerful serenity with which He lived His life. 

               Other events in the life of Christ similarly show the calmness with which He did everything.  Right after His experience at Gethsemane, the group came out to arrest Him and Peter was quickly agitated by this.  After he “smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear,” Jesus responded with total control of Himself, “Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:10-11)  In another example of His perfect mildness, they were on the ship in a storm.  The disciples were frantic in the boat because of the “great storm of wind” that beat upon them—and yet Christ was asleep.  They cried out to Him, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?”  He was not alarmed or agitated like them, but “he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still” (Mark 4:38-39).  There was a peace in His soul that even the storm-tossed sea could not perturb.  We see this in his response to those who accused the woman taken in adultery.  The Jews came trying to rile Him up, saying, “Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?”  He did not get upset or accusatory, but rather He quietly sought to help the woman taken in (John 8:5).  Christ did not get riled up or upset or lose His temper—He approached every situation with a mildness and calmness worthy of emulation in all our endeavors.