Tsai Sung Hua picked up a silver hammer and struck a small gong. Two personal attendants entered his room. One carried the gorgeous robes of his office, and the other carried his hat with a peacock feather hanging down and a red button which was the sign that the wearer of the hat was a Chinese official of highest degree.
After he dressed in his robes and hat, he walked out onto a balcony overlooking a large courtyard. Several less-important officials were already there. Tsai Sung Hua walked to his position at the front of the balcony without saying a word.
Carefully he looked over the courtyard of the examination hall below. High walls with locked and sealed iron gates surrounded it. Along one wall were many cells, barely large enough for a person to sit down in. In front of these cells were six hundred students, all young men, standing still and silent like statues. Slowly Tsai Sung Hua looked them over. Several were dressed in patched, worn-out garments, making Tsai think of his own life of poverty when he was a student. Most of their faces seemed frightened and strained. Their futures depended upon the results of this 72-hour examination.
After examining the courtyard from the balcony, he looked at an official in a watchtower on the wall and nodded. At this signal the man beat a large gong. The young men in the courtyard gazed up at the watchtower and saw the man wave a banner. In a loud voice he cried out, “O ye spirits of the dead! Look upon these students gathered here! If any has offended in word or deed do punish the offender and avenge the wrong!” The students, all of whom believed in evil spirits, shivered with fright, and some nearly fainted. Another gong was sounded and each student went to his own examination cell.
A servant carrying a banner over his head walked through the courtyard making sure every student could see it from his cell. On the banner was printed the subject of an essay they must write. Each student received a single roll of paper. They were given three days and nights to write the essay and were ordered to stay in the cells with only brief breaks for rice and water. They were strictly forbidden to speak to anyone until their examination was finished. The students who wrote the essays were often appointed to important positions in the government. This system of choosing public officials had been in practice in China for over 1400 years.
Tsai Sung Hua was appointed by the emperor to be in charge of the examination hall. For his faithful service he was rewarded with wealth and honor.
Late in the evening of the second day of the examination, Tsai Sung Hua felt restless. He took off his gorgeous robe and hat and in a dresser drawer found a coarse, gray servant’s uniform. He put it on and slipped unnoticed out of his quarters and into the darkness of the courtyard. He walked there for a few moments. Then he heard someone sobbing. In the darkness he found a young man crying as if his heart would break.
“What is the matter?” Tsai asked. “Who are you?”
“My name is Hung,” the young man replied, “and I am here from the city of Wusih. My mother is a widow and too poor to send me here, but some friends loaned her money for me to come. My essay roll slipped out of my gown into the dirt and is ruined! Now I have no more paper, and I dare not return and tell my mother I have lost the chance! It would break her heart! I have no choice... I can only kill myself!”
Tsai Sung Hua listened with sympathy, remembering the strain of his own examination. “I have a roll of paper I do not need,” Tsai said. “I will get it for you and you can rewrite your essay.”
When Tsai returned with the paper, the young man looked into his face to thank him. Astonished, he recognized him, not as a servant, but as the Chief Examiner. He bowed to the ground. “Sir,” he cried, “I shall remember you with gratitude all the days of my life. You have saved me and my mother.”
If Tsai Sung Hua had not walked as a servant through the courtyard, the young man might have killed himself that night. His grief in losing the roll was so keen and his hopes had been so bitterly dashed that he felt he couldn’t go on living.
One far greater than Tsai Sung Hua put on the form of a servant and walked through this world. Although it could truly be said of Him, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:33All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3)), yet we read, “Christ Jesus... made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:5,7,85Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (Philippians 2:5)
7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:7‑8).
When Hung recognized who the man in the servant’s uniform really was, his heart filled with gratitude, and he bowed to the ground before him.
Have you recognized this wonderful One who died on the cross? He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Has your heart filled with gratitude and have you bowed before Him?
“He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” John 1:10-1210He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:10‑12).
ML-01/31/1988