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LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
PRINCETON, N. J.
PRESENTED BY
Mrs. Donald Sinclair
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Section...A.v£3..J^C^
Thirty Studies
ABOUT JESUS
Thirty Studies
ABOUT JESUS
Edward Increase Bosworth
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124 East 28th Street, New York
1917
Copyright, 1917, by
The International Committee of
Young Men's Christian Associations'
The Bible Text used in this volume is taken from the American
Standard Edition of the Revised Bible,. copyright, 1901, by Thomas
Nelson & Sons, and is used by permission.
FOREWORD
Jesus is probably the most widely known character
of history. Certainly he is the one who has most deeply
stirred the emotions of humanity. For nearly nineteen
hundred years men have been praying to him and curs-
ing by him. Men still die for love of him and sometimes
kill his disciples for hate of his name. And yet neither
his enemies nor those of us to whom he is Friend, and
More-Than-Friend, know enough about him. These
Studies from the Christian Gospels are intended to bring
out certain main points in his life and teaching that
will help those who use them to know more about him
and to have more to do with him. If any who are
indifferent to him use them it is hoped that they will
find him here a challenge, at first perhaps to curiosity,
but finally to conscience and conduct.
New beginnings in human progress during the last
nineteen hundred years have been marked by new inter-
est in him. At each step forward men have found in
him new light on the meaning of life, on the meaning
of the world that is seen and the world that is unseen.
Now once more a New Age seems coming to birth.
While men of many nationalities from the States and
Provinces of North America are coming together to
join with men across both oceans in warring for a
better world it is fit that we too should think together
about Jesus, as our fathers did before us. It is from
vi FOREWORD
him that men of all nations will learn to call God their
Father and to plan together even in the red light of war
for brotherhood, international, world-wide, and ever-
lasting.
Oberlin, Ohio.
June 6, 1917.
COxXTENTS
Foreword v
Part I: Jesus' Preparation for Public
Service
I. Thi-: Discipline of Village Life 3
II. The Influence of John, the Wilder-
ness Prophet 8
III. The Discipline of Temptation 14
Part II: Jesus the People's Prophet,
His Vision of the Life of the New
Age and the Way to Prepare for It
IV. Disease and Demons Give Way 23
V. Jfsus' Outline of the Civilization of
the New Age 28
VI. No Contempt for Man Nor Lust for
Woman 34
VII. Plain Speech and No Revenge 39
VIll. Care of the Neighbor in Need 44
IX. Count on God Without Nervous Worry 49
X. Possessing Things Not Preparation. . 54
XI. No Love of Personal Parade 59
XII. Prayer for Others, not Condemnation
OF Them 64
Part III: Jesus, the People's Prophet,
Arouses the Hostility of the Reli-
gious Authorities by His Teaching
Regarding the Life of the New Age
and the Way to Prepare for it
XIII. The Scribes Suspicious of Jesus'
Teaching "/Z
vii
vili CONTENTS
XIV. Jesus' Approach to Irreligious People 78
XV. Jesus' Approach to Irreligious People 83
XVI. Offended by Jesus' Use of the Sab-
bath 89
XVII. Official Verdict of Scribes on Jesus. 95
XVIII.' Final Clash Over Treatment of
Scriptures loi
Part IV: Jesus' Strategic Retreat to
Prepare the Twelve for the Great
Event in Jerusalem
XIX. The Early Training of the Twelve.. 109
XX. The Messianic Secret and an Incredi-
ble Announcement 114
XXI. Jesus Prepares Disciples to Share
Suffering 120
Part V: Jesus Comes Out from His
Seclusion with His Disciples, Re-
sumes Public Teaching, and Boldly
Meets His Enemies in the Capital
City, but Is Put to Death by Them
as a Blaspheming False Christ
XXII. Jesus Greeted as Messiah 129
XXIII. Jesus Attacks Abuses in Temple Ad-
ministration 135
XXIV. The Traitor Among the Twelve 141
XXV. Jesus Placed Under Arrest and Goes
TO Trial 147
XXVI. Jesus Condemned to Death 153
XXVII. Jesus Executed and Buried 160
XXVIII. After Death Jesus Appears to His
Disciples 166
XXIX. The Victorious Campaign of Testi-
mony 172
XXX. What Will You Do About Jesus?... 177
PART I: JESUS' PREPARATION FOR PUBLIC
SERVICE
STUDY I
THE DISCIPLINE OF VILLAGE LIFE
Supplementary Readings :
1. Luke 2: 40-52 4- Luke 6:47-49
2. Matthew 10: 34-36; 5- Luke 14:28-30
11: 16-19 6. Alatthew 20: 1-15
3. Matthew 13:54-58 7- Luke 4:16-30
^Passage FOR Study:
Luke 2: I. Now it came to pass in those days,
there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that
all the world should be enrolled. 2. This was the
first enrolment made when Quirinius v/as governor
of Syria. 3. And all went to enrol themselves, every
one to his own city. 4. And Joseph also v/ent up
from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Jud^a,
to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, be-
cause he was of the house and family of David; 5. to
enrol himself with Mary, who was betrothed to him,
being great with child. 6. And it came to pass, while
they were there, the days were fulfilled that she
should be delivered. 7. And she brought forth her
firstborn son; and she wrapped him in swaddling
clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was
no room for them in the inn. 22. And when the days
'In each Study carefully read first the Passage for Study, then
the comment, and then again the Passage for Study. Afterward
consider the Questions.
4 ABOUT JESUS
of their purification according to the law of Moses
were fulfilled, they brought him up to Jerusalem,
to present him to the Lord. 39. And when they
had accomplished all things that were according to
the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to
their own city Nazareth. 40. And the child grew,
and waxed strong, filled with wisdom: and the grace
of God was upon him. 52. And Jesus advanced in
wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and
men.
Mark 6: i. And he went out from thence; and he
Cometh into his own country; and his disciples fol-
low him, 2. And v/hen the sabbath was come, he
began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing
him were astonished, saying, Whence hath this man
these things? and. What is the wisdom that is given
unto this man, and what mean such mighty works
wrought by his hands? 3. Is not this the carpenter,
the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joses,
and Judas, and Simon? and are not his sisters here
with us? And they were offended in him.
I. At least the first ten-elevenths of Jesus' life were
quietly spent as a useful member of a Syrian village
community. There he had a good home, in which were
four younger brothers and at least two younger sisters.
The father, who was a carpenter (see third supplement-
ary reading), does not appear in the description of the
family found in the quotation from Mark's Gospel.
Therefore he had probably died in Jesus' early young
manhood.
As a child, Jesus played with the other children in the
village market. He liked in later years to remember
this comparatively care-free period when they used
to play wedding and funeral, those dramatic occasions
DISCIPLINE OF VILLAGE LIFE 5
in Eastern life which would powerfully excite the
imitative imagination of children (see second supple-
mentary reading).
As a boy ranging over the hills that shut Nazareth
in on every side he noted the beauty of the field flowers,
saw the dead sparrow lying in the path, and associated
both with the power and tenderness of God the Heav-
enly Father who was becoming more and more a reality
to him (Matt. 6:28; 10:29). The village schoolmaster
perhaps took the boys occasionally to the hill tops, where
he could point out to them in the distance many famous
historical sites and the great Roman roads full of travel
and traffic.
In the village Jesus learned his trade, made house fur-
niture and farm tools and built houses, perhaps making
a specialty of foundations (see fourth supplementary
reading). In some of the most tense moments of his
later life he naturally used the language of his trade:
he saw in Peter a rock-man who would do for one of
the foundation stones on which to "build" his new
Israel (Matt. 16: 18). Some of his words later might
indicate that he had at one time been an employer of
labor (see sixth supplementary reading), perhaps a kind
of contractor. If so, he knew the difficulty of getting
on not only with inconsiderate employers but with shirk-
ing workmen. In his shop he dealt with men who had
inherited from many ancestors the oriental keenness for
a sharp bargain, with men who were always criticising
the work done for them, and also with poor calculators
who had to throw up their contracts when their build-
ings were only half finished (see fifth supplementary
reading).
6 ABOUT JESUS
The support of a widowed mother aiid some at least
of the younger brothers and sisters came for a while
largel}'' upon him. The anxious questions, "What shall
we eat and wherewithal shall we be clothed?" -were
often raised in the family. They understood the science
of patching old clothes (Mark 2:21) ! He knew what
family jars were like, perhaps sometimes occasioned
by his own high and unusual ideas about the way things
ought to be done. This would be particularly likely to
happen after the brothers married and brought their
wives home to the mother-in-law. "I came to set a man
at variance against his father, and the daughter against
the mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-
in-law."
He went freely to all the social meetings and parties
of the village (see second supplementary reading). At
their work during the day or in the market-place in the
evening he and the other men of the village discussed
the politics and morals of the nation, the unwelcome
regiments of Roman soldiers that some of the farmers
had seen that day marching along the Roman roads in
sight from the hill tops about Nazareth.
2. These elemental relationships of village life afforded
opportunity for the development of the character which
Jesus was seen to possess later when he became a person
of national importance. The great essential conditions
of character m^aking were all present in the village sit-
uation : work, play, neighbors, and God. Whatever may
have been the nature of the personality with which
Jesus was born, it was not such as to do away with the
necessity of developing character. A New Testament
writer speaks of him as one who "though he was a Son
DISCIPLINE OF VILLAGE LIFE 7
yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered"
(Hebrews 5:8).
3. No situation into which men come lasts long with-
out having in some degree at least all the four conditions
of character making mentioned above: work, recreation,
neighbors, and God. Human life is a situation devised
by God in which men may make character.
Questions :
Are there other conditions essential to a favorable
opportunity for character?
How do those mentioned contribute to character?
What do we mean by "character" anyway?
What has your home contributed to your life?
What can you do now to make the most of your home,
and home town relationships?
What are the best forms of recreation now avail-
able?
It behooved him in all things to be made like
unto his brothers that he might become a merciful
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God. — The Epistle to the Hebrews.
"Born within a lowly stable, where the cattle round Me
stood,
Trained a carpenter in Nazareth, I have toiled, and
found it good.
Where the many toil together, there am I among My
own ;
Where the tired workman sleepeth, there am I with him
alone."
— Henry van Dyke, "The Toiling of Felix."
STUDY II
THE INFLUENCE OF JOHN, THE
WILDERNESS PROPHET
Supplementary Readings :
1. Luke I : 5-23 4. John i : 6-9, 15-37
2. Luke I : 57-80 5. John 3 : 22—4 : 3
3. Luke 3:1-6 6. Luke 7 : 18-28
7. Mark 6: 14-29
Passage for Study :
Mark i: 2. Even as it is written in Isaiah the
prophet,
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
Who shall prepare thy way;
3. The voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Make ye ready the way of the Lord,
Make his paths straight;
4. John came, who baptized in the wilderness and
preached the baptism of repentance unto remission
of sins. 5. And there went out unto him all the
country of Judaea, and all they of Jerusalem; and
they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, con-
fessing their sins. 6. And John was clothed with
camel's hair, and had a leathern girdle about his
loins, and did eat locusts and wild honey. 7. And
he preached, saying, There cometh after me he
8
THE WILDERNESS PROPHET g
that is mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes
I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. 8. I
baptized you with water; but he shall baptize you
with the Holy Spirit. 9. And it came to pass
in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth
of Galilee, and was baptized of John in the
Jordan.
Luke 3: 7. He said therefore to the multitudes
that went out to be baptized of him. Ye offspring
of vipers, who warned you to flee from, the wrath to
come? 8. Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of
repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves.
We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto
you, that God is able of these stones to raise up
children unto Abraham. 9. And even now is the axe
also laid unto the root of the trees: every tree
therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down, and cast into the fire. 10. And the multitudes
asked him, saying. What then must we do? 11. And
he answered and said unto them, He that hath two
coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and
he that hath food, let him do likewise. 12. And
there came also publicans to be baptized, and they
said unto him, Master, what must we do? 13. And
he said unto them, Extort no more than that which
is appointed you. 14. And soldiers also asked him,
saying, And we, v/hat must we do? And he said
unto them. Do violence to no man, neither exact
anything wrongfully; and be content with your
wages.
I. The work of this prophet of the wilderness, rough
in dress and speech, was not so much to influence
Jesus as it was to prepare the nation for Jesus. Yet
Jesus seems to have felt his influence to a certain
extent. Jesus said later that no greater man than
10 ABOUT JESUS
John had ever lived, but he said in addition that John
could not stand comparison with the humblest man in
a New Order, for the coming of which Jesus had begun
to feel a high and unique sense of responsibility (see
sixth supplementary reading).
It was John's stirring harangues to the crowds that
flocked about him in the wilderness that drew Jesus
from Nazareth. The Nazareth men in the market-
place or around the synagogue in the evening talked
much about John's threatening summons to the nation
to repent and wash themselves in baptismal waters,
in preparation for the judgment day so near at hand
and for the glad New Age that would follow. Jesus
approved this summons and finally went to the wilder-
ness himself. There he, like thousands of others, went
down into the baptismal waters of the river with de-
vout desire to take such part as God might give him
in preparing for the New Age. This gave rise to a
tradition later that Jesus became John's disciple, but
the Gospels protest strongly against this idea (see
fourth and fifth supplementary readings). They also
emphasize the fact that a voice from heaven at the
time of the baptism declared Jesus' life in the Nazareth
years to have been wholly pleasing to God : "Thou art
my beloved Son ; in thee I am well pleased,"
2. John had at once attracted the attention of the
nation, both because of his personality and the excit-
ing character of his message. In his rough dress and
stern demand for reform he resembled the old hero
prophet Elijah, who was a favorite character in Jewish
history and who was expected to re-appear shortly
before the judgment day. It was in the very region
THE WILDERNESS PROPHET ii
where John now was that he had suddenly disappeared
centuries before !
John's message from God was that the "Kingdom
of God" was at hand. The Jews, who for much of
their history had been subject to different great world
empires, had come to expect God himself finally to set
up a World Empire, in which the Jewish nation, the
keepers of God's holy law given to Moses, would en-
force that law among all the peoples of the earth. In
preparation for this splendid era the great "Rabbis,"
or "Scribes," were trying to enforce among the Jews
themselves a better and more general obedience to the
law than the nation had ever yielded. If this could
only be secured, most of them felt that God would
grant them a holy king, the "Messiah" or "Christ"
(that is the "Anointed," for kings were inducted into
office by an "anointing"), who would in a holy judg-
ment remove from the earth all the disobedient, and
proceed to reign over a thoroughly righteous Jewish
world.
3. The most interesting thing about John was his
idea of what constituted the genuine religion which
men must have if they were to be ready for this great
crisis or change in which they would face God. John's
idea was so different from that held by the religious
leaders of the day that they had little to do with his
movement. Nevertheless, it appealed powerfully to the
rank and file of the nation, especially to those who had
not been considered as at all religious. Jesus said of
it long afterward, speaking to the religious leaders in
the nation : "John came unto you in the way of right-
eousness, and ye believed him not; but the publicans
12 ABOUT JESUS
and the harlots believed him : and ye, when ye saw it,
did not even repent yourselves afterward."
To John religion meant a kindness of heart and
honesty that could be counted on at any time. It meant
sharing food and clothing with another man if neces-
sary (v. lo). It meant a square deal in business (v. 12).
It meant honor among soldiers in their treatment of
civilians and in their lo3^alty to discipline (vs. 13-14).
The things that had impressed this man from the
wilderness when he occasionally visited the city were
the self-satisfied pride and the utter lack of real friend-
liness to be found even among those who thought
themselves religious. They were a "generation of
vipers" (v. 7), a race of poisonous snakes stinging each
other to death in hate. They were so proud of their
race and social standing (v. 8) that it seemed to them
an insult to be called upon to get ready for the search-
ing questions of God's judgment day. And yet judgment
was near. It was as if the farmer, going through his
orchard to take out useless trees, had laid his ax at
the root of a tree for a moment while he inspected its
branches to see whether he should spare it or at once
cut it down.
Questions :
What are some of the critical situations in life that
really judge a man, that really show him up for just
what he is?
To what extent and how can a man get at the facts
about himself beforehand? How can he really find out
before the crisis comes what kind of man he is?
What is it to "repent" ? Does it ever involve any
THE WILDERNESS PROPHET 13
effort to make restitution for wrong done to another?
Does it involve public confession of the details of a
bad past life?
God never intends a crisis to break a man down.
He means it to introduce a man into something better
than he has ever known before. The Unseen- Power
that is all about us is for us and not against us.
STUDY III
THE DISCIPLINE OF TEMPTATION
Supplementary Readings :
1. Luke 4: 1-13 4. I Corinthians 10: 1-13
2. Mark i: 9-13 5. Hebrews 2: 10-18
3. Mark 8 : 27-33 6. Hebrews 4 : 12-16
7. Hebrews 12 : i-ii
Passage for Study :
Matt. 3: 16. And Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straightway from the water: and lo, the
heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the
Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming
upon him; 17. and lo, a voice out of the heavens,
saying. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased.
4: I. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2. And when
he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he after-
ward hungered. 3. And the tempter came and said
unto him, If thou art the Son of God, command that
these stones become bread. 4. But he answered and
said. It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God. 5. Then the devil taketh him into the holy
city; and he set him on the pinnacle of the tem.ple,
6. and saith unto him. If thou art the Son of God,
cast thyself down: for it is written,
14
DISCIPLINE OF TEMPTATION 15
He shall give his angels charge concerning thee:
and,
On their hands they shall bear thee up,
Lest haply thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7. Jesus said unto him. Again it is written, Thou
shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 8. Again, the
devil taketh him unto an exceeding high mountain,
and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world,
and the glory of them; 9. and he said unto him. All
these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down
and worship me. 10. Then saith Jesus unto him,
Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou
serve. 11. Then the devil leaveth him; and behold,
angels came and m.inistered unto him.
I. During the years in Nazareth there had grown
up in the soul of Jesus a profound experience of the
presence of God, the Heavenly Father. He had neces-
sarily thought much about the New Age which so
many of his countrymen expected, especially since the
preaching of John in the wilderness had called the
attention of the nation to it.
In the profound spiritual experience of Jesus at the
baptism he saw a vision in which his Heavenly Father
revealed to him the fact that the responsibility of
messianic leadership in the New Age was to rest upon
him.
Messiahship was not an "office," but a heavy personal
responsibility. Woodrow Wilson, in his professional
years, studying the history and politics of the United
States and other countries, may have thought of the
presidency as a high "office," but when he became
president he realized that it was a heavy personal re-
i6 ABOUT JESUS
sponsibility full of difficult problems for which he must
find a solution.
2. The heavy personal responsibility which rested
upon Jesus as a Messiah was the necessity of discover-
ing the proper ideal of life to set before himself in
his effort to do his work for the nation and the world,
and to decide upon a program for the realization of
this ideal. The way in which he met this responsibility
would show what kind of person he was. It would be
his testing, or "temptation."
This sense of heavy responsibility drove him to the
wilderness for weeks of prayer, fasting, and study of
those parts of the scripture in which Moses, the leader
of the nation out of Egyptian slavery into liberty, is
represented to have found God's ideal for the life of
the new nation during forty days of fasting (Deuter-
onomy 9: 8-1 1. Note that Jesus quotes Deuteronomy
8: 3; 6: 16; 6: 13).
3. Jesus' report of his experience during this period
is in the form of parable and vision, a form congenial
to the oriental mind and found elsewhere in the teach-
ing of Jesus.
From the parable of Stones and Bread it is evident
that two ideals appeared to Jesus as attractive possi-
bilities. The first was to relieve immediately the hunger
and other physical needs which often cause great suf-
fering and to be content with doing this, leaving God
Himself to look out for any other interests. Jesus
was keenly alive to the importance of doing this, not
only because of his own hunger at the time, but be-
cause of all the engrossing struggle of his family to
get food and clothing and ward off sickness during the
DISCIPLINE OF TEMPTATION 17
Nazareth years. The other possible ideal was to at-
tempt primarily to bring men into fellowship with
God, to get them to listen to, and Hve by, the great
messages that pass from the soul of God to the souls
of men. He decided if human society would rightly
relate itself to God, men's relations to each other would
necessarily be such as to secure for all a fair chance
at physical comforts. So he became later primarily
the world's great teacher of religion, but of a religion
which instead of being ascetic made large recognition
of physical well-being.
In the parable of the Leap from the Temple, Jesus
hinted at the possible ways of declaring to the nation
his sense of messianic leadership. It seemed appropri-
ate to meet public expectation in this matter. The
prophets had said that "the Lord would appear sud-
denly in his temple." If God should introduce him to
the nation at the temple in some miraculous way, surely
it would be easy to lead the nation to God. The ninety-
first Psalm which spoke about God's messianic "salva-
tion" (v. 16) contained a sentence (vs. 12-13) which
seemed to warrant this. Longer reflection convinced
him that this was an evil suggestion. He must not take
a bold initiative, demanding God's support and so put-
ting God to the test. He must rather wait for God to
thrust him forward as Messiah in His own good time.
As a result of this decision he later concealed his con-
sciousness of messiahship from the public until a few
hours before his death. To the public he appeared as
a prophet, although in the inner circle of his disciples
his messianic consciousness was known as a secret.
Read Mark 8: 27-30.
i8 ABOUT JESUS
In the parable of Satan Worship he presented the
struggle through which he passed in deciding to make
no temporary compromise with evil in hope of thereby
gaining larger opportunity to do good later. He would
not make temporary compromise with the ideals of
either the great Scribes, the Priests, or those who
looked for a revolutionary fighting Messiah,
In the course of these great struggles it became
evident to him that he was measuring strength with
•the great central force of evil in humanity, that as
messianic leader of men he was set to overcome in the
sphere of his own experience the devilish power of
selfishness. These temptations of Jesus were a part
of his preparation for the public world service that he
was to render. He came back from this period of
seclusion with deeper lines in his face, a clearer light
in his eye, a stronger resolution in his soul. "Though
he was Son" he "learned obedience through the things
that he suffered."
4. Temptation came to Jesus springing up normall}^
in the development of his own life purpose, not thrust
in arbitrarily from outside. His temptations were
suited in power and kind to the dimensions and nature
of his own personality. They were terribly severe for
him. They were in essence like all temptation, namely,
temptation to secure something pleasurable for one's
self at the moment instead of working for some greater
good later that can be shared with others. It would
have given immediate relief to Jesus' keenly sympathetic
nature to have speedily stopped all the physical suffer-
ing of men, but there was another greater and later
good to be won for all mankind in a harder way. One
DISCIPLINE OF TEMPTATION 19
who has so experienced the essential nature of all temp-
tation is prepared to sympathize with those whose par-
ticular form of temptation may be dififerent from his
own. Coarser temptations when analyzed are seen to
have the same essential nature as those more refined.
The man with the liquor habit gets the pleasurable
sensation of a drink now instead of the greater good
later of a sober man's home shared with wife and
children. The man who gratifies lust gets a brief pleas-
urable sensation now, instead of the greater good later
of a clean home shared with wife and children and a
record which his children as they grow up can discover
without shame and without the weakening of moral
purpose in the time of their own fierce temptation.
Questions :
How do you define temptation? Is temptation sin?
Can there be character without temptation? Why
should we pray, "Lead us not into temptation"?
Did Jesus probably experience any recurrence of these
temptations?
Of what value is the experience of Jesus to a tempted
man?
For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted
he is able to succor them that are tempted. — The
Epistle to the Hebrews.
One of the safeguards in time of temptation is the
established habit of frequent silent inner conversation
with the immortal spirit of the tempted Christ who did
not fall.
PART II: JESUS THE PEOPLE'S PROPHET,
HIS VISION OF THE LIFE OF THE NEW
AGE AND THE WAY TO PREPARE
FOR IT
STUDY IV
DISEASE AND DEMONS GIVE WAY BE-
FORE THE PROPHET'S PROCLAMA-
TION .OF THE NEW AGE
Supplementary Readings :
1. Mark i : 21-28
2. Mark i : 29-39
3. Mark i : 40-45
4. Mark 3 : 7-12
5. Mark 5 : 1-20
6. Mark 9: 14-29
7. Luke 13 : 10-17
Passage for Study :
John 4: I. When therefore the Lord knew how
that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making
and baptizing more disciples than John 2. (although
Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples), 3. he
left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.
Mark i : 14. Now after that John was delivered up,
Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of
God, 15. and saying. The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe
in the gospel.
Matt. 4: 23. And Jesus went about in all Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the
gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of
disease and all manner of sickness among the people.
24. And the report of him went forth into all Syria:
and they brought unto him all that were sick, holden
23
24 ABOUT JESUS
with divers diseases and torments, possessed with
demons, and epileptic, and palsied; and he healed
them. 25. And there followed him great multitudes
from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and
Judaea and from beyond the Jordan.
I. The first steps that Jesus took after his lonely
experience in the wilderness are obscure. As we have
seen, he felt that God would not have him in any way
disclose his sense of messianic responsibility. Iri John's
Gospel there is evidence that while, he did not go to
the temple in Jerusalem for a spectacular demonstra-
tion of power, he did go to the southern province and
begin to call the nation to repentance just as John was
doing. He attracted even larger crowds than those
that gathered about John, This was offensive to John's
disciples, although not to John himself. When Jesus
learned that he was considered to be a successful rival
of John, he at once went back to the northern province
(John 4: 1-3) and apparently did not appear any more
in public until John was arrested by "King Herod"
of Galilee, whose private life the prophet had boldly
criticised. Then Jesus began to carry on vigorously
the work that John had been obliged to drop.
The "synagogues" afforded him his chance. They
were meeting houses in which the religiously inclined
met every Sabbath, for the study of the law of Moses
and for prayer. These religious services were very
democratic. Any layman who showed ability to ex-
plain the sacred scriptures might do so from the syna-
gogue platform. Jesus was able to do this very effec-
tively and became very popular as a synagogue speaker.
Large audiences gathered to hear him. His message
DISEASE AND DEMONS GIVE WAY 25
at the beginning was the same as John's : "Repent, for
the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
2. Soon it became evident that he had power to do
what John had never attempted, namely, to cure sick
people and exorcise demons. "This present age," vvhich
the Kingdom of God was to displace, was popularly
thought to be under the control of the Evil One, whose
subject spirits ranged through the air, entering the
bodies of men when they could and inflicting disease
upon them.
It was expected by many that at the great judgment
which would inaugurate the Kingdom of God, all these
demons would be driven back to the "torment" of the
"abyss" where they belonged. It therefore seemed to
be a very significant fact that Jesus was able to frighten
the spirits inhabiting the demoniacs, free the demoniacs
from their power, and cure the diseases that they in-
flicted. It looked as if the Kingdom really was drawing
near, and in the course of time led to the occasional
surmise that Jesus himself might possibly turn out to be
the Messiah.
What really ailed the demoniacs cannot be discussed
here. From the modern standpoint the demoniacs would
seem to have been subject to the delusion that demons
were in them and to have spoken as they would sup-
pose demons to speak, just as a person under the de-
lusion that the spirit of Napoleon is in him speaks as
he thinks Napoleon would speak. An announcement by
a popular prophet that the day of doom was near would
naturally throw demons into paroxysms of fear.
In any case, there was power in the personality of
Jesus to bring case after case back to sanity and to
26 ABOUT JESUS
cure case after case of disease. Many, who in addition
to the pain of disease suffered also the humiliation of
being thought to be in the grip of Satan, experienced
unspeakable relief to mind as well as body under Jesus'
heahng influence. (For instance, the poor bent woman
who was not able to stand up straight, "whom Satan
had bound, lo, these eighteen years," Luke 13 : 16.)
3. The only hint Jesus gives as to his power in such
cases is that it came through prayer. In one case of
demoniacal possession, he said, "This kind goeth not out
except by prayer" (see sixth supplementary reading).
In John's Gospel (11: 41-42) he says: "Father, I thank
thee that thou heardest me." Perhaps he was speaking
out of his own experience of instantaneous answer to
his prayer for the sick who came to him, when he spoke
of one's believing "that what he is saying is happen-
ing" (so the Greek of Mark 11: 23 might be trans-
lated). Perhaps he found later that what he had
prayed for had happened while he was praying, and
so he said in the same connection (Mark 11: 24):
"All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for believe
that ye received them." If this be so, then, with his
wonderful optimism regarding the powers that could
be developed in mankind under his spiritual leadership,
he foresaw clearly a time when men would be brought
to the point where they could pray as he prayed. The
healing forces that can be unlocked by prayer in
accordance with the laws of mind and body we of
course do not yet understand. It is other phases of
prayer that at present mean more to us.
4. The main point in this Study is that Jesus stands
out here as one who looked forward confidently to the
DISEASE AND DEMON S_ GIVE WAY 27
New Race in the New Age, full of healthful moral
and physical life, and that through his personality great
currents of spiritual and physical health and sanity
poured out to men from the abundance of an unseen
world. It is this vision of the New Race in the New
Age, conceived under changing forms of thought, that
has never faded out. Strangely enough, too, as will
be seen later, the hope of realizing this vision has been
confidently connected generation after generation with
the immortal personality of Jesus.
Questions :
Is it a sin to disobey the laws of health?
To what extent, if any, is moral character dependent
on health ?
What measures can a man take to keep himself
thoroughly sane in his outlook on life?
Are you "under arms" because you hope in this way
to contribute to a better world, and a better race?
Better in what particulars?
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth . . .
And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is v/ith men, and he
shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples,
and God himself shall be with them, and be their
God: and he shall wipe away every tear from their
eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall
there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more:
the first things are passed away. — The Revelation of
John.
STUDY V
JESUS' OUTLINE OF THE CIVILIZATION
OF THE NEW AGE
Supplementary Readings :
1. Luke 6: 20-26 4. Colossians 3: 1-15
2. Matthew 5: 14-20 5. Isaiah 11: 1-9
3. Luke 4: 14-20 6. Romans 12: 9-21
7. I Corinthians 13
Passage for Study :
Matt. 5: I. And seeing the multitudes, he went up
into the mountain: and when he had sat down, his
disciples came unto him: 2. and he opened his mouth
and taught them, saying, 3. Blessed are the poor in
spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be com-
forted. 5. Blessed are the meek: for they shall in-
herit the earth. 6. Blessed are they that hunger and
thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain
mercy. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they
shall see God. 9. Blessed are the peacemakers: for
they shall be called sons of God. 10. Blessed are
they that have been persecuted for righteousness'
sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11.
Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and
persecute you, and say all manner of evil against
you falsely, for my sake. 12. Rejoice, and be ex-
28
CIVILIZATION OF THE NEW AGE 29
ceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven:
for so persecuted they the prophets which were be-
fore you. 13. Ye are the salt of the earth: but if
the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be
salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be
cast out and trodden under foot of men.
1. Jesus sketches here in bold outline his vision of
the Civilization of the New Age. His sketch is not
the dream of an idealist who lives remote from the
hard facts of life. Read again Matt. 4: 23-24, in the
last Study, and see that it was in the midst of the
shrieks of demoniacs, the groans of those tormented
by pain and those who had lost their courage after long
continued sickness that Jesus confidently held up his
vision of the "Blessed Men." He pointed out the
qualities that will finally characterize the civilization
of the world.
2. Read the Passage for Study carefully and repeat-
edly, trying to express in your own language what
seems to you to be the meaning of each phrase regard-
less of the possible meanings suggested below. Think
of each sentence also as expressing not only a teach-
ing of Jesus but also a leport, in some particulars at
least, of his own religious experience.
3. "The poor in spirit" — those who in their spirits
feel like poor men ; the rich man who never forgets how
it feels to be poor; the officer who never forgets how
it feels to be a private; the teacher who never forgets
hdw it feels to be a pupil; the popular man who never
forgets how it feels to be unpopular or a stranger;
the good man who never fails to realize how it would
feel to be a bad man. Such people, who know how
30 ABOUT JESUS
to put themselves sympathetically into the places of
others, will be found everywhere in the New Age.
"They that mourn" — those who have had experiences
that make them sad ; their friends have died ; they
have missed opportunities to do what they wanted very
much to do ; they mourn over their failures and over
the wrong things they have done. But this sad experi-
ence is more than compensated for by the strong sure
sympathy with which they will be comforted by God
and by the friends they will find in the New Age. They
will themselves become strong characters. There is a
peculiar fineness of character to be found in a man
who has passed through a sad experience and been com-
forted. He has made the great discovery that there is
kindness underneath the surface of life, that there is
kindness at the very heart of the universe.
"The meek" — those who with due sense of their own
limitations hold themselves ready to help wheYe they
can. This does not mean any underestimate of them-
selves or failure to assert themselves on proper occa-
sions. Jesus said that he was "meek and lowly of
heart," but he was exceedingly vigorous in speech and
deed when there was occasion to be. It is these people
who are ready to help that will finally possess the
earth — the earth with all its resources, its mines, forests,
and farms. Selfish men will finally be eliminated from
human civilization. There are certain forces now in
human society which tend either to expel or shut up
the selfish man as a disease microbe is sometimes ex-
pelled from or encysted in the human body.
"They that hunger and thirst after righteousness" —
those that are hungry for character, not merely for repu-
CIJ'ILIZATION OF THE NEW AGE 31
tation. They would rather be right than be anything else.
These persons will be "filled," that is, their ideals will
be realized. They will succeed abundantly in being
what they so much want to be. Their weak points will
become their points of conspicuous strength.
"The merciful"— those who do not hold a grudge,
who are not quick to imagine that they have been in-
sulted, but who look out all day on the lives about them
with a broad-minded good nature, putting a charitable
construction on the actions of others. They remember
that the other man is tired and hungry and wet and
dirty and they make allowance for the way he talks
and acts. God's mercy is to be theirs in the Great
Day. and man's mercy in their daily need.
"The pure in heart"— those who clean out of their
hearts everything dirty. Men generally washed their
bodies ceremoniously when they went to the Temple to
see God. Jesus said they should clean their hearts,
clean them of all ill will, spite, lust, pride. Then the
vision of God would rise in their souls. They would
have a growing sense of the reality and nearness of
an unseen world, and all the sense of peace, security,
largeness of life, and outlook that this brings with it.
"The peace makers"— those who make peace between
themselves and other men and God; those who settle
disputes or prevent their arising among those about
them. They tell this man the pleasant thing that man
said about him, not the ugly criticism he passed upon
him. Follow them around all day and you will find a
trail of peace and good will behind them. When they
war, whether on the small scale of an individual life
or on a national scale, it is for the sake of an honor-
Z2. ABOUT JESUS
able peace, a peace leading to the moral betterment of
all concerned.
The people who possess the qualities described in
these sentences are called "the salt of the earth." Salt
preserves from decay. These people keep civilization
from disintegrating. They hold neighborhoods and
nations together. They make any body of men a real
unit.
4. This picture of the civilization that is to be, we
hold boldly up today in the midst of flying shrapnel,
the groans of the wounded, and the discouragement
of those who are crippled. There is something back
of 'all things that can bring it to pass. There is an
unseen force in human society, the presence of which
gives us the same confidence that Jesus felt in the
midst of his forbidding surroundings. This vision is
a vision of the Kingdom of God, and back of it is the
will of God. Read the Passage for Study again with
this thought in mind.
Questions :
What encouraging features do you see in the present
situation of the world?
Take an inventory of your own life: What is there
in it that you would like to have last forever? Rather,
what trends are there in it that you would like to see
followed out indefinitely?
Who, in your circle of acquaintances, illustrate in
some degree any of these qualities mentioned in Jesus'
words ?
Think of these persons and these qualities. "What
gets your attention gets you."
CIVILIZATION OF THE NEW AGE 33
"I would be true, for there are those who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare;
I would be friend to all— the foe, the friendless ;
I would be giving and forget the gift ;
I would be humble, for I know my weakness ;
I would look up, and laugh, and love, and lift."
Howard Arnold Walter.
STUDY VI
ISIO CONTEMPT FOR MAN NOR LUST
FOR WOMAN AMONG THOSE
LOOKING FOR THE NEW
AGE
Supplementary Readings :
1. Luke 18:9-14 4. Mark 10:2-12
2. Luke 7:36-50 5. I Peter 2: 11-17
3. John 8: i-ii 6. I Corinthians 6:9-20
7. Philippians 4 : 8-9
Passage for Study :
Matt. 5: 21. Ye have heard that it was said to
them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whoso-
ever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
22. but I say unto you, that every one who is angry
with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment;
and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall
be in danger of the council; and whosoever shall
say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire.
23. If therefore thou art offering thy gift at the altar,
and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught
against thee, 24. leave there thy gift before the altar,
and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother,
and then come and offer thy gift.
27. Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not
commit adultery: 28. but I gay unto you, that every
§4
NO 'CONTEMPT NOR Lb'bT 35
one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart.
31. It was said also, Whosoever shall put away his
wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
32. but I say unto you, that every one that putteth
away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication,
maketh her an adulteress: and whosoever shall marry
her when she is put away committeth adultery.
1. Jesus taught that right character necessitates hav-
ing the proper disposition or purpose with reference
to other human beings, men and women. So long as
a man's relations to the people about him are not right,
it is useless for him to gloss the situation over by
bringing gifts to God. See the vivid picture in
vs. 23-24. A man had decided to make a great gift to
God. He brought his gift to the temple, hunted up a
priest, and went with him to the altar. Just then he
happened to remember that over in the city there was
a man whom he had wronged. It might seem that this
thought need not interrupt the important ceremony
that was just reaching its climax. Jesus thought other-
wise. He said that the generous would-be worshiper
must lay his gift down on the pavement by the altar
and leave the priest waiting, while he went across the
city to find the man whom he had wronged. When he
had done his best to right this wrong, he could ofifer
his gift with some hope of intercourse with God.
2. In very strong language Jesus expressed his in-
dignation at a man who felt in his heart anything like
contempt for another man. He uses words and makes
distinctions that were entirely intelligible to the Jews
of his day, but which are not quite clear to us. "Raca''
Z6 ABOUT JESUS
was a word in Jesus' mother-tongue which meant
"empty headed" and was probably frequently used by
men who felt contempt for others. It was one of the
stinging, hate-breeding words used by the men whom
John the Baptist had called "vipers." Perhaps the word
translated "fool" was another such word from Jesus'
mother-tongue. In any case it is perfectly clear that
Jesus condemned not simply the man who in spite
rose up and murdered another man, but also the man
who rose up and scorned another man. This man, as
well as the murderer, if he did not repent as Jesus was
urging men to do, would find himself in the place of
punishment which the Jews had long described as the
fiery "Gehenna." (The name "Gehenna" seems orig-
inally to have designated a valley near Jerusalem where
horrible human sacrifices had once been offered by the
Jews and where the prophets had said God would
consequently summon the nation for punishment.)
This disposition which Jesus resents is one which
looks down on another man with insolent contempt.
Its essential element is ill will. It does not wish him
well. It does not wish for him a fair fighting chance
for good things. If he is a bad man it does not wish
for him a chance to become a good man. It wishes
simply to see him stay bad and be despised, as such an
^'empty head" ought to be !
The contemptuous man likes to see another worse,
and worse off, than himself. He needs such another
man to set off properly his own superior excellence !
He likes to use the other man to boost himself, and
drops him as soon as he ceases to be useful for this
purpose. It was of such a man that Jesus said in
NO CONTEMPT NOR LUST 37
another place: "He that exalts himself shall be abased."
God does not abase him. He abases himself. Simply
liking to see another man worse off than one's self
and being unwilling to help him is, in and of itself, a
degrading experience. It ultimatel)^ makes a devil of
the man who fixes that feeling upon himself. It intro-
duces the beginnings of hell into his heart.
3. This same disposition turned toward a woman
further expresses itself in simple lust. It is willing to
use her for the gratification of passion with no thought
of her own welfare, with insolent contempt and ill will
for the woman herself. Her chances for goodness and
badness present and future are utterly ignored. If she
is already a bad woman the man is perfectly willing to
have her remain the kind of woman she is — sometimes
insists on it. He makes no effort to help the possibilities
of better womanhood, which Jesus always saw within
her, to assert themselves.
To take this attitude toward a woman degrades the
man, just as contempt for another man degrades him.
No man ever thinks in this way of a woman without
being less of a man. It will pay him to make serious
sacrifice to overcome such a disposition. If he does
not, it will ultimately make a devil out of him.
4. It is probably this same regard for the interests of
the woman that prompted the legislation of Moses re-
ferred to in vs. 31-32. Before that time the husband
had been able to divorce his wife by simply telling her
to leave. This sent her out into the community with-
out credentials, subject to the suspicion that she was a
bad woman. When the law began to require the hus-
band to give his wife a written statement of his reason
38 ABOUT JESUS
for divorcing her, this reason was often seen to be one
which in no way discredited her virtue.
5. Both contempt and lust are perversions of true
instincts. A man must have a proper self-assertion over
against another man. Otherwise he will sacrifice his
individuality and not be the force in human society that
God means him to be. But it must be a friendly self-
assertion and not one that contemptuously overrides the
other man. The sexual instinct is essential to manhood
and fatherhood. It creates the family and the home.
Lust is its perversion.
Questions :
In what sense, if any, is "race pride" justifiable? Un-
justifiable?
Is there anything in the present world situation that
tends permanently to increase inter-racial respect?
That tends permanently to break down class prejudice?
What is really mearit by "respect" for another person ?
What is the strongest reason for the absolutely re-
spectful treatment of every type of woman?
"For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears
along,
Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash of right
or wrong ;
Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity's vast
frame
Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of
joy or shame ; —
In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal
claim."
— James Russell Lowell, "The Present Crisis."
STUDY VII
PLAIN SPEECH AND NO REVENGE
AMONG THOSE WHO LOOK
FOR THE NEW AGE
Supplementary Readings :
1. Luke 6:27-38 4- I Peter 2: 18-25
2. Romans 12:9-20 5- James 3:1-12
3. Luke 23:33-38 6. Matthew 18: 15-20
7. Matthew 18:21-35
Passage for Study :
Matt. 5: 33. Again, ye have heard that it was said
to them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thy-
self, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
34. but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by
the heaven, for it is the throne of God; 35. nor by
the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by
Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36.
Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, for thou canst
not make one hair white or black. 37. But let your
speech be. Yea, yea; Nay, nay: and whatsoever is
more than these is of the evil one. 38. Ye have
heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth: 39. but I say unto you, Resist not
him that is evil: but whosoever smiteth thee on
thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40.
And if any man would go to law with thee, and take
away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. 41.
39
40 ABOUT JESUS
And whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile,
go with him twain. 42. Give to him that asketh thee,
and from him that would borrow of thee turn not
thou away. 43. Ye have heard that it was said, Thou
shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy: 44.
but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray
for them that persecute you; 45. that ye may be sons
of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh
his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth
rain on the just and the unjust. 46. For if ye love
them that love you, what reward have ye? do not
even the publicans the same? 47. And if ye salute
your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do
not even the Gentiles the same? 48. Ye therefore
shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
I. To the man of the West the man in parts of the
Near East seems "gushing." He is extravagant in his
expressions of affection and is constantly appealing to
God or to some sacred object as his witness in support
of his assertions. Jesus gives specimens of such expres-
sions which he was frequently hearing in common con-
versation. He said in protest that while the law had
simply forbidden falsehood in connection with an oath,
he forbade the oath itself. In the civilization of the
Coming Age men would be so absolutely reliable that
a plain "Yes" or "No" would be all that was necessary.
Alodern profanity springs from a variety of motives.
Often it indicates no real meanness of disposition.
Men sometimes express the most kindly feeling in lan-
guage that is very startling to one not accustomed to it.
It is a "gushing" excess of words, an over decoration
of speech that is in bad taste, like a coating of paint
and powder on a woman's face.
PLAIN SPEECH AND NO REVENGE 41
Sometimes it indicates a lack of thought. The man
has not much to say and so he says it hard, like a min-
ister who pounds the pulpit vigorously when his stock
of ideas runs low.
A careless appeal to God in support of an assertion
indicates that a man has not much confidence in the
reliability of his own unsupported word. Often it is
perfectly evident that he is not sincere. He does not
mean what he says. He does not really want all the
people and things damned that he seems to.
The use of the name of God in trivial connections of
course indicates a lack of reverence for God. It is like
using the flag on trivial occasions or in disreputable
connections. A man who so uses the name of God testi-
fies loudly to the fact that he has no aspirations for
patriotism in the Kingdom of God.
What Jesus mainly emphasizes is the necessity of
reverent sincerity and simplicity in speech— really meayi-
ing everything one says.
2. Jesus was against revenge. He begins his discus-
sion of this point also by a reference to the law. In this
point, as in all other points mentioned in this chapter
of Matthew, he represents himself not to be opposing
the law, but to be following out the beginning which had
been made in the law. This is apparently what he means
in v. 17 of this chapter when he said that he came not
to pull down, but to "fulfil the law," that is to fill it out,
to make it complete in its application to the life of
man. The law limited revenge, Jesus eliminated it
altogether. The law said that if a man knocked out
another man's tooth the injured man must inflict no
extra injury upon the one who had attacked him. He
42 ABOUT JESUS
must be content simply to knock his tooth out and do
no further injury. Jesus said that he must inflict no
injury at all in retaliation.
3. This teaching reaches its most fundamental and
inclusive statement in the injunction to love enemies.
The law had said, Limit your hate; hate only enemies.
Jesus said, Hate not even your enemies. Be possessed
of such an invincible good will that no abuse of your
person or your property can stop its outflow. The
motive which Jesus uses in appealing for the exercise
of this invincible good will is the fact that this is the
way God who is your Father conducts himself : "that ye
may be sons of your Father who is in heaven." That is,
"Be true to the traditions of your family! Remember
who your Father is!" In sending sunshine and rain
God does not discriminate between the fields and crops
of the good and bad. God's sons must be perfect in
this particular, that is, impartial as God is. The state-
ment in V. 48 does not mean that men are to be the
equals of God in all his perfections of character, but
simply that they are to be like him in the point under
discussion. So it is put in Luke : "Be ye merciful, even
as your Father is merciful."
4. Some of the statements in vs. 39-42 seem extreme,
at first thought, and impracticable. Vs. 39-40, for in-
stance, would seem to deny to the poor all protection
by courts of law from the attacks of unscrupulous men,
and strict obedience to the letter of v. 42 would some-
times mean moral ruin for the borrower as well as
bankruptcy for the lender. Perhaps Jesus put his teach-
ing in strikingly concrete form to make it impressive,
and trusted to the common sense of men to understand
PLAIN SPEECH AND NO REVENGE 43
what he meant. Possibly some of these statements were
influenced by the idea that the judgment day was near
at hand. In that case we should accept the principle
as of permanent validity and feel free to make such
varying application of it as loyalty to the principle
would require. An invincible good will would always
be demanded of us. It would be left to our consciences
to determine case by case how that good will should
express itself. Such responsibility would be conducive
to the development of character.
Always re-read the Passage for Study. Some of your
best thoughts will come to you in this way.
Questions :
What are the best practical ways of guarding against,
or breaking off the habit of profanity?
What seems to you to be the effect of profanity on
general character, as you have experienced it yourself
or observed it in others?
Is it possible in war to keep free from personal hate
of individual enemies?
How can one best do this and yet be an efficient
soldier?
STUDY VIII
SHOWING READINESS FOR THE NEW
AGE BY CARE OF THE NEIGHBOR
IN NEED
Supplementary Readings :
1. Matthew 25 : 31-46 4. Luke 16:19-31
2. James 2: 14-26 5. I Timothy 6: 11-19
3. II Timothy 1:8-18 6. II Corinthians 1:3-11
7. Job 29
Passage for Study :
Luke 10: 25. And behold, a certain lawyer stood
up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I
do to inherit eternal life? 26. And he said unto him,
What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27.
And he answering said. Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mindj
and thy neighbour as thyself. 28. And he said unto
him. Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou
shalt live. 29. But he, desiring to justify himself,
said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? 30.
Jesus made answer and said; A certain man was
going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell
among robbers, which both stripped him and beat
him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31. And
by chance a certain priest was going down that
44
CARE OF NEIGHBOR IN NEED 45
way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the
other side. 32. And in like manner a Levite also,
when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by '
on the other side. 33. But a certain Samaritan, as
he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw
him, he was moved with compassion, 34. and came
to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on them
oil and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and
brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35.
And on the morrow he took out two pence, and gave
them to the host, and said. Take care of him; and
whatsoever thou spendest more, I, when I come
back again, will repay thee. 36. Which of these
three, thinkest thou, proved neighbour unto him that
fell among the robbers? 37. And he said. He that
shewed mercy on him. And Jesus said unto him,
Go, and do thou likewise.
I. A religious man, a "lawyer" who gave his whole
life up to the study of the law of Moses, asked Jesus
how a man might make sure of a place in the New
Order. He asked this question in a rather critical spirit,
"testing" Jesus. We shall see later that Jesus' teaching
about the nature of true religion was already being
viewed with some suspicion by the Jewish religious
leaders. Jesus as usual referred the man to the Jew-
ish scriptures as the source of information. A state-
ment found in these scriptures satisfied Jesus, for
as we have seen in the preceding Studies it presented
the great idea that was central in his teaching : Loving
God with all the heart and loving one's neighbor as him-
self. The lawyer, suspecting that Jesus would have
some peculiar views, tried to ferret them out by a
further question. He asked who a man's neighbor is.
46 ABOUT JESUS
Jesus in reply told a story which not only answered
the question but gave information regarding proper
treatment of a neighbor and contained a criticism of
the great men of the temple. A man Hes wounded
and naked by the roadside. He has been robbed by
brigands. He evidently has nothing left with which to
reward a rescuer. He will simply be a source of ex-
pense to anyone who takes an interest in him. Two
religious professionals come riding by, both men of
the temple — one a high official, the other an inferior
official. They have finished their period of required
service at the temple and are going home to Jericho,
fifteen miles from Jerusalem, where some four thousand
priests are said to have lived. Each in turn sees the
naked man lying by the roadside bleeding and gasping
for breath. Each in turn, after looking at him for a
moment, veers off to the other side of the road and
goes on home. Neither of them felt that it was any
of his business to look after the man. Neither of them
saw any connection between this situation and religion.
The wounded man's heart sank within him as he saw
them leave. Then there came riding down the road a
man whom neither of the religious officials would have
spoken to — a man from Samaria whose religion, if he
had any, was to their minds worse than none, a wicked
perversion of Jewish religion. But he had within him
what to the mind of Jesus was the very essence of reli-
gion, a truly merciful heart. As soon as he saw the man
he got down from his donkey, gave first aid to the
injured, lifted him on to the donkey, and walked by
his side until they reached an inn. He personally took
care of him through the rest of the day and through
CARE OF NEIGHBOR IN NEED 47
the night. When he left the next day he paid the man's
hotel bill for some days in advance, and became per-
sonally Responsible for any further expenditures that
might become necessary. He planned to be back soon
and follow the case up.
When Jesus asked the lawyer which one of the three
travelers was the really neighborly man, he had to
admit that it was the Samaritan, though he could not
bring himself to pronounce the hated name! Jesus told
him to imitate the Samaritan, if he wished to show that
he really loved God and his neighbors and hoped to have
a place in the New Order.
2. One of Jesus' greatest ideas appears here, namely,
that God himself is present in every human situation.
All about this poor man in his pain and blood was God.
The "Father in Heaven," whom Jesus felt to be present
to notice the young sparrow tumbling from its nest to
the ground, saw this man fall by the roadside, saw the
robbers ride away with their plunder, saw the priest and
the Levite disappear down the road. And, according
to Jesus, God cared about what He saw. The only way
to love God was to love Him there where He was and to
join Him in caring for the wounded neighbor. The
priest and the Levite thought that God stayed in His
white and gilded holy Temple Hstening to the music and
song of the Levite band and chorus, smelling the incense
and odor of sacrifice burned by priests. Jesus knew
that God was out on the great highways of life, the
unseen companion of every man who had fallen by the
way. Jesus' influence on our conception of religion is
seen in the fact that we recognize the ir religion of any
man, no matter what his religious pretensions may be,
48 ABOUT JESUS
who in his thought and practice divorces his religion
from merciful ministry to human needs.
3. In our modern experience the world ha^ become
a great neighborhood. Electricity has brought the
ends of the earth nearer to us than two neighboring
farm houses were to each other a hundred years ago.
The war is bringing large and diverse sections of The
human race into unified action. In the war's hot melt-
ing-pot nations are being fused. Peoples are being
brought together, not only in space but in spirit. A new
soul is being born in our country which seems likely to
be a more truly neighborly soul, ready after the war
has ended for the industries of peace which the world-
neighborhood will once more develop.
Questions :
Jesus seems to say that living really consists in loving
It IS sometimes said that living consists in, or depends
on, the adaptation of an organism to its surroundings—
for instance the adaptation of a fish to water. If so,
now does living consist in loving?
Why was it worth while to pay so much attention to
the wounded man? What is the duty of society toward
those who are down and out?
Are there any hints in this story that have a bearing
on the methods of modern philanthropic social work?
''He asked her once again, 'What hearest thou?
What means the voice of Life?' She answered 'Love'
^or love IS life, and they who do not love
Are not alive. But every soul that loves,
Lives in the heart of God and hears Him speak.' "
—Henry Van Dyke, "Vera."
STUDY IX
THOSE READY FOR THE NEW AGE
COUNT ON GOD WITHOUT
NERVOUS WORRY
Supplementary Readings :
1. Luke 12 : 22-34 4- Philippians 4 : 4-7
2. Matthew 6 : 16-24 5- Philippians 4 : 10-20
3. Psalm 27 6. II Corinthians 12:1-10
7. Psalm 23
Passage for Study :
Mat!-. 6: 25. Therefore I say unto you, Be not
anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye
shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall
out on. Is not the life more than the food, and the
body than the raiment? 26. Behold the birds of
the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap,
nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father
feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than
they^ 27. And which of you by being anxious can
add one cubit unto his stature? 28. And why are ye
anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies ot
the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do
they spin: 29. yet I say unto you, that even Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 But if God doth so clothe the grass of the held,
which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven,
49
50 ABOUT JESUS
shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith? 31. Be net therefore anxious, saying, What
shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Where-
withal shall we be clothed? 32. For after all these
things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33. But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteous-
ness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the*
morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto
the day is the evil thereof.
I. The men whose chief concern in life is to help
secure the better world that Jesus so confidently be-
lieved in must be men who do not worry. The great
enterprise to which they have committed themselves
demands that all their energy be saved for work and
none be wasted in worry. Most men will naturally be
inclined to worry especially about food and clothing,
the evident essentials of comfortable efficient life. They
will naturally feel that the danger of failing to get food
and clothing is so great that they cannot wisely spend
time and strength thinking about making the world
better, much less can they "seek first the Kingdom of
God"! Jesus' own experience enabled him to sym-
pathize with this feeling, but he had overcome it and
wished to have everyone else share his victory.
The way to overcome it was first to realize that it
did no good to worry, and then to see that the active
presence everywhere of God, the Heavenly Father,
removed all occasion for worry. A man could not by
worrying lengthen his life course by a single span.
Indeed worry would directly tend to shorten it. The
COUNT ON GOD WITHOUT WORRY 51
main cure for worry, however, is the strong assurance
that God is profoundly interested in a man's life. The
fact that God has given so wonderful a thing as life is
a guarantee that he will make it possible to get food
enough to sustain life. The fact that he has devised
so wonderful a thing as the human body makes it certain
that he will provide a chance to get the simple clothing
necessary to protect it. All the arrangements of nature
are made with reference to providing a man with work
enough to give him ample support. The birds that fill
the air with song hop busily about, searching for food,
and find that nature provides it. The plant finds in
soil, air, rain, and sunshine what it needs to appropriate
in order to be beautifully clothed. So God has put man
in surroundings which reward his work with ample
support for him and his family. If he fails of such
support it is generally because he or someone else has
not been right-minded, has not had in his soul the
friendly "righteousness" which is to prevail in the New
Age. Some man has been too lazy to work, or there
has been some dastardly conspiracy to "corner" the
market, or unjust industrial conditions have put men
who are willing to work at a cruel disadvantage.
Jesus, with the strong soul of a devout workman, felt
absolutely sure from his profound experience that God,
the Heavenly Father, was close to the life of men,
affording such ample resources for life as made worry
a folly and a sin.
2. Jesus taught that the cause of worry was a lack
of "faith." "O ye of little faith," he said to the wor-
riers (v. 30). "Faith" is not inaction. On the contrary,
it is a form of enthusiastic activity that calls into whok-
52 ABOUT JESUS
some exercise a man's whole being. It is the reaching
out of the soul of a man to work with the unseen energy
of the Heavenly Father, in good will and to the utmost.
That which draws it out is the rational conviction that
the kindly Fatherly energy of God is all about human
life, ready to work with it at every point. Even men
who seem to themselves unable to believe in a Heavenly
Father, believe in a reliable, responsive energy on every
side, man's growing experience with which makes him
enthusiastic in all forms of scientific research. Jesus
has brought unspeakable uplift to the life of man by
the enthusiastic assurance, born of experience, with
which he asserted that this energy is personal and
kindly, a Heavenly Father. It is a Heavenly Father
who knows that men "have need of all these things" and
who has made "these things" to be abundant as soon as
men "seek first the Kingdom of God" — that is, seek to
make honesty and friendliness universal and secure in
the world's life.
On the basis of his own experience he challenges all
other men to count on the presence of God and see if
their experience does not justify the experiment: "Seek,
and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto
you."
3. The passage that we are studying protests against
worrying about food and clothing, but its statements
apply equally well to worrying about the end of life
itself. The point it makes is that on every side of us
there is life, the life of the Heavenly Father, and provi-
sion for maintaining life. We live in the midst of
unseen life. So if what is called death should suddenly
confront us, jt would be simply an incident in enlarging
COUNT ON GOD WITHOUT WORRY 53
life. One who knows the Heavenly Father need not
worry even about this.
Questions :
What is a suitable definition of the word "anxious"
in V. 25 ? Would a good football coach wish his team
to be "anxious" the day and night before the game?
If not, why not? If not, how would he try to prevent
anxiety?
What can a man do during the uneventful periods of
life to forestall anxiety in the face of an emergency?
Have you a philosophy of life which eliminates
"worry"? If so, what is it?
And so beside the Silent Sea
I wait the muffled oar ;
No harm from Him can come to me
On ocean or on shore.
I know not where His islands lift
Their f ronded palms in air ;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyonti His love and care.
— Whittier, "'The Eternal Goodness."
STUDY X
POSSESSING AN ABUNDANCE OF
THINGS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE
PREPARATION FOR THE
NEW AGE
Supplementary Readings :
1. Mark 10 : 17-31 4. II Corinthians 8
2. Luke 18:18-30 5. II Corinthians 9
3. Luke 16: 19-31 6. James 2: 1-9
7. James 4 : 13—5 : 6
Passage for Study :
Luke 12: 13. And one out of the multitude said
unto him, Master, bid my brother divide the in-
heritance with me. 14. But he said unto him, Man,
who made me a judge or a divider over you? 15.
And he said unto them, Take heed, and keep your-
selves from all covetousness: for a man's life con-
sisteth not in the abundance of the things which
he possesseth. 16. And he spake a parable unto
them, saying, The ground .of a certain rich man
brought forth plentifully: 17. and he reasoned within
himself, saying. What shall I do, because I have not
where to bestow my fruits? 18. And he said. This
will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build
greater; and there will I bestow all my corn and my
goods. 19. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou
54
POSSESSION IS NOT PREPARATION 55
hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine
ease, eat, drink, be merry. 20. But God said* unto
him, Thou foolish one, this night is thy soul required
of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared,
whose shall they be? 21. So is he that layeth up
treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
I. In the last Study Jesus discussed those who were
hurting their chances of finding a place in the activities
of the New Age by worrying over the possible lack of
food and clothing. In this Study a man appears who
was in the satne peril because of the great abundance
of the things that he possessed. Jesus sketched his por-
trait in answer to a typical voice that shouted to him
from the crowd: "Make my brother divide!" (v. 13).
Jesus saw in the request an expression of "covetous-
ness," that is, of a strong desire to get things for one's
self alone. In refusing the man's request Jesus assured
him that a man's real life, the life that lasts, does not
consist in owning a large number of things. Then he
pictured a man who m.ade the colossal blunder of fail-
ing to see this fact.
The man came honestly by his large property. He
was rich to start with, probably because of inheriting
a fortune as Jesus' questioner had hoped to do. After
that the natural product of his land made him always
richer.
Then came the crisis in his life when he was compelled
to say : "What shall I do?" The answer to that question
was to determine his future. It is a question that has
come to some men in these days when war conditions
have suddenly made them much richer than they have
ever been before.
56 ABOUT JESUS^
Th^ man's decision was to hoard, but not in any
miserly way. After he had provided for the proper
housing of all his possessions, he said to himself : "Take
it easy ; eat expensive food ; drink good wines ; have a
good time. You have a long life before you." The
prospect looked attractive — big barns, great crops, many
years ahead ! This Syrian farmer was held in high
esteem by his neighbors. Fathers pointed him out to
their sons as a "successful man."
But God came to him in a wakeful hour of the night
and summoned his soul to step out from the midst of
all this abundance of things. How much of a "soul"
would he be able to show when separated from his
"things" — when there would be nothing to look at but
this man hiuisclf? Then God called him by a name that
would have shocked the man's admiring fellow-citizens.
The man's own conscience pronounced the verdict:
"Fool." He had fooled with his great life chance. Now
he was separated from his things over which his heirs
would quarrel, as Jesus' would-be client and his- brother
had done. The man of many "things" and meager
"soul" was a spiritual bankrupt. He had nothing ready
for investment in the great enterprises of the spiritual
world. His underfed anemic soul was utterly weak in
the presence of the great enterprises of the vast Unseen
World that is always all about us, throbbing with the
will of God and calling for strong men to go on great
campaigns in the growing universe of God. He had
ignored two great facts, the Living God and the Long
Future.
2. How should he have been spending his life in order
to be read}^ for the Great Chance? The picture of the
POSSESSION IS NOT PREPARATION 57
humane Samaritan in Study VIII gives the answer.
Instead of feasting at his table he ought to have been
out on the great highways of life, at the danger spots,
looking for chances to use his increasing fortune in
friendly, neighborly ways. The demand in the New
Age is for friendly men, for men who have so developed
the friendly spirit as to be fit for great enterprises in
the Civilization of Friendly Men. It is a significant
thing that in the picture of this Syrian farm no neigh-
bor appears. When the farmer talks, he talks to himself.
Jesus' criticism of him is not that he ought not to
have been rich, but that he ought to have been "rich
toward God." He ought to have been spending him-
self and his property in working at points of human
need, together with the God who gave him abundant
crops.
Read the Passage for Study again, trying to see the
picture painted in each sentence.
Questions :
If a man's life does not consist in "the abundance of
the things which he possesseth" (v. 15), why should
there be such an abundance of things all about him and
he be endowed with so strong an instinct for ownership ?
Is such a situation really favorable to character-
making? The answer to this question necessitates ask-
ing again: What is right character?
What is your definition of a "fool"?
The great basal thought of Jesus comes out here
again; that the friendly energy of God is all about
us, opening to its opportunities to zvork zuith it in many
zvays. Every hour and evcryzvhere there is a chance
58 ABOUT JESUS
for a man to do something zvith God for the common
good. This gives dignity to otherzvise undignified occu-
pations. The thought nerves a man when he is work-
ing alone or when he has about reached the limit of his
endurance. And in the hour when the demand is made
for his soul he goes out zvith good courage. He can
"greet the unseen with a cheer."
STUDY XI
NO LOVE OF PERSONAL PARADE
AMONG THOSE LOOKLNG FOR
THE NEW AGE
Supplementary Readings :
1. Luke 18:9-14 4. John 5:30-44
2. Mark 12 : 38-40 5. John 14 : 16-24
3. Matthew 12: 15-21 6. I Corinthians 4: 1-5
7. Psalm 139
Passage for Study :
Matt. 6: i. Take heed that ye do not your right-
eousness before men, to be seen of thein: else ye
have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
2. When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a
trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the
synagogues and in the streets, that they may have
glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have
received their reward. 3. But when thou doest
alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right
hand doeth: 4. that thine alms may be in secret:
and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense
thee. 5. And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the
hypocrites: for they love to stand and pray in the
synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that
they may be se^ of men. Verily I say unto you,
They have received their reward. 6. But thou, when
thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and
59
6o ABOUT JESUS
having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is
in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall
recompense thee. i6. Moreover when ye fast, be
not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for
they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen of
men to fast. Verily I say unto you. They have
received their reward. 17. But thou, when thou
fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face; 18. that
thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father
which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in
secret, shall recompense thee.
1. Jesus gives a solemn warning, hangs out a danger
signal over a perilous place in the great highway of
life : "Take heed !" The peril is that men will be con-
cerned exclusively about reputation, and not at all
about character.. They will be eager to have what they
do reported and photographed for the newspiapers and
will not think about the Unseen God in connection with
it. This disposition is peculiarly offensive in the case of
actions ordinarily regarded as religious, but it appears
also in the case' of those who are anxious to impress
men with the fact that they are not religious. It is just
as possible to try to parade badness as goodness.
2. Jesus, perhaps with a mild sarcasm, uses the com-
mercial word ordinarily employed in receipting a bill.
The man who gave his money (v. 2) in order to be pub-
lished as a benevolent man can sign a receipt. He has
received the publicity that he paid for. The bill is
settled !
After the general principle has been stated in v. i.
three forms of action very common ih the religious life
of the day are specified : alms-giving, prayer, and fast-
ing. Men were likely to give their money in ways that
NO LOVE OF PERSONAL PARADE 6i
would attract public attention and that might be de-
scribed as "trumpeting" the matter abroad. They might
arrange to have the regular prayer hour overtake
them on a busy street corner or among the group of
people whiling away the time about the synagogue. On
Mondays and Thursdays, when the specially devout
fasted, they would give their faces some artificial treat-
ment that would heighten the natural effect of absti-
nence from food.
Jesus called these persons "hypocrites." The word
in Greek was the name given to actors who played a
part on the stage, and who of course were not really
the persons they seemed to be.
3. The big thing that men missed by such conduct,
the missing of which made a tragedy of life, was the
reward from the Heavenly Father. This reward is
something secret in the inner life of a man. That there
could be any real satisfaction without being seen by
others, seemed impossible to some scribes who copied
the Greek manuscripts and so they added the word
"openly,"— "will reward thee openly,"— but this word
which used to appear in the text has properly disap-
peared from it. The secret reward seems to be the sense
within the soul of having done right, of having been
pleasing to the Heavenly Father, of being in accord
with the kindly power that is the source of all true
life. That is, it is the sense of being normal in the most
fundamental relations of life. There is a quiet peaceful
sense of health, with no uncomfortable desire to be
noticed, no nervous fear of not being sufficiently appre-
ciated.
This health of soul is essential to good team work.
62 ABOUT JESUS
A man with this disposition can engage in self-forget-
ful team work without losing his individuality, rather
with enlargement of his individual personality. When
men go forward in the mass in a charge in which a
man is not distinguished from his neighbor, there is
a Power that individualizes them, that sees the heart
and feelings of each man in a little world of his own.
This Power is God and the inner world that seems so
small and so individual turns out to be the vast unseen
world where all individuals grow great in perfect team
work.
4. If a man finds his sense of God growing dim,
Jesus' teaching here shows how to strengthen it. He
must do some things intended for God's eye only.
Perhaps he will have a chance to help some person by
a gift of money in such a way that neither the person
who receives it nor anyone else except God will know
where the gift comes from. The giver will naturally
feel satisfaction in the thought that some one in a tight
place has been helped out and he will also feel that
God shares his satisfaction. This sense of companion-
ship with God in feeling satisfaction over another's good
fortune strengthens faith in God. Two men who unite
in some secret benefaction are drawn closely together.
In doing something for God's eye only, a man is acting
as if there was a God. Such action toward unseen
reality always in time strengthens faith in the Unseen
when the Unseen is real.
In the same way let a man shut the inner door of his
heart and pray, or if he has a chance to do so, let him
go to a place where for a few moments at least he can
be free from disturbance and speak out to God the most
NO LOVE OF PERSONAL PARADE 63
honest desire of his heart. If he does this often, the
sense of God will gradually grow stronger within him.
5. This emphasis on giving and praying when no other
human heing knows it does not, of course, absolutely
exclude other kinds of giving and praying. It often
builds up friendship to let a man know that he can
call on his friend for help if he needs to do so. It is
a good thing to join openly with other men in giving
to some form of relief work that interests them all.
Such open giving is sometimes the only way of endors-
ing a good cause. Great good is accomplished by join-
ing devoutly with others in common prayer and public
worship. Jesus' protest is simply against the spirit of
ambitious parade that 'loves to be seen of men."
Questions :
Is it practicable for a man to live a kind of double
life, an individual inner life with God and a social life
keenly interested in everything that goes on without?
How shall he iDiify these two lives — since it is only the
unified life that is strong and peaceful?
This calls up the question to which we are always
giving an incomplete but enlarging answer: What is
God and wheie is he? What have you found to be the
best ways of deepening your sense of the reality and
nearness of God?
Counting on the presence and approval of the Un-
seen God for the most profound satisfaction of life, for
the great reward of life, is the venture that constitutes
a man truly religious. As Donald Hankey in "A Stu-
dent hi Arms" said: "True religion is betting one's
life that there is a God"
STUDY XII
THOSE PREPARING FOR THE NEW AGE
WILL NOT BITTERLY CONDEMN
OTHERS, BUT WILL PRAY
FOR THEM
Supplementary Readings :
1. Luke 6 : 37-41 4. James 3 : 1-12
2. Luke 11:9-13 5- James 5: 13-18
3. Matthew 7: 13-23 6. Romans 14: 1-12
7. Romans 14:13-23
Passages for Study :
Matt. 7: I. Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be
judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured unto you. 3. And why beholdest thou the
mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest
not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4. Or how
wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me cast out the
mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine
own eye? 5. Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam
out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly
to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
7. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall
find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8.
for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that
seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. 9. Or what man is there of you, who, if his
64
PRAYER, KOr CONDEMNATION 65
son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone;
10. or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a
serpent? 11. If ye then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your Father who is in heaven give good things
to them that ask him? 12. All things therefore what-
soever ye would that men should do unto you, even
so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and
the prophets.
Luke 11: 5. And he said unto them, which of you
shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at mid-
night, and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
6. for a friend of mine is come to me from a journey,
and I have nothing to set before him; 7. and he
from within shall ansv/er and say. Trouble me not:
the door is now shut, and my children are with me
in bed; I cannot rise and give thee? 8. I say unto
you. Though he will not rise and give him, because
he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he
will arise and give him as many as he needeth.
Mark 11: 25. And whensoever ye stand praying,
forgive, if ye have aught against any one; that your
Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your
trespasses.
I. Jesus recognized the instinct of the human heart
to see and point out to an interested audience whatever
is wrong in another. Oftentimes this instinct is com-
bined with an excessive optimism in one's judgment of
himself. This combination appealed to Jesus' sense of
humor. As will be seen later, he had been the victim
of a good deal of such criticism from the religious
leaders of his day.
Here, as at all other points in the teaching of Jesus,
it is the motive behind the act that determines its moral
(^ ABOUT JESUS
character. It is not always a kindness to a person to
ignore his faults. He may very much need helpful
suggestion, but it is to be friendly and not censorious
suggestion. The friendly critic needs to be sure of three
things : that he has given generous attention to all the
good points in the person criticised ; that he has thought
long and faithfully of his own weak points; that his
purpose in noting the other's faults is not to arouse
sentiment against him, but to help him overcome them.
In almost all cases, therefore, he will speak of these
faults not to others, but privately to the person him-
self. Also, it will often be possible to make the neces-
sary suggestion in some indirect tactful way that will
not be an evident criticism.
2. There is some logical connection between criti-
cism and prayer. No man can properly criticise who
has not first prayed both for himself and for the object
of his criticism.
For Jesus, who found God to be a Heavenly Father
always near at hand, prayer was inevitable. It was the
natural speaking of a child to his Father. If our defini-
tion of faith — as the reaching out of the soul to work
with the unseen energy of God in good will and to the
utmost — is correct, then prayer is involved in faith. It
is a way of reaching out to work together with God, a
lifting up of the life to him.
The democracy of Jesus is evident in his teaching
about prayer. Prayer is not a means of getting some-
thing for one's self alone. It always includes others.
Selfish prayer would be pagan prayer, not Christian
prayer. If Christian prayer sometimes at first seems to
be for one's self alone, second thought shows that it is
PRAYER, NOT CONDEMNATION 67
only to make one's self more effective in the community-
life. Note the word "therefore" in v. 12. The only one
who can pray well is the one who is living properly in
the community, treating every other man in the com-
munity as he would feel that tlie other man ought to
treat him if their situations were reversed. Especially
he must be ready to forgive anyone who has done him
wrong.
This idea comes out still more clearly in the homely
illustration that appears in Luke. Read again vs. 5-8.
There prayer expressly appears to be a means of get-
ting something from the friendly God to share with a
human friend- in need. "Friend, lend me three loaves,
for a friend of mine is come to me from a journey, and
I have nothing to set before him." Such an interchange
of friendly neighborly feeling binds the two men to-
gether and both of them together to God. It Is some-
thing which, when repeated in a multitude of instances,
will make friendship universal and secure in the human
race, and this is really what the Kingdom of God, or
the New Age, means.
The assumption on which Jesus' teaching about prayer
rests is that God and men are so closely related that
something can pass from the friendly God to the pray-
ing man. What is it that comes to the praying man
from the listening, answering God? Thought and feel-
ing. Since God presumably can, in accordance with the
laws of mental action, do what men are constantly doing
for each other, namely, put a thought into a man's
mind or a feeling into his heart, provision is in this
way made for answer to most of the prayers a man ever
has occasion to make. •
68 ABOUT JESUS
Your friend comes to you utterly discouraged and
asks for help. What can you do for him? The best
thing you can do for him is to put a feeling of cour-
age, hope, resolution into him. Where shall you get
it? Silently and swiftly ask God for it. Let God give
it to you to share with him. Or your friend comes to
you in great perplexity. The success or failure of an
important enterprise depends upon the decision he
must make. He needs your advice. Silently ask God
to put a thought into your mind, and share with your
friend the best thought God gives you. Why does not
God give the thought directly to the man in need?
Doubtless he often does. But he often does it indirectly
through a praying man, because such a process, as has
been said, directly and vitally contributes to universal
friendship. It is good for men to help each other in
their need and to have their relationship to each other
during the process all alive with the presence of God,
as it is in prayer.
Questions:
On the supposition that there really is a Friendly
Unseen Power all about us, whose relation to us is that
of a Father to children, to what extent might he be
expected to help us?
That is, how much would a father do for his children
and how much would he leave them to do for them-
selves ?
In what circumstances and under what conditions
would he help them?
What sort of things would he be most likely to do
for them?
PRAYER, NOT CONDEMNATION 69
"More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God."
— Tennyson, "The Passing of Arthur."
PART III: JESUS, THE PEOPLE'S PROPHET,
AROUSES THE HOSTILITY OF THE RELI-
GIOUS AUTHORITIES BY HIS TEACHING RE-
GARDING THE LIFE OF THE NEW AGE AND
THE WAY TO PREPARE FOR IT
STUDY XIII
THE SCRIBES SUSPICIOUS OF JESUS'
TEACHING ABOUT THE FOR-
GIVENESS OF SIN .
Supplementary Readings :
1. Matthew 9: 1-8 4. Romans 8:31-39
2. Luke 5 : 17-26 5. I John i : 5-10
3. Matthew 18: 15-20 6. I John 2: 1-7
7. Psalm 32
Passage for Study :
Mark 2: i. And when he entered again into Caper-
naum after some days, it was noised that he was^
in the house. 2. And many were gathered together,
so that there was no longer room for them, no,
not even about the door: and he spake the word
unto them. 3. And they come, bringing unto him a
man sick with the palsy, borne of four. 4. And
when they could not come nigh unto him for ths
crowd, they uncovered the roof where he was: and
when they had broken it up, they let down the bed
whereon the sick of the palsy lay. 5. And Jesus
seeing their faith saith unto the sick of the palsy,
Son, thy sins are forgiven. 6. But there were cer-
tain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in
their hearts, 7. Why doth this man thus speak? he
blasphemeth: who can forgive sins but one, even
74 ABOUT JESUS
God? 8. And straightway Jesus, perceiving in his
spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, saith
unto them, Why reason ye these things in your
hearts? 9. Whether is easier, to say to the sick of
the palsy, Thy sins are forgiven; or to say. Arise,
and take up thy bed, and walk? 10. But that ye
may know that the Son of man hath power on earth
to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy),
II. I say unto thee. Arise, take up thy bed, and go
unto thy house. 12. And he arose, and straightway
took up the bed, and went forth before them all;
insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified
God.
I, In a series of incidents Mark's Gospel (2: i — 3:6,
3: 22-30; 7: 1-24) traces the growing hostility of the
religious teachers, the Scribes, to Jesus and his ideas
about religion. Jesus was in entire sympathy with many
of the ideas of the best of the Scribes, but he attacked
certain serious abuses that had grown up in their teach-
ing and practice. Some of the Scribes doubtless disap-
proved of these abuses, but they were not influential
enough at this time to reform them.
In the first scene presented by Mark, the Scribes are
represented as suspicious of Jesus, though they do not
go so far as to express their suspicions openly (v. 6).
They had gathered from many quarters to hear for
themselves the teaching of the Prophet who had become
so popular (second supplementary reading). Probably
they had hoped to be able to utilize his influence over
the people for the propagation of their own ideas.
The scene is one in which a helpless man, carried by
four good friends, was brought to Jesus with the expec-
tation that Jesus would be able to cure him. The
SUSPICIOUS 01' FORGIVENESS 75
man's condition was probably thought by many, includ-
ing perhaps the man himself, to be due to sins he had
committed. That which aroused the serious suspicion of
the Scribes was the way in which Jesus handled the
question of the man's sins. As Jesus looked into his
eager face and up at the four men who had lowered
him on his sleeping rug through an opening they had
made in the easily movable material of the roof, he at
once spoke to him about the sins that had so troubled
his conscience. He told him that God had forgiven them.
Forgiveness by God implies three things : a wrong done ;
the wrong regretted, discontinued, made right if pos-
sible; then, on the part of God the Heavenly Father, a
change from disapproving to approving love. The love
of a true father never ceases, but in forgiveness it
changes from a love that necessarily disapproves to a
love that approves.
2. The Scribes were disturbed because Jesus seemed
to ignore the necessity that the man should do some
"good works" to compensate for his sins. To many of
them God was a Book-keeper, who charged up against
a man all of his disobediences to particular command-
ments in the Holy Law and credited him with his obe-
diences. If his credits for obediences exceeded his
debits for disobediences, he was "righteous." To Jesus
God was not an omniscient Book-keeper, but a Heavenly
Father who freely forgave his penitent children, one
who would not "despise" a broken and a "contrite"
heart. This helpless paralytic, probably poor because
he could no longer work, had no chance to do the right-
eous acts or give the alms that some of the Scribes
would have specified.
y^i ABOUT JESUS
How should this young prophet Jesus, untrained in the
rabbinic schools, assume to have more knowledge about
this man's religious prospects, than religious specialists
like themselves !
3. Certain things about Jesus' own inner conscious-
ness appear here. He seemed to have an insight into
the helpless man's soul which enabled him to see that
the man had repented. He seemed also to feel the for-
giving love of God, rising up within him and flowing
out to this penitent man.
Jesus' strong inner consciousness of authority from
God to declare this man forgiven found corroboration
in what he was enabled by God to do for the man's
body. He spoke a prayerful word of power (see Study
IV) and the expectant man rolled up the sleeping rug
on which he had been brought and made his way
through the crowd, to receive the glad congratulations
of his four friends, who had come down from the
roof by an outside stairway and were waiting in the
street.
3. That which instantly attracted Jesus' attention
was the "faith" of the five men (v. 5). This faith was
evidently (i) confidence in Jesus' power to cure disease,
a confidence based on evidence afforded by previous
cures ; so it probably involved (2) gladly recognizing
him as a genuine prophet of God with a true message
about the Kingdom of Heaven ; and (3) it expressed
itself in such action 'as was appropriate to these beliefs.
That is, it saw in Jesus what he represented himself
to be and treated him accordingly.
We saw in Study HI, and shall see more clearly later,
that Jesus during this period was not, and did not wish
SUSPICIOUS OF FORGIVENESS 77
to be, recognized as the Messiah. That he was not so
recognized here, although the messianic title Son of
Man in common usage later among the disciples is
placed upon his lips, is made clear by what the crowd
said about him. None of them spoke of him as Messiah.
They "glorified God who had given such authority unto
men" (Matthew 9:8).
Questions :
What do you imagine to have been the conversation
of these five men on their way to the house where they
expected to find Jesus? Their conversation on the way
home?
What would have been their probable relation to the
Christian movement a few years later?
What thoughts would have been in Jesus' mind in the
evening as he reviewed the events of the day?
Does God's forgiveness of sins ever remove any of
the consequences of sin?
STUDY XIV
THE SCRIBES OFFENDED BY JESUS'
FRIENDLY APPROACH TO IRRE-
LIGIOUS PEOPLE
Supplementary Readings :
1. Matthew 9:9-13 4. John 8:2-11
2. Luke 5 : 2:7-32 5. Luke 7 : 36-50
3. Luke 19:1-10 6. Luke 15:11-31
7. Hebrews 2: 10-18 .
Passage for Study :
Mark 2: 13. And he went forth again by the sea
side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and
he taught them. 14. And as he passed by, he saw
Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the place of toll,
and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose
and followed him. 15. And it came to pass that he
was sitting at meat in his house, and many publicans
and sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples:
for there were many, and they followed him. 16.
And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw
that he was eating v/ith the sinners and publicans,
said unto his disciples. He eateth and drinketh with
publicans and sinners. 17. And when Jesus heard
it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no
need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners.
I. Another striking peculiarity of Jesus' conduct
75
OFFENDED BY FRIENDLY API' ROACH 79
caused the Scribes great concern. They did not tax
Jesus with it to his face, but took the matter up with the
group of young men who were called his disciples (v.
16). Perhaps they thought that in this way they could
get these young men away from Jesus and so save them
from the influence of his bad example and teaching.
The thing that troubled them was his friendly approach
to certain classes in the community whom the Scribes
considered to be utterly irreligious. The Scribes were
concerned to have all classes obey the Holy Law of
Moses in all its details. Certain classes in the com-
munity refused to do this, and therefore found them-
selves getting sour looks in the market and in the syn-
agogue, if they cared occasionally to attend its services.
They were called "The Sinners." This was a popu-
lar name for them that had sprung up in community
usage and did not mean exactly what the word means in
modern speech. Foreigners, or "Gentiles," since they
did not recognize any obligation to keep the Holy Law,
were called "sinners of the Gentiles" (Galatians 2: 15) to
distinguish them from "sinners of the Jews" who were
like-minded. One particular class of "sinners" were the
"publicans," that is, those who did "public" revenue busi-
ness, instead of engaging in private business enterprises.
The numerous small Jewish officials who sat by the
public road, each collecting his own special form of toll
or custom, were very unpopular, especially among reli-
gious people like the Scribes. These revenue officials
were willing to help a foreign power collect unholy
taxes from God's people; they necessarily had much
defiling connection with foreigners; they often had to
handle merchandise that to the sensitive Jewish mind
8o ABOUT JESUS
was defiling ; they had to work on the Sabbath. Any
Jew willing to do all this was pretty sure to be a man
who loved money more than he loved God and who
would, presumably, cheat whenever he could.
2. Jesus had made the acquaintance of one of these
men at the Capernaum wharves, and found him much
interested in the message about the New Age. Finally
one day Jesus invited him to become one of the "dis-
ciples," that is, one of the group of men who gave up
most of their time to listening to the teacher's lectures.
Many Scribes had such groups of disciples. This man
Levi, or Matthew, at once sold out, or resigned, his
position, and accepted Jesus' invitation.
The fact that a popular prophet, a religious man talk-
ing everywhere about the nearness of the New Age,
should show such distinguished honor to a publican,
fairly overwhelmed Levi. To celebrate the event he
made a great reception in his home. Publicans and
other "sinners" came to It in large numbers from all
over the city. Jesus and his disciples were also present.
Refreshments were served and they all ate together.
Such conduct on the part of an ostensible prophet
scandalized the Scribes (v. i6). Their great aim was
to keep all decent religious people away from such
associations. Eating together seemed particularly
offensive, because in the East it is a sign of great
friendliness. Furthermore, they v/ere pretty certain
not to have "kosher" food and not to eat it with
proper ceremonies.
3. Jesus' view of the situation seems to have been this.
He did not excuse the conduct of the publicans and
sinners. To his mind they were unfit for the New Age.
OFFENDED BY FRIENDLY APPROACH 8i
They were sick people needing a physician, wounded
men needing a surgeon, bad people needing to reform
(v. 17). Neither did he at all lower his own high moral
standards to accommodate them. If he had done so, his
presence with them would not have been such an im-
pressive and welcome compliment. He did, however,
differ radically from the Scribes in his view of the
case. To his mind the essential element in religion was
the truly friendly heart, the heart prayerfully friendly
in its uplook to God, actively friendly in its outlook
to all men. He was sure that the publicans and sinners
could be drawn into the truly friendly life. He knew
that the most effective way to accomplish this was to
be truly friendly to them in his own heart and to show
his friendliness in natural ways. He did not come
among them with the evident purpose of "doing them
good." He did not reach a helping hand down to them.
He did not preach at them. He came to them on the
level and because he saw something in them that he
liked. See a very striking instance of this in the third
supplementary reading where Jesus went in to lodge
with a man that was a sinner. The rabbis were not
good enough and big enough in heart to be true friends
to the publicans and sinners. They had not enough of
real religion to meet the situation. They differed from
Jesus fundamentally in their conception of religion.
This will come out more clearly in the next study.
Questions :
Can a man at all control his likes and dislikes?
To what extent can a man learn realy to like another
who has disagreeable traits?
82 ■ ABOUT JESUS
Is it possible to single out certain good qualities in
a man and like him for them? Or to see in him certain
unrealized possibilities and really like him for them?
What should be a man's attitude toward things done
in his presence of which he does not approve?
How can a man living constantly in association with
those whose moral standards seem lower than his own,
keep his own conscience quick and healthy?
"Behold him now where he comes !
Not the Christ of our subtile creeds,
But the Lord of our hearts, of our homes,
Of our hopes, our prayers, our needs;
The brother of want and blame,
The lover of women and men,
With a love that puts to shame
All passions of mortal ken."
— Richard Watson Gilder, "The Passing of Christ."
STUDY XV
THE SCRIBES OFFENDED BY JESUS'
FRIENDLY APPROACH TO IRRE-
LIGIOUS PEOPLE
(Continued)
Supplementary Readings :
1. Luke 15:3-7 4. John 4 : 5-26
2. Luke 15:8-10 5. John 4:27-39
3. Luke 14:15-24 6. Romans 5:1-11
7. John 3 : 16-21
Passages for Study:
Luke 15: I. Now all the publicans and sinners
were drawing near unto him for to hear him. 2.
And both the Pharisees and the scribes murmured,
saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with
them. II. And he said, A certain man had two sons:
12. and the younger of them said to his father.
Father, give me the portion of thy substance that
falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
13. And not many days after the younger son gath-
ered all together, and took his journey into a
far country; and there he wasted his substance with
riotous living. 14. And when he had spent all, there
arose a mighty famine in that country; and he began
to be in want. 15. And he went and joined himself
to one of the citizens of that country; and he sent
83
84 ABOUT JESUS
him into his fields to feed swine. i6. And he would
fain have been filled v^ith the husks that the swine
did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17. But when
he came to himself he said, How many hired serv-
ants of my father's have bread enough and to spare,
and I perish here with hunger! 18. I will arise and
go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I
have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight: 19.
I am no more worthy to be called thy son: make
me as one of thy hired servants. 20. And he arose,
and came to his father. But while he was yet afar
off, his father sav/ him, and was moved with com-
passion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed
him. 21. And the son said unto him, Father, I have
sinned against heaven, and in thy sight: I am no
more worthy to be called thy son. 22. But the
father said to his servants, Bring forth quickly the
best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his
hand, and shoes on his feet: 23. and bring the fatted
calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: 24.
for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he
was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
25. Now his elder son was in the field: and as he
came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music
and dancing. 26. And he called to him one of the
servants, and inquired what these things might be.
27. And he said unto him. Thy brother is come;
and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because
he hath received him safe and sound. 28. But he
was angry, and would not go in: and his father
came out, and entreated him. 29. But he answered
and said to his father, Lo, these many years do I
serve thee, and I never transgressed a command-
ment of thine: and yet thou never gavest me a kid,
that I might make merry with my friends: 30. but
when this thy son came, which hath devoured thy
OFFENDED BY FRIENDLY APPROACH 85
living with harlots, thou killedst for him the fatted
calf. 31. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever
with me, and all that is mine is thine. 32. But it
was meet to make merry and be glad: for this thy
brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost,
and is found.
1. The friendly attitude of Jesus toward certain
classes of the irreligious, which so offended the Scribes,
finds its explanation in his own religious experience.
In his inner soul he felt the Heavenly Father loving
these men and women.
By three illustrations that will never lose their place
in religious literature he pictured the love of the
Heavenly Father for the "lost" — "The Lost Sheep,"
"The Lost Coin," "The Lost Son." Especially in the
story of "The Lost Son" he showed to the Scribes,
who criticised him for eating in a friendly way with
publicans and sinners (vs. 1-2), how miserably their
frame of mind contrasted with the feeling of the Heav-
enly Father. The culmination of the story is in the
contrast between the Father's treatment of the Lost
Son when he came home and the treatment given him
by the Older Brother (vs. 20-32) v/ho represents the
Scribes.
2. The son is spoken of as "lost" (v. z^). A thing
is lost when it is out of the place where it belongs and
is in danger of not getting back to it. A child is lost
when it gets away from, the persons to whom it belongs
and is in danger of not getting back. It does not neces-
sarily get away from them in space, but in spirit and
sympathy. A son may live in the same village with his
father and mother, his brothers and sisters, but if he
86 ABOUT JESUS
never communicates with them he is more hopelessly
"lost" to them than he would be if he were on the other
side of the globe writing them loving letters every week.
Jesus first pictured the "lost" son. He had become out
of sympathy with his father and discontented with
home life. He took what belonged to him and went
far from home — into another and a distant country.
There he "lived his own life," utterly unlike that of
his old home. He was not meant for that kind of
life and it nearly made a wreck of him. Two things
were characteristic of the later stages of his life in
the far country : there was no suitable v/ork there for
him and there were no friends. He was reduced to the
necessity of taking care of hogs, even sharing their
carob pod fodder with them (worse than eating with
publicans and sinners!), and no friendly man gave him
anything (v. i6). Then he remembered who he was
and started home.
3. The greatest fact in the experience of Jesus was the
love of God, the Heavenly Father. The power with
which he pictures the Father of the Lost Son is evi-
dence of it. For many months the Father had been
looking down to the far point on the road where his
eyes had caught the last glimpse of his boy leaving
home with his gay clothing and his light heart. He
always expected him to come back. When he did fin-
ally come back, his Father saw him "while he was yet
afar off," recognized him in spite of his changed ap-
pearance, ran down the road till he was out of breath,
threw his arms around the tired, ragged, half-starved
boy and kissed him over and over again. When they
reached the house he asked for no "explanations" and
OFFENDED BY FRIENDLY APPROACH 87
required no promises. He gave him everything to wear
and eat that had been saved for the most honorable
guest that might ever visit them. In his own inner
rehgious experience Jesus had discovered that this was
the way the Heavenly Father felt over the lost publi-
cans and sinners who were daily coming to themselves,
beginning to pray to the Heavenly Father and to look
forward hopefully to the New Age.
4. Then the Older Brother came on the stage, but
showed himself to be no true brother, no true son. He
was thoroughly angry from top to toe when he learned
what was going on. He had no love for his brother and
no sympathy with his Father. This Older Brother,
Jesus said, represented the Scribes. It is noticeable
that the Father as Jesus pictured him still loved the
Older Brother : "Son, thou art ever with me, and all
that is mine is thine" (v. 31).
This last stroke in the picture shows that though Jesus
was inevitably crowding the Scribes into a corner, and
making them look at themselves in a relentless mirror,
still his own spirit was kindly, and he was not respons-
ible for the bitter hostility toward him that was de-
veloping in them.
Questions :
What made the younger son dissatisfied with his
home ?
What did he want that he did not have? That is,
why does a man ever stop praying?
Is there anything about the idea of God that a man
does not like? If so what is it and why is it not liked?
What are the dangers in a life lived away from God?
88 ABOUT JESUS
Does it at all hurt a man to live the life that forgets
God, and if so in what particulars?
Why did his Father let him go with so little protest?
What evidence is there that close up against the life
of the world is the life of an unseen Fatherly Being
who really cares when a man or woman goes wrong, and
who feels profound satisfaction when they go right?
This "lost son" gave his life back to his Father to
whom it belonged by right of the Father's love and the
laws of its own well-being. The Father kneiu hoiv zvith
a wealth of resources to bring the life to health and
strength.
"O love that wilt not let me go,
1 rest my weary soul in Thee.
I give Thee back the life I owe.
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be."
^George Matheson. •
STUDY XVI
THE SCRIBES SO OFFENDED BY JESUS'
USE OF THE SABBATH THAT THEY
ARE READY TO ARREST AND
EXECUTE HIM AS A LAW-
BREAKER
Supplementary Readings :
1. Mark 2: 18-22 4. Luke 14:1-6
2. Matthew 12:1-14 5. Luke 13 : 10-17
3. Luke 6: i-ii ' 6. Deuteronomy 5: 12-15
7. Isaiah 56: 1-8
Passage for Study :
Mark 2: 23. And it came to pass, that he was go-
ing on the sabbath day through the cornfields; and
his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears
of corn. 24. And the Pharisees said unto him, Be-
hold, why do they on the sabbath day that which
is not lawful? 25. And he said unto them, Did ye
never read what David did, when he had need, and
was an hungred, he, and they that were with him?
26. How he entered into the house of God when
Abiathar was high priest, and did eat the shew-
bread, which it is not lawful to eat save for the
priests, and gave also to them that v/ere with him?
27. And he said unto them, The sabbath was made
for man, and not man for the sabbath: 28. so that
the Son of man is lord even of the sabbath,
89
90 ABOUT JESUS
Mark 3: i. And he entered again into the syna-
gogue; and there was a man there which had his
hand withered. 2. And they watched him, whether
he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they
might accuse him. 3. And he saith unto the man
that had his hand withered, Stand forth. 4. And
he saith unto them, Is it lawful on the sabbath day
to do good, or to do harm? to save a life, or to kill?
But they held their peace. 5. And when he had
looked round about on them with anger, being
grieved at the hardening of their heart, he saith unto
the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched
it forth: and his hand was restored. 6. And the
Pharisees went out, and straightway with the
Herodians took counsel against him, how they might
destroy him.
I. The hostility of the Scribes to Jesus grew steadily
stronger. He had offended them not only in the ways
indicated in the last three Studies, but also by encour-
aging his disciples not to observe the Monday and
Thursday fastings (see the first supplementary read-
ing). Something like a climax is now reached because
of his treatment of the Sabbath.
The Scribes had long found it difficult to keep the
nation from yielding to the influence of pagan reli-
gions all about it. In their effort to keep the nation
separate from other nations they had relied particularly
on special food laws which made social intercourse with
foreigners impracticable, on special scriptures which con-
tained God's Holy Law, and on a special Holy Day each
week when the people might be withdrawn from all
their usual occupations and be instructed in the Holy
Law. The Scribes felt that the protection of the Holy
OFFENDED BY USE OF SABBATH 91
Day was absolutely essential to the maintenance of
true religion, and therefore had surrounded it with a
multitude of minute regulations for conduct in all
sorts of possible emergencies. They looked forward
to the New Age as a time when all the people would
keep God's Sabbath law perfectly. Therefore when
Jesus, a popular people's prophet purporting to bring
God's message about the New Age and the way to
prepare for it, seemed careless about Sabbath observ-
ance, the situation looked desperate ! They decided
that they must arrest him and after formal trial execute
him as a law breaker. In this efifort they found it
desirable to enlist the "Herodians" (3:6). It is not
exactly clear who the "Herodians" were. Evidently
they were a party devoted to the interests of the
Herod family, a member of which was now the ruler
of Galilee, and they therefore represented the Roman
government, under whom this family held office. The
ruling Herod had recently arrested, and perhaps already
executed, John, the wilderness prophet, for meddling
with his domestic immoralities. The fact that he had
just attacked so popular a prophet as John perhaps
made him unwilling to proceed now against another
popular prophet, for nothing seems to have come of
this attempt of the Scribes to enlist his party against
Jesus.
The attitude taken by the Scribes in 3 : 6 seems, how-
ever, to have effectually shut Jesus out from all the
synagogues in this part of the country. In Mark's
Gospel he never again appears speaking from a syna-
gogue platform except in his home town (6: 1-6).
2. Two cases are cited in which Jesus seemed to the
92 ABOUT JESUS
Scribes scandalously lax in his observance of the Sab-
bath. In the first (2:23-27) his disciples did something
on a Sabbath which Jesus failed to reprove and later
justified; in the second (3:1-6) he himself was the
active party. As they were walking on the narrow path
that separated two fields of wheat or barley the disciples
pulled ofif some heads of the grain, rubbed it out in
their hands, and ate it. To the Scribes this seemed
nothing less than harvesting and threshing on a small
scale. Either on the spot, or later when they heard of
it, they called Jesus to account for not having imme-
diately put a stop to it.
In the other case a man whose right hand had with-
ered up so that he could no longer work appeared in
the Sabbath synagogue service where Jesus was pre-
sent. Scribes were there, suspecting that the man's
condition would appeal to Jesus and that he would prob-
ably attempt to cure him. The case suited their purpose
admirably, for the disease was not painful or dangerous,
such as they would themselves have treated on a Sab-
bath, but was chronic and could be left with entire
safety for week day treatment. Jesus saw that the
situation was a virtual challenge to him and at once
accepted it. He asked the man to stand up so that
every one might see him, put to the Scribes a few
searching questions which they could not answer, and
cured him on the spot.
3. What was Jesus' view of the Sabbath? In the
episode of the grain field Jesus justified his conduct by
an appeal to what David allowed his young men to do.
When they were hungry, he allowed them to eat sacred
bread. Does Jesus argue that since the legal sacred-
OFFENDED BY USE OF SABBATH 93
ness of the bread did not make its use to satisfy hunger
illegal, so the legal sacredness of the Sabbath day ought
not to make its use to satisfy hunger illegal? Is it man's
need of food that takes precedence over the law? Jesusl
disciples do not seem to have been in any desperate
need of food. Or on the other hand, vv^as it the great-
ness of David, as the Scribes felt it, that excused the
act of his young men? Was David so great a person-
age as properly to override the law? If this be the
argument, then Jesus is by implication assuming that
he himself is a great personage. See further the argu-
ment found in the second supplementary reading. In
V. 27 there is added a word of Jesus, perhaps spoken
on some other occasion, which expresses his funda-
mental idea. The Sabbath is an institution established
by God for the welfare of man. Its use, therefore, is to
be determined by the real needs of man.
This general viewpoint of Jesus comes out clearly in
his treatment of the cripple on the Sabbath. The man's
need was great. A fragment of a lost Gospel makes
him say : 'T was a stone mason, earning my living with
my hands. I beseech you, Jesus, to restore my health
that I may not miserably beg for my food." There
could be no better use made of the Sabbath than to
help such a man immediately. Why keep him in this
condition another day? "It is lawful to do good on
the Sabbath day." To be desirous to do the man good
was certainly more pleasing to God, than to sit plotting
the death of Jesus as the Scribes were doing (v. 4) !
Questions :
What are the principal needs of men that the Sab-
94 ABOUT JESUS
bath ought to meet, and how ought the Sabbath to be
spent in order to make it meet these needs?
What real need does pubHc worship meet, and how?
- Should the Sabbath be used for recreation, and if so
to what extent and by whom?
To what extent should the use of the Sabbath be a
subject of governmental legislation?
How can the Sabbath be used for the developmeni
of friendship, which was clearly one of the great ob-
jects Jesus was always seeking in every way to secure?
From an early Christian document :
"And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities
or in country gather together to one place, and the
memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets
are read, as long as time permits ; then, when the reader
has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts
to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise
together and pray, and, as we before said, when our
prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought,
and the president in like manner offers prayers and
thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people
assent saying, Amen ; and there is distribution to each,
and a participation of that over which thanks have been
:given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by
the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing,
give what each thinks fit ; and what is collected is
deposited with the president, who succors the orphans
and widows, and those who, through sickness or any
other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds,
and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word
takes care of all who are in need."
—Justin Martyr, 150 A.D.
STUDY XVII
THE OFFICIAL VERDICT OF THE JERU-
SALEM SCRIBES AND JESUS'
SUMMARY OF THE RE-
SULTS OF HIS
TEACHING .
Supplementary Readings :
1. Mark 3:7-12 4- Mark 4:9-13
2. Matthew 12 : 22-32 5- Mark 4 : 21-25
3. Mark 3 : 31-35 6. Luke 8 : 1-15
7. Matthew 13 '• 1-23
Passages for Study :
Mark 3: 19. And he cometh into a house. 20. And
the multitude cometh together again, so that they
could not so much as eat bread. 21. And when his
friends heard it, they went out to lay hold on him:
for they said, He is beside himself. 22. And the
scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He
hath Beelzebub, and. By the prince of the devils
casteth he out the devils.
27 But no one can enter into the house ot the
strong man, and spoil his goods, except he first bind
the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.
Mark a: i. And again he began to teach by the sea
side. And there is gathered unto him a very great mul-
95
96 ABOUT JESUS
titude, so that he entered into a boat, and sat in the
sea; and all the multitude were by the sea on the
land. 2. And he taught them many things in para-
bles, and said unto them in his teaching, 3. Hearken:
Behold, the sower went forth to sow: 4. and it came
to pass, as he sowed, some seed fell by the way side,
and the birds came and devoured it. 5. And other
fell on the rocky ground, where it had not much
earth; and straightway it sprang up, because it had
no deepness of earth: 6. and when the sun was risen,
it was scorched; and because it had no root, it
withered away. 7. And other fell among the thorns,
and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and yielded
no fruit. 8. And others fell into the good ground,
and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing; and
brought forth, thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hun-
dredfold.
14. The sower soweth the v/ord. 15. And these
are they by the way side, where the word is sown;
and when they have heard, straightway cometh
Satan, and taketh away the word which hath been
sown in them. 16. And these in like manner are
they that are sown upon the rocky places, who, when
they have heard the word, straightway receive it
with joy; 17. and they have no root in themselves,
but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or
persecution ariseth because of the word, straight-
way they stumble. 18. And others are they that are
sown among the thorns; these are they that have
heard the v/ord, 19. and the cares of the world, and
the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other
things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh
unfruitful. 20. And those are they that were sown
upon the good ground; such as hear the word, and
accept it, and bear fruit, thirtyfold, and sixtyfold,
and a hundredfold.
OFFICIAL VERDICT OF SCRIBES 97
1. The fact that the Scribes dropped Jesus from the
list of eligible synagogue speakers seems not to have
lessened his popularity. He gave his lectures on the
sea shore and on one occasion was nearly trampled
underfoot by the friendly mob that was trying to get
near him with their sick (see first supplementary read-
ing).
The crowds so constantly thronged the court-j^ard
of the house where he stayed that there was no time
for him or them to eat. The members of his family in
Nazareth when they heard of it concluded that he was
becoming mentally unbalanced, was threatened with
nervous breakdown, and came to Capernaum to take
him home for rest (see 3:20-21 and the third supple-
mentary reading).
2. It became necessary for the Scribes to do some-
thing to destroy the popularity of a man who from their
standpoint seemed to be an irreligious man — they must
save the people from his ruinous influence. Accord-
ingly the great Scribes from Jerusalem, the headquarters
of scribism, came down to the north country and pub-
lished in all the synagogues an official opinion regard-
ing him. His wonderful power over demons and over
diseases inflicted on men by Satan could not come
from God, since Jesus was an irreligious law breaker.
It must therefore have come to him from Satan. He
was a trusted confederate of Satan. Therefore the
demons, whenever they saw him, recognized him as their
superior and obeyed him. This verdict was intended to
put a stop to Jesus' work. It was calculated to make
every sick person or little child dread the touch of his
healing hand, to make all men dread the glance of his
98 ABOUT JESUS
evil eye and hurry away from his public lecture before
the spell of his demonic word should fall upon them!
Jesus invited the great Scribes to a public lecture (Mark
3:23) in which he ansv/ered their charge (see second
supplementary reading). He appealed to his own inner
consciousness of having overcome the Devil instead of
being the Devil's trusted subordinate. He presented this
idea in the parable of the Strong Man Bound (3:27).
He had tied up the Strong Man, the chief of the de-
mons, and was now proceeding to do what he pleased
with the lesser demons.
3. At about this time Jesus summed up the results of
his months of preaching regarding the nearness of the
New Age, the nature of its life, and the way to prepare
for it. He summed it up in the form of a parable, the
meaning of which was not immediately evident to those
who heard it (4: 10) but which was thought-provoking
and worthy, as Jesus assured them, of the most pro-
found attention (4:9).
The parable gives an experience familiar in ordinary
farm life. In Galilee even a small field often had a
variety of soil.^ This resulted in a crop which varied
in different parts of the same field.
As Jesus walked thoughtfully through the fields, re-
flecting upon his months of experience, it seemed to him
that the phenomenon of the field exactly illustrated it.
His hearers fell into four classes, according to the
degree and kind of attention they gave to the truths he
liad presented. The significant word, several times re-
peated in Jesus' explanation of the parable, is the word
"hear." The first class of hearers were like the hard
beaten path which took into itself absolutely none of
OFFICIAL VERDICT OF SCRIBES 99
the seed. These were the Scribes, hard with prejudice
against the message of Jesus. Satan was ever with
them, seeing to it that no truth received any candid
attention (v. 15). (It was they who were in league with
Satan, not Jesus!) Another class of hearers always
present in his audience was made up of the eager men
and women who at once responded, but who could not
stand the petty social persecutions which the local
Scribes stirred up against them in the communities to
which they belonged. They soon gave up preparing for
the New Age (vs. 16-17). The third class consisted
of men and women much stronger and more inde-
pendent, who had great capacity for permanent, intel-
ligent attention, but their attention was all given to other
things. They had so many perplexing things to attend
to, money and business to look after, social engage-
ments to keep, that they never had time to give pro-
longed thought to the ideas presented by Jesus (vs.
18-19). The fourth class was made up of thoughtful
people who, as Luke says (sixth supplementary read-
ing), "in an honest and good heart, having heard the
word, hold it fast and bring forth fruit with patience."
4. This shows that Jesus was not deceived by his great
popularity. He knew that a large part of it was due to
his power over disease and demons and did not indi-
cate devotion to his ideas about the kind of life de-
manded by the New Age. Still the parable was opti-
mistic, even if there was only one class out of four that
was really developing the character requisite for the
New Age. It was the farmer's usual success, which was
sufficient to sustain amply the life of the community.
5. The problem of developing character is the prob-
100 ABOUT JESUS
lem of securing prolonged attention to the truth,
whether on the part of one's self or others. The pen-
alty for refusing to give candid attention is twofold:
power to give attention decreases and the truth grad-
ually ceases to seem true. The final consequence is
that truth seems falsehood. To the Scribes Jesus finally
seemed a product of hell and not of heaven. This is
part of the justification for at least a few moments of
quiet prayerful thought about Christ each day, for a few
moments of close attention to some paragraph from the
Bible.
Questions :
What seems to you to have been the most vital dif-
ference between the viewpoint of the Scribes and the
viewpoint of Jesus?
What seem to you to be the things that keep men
from being thoughtful, from thinking about the sub-
jects that they would be the better for giving candid
attention to?
How can you get men to begin to give a degree of
candid attention to the ideas of Jesus?
How can we develop in ourselves the power of pro-
longed attention?
// a man will think steadily and honestly for half an
hour of God, of eternity, of some duty, of some good
friend, an effect will be produced in his character.
"What gets your attention gets you."
STUDY XVIII
JESUS WITHDRAWS FROM THE PROV-
INCE AFTER A FINAL CLASH WITH
THE SCRIBES OVER THEIR
TREATMENT OF THE
SACRED SCRIPTURES
Si
JPPLEMENTARY READINGS I
I.
2.
3.
Mark 4:
Mark 4 :
Mark 5 :
: 26-34
35-41
1-20
7.
Matthew
4.
5.
6.
Mark 5 :
Mark 6:
Mark 7:
5 : 1-20
21-
30-
i6-
-43
-56
■22>
Passages for Study :
Mark 7: i. And there are gathered together unta
him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which
had come from Jerusalem, 2. and had seen that some
of his disciples ate their bread with defiled, that
is, unwashen, hands. 3. For the Pharisees, and all
the Jews, except they wash their hands diligently,
eat not, holding the tradition of the elders: 4. and
when they come from the marketplace, except they
wash themselves, they eat not: and many other
things there be, which they have received to hold,
washings of cups, and pots, and brasen vessels. 5.
And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why
walk not thy disciples according to the tradition
of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands?
lOI
102 ABOUT JESUS
6. And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah prophesy
of you hypocrites, as it is written,
This people honoureth me with their lips
But their heart is far from me. '
7- But in vain do they worship me,
Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men
8. Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast
the tradition of men. 9. And he said unto them,
inill well do ye reject the commandment of God
that ye m.ay keep your tradition. 10. For Moses
said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and He
that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him die
tJie death: but ye say, n. If a man shall say to his
father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest
have been profited by me is Corban, that is to say
Given to God; 12. ye no longer suffer him to do
aught for his father or his mother; 13. making void
the word of God by your tradition, which ye have
delivered: and many such like things ye do. 14
And he called to him the multitude again, and said
unto them, Hear me all of you, and understand: 15
there is nothing from without the man, that going
into him can defile him: but the things which pro-
ceed out of the man are those that defile the man.
24. And from thence he arose, and went away into
the borders of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered into
a house, and would have no man know if and he
could not be hid.
I. The effort of the Great Scribes from Jerusalem
to destroy Jesus' popularity and influence by declaring
him to be a confederate of Satan seems to have failed.
The supplementary readings show this.
He now comes to a clash with them over a matter
that is more serious than any yet mentioned, namely
their "tradition." "Tradition" was a technical term
FINAL CLASH WITH SCRIBES 103
designating the steadily growing body of commentary
on, or explanation of. the Sacred Law. It had been
handed down in oral teaching from one generation of
devout scholars to the next. It was popularly supposed
to have begun in some way with Moses himself and
so to have come pretty directly from God. It was
never put into wTiting until some two or three hundred
years after Jesus' day, and then it kept on growing.
It is still growing, unless the war has stopped the
discussions of learned Rabbis.
The motive of the Great Scribes was a very natural
desire to tell the people what the Law meant, to de-
scribe its application to daily life, to put it in the form
in which it must be obeyed by those who proposed to
become righteous enough to enter the New Age. The
aim of the Scribes was to secure obedience to all the
details of the Law, as they explained it, on the part
of all the people. When, therefore, a popular prophet
talking about preparation for the New Age ignored, or
opposed, the Sacred Tradition, he seemed to the Scribes
to be a serious menace to true religion.
2. Jesus, who had never studied under any Scribe, had,
of course, never learned the ''tradition." He had heard
it quoted by various Scribes whom he had for years
heard teaching in synagogues on the Sabbath. He had
carefully studied the Law and had come to feel that
the "tradition" was at many points absolutely opposed
to the spirit of the Law it purported to explain. In
his own synagogue lectures he never quoted it. "He
spoke as one having authority and not as the scribes."
Some of his own immediate disciples were notoriously
lax in failing to wash their hands properly before eat-
104 ABOUT JESUS
ing. The Scribes were particularly solicitous on this
point because in the Holy Law persons were rendered
ceremonially "unclean" by touching various "unclean"
persons or objects. Since fingers were used instead
of knives and forks in eating, there was great danger
that those who ate "with unwashed hands" would
render the food they touched unclean, and so by it they
would be seriously "denied" in a religious sense. Local
Scribes and some of the Great Scribes from Jerusalem
complained to Jesus about the wrong doing of his
disciples in this particular (vs. 1-5). Jesus turned on
them with greater vigor than he had previously showed
in his Intercourse with them. He called them "hypo-
crites," that is, those who posed as teachers of God's
law but really were opposed to its spirit (vs. 6-9).
Perhaps this vigor was aroused by the moral per-
versity they had showed in calling the Spirit of God
within him, for which he felt so profound a reverence,
the Spirit of Satan. (See Study XVH, Mark 3: 28-
30.)
He then proceeded to specify a particular in which
their tradition was in flagrant opposition to the spirit
of the Law. The Law regarded the honoring of a
father and a mother as so important that failure de-
served the death penalty. But the tradition allowed a
man to regard his entire estate as "devoted" by a
vow to God in such a way as to forbid the use of any
of it for a father or mother. The man, however,
seems not necessarily to have actually parted with any
of his property. If he afterward repented of such
scandalous treatment of his parents, the tradition made
it impossible for him to go back on his vow. Jesus
FINAL CLASH WITH SCRIBES 105
said that there were many such horrible inconsistencies
in their tradition (vs. 10-13). Perhaps he had known
of many such in his Nazareth years.
It is very exasperating to a speciaHst to be accused
b)' an ordinary man of incompetence in the sphere of
his specialty! Jesus went still further in his attack
on the spurious religion of the particular Scribes with
whom he was dealing. He delivered a public lecture
attended by crowds of people in which he declared the
tradition of the .Scribes regarding eating with unwashed
hands to be foolishness! (vs. 14-15).
3. This bold act on the part of Jesus was an absolute
and final refusal to compromise with the Scribes. Jesus
was now acting in accordance with the resolve he had
made in connection with the temptation to worship
Satan, which had come to him in the beginning. He
would be absolutely loyal to the views of truth which
God gave him, no matter what the immediate conse-
quences to himself or his cause might be. Having done
this bold thing, he felt at liberty to avoid for the time
the fierce opposition of the Scribes. He made a stra-
tegic retreat to the far north. "From thence he arose
and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon"
(v. 24).
Questions :
What appears here to have been included in Jesus'
idea of true religion?
What constitutes "defilement" in a true rehgious
sense?
W^hat is it to "honor" a person? To honor one's
parents?
io6 ABOUT JESUS
Jesus saw in the family God's arrangement for the
development of character. Its seven wonderful relation-
ships make a mighty appeal for the friendly use of
all a man's powers. What a varied demand is made by
a man's relation to his father, mother, brother, sister,
wife, son, and daughter! Are you becoming the sort
of person that can put truth and honor and the material
for tender memories into all these relationships?
PART IV: JESUS' STRATEGIC RETREAT TO
PREPARE THE TWELVE FOR THE GREAT
EVENT IN JERUSALEM
STUDY XIX
THE ORIGINAL APPOIXTMEXT AND
EARLIER TRAINING OF
THE TWELVE
Supplementary Readings :
1. Luke 6: 12-19 4- Matthew 10: 34-11 ^ i
2. Matthew 9: 35-io: 15 5- John i: 35-42
3. Matthew 10 : 16-33 6. John i : 43-51
7, Luke 10: 1-20
Passages for Study :
Mark 3: 13. And he goeth up into the mountain,
and calleth unto him whom he himself would: and
they went unto him. 14. And he appointed twelve,
that they might be with him, and that he might send
them forth to preach, 15. and to have authority to
cast out devils: 16. and Simon he surnamed Peter;
17. and James the son of Zebedee, and John the
brother of James; and them he surnamed Boanerges,
which is, Sons of thunder: 18. and Andrev/, and
Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas,
and James the son of Alphasus, and Thaddasus, and
Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, 19. which
also betrayed him.
Mark 6: 7. And he called unto him the twelve,
and began to send them forth by two and two;
and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits;
8. and he charged them that they should take noth-
ing for their journey, save a staff only; no bread,
109
no ABOUT JESUS
no wallet, no money in their purse; 9. but to gp shod
with sandals: and, said he, put not on two coats.
10. And he said unto them. Wheresoever ye enter
into a house, there abide till ye depart thence. 11.
And whatsoever place shall not receive you, and
they hear you not, as ye go forth thence, shake off
the dust that is under your feet for a testimony
unto them. 12. And they went out, and preached
that men should repent. 13. And they cast out many
devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick,
and healed them.
30. And the apostles gather themselves together
unto Jesus; and they told him all things, whatsoever
they had done, and whatsoever they had taught.
31. And he saith unto them, Come ye yourselves
apart into a desert place, and rest a while. For
there were many coming and going, and they had
no leisure so much as to eat. 32. And they went
away in the boat to a desert place apart.
I. Some time before the point we have now reached
in the Studies, Jesus had selected from the large num-
ber of people v/ho listened to his teaching with some
regularity twelve men, to whom he proposed to give
special attention in order to prepare them for special
responsibilities. He had sent out personal invitations
to a considerable number of people, asking them to
meet him at a specified place in the hill country of
Galilee (3: 13) and there, after seeking guidance from
God in a night of prayer (Luke 6: 12-13), he selected
twelve men, whom he apparently presented to the rest
to be recognized thenceforth as his special assistants
(3: 14-15). There was a significance in the number
twelve. It was popularly expected that the old twelve
tribe organization of the nation would be revived in
EARLY TRAINING OF THE TWELVE in
the New Age. The old prophet Elijah was expected
to reappear just before the beginning of the New Age
"to restore all things" (Mark 9: 11-12). Very likely
such reorganization of the nation may have sometimes
been expected of him. We shall see that many people
considered Jesus to be Elijah.
Jesus expected two things of the Twelve. They were
to go about urging people to make the sort of prepa-
ration for the life of the New Age that Jesus had de-
scribed, and they were to attack the power of Satan
(3: 14-15). They were to get power to do both of
these things through continued association with Jesus,
repeatedly hearing his teaching an3 experiencing the
contagion of his character (3: 14).
He presumably saw in these men peculiar fitness for
such work. . Perhaps also they were men who had
no families or whose families were not dependent on
them for support. They included widely separated
political classes. Matthew the publican, who had been
ready to accept office under the Romans, and Simon
the "Zealot," who was ready for revolt against the
Romans, were both included,
2. An account is given in Mark of the first occasion
on which the Twelve went out to see what they could
accomplish in the work they had been chosen to do.
They were sent out in couples in order to keep each
other's courage up and to make a stronger impression
on the communities they visited. What two or three
witnesses said had peculiar force (II Corinthians 13:
i). They were to be regarded as "prophets," emphasiz-
ing by the peculiarities of their dress and manner, as
the prophets so often did, the character of their mes-
112 ABOUT JESUS
sage. The purpose of the directions given in 6:8-ii
is to make the impression in oriental fashion that there
was urgent need of instant action. They were to show
by their dress that they had taken no time to prepare
for the journey and they were to spend no time after
they arrived in the leisurely social functions of oriental
life. It was as if a man without hat or coat or shoes
should ride through the village, shouting out some
exciting message as he rode. The message of these
men was : "The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent !"
3. After some weeks of such work they assembled
again and reported the things they had said in the
synagogues or in the market places and recounted their
successes or failures in curing the sick and driving out
demons (6: 30). Their report must have been intensely
interesting to Jesus. His night of prayer preceding
their appointment shows how significant tlieir mission
seemed to him to be. This appears still more clearly
in what he said about his experience at a later time,
when seventy disciples were sent out in couples to do
the same thing that the Twelve do here. While thej'"
were out on their mission he had a profound spiritual
experience, a vision in which he saw Satan fall swiftly
and hopelessly like a thunderbolt hurled out of its
place in the sky. (Luke 10: 18, seventh supplementary
reading.) Jesus was certain that men going out in
the power of his name could do that which would over-
throw evil in the world, that which would make the
life of the New Age universal and secure.
5. Jesus felt that the Twelve heeded rest after the
strenuous experiences of their first campaign (6: 31).
The nervous strain of speaking from the synagogue
EARLY TRAINING OF THE TWELVE 113
platform was considerable for men who had not been
accustomed to public speech. The opposition of the
local Scribes in each community involved a good deal
of unpleasant friction. The subject which they every-
where presented — the coming judgment day and the
dawning of the New Age — was in itself exciting, and
led to many long and exhausting personal interviews.
Driving out demons too must have involved consider-
able nervous strain. It is not strange that Jesus took
them apart from the crowds that Were always about
and provided for a period of rest.
Questions :
Is it possible to conjecture how the Twelve were
paired, that is, how it was determined who should go
together?
What were the principal motives that influenced them
in their mission?
In what ways would the thought of Jesus have been
an inspiration to these men while they were out on
their mission?
What are the advantages of association with another
person in religious activity? What, if any, are the
dangers of such association ? As you review your own
life what moral values have ever come into your life
from another and how have they come?
"And I will give
To thee Man's work, so fitted to thy growth
That in God's Kingdom-Building thou mayst use
The largest powers. But this will cost thee both
Thyself and things which, dear to thee, thou'lt lose."
— Doremus Scudder.
STUDY XX
JESUS INSISTS THAT THE MESSIANIC
SECRET BE PRESERVED AND AS-
TOUNDS THE TWELVE BY THE IN-
CREDIBLE ANNOUNCEMENT OF A
MESSIANIC EXECUTION AND RESUR-
RECTION SOON TO OCCUR IN JERU-
SALEM
Supplementary Readings :
1. Matthew 16:13-28 4. Matthew 17:1-13
2. Luke 9 : 18-27 5- Luke 9 : 28-36
3. Mark 9:2-13 6. Mark 9: 14-29
7. Luke 9 : 37-43
^Passage for Study:
Mark 8: 27. And Jesus went forth, and his disciples,
into the villages of Caesarea Philippi ; and in the "way
he asked his disciples, saying unto them. Who do
men say that I am? 28. And they told him, saying,
John the Baptist: and others, Elijah; but others,
One of the prophets. 29. And he asked them. But
who say ye that I am? Peter answereth and saith
unto him. Thou art the Christ. 30. And he charged
^Do not fail to read the "Passage for Study" both before and
after reading the comment. Note, if possible, in writing the
thoughts that will more and more come to you in connection
with the study.
114
THE MESSIANIC SECRET 115
them that they should tell no man of him. 31. And
he began to teach them, that the Son of man must
suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders,
and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed,
and after three days rise again. 32. And he spake
the saying openly. And Peter took him, and began
to rebuke him. 33. But he turning about, and seeing
his disciples, rebuked Peter, and saith, Get thee be-
hind me, Satan: for thou mindest not the things
of God, but the things of men.
I. In this period of temporary retreat before the hos-
tility of the Scribes, Jesus makes an earnest endeavor
to adjust the minds of the Twelve to a most perplexing
and unwelcome announcement. He prefaces it by an
inquiry regarding the public estimate of him which the
Twelve, perhaps during occasional visits to their homes
in Galilee, have found. They report that the antago-
nism of the Scribes has not diminished his popularity.
He is still the people's Prophet. He is even thought to
be a reincarnation of some one of the great prophets
of the past, who were expected to appear in the last
days of the Old Age. Some think that the spirit of
John the Baptist, recently executed, has entered into
Jesus' body. No one thinks him to be the "Messiah,"
or "Christ." But now, for the first time in Mark's
.Gospel, it suddenly develops that one of the Twelve,
speaking at least for some of the others also, regards
Jesus as the Messiah in disguise. The narrative in
Mark leaves it uncertain whether or not this is a new
idea. It seems hardly probable that in these dark days
when Jesus is a semi-exile from his province the idea
should first spring up in the minds of the Twelve. The.
ii6 ABOUT JESUS
parallel account in Matthew's Gospel represents Jesus
as assuming that they have been accustomed to thinic
of him as the Messianic Son of Man. In any case one
thing is perfectly clear, namely, that the public does
not think Jesus to be the Messiah and that he does not
intend to have them. His Messiahship is to be the
strictly guarded secret of the inner circle of disciples
(v. 30).
2. Then follows an announcement that comes like a
blow in the face to his most enthusiastic disciple and
that seems likely for a while completely to alienate all
the rest of the inner circle (v. 31).
There were several startling features in the announce-
ment. It was perplexing to hear him call himself "The
Son of Alan," for this was the designation of a glori-
ous angelic being reserved in the heavens by God until
the judgment day, when one class of people expected
him to come to the earth as a glorious Messiah and
judge the world. This was the representation in the
Book of Enoch — a book highly esteemed later by
many Christians (Jude 14). Another class of people
looked for a Messiah to be called "The Son of David,"
whose career would be more in accord with that of
the old warrior King David. Jesus never uses this
title o'f himself, but evidently 'thinks of himself as
a Messiah of the less military, less narrov/ly Jew-
ish, Son of Man type. But what is "The Son of Man"
doing on the earth before the judgment day? The
disciples might conclude that the glorious radiant spirit
c?f the heavenly angelic Son of Man had taken pos-
session of the human body of Jesus. (Three of them
are represented later to have seen the heavenly ra-
THE MESSIANIC SECRET 117
diance shine through the flesh and clothing of Jesus.
See third supplementary reading.) But how could any-
one conceive that the deathless heavenly Son of Man
should die, pass into the regions of the dead, and come
up thence in the general resurrection at the judgment
day, instead of down from heaven, as all who looked
for a Messiah of the Son of Man type expected? This
problem they never solved during the lifetime of
Jesus, When Jesus later spoke of it, they began "ques-
tioning among themselves what the rising from the
dead should mean" (Aiark 9:10). Still later, "They
understood not the saying and were afraid to ask
him" (Mark 9:32). They probably made up their
minds that it was one of Jesus' strange utterances, like
some of the parables which they found it hard to under-
stand. When he did actually die, as we shall see later,
they utterly abandoned the theory that he had been the
Messiah, and reports of his resurrection seemed "idle
talk" (Luke 24:11). Their inability to understand
Jesus is not to be wondered at because the specification
of a three-day period between death and resurrection
did not naturally suggest to their minds three literal
days, but rather some short suitable period. The
prophet Hosea had used such an expression of the
desperate condition of the nation in his day — a passage
with which Jesus was doubtless familiar : "Come and
let us return unto Jehovah ; for he hath torn, and he
will heal us ; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us; on the third day he
v/ill raise us up, and we shall live before him" (Hosea
6: 1-2). Jesus himself used the phrase in this same
vague general way in Luke 13 : 32, "Behold I cast out
ii8 ABOUT JESUS
demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the
third day I am perfected."
The incredibility of Jesus' statement to the disciples
is also easy to understand when we remember, in addi-
tion to what has just been said, that no Jew of that
day had ever dreamed that the Messiah, when he ap-
peared, would die. Statements in the Old Testament,
which the Christians later understood to be clear
prophecies of a messianic death, had never been so
understood by any Jewish rabbi.
3. Peter's readiness to remonstrate with Jesus shows
Peter's conception of Messiahship. A Messiah, even of
the Son of Man type, was like a king who sometimes
might need to profit by the advice of a trusty counselor.
The intensity with which Jesus repelled Peter's advice,
shows that he was in some measure experiencing a re-
currence of the temptations developed at the beginning
of the Gospel. By listening to the suggestion of Satan
through Peter he might gain the whole world by going
the easy way. But v/hat would become of his own
soul in its wonderful relation to the Heavenly Father
(v. 36) ?
Questions :
Certain great questions naturally arise, some of which
have never been fully answered. Reflection upon them
is nevertheless useful.
Why did Jesus wish at this time to conceal his
Messiahship from the public?
What led Jesus to feel so sure that God would let the
Scribes kill him? At what time did he begin to realize
this?
THE MESSIANIC SECRET 119
What good did it seem to him would be accomplished
by his execution?
Does the suffering of the innocent, occasioned by the
conduct of the guilty, produce any moral effect on the
life of the world?
"The cry of man's anguish went up to God,
Lord, take away pain !
The Shadow that darkens the world Thou hast made ;
The close coiling chain
That strangles the heart ; the burden that weighs
On the wings that should soar —
Lord, take away pain from the" world Thou hast made
That it love Thee the more !
Then answered the Lord to the cry of the world,
Shall I take away pain.
And with it the power of the soul to endure,
Made strong by the strain?
Shall I take away pity that knits heart to heart;
And sacrifice high?
Will ye lose all your heroes that lift from the fire
White brows to the sky?
Shall I take away love that redeems with a price
And smiles at its loss?
Can ye spare from your lives that would cling unto mine
The Christ on his cross?"
— Poem Found Written on the Wall of a Hospital.
STUDY XXI
JESUS ENDEAVORS TO PREPARE THE
DISCIPLES TO SHARE HIS PROS-
PECTIVE SUFFERING
Supplementary Readings :
1. Mark 9: 30-37 ' 4. Mark 10: 13-16
2. Mark 9: 38-50 5. Mark 10: 17-31
3. Mark 10: 1-12 6. Matthew 20: 17-28
7. John 13: 1-17
Passages for Study :
Mark 8: 34. And he called unto him the multitude
with his disciples, and said unto them, If any man
would come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow me. 35. For whosoever
would save his life shall lose it; and whosoever
shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's shall
save it. 36. For what doth it profit a man, to gain
the v/hole world, and forfeit his life? 37. For wh?t
should a man give in exchange for his life? 38.
For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my
words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the
Son of man also shall be asham^ed of him, when
he Cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy
angels. 9: i. And he said unto them. Verily I say
unto you. There be some here of them that stand
by, which shall in no wise taste of death, till they
see the kingdom of God come with power.
120
PREPARED FOR SUFFERING 121
Mark 10: 35. And there come near unto him James
and John, the sons of Zebedee, saying unto him,
Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us
whatsoever we shall ask of thee. 36. And he said
unto them, "What would ye that I should do for
you? 37. And they said unto him, Grant unto us
that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and one on
thy left hand, in thy glory. 38. But Jesus said unto
them. Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to
drink the cup that I drink? or to be baptized with the
baptism that I am baptized with? 39, And they
said unto him. We are able. And Jesus said unto
them, The cup that I drink ye shall drink; and with
the baptism, that I am baptized withal shall ye be
baptized: 40. but to sit on my right hand or on my
left hand is not m.ine to give: but it is for them for
whom it hath been prepared. 41. And when the
ten heard it, they began to be moved with indigna-
tion concerning James and John. /12. And Jesus
called them to himi, and saith unto them. Ye know
that they v/hich are accounted to rule over the Gen-
tiles lord it over them; and their great ones exercise
authority over them. 43. But it is not so among
you: but whosoever would become great among
you, shall be your minister: 44. and whosoever
would be first among you, shall be servant of all.
45. For verily the Son of man came not to be minis-
tered unto, but to m.inister, and to give his life a
ransom for many.
I. It was disconcerting enough for the disciples to
find Jesus in the privacy of their inner circle presenting
by a strange "death and resurrection" parable the idea
that he as messianic Son of Man must endure some
sort of suffering before the New Age could dawn. But
now he went further, not only in private teaching, but
122 ABOUT JESUS
also in speaking openly to such local crowds as gathered
about him during these weeks spent outside of Galilee.
Without telling outsiders that he thought himself to
be anything more than God's prophet, he began to say
repeatedly that all who wished to consort with him as
disciples must prepare to suffer even death (v. 34). He
presented this idea in his usual concrete style. He pic-
tured a procession of men going out to crucifixion —
not an unusual sight. At the head of this procession
walked Jesus, and after him followed the line of his
disciples, each carrying the horizontal piece of a cross
on his shoulder. This picture of men going out to
execution was calculated to put a decided quietus on
the aspirations of any who were tempted to think that
Jesus, whether as prophet or Messiah, looked forward
to a successful revolt against Rome! All revolutionary
messianists would instantly lose interest in him. It is
no wonder that Peter regarded such a declaration,
whether meant to be literal statement or parable, as
a serious blunder.
Jesus described the joining of this procession as
^'denying one's self." To deny one's leader is to deny
the control of the leader — as Peter later denied his
■"Lord." To deny one's self is to deny to one's self,
to one's selfish inclinations, the right to control choices.
The disciple does not yield to the control of the natural
desire to preserve his life at any cost, but instead
joins the death procession. Then in v. 35 follows a
play upon the word "life" in its two senses. He who
is bound to preserve this present bodily "hfe" at any
cost will lose the "life" of the New Age. Why to the
mind of Jesus should it seem necessary ever to lose the
PREPARED FOR SUFFERING 123
bodily life, in order to gain the higher immortal life
of the New Age? At least a partial answer is found
in the essential nature of the life of the New Age.
It is a life in which each man wishes for every other
man such a fair chance at all good things as a man
would wish his brother to have. When a man begins
here and now to stand for this kind of life, as Jesus
did, he runs serious risk of getting hurt. If wherever
he finds a man or any class of men being exploited by
selfish men he makes vigorous protest, as Jesus did,
he will very probably suffer some serious loss — perhaps
the loss of life itself. A case in point would be that
of a lawyer who proposes, whenever he has suitable
opportunity, to protect the interests of any men or
class of men who are being selfishly exploited by
others. He runs the risk of receiving a small in-
come in a profession in which professional success
is often estimated in term.s of income. He may con-
ceivably even get into a situation in- which he will seem
to be an absolute failure. As it turned out, Jesus, from
the standpoint of a large element in the Jewish nation,
was an absolute failure as a would-be Messiah.
Of course from the standpoint of Jesus, for any man
to turn from such a career meant the rupture of those
fundamental relationships with God and good men
which constitute the immortal life. No conceivable
gain could be compensation for this terrible loss.
2. The three leading disciples had an experience v/ith
Jesus on a mountain in the nighttime, which thoroughly
convinced them that the spirit of the heavenly Son of
Man was in his body (Mark 9: 2-13), although it did
not at all solve the problem of his strange statements
124 ABOUT JESUS
about death and resurrection. The confidence of these
three leaders in the Messiahship of Jesus held the rest
of the Twelve loyally to him. They all, began to count
confidently on high offices in the New Age (Mark 9:
33-34). and two of them, to the disgust of the others,
tried to make him promise beforehand to give them
precedence over all the rest (10: 35-41).
In deahng with the disciples regarding their ambition,
Jesus took occasion again to present in another form
the idea discussed in the last paragraph. The man who
wished to be really great in the New Age must not be
wishing for power to bend the lives of others to his
own convenience. Not what he could succeed in mak-
ing others contribute to him, but what he could succeed
in contributing to others, would constitute the measure
of his greatness. He must be "everybody's bondslave."
Here, too, Jesus led the way and set the example, just
as he headed the procession of men going out to execu-
tion (v. 45). Being everybody's bond-slave does not,
of course, mean doing for them what they ought to
do for themselves. Such action would tend to produce
in them the very disposition Jesus was protesting
against. The principle to be followed in doing for an-
other is evidently to do for him what will stimulate
him to responsive good will and efficient action, which
are the essential elements in character. Neither is it
simply one other man's interests that are to be con-
sidered. Being everybody's bond-slave meant working
for the common good and summoning all others to
do the same. Jesus not only worked for the common
good of mankind himself at great cost, but he insisted
that all his disciples should unite with him in doing
PREPARED I'OR SUfPERING 125
the same thing even at the risk of losing life (10: 45).
Such action results in "ransoming many." It frees
them from the terrible forms of blighting bondage
which human selfishness inflicts on society and intro-
duces them into that large liberty to develop all their
normal powers which will characterize the Civilization
of Brotherly Men.
Questions :
How has the violent death of Jesus actually worked
out larger liberty for men?
How would human society be any worse off if Jesus
had not died as he did?
Have you known or read of any man whose death
has brought moral enlargement to your life?
Is there anything in your conception of the Immortal
Life that would make it seem worth while to sacrifice
largely to secure it either for yourself or others? If
so, what?
"If, for the age to come, this hour
Of triol hath vicarious power,
And, blest by Thee, our present pain
Be Liberty's eternal gain.
Thy will be done !"
— Whittier, "Thy Will Be Done.'*
STUDY XXII
JUST OUTSIDE THE GATES OF JERU-
SALEM SOME OF JESUS' DISCIPLES
IN A KIND OF ACTED PARABLE URGE
MESSIAHSHIP UPON HIM
Supplementary Readings :
1. Matthew 20:29 — 21 : 11 4. Luke 19: 11-27
2. Luke 18:35-43 5- Luke 19:28-38
3. Luke "19 : i-io 6. Luke 19 : 39-44
7, John 12 : 12-19
Passages for Study :
Mark 10: i. And he arose from thence, and cometh
into the borders of Jud^a and beyond Jordan: and
multitudes come together unto him again; and, as
he was wont, he taught them again.
46. And they come to Jericho: and as he went out
from Jericho, with his disciples and a great multi-
tude, the son of Timsus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar,
was sitting by the way side. 47. And v/hen he heard
that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out,
and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on
me. 48. And many rebuked him, that he should
hold his peace: but he cried out the more a great
deal. Thou son of David, have mercy on me. 49.
And Jesus stood still, and said. Call ye him. And
they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good
129
130 ABOUT JESUS
cheer: rise, he calleth thee. 50. And he, casting
away his garment, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
51. And Jesus answered him, and said. What wilt
thou that I should do unto thee? And the blind
man said unto him, Rabboni, that I may receive my
sight. 52. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way;
thy faith hath made thee whole. And straightway
he received his sight, and followed him in the way.
Mark 11: i. And when they draw nigh unto Jeru-
salem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount
of Olives, he sendeth two of his disciples, 2. and
saith unto them. Go your way into the village
that is over against you: and straightway as ye
enter into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon no
man ever yet sat; loose him, and bring him. 3. And
if any one say unto you. Why do ye this? say ye,
The Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will
send him back hither. 4. And they went away, and
found a colt tied at the door without in the open
street; and they loose him. 5. And certain of them
that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loos-
ing the colt? 6. And they said unto them even as
Jesus had said: and they let them go. 7. And they
bring the colt unto Jesus, and cast on him their
garments; and he sat upon him. 8. And many spread
their garments upon the way; and others branches,
which they had cut from the fields, g. And they
that went before, and they that followed, cried,
Hosanna; blessed is he that cometh in the name of
the Lord: Blessed is the kingdom that cometh, the
kingdom of our father David: Hosanna in the
highest.
I. Jesus came out from his comparative seclusion and
began public teaching, though not in Galilee (10:1).
He had passed through Galilee, but tried to escape
JESUS GREETED AS MESSIAH 131
observation— perhaps by traveling in the night. He
"passed through Galilee ; and he would not that any man
should know it" (Mark 9:30).
Now finally he decided to appear boldly in Jerusalem,
the stronghold of the Great Scribes. On the last day of
the journey to the city, fifteen miles away from its gates,
in the city of Jericho, a significant incident occurred.
As Jesus was just leaving Jericho for Jerusalem with
a great company of friendly Passover pilgrims, a man
who was blind and a beggar suddenly raised the mes-
sianic cry: "Jesus, Son of David, pity me!" There was
a fitness in the fact that the cry came from such a man,
for Jesus had been famous for his devotion to the sick
and the poor. As we have seen, Jesus had concealed
his Messiahship from the public. He had done so be-
cause his main purpose was to reform the current con-
ception of religion, of real righteousness, of the life of
the New Age, and the way to prepare for it. This
great purpose would have been defeated, if Jesus had
let it be known that he thought himself to be the
Messiah. People would have crowded to him, expecting
him to do the things they supposed a Messiah would do.
Especially the revolutionary messianists would have
tried to use him. Jesus would have had to disappoint
all these expectations, and in so doing would have lost
his great chance to be a teacher of true religion.
Furthermore, of course, he would instantly have be-
come an object of suspicion to the Roman authorities
and would have been hable to arrest at any moment.
But now he seems to make no objection to this title.
The blind man was immediately cured and joined the
glad procession. All day long as the great company
132 ABOUT JESUS
climbed the steep ascent to Jerusalem the man talked
enthusiastically to everybody about his theory that Jesus
was the Messiah. Fortunately, no Roman spies seem
to have been in the crowd.
2. Just outside the city gates a peculiar demonstration
was made in which Jesus at least acquiesced. To
many, probably to most of the crowd, Jesus was still
what he always had been, a great prophet of God.
When the crowd passed through the city gates "all the
city was stirred saying, WIio is this ?" The multitudes
replied : "This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of
Galilee" (Matthew 21:11). There was, however, in
the crowd a considerable element that shared the con-
viction of the blind beggar — as of course did Jesus' own
disciples, who knew the messianic secret. This element
arrange^ an impromptu demonstration with which Jesus
himself cooperated. In a way which suggested a cer-
tain passage from the Old Testament prophet, Zechariah,
(see Matthew 21 : 5, first supplementary reading) Jesus
mounted an ass. Many spread their coarse cloaks in
the pathway, together with leafy twigs from wayside
trees. According to Matthew and Luke, they hailed
Jesus as Messiah. Their language, according to Mark,
was not quite so explicit. The whole afifair was a kind
of acted parable not sufficiently formal and explicit to
attract the attention of Roman officials, who would have
had soldiers on the spot quickly if the procession had
entered the city gates with any open proclamation of
Jesus as messianic King. It was all over in a few mo-
ments. The borrowed ass was sent back to its owner.
The pilgrims picked up their dirty cloaks and traveled
on.
JESUS GREETED AS MESSIAH 133
3. Why did Jesus, who had so insistently urged
secrecy, encourage this demonstration? He had done
his work as a teacher of true rehgion. He had long
felt that the crisis was coming in Jerusalem and he
had no longer any disposition to delay it. This demon-
stration, ludicrous as it may have seemed to a casual
observer, gave expression to some of the deepest emo-
tions in Jesus' heart. He was a poor man's Messiah, in
the midst of his poor, not riding on a war horse, nor
with soldiers all about him. Yet he was coming to his
capital city, to the temple of Jehovah, clothed in his
heart with a sense of authority from God to make true
religion universal and secure in the civilization of the
world.
4. It is to be noted also that according to Luke's
Gospel (third supplementary reading), while Jesus was
still in Jericho he had given a most flagrant and con-
spicuous illustration of the same disposition that had so
enraged the Scribes in Galilee. He had gone openly to
the house of a rich Jericho publican and actually lodged
over night with him. This would, of course, be in-
stantly reported to the Great Scribes in Jerusalem.
Jesus was determined that they should fully understand
his convictions. There was an infinite force and a fire
of moral conviction within his soul.
Questions :
Think out the conversation that might have taken
place between the blind beggar Bartimeus and the rich
publican Zacchseus after each had had his experience
with Jesus in Jericho !
What do you imagine to have been the main thoughts
134 ABOUT JESUS
in the mind of Jesus as he reviewed the events of this
day at its close?
What thoughts were in the mind of Peter?
*'Once to every man and nation comes the moment to
decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or
evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the
bloom or blight.
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon
the right,
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and
that light."
— Lowell, "The Present Crisis."
STUDY XXIII
JESUS' PUBLIC ATTACK ON THE
PRIESTS FOR ABUSES IN THE
TEMPLE ADMINISTRATION RESULTS
IN A POWERFUL COMBINATION OF
PRIESTS AND SCRIBES AGAINST HIM
Supplementary Readings :
1. Mark 12: 1-12 4- Mark 12: 28-37
2. Mark 12: 13-17 5- Mark 12: 41-44
3. Mark 12: 18-27 6. Matthew 23: 1-22
7. Matthew 23: 23-39
Passages for Study:
Mark 11: 11. And he entered into Jerusalem, into
the temple; and when he had looked round about
upon all things, it being nov/ eventide, he went out
unto Bethany with the twelve.
15. And they come to Jerusalem: and he entered
into the temple, and began to cast out them that
sold and them that bought in the temple, and
overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the
seats of them that sold the doves; 16. and he would
not suiler that any man should carry a vessel
through the temple. 17. And he taught, and said
unto them, Is it not written. My house shall be
called a house of prayer for all the nations? but ye
135
130 ABOUT JESUS
have made it a den of robbers. i8. And the chief
priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how
they might destroy him: for they feared him, for
all the multitude was astonished at his teaching.
27. And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he
was walking in the temple, there come to him the
chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders; 28.
and they said unto him, By what authority doest
thou these things? or who gave thee this authority
to do these things? 29. And Jesus said unto them,
I will ask of you one question, and answer me,
and I will tell you by what authority I do these
things. 30. The baptism of John, was it from heaven,
or from men? answer me. 31. And they reasoned
with themselves, saying. If we shall say. From
heaven; he will say. Why then did ye not believe
him? 32. But should we say. From men — they feared
the people: for all verily held John to be a prophet.
33. And they answered Jesus and say. We know not.
And Jesus saith unto them. Neither tell I you by
what authority I do these things.
Mark 12: 38. And in his teaching he said, Beware
of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes,
and to have salutations in the marketplaces, 39. and
chief seats in the synagogues, and chief places at
feasts: 40. they which devour widows' houses, and
for a pretence make long prayers; these shall receive
greater condemnation.
I, The great company of Passover pilgrims, after
their harmless demonstration outside the city, went
with eager curiosity and devotion to Jehovah's House.
The Temple was a comparatively small building, but
the extensive paved courts and beautiful colonnades
about it occupied a large section on the eastern side
of the city, which was separated from the rest of the
JESUS ATTACKS TEMPLE ABUSES 137
city by a high wall. As Jesus walked about in these
great open courts he saw things that seemed to him
scandalous. There were hundreds of crates of doves
and, according to John's Gospel, also sheep and oxen
ready for sale to worshipers, for sacrifice. Since these
market men must have been there by permission of the
priests, very possibl}-- doves and animals bought from
them would be guaranteed to pass the inspection of the
priests. There were also money changers with piles
of coins on their tables, ready to change monej^ brought
from abroad into current coin.
This whole proceeding seemed to Jesus to be defeat-
ing the purpose of the place. The Tem.ple was meant
to be a place to which people could come from all over
the world to pray to Jehovah. When, after a long and
expensive journey by land and sea, they finally reached
the place, they found a situation which made quiet
prayer almost impossible. There was not only the noisy
excited conversation incident to oriental bargaining,
but these dealers were also shamelessly cheating many
of the foreigners and poorer pilgrims. The holy place
was no better than a cave which had been made head-
quarters for a gang of robbers ! In the bitterness of
spirit v/hich prevailed when visitors found that they
had been cheated, how could men devoutly pray!
(v. 17).
As Jesus thought over the circumstances at his lodg-
ings, in the Bethany suburb of the city, he decided that
he would break this situation up the next morning.
Accordingly when he arrived at the Temple, he went
about among the market men and insisted on their
leaving. He went rapidly about, tipping over the money
138 ABOUT JESUS
changers' tables and sending their carefully piled coins
rolling in every direction on the pavement. According
to John's Gospel, he himself hurried the sheep and oxen
out with a Vv^hip. It was not safe to oppose him, for
he was known to be a popular prophet with a great
following among the people, who had long been exas-
perated by the frauds perpetrated upon them. Jesus
also stationed men at gates leading into the temple
courts to turn back any carrying jars or other burdens
who were utilizing these courts as a short cut to or
from the eastern suburbs. He proposed to make all
the surroundings of the Temple conducive to prayer.
Jesus not only took this decisive action, but he
"taught" (v. 17), that is, he gave a public lecture, or
address, to crow^ds of people on the mal-administration
of the Temple by the Priests ! This bold action led
the Priests, who up to this time have not appeared in
the narrative, to combine with the Scribes who had, of
course, long been bitterly hostile to Jesus. There was
ordinarily no particular cordiality existing between the
great men of the Temple and the great men of the
synagogue, but no one could tell to what lengths the
People's Prophet might be tempted to go and it was
necessary to make common cause against him (v. 18).
2. The next day a committee consisting of Priests,
Scribes, and other members of the chief court of the
nation met Jesus and informally asked him by what
authority he had presumed to meddle with temple ar-
rangements the day before (vs. 27-28).
Jesus replied in a way not unusual among rabbis, by
asking a counter-question — namely, by what authority
they understood John the Baptist to have acted. This
JESUS ATTACKS TEMPLE ABUSES 139
was a very pertinent question for several reasons. John
had presumed to call the nation to repentance and bap-
tism in view of the nearness of the New Age, an
action on his part which invaded the prerogacive of
the Scribes, just as Jesus' action the day before had
encroached upon the authority of the Priests. Further-
more, in asking their opinion of John he was virtually
asking them their opinion of himself, for he identified
himself with John's movement. The question, too, was
a searching one, for it showed them that they were
cowards and no true leaders of the people ; they did
not dare to say outright what they thought (v. 31).
Then in a very suggestive allegory (first supplemen-
tary reading), without sajang anything about his own
Messiahship, he went on to imply that they had always
been killing prophets and would not shrink from kill-
ing the messianic Son of God whenever he might ap-
pear. They were thoroughly selfish men, who would
have no welcome for God's Messiah. The Priests were
so well satisfied with large revenues and political power
under the Romans, and the Scribes so well satisfied
with the prestige of theological and social leadership
that a Messiah introducing another social order would
be an unwelcome intruder.
3. In these last tense days Jesus in his public lectur-
ing (12:38) boldly exposed the weak points of the
Great Scribes in order to break up if possible the arti-
ficial sham religion that they were trying to perpetuate
among the people. They liked to walk about in digni-
fied clothing, watching for deferential greetings in the
market. They liked to have greater honor than others
in the arrangements for seating at dinner parties and
^o * ABOUT JESUS
in the synagogues. They were eager to get money from
rich susceptible widows who were imposed upon by
their pious ways, or from poor widows in return for
their pious ministrations. It is easy to see how such
conduct would arouse the indignation of a red-blooded
working man ! Jesus predicted for them a severe ver-
dict in the judgment day (v. 40).
Questions :
Suppose that Jesus should meet the statesmen of a
present day nation at its capital — what would be the
main features of the ideal of national life that he would
present?
What would be the main features of church life in
the ideal that he would present, to the leaders of the
present day church?
What place would Jesus give to prayer in the develop-
ment of national life?
"God give us men ! The time demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and willing
hands.
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will ;
Men who have honor ; men who will not lie."
—J. G. Holland, "The Need for Men."
STUDY XXIV
THE PRIESTS AND SCRIBES SECURE A
CONFEDERATE AMONG THE TWELVE,
BUT JESUS SUCCEEDS IN GATHERING
THE TWELVE FOR A SOLEMN LAST
MEAL TOGETHER BEFORE THE
TRAITOR ACTS
Supplementary Readings :
1. Mark 13: 1-23 4. Matthew 20: 17-29
2. Mark 13 : 24-36 5. Luke 22 : 3-30
3. Matthew 26: 6-16 6. John 12:1-8
7. I Corinthians 11 : 17-34
Passages for Study :
Mark 14: i. Now after two days was the feast of
the passover and the unleavened bread: and the
chief priests and the scribes sought how they might
take him with subtilty, and kill him: for they ssid,
2. Not during the feast, lest haply there shall be
a tumult of the people.
10. And Judas Iscariot, he that was one of the
twelve, went away unto the chief priests, that he
r-ight deliver him unto them. 11. And they, when
they heard it, were glad, and promised to give him
money. And he sought how he might conveniently
deliver him unto them.
141
^ ' ABOUT JESUS
17. And when it was evening he cometh with the
twelve. 18. And as they sat and were eating, Jesus
said, Verily I say unto you. One of you shall be-
tray me, even he that eateth with me. 19. They
began to be sorrowful, and to say unto him one by
one. Is it I? 20. And he said unto them. It is one
of the twelve, he that dippeth with me in the dish.
21. For the Son of man goeth, even as it is written
of him: but woe unto that man through whom the
Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man
if he had not been born. 22. And as they were
eating, he took bread, and when he had blessed,
he brake it, and gave to them, and said. Take ye:
this is my body. 23. And he took a cup, and when
he had given thanks, he gave to them: and they all
drank of it. 24. And he said unto them. This is
my blood of the covenant, which is shed for many.
25. Verily I say unto you, I will no more drink of
the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink
it new in the kingdom of God.
I. The Priests and Scribes were thoroughly alarmed.
Jesus' bold action and public speeches in the temple
courts indicated to their minds that he was planning to
head some popular movement against them. There were
only two more days before the week of the Passover
Festival would begin, when the city would be filled with
tens of thousands of visitors, many of them friends of
Jesus. It would be unsafe to attack him during that
week and yet it was unsafe to leave him free to utilize
the opportunity for action presented by Passover Week.
It seemed necessary to get rid of him before the week
began, but this could be done only by strategy. Just at
this juncture help came from a most unexpected source
— one of the inner circle of Jesus' disciples. They
THE TRAITOR AMONG THE TWELVE 143
needed exactly such a confederate, one who could lead
Jesus quietly out for a walk to some lonely spot where
officers would be in waiting to arrest him, and who
would then go back to the disciples with some story
that would satisfactorily explain his absence. The court
would rush his trial and execution through before his
friends could know what was happening. Furthermore,
if afterward there should be any popular indignation at
their action, they could protect themselves by saying
that Jesus had really been guilty of something so
horrible that even one of his own table companions had
felt obliged to break away from the sacred relation of
that companionship and hand him over to the author-
ities.
2. What led Judas to betray his table companion, a
thing so abhorrent to the eastern mind (vs. 18, 20) ?
Something in the incident described in Mark 14:3-9
(or the third supplementary reading) seems to have
furnished the immediate provocation, though the funda-
mental reason probably lay further back. In that inci-
dent Jesus has seemed to be gloomy and sentimental,
welcoming the extravagant expenditure made by a wo-
man for perfume to pour on his head, and talking
pathetically about his death and burial! He seemed to
Judas to lack the genius requisite for a great world
statesman. Furthermore, he had said that rich people
would find no place in the New Order, a view of things
which according to John's Gospel (sixth supplementary
reading) was contrary to Judas' fundamental ambition.
Angry over the time and money he had v/asted in dis-
cipleship, he decided to get what compensation he could
and cut loose fram the wretched movement.
144 ABOUT JESUS
3. Jesus knew what Judas was doing, though none of
Judas' fellow-disciples did, and was exceedingly anxious
to eat with his disciples before Judas should find oppor-
tunity to do his dastardly deed. ("And he said unto
them. With desire have I desired to eat this Passover
with you before I suffer.") In order to accomplish this,
he arranged for this Last Supper in such a way that
only he and two of his most trusted disciples should
know the place, until he brought them to it in the even-
ing (fifth supplementary reading).
4. While they were eating, Jesus in great sorrow spoke
of the fact that one of his table companions — whom he
did not mention by name — was planning to betray him,
and described the consequences of the act in solemn
language that was a virtual appeal to Judas not to do
it (vs. 20-21). Then Jesus went through a solemn cere-
mony with loaf and cup that has been full of deep
significance since the earliest days of the Christian
Church. He broke a loaf, or wafer, of bread into pieces
which, after solemnly asking God's blessing, he asked
them to eat as his body. He took a cup of red wine
and, after giving solemn thanks to God, asked them to
drink it as his blood, blood which would bind them tq
God in a solemn "blood covenant." This would be the
New Covenant, which men were expecting to enter into
with God in the New Age (Jeremiah 31 : 31-34.) The
Old Covenant, also a "blood covenant," was entered into
at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 24: 4-8).
These symbols of a body broken and of life blood
poured out at the threshold of the New Age had mean-
ings to the Eastern mind that we men of the West do
not immediately understand. To us the great question
THE TRAITOR AMONG THE TWELVE 145
here, as in Studies XX and XXI, concerns the influence
of the death of Jesus on the life of the world.
Jesus' mind, though full of the thought of his death,
saw with perfect clearness victory beyond death. The
messianic reign in the New Age was often pictured as
a triumphant messianic banquet. In v. 25 Jesus had
this in mind when he pledged himself never to taste
wine again until the New Age had begun and they
should meet again at the messianic banquet. The wine
v/ould be "new" because everything was to be "new" in
the New Age. ("I saw a new heaven and a new earth."
"Behold, I make all things new." Revelation 21 : i, 5.)
5. It is only in Luke's Gospel (22 : 19, fifth supple-
mentary reading) and I Corinthians 11:24 (seventh
supplementary reading) that Jesus is distinctly repre-
sented to have urged the repetition of this ceremony.
Perhaps in the circles in which the Gospels of Matthew
and Mark were formed, it was assumed that Jesus
would be understood by the readers to have meant to
institute an ordinance, for the Christians in very early
days seem to have had a sacred meal eaten, perhaps
for a time daily (Acts 2:46), with thought of their
Lord.
Questions :
What seem to you to have been the motives from
which Judas acted when he violated the sacred rela-
tionship?
What do you think Jesus m.eant by calling the broken
loaf his body and the wine his blood?
If you are a communicant, what advantage do you
find in the observance of the "Lord's Supper"?
146 ABOUT JESUS
What seem to you to be the grounds for entire con-
fidence— like the confidence of Jesus — that the suffering
of humanity will be followed by an era of liberty and
peace?
Jesus felt that he was being borne on by the will of
God into an experience of great suffering that would
finally bring righteousness and peace to all the zvorld.
It was also the zvill of God that he should take his dis-
ciples zvith him into some measure of this experience.
This ivas at least a part of the meaning of his asking
them to eat his suffering body and to drink his very
blood. It is not simply a ceremony to perform, but an
experience to reproduce^ that we have inherited.
STUDY XXV
JESUS AFTER A SHORT PERIOD OF
GREAT MENTAL DISTRESS IS PLACED
UNDER ARREST IN THE NIGHT BY
HIS ene:\iies and goes without
RESISTANCE TO A HURRIED TRIAL
Supplementary Readings :
1. Matthew 26: 30-46 4. Luke 22.'. 47-53
2. Luke 22: 39-46 5. Mark 14: 27-31
3. Matthew 26: 47-56 6. John 18: 1-14
7. Hebrews 4 : 14 — 5 : 10
Passages for Study:
Mark 14: 26. And when they had sung a hymn,
they went out unto the mount of OHves.
32. And they come unto a place which was named
Gethsemane: and he saith unto his disciples, Sit ye
here, while I pray. 33. And he taketh with him
Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly
amazed, and sore troubled. 34. And he saith unto
them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto
death: abide ye here, and watch. 35. And he went
forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed
that, if it were possible, the hour might pass away
from him. 36. And he said, Abba, Father, all things
are possible unto thee; remove this cup from me:
howbeit not what I will, but what thou wilt. 37.
147
148 ABOUT JESUS
And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith
unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldst thou not
watch one hour? 38. Watch and pray, that ye enter
not into temptation: the spirit indeed is wilHng, but
the flesh is weak. 39. And again he went away,
and prayed, saying the same words. 40. And again
he came, and found them sleeping, for their eyes
were very heavy; and they wist not what to answer
him. 41. And he cometh the third time, and saith
unto them. Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is
enough; the hour is come; behold, the Son of man
is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42. Arise, let
us be going: behold, he that betrayeth me is at hand.
43. And straightway, while he yet spake, cometh
Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a multitude
with swords and staves, from the chief priests and
the scribes and the eiders. 44. Now he that betrayed
him had given them a token, saying. Whomsoever
I shall kiss, that is he; take him, and lead him away
safely. 45. And when he was come, straightway
he came to him, and saith. Rabbi; and kissed him.
46. And they laid hands on him, and took him. 47.
But a certain one of them that stood by drew his
sword, and smote the servant of the high priest,
and struck off his ear. 48. And Jesus answered and
said unto them. Are ye come out, as against a rob-
ber, with swords and staves to seize me? 49. I
was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye
took me not: but this is done that the scriptures
might be fulfilled. 50. And they all left him, and
fled.
I. Judas seems to have slipped out from the Last
Supper as soon as he could and hurried away to the
Priests and Scribes. Perhaps he- came back again to
the same place, with a company of temple police. If
ARREST AND TRIAL OF JESUS 14^
so, he found that Jesus had left and in some way he
knew where he would probably find him.
Jesus had gone to a "garden" which, according to
John's Gospel (sixth supplementary reading), he often
visited. Here he divided his disciples into two groups,
an outer group and, farther on in the garden nearer
himself, his three special friends. The first group was
perhaps to watch for the approach of the enemy and
the second to afford Jesus sympathetic support in a
certain terrible experience into which he found himself
entering. It was an experience in which he needed to
have friends near by, while he pressed on beyond them
to' be face to face with God. The three men were
sleep}''. It was late at night and two of them had been
busy the preceding day making preparations for the
Last Supper. But before they fell asleep they saw
Jesus fall on his face in prayer and in the stillness of
the night heard the words that he uttered. Three times
in the intensity of his feeling he went back and forth
between the place where he pra3'ed and the friends from
whom he expected sympathy, but whom he found sleep-
ing. Then suddenly flickering torches and hurried
footsteps in the distance showed that the arresting party
vv'as near, Jesus' long time table companion in the lead,
2. The intensely significant question that confronts
us here concerns the nature and cause of Jesus' ex-
treme distress of mind. He described it as an^ extreme
sorrow that seemed like death to him : "My soul is
exceeding sorrowful even unto death." It vvas a kind
of distress of spirit that almost frightened him. The
expression "amazed" is used in the same sense to de-
scribe the emotion of the women when they saw the
150 ABOUT JESUS
angel at the empty grave of Jesus (Mark i6: 5). There
seems to have been some impending distress into
vi^hich he was already entering and which he wished
to be spared further experience of, if it could in any
way be God's will. It is natural to suppose that a sense
of the disgrace of being betrayed by a table companion
and sorrow over the moral ruin of this chosen friend
were in his mind. The physical suffering of crucifixion
he may have dreaded, though many martyrs have faced
great suffering without exhibiting such distress. Per-
haps it is idle to try to penetrate in imagination into
the consciousness of Jesus. But one or two things
seem to stand out clearly. This distress of mind v^s
the suffering of a Messiah, and of a Messiah to whom
Messiahship was not an "office" but a profound personal
relationship to the Heavenly Father and to his human
brothers. He had thought of his blood as "covenant
blood" binding men and God together. His passion
in life had been to see the earth filled with men who,
with unselfish spirits, would love God and each other.
The great pain of his spirit, therefore, would naturally
be over the wrong doing of men who refused to love
God and each other. Such wrong doing was in pro-
cess of reaching its most flagrant expression. It does
not seem too much to say, therefore, that Jesus was
now beginning to feel the sorrow of the Infinite Father
over the wrong doing of His human children. One
element in the mysterious consciousness of God we
may suppose to be distress over the evil conduct of
the children whom he loves. This element was begin-
ning to rise in the heart of Jesus and it seemed more
than he could endure. Jesus must have often faced
ARREST AND TRIAL OF JESUS 151
the wrong doing of men, but never before had God
so laid upon him the burden of feehng as God himself
feels about human sin. The utmost that a father can
do to redeem a child from bondage to an evil life is
to show the child how the father's heart feels about
his evil life. Rising up in Jesus, the Spirit of the
Heavenly Father's heart made an everlasting revela-
tion of itself in the suffering soul of Jesus. "God was
in Christ reconciling the world unto himself," was later
said by one of Jesus' great disciples (11' Corinthians
5: 19).
3. Jesus received strength to meet "the hour," What
he said to his disciples when he came to them the last
time was perhaps this : "Are you then sleeping and
taking your rest! Enough (of sleep)! The hour is
come!" This arousing summons brought them spring-
ing to their feet. "Arise, let us be going!" Then
came the table companion straight to Jesus and re-
peatedly and affectionately kissed him ! Jesus protested
indignantly against the cowardly manner of his arrest.
They had come out with knives and clubs in the night,
as if he were a robber, instead of boldly arresting
him while he was addressing the public in the temple
courts. Jesus recognized in their conduct not only
cowardice but a distinct purpose, which will appear
later also, to cheapen him — to treat him not as a false
prophet or a spurious Messiah but as a cheap criminal.
The disciples all slipped away among the trees in the
darkness 1
Questions :
What were the disciples to watch for and what to
152 ABOUT JESUS
pray for (v. 38)? What "temptation" did Jesus have
in mind?
What did he mean by the "spirit" being "wilhng"?
WilHng to what? What did he mean by the "flesh"?
What do you think were the "cup" and the "hour"
that Jesus wished to be spared? Did God spare him,
and, if not, why not?
What was Jesus' chief concern?
''Slcepest thou?" {v. 37). It may he that our Lord
still has times of special divine suffering over specially
flagrant manifestations of human hate and treachery.
At such times his disciples who are "alive to God" must
not be found sleeping.
STUDY XXVI
JESUS IS CONDE^IXED TO DEATH BY
THE JEWISH COURT AS A BLASPHEM-
OUS FALSE CHRIST AND THE ROMAN
PROCURATOR RELUCTANTLY EN-
DORSES THE SENTENCE
Supplementary Readings :
1. Matthew 26 : 57-75 4. Luke 22, : 1-25
2. Matthew 27: 1-26 5. Mark 15: 16-20
3. Luke 22 : 54-71 6. John 18 : 28-40
7. John 19: 1-16
Passages for Study :
Mark 14: 53. And they led Jesus away to the high
priest: and there come together with him all the
chief priests and the elders and the scribes.
55. Now the chief priests and the whole council
sought witness against Jesus to put him to death;
and found it not. 56. For many bare false witness
against him, and their witness agreed not together.
57. And there stood up certain, and bare false wit-
ness against him, saying, 58. We heard him say, I
will destroy this temple that is made with hands,
and in three days I will build another made without
hands. 59. And not even so did their vy'itness agree
together. 60, And the high priest stood up in the
153
154 ABOUT JESUS
midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou
nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?
-6i. But he held his peace, and answered nothing.
Again the high priest asked him, and saith unto
him. Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
62. And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son
of man sitting at the right hand of power, and
coming v/ith the clouds of heaven. 63. And the
high priest rent his clothes, and saith. What further
need have we of witnesses? 64. Ye have heard the
blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned
him to be worthy of death. 65. And some began to
spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet
him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the officers
received him with blows of their hands.
Mark 15: i. And straightway in the morning the
chief priests with the elders and scribes, and the
whole council, held a consultation, and bound Jesus,
and carried him aw^ay, and delivered him up to
Pilate. 2. And Pilate asked him. Art thou the King
of the Jews? And he answering saith unto him,
Thou sayest. 3. And the chief priests accused him
of many things. 4. And Pilate again asked him,
saying, Answerest thou nothing? behold how many
things they accuse thee of. 5. But Jesus no more
answered anything; insomuch that Pilate marvelled.
6. Now at the feast he used to release unto them one
prisoner, whom they asked of him. 7. And there was
one called Barabbas, lying bound with them that
had made insurrection, men who in the insurrection
had committed murder. 8. And the multitude went
up and began to ask him to do as he was wont
to do unto them. 9. And Pilate answered them,
saying. Will ye that I release unto you the King
of the Jews? 10. For he perceived that for envy
the chief priests had delivered him up. 11. But the
JESUS CONDEMNED TO DEATH 155
chief priests stirred up the multitude, that he should
rather release Barabbas unto them. 12. And Pilate
again answered and said unto them, What then
shall I do unto him whom ye call the King of the
Jews? 13. And they cried out again, Crucify him.
14. And Pilate said unto them. Why, what evil hath
he done? But they cried out exceedingly. Crucify
him. 15. And Pilate, wishing to content the multi-
tude, released unto them Barabbas, and delivered
Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.
I. The plan of the Priests and Scribes at once became
evident. It was to try, condemn, and execute Jesus
before word about what was going on could be circu-
lated through the city. The High Court was already
assembled, ready for action, when the temple police
about midnight brought Jesus before it.
It became evident also that the Court planned to
condemn Jesus if possible on some cheap disreputable
charge. This would enable the Court in some degree
to avoid the general indignation which would naturally
follow the execution of a popular prophet. Further-
more it would greatly help the standing of the High
Priest and his family with the Roman authorities. If
the Court should condemn Jesus as a messianic revolu-
tionist, it would be greatly to the discredit of this family
that they had allowed a revolutionary movement to grow
to the dimensions attained by the Jesus movement with-
out taking action earlier. The Roman government
would see to it that some more competent family held
the high priesthood.
The first stage in the trial, therefore (vs. 55-56), was
an effort to convict Jesus on some one of several
156 ABOUT JESUS
charges— perhaps among them the charge that he had
been a Sabbath breaker. The testimony on these points
was not such as to meet the rules of evidence that pre-
vailed in the court usage. There had not been time to
see to these details beforehand, especially as it was
necessary to keep the proposed arrest and trial secret.
In the second stage (vs. 57-59) certain witnesses were
found who testified that Jesus had threatened to destroy
the Temple. If this charge could have been proved, the
indignation of all classes of people would have been
roused against Jesus. Jesus* assumption of authority
in the temple courts, his violent expulsion of the traders,
and his public criticism of the Priests gave a little color
to this charge, but the evidence was inadequate.
In the third stage (vs. 6o-6ia) the High Priest tried
to get Jesus to say something regarding these various
charges that could be used as evidence against him.
Jesus did not propose to have his case pulled down to
the level of any of these cheap charges and kept silent.
Finally the High Priest, rather than let the case drag
on or utterly fail, reluctantly opened the way for a
dignified charge to be brought against Jesus. He seemed
to have had some reason for surmising that Jesus had
messianic aspirations. Perhaps a part of Judas' treach-
ery had been the disclosure of Jesus' messianic secret.
The Priest directly asked Jesus whether he regarded
himself as the Messiah. To this question Jesus gave an
unqualified assent, taking pains only to imply that it
was Messiahship of the Son of Man type, rather than
of the military Son of David type, that he asserted for
himself. He also said that they who were now sitting
in judgment upon him would all one day experience his
JESUS CONDEMNED TO DEATH 157
judgment of them (v. 62). According to Matthew's
Gospel, Jesus' form of assent to the High Priest's in-
quiry was: ''Thou hast said." This perhaps laid on the
High Priest the responsibility for bringing out into the
open a fact which Jesus felt that God had long required
him to keep secret.
As soon as this reply was made by Jesus the Court
found itself in possession of evidence sufficient to
sustain a charge of "blasphemy" and immediately con-
demned Jesus to death. There may be some question
as to whether a false Messiah was technically guilty
of blasphemy, but there could be no doubt that an asser-
tion of Messiahship was blasphemous, when made by
such a person as the Priests and Scribes insisted on con-
sidering Jesus to be. It was thoroughly proper to spit
on such a person (v. 65) !
2. Early the next morning, in the cool of the day, when
the Roman Procurator would be ready to do business,
the court officials asked him for the necessary endorse-
ment of their sentence. They took pains to present
their charge in language that emphasized its political
aspect: "King of the Jews." Nevertheless at this junc-
ture they nearly lost their prisoner. The Procurator
had evidently had his eye on the Jesus movement for
some time and was convinced that it had no political
significance. His spies had probably been in the crowds
when Jesus in his "teaching" made his public attack on
the Priests at the Temple. The opposition of the Priests
seemed to him simply due to their fear that a popular
prophet would interfere with their shady schemes (15:
10). Pilate, too, was much impressed by Jesus' be-
havior. Ordinarily criminals utilized their interview
158 ABOUT JESUS
with him to present a passionate appeal for mercy or
denial of guilt, but Jesus remained absolutely silent
after admitting the truthfulness of the charge (vs.
2-5). For a few moments Pilate thought he saw his
way otit. A local city crowd happened just at this
point to come to his office, asking for the annual favor
of the release of some popular prisoner. Pilate instantly
said : "Here is your popular prisoner, the 'King of the
Jews!'" The Priests, frightened at the possibility of
seeing their prisoner finally slip through their fingers
after all their success so far, hurried around among
the crowd and influenced them to call for a certain
well known insurrectionist.
The Procurator, who well knew the excitable temper
of a Jerusalem crowd at Passover time, wished to get
through the week as peacefully as possible. He there-
fore laid aside his scruples, endorsed the death sentence
of the Court, and gave Jesus over to the scourgers in
the barracks.
Questions :
What features of Jesus' character appear most clearly
in his trial?
Jer.us, simply by virtue of being what he was, brought
out the true character of all who were long in his pres-
ence. What out-standing features in the character of
the leading men of the Court appear in the trial of
Jesus?
What features in the character of Pilate were brought
to light by his interview with Jesus? Did Pilate know
anything about himself in the evening that he had not
known in the morning?
JESUS CONDEMNED TO DEATH 159
A man is himself judged zvhen he stands before a
great zvork of art, a great personality, or a great cause
and passes judgment upon them.
"'What think ye of Christ,' friend? when all's done
and said,
Like you this Christianity or not?
It may be false, but will you wish it true?
Has it your vote to be so if it can?"
— Browning, "Bishop Blougram's Apology."
STUDY XXVII
JESUS IS EXECUTED IN THE MIDST OF
THE JEERS OF PRIESTS AND SCRIBES,
DIES SOON AND IS BURIED BEFORE
SUNSET
Supplementary Readings :
1. Matthew 2'] : 33-44 4. Luke 23 : 44-56
2. Matthew 27: 45-61 5. John 19: 17-27
3. Luke 23: 33-43 6. John 19: 28-42
7. II Corinthians 5 : 14-21
Passages for Study :
Mark 15: 21. And they compel one passing by,
Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, the
father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them,
that he might bear his cross. 22. And they bring
him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being inter-
preted, The place of a skull. 23. And they offered
him wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it
not. 24. And they crucify him, and part his gar-
ments among them, casting lots upon them, what
each should take. 25. And it was the third hour,
and they crucified him. 26. And the superscription
of his accusation was written over, the King of
the Jews. 27. And with him they crucify two rob-
bers; one on his right hand, and one on his left.
29. And they that passed by railed on him, wagging
160
JESUS EXECUTED AND BURIED i6r
their heads, and saying, Ha! thou that destroyest
the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself,
30. and come down from the cross. 31. In like man-
ner also the chief priests mocking him among them-
selves with the scribes said, He saved others; him-
self he cannot save. 32. Let the Christ, the King
of Israel, now come down from the cross, that we
may see and believe. And they that were crucified
with him reproached him. 33. And when the si-th
hour was come, there was darkness over the whole
land until the ninth hour. 34. And at the ninth hour
Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 35. And some
of them that stood by, when they heard it, said,
Behold, he calleth Elijah. 36. And one ran, and
filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed, and
gave him to drink, saying, Let be; let us see whether
Elijah Cometh to take him down. 37. And Jesus
uttered a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. 38.
And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from
the top to the bottom. 39. And when the centurion,
which stood by over against him, saw that he so
gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the
Son of God.
42. And v/hen even was now com.e, because it was
the Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,
43. there cam.e Joseph of Arimathaea, a councillor
of honourable estate, who also himself was looking
for the kingdom of God; and he boldly went in unto
Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. 44. And
Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and call-,
ing unto him the centurion, he asked him whether
he had been any while dead. 45. And when he
learned it of the centurion, he granted the corpse
to Joseph.
i62 ABOUT JESUS
I. -After Jesus had been scourged and the soldiers in
the barracks had made sport of the royal aspirations
for which he was to be crucified, he was conducted to
execution by a squad of four soldiers. Two other con-
demned men sentenced to die on this day were executed
at the same time and place. Perhaps the early Chris-
tians saw a certain fitness in the fact that Jesus, who
liad always associated with "sinners" in his life-time,
should also die with a robber on either side. A man
from Cyrene in North Africa for some reason was
-compelled by the soldiers to carry Jesus' cross. Two
of this man's sons afterward became Christians and
later, in the region where Mark's Gospel was com-
piled, were distinguished because their father had done
this for Jesus in his dark hour.
Philanthropic women in Jerusalem regularly prepared
drugged wine to deaden the pain of the crucified. Jesus
refused this ministration. He did not know what God
might wish to do for or through him in the great hour
which had come to him by God's appointment. He
wished, therefore, to be in full possession of his senses.
Friends might venture near for last words or some
•opportunity to comfort those on either side might
•develop.
The cross was set up near a well-frequented highway
and those who passed by seemed to think that Jesus
was being crucified because he threatened to attack the
Temple (v. 29), although this was not the crime specified
on the tablet above his head. Perhaps the Priests took
pains to circulate the information that Jesus had planned
to do this. By smirching his reputation in this way,
ihey would protect themselves against popular criticism
JESUS EXECUTED AND BURIED 163
of their action. Both Priests and Scribes (v. 31) were
walking about near the cross gloating over their tri-
umph, and saying things to each other for Jesus to hear.
He had pretended to be the messianic Dtliverer of
the nation, but he could not even deliver himself 1 Even
the two robbers on either hand turned their heads and
added their bitter jeers. According to Luke's Gospel,
one of them changed nis attitude before the day was
over (third supplem.entary reading). As the hours
wore on he saw that Jesus hurled no curses upon those
who ridiculed him and spoke no bitter word. He was
profoundly impressed by such conduct. He cannot have
thought that a person in such a situation could possibly
be the Messiah. Even Jesus' own disciples gave up that
idea. Jesus must have seemed to him a man of fine
spirit who w^as the victim of a messianic delusion.
Toward the end of the day with a half humorous friend-
hness he turned his head and said, "Jesus, when you
come in your kingdom, remember me !" Jesus, who saw
in this expression of good-wdll the germ of faith, told
him that they would be walking together in the Beauti-
ful Garden before sunset.
An awesome shadow lay over the whole region from
noon until three o'clock. At that time Jesus in a very
strong voice, unweakened by suffering, uttered the first
sentence of the twenty-second Psalm. It is a Psalm
which In its first part describes Intense suffering, in
language very applicable to a man being crucified,^ but
which in Its last part describes the triumph of right-
eousness over all the earth In "Jehovah's Kingdom."
Jesus may have lived in this Psalm for weeks, and may
have now been comforting himself with Its great ideas.
i64 ABOUT JESUS
Some one standing near the cross thought, or pre-
tended to think, that Jesus was calling for Ehjah and
asked perrnission to saturate a sponge with sour wine
from the jar placed near for the use of the soldiers
and put it into Jesus' mouth, to encourage him to keep
on calling for Elijah. Perhaps Elijah would come!
^Just at this time Jesus uttered a great cry, either of
victory or distress, and suddenly died. The Roman
centurion noting all the circumstances of his death—
the awesome shadow, the great shout— said that Jesus
surely was "a son of god" or "a son of a god." Per-
liaps he had heard the word used in its Jewish sense
as a messianic title, but to his Roman mind it probably
designated a heroic person descended from the gods.
2. One of the members of the Great Court who had
known of the action of the Court but had not taken
part in it, went at once to the Roman Procurator and
asked permission to bury the body of Jesus. The
Procurator could not believe that Jesus had died so
soon, for the crucified sometimes lived for days. He
suspected some trick on the part of Jesus' friends to
rescue him from death, but when the officer superin-
tending the execution assured him that Jesus was dead,
he granted the request.
Questions :
In Study XXV Paul's great statement about the
death of Jesus was quoted: "God was in Christ recon-
ciling the world unto himself." The evening before
his death Jesus had said, according to John's Gospel
(14: 9), that whoever had seen him had seen the
Pather. This would have been equally true the next day
JESUS EXECUTED AND BURIED 165
as Jesus hung on the cross. What may men learn about
the heart of the Heavenly Father by studying the words
and conduct of Jesus on the cross? That is, would
our idea of God lack anything that it now includes, if
we did not know these details about the suffering death
of Jesus?
Is there anything about the death of Jesus that tends
to make men better?
What does the narrative represent to have been the
actual effect of the crucifixion of Jesus upon the various
individuals who appear about the cross?
"When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss.
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small ;
Love so amazing, so divine.
Demands my soul, my life, my all."
— Isaac Watts.
STUDY XXVIII
AFTER DEATH JESUS APPEARS TO HIS
DISCIPLES AND ASSURES THEM
THAT GOD HAS GIVEN HIM POWER
TO CONTINUE WORKING WITH THEM
FOR THE COMING OF THE NEW AGE
Supplementary Readings :
1. I Corinthians 15: i-ii 4. Luke 24: 13-35
2. Matthew 27 : 62 — 28 : 15 5. Luke 24 : 36-50
3. Luke 24: 1-12 6. John 20: 1-18
7. John 20 : 19-29
Passages for Study :
Mark 15: 47. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the
mother of Joses beheld where he was laid. 16:
I. And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene,
and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought
spices, that they might come and anoint him. 2.
And very early on the first day of the week, they
come to the tomb when the sun was risen. 3. And
they were saying among themselves. Who shall
roll us away the stone from the door of the tomb?
4. and looking up, they see that the stone is rolled
back: for it was exceeding great. 5. And entering
into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the
right side, arrayed in a white robe; and they were
amazed. 6. And he saith unto them, Be not amazed:
ye seek Jesus, the Nazarene, which hath been cruci-
166
JESUS APPEARS TO DISCIPLES 167
fied: he is risen; he is not here: behold, the place
where they laid him! 7. But go, .tell his disciples
and Peter, He goeth before you into Galilee: there
shall ye see him, as he said unto you. 8. And they
went out, and fled from the tomb; for trembling
and astonishment had come upon them: and they
said nothing to any one; for they were afraid.
Matt. 28: 16. But the eleven disciples went into
Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had ap-
pointed them. 17. And when they saw him, they
worshipped him; but some doubted. 18. And Jesus
came to them and spake unto them, saying. All
authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on
earth. 19. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of
all the nations, baptizing them into the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
20. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world.
Acts i: 4. And being assembled together with
them, he charged them not to depart from Jeru-
salem, but to wait for the promise of the Father,
which, said he, ye heard from me: 5. for John in-
deed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Acts 2: 32. This Jesus did God raise up, whereof
we all are witnesses. 33. Being therefore by the
right hand of God exalted, and having received of
the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath
poured forth this, which ye see and hear.
I. All through the long day of the crucifixion a little
group of distressed women, far enough from the cross
to avoid the insults of the soldiers and other spectators,
were watching the scene. They had doubtless hoped
that the sight of them at a distance would be a comfort
i68 ABOUT JESUS
to Jesus. They saw where his dead body was laid in
the late afternoon. The Sabbath began at sunset, so
there was no opportunity that evening to buy the spices
ordinarily used in preparing bodies for burial. When
the Sabbath ended at sunset twenty-four hours later,
they bought spices and hoped to find some way of using
them early the next morning. When they reached the
vault at sunrise they found the large wheel-shaped stone,
that had been, as usual placed across the low doorway
to keep out dogs or human intruders, rolled away.
When they entered, they found a young man clothed in
white who told them that Jesus had risen from the
dead and would meet his disciples in Galilee, at some
place which it is assumed they would think of as a
natural place of resort (16:7). The women regarded
the young man who spoke with such authority as a
supernatural being and hurried away frightened from
the place. According to the account which appears in
Matthew's Gospel, the eleven disciples met Jesus at
some familiar place in the hill country of Galilee —
perhaps on "the mountain" where the Twelve had been
selected (Mark 3: 13) and where various other import-
ant meetings had probably been held.
2. Various interesting questions naturally arise re-
garding this period in the history of the disciples. The
outstanding fact is that in some way the personality of
Jesus made its presence unmistakably evident to the
disciples and produced in them certain convictions
which transformed their despair into an abiding enthusi-
asm. This enthusiasm lasted not only throughout their
lives but has in various forms characterized the experi-
ence of Christian men ever since.
JESUS APPEARS TO DISCIPLES 169
The source of their enthusiasm was not the fact that
Jesus was still in existence. The section of the nation to
which they belonged had no serious doubt about con-
tinued existence after death. If the}'^ still held Jesus to
have been a great prophet, they would have thought of
him as existing in the realms of the dead with the great
prophets of the past. If they were tempted to believe
with the Scribes that Jesus had really been in league
with Satan and that his messianic pretension had there-
fore proved him to be an Anti-Christ, they would have
thought of him as having returned to the realm of
Satan. The source of their enthusiasm was the fact that
Jesus appeared to them, filled with all his former en-
thusiastic conviction that he was God's Messiah fully
empowered to move forward as leader in the Great
Enterprise. He assured them that all power had been
given to him and^that he would continue to work with
and through them until the Old Age should come to an
end and the civilization of the New Age be established.
(Matthew 28: 18, 20.) In confirmation of this expecta-
tion he promised them that they would soon receive
certain experience of the touch of God upon their
spirits. This would be Jesus' signal to them that he
was with God in the unseen world, that his eyes were
always upon them, and that he was continuing to work
powerfully with them in preparing the lives of men
for the New Age (Acts 2 : 33).
3. It has been the experience of men generation after
generation that as they let their affections follow the
personality of Jesus out into the unseen world they
find a profound spiritual inspiration coming back to
them, which redeems them from bondage to the selfish
I70 ABOUT JESUS
life and more and more fastens upon them the disposi-
tion and purpose that are seen to have characterized
the life of Jesus on earth. This redeeming spiritual
inspiration which God brings into the lives of men
through the personality of Jesus Christ, the Living Lord,
naturally appears in different forms according to per-
sonal temperament and current habits of thought. Its
unvarying, central feature is love, the very love of God.
"The love of God has been poured out in our hearts
through the Holy Spirit" (the Epistle of Paul to the
Romans 5:5). Different phases of the loving heart
appear in another statement made by Paul : "The fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control" (Gal-
atians 5 : 22-23).
Questions :
Judging from the knowledge we have of Jesus' life
on earth, and assuming the continued existence of his
immortal spirit, what would naturally be his dominant
desires today?
Where should we naturally look for evidence that
Jesus is still concerned about the life of an individual
man? Or about the development of world civilization?
What are any of the conditions that one might natu-
rally expect to have to meet, in order to have any expe-
rience of the power of Jesus?
"Where Is your Lord?
Seated on God's right hand,
Captain of Heaven's host.
Directing campaigns grand
On some removed coast
JESUS APPEARS TO DISCIPLES 171
Of Eternity's vast sea —
So far above
Man's highest love
He cannot reached be?
"Where is your Lord?
At God's right hand in sooth :
Where'er his servants brave
Are fighting for the truth,
That all the world may have
His larger life. 'Tis hyre
The Christ is 'found :
His accents sound
Within your soul — so near !
"Where is your Lord?
Within the daily round
Of duty. God's command
For you just now's the sound
Of the Master's voice. Stand
To your hard task! Be true
To your ideal !
God's will's the real —
Your Lord dwells there for you."
— Doremus Scudder.
STUDY XXIX
THE VICTORIOUS CAMPAIGN OF
TESTIMONY
Si
JPPLEMENTARY READINGS :
I.
Acts 2: 14-36 '4.
Acts 4:
1-22
2.
Acts 2 : 37-47 5.
Acts 4:
23-35
3.
Acts 3: 1-26 6.
Acts 8 :
26-40
7. Acts 26:
2-29
Passage for Study :
Acts i: I. The former treatise I made, O Theo-
phiius, concerning all that Jesus began both to do
and to teach, 2. until the day in which he was re-
ceived up, after that he had given commandment
through the Holy Ghost unto the apostles whom
he had chosen: 3. to whom he also shewed himself
alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing
unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking
the things concerning the kingdom of God: 4. and,
being assembled together with them, he charged
them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for
the promise of the Father, which, said he, ye heard
from me: 5. for John indeed baptized with water;
but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not
many days hence. 6. They therefore, when they were
come together, asked him, saying, Lord, dost thou at
this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 7. And he
said unto them. It is not for you to know times or
172
THE CAMPAIGN OF TESTIMONY 173
seasons, which the Father hath set within his own
authority. 8. But ye shall receive power, when the
Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be my
witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
I. Jesus' vision of life in the New Age as we have
seen it in previous Studies has had three great features.
It is a world civilization in which every man looks up
to God as his Father, with a growing awareness of a
vast unseen world of which he is a part ; in which each
man in the midst of the day's work looks out upon
all other men with a kindling desire to work with
them for the common good in all possible ways and
at any cost ; in which each man in the midst of the day's
work looks forward with a growing expectation of
immortality. Jesus felt himself thrust forward by
God to lead the human race into this kind of life.
Responsibility under God for world leadership was the
central idea of Jewish Messiahship, even in its coarser
forms. That which was narrowly national and transient
in the common Jewish idea of Messiahship soon dropped
away. The whole idea of Messiahship came in time
to be regarded as a kind of temporary form assumed
by an everlasting fact. "Christ" ceased in large meas-
ure to be used as a title, "The Christ," and became a
part of the personal name "Jesus Christ" or "Christ
Jesus." The Jewish title "Son of God," which had
originally been thought a fit title for any good king,
gained a new meaning, demanded b}^ the new experi-
ence of God which men found themselves having in
connection with allegiance to the immortal Spirit of
Jesus. Into whatever sphere of thought the wonderful
174 ABOUT JESUS
Christian experience made its way, it instinctively took
the highest titles that it found and applied them to
Jesus. No lesser titles could do justice to the wonder-
ful experience. "Lord" and "Saviour," which were titles
that had rich religious meaning in both Jewish and
Greco-Roman usage, naturally became widespread desig-
nations of Jesus — "Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
This Christian experience has persisted through the
Christian centuries. Generation after generation Jesus
Christ, the Living Lord and Saviour, has stood out
as the immortal personality through whom God is
leading the race into the life it ought to live.
The purpose of Jesus seems to have been to gather
men into a brotherhood about himself as Leader and
to bind this brotherhood forever to God. So far as
individual lives are concerned, he wished to share with
them through the contagion of spiritual fellowship his
own faith in the Heavenly Father, his own sense of
human brotherhood, his own confidence in immortality.
2. Jesus' program for the accomplishment of his
great mission was a campaign of testimony on the
part of his disciples. He gave to the first disciples a
sense of being his "witnesses" (i: 8), that is, persons
able to testify to something on the basis of their per-
sonal experience with him. Such testimony he felt
sure would bring the great result to pass. After he
passed into the unseen world it involved, of course,
a report of research in the sphere of unseen reality.
Men on the basis of certain historical evidence let their
affections and desires follow the personality of Jesus
out into the unseen world and found responsive reality
there. This gave them material for their "testimony."
THE CAMPAIGN OF TESTIMONY 175
The Christian witness is able to say : "I have determined
at any cost to make Jesus' threefold ideal of life my
own and have reached out to the immortal Spirit of
Jesus, the Living Lord, for help in realizing it." The
result has been the beginnin"^ of a new success. To
some the beginning comes as a distinct experience.
Others find themselves living the life, but do not know
how and when it began.
Jesus' point is that a multitude of men able honestly
and earnestly to bear this testimony, sometimes in
words, always in action, will transform the civilization
of the world, all its laws and social institutions. When
one man in the midst of this great and growing Chris-
tian experience stands on the threshold of another man's
life, he will find himself possessed of "power" to be
or do or say something there that will successfully
summon the other man to come forth and join him in
God's Great Enterprise.
Such an approach to another man does not involve
preaching at him, or handing something down to him
from a point of personal superiority. It is simply com-
ing to him on the level to share with him if possible
a great value. This readiness to share every value
with others is the very genius of Christianity. Any
one who will not be true to the demands of this spirit
cannot permanently hold Christian values. "From him
shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to
have."
Questions :
How much Christian experience should a man have
before he makes some effort to share it with another?
176 ABOUT JESUS
Should a man feel any interest in another man's reli-
gion? If so, why?
If he feels such interest to be justifiable, should he
ever endeavor to influence the religious experience of
another? If so, how should he proceed to do it?
"Needs must there be one way, our chief
Best way of worship : let me strive
To find it, and when found, contrive
My fellows also take their share !
This constitutes my earthly care :
God's is above it and distinct.
For I, a man, with men am linked,
And not a brute with brutes ; no gain
That I experience, must remain
Unshared."
— Browning, "Christmas Eve."
STUDY XXX
WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT JESUS?
Supplementary Readings :
1. Acts 2: 36-47 4. Acts 9: 1-22
2. Acts 8 : 4-24 5. Acts 10 : 34-48
3. Acts 8: 25-40 6. Acts 16: 16-34
7. Acts 17: 16-34
Passage for Study :
Romans 10: i. Brethren, my heart's desire and my
supplication to God is for them, that they may be
saved. 2. For I bear them witness that they have
a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3. For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and
seeking to establish their own, they did not subject
themselves to the righteousness of God. 4. For
Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to
every one that believeth. 5. For Moses writeth that
the man that doeth the righteousness which is of
the law shall live thereby. 6. But the righteousness
which is of faith saith thus. Say not in thy heart,
Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring
Christ down:) 7. or. Who shall descend into the
abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)
8. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in
thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of
faith, which we preach: 9. because if thou shalt con-
fess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt be-
177
178 ABOUT JESUS
lieve in thy heart that God raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved: lo. for with the heart man be-
lieveth unto righteousness; and with the mouth con-
fession is made unto salvation.
The message of Christianity has always been : "Be-
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved."
To be ''saved" is to be saved from a daily life of
increasing selfishness and its consequent moral ruin
to a daily life of growing unselfishness and its conse-
quent moral health.
The unselfish life to which we are saved is that
which takes due account of others. It yields to God
the loving obedience due to a Heavenly Father, and
to men the invincible friendliness due to brothers.
We are said to be "saved" to the life of growing
unselfishness by "believing in the Lord Jesus Christ."
To believe in a person is to accept him on good evi-
dence for what he is represented to be and to treat
him accordingly.
Jesus Christ appears as the revelation of the
Heavenly Father, in terms of human life, death, and
immortal spiritual presence. "No man hath seen God
at any time ; the only begotten Son, who is in the
bosom of the Father, he hath declared him" (John
i: i8). To believe in such a person is to treat him
as he ought to be treated.
There is only one way to treat such a person, and
that is to yield to him the loving, loyal devotion of
our lives.
This necessarily brings us into right relation to the
Heavenly Father, for he is the revelation of the
WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT JESUS? 179
Heavenly Father, and into right relation to all man-
kind, for he is the Great Brother of all men.
Or it may be put in another way : Jesus has appeared
as the divine Lord and Leader of mankind. To be-
lieve in a leader is to adopt the leader's ideals as our
own, at any cost, and then to get from the leader
himself all the inspiration possible for the realization
of the ideals.
We. get from Jesus the great threefold ideal that we
have repeatedly found in his teachings, namely, a life
that in the midst of the day's work looks prayerfully
up to God as a Heavenly Father; a life that in the
midst of the day's work reaches out to effort with all
men for the common good, at any cost ; and a life that
looks down the long future with a kindling hope of
immortality.
Then we reach out in a great spiritual venture to
get from Jesus Christ, the living Lord, the inspiration
we need for the enlarging realization of this great
threefold ideal in our own lives. It is the sense of
the personal friendship of the living, Christ that has
carried thousands of men victoriously through fierce
temptation, that has kept them true and hopeful under
the steady strain of heavy responsibility year after
year, and that has been their unfailing stay in the hour
of death.
The best testimony that the world has known during
the Christian centuries has been the testimony of
experience with the redeeming Spirit of Jesus Christ.
It has come from men and women of all sorts and
kinds.
The experience has had different modes of begin-
i8o ABOUT JESUS
ning — sometimes distinct and triumphant, sometimes
obscure and uncertain. But it has been a deepening
experience that means more and more to the end.
He who in this way beheves on the Lord Jesus
Christ is one who has ''true reHgion" in the Jesus sense.
His hfe in its relation to God and man is a Hfe of
growing sympathy, sincerity, and peace.
Questions: Are you a Christian? If so, why? If
not, why not?
"THE WORD IS NIGH THEE, IN THY MOUTH,
AND IN THY HEART: THAT IS, THE WORD
OF FAITH, WHICH WE PREACH: THAT IF
THOU SHALT CONFESS WITH THY MOUTH
JESUS AS LORD, AND BELIEVE IN THY HEART
THAT GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD,
THOU SHALT BE SAVED."
Date Due
Ap 2 1 '41
BS2420.B748
Thirty studies about Jesus
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