Part 12 (1/2)
231 In this freedoe of tradition Jesus was not alone
John the Baptist's e had been as simple and unsupported by appeal to the elders Jesus and John both revived the e uished them clearly from their ordinary teachers, and held the involved in this authoritative method was a frank appeal to the conscience of men So completely had the scribes substituted ht, that they were utterly dazed when Jesus undertook to settle questions of Sabbath observance and cereious common sense, and consider whether a man is not much better than a sheep, or whether a man is not defiled rather by what comes out of his mouth than by what enters into it (Matt xii 12; Mark vii 15) Jesus was for his generation the great discoverer of the conscience, and for all tiainst finespun theory and traditional practice
All his teaching has this quality in greater or less degree It appears when by means of the parable of the Good Samaritan he makes the lawyer answer his own question (Luke x 25-37), when he bids theto the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John vii 24), when he asks his inquisitors in the tee and superscription the coin they used in common business bears (Mark xii 16) His whole work in Galilee was proof of his confidence that in earnest souls the conscience would be his ally, and that he could in from heaven could enforce his claim
232 Jesus was not only independent of the traditions of the scribes, he was also very free at times with the letter of the Old Testament When by a word he ”ainst the permanent validity of the Levitical ritual When the Pharisees pleaded Moses for their authority in the matter of divorce, Jesus referred theinal constitution of eneral attitude to the Sabbath was not only opposed to the traditions of the scribes, it also disregarded the Old Testament conception of the Sabbath as an institution Yet Jesus took pains to declare that he came not to set aside the old but to fulfil it (Matt v 17) The contrasts which he draws between things said to thes (Matt v 21-48) look at firstaway of the old Jesus did not so conceive theht of them as fresh statements of the idea which underlay the old; they fulfilled the old by realizing eneration He was the most radical teacher therubbish away froht bear fruit, rather than rooting up the old to put so else in its place
233 The Old Testament was for Jesus a holy book His e In the teachings which have been preserved for us he has s from all parts of the Jewish scriptures--Law, Prophets, and Psalms The Old Testale with teuainst his opponents (Mark xii 24-27; ii
25-27), and it was for him an inexhaustible storehouse of illustration in his teaching When inquirers sought the way of life he pointed them to the scriptures (Mark x 19; see also John v 39), and declared that the rising of one fro of those ere unmoved by Moses and the prophets (Luke xvi 31) When Jesus' personal attitude to the Old Testament is considered it is noticeable that while his quotations and allusions cover a wide range, and show very general familiarity with the whole book, there appears a decided predominance of Deuteronomy, the last part of Isaiah, and the Psalms It is not difficult to see that these books are closer in spirit to his own thought than s; his use of the scripture shows that some parts appealed to him more than others
234 Jesus as a teacher was popular and practical rather than systematic and theoretical The freshness of his ideas is proof that he was not lacking in thorough and orderly thinking, for his codoical truth It is all the more re seems to have been almost accidental The most formal discourse preserved to us is the serulated by the thought of God as Father and Searcher of hearts For the rest the great ideas of Jesus have utterance in response to specific conditions presented to hi the Sabbath followed a criticisrain as they passed through the fields on the Sabbath day (Mark ii 23-28); his authority to forgive sins was announced when a paralytic was brought to hiospels indicate, we should have nificance of his own death but for the ambitious request of James and John (Mark x 35-45) Exareatly multiplied He did not seek to be the founder of a school; is were, they take a place in his work second to his personal influence on his followers He desired to win disciples whose faith in him would withstand all shocks, rather than to train experts ould pass on his ideas to others His disciples did become experts, for e to them the vivid presentation we have of the exalted and unique teaching of their Master; but they were thus skilful because they surrendered themselves to his personal s of his own life and thought
235 Nothing in the teaching of Jesus is more remarkable than his confidence that men who believed in hie to the world The parable of the Leaven seeospels to no injunction given by him to write dohat he said and did He impressed himself on his followers, filled them with a love to hiraphic plate is to light, teaching them his truth in forht, but were developed into strength and clearness by the experiences of the passing years Christian ethics and theology are farof Jesus; in so far as they are purely Christian they are the systeh not expressed, in what he said and did in his hly revolutionary Hisin nature, and the hidden noiseless power of an evolution is its characteristic Hence it was that he chose to teach soreat and unfadoht of his time He made it, therefore, the theh the disciples did not understand what he meant, the picture rerew up to his idea
236 Jesus' use of illustration is one of theIn one sense this sienuine Oriental, for to contemplate and present abstract truths in concrete form is characteristic of the Semitic mind In the case of Jesus, however, it proves more: the variety and homeliness of his illustrations sho completely conversant he was alike with common life and with spiritual truth There is a freedoests, as nothing else could, his own clear certainty concerning the things of which he spoke The fact, too, that his hts has made his illustrations unique for profound truth and siurative speech is represented in his recorded words, including forms like irony and hyperbole, often held to be unnatural to such serious speech as his
237 Another figure has become almost identified with the name of Jesus,--such abundant and incomparable use did he make of it Parable was, however, no invention of his, for the rabbis of his own and later ties and prophets ent before theuished from other forms of illustration, the parable is a picture true to actual huious truth The picture may be drawn in detail, as in the story of the Lost Son (Luke xv
11-32), or it may be the concisest narration possible, as in the parable of the Leaven (Matt xiii 33); but it always retains its character as a narrative true to huives parable the peculiar value it has for religious teaching, since it brings unfamiliar truth close home to every-day life Like all the illustrations used by Jesus, the parable was ordinarily chosen as aclear the spiritual truth which he was presenting Illustration never finds place as mere ornament in his addresses His parables, however, were sometimes used to baffle the unteachable and critical Such was the case on the occasion in Jesus' life when attention is first called in the gospels to this(Mark iv 1-34) The parable of the Soould mean little to hearers who held the crude andJesus' contereat truth, and for teachable disciples was full of suggestion and ; while for the critical curiosity of unfriendly hearers it was only a pointless story,--atrampled under foot, and perhaps also to prevent too early a decision against hi is Jesus' ease in handling deepest truth more apparent than in his use of irony and hyperbole in his illustrations In his reference to the Pharisees as ”ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance” (Luke xv 7), and in his question, ”Many good works have I shewed you from the Father, for which of these works do you stone me?”
(John x 32), the irony is plain, but not any plainer than the rhetorical exaggeration of his accusation against the scribes, ”You strain out a gnat and s a camel” (Matt, xxiii 24), or his declaration that ”it is easier for a cah a needle's eye than for a rich doe, ”If a man cometh unto me and hateth not his own father and motherhe cannot be my disciple” (Luke xiv 26) The force of these statements is in their hyperbole Only to an interpretation which regards the letter above the spirit can they cause difficulty In so far as they remove Jesus utterly from the pedantic carefulness for words whichthe rare treasures of his teachings The si that h which a ca, nor will it seek a camel which could conceivably be sed, nor will it stu command to hate those for whom God's law, as emphasized indeed by Jesus (Mark vii 6-13), demands peculiar love and honor The childlike spirit which is heir of God's kingdoainst the snare of riches, this rebuke of the hypocritical life, and this demand for a love for the Master which shall take the first place in the heart
239 Jesus sometimes used object lessons as well as illustrations, and for the saht transparently clear to his hearers The dedom of God was enforced by the presence of a little child who (Mark ix 35-37) The unworthy a hi their feet (John xiii 1-15)
240 The si are not more remarkable than the alertness of mind which he showed on all occasions
The coospel, ”he needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man, for he himself kneas in ht, but it also tells of his quick perception of as involved in each situation in which he found hiht, or the lawyer asking, ”Who isthat his brother divide the inheritance with hi to under his cures to the devil, or trying to entrap hiht unawares
His absorption in heavenly truth was not accompanied by any blindness to earthly facts He knehat theabout, what they hoped for, to what follies they gave their hearts, and what sins hid God frohly acquainted with all that interested his fellows, and in the most natural, human way
Whatever of the supernatural there was in his knowledge did not make it unnatural As he was socially at ease with the best and most cultivated of his day, so he was intellectually the ly than in his dealing with his pharisaic critics When they were shocked by his forgiveness of sins, or offended by his indifference to the Sabbath tradition, or goaded into blasphe influence over the people, or troubled by his disciples' disregard of the traditional washi+ngs, or when later they conspired to entrap him in his speech,--from first to last he was so manifestly superior to his opponents that they withdrew discoth they in ainst who” (John vii 15) was si; he had no diplou, as well as in the clearness of his insight, he was ever their unapproachable superior His reply to the charge of league with Beelzebub is as merciless an exposure of feeble malice as can be found in human literature He was as worthy to be Master of his disciples' thinking as he was to be Lord of their hearts
241 In the teaching of Jesus two topics have the leading place,--the Kingdoht about himself calls for separate consideration, but it ressed he spoke with increasing frankness about his own claiht to be Lord rather than Teacher simply, and to impress men with himself rather than with his ideas Yet his ideas were constantly urged on his disciples, and they were sudom of heaven This was the topic, directly or indirectly, of far the greater part of his teaching
The phrase was as familiar to his conte of it was radically different from theirs He and they took it to donty over the world (kingdom of God); but of the God whose as thus to be realized they conceived quite differently Strictly speaking there is nothing novel in the idea of God as Father which abounds in the teaching of Jesus He never offers it as novel, but takes it for granted that his hearers are familiar with the name It appears in some earlier writers both in and out of the Old Testament Yet no one of them uses it as constantly, as naturally, and as confidently as did Jesus With him it was the simple equivalent of his idea of God, and it was central for his personal religious life as well as for his teaching ”My Father” always lies back of references in his teaching to ”your Father” This is the key to what is novel in Jesus' idea of the kingdoht of God as the covenant king of Israel ould in his own tiood his pro the nations, establish his law in their hearts, and rule over the The whole conception, while in a real sense religious, was concerned more with the nation than with individuals, and looked rather for tedom is the realization of God's fatherly sway over the hearts of his children It begins when men come to own God as their Father, and seek to do his will for the love they bear him It shows development towards its full manifestation when overn conduct by love which will no ht frorow into a new order of things in which God's will shall be done as it is in heaven, even as from the little leaven the whole luuration, he ht of it as the day of confusion for apostates and Gentiles, he taught that it would be the day of condemnation of all unbrotherliness (Matt xxv
31-46) This central idea--a new order of life in which men have come to love and obey God as their Father, and to love and live for men as their brothers--attaches to itself naturally all the various phases of the teaching of Jesus, including his emphasis on himself; for he made that emphasis in order that, as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, he ht lead e of Truth
242 The note of authority in the teaching of Jesus is evidence of his own clear knowledge of the things of which he spoke As if by swift intuition, his s In the scriptures he saw the underlying truth which should stand till heaven and earth shall pass (Matt v 18); in the cereion he saw so clearly the spiritual significance that he did not hesitate to sacrifice the passing forical development as the pharisaic doctrine of the resurrection he unhesitatingly adopted because he saw that it was based on the ultinificance of the soul's fellowshi+p with God (Mark xiii 24-27); he reduced religion and ethics to si up all commandments in one,--Thou shalt love (Matt
xxii 37-40); and at the same time insisted as no other prophet had done on the finality of conduct and the necessity of obedience (Matt vii
21-27) His penetration to the heart of an idea was nowhere do a judgnizance only of brotherliness of conduct It would not be difficult to show that all these different aspects of his teaching grew naturally out of his knowledge of God as his Father and the Father of all men; they were the fruit, therefore, of personal certainty of ultie of Jesus had been shown only in matters of spiritual truth, it would still have marked him as one apart from ordinary men