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WILLIAM D, MURRAY

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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE UBRARY

JESUS-OUR STANDARD

By
HERMAN HARRELL HORNE
Ph.D. (Habv.)
Professor of the History of Education and the History of Philosophy,
New York University

Rotary of ^
DIVINITY SCHOOll

*y -naven, v--u^-

THE ABINGDON PRESS
NEW YORK CINCINNATI

Copyright, 1918, by
HERMAN HARRELL HORNE

TO
THE BOYS' WORK SECRETARIES
OF THE
YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS
OF THE
UNITED STATES AND CANADA,
MY FRIENDS,
WHO FOLLOW AND TEACH
JESUS AS STANDARD

CONTENTS PAGE
Preface  9
CHAPTER I
THE FIVE IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
I. The Nature of Ideals  19
II. Man as Body and Soul  22
1. The Function of the Body.
2. The Functions of the Soul.
III. The Four Elements of Human Nature  26
IV. The Ideals of Complete Living  26
1. The Physical Ideal.
2. The Volitional Ideal, Including Vocational
and Social.
3. The Emotional Ideal.
4. The Intellectual Ideal.
5. The Spiritual Ideal.
V. Hierarchy of the Ideals  40
VI. Need of a Personal Concrete Ideal  41
VII. Nature of Religion and Christianity  42
VIII. Symbol of Complete Living  43
CHAPTER II
THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
I. The Question of His Heredity  49
II. the Childhood of Jesus  52
III. The Adolescence of Jesus  55
IV. The Growth of the Silent Years  56
V. Influence of His Trade on His Teaching ... 59
VI. His Appearance  61
VII. His Body the Medium of Emotions.  67
5

CONTENTS PAGE
VIII. His Commanding Presence  67
LX. Fatigue, Hunger, and Thirst  69
X. His Strength of Body  70
XI. The Instincts of Jesus  73
XII. The Normality of His Physique  74
XIII. Docetic Views  75
XIV. The Holy Temple  77
XV. His Recognition of the Body  77
1. As Provider.
2. As Healer.
XVI. Unconsidered Questions  82
XVII. The Body for the Sotjl  83
CHAPTER III
THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
I. Jesus and Skill  89
His Appreciation of Vocational Skill.
II. The Personal Goodness of Jesus  102
1. The Temptations.
2. The Character of Jesus.
3. Recognition of Personal Goodness in His
Teaching.
III. The Social Goodness of Jesus  125
1. The Friends of Jesus.
2. His Qualities as a Social Worker.
3. His Social Teachings.
CHAPTER IV
THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
I. His Sense of Humor  150
II. The Gospel of Joy  154
III. His Love of Persons and Nature  157
IV. His Compassion  160
V. The Anger of Jesus  174
VI. The Disappointment of Jesus  178
VII. The Gratitude of Jesus  180
VIII. Hib Sense of Dependence  184
6

CONTENTS PAGE
IX. His Dependence Through Prayer  187
X. Caution, but not Fear  191
XI. The Peace of Jesus  195
XII. Many Other Emotions  197
XIII. Jesus as an Artist  199
XIV. Conclusions  204
CHAPTER V
THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
I. His Intellectual Alertness  207
II. Qualities of His Intellect  209
III. His Love of Truth  212
IV. His Reasoning and Dialectic Skill  214
Illustrations.
V. The Marvel of His Wisdom  228
1. Two Sources of His Knowledge.
2. His Formal Acquisitions.
3. Home Training.
4. School Training.
5. The Wide Range of His Information.
6. Some Things Jesus Did Not Know.
7. Medical and Literary Views.
8. His References to Future Events.
9. Divine Intuition.
10. His Central Truth.
11. The Source of His Consciousness.
12. His Knowledge of the Scriptures.
13. His Rejection of the Scribes as Interpreters.
14. His Originality.
VI. Jesus as Philosopher  250
1. A World of Persons.
(1) God.
(2) Angels.
(3) Man.
(4) Satan.
(5) Demons.
2. The Natural Order. 7

CONTENTS page
3. Sense and Spirit.
4. Time.
5. Space.
6. Progress.
7. Truth.
8. Life.
9. His Sense of His Mission.
VII. Summary  273
CHAPTER VI
THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
I. Nature of Spirituality  277
II. How Jesus Spiritualized His Body and the
Physical Order  278
III. How Jesus Spiritualized the Three Kinds
of Goodness  280
IV. How Jesus Spiritualized Beauty  281
V. How Jesus Spiritualized Truth  282
VI. Spirituality of Jesus Vital and Inclusive . . . 283
VII. His Life Spiritual  284
1. The Temple Incidents.
2. The Baptism.
3. The Temptation.
4. The Kingdom.
5. The Teaching on the Hill.
6. The Miracles.
7. Spiritual Background of Ethical Relations.
8. The Scriptures the Revealing Word of God.
9. Prayer Answered.
10. Children Emblems of the Divine.
11. The Second Coming of Jesus.
12. "The Father" the Spiritual Center.
13. Spiritual Comfort.
14. Spiritual Prayer.
15. Spiritual Sorrow.
16. The Risen Christ.
VIII. Spirituality of Jesus the Standard  297
8

PREFACE
A completed task lies before me, the better
part of a winter's work.
In sincerity I can transcribe a paragraph
from the prefatory note of Elizabeth Stuart
Phelps in her Story of Jesus Christ: "There
has come to me, during the time given to the
growth of this work, an experience always full
of wonder and of charm. Often, on waking
in the morning, after days of the most absorb
ing and affectionate study of the Great Life,
the first conscious thoughts have been: 'Who
was with me yesterday? What noble being
entered this door? In what delightful, in
what high society, have I been!' I felt as if
I had made a new, a supreme acquaintance."
The idea underlying the book is that Jesus
is our standard, both personal and social.
This idea was conceived and the preliminary
draft of this work was made at Lake Couchi-
ching, in August, 1915. Mr. Taylor Statten,
Boys' Work Secretary of the Canadian Y. M.
C. A., had invited me in a series of lectures
to connect the "Canadian Standard Efficiency
Tests" with the life of Jesus. This was done,
9

PREFACE
and the published revision of the Tests con
tain my Preface.
The preliminary form of the "American
Standard Tests" has since used the same basis,
though these Tests are still undergoing re
vision. Now at length appears the full development
of the idea of the fullness of life in Jesus, of
the idea that this life truly viewed is the stand
ard for human personal and social living.
Our efficiency tests under Christian auspices
can use the life of Jesus as their normal ideal.
The now well-known "four-fold development"
— intellectual, physical, religious, and social
(Luke 2. 52) — of the two sets of tests is here
broadened into five through giving independ
ent recognition to the emotional element and
by making the religious or spiritual an en
circling test covering all the others. In prac
tice, in applying the four tests of physique,
goodness, emotions, and intellect, the spiritual
should be a phase of each.
The order of the discussion — the will pre
ceding emotion and the intellect following
both — indicates the voluntaristic viewpoint
throughout. Activity is the primary prin
ciple, emotions are the psychic side of in
stincts in action, and ideas follow acts and
feelings, as well as guide succeeding acts and
10

PREFACE
so produce other feelings. The data have to
be classified in some way, and the classifica
tion into physical, volitional, emotional, intel
lectual, and spiritual has historic value, is as
useful as any other, and also lends itself to
the functional viewpoint; that is, acts, feel
ings, and ideas are modes of adjustment of the
organism to the environment, ideas particu
larly having value as tools of adaptation.
In these tests the historic triangle of the
Association, "body, mind, and spirit," has
already become a square — body, mind, spirit,
and society ; which in turn I should like to see
become a square inclosed by a circle — body,
will, emotion, intellect, and spirit; or, using
the three dimensions, the cube become the
sphere, as worked out in Chapter I.
The life of Jesus has been studied from
countless standpoints, but not, I think, from
this one before. Very little has been written
about the physique and psychology of Jesus.
Dr. G. Stanley Hall's two volumes, Jesus, the
Christ, in the Light of Psychology, which are
likely to prove monumental, have just come
from the press, too late to be considered in
finishing this study.
We have studied Jesus our standard as he
is presented in the Gospels. Into questions
of the credibility of the Gospels we have not
11

PREFACE
entered. It is the Jesus of the Gospels who
is our standard. Christianity is the control of
life by the spirit of Christ, which is equally
possible to men of diverse literary and critical
views of the New Testament. The Gospel
records are taken as the data upon which this
study is based, in interpreting which I am
especially indebted to Hastings's Dictionary
of Christ and the Gospels,1 a very helpful
work recommended to me by Professor Riggs,
of Auburn Theological Seminary. The views
here presented will probably not be found in
consistent with modern sound criticism. For
linguistic and exegetical aid I am also in
debted to Dr. J. P. Taylor.
In treating this theme, in which there are
gaps now of ten and now of eighteen silent
years in a short life of nearly thirty-three, it
is easy to let one's imagination go, and present
Jesus as a boy the best swimmer, runner, and
fellow in Nazareth, and as a young man
traveling for his education in Egypt and India,
etc., but we have resisted this temptation,
and have held to the records and what they
clearly imply. Open the book at random and
your eye will probably light not upon com
ment or preaching, but a statement of some
fact or its implication. Here are neither
»Two volumes. Scribners, New York, 1911-1912.
12

PREFACE
exegesis nor dogmatism, but humanism and
realism. Allow me to associate this study of Jesus
as standard with the labarum of Constantine,
the story of which is briefly told. The labarum
was one form of the Roman military standard,
a kind of banner. When Constantine was on
his way to attack Maxentius, in A. D. 312,
according to the story told by Eusebius, he
had a vision of a flaming cross in the sky at
noonday, with the legend lv tovtu vina ("By
this conquer"). The incident led to the em
peror's conversion to Christianity. Another
version is that the vision was seen by Constan
tine in a dream. Constantine had already
doubtless been impressed by the misfortunes
of the vigorous opponents of Christianity. At
any rate he adopted the monogram jfc, the
Chrismon (;£ = Chr, = "Christos" in Greek,
or Christ) as his device, gave successful
battle to the revolting Maxentius, became the
master of Rome and the West, and gained
toleration for Christianity, hitherto perse
cuted, throughout the empire. Gibbon, how
ever, says that Constantine did not show the
device to the army until 323.
Thus the old Roman cavalry standard, bear
ing the effigy of the emperor, or general, or
a hand or animal as emblem of the legion,
13

PREFACE
became the Christian military standard with
the new emblem of the Chrismon, whose use
was continued by the Christian successors of
Constantine. "Eusebius describes the first
labarum as consisting of a long gilded spear,
crossed at the top by a bar from which hung
a square purple cloth, richly jeweled. At the
upper extremity of the spear was a golden
wreath encircling the sacred monogram,
formed of the first two letters of the name of
Christ. In later days the monogram was some
times embroidered on the cloth. A special
guard of fifty soldiers was appointed to pro
tect the sacred standard."1
Not only did the labarum become the gen
eral standard of the Roman army under Con
stantine and his successors, but the monogram
itself was put on the shields of the soldiers,
and began to appear on tombs and in works
of art as the symbol of Christianity.
The term "labarum" now carries a triple
significance. It is the fighting banner of the
early Christian emperors, it is also a similar
ecclesiastical banner borne in processions of
the Roman Catholic Church, and it is a moral
standard or guide. The point of this book is
that Jesus is our standard, our military and
moral standard, in war and peace. "The Son
1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., art., "Labarum."
14

PREFACE
of God" is still going "forth to war," in his
name we still set up our banners, as soldiers
of Christ we rise and put our armor on, we
test our lives by his. So, throughout the dis
cussion, the practical emphasis appears. Jesus
is standard, ideally; individuals and society
need to make him so, really.
Keeping in mind the things we have not
attempted in these pages will help to prevent
misunderstanding. These things are: a life
of Jesus, a philosophy of Jesus, a theological
interpretation of Jesus, or a criticism of the
Gospels. In contrast with all these, our aim
has simply been to present the Jesus of the
Gospels as our human standard. H. H. H.
Leonia, N. J.
New Year's Eve.

15

CHAPTER I
THE FIVE IDEALS OF COMPLETE
LIVING
"Set ye up a standard in the land."
— Jeremiah 51. 27.

17

CHAPTER I
THE FIVE IDEALS OF COMPLETE
LIVING
I. The Nature of Ideals
Ideals are ideas of remote ends that func
tion. An idea is theoretical, an ideal is prac
tical. An idea is theoretical in the sense that
it is intellectual; an ideal is practical in the
sense that to some extent at least it controls
experience. We may have ideas of things to
be done at once, and we may have ideas of a
plan of life to be realized through the coming
days. The former type of ideas does not pass
into ideals, though it may exemplify ideals.
The latter type of ideas, that is, ideas of remote
ends, does pass into ideals when it begins to
be effective in shaping our experience. An
ideal doing no work sinks back into the region
of the idea whence it came; an idea of a remote
end to be accomplished that shapes our con
duct to some extent becomes an ideal. "Psy
chologically ideals are more or less remote
ends of action whose realization is sought
19

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
through the mediation of reflection and
effort."1
The value of It is our ideals that give value to life ; they
put into our experience those qualities we
deem most valuable. They are the compass
or the star by which we steer our course in
safety and peace. Values come into human
experience through the ability of ideals tena
ciously held to regulate experience. Choices
made in accordance with ideals introduce the
worthier elements into human life, eschewing
the less worthy. Ideals also motivate life;
that is, they give motive and power. By giv
ing us something worthy to live for and to
live by, they call out the latent powers of our
, being. So ideals are valuable because (1) they
i introduce values into life; (2) they regulate
i life; and (3) they motivate life. In fact, with-
\ out ideals man lives out an animal rather than
1 human existence.
The Growth oi Now our ideals grow with our experience.
Saint Paul wrote to the Corinthians : "When
I was a child, I talked like a child, felt like
a child, reasoned like a child; when I became
a man, I put from me childish ways" (Wey
mouth translation). We now smile at the
ambitions and ideals of our childhood. With
1 E. S. Ames, The Psychology of Religious Experience.
Boston, 1910, p. 285. 20

IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
the larger experience comes the clearer vision
of the true, real, and abiding values of life.
But for this vision not to become distorted
it is necessary that one always walk in the
light he has. We must expect our ideals to
move on as we approach them and to change
their formulation as we increasingly realize
them. In fact, from the racial standpoint,
the ideals of barbarism are not those of
savagery, nor are the ideals of civilization those
of barbarism; and it is equally true that the
ideals of Christianity are not those of present
civilization. Ideals have moved on ahead with
the race in its journey, like a pillar of cloud
by day and a pillar of fire by night. Even if
ideals in their essence did not change, but
remained the same yesterday, to-day, and for
ever, still the race's views of those ideals do
change with growth, and this amounts prac
tically to' the ideals themselves changing.
Now, ideals, growing with human experi- weais Express
ence, are a function of human nature. The maan
ideal horse is the perfect horse of his kind;
and so of any animal. All angels, we suppose,
are ideal beings of their kind. But man is
neither lower animal nor angel ; his ideals are
relative to him, his kind, his nature. Human
nature at its possible best gives us the ideals
for man. If we want to know what the ideals of
21

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
man's complete living are, we must know what
human nature is at its best, what its elements
are, what it is possible for each element to
attain in its development. Thus the real is
the basis of the ideal, the real at its best is the
ideal ; the real is the actual, the ideal is what
is possible for the real to become. Such
idealism as this has its feet on the ground,
is practical. Idealism without reference to
what the real can become is visionary. So the
ideals of complete living express the latent
potentialities of human nature.
II. Man as Body and Soul
But what are the elements of human na
ture? To begin with, we say man has a body
and a soul. The term "soul" is synonymous
with self. The precise connection between
man's body and his soul no one knows. Some
suppose the two interact upon each other — the
common-sense, dualistic view — though nobody
can show how. Others suppose the light of
intelligence is thrown off by the body like
sparks from an emery wheel, the soul being
the effect of the body, but so outside the circle
of real events, such an "epiphenomenon" (Hux
ley), that it cannot affect the body. Others
suppose the two run along parallel with each
other, the "parallelistic" view of Fechner.
22

IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
Still others think man has only body and no
real immaterial soul at all — the materialists.
Still others think man has only soul and no
real material body at all — the idealists. And,
again, others think the two, body and soul, are
an identity whose nature is unknown and
unknowable — these are those agnostics who
nevertheless maintain the unity of existence.
These several theories regarding the mutual
relationship of body and soul, though impor
tant in themselves from the speculative stand
point, need not detain us further here. They
all agree in emphasizing two things : the inti
mate relationship of body and soul and our
profound ignorance of just what that relation
ship is. Meanwhile we bridge the gulf of our
ignorance with the hyphen and call man a
"psycho-physical" organism. In this sense we
are all hyphenates. And in our present life
we can dispense with neither side of the
hyphen. 1. The Function of the Body. The function
of the body is to be the medium of adjustment
of soul to its material environment. The body
is material, and so is one with the physical
universe. At the same time through its
arrangement of afferent and efferent nerves,
it effects communion with the soul in some
unknown way. Thus the soul can receive im-
23

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
pressions from the external world by means
of the body and also manifest expressions of
its own nature in the form of reactions upon
the external world.
2. The Functions of the Soul. For the
functions of the soul we consult psychology
and try to verify its findings by looking within
ourselves. There are three main functions of
the soul, each simple in its beginning and com
plex in its conclusion. These three functions
are willing, feeling, and knowing.
willing Willing is the activity of the soul in such
varied forms as instincts, impulses, imitation,
suggestion, habit, choice, and attention. It is
probably the primary function of the soul in
both time and importance.
Feeling Feeling is the accompaniment of the ac
tivity of the soul, agreeable when the activity
is normal, disagreeable when the activity is
abnormal in any way. It appears in manifold
forms in the coarser and finer emotions and
in the sentiments. Feeling is not only an
index to the well-being of the body; it is also
the grand inspirer to activity and the great
giver of warmth and vividness to ideas. It is
the secondary function of the soul.
Knowing Knowing is first the result and then the
guide of activity. It is the content of soul
representative of fact. Some of its complex
24

IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
phases are perception, memory, conception,
imagination, judgment, and reasoning. It
portrays for us in pale fashion the world, our
neighbors, and ourselves. As a rational guide
of conduct it makes conscious progress possi
ble. It is the tertiary and concluding func
tion of consciousness. We need not stop now
to inquire what new function of the soul, if
any, may be budding in the process of its
present racial development.
These three functions of the soul are not overlapping
really distinct from each other, though we ^s^*°
have to discuss them one at the time. They
overlap as a twisted cord composed of three
strands. Our acts give basis for our emotions
and reality to our ideas. Our feelings stimu
late our actions and enliven our ideas. Our
ideas interpret our emotions and guide our
conduct. Thus the soul of man is a unity
in variety, which might be represented by the
following diagram, in which, though each
function has a field of its own, it also overlaps
each of the other two.

25

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
The Interrelated Functions of the Soul

W = willing
F = feeling
K = knowing
III. The Four Elements of Human Nature
To sum up our inquiry regarding the main
constituent elements of human nature: we
find these to be two, the physical and the men
tal; the mental again is threefold, giving us
in all the four phases of human life as the
physical, the volitional, the emotional, and the
intellectual. IV. The Ideals of Complete Living
We have now seen what the elements of
human nature are. But we were led to make
26

IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
this inquiry in order to discover the ideals of
complete living : The ideals of complete living
are the elements of human nature at their .
best. That life is complete each of whose con- [
stituent functions finds its true and satisfying .';
goal. The ends of true living are the fruitions !
of the natural functions of human nature.
What then are these ideals?
1. The Physical Ideal. First, the ideal
for the physical man. There can be no
reasonable doubt that the ideal state of the
body is health. In the condition of health
the body can perform the maximum of work
with the minimum of expenditure. Health
and vigor of body are a golden mean between
asceticism, which subjects the body to the
interests of the soul, and professional athletic
ism, which subjects the soul to the interests
of the body. Asceticism has characterized
periods of emphasis on other- worldliness ;
athleticism periods of emphasis on this-world-
liness. The conservation of health in our days is conservation
receiving especial attention. Among the many of Health
agencies working to prevent ill health and
maintain good health may be mentioned the
"safety first" movements; workmen's compen
sation laws; pure food legislation; the "new
thought" movements in religion ; playgrounds ;
27

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
athletics; physical training; home, school,
and social hygiene; gradation in schools by
physiological maturity; medical supervision
of schools; and the growing general appre
ciation of "God's out-of-doors."
Historic The wise ones of the race have always highly
rfHeaitt0" appreciated bodily health and vigor. To
primitive man bodily strength was a neces
sity for survival. The Greek ideal of Plato
was the beautiful soul in the beautiful body.
The poet Juvenal, with characteristic Roman
emphasis, expresses the ideal as mens sana in
corpore sano. The knights of the mediaeval
period remembered the claims of the body,
though the priests largely forgot those claims.
John Locke, English psychologist and physi
cian, began his Thoughts Concerning Educa
tion in 1692 by looking back to Juvenal as
follows (retaining his capitals) :
Locke Quoted A sound Mind in a sound Body, is a short, but full
Description of a happy State in this World. He that
has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that
wants either of them, will be but little the better for
anything else. Men's Happiness or Misery is most part
of their own making. He whose Mind directs not
wisely, will never take the right Way; and he whose
Body is crazy and feeble, will never be able to advance
In it.
Likewise Carlyle in his famous Edinburgh
rectorial address, given in 1866, when at the
28

IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
age of seventy his gifts were finally recognized
by his fellow countrymen, said :
Finally, I have one advice to give you which is prac- carlyle Quoted
tically of very great importance. You are to consider
throughout, much more than is done at present, and
what would have been a very great thing for me if
I had been able to consider, that health is a thing
to be attended to continually, that you are to regard
it as the highest of all temporal things. There is no
kind of achievement you could make in the world that
is equal to perfect health. What to it are nuggets or
millions? 2. The Volitional Ideal, Including Voca
tional and Social. Turning to the mental side
of existence and recalling its three main ele
ments, what is the ideal for the human will?
Here the sage of Konigsberg, Immanuel Kant,
will help us. He begins his First Section of
the Metaphysics of Morals, written in 1785,
with the striking statement:
Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or Kant Quoted
even out of it, which can be called good without quali
fication, except a Good Will.
A little later occurs this picturesque pas
sage: Even if it should happen that, owing to special dis
favor of fortune, or the niggardly provision of a step
motherly nature, this will should wholly lack power to
accomplish its purpose, if with its greatest effort it
should yet achieve nothing, and there should remain
only the good will (not, to be sure, a mere wish, but
29

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
the summoning of all means in our power), then, like
a jewel, it would still shine by its own light, as a thing
which has its whole value in itself.

Goodness

Three Kinds
of Goodness

Their Inter
dependence

We may properly deny, I think, the term
"good" to the will which for any reason wholly
fails to accomplish its purpose; still it remains
true that the ideal of man's volitional being
is the good will, or, the somewhat vague and
colorless term "goodness." As the end of the
bodily functions is to avoid weakness and
disease and to maintain health, so the end of
the will is to avoid evil and attain the good.
There are at least three kinds of goodness
we may profitably distinguish from each other.
This distinction will reappear in our later
discussion of the goodness of Jesus. These
three are (1) muscular, (2) social, and (3)
personal. These three uses of the term "good"
may perhaps be illustrated by the phrases: a
good mechanic, a good citizen, a good man. A
good mechanic has skill; a good citizen has a
developed social sense; a good man has per
sonal integrity. Muscular goodness is practi
cal; it is skill. Social goodness and personal
goodness are both moral, the one regarding
one's neighbor, the other regarding oneself.
These three kinds of good will should go
together. Skill enables one to be economically
independent; social goodness makes one a
30

IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
power that makes for righteousness in one's
world; personal goodness involves sincerity
and genuineness and inner uprightness. Lack
ing any one of these elements, the good will
is not complete and fully admirable. Without
skill, one is dependent; without aggressive
social righteousness, one is almost a nonentity,
counting for little in the improvement of
human society; without personal integrity,
one is a hypocrite.
Goodness, then, in this rich, comprehensive,
forceful, and complex sense is the ideal for the
human will. The ideal human will is voca- '
tionally skillful, socially righteous, and per
sonally upright. These are the highest ex
pressions of the activity of human nature.
3. The Emotional Ideal. After the will, the
feelings. What is the ideal for the emotional
development of man? It is not easy to say.
The emotional life is so complex, and under
lies so many rich experiences of man, that it
is not easy to single out the emotional ideal.
Perhaps the love of the beautiful would best Beauty
represent the ideal for the emotional element
of human nature. It is no accident that the
terms "lovely" and "beautiful" are synony
mous. Love and beauty go together. The
objects of our affections we tend to idealize
as beautiful, and beautiful things and persons
31

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
tend to call out the emotion of love. Both
Saint Paul and Henry Drummond have
eulogized love as the greatest thing in the
world. The point to be noted is that the object
! we love is regarded as beautiful. So the love
of beauty will be our third ideal of complete
living, along with health and goodness. As
1 the complete life seeks to eliminate disease
and evil, so also it seeks to eliminate ugliness,
both in self and surroundings.
The Need of Without an appreciation of beauty human
Beauty life cannot be regarded as complete. It pro
vides the necessary balance and offset to the
practical necessities of life. Through the
refinement of taste the pleasures of living are
multiplied, the resources of life are increased.
Though indispensable to well-rounded life, the
ideal of beauty has received least independent
recognition. In this discussion we are putting
beauty in the region of the absolute ideals for
human living because it is the true and proper
satisfaction of the feelings of man, and the
feelings are as truly elements of human ex
perience as acts and ideas. The love of beauty,
then, is the emotional ideal of man.
4. The Intellectual Ideal. There remains
yet to seek the nature of the intellectual ideal.
What is the ideal object of the knowing func
tion? We will the good, we love the beautiful,
32

IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
we know the truth. As we seek to avoid the Truth
contradictories of the other ideals, so also here
we seek to avoid both ignorance and error —
ignorance as the absence of knowledge and
error as falsity held to be knowledge. We are
not likely to think lives spent in either igno
rance or error are complete. The knowledge
of the truth is not merely a satisfaction in
itself, it also has a practical value in guiding
conduct. In order to attain a knowledge of the truth
we require both experience and instruction,
both the discerning and the docile mind, both
the love of truth and the willingness to receive.
Here, then, we have four of the absolute j Four-square
ideals of human life, namely, health, goodness, | ving
beauty, and truth. This would make life four- 5
square. The man with only one of these \
ideals, however good in itself, is leading a
linear type of life, with two of the ideals he
is living, as it were, in a plane ; with any three,
life is triangular at best. Only when body,
will, emotion, and intellect, each and all, func
tion well does man lead the foursquare life.
Men really want to live completely ; they want
satisfaction from life. The source of man's
trouble is that he either does not know where
real satisfaction is to be found, or, knowing,
is not ready to meet the conditions. To live
33

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
completely is our most complex and difficult
art. It is the problem of proportional develop
ment, of mutually adjusting different absolute
values. If we think of the foursquare life as
moving through space, we get cubical living.
5. The Spiritual Ideal. Is there any fur
ther ideal? Can any improvement be made
on foursquare, or cubical, lives? There is no
further elementary constituent of human na
ture. Provision has been made in ideal form
for man's body, and for the main functions of
his soul. Yet one thing is lacking. It is pos
sible for the whole man to sense his divine
relationship, his relationship as a whole but
finite being to a whole but Infinite Being. No
God one familiar with the history of religion can
deny both the fact and the reality of this sense
of kinship to the embracing All.
So we have to add yet a fifth ideal to our
list, the ideal of human life consciously lived
in communion and union with Divine Life,
the spiritual ideal. This ideal is God.
Nature of Please note that the basis for this ideal,
which is the religious ideal, is no separate
aspect of human nature but the whole of
human nature in conscious relationship
to the Divine. Not through one private
door exclusively its own, but through all the
familiar doors of human experience does reli-
34

Spirituality

IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
gion enter. This fifth ideal is for the whole
man in his unity, not for man in the phases
of his being as the others are. The so-called
spiritual nature of man is not one element of
his being, like the material, or volitional, or
emotional, or intellectual ; it is the whole man
conscious of his Divine Kinship.
To illustrate. Our enjoyment of health How the Fifth
. ,, "¦ . . , , , . -Liii- Ideal Includes
acquires the spiritual tone when health is the Four
recognized as the result of conformity to the
laws of nature which are the laws of God.
Our goodness becomes spiritual when it is
recognized that the laws of morality are the
laws of God. Our appreciation of beauty is
spiritualized when beauty is traced to its
origin in the perfection of God manifested in
the works of nature and man. And our knowl
edge of the truth acquires a spiritual value
when such knowledge is viewed as the re
thinking of the thoughts of God. Thus our
fifth ideal of God is the unifying and inspiring
ideal of all. The finite here feels its oneness
with the infinite, not in a static but in a func
tional, growing sense. The foursquare life is
here surrounded by the circle. Cubical living
approaches spherical living. The sphere is
our final symbol of complete living, as Froebel
taught with his ball.
The meaning of the term "spirituality,"
35

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
often vaguely conceived, is realizing God's
presence. This is done definitely by means of
health, goodness, beauty, and truth, when
these are recognized as divine values, to be
appropriated by oneself and spread among
others. Through living for the great ends or
ideals of existence, one practically realizes
the Divine Presence. This is real spirituality.
Reflection will probably convince us that these
values are not merely appropriated by man
but are also inspired by God.
A few years ago at a commencement meet
ing of the Harvard Alumni Association, Jus
tice Oliver Wendell Holmes, representing the
class of '61, in a short address that sparkles
like a gem, used this language :
Justice Man is born a predestined idealist, for he is born to
Holmes g^t. To act is to affirm the worth of an end; to persist
' " ' in affirming the worth of an end is to make an ideal.
The stern experience of our youth confirmed the destiny
of fate; it left us feeling through life that pleasures
do not make happiness, and that the root at once of joy
and beauty is to put out all one's powers to a great end.
The following characteristic letter1 of a boy
who is probably old for his years and the
splendid reply of Dr. Frank Crane would help
any one realize the true nature of spirituality :
1 This letter and reply were printed in the New York
Globe, February 13, 1916, and were later circulated by
the Boys' Division of the Y. M. C. A.
36

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
To which Dr. Crane replied :
Yes, my boy, there is a God. You cannot see or hear
Him, but I will tell you how you can feel Him.
Did you ever lie, or cheat, or steal, or treat a smaller
boy cruelly, or be a coward when you should have been
brave? If so, you have felt a hurt inside your mind, a
miserable feeling in your heart, as if you were sick at
your stomach, or as if you had struck your finger with
a hammer. It is God that so makes you hurt.
Have you ever wanted to do something mean, or
nasty, and resisted the desire, put it away from you,
and acted honestly and fair; and have you not noticed
then a good feeling, a sense of inner pride and satis
faction and manhood? It is God that gives you this
good feeling when you play the man.
Have you ever looked up at the sky at night and
remembering what you have been told about the vast
distances of the stars, and that they are worlds like
ours moving through space as fast as cannon halls, have
you never had a feeling of wonder, of how great and
majestic the universe is, and you but a tiny mite in
it all? That feeling of wonder and awe comes from
God. A very wise man, Carlyle, said that worship is
wonder; so that when you see anything that makes
you wonder because of its greatness or beauty or mys
tery, you are really worshiping God, whether the object
be the ocean, the mountain, or a good man or woman.
It is not the police that protect our lives, my boy.
Only a few wicked men come into conflict with the
policemen. But there is something that holds every
man back from cruelty and uncleanness, that stays
the murderer's arm and causes many a woman to
drown herself rather than be vile. That something is
God. He watches over us all and neither slumbers nor
sleeps. None of us understand why He allows so many people
to do wrong, but we feel that there is something in
38

IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
every human breast that makes wrongdoing bring
misery every time.
The most important thing for you to believe about
God is that He is not your enemy, and He is not watch
ing you like a detective to punish you, but that He is
your friend, that He is loving and serving you every
minute of your life.
Listen to your heart beating, as you lie awake in
bed. All night while you are unconscious something
is making your heart beat thus, and your lungs breathe,
and attending to all the functions of your body. That
is God. Nobody has ever yet found a better name.
It is God who rolls the stars in the heavens, who
lifts the sun up in the morning, and guides the moon
at night; who causes the wheat and corn, the trees and
flowers to grow; who brings the birds back from the
south in the spring; who makes the little lambs frolic
and the kittens play; who makes children happy and
grown people kind and patient.
Wherever you find LIFE and GOODNESS and
GREATNESS you may know God is there.
So, my boy, whether your folks are Hebrew or Chris
tian, Buddhist or Mohammedan, even if they are
"nothing at all," you may rest assured that they will
not object to your believing what I have here told you;
and you may be sure also that to believe in God and
to try to feel and follow Him will do more than any
thing else in the world to make you an honest, happy
and brave man, to make those who love you glad be
cause of you, and to make all the world respect and
trust you.

Y^y^L

39

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

At this point a summarizing diagram might
help us, showing the elements of human na
ture on the one hand and the corresponding.
ideals of complete living on the other.
Complete Living
Human Nature

Ideals

Man-

' Body Physical
' Volitional

1. Health

.Soul

Emotional Intellectual 4. Truth

2. Goodness (1) Skill
(2) Social \-5. God
(3) Moral
3. Beauty

V. Hierarchy of the Ideals
Could we arrange these five ideals on a
scale of values? Such an arrangement would
constitute a hierarchy of the ideals. Without
doubt the ideal of God would come first in
importance, as most comprehensive and as
meaning most for life. Next, perhaps, the
ideal of goodness, based on the primary soul
function of activity, and enabling the indi
vidual to survive worthily. Between beauty
and truth it is difficult to choose for third
place, the one based on love and the other on
knowledge. Fortunately, they are compatible
with each other and the question of their rela
tive worth is an abstraction. Most people
have preferred truth. Finally, health, rela-
40

IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
tively of least value, yet having intrinsic
worth of its own and conditioning the effec
tiveness of the soul's functioning.
VI. Need of a Personal Concrete Ideal
A little reflection at this point will indicate
a vital need not yet supplied in our discus
sion. The ideals of health, goodness, beauty,
and truth are all impersonal, while the ideal
of God is infinite. We need a standard life
which sh'all be personal as God is personal
and yet finite as health is finite. Such a stand
ard life would bring the ideals near to us, con
vincing us of their reality and attractiveness.
The ancient Greeks surpassed the Oriental
barbarians in moral education because they
substituted the personal model, Achilles,
Odysseus, etc., for the impersonal and vague
maxim. The religions of the world likewise
have personal founders. So here, we need a
concrete embodiment in personal form of the
ideals of complete living to serve as our in
spiration, guide, model, leader, and Master.
This, we believe, we have in Jesus. In the Jesus
following successive chapters we purpose to
study how he exemplified in his life and recog
nized in his teaching each of the ideals of
complete living hitherto presented. If our
belief that he is the fullness of human life
41

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

What is
Religion?

What Is
Christianity?

appears to be grounded in reason, then may
we unhesitatingly accept him as our standard,
renew our loyalty, and extend our witnessing.
In the light of our fifth ideal, God, and of
our standard life, Jesus, we may at this point
profitably define for ourselves what we mean
by religion and Christianity. We have seen
the four ideals based on the elements of human
nature and the fifth ideal based on the sense
of relationship of the human and Divine. The
first four ideals are matters of common ex
perience, scientific in character, and unescapa-
ble. The fifth ideal is won by religion.
VII. Nature of Religion and Christianity
What is religion? It is the sense of ideal
human values as divine. Religion recognizes
the best things of life as God-given. There is
no way of access to God known to us except
through some human value. If we would find
God, we must find him in human experience
at its highest levels.
Different religions find God revealed by
different means. The Brahman sees God in
everything; the Buddhists, in Buddha; the
Parsis, in Zoroaster; the Confucianists, in
Confucius; the Mohammedan, in Mohammed;
the Jew in the Law; and the Christian, in
Jesus. What, then, is Christianity? Essen-
42

IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
tially, it is the sense of Jesus as Divine. It
recognizes him as the embodiment of ideal
humanity, as the complete life, as God's idea
of what a man ought to be, and as such reveal
ing God's own nature. Such recognition in
volves the control of life by the spirit of Jesus.
The following symbol of complete living
may well serve at this point to sum up all our
preceding discussion.
VIII. Symbol of Complete Living
GOD

There is wonderful suggestiveness in this Meaning of
symbol. In it we see represented the four- e *" °
square life, encompassed by the Infinite, with
the Chrismon at the center. The monogram of
Christ suggests both his office and his cross.
The circle, without beginning or ending, typi-
43

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
fies the Infinite Being. The circle is the limit
of development of the square, and the center
of a square inscribed within a circle coincides
with the center of the circle. So the four
square life of man as it endlessly develops
always approaches God as its limit, though
never departing from Christ as its center.
The triangle of "body, mind, and spirit" is not
so good a symbol of the complete life, because
(1) the term "mind" covers at least three
ideals and (2) "spirit" is not so much one
of the constituent elements of man as the
whole man in Divine relationship.
Such a symbol might well be hung over
one's desk as a daily reminder of the complete
life. Its guidance would suggest to us that
The Day's an ideal daily program includes communion
with God, companionship with Christ, the
service of our fellows, the maintenance of our
integrity, vocation, the enjoyment of beauty,
a step forward in the knowledge of truth, and
right regard for our bodies. By such a plan
we might well set forth in the morning and
correct ourselves in the evening. Not that
the human mind is capable of concentrating
equally on these several things all the time,
but that at no time should we be very far from
any one of them. The domineering one of
them all is certainly the vocation, and to
44

Program

IDEALS OF COMPLETE LIVING
prevent it from becoming an usurping tyrant,
we might well make a special point of not
failing in any of the others. Have a budget
covering your time as well as your money.
The symbol makes Christ the central em
bodiment of the ideals of complete living. By
what right? The following chapters will try
to show, as in succession they present each of
the five ideals of complete living as exempli
fied in the life, and recognized in the teaching,
of Jesus.

45

CHAPTER II
THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
"We test our lives by Thine."
— Whittier.

CHAPTER II
THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
I. The Question of His Heredity
Most people in our day acknowledge the
fact and the importance of heredity, though
a few reject the idea for various reasons. The
ancient Jews did not emphasize physiological
heredity, but they did care a great deal for
the political and religious significance of
ancestral kinship. To be a "son of Abraham"
was fraught with racial and religious signifi
cance ; to be the "son of David" was the choice
rdle reserved for the deliverer who should
come, the Messiah, who also as heir of David
should sit on his throne. Jesus himself sub
ordinated physiological and racial heredity to
spiritual relationship. He said that God
could raise up sons to Abraham from the
stones (Matt. 3. 9), and that whoever did the
will of his heavenly Father was his mother,
brother, and sister (Mark 3. 35), though he
recognized that some were born eunuchs
(Matt. 19. 12). As elsewhere, so in the matter
49

of Jesus

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
of heredity, Jesus acknowledged the physical
but subordinated it to the spiritual.
The Heredity Two of the evangelists, Matthew and Luke,
pay especial attention to the genealogy of
Jesus. Matthew wrote his Gospel for the
Jews. In his genealogy he consequently pre
sents him as the son of David and the son of
Abraham (Matt. 1.1). Luke wrote to make
Jesus acceptable to all men; consequently, in
his genealogy he presents him not only as the
Son of David and Abraham, but also as "the
son of Adam, the son of God" (Luke 3. 38).
Thus Luke presents Jesus as one not merely
with the Hebrew but also with the human
race. Combining the two accounts, we may
say that Matthew and Luke present the Da-
vidic, Abrahamic, human, and divine descent
of Jesus for the religious purpose of winning
allegiance to him from Jew and Gentile alike.
In each case the descent is traced through
Joseph. The problem of the agreement in
details of the two genealogies need not detain
us. We conclude that the heredity of Jesus is
presented as the best the evangelists knew.
Nothing in the later life of Jesus forbids our
thinking that Jesus was physically well born.
Joseph is presented as a righteous and con
siderate man and Mary as a pious and medi
tative woman. 50

THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
The conclusion that the heredity of Jesus Heredity of
was good is further supported by the accounts storiMof ae
of the miraculous conception of Jesus. It is t^B"*
interesting that the same two evangelists
alone report anything miraculous in the birth
of Jesus, as though they were seeking an
origin in heredity great enough to explain
Jesus. It is significant to recall in this con
nection that Luke was a physician. We con
clude from the genealogies, the character of
Joseph and Mary, the birth-stories, and the
later life of Jesus that his physical heredity
was good, though we note that this kind of
heredity was not emphasized by the Jews and
that Jesus himself never based any claim for
acceptance on either his physical kinship to
David or his miraculous birth.
As an infant Jesus was circumcised the
eighth day. After thirty-three days the pre
sentation took place in the temple, which in
cluded the rites of purification of Mary and
the redemption of the first-born. J. S. Clemens
says,1 "In our Lord's day a rabbinical regula
tion had added to the Mosaic rule the condi
tion that the child thus presented should be
free from physical defect and blemish."
Though Jesus himself later never emphasized
'Art., "Infancy," in Dictionary of Christ and the
Gospel. 51

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
it, we must regard his physical heredity as
good, and good heredity is one qualification
of the modern acceptable standard of physical
life. II. The Childhood op Jesus
What was the physical childhood of Jesus
like? Our imagination can well picture him
as gradually growing and becoming strong.
The physician's account of him before he was
twelve runs : "And the child grew, and became
strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the
grace of God was upon him" (Luke 2. 40).
Being subject to his parents (Luke 2. 51), he
would naturally help Joseph in the carpenter's
shop. Since at twelve the doctors in Jeru
salem were "astonished at his understanding
and answers" (Luke 2. 47), he must have
carefully read the Old Testament at least
along with other boyhood interests. This was
how he became "full of wisdom." This is the
small but suggestive extent of our knowledge
of the childhood of Jesus based on the gospel
narrative — a childhood with progressive
stages, each showing qualities suitable to it
self.
The Apocryphal In contrast with this picture of a normally
developing human childhood, the apocryphal
Gospels assign him miraculous knowledge and
52

View of the
Child Jesus

THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
power. For instance, "The First Gospel of
the Infancy of Jesus Christ" relates that
"Jesus spake even when he was in his cradle,
and said to his mother : Mary, I am Jesus the
Son of God, that Word, which thou didst
bring forth according to the declaration of the
angel Gabriel to thee, and my Father hath
sent me for the salvation of the world" (1. 2,
3). Another instance from the same apocry
phal gospel: "And when the Lord Jesus was
seven years of age, he was on a certain day
with other boys, his companions, about the
same age, who, when they were at play, made
clay into several shapes, namely, asses, oxen,
birds, and other figures, each boasting of his
work, and endeavoring to excel the rest.
Then the Lord Jesus said to the boys, I will
command these figures which I have made to
walk. And immediately they moved; and
when he commanded them to return they re
turned" (15. 1-5). Some of the other gro
tesque narratives of the apocryphal Gospels
relate how Jesus aided Joseph in his work by
pulling out the length of beams mistakenly
cut too short, changing boys into kids and
back again, carrying fire and water in his
cloak, curing Simon the Canansean of snake
bite by having the snake suck out the poison
and then cursing the snake, striking blind and
53

Play?

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
dead boys who thwarted him in play and then
on entreaty restoring them, encountering
rabbis successfully in the knowledge of the
Torah, and giving instruction to philosophers
in astronomy, natural science, medicine,
"physics and metaphysics, hyperphysics and
hypophysics." A childhood of this kind strikes
us as unreal, mythical, impossible, and neither
so natural, so attractive, so human, nor so
truly divine as that which the accepted evan
gelists suggest, who are presenting to us not
a biography but the Gospel of Jesus.
Did jesus Did Jesus play as a boy? Let us see. He
was the oldest of seven children. (By some
these children are regarded as his cousins;
by others as the children of Joseph by a
former marriage; by still others as Mary's
younger children. ) There were four "brothers"
and at least two "sisters." His brothers were
named James, Joseph, Simon, and Judah. In
true Oriental fashion his sisters' names are
not recorded (Matt. 13. 55). The houses in
Nazareth were all small. There was close
association with the children of the family,
even with the neighbors' children. We may
naturally suppose that Jesus played with his
younger brothers and sisters about the house,
and also that he played with the children of
the village in the market place. At least we
54

THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
may infer this much from two things : children
came to him when a man as though he loved
and understood them, and this they would
hardly have done in case as a boy his play
instinct had remained undeveloped. Besides,
he later compared the men of his generation
to children sitting in the public square and
calling out to one another: "We have piped
unto you and ye have not danced: we have
mourned to you and ye have not wept" (Luke
7. 32), because they, so to speak, would not
play funeral with John the Baptist, nor yet
wedding with him. Such an illustration may
well have been not merely a matter of observa
tion but a memory with him.
His later preaching carries an open-air Familiar with
atmosphere. His illustrations are frequently Nature
drawn from the fowls of the air, the fish, the
fields, the farmer's life. These suggest inti
mate familiarity with nature, dating, no
doubt, from boyhood days spent in rambling
over the hills about Nazareth.
III. The Adolescence of Jesus
At twelve years of age Jesus was an adoles
cent, becoming a "Son of the Law," that is,
under obligation to keep the Mosaic law, mak
ing perhaps his first journey to Jerusalem
with his parents to celebrate the feast of the
55

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
passover, and already recognizing God as
Father, though Joseph and Mary did not un
derstand his words. His body at twelve, as is
the case in the Orient, was more mature than
that of the average boy in colder climates.
The things he said in the temple were indeed
remarkable, yet suitable to his age and pre
vious development. Nothing was said or done
contrary to our thought of true boyhood. The
conservative critic, George Farmer, says : "An
exegetical study of Luke 2. 40-52 shows a
genuine human development of Christ in His
boyhood. Body, soul, and spirit made regu
lar progress."1 Though his development and
spiritual insight were unusual and remark
able, there is nothing to indicate that his par
ents or neighbors regarded him as a prodigy.
His parents did not know where to look for
him at once, and his neighbors were later sur
prised and offended at his unusual claims.
Mary pondered all these things in her heart.
IV. The Growth of the Silent Years
Following twelve, his physical growth still
continued. "And Jesus increased in wisdom
and stature, and in favor with God and man"
(Luke 2. 52). This passage from the physi-
lArt, "Boyhood of Jesus," in "Dictionary of Christ
and the Gospel," vol. i., New York, 1911.
56

THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
cian's account covers the eighteen "silent
years" until Jesus was about thirty, and began
to teach publicly. His physical growth — his
increase in stature — receives special mention.
Parallel to this physical growth, there was an
intellectual and moral growth — increase in
wisdom; also a spiritual growth — increase in
favor with God; and also a social growth —
increase in favor with man. How were these
eighteen years spent? They are such a rebuke
to those who hurry into life's work. On the
physical side they were spent in acquiring
and following a vocation.
It was customary for a Jewish boy to learn Life m the
the trade of his father. Jesus was always Trade" *
obedient to Mary and Joseph (Luke 2. 51).
Now, Joseph was the only, or the best-known,
carpenter of the village of Nazareth. This
means that Jesus was the companion of his
father as he worked in the shop or about the
village. And in time Joseph died, just when
we do not know, and Jesus became the head
of the family and the village carpenter in the
place of Joseph. His life in the open, using
the tools of his trade, must have put the glow
of health in his cheek and muscle in his arm.
Justin Martyr, one of the Greek Fathers of
the church, who was probably beheaded in
the year 167 in Rome under the persecutions
57

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
of the Stoic emperor, Marcus Aurelius, says
that Jesus "when amongst men, worked as a
carpenter, making ploughs and yokes, thus
teaching the marks of righteousness, and com
mending an active life." This statement inter.
estingly confirms the question of the fellow
countrymen of Jesus, who were offended at
him: "Is not this the carpenter?" (Mark
6. 3. ) So as a carpenter he labored on at the
bench, thinking no doubt as he toiled, until
he was about thirty years of age. It was dur
ing these years that Jesus perhaps decided
that in view of future possibilities it was not
expedient for him to marry.
carpenter and When Jesus became a public teacher he
recognized that his lowly station among them
as a carpenter kept his fellow citizens from ac
cepting his message. "No doubt you will repeat
to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself "
(Luke 4. 23). They seem to have had the
view expressed in one of the apocryphal books
(Ecclesiasticus 37. 24-34) that certain classes
in society shall not "declare instruction and
judgment, and where parables are they shall
not be found" (v. 33). The classes enumer
ated include the plowman, "every artificer
[compare 'carpenter'] and workmaster"
(v. 27), the smith, and the potter. All these
were regarded as too much occupied to become
58

THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
wise, as the leisurely scribes. So the Naza
renes were offended at the carpenter become
a rabbi.
V. Influence of His Trade on His Teaching
But Jesus never apologized for having been
a carpenter. He was not ashamed of it. On
the contrary, there are intimations that his
teachings contain reminiscences of his earlier
occupation. He knew from experience about
the corner stone that the builders reject, about
laying the foundations of one's house on a
rock and on the sand, about the beam and the
splinter, and about the necessity of counting
the cost, making an estimate, before building
a tower. He would build his church upon
the rock of Peter's faith, Once he asked, "For
if they do these things in a green tree, what
shall be done in the dry?" (Luke 23. 31.)
His enemies thought he claimed to be able to
rebuild the temple in three days. And one
of the recently discovered "sayings of Jesus"
runs, "Cleave the wood and there you will find
me." It was one of the ironies of his life that
his body was finally nailed to a wooden beam.
The years Jesus spent as a carpenter not His First
only helped to give him a virile body ; they
were also his first real sermon on the dignity
of labor, on the value of a vocation, on the
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
worth of work. We must recur to this point
later in considering the goodness of Jesus as
skill. The Essenes, an ascetic religious sect
of the time of Jesus, withdrew from human
society and temporal affairs. Not so Jesus.
By entering into the business of life he more
truly deserved the title by which he preferred
to designate himself — "the Son of man." The
quaint poem following by Catherine C. Liddell
will illustrate this point:
JESUS, THE CARPENTER
" 'Isn't this Joseph's son?' — ay, it is he,
Joseph the carpenter — same trade as me;
I thought as I'd find it — I knew it was here —
But my sight's getting queer.
"I don't know right where as his shed must ha' stood,
But often, as I've been a-planing my wood,
I've took off my hat, just with thinking of he
At the same work as me.
"He warn't that set up that he couldn't stoop down
And work in the country for folks in the town;
And I'll warrant he felt a bit pride, like I've done,
At a good job begun.
"The parson he knows that I'll not make too free;
But on Sunday I feels as pleased as can be,
When I wears my clean smock, and sits in a pew,
And has taught a few.
"I think of as how not the parson hissen,
As is teacher and father and shepherd o' men —
Not he knows as much of the Lord in that shed,
Where he earned his own bread.
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THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
"And when I goes home to my missus, says she,
'Are ye wanting your key?'
For she knows my queer ways, and my love for the shed
(We've been forty years wed).
"So I comes right away by mysen, with the book,
And I turns the old pages and has a good look
For the text as I've found, as tells me as he
Were the same trade as me.
"Why don't I mark it? Ah, many say so;
But I think I'd as lief, with your leaves, let it go;
It do seem that nice when I fall on it sudden —
Unexpected, you know!"
VI. His Appearance
How did Jesus appeal at the age of thirty?
We do not know. No authentic portrait of
him has come down to us. The early Chris
tians disliked images and were afraid of
image-worship. In this respect they were like
the earlier Hebrews and the later Moham
medans. The early Christian Fathers, influ
enced by Old Testament passages, divided
into two schools on the question. Some said
he had "no form nor comeliness" (Isa. 53. 2) ;
among these were Justin Martyr, Clement of
Alexandria, and Tertullian. Others said he
was "fairest among ten thousand"; among
these were Origen, Saint Augustine, Saint
Ambrose, Saint Chrysostom. There was a
fable to the effect that Christ had sent to
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
Abgar, king of Edessa, a portrait of himself
by Thaddeus. Many legends gathered about
Saint Veronica and the imprint of the face
of Jesus which she was said to have received
on a napkin the morning of the crucifixion as
she wiped the bloody sweat from his brow.
No description of his appearance that has
come down to us has authentic value, though
the type with which the artists have made us
familiar is largely based on these descriptions.
The most famous and beautiful of these pur
ports to have been written by "Lentulus,
President of the people of Jerusalem," to the
Roman Senate, and runs as follows :
There has appeared in our times a man of tall stature,
beautiful, with a venerable countenance, which they who
look on it can both love and fear. His hair is waving
and crisp, somewhat wine-colored, and glittering as it
flows down over his shoulders, with a parting in the
middle after the manner of the Nazarenes. His brow
is smooth and most serene; his face is without any
spot or wrinkle, and glows with a delicate flush. His
nose and mouth are of faultless contour; the beard is
abundant, and hazel-colored, like his hair, not long
but forked. His eyes are prominent, brilliant, and
change their color. In denunciation he is terrible; in
admonition, calm and loving, cheerful, but with unim
paired dignity. He has never been seen to laugh, but
oftentimes to weep. His hands and his limbs are beauti
ful to look upon. In speech he is grave, reserved,
modest; and he is fair among the children of men.
Perhaps it is best that we do not know just
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THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
how Jesus looked, much as we would desire
to know. Every follower of Jesus may now
form his own image of how he appeared, and
so no one be disappointed. Those artists who
have presented the figure of Jesus to us in
beauty and majesty have probably been right,
for his body doubtless matched the soul within.
If we leave tradition and speculation aside,
and turn to the gospel records themselves, we
find some unintentional hints about his per
sonal appearance. There was apparently
nothing in his height or garments to distin
guish him from others. Judas had to kiss him
to identify him. He wore an inner garment
without seam and a loose outer one, probably
tied with a cord about the waist. It had
tassels on the four corners, one of which the
woman with the issue of blood and other sick
people touched and were healed. He wore
sandals of leather on his feet, necessary on
account of the heat and roughness of the
ground, which were removed on entering a
house. He appears to have had no physical
weakness or peculiarity, as did Saint Paul.
In the last three years of his life he probably
aged rapidly, as the Jews said to him : "Thou
art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen
Abraham?" (John 8. 57).
As no one looks at the sun, yet every one HisEye
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
sees by means of the sun, so in the Gospels
the evangelists do not permit us to see Christ
as he physically was, yet he is the master light
of all their seeing. What his eye was like we
can only judge from the use he made of it.
In thanksgiving and prayer he lifted his eyes
toward heaven on feeding the five thousand,
in healing the deaf and dumb man, at the
grave of Lazarus, and in "the High-Priestly
prayer" of John 17. It was with an observant
and comprehensive look that he beheld how
the people cast money into the treasury, that
he looked round about upon all things in the
temple before cleansing it the following day,
and that he saw Zacchseus in the tree. He
used his eye to support his spoken word in
defining who were his mother and brethren,
in warning against the love of riches, in teach
ing that all things are possible with God, in
beginning the Sermon on the Mount, and in
conferring on Peter his new name. The ex
pression of his eyes likewise betokened certain
emotions, as when with reproach he beheld
the chief priests and scribes on questioning
them concerning the rejected corner stone,
when again with "that look of sovran love
and sovran pain" he sent the denying Peter
out into the darkness to weep bitterly, when he
looked with love on the moral young man, when
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THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
with anger he looked round about on those
watching to see whether he would heal a man
with a shrunken arm on the Sabbath day, and
with sorrow when he beheld and wept over the
city. The father of the maniac boy would have
Jesus look on his son with pity. So Jesus
must have had a speaking eye, capable of
flashing indignation, administering reproach,
and warning with the tender light of love.
He himself described the eye as the light of
the body, and taught that the evil and offend
ing eye makes the whole body dark, is caused
by the heart, and should be plucked out.
Jesus must have had a pleasing voice, re- His voice
vealing his personality. The common people
heard him gladly, though they did not always
understand his parables. As his teaching was
done mainly in the open, his voice could prob
ably carry well. It naturally would do so
when he spoke from a boat on the lake to the
multitude on the shore. Mary, mistaking him
for the gardener, recognized him when he pro
nounced her name. Jesus said the sheep fol
low the good shepherd because they know his
voice, and that those which are of the truth
hear his voice. Matthew saw in the gentle
words of Jesus the fulfillment of the prophecy
of Isaiah that the Servant of Jehovah would
not wrangle or raise his voice. Yet it was a
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
voice that John said the dead would some time
hear. It was with a loud cry of agony that
Jesus yielded up his spirit on the cross.
His Hands The reported letter of Lentulus says, "His
hands and his limbs are beautiful to look
upon." We do not know, of course, what his
hands were like ; we know only what they did,
just as in the case of his eyes. Though callous
doubtless from the long use of tools, his hands
were gently laid on the children brought by
their mothers to be blessed by him; at times
he would take the children in his arms. Like
wise gently and reassuringly he touched the
frightened disciples after the transfiguration.
It was with a supporting hand that Jesus took
hold of the doubting and sinking Peter. With
a touch he stayed the moving bier of the widow
of Nain's son. His touch was thus a part of
his ministry. This is even more evident in the
many cases of his healing touch. Thus, simple
touch formed part of the healing process of
a leper, a fever patient, the blind, and Mal-
chus, whose ear Peter had severed. With a
stronger grasp of the hands he healed one deaf
and dumb, the blind man of Bethsaida, the
bowed woman, the epileptic boy, and "a few
sick folk" (Mark 6. 5). And likewise with
firm grasp the dead daughter of Jairus he
took by the hand. When Jesus claimed his
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THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
disciples as his mother and brethren, he
stretched forth his hand toward them. And
the ascending Jesus lifted up his hands and
blessed his disciples.
VII. His Body the Medium of Emotions
The body of Jesus reflected in its movements
the emotions of his soul. He sighed, perhaps
at the weakness of faith, in healing the deaf
stammerer (Mark 7. 34). He sighed deeply
at the demand of the Pharisees for a sign
(Mark 8. 12). In modesty, sympathy, and
indignation before the sinful woman and her
accusers, he stooped and wrote in the dust.
At the grave of Lazarus he groaned, shud
dered, and wept. Again he wept over Jeru
salem. Again he shuddered at the thought of
the betrayal (John 13. 21). The usual custom
was in teaching to sit and in praying to stand.
Jesus sat to teach and probably stood to pray,
except in Gethsemane, where in deep distress
he knelt, according to Luke, and fell prostrate,
according to Matthew and Mark. Thus his
body was the responsive medium of emotional
expression. VIII. His Commanding Presence
There are several indications that Jesus had
a commanding presence. The mob in his home
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
town, infuriated at his words, had hurried
him outside the village to the brow of the hill
to throw him down the cliff, but "He passing
through the midst of them went his way," his
time for self-surrender not having yet come.
Once on the road going up to Jerusalem
with a company including the twelve, Jesus
walked on ahead with such a gait and de
meanor that "they were amazed and as they
followed, they were afraid" (Mark 10. 32).
Once, or it may have been twice, he cleansed
the temple. Finding in the house of prayer
money-changers, and dealers in cattle, sheep,
and pigeons, making a double profit out of
those who came from a distance to worship,
"He plaited a whip of rushes," drove the sheep
and bullocks out of the temple, upset the small
coin of the brokers, and overturned their
tables. Here were both physical and moral
force, and the principal men of the people
were afraid of him. Even the band of soldiers
from the chief priests, coming to take him in
the garden under the leadership of Judas,
when he took the initiative and declared
himself unto them, "went backward and
fell to the ground," no doubt affrighted by
his commanding presence and the look of
victory on his face revealed by the flickering
torches. 68

THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
IX. Fatigue, Hunger, and Thirst
There is no indication that Jesus was unable
to carry through any of his plans because of
illness. Yet his journey through Samaria was
fatiguing, and he was resting at Jacob's Well
while his disciples were gone into the city to
buy meat, that is, food. Likewise once he,
with his disciples, after they had been too
busy to eat (Mark 6. 31), rested in a desert
place, or tried to do so, until they were found
by the people. In the wilderness of tempta
tion after his long fast a realizing sense of
his hunger came over him, and the first
temptation was addressed to his physical
appetite. At Jacob's Well his disciples solicit
ously urged food upon him, though he had
meat to eat, spiritual refreshment of soul, of
which they knew not. He was hungry too
when he came looking for fruit on the barren
fig tree, probably after having spent the night
in the open. His disciples satisfied their hun
ger in the cornfield even on the Sabbath day,
being justified by him. He likewise made
spiritual application of the pangs of hunger
. in his beatitude on hungering after righteous
ness. In contrast he pronounced woe on the
full, for they should hunger (Luke 6. 25).
Himself he likened to the bread of life, and
of him the "Magnificat" says, "The hungry
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
he hath filled with good things." It is evident
that Jesus knew what physical hunger was
and that he made spiritual use of this uni
versal element in human experience. That he
had the sensations of thirst we may also con
clude from his asking drink of the woman of
Samaria, and his cry from the cross, "I thirst."
It was natural that he should thirst on the
journey by foot from Judaea to Galilee, and
most natural that he should thirst intensely
after hanging wounded on the cross for six
hours. No doubt he received a cup of cold
water from the Samaritan woman. Though
he refused the soporific on the cross, prefer
ring to meet death with unclouded mind, he
did accept the proffered vinegar from a com
passionate soldier. His experience of thirst
gives reality to his teaching of the Judgment,
"I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink," to his
teaching that spiritual thirst is slaked by
belief in him, to his invitation to come to him
and drink, and to his saying that his blood is
drink indeed. X. His Strength of Body
The body of Jesus was strong. For thirty
years it had been well kept and exercised.
It was able to endure the fast of forty days
in the wilderness during the temptations. At
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THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
the same time he took care of himself among
"the wild beasts." During the three years of
his public teaching he walked a great deal,
riding, we may suppose, only on Palm Sunday.
When night overtook him, he with the dis
ciples might sleep in the open, as he said : "The
Son of man hath not where to lay his head."
He had a boat at his disposal during the
Galilaean ministry (Mark 4. 36, 6. 32), which
at least twice he used as a pulpit. Appar
ently, he could sleep easily, wherever he was,
when the opportunity came; at least he fell
soundly asleep, requiring to be awakened, on
the cushion for a pillow in the stern of the
boat during a storm on the lake which put
his disciples, though some of them were fisher
men, in a panic of fear. He seems not to have
been in bondage to sleep; at least he spent
some nights before heavy days in prayer and
meditation on the mountainside. But he pre
ferred the quiet of Bethany to the noise of
Jerusalem at night.
He was not afraid to touch fever and lep
rous patients, as we have seen, though others
were forbidden to come near a leper. He is
reported to have had such virtue in his body
that a sick woman touching but the tassel of
his cloak in faith was cured. That strong
body, after a sleepless night of scourging,
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
mockery, and misunderstanding, was able to
carry his own heavy cross out of the city and
a part of the way toward the Place of a Skull,
until finally he fell under its weight and was
relieved by Simon the Cyrenaean. It is pos
sible that after falling he required bodily
support on the way to Golgotha (Mark 15.
22). On three separate occasions he had pre
dicted his certain death, not having the sol
dier's chance of escape in battle, yet he did
not falter or quail, though it cost him bloody
sweat in Gethsemane. In the consciousness
of strength, both physical and spiritual, he
said: "I lay down my life that I might take
it again. ... No man taketh it from me, but
I lay it down myself."
Endurance on After all the strain through which he had
been, both physical and mental, it is not sur
prising that he did not survive the thieves
on the cross. For six hours, however, he
endured the exquisite agony of a broken body
suspended from its own wounds in hands and
feet. At the outset he refused the anaesthetic
of wine and gall offered him by the four sol
diers, and officially provided for those cruci
fied; he had said at the Last Supper that
henceforth he would not drink wine until he
drank it new in his Father's kingdom. So
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the Cross

THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
he met death with full consciousness. At the
end, in the tormenting thirst of a wounded
man, he took the vinegar from the sponge of
the extended hyssop reed of a compassionate
soldier. He had declined the legally proffered
narcotic; he accepted the voluntarily offered
refreshment. With a loud cry, as his heart
literally broke— for that is the meaning of the
issue of "blood and water" from his side
pierced by the soldier — and his head dropped
on his breast, he gave up his spirit.
XI. The Instincts of Jesus
Such was the physical death of the strong
body of Jesus. It was a body endowed with
all the human instincts, showing upon occa
sion self-preservation, indignation, hunger,
sociability, play, sympathy, chivalry, wonder,
self-abasement, gregariousness, communica
tiveness, secretiveness ("I go not up yet to
this feast") and self-assertion. When Jesus
defended the spirit behind the letter of the
seventh commandment, he knew very well
what he was saying. The range and quality
of his imagination, as well as his fondness
for and attractiveness to women, show him
possessed of manhood. Without the full en
dowment of human instincts, he would not
have felt some of the temptations common to
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
man. The emotions he felt, the words he
spoke, the things he did, all indicate he was
not dispossessed of any of the instincts of man.
It would seem at the outset futile to speak of
the instincts of Jesus, but, when we remember
deeds and emotions reveal instincts, there is
a clue. XII. The Normality of His Physique
The body of Jesus appears to have been just
normal, avoiding the two extremes of asceti
cism and athleticism. Jesus was no ascetic, as
was John the Baptist, subjecting the body to
discipline for the sake of the soul; rather
Jesus expressly contrasted himself with John
the Baptist, "who came neither eating nor
drinking." On the other hand, athleticism
develops the body at the expense of the soul,
against which Plato had already warned. The
body of Jesus appears to have been just the
fit tool of the soul. He likened himself to a
bridegroom. He did not fast; he came "eating
and drinking," and he knew that his enemies
regarded him as "a gluttonous man and a
wine-bibber." His body, like frosted glass,
was the kind through which the spiritual
could shine, as at the transfiguration, whose
countenance could glow with spiritual vision.
Not weak, nor weakened, nor effeminate, was
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THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
the body of Jesus, but strong, masculine,
powerful, muscular, and controlled.
XIII. Docetic Views
Jesus had a human body. In the light of
the foregoing, this statement seems like an
affirmation of the obvious. Yet this fact has
been denied in the ancient church, though the
denial was heretical, and in the modern
church our vague and misty views of Jesus
do not adequately appreciate his real human
body. The early sect of the Docetae held that
Christ's body was either a phantom, or, if
real, of celestial origin, so that he acted and
suffered in appearance only, and not in fact.
In accordance with these views, there was no
occasion for either a resurrection or an ascen
sion of the body. These Docetic views were
continued by the Manichaeans and the Gnos
tics. During the Middle Ages Jesus was con
ceived as moving among men as an almost
exclusively supernatural being. Even after
the Reformation some of the Anabaptists have
maintained these views.
We can understand the origin of these views Their origin
in the motive to glorify Christ, the working
out of which almost caused his humanity to
lapse. Before we are through we may see that
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Body of Jesus

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
his is the greater ultimate glory through his
having shared fully this bodily existence of
ours. The human body at its best is also
divine. To maintain divinity one does not
have to deny humanity, and, without the body,
there is no humanity. The church when it
authoritatively expressed itself has always
regarded Docetism as unorthodox. These
views of the unreality of the human body
obviously lend, and have lent, themselves to
the gravest moral abuses.
The Human So, Jesus had a real human body. He was
born, was circumcised, grew up, became a
man, experienced joy and pain, died a horrible
death, and was buried. This is true, though
not the whole truth. His body was for him
the organ of his spirit under all ordinary
circumstances; only once is he represented as
transporting himself in other than the natural
manner, when he appeared to his disciples
walking on the sea, and this is presented as
having been done in their need, not to exhibit
himself as physically other than human. In
fact, he regarded it as a temptation from
Satan, which he withstood, to use other than
human means to relieve his personal needs
(Matt. 4. 3). Though he had the sense that
angels were at his command, he never com
manded them. 76

THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
XIV. The Holy Temple
To his own physique Jesus himself referred
as a temple or sanctuary (John 2. 19 ) . It was
the kind of physique, finally broken in service,
that Jesus himself could symbolize by the
broken bread of the Lord's Supper. It was
the kind of physique of which the spiritualistic
narratives of the transfiguration, resurrection,
and ascension could be told by the evangelists.
It was the kind of physique that Saint Paul
could see mystically represented by the whole
church, whose head was Christ. It was the
kind of physique which the philosophic, mystic
John could regard as the initial Word made
flesh and of which he could have a glorified
vision (Rev. 1. 12-16). It was the kind of
physique that could enable the apostle Paul
to think of the human body, and not a build
ing in Jerusalem, as the temple of the Holy
Spirit. It was the kind of physique that has
helped the world to realize that the tabernacle
of God is with men. It was the kind of
physique that exemplified our first ideal of
health, with correlative vigor and effective
ness.
XV. His Recognition of the Body
What recognition did Jesus accord the
bodies of men in his work and in his teaching?
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
In considering his own physique we have had
to read, as it were, between the lines ; in con
sidering this question we can read the lines
themselves. 1. As Provider. Let us distinguish between
his ministry to the body in health and in
disease; and, first, in health. Jesus was a
provider for the bodies of those dependent on
him. For an uncertain number of years after
the death of Joseph, Jesus as head of the
household labored at his trade to help support
the family in Nazareth. His mother and
brethren, thinking he was beside himself in
leaving home to teach publicly, once en
deavored in vain to have him return (Matt. 12.
46-50; Mark 3. 31-35; Luke 8. 19-21). Yet he
did not forget his obligation to his mother,
and in taking leave of the world of flesh on
the cross, he committed her to the care of the
beloved disciple John. He owed a higher duty
to his heavenly Father than to his earthly
mother ; he had indicated this to her when he
was in the temple at twelve years of age, when
he left her to begin to teach at about thirty,
and also at the marriage feast in Cana later;
but the higher duty did not displace the lower,
and one of his seven sayings from the cross
provided a home for her.
For nearly three years Jesus led a public
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THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
life as teacher and responsible head of a com
pany of disciples. The little company had a
treasurer, Judas, either appointed by Jesus
or selected by his fellows. He carried the bag,
or, perhaps better, the little box into which
the funds of the company were placed, which
he dispensed Under the direction of Jesus
(John 13. 29), except when he stole from it
(John 12. 6). The funds were replenished
at one time by gifts from a company of minis
tering women (Luke 8. 1-3) ; likewise possibly
from the sale of the goods of those who became
followers of Jesus. From these funds alms
were given (John 13. 29), and no doubt food
purchased. Once, at least, his disciples left
Jesus weary, perhaps footsore, at Jacob's Well
to go into the city to buy food. At another
time they mistakenly thought he was reprov
ing them for having only one loaf in the boat.
They had provided seven loaves and a few
small fish for themselves on the occasion of
feeding the four thousand. Once at least
there were so many people coming and going
they had no time to eat, the recording of the
fact indicating it was an interruption of cus
tom. Jesus is reported himself to have fed
a vast company of people once, or perhaps
twice. Once when the disciples lacked food
and were hungry, he allowed them to pluck
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the ears of corn and eat on the Sabbath day.
He also allowed his disciples to eat with un
washed hands. Both these things scandalized
the ritualistic Jews. He and his disciples did
not keep regular fasts, as did John's disciples.
He attended wedding feasts and suppers given
in his honor, his disciples accompanying him.
He ordered that the raised daughter of Jairus
should be given something to eat. He taught
his disciples to pray for their daily bread.
Himself he likened to the bread of life. Jesus
condemned the ostentatious fasting of the
Pharisees. He justified his own disciples in
not fasting while he was with them. He did
not enjoin fasting as a rite, though he sanc
tioned it as an act of voluntary devotion and
gave directions as to how a fast so undertaken
should be done. He himself once fasted forty
days, not, however, as self-discipline but in
self -absorption regarding the character of his
Messiahship. But, on the other hand, he
strictly forbade his disciples to be anxious
about what they should eat, drink, and wear.
On the whole, from all these things, we gather
the impression that Jesus was careful to pro
vide for the material needs of the body, though
recognizing them as subordinate.
2. As Healer. So Jesus provided for the
natural needs of the normal body. But he
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THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
also ministered to diseased and defective
bodies. "Healthy people have no need of a
doctor, but those who are ill," he said (Luke
5. 31). One of his believers and his most
artistic biographer was a physician, attracted
doubtless at the first by the healing work of
Jesus. Both the diseases and the defects of
the body he healed. Nineteen times the verb
"heal" is used of Christ. In all twenty-two
cases of healing are reported. Eight, perhaps
ten, of these are diseases of the nervous sys
tem, including paralysis or palsy, epilepsy,
probably the impotent bowed woman (Luke
13. 11-17) and the impotent man lying by
Bethesda's pool (John 3. 2-9), and possibly
the man with the withered hand. Other dis
eases are fever, leprosy, dropsy, and issue of
blood. Defects of the body reported as healed
include blindness, both congenital and ac
quired, deafness, stammering, dumbness,
lameness, religious maniacs, and combinations
of these as blind and dumb demoniacs, and
deaf stammerers, as well as the severed ear
of Malchus, the servant of the high priest.
On three separate occasions, life is reported
to have been restored. Here is no lack of evi
dence that Jesus was a healer of the ills of
the human body. Luke, the physician, reports
Jesus saying of himself that he performs cures
81

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
(Luke 13. 32). In his own famous descrip
tion of his work of ministry in his message
to John the Baptist, Jesus says: "The blind
receive their sight, and the lame walk, the
lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, and the poor have the
gospel preached to them." The Gospels sug
gest and the Christian world has generally
acknowledged that he was the Great Physi
cian. Not only did Jesus himself heal the sick and
the afflicted, but he commissioned the seventy
to do the same, the doing of which caused
them to rejoice. Peter, and even Paul, who
never saw Jesus in the flesh, continued the
work of healing. Visiting the sick is one of
the distinguishing marks of the sheep on the
right hand in the Day of Judgment (Matt.
25. 36). XVI. Unconsidered Questions
Our purpose in this chapter involves a re
view of the physique of Jesus and of his recog
nition of the claims of the human body. This
purpose, now in a measure accomplished, pre
cludes at this point the consideration of many
interesting, in their own place proper and
vital questions, such as, Were these cures
really effected as represented? If so, how
82

THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
were they effected? Were the cases correctly
diagnosed by the evangelists? What did Jesus
himself think about the efficient cause of dis
ease? How did he regard demons as related
to disease? Did he have knowledge of the
curative art in advance of his own generation?
It is evident that here are weighty matters
sufficient for a volume in themselves by a
master both of exegesis and of the history and
practice of medicine. Our immediate purpose
is attained if we have indicated how Jesus
exemplified the ideal of health in his own bo.dy
and ministered to that ideal in the bodies of
others. Had he done less than this, he could
not have become the standard of complete
living. Our task is to represent Jesus in rela
tion to the five ideals of complete living as the
Gospels present him.
But it is important for us in effecting a
transition to our succeeding discussions to
indicate two things: (1) that Jesus distin
guished between body and soul, and (2) that
he healed the body not alone for the body's
sake.
XVII. The Body for the Soul
To take the second point first. He couples
his statement that only the sick are in need
of a physician with another : "I am not come to
83

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance"
(Luke 5. 32). He healed the palsied man
partly that his critics might know he had
power on earth to forgive sins. This power
he likewise committed to his disciples (John
20. 23). Again he taught that he had come
into the world for judgment, that they that
see not may see, and that they that see may
become blind (John 9. 39). His healings
were regularly followed by a warning to sin
no more, or an assurance that faith was the
cure, or a command either not to tell anybody
or to tell one's friends of the Lord's mercy.
Is it not evident that the healing of the body
in his mind was coupled with the healing of
the soul? He used the mind to help heal the
body and he healed the body in his cure of
souls. Not that Jesus would discard other
aids to healing than the mind; he himself
made and used a clay ointment (John 9. 6) ;
and the parable of the Good Samaritan indi
cates the use of oil and wine for injuries.
The Body, Our other point was to note that Jesus dis-
ciothe's^iess tinguished the claims of body and soul. The
than spirit body is good, but not the best, would seem
to be his thought. The body is good, for "it
is a greater gift than clothing." The very hairs
of the head are providentially numbered. Yet
he distinctly warned against making eating,
84

THE PHYSIQUE OF JESUS
drinking, and clothing objects of anxious care,
as the spiritually unquickened do. All such
things should be subjected to the righteous
ness of the Kingdom (Matt. 6. 33) . We are not
to fear those who can kill only the body, but
him who can destroy both soul and body. A
hand or foot giving offense to the soul is to be
cut off. The weakness of the flesh hinders the
willingness of the spirit. Paul again seems
to have caught the mind of Christ in teaching
Timothy: "Exercise for the body is not use
less" ; and the Corinthians that the body is for
the Lord and the Lord for the body: "Then
glorify God with your body" (1 Cor. 6. 13-20).
This brings us to the consideration of Jesus
and the second ideal of complete living,
namely, goodness.

85

CHAPTER III
THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
"Thou hast given a banner to them that fear
Thee,
That it may be displayed because of the
truth." —Psalm 60. 4.

CHAPTER III
THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
I. Jesus and Skill
Let us recall the three elements of goodness
found in our first chapter, namely, skill, per
sonal integrity, and social righteousness.
After our discussion in the second chapter of
Jesus as a carpenter in relation to his phy
sique, it will not be necessary to linger longer
on the vocational skill of Jesus. We cannot
reasonably doubt that his work with tools was
well done, that he was able by his labor to
maintain himself and those dependent upon
him, and that his development of the motor
elements of his nervous system through hand
ling tools so many years helped to give the
tang of reality, the note of sympathy, the
hatred of sham, and democratic accessibility
to all his later life.
His Appreciation of Vocational Skill. It
remains to indicate in connection with this
phase of goodness the recognition Jesus ac
corded in his life and teaching to vocational
89

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Disciple

skill. Did Jesus appreciate those who can
and do earn their own way in the world?
First, let us note his personal relations with
followers of various vocations. In this group
we find fishermen, tax-collectors, farmers of
revenue, bankers or money-changers, and the
treasurer of his own company of disciples.
Among those he called to be his disciples, four
The Fishermen at least were fishermen : the brothers Simon
and Andrew, and the brothers James and
John — all from Bethsaida, "the house of fish,"
on the sea of Tiberias. Two other disciples,
Thomas and Nathanael, as well as two un
named disciples, may have been fishermen
also, at least occasionally (John 21. 2). The
Christian movement started with an unusual
carpenter and four usual fishermen, all repre
sentatives of labor.
Another disciple, Matthew, was a tax-col
lector for the Romans, under Herod Antipas,
and so was a member of the despised class of
"publicans." He was not rejected because he
worked for the Roman overlords. At an enter
tainment given in his honor in Matthew's
house in Capernaum, Jesus met and mingled
freely with many other publicans. This de
tested class was commonly mentioned in the
same breath not only with Gentiles but with
harlots and sinners in general. Their beset-
90

The Publican
Disciple

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
ting sin was extortion, against which John
the Baptist inveighed, yet this sin was to Jesus
a less hindrance to entering the Kingdom
than the formalism and hypocrisy of the reli
gious class, the Pharisees and scribes (Luke
18. 10-14).
Zacchaeus was a chief publican of Jericho; Acuef
that is, he had underlings who collected for PubUc:an
Mm what he in turn transmitted to the Roman
authorities. He may have farmed out the
revenues from the Jerusalem balsam gardens,
or the taxes from the important commercial
center of Jericho. Jesus paid him marked
attention, accepted his hospitality, and re
garded him as a son of Abraham because
either he was honest and benevolent or was
going to be.
Bankers, or money-changers, had their Bankers
tables usually in the market places. They
exchanged money for those coming from the
remote provinces and likewise received money
on deposit for which they paid high rates of
interest. Jesus implicitly commended this
type of business in saying of the slothful serv
ant in the parable of the pounds and of the
talents that he should have put his money in
the bank where it would draw interest. An
apocryphal saying of Jesus, quite in harmony
with these parables, is "Be ye tried bankers."
91

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
The severity of Jesus in dealing with the
money-changers and the traffickers in the
sacrificial animals, who had established them
selves in the very temple, perhaps with the
connivance of the capitalistic Sadducean au
thorities, was not due to their business as
such, but to the sacred place and the dishonest
methods of its conduct. The house of prayer
had become a house of merchandise and a
double profit was exacted from the country
worshipers who first must get their money
exchanged and then must purchase an offi
cially approved animal. It has been conjec
tured that the shepherds who kept watch of
their flocks by night at the time of the Advent
were in the employ of the temple authorities.
Jesus had no objection to banking, buying,
and selling, but to sacrilege and graft.
The Treasurer Judas too was a man of business ability
with whom Jesus had the most intimate per
sonal relations. Judas reclined on one side
of Jesus and John on the other at their last
meal together. He was selected either by
Jesus or his fellows for his position doubtless
because of his financial ability. He was ap
parently the only member of the disciples from
Judaea. But he was covetous and became a
thief. He objected to an act of costly devotion
when Mary anointed the feet of Jesus in the
92

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
Bethany home, suggesting alms for the poor
instead, which would pass through his hands.
Chosen because of his peculiar fitness, he be
came a traitor through surrender to the defect
of his quality. Through sympathy and the
desire to rescue him, if possible, Jesus re
tained his services even until he cut himself
off by the betrayal, and then Jesus recalled
with a pang that Judas alone had he lost of
all that had been given him.
If we review the whole list of persons voca
tionally engaged with whom Jesus had deal
ings, there is evidence of full appreciation of
skill, wherever employed, and deprecation
only of its perversion from true ends.
Continuing our question, Did Jesus appre- Figures of
ciate vocational skill? let us note next how S^oT™
his metaphors and similes are drawn from the
common life of labor. The lilies of the field
do not toil. "Other men have toiled, and you
reap the profit of their toil" (John 4. 38).
Thus he was spiritualizing for the disciples one
of the proverbs of the day: "One sows and
another reaps." The harvest is rich but the
laborers are few. The workman deserves his
wages. He took another saying, "Four months
yet, then harvest," and applied it spiritually :
"See, the fields are white for harvesting!"
(John 4. 35.) He continues the figure: "The
93

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
reaper is already getting his wages and har
vesting for eternal life, so that the sower
shares the reaper's joy." Of two men in the
field, one will be taken and one left in the
great day of the Son of man. His estate kept
one from the marriage supper of the king's
son. "I am too weak to dig," the unjust
steward shamefully confesses. No man who
puts his hand to the plow and then looks be
hind him is any use to the reign of God. There
are workers too of iniquity who, at the last,
must depart from him. Reviewing this list,
here appear generic toilers, and, specifically,
sowers, reapers, landowners, diggers, and
plowmen.
Laborers in It was to shepherds following their usual
stoGo*pel occupation that the angels appeared at the
birth of Jesus. It was to his disciples, fish
ing, that Jesus appeared twice, both before
and after the resurrection. At their call, with
a play of words, he used their vocation to de
scribe their new employment: "I will make
you fishers of men." Though doubtless in
tended for the spiritually heavy-laden under
the Pharisaic yoke, one of his most attractive
invitations was addressed to laborers: "Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest." These instances
show both great variety in the types of labor
94

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
used for illustrative purposes and the spirit
ualizing of labor through using its terms to
convey higher meanings. If Jesus had con
demned labor, as did the Greek philosophers,
the form of his teaching would hardly have
been so influenced by it.
The most remarkable figures of speech of Parables
Jesus are his parables, earthly stories with Labor
heavenly meanings. Among the parables
drawn from lowly life are the sower, which
perhaps had better be called the parable of
the soils, the good shepherd, the drag-net, the
vineyard (twice), the lost coin, the rich
farmer fool, and the new wine in old bottles.
These refer to common occupations of his day,
which many of his hearers followed and all
understood. These parables, the beauty and
difficulty of which he who tries to compose
one will the more appreciate, show Jesus not
only knowing and sympathizing with work
and workers but also using these as spiritual
emblems. In the same way some of the common trades The Trades in
of his day figure in his teaching. We have
already seen in our second chapter how he
himself, being a worker in wood, 6 tsktuv,
belonged to the artisan class, and how it
shaped his thinking. His sayings regarding
the plow and his yoke are the more significant
95

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
in the light of the tradition that he made these
implements. The mason's work appears in
the stone that the builders rejected, though
this figure was borrowed by Jesus from the
Old Testament. The lilies, in Luke's account,
do not spin or weave. The tailor's work ap
pears in his saying: "No one stitches a piece
of undressed cloth on an old coat" (Mark 2.
21 ) . The occupations of women as well as of
men appear. In addition to spinning and
weaving already indicated, the two women
grinding at the mill are like the two men in
the field. The Kingdom is compared to the
leaven hid by a woman in three measures of
meal, and to wise and foolish bridesmaids.
A woman doubtless wove his seamless robe,
as well as the camel's hair garment of his
cousin John. His clothes at the transfigura
tion surpassed in whiteness any earthly fuller's
work. And at the last his broken body was
laid in a new tomb cut by a mason from the
living rock. Thus, in many ways, without
intending it, the Gospels show his relations
to the trades. Other trades of his day to
which his teachings as they have survived do
not refer are : the smith, baker, tanner, sandal-
maker, tent-maker, wool-comber, potter, per
fumer, and jeweler.
Passing from the fields of manual labor and
96

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
trades with our question whether Jesus appre
ciated vocational skill into the field of busi- Recognition
ness and commerce, there is a similar story ^c^erce
to tell. His first recorded words show him
about his Father's business, or in his Father's
house. Religion was his business, so to speak.
It was businesslike to buy oil for one's lamp,
to render unto Caesar the things that are
Caesar's, to count the cost before building a
tower, and to trade with what'one has : "Trade
with this till I come back" (Luke 19. 13) is
one of his injunctions. It was unbusinesslike,
wicked, and slothful not to put money in one's
keeping out at interest. There comes a time
when the disciple must sell his coat and buy
a sword (Luke 22. 36). Jesus recognizes as
one form of merchandise that a debtor, and
even his family, might be sold into slavery
(Matt. 18. 23).
Yet he recognized the danger that business,
proper in its own place and relationship, may
insidiously usurp the function of higher privi
leges. Thus, instead of attending the mar
riage supper of the king's son, one of the
invited guests went to his business, another
had bought five pair of oxen, and yet another
had bought a farm. In protest, Jesus asks in
the very language of the mart, "What shall
it profit a man, if he gain the whole world,
97

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

ParablesDrawn from
Business

Summary of
Jesus' Attitude
TowardBusiness

and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man
give in exchange for his soul?"
Parables of Jesus drawn from business and
commerce are relatively numerous, including
the merchant seeking goodly pearls, the
pounds, in which a nobleman is presented as
a trader, the talents, the unjust steward, the
hid treasure, and the two debtors. He evi
dently regarded it as good business to get a
proper return from the use of money and land,
to assign tasks and to give rewards according
to individual capacity, to be faithful in trifles,
and to keep one's contract, though the Lord
of the vineyard may at his pleasure substitute
benevolence for justice. Commerce supplied
to love the precious ointments, fifty dollars'
worth at one time (Mark 14. 5) wherewith he
allowed his head and feet to be anointed and
the linen sheet and the spices, myrrh, and
aloes, a hundred pounds (John 20. 39) for his
broken body.
It is evident that Jesus appreciated and
utilized in his teaching various forms of busi
ness. It was not the business life, but only its
abuse that he ever rejected. He has no whole
sale condemnation of trade. It may have been
a traveling foreign merchant on his way to
Jericho, showing common humanity where
the professedly religious failed, who suggested
98

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
to Jesus the marvelous parable of the good
Samaritan. This attitude of Jesus toward trade, which, contrast with
of course, has come to be for various reasons iE^f" and
the prevailing Hebrew attitude, is the more
striking if we contrast it with the views of
Apocrypha and Talmud before and after his
day. In Ecclesiasticus we read : "A merchant
shall hardly keep himself from wrong doing;
and a huckster shall not be acquitted of sin"
(26. 29); also this: "A nail will stick fast
between the joinings of stones; and sin will
thrust itself in between buying and selling"
(27. 2) . Similarly in the Talmud a proverbial
saying is, "He who teaches his son to trade is
as if he taught him to steal." The Talmud
has little in favor of trade; the Gospels have
nothing against it.
Did Jesus, then, appreciate vocational skill? The Attitude of
In the light of the evidence, who can doubt it? Skm
He himself followed a trade before he was
thirty and esteemed it. It was a Hebrew cus
tom that every youth should learn a trade.
This custom was sanctioned by the rabbis, some
of whom were themselves mechanics, includ
ing three famous ones, Hillel, Gamaliel, and
Shammai. Jesus said, "I must work the works
of him that sent me." "Why stand ye here
all the day idle?" is one of his ever-pertinent
99

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
inquiries. Using a monetary analogy, he said
he came to give his life a ransom for many.
His most devoted followers were gained from
the laboring classes. Christianity itself, in
so far as it adhered to his teaching, became
the wearing of his easy yoke and the carrying
of his light burden. Thus labor provided one
view of the Christian life. Through his spirit
ualizing of varied forms of labor, he brought
together the two worlds of work and worship,
which were largely separated in his day. He
himself sent out laborers, first twelve, then
seventy. He taught that the servant of all
is the greatest of all, and he called his servants
his friends. The poor he blessed. Indeed, it
is almost easy to prove too much here — that
his gospel is exclusively for workers, which,
however, we shall see would be a mistaken
view. It is clear that Jesus appreciated labor
in various typical forms, earning ability, and
vocational skill. Only so much was it our
present purpose to indicate.
Saint Paul practiced the teaching and fol
lowed the example of Jesus in his own life
as tent-maker and missionary, and likewise
transcribed the mind of Jesus in such phrases
as : "do not be indolent when zeal is required"
(Rom. 12. 11, Weymouth Tr.), and in such
injunctions as: "If a man will not work, he
100

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
shall not eat" (2 Thess. 3. 10)— a socially
transforming economic principle; and this:
"Profess honest occupations, so as to be able
to meet such special occasions" (Titus 3. 14).
There is a remarkable apocryphal supple
ment (in Codex Bezae) to Luke 6. 4, which
though concerned primarily with the ques
tion of Sabbath observance, very well sums up
also the attitude of Jesus toward labor. Jesus,
it says, "seeing a certain man working on the
Sabbath day, said to him: 'O man, if thou
indeed knowest what thou art doing, thou art
blessed; but if thou knowest not, thou art
cursed, and art a transgressor of the law.' "
This is such a fresh statement of a view har
monizing with all the thought of Jesus on
both the Sabbath and the labor question that
some scholars believe it rests on a real inci
dent. Labor, even on the Sabbath, if per
formed with the sense of divine fellowship,
is blessed, as he himself said, in defense
against the charge of Sabbath-breaking: "My
Father worketh hitherto, and I work." But
this anticipates our final chapter.
Jesus had sympathy with labor, rightly
pursued, as he had sympathy with capital,
rightly employed. To this question we must
recur in dealing presently with the social
goodness of Jesus. We turn first to
101

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
II. The Personal Goodness of Jesus
Difficulties of We tread here on much-debated ground.
This Topic rpjjg t0pic jg difficult. Dogmas centuries old
have supplied us with prepossessions. Good
ness is partly a matter of motive and inner
thought, concerning which Jesus himself
taught us not to judge. Yet personal good
ness is requisite for complete living, and, if
the life of Jesus is typically complete, we must
consider his personal goodness. In doing so,
as before, we will allow the gospel records to
speak for themselves, for it is the Christ of
the Gospels who is mankind's ideal, and every
endeavor to reconstruct the historic Jesus of
Nazareth apart from the gospel record rests
in a measure upon the imagination and is un
convincing to the mass of mankind. Jesus
was certainly the kind of person about whom
the Gospels could be written.
1. The Temptations. The goodness of Jesus
was not above temptation. Of God the apostle
James says that he cannot be tempted of evil,
but Jesus was tempted, not once only but
repeatedly. It is not sin, however, to be
tempted, but it is sin to play with temptation
or to yield to it. The great temptation of
Jesus he fought out in silence at the begin
ning of his ministry, though afterward he
told some of the disciples about it, the record
102

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
of which is originally an autobiographical
part of the Gospel.
Jesus came to John the Baptist to receive occasion
baptism at his hands with this question doubt- Temptation
less in mind, "Am I the Messiah?" The bap
tism answered this question in the affirmative.
The next question naturally was, since several
different views of the coming Messiah were
current, "What kind of a Messiah shall I be?"
At this point "the Spirit drove him immedi
ately into the desert, and in the desert he
remained for forty days, while Satan tempted
him." Considering the alternative carefully in significance
each case and recognizing it as coming from Temptation
evil, he made three great decisions as to his
Messiahship, namely, (1) He was not to use
his power to relieve his own needs; (2) he
was not to work miracles before the people
to win a following; (3) he was not to win
a physical kingdom by compromising with
evil. These were the three temptations of
making the stones into bread, casting himself
down from the pinnacle of the temple, and
worshiping Satan on the mountaintop. Posi
tively stated, his decisions were (1) to be a
suffering Messiah; (2) using moral, not physi
cal and spectacular means; (3) to win a
spiritual, not physical kingdom. The tempta-
103

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Jesus Was
RepeatedlyTempted

He Conquered
ThroughStruggles

tion consisted in the fact that the three
alternatives, namely, to serve himself, to
dazzle the Jerusalem multitude, to become a
temporal king, though appearing easy short
cuts, were really from the evil one and not in
accord with the will of God. So he conquered,
though it cost him such intense thought and
struggle of soul that he forgot the needs of
the body.
Even so, Satan left him only for a season,
returning in the words of rebuke of Peter that
Jesus should suffer, in the demands of the
Pharisees for a sign, and in the plan of the
people to make him a king, as well as in the
betrayal and the agony in Gethsemane. At
the Last Supper he said to his disciples:
"It is you who have stood by me through my
trials." The author of Hebrews writes he was
"in all points tempted like as we are, yet with
out sin." Certain it is that neither at the out
set nor during his ministry did Jesus yield
to any one of the three major temptations
of his life. So he conquered.
Yet the conquest was not without many
struggles of soul. His reply to his mother in
Cana of Galilee when she suggested that he
relieve through his power the embarrassment
of their host indicates that he regarded the
suggestion as similar to the first temptation.
104

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
He sighed deeply in spirit (Mark 8. 12) when
having to refuse a sign to the Pharisees whom
he earnestly desired to win ; it was a repetition
of the second temptation. Likewise his soul
was troubled (John 12. 27) when the prospect
of the cross prevented his following up the
signs of faith among the Greeks. Again he
raised the question whether he should be saved
from suffering, only to answer it quickly in
the negative. The temptation to avoid physi
cal and spiritual suffering entered into the
agony in the garden, as he told the disciples
to watch and pray lest they enter into tempta
tion. 2. The Character of Jesus. A volume could
be written — volumes have been written — on
the qualities of the character of Jesus. Some
of the outstanding ones, easily based on the
gospel records, are : love of God ; love of man
(his compassion often leading him to work
miracles of healing, though he would perform
no sign to win acceptance of his Messiah-
ship) ; obedience, even unto death on the
cross; self-control, self-denial, self-respect,
sincerity, loyalty, courage, faithfulness, calm
ness, patience, prudence, hopefulness, hu
mility and meekness; tender thoughtfulness,
endurance, dignity, and self-sacrifice. These
nineteen qualities of his character are inter-
105

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Love to God
and Man

Obedience

Self-Control

Self-Denial

related, and some of them anticipate an ac
count of his social goodness, such as, love of
man, tender thoughtfulness, and self-sacrifice.
Love to God he proclaimed as the great com
mandment in the law which he himself ex
emplified in his obedience, his trust, and his
reverence for the temple. Love to man he
proclaimed as the second commandment in the
law, which he exemplified in works of mercy
and charitable judgment.
His obedience included keeping the Ten
Commandments, no infraction of which is re
ported by his watchful enemies; Sabbath
observance- by attendance on the synagogue
and abstaining from any material work on
that day; and observing the Mosaic law in
commanding the cleansed lepers to show them
selves to the priests. Also he always did those
things that pleased the Father.
Self-control he exercised over his appetites,
instincts, and emotions, as when, though hun
gry, he ministered to the needy soul of the
Samaritan woman and, though in tears, re
stored Lazarus to his loved ones.
Self-denial he practiced in fasting, during
the temptation; celibacy; giving alms; vigils;
and rejection of the luxuries of life, and he
taught self-denial as a method of following
him (Matt. 16. 24). 106

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
Self-respect he manifested in the absence seif-Respect
of both vanity and servility, declining to be a
temporal king, riding on an ass on Palm Sun
day as king of peace (Zech. 9. 9), and profess
ing to be a king indeed before Pilate.
His sincerity is transparent, his actions and sincerity
speech expressing his thought, and his inner
life- freely manifesting itself. Some thought he
was mistaken, others crazy, others blasphe
mous, but none thought him insincere, while his
bitterest denunciations are against hypocrisy.
After a volume devoted to The Philosophy Loyalty
of Loyalty, Professor Royce reaches the defini
tion (p. 357) : "Loyalty is the Will to Believe
in something eternal, and to express that be
lief in the practical life of a human being."
It reads like a description of the life of Jesus,
devoted to revealing the Father to man.
Courageously he walked before his little courage
band of followers on the way up to Jerusalem,
well knowing the condemnation, mocking,
scourging, and cruel death awaiting him
there; courageously he returned to Judaea
when Lazarus died, though the disciples re-
monstratingly reminded him that the Jews
were but recently seeking to stone him; cou
rageously he went forth in the garden to the
band of soldiers seeking him and asked,
"Whom seek ye?" Courageously he reminded
107

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Pilate, who had power to release or to crucify
him, that his power was given him from above.
Even his enemies acknowledged his coura
geous independence with the ingratiating
words: "Teacher, we know you are sincere
and that you teach the Way of God honestly
and fearlessly ; you do not court human favor"
(Matt. 22. 16).
Faithfulness In faithfulness he felt it his meat to do
his Father's will and to accomplish his work,
while it was day, for the night cometh, he
said, when no man can work.
calmness He alone was calm in the storm on the lake ;
in fact, his serene repose of soul appears never
to have passed into lack of self-control, though
he deeply felt his experiences of temptation,
hypocrisy, treachery, and sorrow. Had he
lost self-control, he doubtless would have
failed in his cleansing of the temple.
Patience Patiently he labored and waited during the
eighteen silent years till the time of his show
ing forth, patiently he trained the twelve, and
patiently he endured the indignities put upon
him, using will power thereby no less than
had he resisted with might.
Prudence Prudently he cared for his life until his
"hour" had come, not exposing himself to dan
ger except in the line of duty, not needlessly
giving offense to his critics, withdrawing into
108

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
Galilee after Herod had put John in prison,
retiring with his disciples to the desert after
John was executed, withdrawing for a time
to the sea when the Pharisees and Herodians
took counsel against him, and in his teaching
cautioning his followers to count the cost of
discipleship. Hopefully Jesus, being hungry, came to the Hope
fig tree, "to see if he could find anything on it" ;
hopefully he anticipated eating the passover
with his disciples before his suffering (Luke
22. 15) ; with hope fixed on "the joy that was
set before him," he endured the cross and
despised the shame; and his followers he
encouraged to be of good cheer, for he had
overcome the world.
In humility he was born in a stable, during Humiuty
his public ministry was without a home, at
times was without money, as when the temple
tax was to be paid (Matt. 17. 27), was unwill
ing to be called "good" as a matter of polite
intercourse, and described himself as "meek
and lowly of heart."
In tender consideration after the trans- Tender
figuration he came and touched his three ConsWcrati°»
affrighted disciples; after the resurrection he
sent his "brethren" word to report into
Galilee where they would see him; when they
were weary he invited them apart into a desert
109

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Endurance

Dignity

place to rest awhile ; when they were distressed
in rowing on account of the contrary wind
on the lake, he comes to them, walking on the
sea; when being himself arrested, he requests
that his disciples may go their way; and to
weeping Mary looking for her Lord, he makes
himself known by pronouncing her name.
His endurance is shown in the persistence
and perseverance with which he held to the
line of duty despite the trials to which he was
subjected in so doing. He never wavered,
though his portion was misunderstanding by
relatives, dullness of friends, hatred of
enemies, and isolation of soul, except for
divine companionship. "How am I straitened
till it be accomplished !" he said. He warned
his disciples likewise that they should have
tribulation in the world, and that endurance
to the end was necessary.
That Jesus had dignity of character is
shown by the reverence paid him by John ; by
the fear of his disciples to ask him about the
things that should befall him in Jerusalem;
by the awe of the Roman soldiers as they fell
to the ground in his presence; by his silence
before Herod, the chief priest, and even Pilate,
when under false accusations; by the feeling
of repulsion felt by demoniacs in his presence ;
by the centurion's consciousness of unworthi-
110

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
ness; and by Peter's sense of sinfulness (Luke
5. 8). Likewise he told his disciples to have
salt in themselves.
The self-sacrifice of Jesus consists in his sen-sacrifice
living a devoted life and dying a voluntary
death in harmony with his Father's will for
him. And he taught his disciples the paradox
of love: "He that loseth his life for my sake
shall find it."
One feels that this list, though long, might contrasts
yet be lengthened justly as one analyzes the
complex unity of Christ's character. It is a
unity in which striking contrasts1 appear:
Jesus was prudent in avoiding danger, yet
courageous in facing danger. He was patient
under wrong, yet indignant at wrong. He
was meek and lowly, yet self-assertive. He
was very accessible, yet at times very reserved.
He was passionate, yet patient and self-con
trolled. He respected authority, precedent,
and the past, yet he was bound by none of
these things and gave freedom to man. He
was a dreamer of dreams, yet intensely prac
tical. He was oft in seclusion, yet still of tener
in crowds. He was tolerant of publicans and
sinners, but intolerant of sin. He was rigid
in his treatment of the Phcenician mother, yet
1 Compare Frank E. Wilson, Contrasts in the Charac
ter of Christ. Fleming H. Revell Co.
Ill

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Symmetry

Defects of
His Qualities
Lacking

his heart is divided between dying and living
at the prospect of faith among the Greeks. He
longed for human sympathy, yet he took no
pains to soften the truth, though it cost him
the loss of followers. He had an eye for
detail — the hairs of the head, the sparrow's
fall — yet he saw the universal reign of God
at hand. He provided bread for the hungry,
yet he had meat to eat which his disciples
knew not of. The individual was worth more
than the whole world, yet it was nothing
apart from union with "the vine." He was a
Jew, yet "the Son of man."
Such contrasts exist as facts in the charac
ter of Jesus, yet they do not impress one as
contradictions; they illustrate the reconcilia
tion of opposites. The circumstances under
which he was placed determine in a measure
the side of his character which appears. We
are thus impressed with the unity, symmetry,
and proportion of the character of Christ.
This is a matter of feeling as we try to sur
vey his wholeness. It is a matter of total
impression, not subject to proof or to specific
illustration. It is a part of symmetry to be lacking in
angular extremes. With difficulty, if at all,
can one find in the life of Jesus incidents
clearly showing any of these marring quali-
112

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
ties : ecstasy, one-sidedness, rashness, emotion
alism, obstinacy, punctiliousness, casuistry,
fault-finding, unbending formality, incon-
sideration, flattery, egotism, vanity, asceti
cism, bewilderment, fanaticism, slavishness,
selfishness, despair, self-pity, primness, awk
wardness, cruelty, or discourtesy. He appears
to have lacked "the defects of the qualities"
he had.
Fortunately, we are not without record of impressions
the impression Jesus made upon various ona^jg y
classes of his contemporaries. The man born contemporaries
blind who was healed by Jesus, with increas
ing boldness under the grueling of the Phari
sees, finally asserted: "If this man were not
from God, he could do nothing" (John 9. 33) ;
for this conclusion he was excommunicated,
as he knew he would be. The chief priests
and the whole council sought witness against
Jesus in enmity to put him to death, but found
it not. Herod, the Jewish tetrarch, found no
fault in him. Pilate's wife warned him to
have nothing to do with "that righteous man."
Pilate, the Roman judge, after private exami
nation, found no crime in him, so told the Jews,
and endeavored by a ceremonial act of wash
ing to proclaim his innocence of the blood of
"this righteous man." The thief on the cross
testified : "This man hath done nothing amiss."
113

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
The Roman centurion after witnessing the
crucifixion asserted, "Truly this man was the
Son of God." Judas the betrayer with bitter
remorse confessed: "I have sinned in that I
have betrayed the innocent blood." John the
forerunner, though administering the rite of
baptism for repentance unto the remission of
sins, recognized his need to be baptized by
Jesus. Peter during the lifetime of Jesus
felt his own sinfulness in the presence of
Jesus, and after the death of Jesus Peter
wrote of him that he did no sin, neither was
guile found in his mouth ( 1 Pet. 2. 22 ) . John,
the beloved disciple, who of all the disciples
knew Jesus most intimately and was perhaps
best prepared to understand him, wrote : "We
have seen his glory, glory such as an only son
enjoys from his father — seen it to be full of
grace and reality" (Moffatt Tr.). Adjectives
applied to him in the Acts and Epistles by
Luke, Peter, John, and the author of Hebrews
are : holy, righteous, pure, guileless, undefiled,
separated from sinners, without sin. Paul
too, though he had never seen Jesus in the
flesh, yet from his own remarkable experience
and that of others was ready to assert that
Jesus knew no sin (2 Cor. 5. 21).
Another set of But these were not the only impressions
made by Jesus upon his contemporaries. Had
114

Impressions

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
they been, he had not been crucified. There
were those who thought, or pretended so to
think, that Jesus broke the Sabbath, that he
would set aside the law of Moses, that he was
guilty of sedition and would make himself
king in Caesar's room, that he was wrong in
associating with sinners, that he should have
fasted more, that he made preposterous claims
about rebuilding the temple in three days,
that he was guilty of blasphemy in making
himself to be the Son of God. These charges
hardly affect his personal goodness, are
mainly political and ceremonial in character,
and as such, we now know, rest largely on
misapprehension of his deeds and words.
These impressions provide a striking contrast
with the preceding set and serve to assist us
in realizing the powerful character of Jesus
as an individual in standing forth against the
rigid ecclesiastical system of his day.
A very different set of impressions we Flaws Found
gather from modern critics of the character critiCs e"'
of Jesus. Among the things they find are
that Jesus was tactless in his first sermon in
Nazareth in telling his fellow citizens "a
prophet is not without honor save in his own
country" ; that he was rude in practically call
ing the Syrophcenician woman a dog; that he
disregarded property rights in sending the
115

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
evil spirits into the swine; that he was disin
genuous in telling his brothers he was not
going up to the feast he afterward attended;
that as a boy of twelve he did not act and
speak properly to Joseph and Mary; that his
replies to Mary at the wedding feast in Cana
and when she would bring him home from his
public ministry, were not worthy ; that he was
unduly vehement in cleansing the temple ; that
he was arrogant, being so young, and so irregu
larly prepared as a rabbi, in his attacks on
the scribes and Pharisees; that he gave way
to vexatious disappointment in cursing the
barren fig tree on which he came looking for
fruit; that he himself practically acknowl
edged he was not without fault in accepting
John's baptism; and, further, that on one
occasion he rejected the epithet "good" from
a would-be disciple.
comment These criticisms probably had not occurred
to us in reading the Gospels. They have prac
tically all arisen since the age of rationalism,
and mainly in the nineteenth century. With
out considering these criticisms in detail one
by one, we may simply remark concerning
them that Mary evidently took no offense on
any one of the three occasions; rather she
pondered and wondered; in each case he had
indicated the supremacy of the spiritual over
116

on These
Criticisms

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
other interests: his Father's house had de
tained him from the homeward journey; his
"hour" had not yet come, though he did as
Mary suggested at the wedding, as she evi
dently knew he would do; and kinship with
those who did the will of God was superior
to all other earthly ties. "Woman" was a
common mode of address, and we do not know
the tone with which Jesus uttered it, on which
a great deal depends. There is something the
matter with the man not indignant at wrong
and ready to redress it, as in cleansing the
temple. His attacks on the scribes and
Pharisees were addressed to a class and their
sins of religious formalism; it was the moral
earnestness of a soul nourished on the
prophets. The fig tree served as an opportune
object-lesson to his disciples of the curse rest
ing on the fruitless religious classes of the
time. John's baptism was a preparation and
consecration for the greater movement to
come, to which Jesus in humility dedicated
himself, as one with those who should follow
him — it was not merely a baptism unto remis
sion of sins. He rejected the matchless epithet
"good" as a form of polite intercourse, and in
doing so taught the uniqueness of the absolute
goodness of God. So, no one of the supposed
flaws in the character of Jesus can go un-
117

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
challenged as an admitted weakness. The
reader doubtless has, or could find with profit,
his own comment on each supposed fault on
the list. If one rejects on principle the idea
of the incarnation, as the rationalists did, one
is committed in advance to finding fault in
the character of Jesus; just as, if one begins
by affirming the deity of Jesus, one is com
mitted in advance to finding no fault. It is
better always to examine the evidence before
reaching one's conclusion.
We have let friends, neutrals, and foes, con
temporaries and moderns, testify to their im
pressions of the goodness of Jesus. What does
he himself say?
what jesus In one sense this is not a fair question, as
Himself Jesus himself recognized in his words: "If I
testify to myself, then my evidence is not
valid." Later he added one of those unparal
leled expressions of his : "But I receive not
testimony from man" ( John 5. 34 ) , the mean
ing of which appears in the later statement,
"the very works that I do bear witness of me,
that the Father hath sent me." His works
lead us to accept his words. To the Jews
he testified, "I always do what pleases him"
( John 8. 29 ) — a saying which recalls the voice
out of the heavens at the baptism, which was
repeated at the transfiguration. To his
118

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
enemies he said: "Which of you can convict
me of sin?" (John 8. 46). To his disciples
he said, "The prince of this world cometh, and
hath nothing in me" (John 14. 30). He re
futed the charge that he was in league with
Beelzebul, and claimed instead that he had
bound that strong one.
There are four significant facts about the Four
gospel records which bear on this question of GoSei^acts
the goodness of Jesus. One is that, though he
taught his disciples to pray, though he himself
prayed in their presence, though he also
prayed for them, he never prayed with them.
This very striking fact seems to suggest there
was a communion between him and God into
which no other human being could enter. A
second fact is that, though he taught the
disciples to confess their sins and to pray for
forgiveness, there is no record that he ever
confessed sin or prayed for forgiveness. A
third fact is that JesUs never impresses us
during his public work as seeking for the
truth, as do Socrates, and all leaders of men,
but as always being in possession of the truth.
To others he said, "Seek, and ye shall find";
of himself he said, "I am the truth." One
looks in vain into the life of Jesus for any
hint that he ever aspired to be anything dif
ferent from what he was. The fourth fact is
119

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

His Oneness
with the
Father

His Unique
Consciousness

the absence of all sign of compunction of con
science or sense of mistake. His appears to
have been a sense of unbroken union with the
will of God. Yet this is something which he
"learned," into which he progressed.
These four facts, as well as his words about
himself drawn from him naturally by circum
stances, throw great light on his assertion of
oneness with the Father. He claimed to be
fully human — "Son of man" — and yet in com
plete harmony with the Father — "Son of
God." Jesus nowhere says "I am God," or
"I am good as God is good," or "I am abso
lutely good," or words implying any of these
things. He says distinctly to the young man
who addressed him as "Good Master," "Why
callest thou me good? none is good, save one,
that is, God." His claim was he did the
Father's will. His thought was practical, not
metaphysical. At this point it is important to stress the
uniqueness of this consciousness of Jesus in
relation to God in contrast with other men.
David, Isaiah, Ezra, Paul cry out for deliver
ance from sin, but not Jesus. In fact, with
other men, the better they become, the more
they are afflicted with the sense of sin. Not
so Jesus. It is also important to note that
this contrast impressed itself upon some of
120

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
his contemporaries in the same way. It is the
same John in the same first letter who says
these two positive things : "In him is no sin,"
and "If we say 'We are not guilty,' we are de
ceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us."
Was Jesus, then, conscious of being without His conscience
sin? We may raise three possible alternative J "f^f,
questions. Are the records sufficiently com
plete to warrant us in so saying? May he not
have deceived himself in so thinking? May
he not have known sin without being humbled
by it? The last question, if seriously asked,
is an insult. The answer to the first question
is that the existent records are explicit on this
point. To the second question we may observe
that it is hardly probable that a mind so clear
on all spiritual issues should have been so
clouded on one of the fundamentals. We con
clude that Jesus was conscious of being in
complete harmony with the will of God, that
those who knew him best so regarded him,
that no charge of his ancient enemies or
modern critics fairly weighed is clearly con
vincing to the contrary, and that the Chris
tian consciousness has consequently been
justified in affirming the sinlessness of Christ.
This is the Christ as presented by the Gospels.
What fault, if any, do you sincerely find in
Jesus? 121

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
Minor Place Yet we should be far removed from the con-
of tte Dogma sciousness of Jesus if we made a dogma of his
of Sinlessness °
sinlessness, and rested there. Practical cir
cumstances wrung out of him, so to speak, his
sense of performing the mission assigned to
him in the world without lapse or failure.
His emphasis was never placed on his personal
attainments, which might have proven a fault
itself, but on his mission in the world and his
commission from the Father. His emphasis
was on the abundant life he came to give to
man from God, not on doctrines about himself
as the medium of such blessing.
Doing and In the light of the foregoing we can have no
Saying reasonable doubt about the personal goodness
of Jesus as an ideal for man. His life at every
point was behind the lofty standards of con
duct he upraised. First he did, then he taught.
3. Recognition of Personal Goodness in His
Teaching. What recognition of personal good
ness do we find in his teaching? Every ex
perience he had, every virtue he exemplified,
except hope alone, find a place in his explicit
teaching. Though he begot in men a "lively
Hope hope" by providing objects of hope, namely,
future life and fellowship with the Father
and himself, yet, so far as our incomplete
evangels go, he nowhere specifically commends
hope. Faith and love, however, have full
122

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
recognition. It is possible that Jesus, pre
senting himself as the fulfillment of the great
Messianic hope, had no occasion to quicken
hope in his followers. Him they had, why
hope? Perhaps this viewpoint is reflected in
his saying to the disciples : "There will come
days when we will long, and long in vain, to
have even one day of the Son of man" (Luke
17.22). A few of his teachings may be recalled to His words
show how his life was reflected in his words. His^ae
His own temptations were behind his injunc
tions to "watch and pray, lest ye enter into
temptation," and the prayer he taught his dis
ciples, "Lead us not into temptation." His
own struggles are reflected in the words:
"Strive to enter in at the strait gate." His
own abounding love is behind the two com
mandments in the law he selected as greatest.
Obedience he recognizes in the saying, follow
ing the -quotation of certain commandments,
"Do that and you will live." Self-control is
so important that it is worth securing at the
cost of the offending eye or hand. Self-denial
is laid down as one of the conditions of being
one of his followers : "Let him deny himself."
Sincerity is demanded in the giving of alms
and in prayer and in the caution: "Beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees." Loyalty and
123

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
faithfulness were taught by the lesson of Lot's
wife, not turning back from the plow, and one
of his favorite phrases, "good and faithful
servant." Courage he taught in the words:
"Fear not them that can kill the body,"
coupled with the admonition to fear him who
had power of life and death over both soul
and body. Patience receives the commenda
tion of being the method whereby we possess
our souls. The homely but indispensable
virtue of prudence is embodied in two para
bles, namely, the unjust steward and the ten
virgins. Humility he taught by object-lesson
in the washing of the disciples' feet, as well
as in the direction to take the lower seats at
a feast. Consideration for others has found
final expression in the Golden Rule. Endur
ance to the end is required of the saved. The
dignity of human life is taught in such say
ings as : "Man is of more value than a sheep,"
"The very hairs of your head are numbered,"
"Ye are of more value than many sparrows" ;
even the whole world is outweighed by the
human soul. Self-sacrifice and its rewards are
included in the promise that those who forsake
relatives and lands for the Kingdom shall
receive manifold more here and life everlast
ing hereafter. Even the symmetry of his life
and an absolute standard are held as an ideal
124

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
before his followers in the words : "You must
be perfect as your heavenly Father is per
fect." Thus all through we can hear what
Jesus says because what he was has so un
stopped our ears.
Goodness, we saw, is vocational, personal,
and social. We have now seen how Jesus
exemplified and recognized vocational and
personal goodness, and so next it remains to
consider III. The Social Goodness of Jesus
By the social goodness of Jesus we mean Meaning of
his influence in improving human society. Goodness
Personal goodness involves integrity of indi
vidual character; social goodness involves
right relationship to one's fellows. As person
ally good, one stands in immediate relation
ship to God as revealed within oneself; as
socially good, one stands in mediate relation
ship to God as revealed within others. Good
ness, whether personal or social, ultimately
involves divine relationship. Jesus himself
was unwilling that we should think of love to
God apart from love to man; thus he kept
Christianity closely associated with social
morality, and free from asceticism and mysti
cism, each of which involves a withdrawal of
the individual from his fellows. The thought
125

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
of Jesus receives a practical extension in the
words of the best-loved disciple, John, as fol
lows : "He who does not love his brother man
whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he
has not seen" (Weymouth Tr.). Social good
ness is effectiveness in bringing to pass the
reign of God among men, involving all forms
of improving the relations of human beings to
each other. Personal goodness apart from
social goodness is abstract, as social goodness
apart from personal goodness is hollow.
Distinguishing Among the personal traits that signalize
socwrraits1 Jesus we should have to include his love of
of jesus nature, especially elevated points, and his love
of solitude. Without doubt these qualities
are associated with his sense of the Father's
presence. Among the social traits that signal
ize Jesus we should have to include his love
of little children and his fondness for the com
pany of women, whom he admitted to intimate
fellowship and service. He blessed little chil
dren, regarded them as a type of the Kingdom,
taught his disciples not to offend or despise
them, and evidently felt a kind of religious
awe in their presence, saying, "Their angels
in heaven always look on the face of my
Father in heaven" (Matt. 18. 10). That he
should converse with a woman, especially one
of mean reputation, or allow interruption
126

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
from mothers eager for his blessing on their
children, was a matter of marvel to his disci
ples. In fact, these personal and social traits
do not so stand out in our days of the love
of nature and democracy, in our world partly
remolded by Christianity, as at first. Even in
the eighteenth century, Rousseau, with his
love of nature, solitude, and little children,
was the prophet of a social revolution.
One of the striking contrasts in the charac- his Love of
ter of Christ is his love of solitude and his c°^™4ip
love of companionship. Both qualities appear
in close conjunction in the agony in the gar
den, when he prays alone, yet returns to his
intimate disciples with the longing for human
fellowship. 1. The Friends of Jesus. Among his friends
we find John the Baptist, who regarded him
self as "the friend of the bridegroom"; the
twelve disciples; publicans and sinners, Jesus
being known by the respectable classes as a
friend of these; Lazarus, Mary, and Martha
in the Bethany home; and certain unknown
persons, including him who provided the colt
for Palm Sunday, and the upper room for the
last passover supper.
As we study the relations of Jesus with His Entrance
these friends, a number of things stand out, Friendship
all showing his highly developed social dis-
127

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
position and insight. He saw and highly com
mended the strong points in John the Baptist,
though affirming any figure of violence was
not fully representative of the Kingdom. To
the twelve he gave himself in training, making
them witnesses, each in his own way. With
the publicans and sinners he mingled freely,
though not stooping to their level, giving and
forgiving, and receiving homage, thus scan
dalizing the Pharisees. "Our friend Lazarus"
he restored to his weeping sisters. To Mary
he imparted his best and to Martha he gave a
better perspective of life.
Reciprocity in The friendships of Jesus were characterized
by that reciprocity so highly esteemed by Con
fucius. One of the disciples of Confucius, Taz-
kung, once asked him : "Is there one word
upon which the whole life may proceed?" To
which Confucius replied: "Is not reciprocity
such a word? — what you do not yourself de
sire, do not put before others." Here is the
negative note characteristic of the Confucian
statement of the Golden Rule. In the reci
procity characteristic of the friendships of
Jesus he gave himself in revelation, moral con
straint, and final sacrifice and received in turn
a measure of understanding, sympathy, and
support. He gave himself to them in revela
tion, calling them not servants but friends,
128

Friendship

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
because all things he heard from his Father
he made known unto them. He gave himself
to them in moral constraint, claiming them
indeed as friends if they did all things what
soever he commanded them. He gave himself
to them also in sacrifice, exemplifying his own
teaching: "To lay life down for his friends,
man has no greater love than that." In re
turn, they understood him in a measure as
the Messiah, three of them entered sympa
thetically into his glory on the Mount of
Transfiguration, and three of them extended
a measure of support in his sorrow in the
garden. He had chosen them "that they might
be with him" (Mark 3. 14) first, and then that
he might "send them." He was dependent on
them for the continuance of his work. With
clinging pathos, when family and other friends
are misunderstanding and leaving him, he
asks, "Will ye also go away?" The report
of success by the seventy caused him to rejoice
in the Holy Spirit. They too as "the sons of
the bride-chamber" rejoiced in his presence.
They gave all they could in return for his
love, which loved on to the end, but it was a
poor return after all. They were thinking
about what they should receive, what places
of prominence they should occupy, the use of
force in spreading his Kingdom, and the ad-
129

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
vent of a temporal reign of Jesus. They for
bade others to do mighty works in his name,
they would call down fire from heaven on his
adversaries. In the person of their spokes
man, who had been the confessor of his Mes
siahship, they even tempted him to renounce
the path of suffering. One of them finally
betrayed him. And eventually, though hav
ing proclaimed their courageous loyalty, "they
all forsook him and fled."
His Response Of such human stuff were his chosen friends
FrienosnTp " " made- TheT Save him their poor best. He
in turn for their weakness never took personal
offense, but set their stumbling minds to work
with patient questioning: "Do you not see,
do you not understand even yet? Are you
still dull of heart? You have eyes, do you
not see? You have ears, do you not hear?
Do you not remember?" (Mark 8. 17, 18.) The
occasion for these questions was his caution
against the leaven of the Pharisees and of
Herod, which they mistook as a rebuke for
not having any bread. When they were afraid
in the storm, he said, "Have ye not yet faith?"
When they asked for an explanation of the
parable about ceremonial and real defilement,
he said, "Are ye also even yet without under
standing?" To Peter, asleep in the garden
during his Master's agonizing prayer, Jesus
130

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
says, using his old name, "Are you sleeping,
Simon? Could you not watch for a single
hour?" After the denial, Jesus only turned
and looked upon Peter. Judas he faithfully
warned, not calling him by name : "One of you
is a devil"; "One of you shall betray me."
Such a friend was he ! In Jesus's day the term
"friend" was a form of common salutation
("Friend, I do thee no harm"), and also was
applicable to neighbors and relatives ("Go
home to thy friends" ) ; Jesus made it a bond
of spiritual union.
Passing from his life of friendship to his His Teaching
teaching about friendship, we note a number Friendship
of things. Our social relations must not be
limited to the circle of our friends. "When Friendship
thou makest a dinner or a feast, do not habitu- j^Jurive
ally call [the force of the verb is restrictive,
not prohibitive] thy friends, nor thy brethren,
nor thy kinsmen, nor rich neighbors; lest
haply they also bid thee again, and a recom
pense be made thee. But when thou makest
a feast, bid the poor, the maimed, the lame,
the blind : and thou shalt be blessed." We are
to be friends to our friends, friends to our
neighbors, as taught by the parable of the good
Samaritan, and friends even to our enemies,
whom we are enjoined to love and for whom
we are to pray. The relation of friendship is,
131

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Use Material
Blessingsto Make
Friends

FormalFriendships

EmotionalBasis of
Expressions of
Friendship

Friendship
LessDependableThan Divine
Communion

in fact, included within the larger relation of
love. Our material blessings, he taught, should
be utilized in making friends, so that perish
able things become the means of establishing
imperishable relationships. This was the com
mendable prudence of the unjust steward.
"And I tell you, use mammon, dishonest as it
is, to make friends for yourselves, so that when
you die they may welcome you to the eternal
abodes." What shall we say of the friend who would
not lend his friend three loaves of bread as an
expression of friendship, but only as a conces
sion to his importunity? There is a poor type
of friendship that cannot stand personal dis
comfort for a friend's sake, that renders a
disagreeable service only to avoid a greater
discomfort. This is a friendship in form
rather than in fact.
The emotion of joy in the recovery of lost
objects is an occasion for calling together
one's friends. So did the man who had found
his lost sheep, and so did the woman who had
found the lost coin, and so did the father who
received again the lost son. The sharing of
emotion is a natural expression of friendship.
Human friendship, he taught, is subordinate
to Divine Fellowship. "You will be scattered
132

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
to your homes and shall leave me alone: and
yet I am not alone, because the Father is with
me." Human friendship could not go all the
way with him. The elder son in the parable
of the prodigal son had missed the fellowship
of his father in his secret longing for merry
making and feasting with his friends. The
friendship of man is less than the friendship
of God. Jesus, by being a friend to man, has
made man a friend of God.
Friendship is immortal, taught Jesus. "I immortality of
call you not servants, I call you friends. . . . 1MmAa^
I go to prepare a place for you, . . . that where
I am there ye may be also." As the Father
had sent him, so sent he them. As the Father
and he were one, so he prayed that his friends
too might be one with him and the Father.
Human friendships are sublimated in the
unity of the divine family.
Illustrating his own views of friendship, jesus as
Jesus entered joyously upon all social occa- c^,°°od
sions, carrying with him the sense of the
superior spiritual life. He was the guest of
honor at the "great feast" of Matthew Levi,
he ate bread on a Sabbath in the house of one
of the rulers of the Pharisees, he attended a
wedding in Cana of Galilee with his disciples,
and he loved the inmates of the home in Beth
any. On each occasion it came about natu-
133

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

HieFriendlinessa Part of His
SocialGoodness

HisOrganizing Ability

rally that memorable words were spoken.
Did the company cease to laugh in his pres
ence? It was at the feast of Matthew that
Jesus likened himself and his company of
disciples to the bridegroom and his com
panions. "Can friends at a wedding fast,
while the bridegroom is beside them?" One
of his Beatitudes was that those who wept
should laugh (Luke 6. 21). His message .was
"good news." It bade men "rejoice and be
exceeding glad," and even "leap for joy," and
assured them their joy "no one taketh away."
2. His Qualities as a Social Worker. Such
was Jesus in his life and teaching as re
gards human friendships and associations.
It is a light and bright side of his social good
ness. As a full man he lived his life among
men for men. On the lighter as well as on
the serious side of social life he did not fall
short. "Master, where dwellest thou?" "Come
and see." How companionable! No doubt
the social graces of Jesus, radiating happi
ness and blessing, contributed essentially to
the success of his human ministry.
To his large and serious social mission of
revealing the Father God to man he brought,
in addition to friendliness, certain other quali
ties characteristic of the social worker. He
had initiative and executive ability. Two in-
134

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
stitutions he initiated which have survived
the tooth of time: one his church, and the
other the Eucharist. On the rock of faith in
his Messiahship professed by Peter, he, the
master carpenter, built his church, and the
gates of hell have not been able to prevail
against it. The memorial meal he instituted
in connection with the passover feast the night
he was betrayed has symbolized his broken
body and shed blood throughout all the inter
vening generations. These two social institu
tions, built on fellowship of the spirit with
each other and personal loyalty to himself,
reveal his constructive imagination, his social
initiative, and his organizing ability.
As a social worker he both worked himself His vision
and he set others to work. Vision, passion,
and action — these three characterize his
social goodness. They were the "light, heat,
and power" of his life. Vision he had of the
leavening process of the Kingdom permeating
finally the social whole, and of the other sheep
belonging to him not of this fold; and of men
coming from the four quarters to sit down
within the Kingdom; and of his witnesses
going into all the world, preaching the gospel
to every creature and teaching the observation
of his commands; and of his own glorious
return in the spirit; and of the separating
135

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
process that should go on between sheep and
goats, and final blessedness and misery of all
people according to the kind of life they had
led; and of himself as the test and standard
by which lives are adjudged. It was a vision
that has captivated Western imagination and
consecrated Western effort.
ms Passion for Passion too for service he had. On the
service multitude he had compassion. He was strait
ened until his mission was accomplished. The
harvest to him was plenteous, but the laborers
few. Fatigue kept him not from instructing
a darkened woman's soul. He felt constrained
to go through Samaria. Repeatedly he must
needs go also into the next towns. Even his
meat was to accomplish his Father's will. The
sense of the greatness of his work and the
shortness of his time lay heavy upon him. The
night was in the act of coming when no man
can work. He left all to fulfill his mission —
home, vocation, relatives, friends — and with
out money and without price ministered where
the need was greatest.
His Activity To vision and passion he added action.
He worked, he went about doing good; he
healed bodies and souls, likening his work to
that of the physician who is needed by the
sick; he taught individuals and groups; he
mingled with all classes and conditions of
136

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
men, without, however, lowering his standard
or compromising his ideals; he trained those
who should continue his work after his early
death, which he foresaw ; prudently he avoided
the final issue till all things were ready, then
he lay down his life of himself in devotion to,
and in illustration of, his principles, with the
sense at the end that it, the great work com
mitted to him, was finished. His was a life
of action, unhurried, unresting, unceasing.
He set others to work. The man from whom He set othen
the legion of devils was cast out he sent home *° Work
to his friends to tell them what great things
the Lord had done for him. Andrew when
called was moved first to find his brother of
"the precipitate will." The woman of Samaria
became an evangelist. He changed the careers
of twelve men. Seventy at one time he sent
out on errands of mercy, two by two, to pre
pare the way for his coming. Finally he gave
"the great commission." Admission to the
Kingdom did not consist in saying "Lord,
Lord," to him, but in doing his Father's will.
Such were some of the traits of Jesus as a
social worker.
3. His Social Teachings. The life of social
service Jesus lived among men has probably
exceeded the influence of the specific social
teachings he gave in transforming human so-
137

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
ciety. Still, the greatest interest attaches to
those teachings, especially in view of the reign
of individualistic thinking from the time of
the Renaissance till the middle of the nine
teenth century, and of the growing recognition
of their social responsibility on the part of
the modern churches. In 1849 F. D. Maurice
began a series of tracts on Christian Social
ism, while modern economic and political so
cialism, arising partly through the relative
failure of the churches to perform their social
mission, have many points of affiliation with
both the letter of Scripture and past practices
of the Christian community, for example,
voluntary communism.
The Question Our present question is, What recognition
of social goodness do we find in the teachings
of Jesus? This is a very large question in
itself. Many books in our day have been
written in answer to it alone, including works
by Rauschenbusch, Peabody, Jenks, Gladden,
Nash, Montgomery, Thorns, and others. One
may truly say that the social emphasis domi
nates Christian thinking to-day. The Chris
tian Church is convinced by long experience
that Jesus can give wholeness of life to, that
is, "save" the individual. The greatest ques
tion perhaps that faces the Christian Church
to-day is, Can Jesus save society? The past
138

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
three years have put new urgency into the
question, revealing as they have the pitiably
incomplete life of human beings in their so
cial relations to each other on the earth.
Our discussion to follow, though brief, will
probably indicate to us that there is equal
potency in Jesus for saving society and the
individual, that the salvation of society is a
part of the original dynamic of the gospel,
and that the great need to-day is to practice
the social aspects of the gospel.
A distinction should be made at the outset individual
between individual and social salvation. By ^v^n
individual salvation we mean fullness of life
for the individual. By social salvation we
mean fullness of life for society, that is, for
men in their relations to each other. Indi
vidual salvation emphasizes personality; so
cial salvation emphasizes the relation of per
sonalities to each other, and the influence on
personality of the social and physical environ
ment. A little thinking will clearly show that
there are no individuals out of social relations
and that there is no society apart from indi
viduals in mutual relationship ; so that, really,
there are reciprocal influences between the
individual and society. This means that a
saved individual will help save society, and
that a saved society will help save individuals.
139

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
It also means that an individual cannot have
wholeness of life in an unsaved society and
also that society cannot have wholeness of
life with unsaved individuals in it. Of course
all life, both individual and social, is fluid,
dynamic, and on the whole progressive ; salva
tion itself is the process of growth into full
ness of life, and at any moment is only a
matter of degree. Both individuals and so
ciety to-day are saved only in part. But the
social part of the process has lagged somewhat
behind the individual part. This means that
groups and nations in dealing with each other
fall below the standard of private individuals.
Usually and roughly, the larger and less
familiar with each other the groups are, the
lower the standards. So it comes about, as
Professor Ross says, we are "sinning by syndi
cate." What, then, do we find in the teachings of
Jesus in recognition of social goodness? Our
abbreviated answer to this question will indi
cate (1) some of the main social topics Jesus
treated, (2) the principles significant for so
cial reform upon which he relied, and (3) his
teaching that the gospel is social.
social Themes Among the social topics for which the teach
ings of Jesus, interpreting his own life of
social service among men, are significant may
140

of Jesus

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
be included : the home, marriage and divorce ;
the school and principles of teaching; the state,
war and crime; civil society, labor, poverty,
and wealth; religious authority and observa
tion of the Sabbath; the kingdom of heaven
and missions; and the principles of social re
form. Jesus treats these themes not sys
tematically but as they naturally arise upon
occasion. His nearest approach to systematic
exposition of a theme is in the Sermon on the
Mount, if indeed this be a single discourse,
in which is outlined the new kingdom of
heaven. Into the details of these topics our
present lack of space forbids us to go.1 It is
enough for our present purpose to indicate
that a society reconstructed in accordance
with the social teachings of Jesus would be
built on the universal principle of love; that
its central institution would be the home,
unmarred by divorce, save for the cause of
fornication, if, indeed, for that; the rights of
children as members of the kingdom of heaven
would be respected in home, school, and fac
tory; states could not permanently abide war
as a mode of settling controversy, and would
find the best in criminals and appeal to that;
labor would be dignified and suitably re-
1 Compare the author's book, Modern Problems as
Jesus Saw Them. 141

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
warded; the money of the rich would be at
the service of the needs of the human brother
hood ; the poor would be helped not to beg but
to stand upright on their feet (Acts 14. 10)
and walk ; religious authority would center in
the individual soul in relationship to God; the
Sabbath would be used not to abstain from
doing things but to do things helpful to man,
and the kingdom of heaven would come on
earth as the reign of God in the hearts of men.
Into such a society would there not come full
ness of life?
Principles of Let us next turn briefly to the second mat-
A^c^ding to™ ter, namely, the principles significant for so-
jesus cial reform upon which Jesus relied. Among
these are : there is a kingdom of heaven, spirit
ual, not temporal, membership in which is
constituted by the rule of God in the indi
vidual heart, by doing the will of God on earth
as it is done in heaven; this kingdom is at
hand and is in process of becoming as leaven
works through the whole lump of dough, or as
the mustard seed grows into the greatest of
all trees; by membership in the Kingdom men
who are already natural brothers become
also spiritual brothers; God is the heavenly
Father of all; the worth of the individual
soul, whether man, woman, or child, is un
limited; and the renewed individual will re-
142

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
new society, as it is by persons witnessing
to the truth, not by programs embodying
specific demands, that the Kingdom is to come.
We see from these principles of social reform
that Jesus had in mind not merely the social
objectives of the gospel, but also the practical
means for their attainment. That these means
are reliable, the course of human history for
the past twenty centuries, though not consist
ently relying upon them, is witness. The
social lump is gradually, though not with
equal progress at all times, being leavened.
In the third place, Jesus really taught that jesus Taught
the gospel is social, though the full signifi- ^™m°*"* u
cance of this teaching has been hidden from
some generations in the past and even from
many people of the present. That the "pure
gospel" is really an applied gospel, that the
individual gospel is also a social gospel, is
clearly evidenced by the following four in
stances of the teaching of Jesus : the first ser
mon in Nazareth, the message to John, the
mission of the twelve, and the judgment scene.
The text from Isaiah of his first sermon in The First
Nazareth, where he had been brought up, fol- Ha^euT
lowing his baptism and temptation, which he
claimed as fulfilled in himself in the presence
of his relatives and old friends, is instinct
with social dynamic, as follows: "The spirit
143

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
of the Lord is upon me, for he has consecrated
me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has
sent me to proclaim release for captives, and
recovery of sight for the blind, to set free the
oppressed, to proclaim the Lord's year of
favor" (Moffatt Translation).
Message to John the Baptist, hearing in prison from
John his disciples the kind of work Jesus was doing,
not recognizing such lowly ministry as clearly
indicative of the Messiah whose coming he
had heralded, became confused in mind, and
sent two of his disciples to Jesus to inquire:
"Are you the coming One? Or are we to look
out for some one else?" In the hour of their
arrival Jesus in characteristic service was cur
ing many of diseases and plagues and evil
spirits, and bestowing sight upon many that
were blind. On hearing the question of the
messengers, with full appreciation of the
greatness of John, without answering cate
gorically, and reaffirming the social mission
of the gospel, he said : "Go and report to John
what you have seen and heard ; that the blind
see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the
deaf hear, the dead are raised, and to the poor
the gospel is preached. And blessed is he who
is repelled by nothing in me." Unfortunately
we do not know how John the Baptist received
this message, upon which depended whether
144

THE GOODNESS OF JESUS
he, than whom among those born of women
a greater had not arisen, was himself a mem
ber of the Kingdom.
Seeing the multitudes, realizing the great- Mission of the
ness of the harvest and the fewness of the Twelve
laborers, Jesus called unto him his twelve
disciples, gave them authority over unclean
spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all man
ner of disease, and, sending them forth two by
two, gave them in part this charge: "And
preach as you go, tell men 'The reign of heaven
is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse
the lepers, cast out daemons; give without
paying, as you have got without paying." He
likewise appointed and sent forth seventy
others into every city and place whither he
himself was about to come, who in time re
turned and reported to him with joy: "Lord,
even the devils are subject unto us through
thy name." Here is evidence of the effective
ness of their social mission.
Finally, the wonderful judgment scene indi- The Last
cates that the goodness which survives is Judgment
essentially social in character. The sheep on
the right hand gave to eat to the hungry, gave
drink to the thirsty, took in the stranger,
clothed the naked, visited the sick, came unto
the prisoner. The goats on the left hand did
none of these things. Neither the righteous
145

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
nor the unrighteous recognized at the time
their Lord in those in need. What more in
addition to these four passages is requisite
to show the recognition of social goodness in
the teaching of Jesus?
Questions concerning the ultimate interpre
tation of good and evil as suggested by Jesus,
which naturally arise here, will be reserved
for our treatment of his intellectuality.
Thus at length we have completed the sur
vey of the life and teachings of Jesus in rela
tion to the second ideal of complete living,
namely, goodness. We have seen how the
three kinds of goodness — vocational, personal,
and social — he both exemplified and recog
nized. This brings us to the consideration of Jesus
and the third ideal of complete living, namely,
beauty.

146

CHAPTER IV
THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
"In the name of our God we will set up our
banners." — Psalm 20. 5.

CHAPTER IV
THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
Oue three chapters so far have first re- Retrospect
viewed the ideals of complete living as physi
cal, moral, emotional, intellectual, and spirit
ual, and have then studied the physique and
goodness of Jesus in connection with his recog
nition of the physical and moral ideals in his
teaching. We have now to study the emotional life prospect
as experienced by Jesus and recognized by him
in his teaching. In pursuing this theme we
shall take account of the following rather long
list of emotions : humor, joy, desire, love, love
of nature, compassion, sympathy, sorrow,
wonder, surprise, amazement, anger, indigna
tion, disappointment, gratitude, dependence,
fear, and peace, as well as, more briefly, in
terest, reverence, exaltation, zeal, sensitive
ness, tenderness, shame, appreciation, and
satisfaction. All of these emotional experi
ences Jesus had, except fear. We must not
only describe the appearance of each emotion
149

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
in the experience of Jesus, but also indicate
his recognition of it in his teaching. Then
we must draw our conclusion. This is a large
outlay in itself. The field is comparatively un-
worked, and very interesting and rewarding.
None of our studies, unless it be that of his
physique, will bring Jesus so near to our com
mon human lot. A spectral Christ is emotion
less, but Jesus is no spectral Christ. Let us
follow only the clear record and its undoubted
implications in our presentation and conclu
sion. I. His Sense of Humoe
The traditional view of Jesus is that he
wept, but never smiled. This is almost cer
tainly a mistake, as the evidence will indicate.
Being a complete man, we should expect in
advance that Jesus had along with other fully
human endowments also the saving sense of
humor. The facts also warrant this deduc
tion. Our English translation of the New
Testament sometimes unavoidably conceals
the presence of humor.
Hay« on Thus Jesus really tells the busy Martha pre
paring her dishes for the meal that Mary has
chosen the good portion which should not be
taken away from her. He tells the fishermen
Simon and Andrew at their labor to follow
150

Words

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
him and he will make them fishers of men.
After the miraculous draught of fishes he tells
Peter, James, and John that they shall catch
men alive. He would leave the [spiritually]
dead to bury their [physically] dead. His
enemies can discern the signs of the heavens
but not the signs of the times — said not only
with a play on words but also with a touch
of sarcasm. There is a play also on words of
similar sound, or, as it is called, paronomasia,
when he says to Simon, "Now I tell you, Peter
[stone] is your name, and on this rock
[petras] I will build my church." So Jesus,
probably speaking the homely idiom of the
Aramaic tongue, not always translatable into
Greek, was not above playing on the meanings
and sounds of words.
There is humor too in his giving the brothers a smiie in
James and John, who would call down fire
from heaven on an inhospitable Samaritan
village, the nickname, Boanerges — "sons of
thunder." We do not know who gave Thomas
his nickname Didymus — "twin." Jesus must
have felt the humor of the title "Benefactors"
applied to the tyrannical and oppressive kings
of the Gentiles, contrasting therewith great
ness in his Kingdom. One of the new sayings
of Jesus : "Thou hearest with one ear, but the
other thou hast closed," reveals a touch of
151

His Words

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

humor which enables us to see the same more
readily in the familiar passages of the house
divided against itself, Beelzebul at variance
with himself, and serving two masters. Thus
there is an unmistakable smile in his words
which must also have gleamed in his eye and
played across his countenance.
Grim Humor Who can fail to detect the grim humor in
the message to Herod: "Go ye and tell that
fox, ... it cannot be that a prophet perish
out of Jerusalem" ? The same appears in such
figures as the blind leading the blind, having
eyes but not seeing, and building one's house
on the sand, especially when this figure is used
by a worker in wood. The absurdity of the
rich fool's position is revealed by the cutting
question, "Then whose shall those things be?"
In the parable of the man who could not finish
his tower, Jesus consciously depicts him as
subject to the derisive mockery of his fellows.
The Grotesque There are elements of grotesqueness, a phase
of humor, in putting a light under a bushel,
having a beam in one's eye, casting one's
pearls before swine, gathering grapes of
thorns and figs of thistles, cleaning only the
outside of the cup, and giving one's child a
stone for bread, a snake for a fish, or a scorpion
for an egg.
Hyperbole There is bold hyperbole in the swallowing
152

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
of a camel, the camel going through the eye
of a needle, and the stones by the roadside
crying out.
Having in mind the esteem in which the irony
Pharisees held themselves, there is irony in
the saying : "They that are whole [that is, the
Pharisees] need not a physician." Likewise
in these words: "Many good works have I
showed you from the Father; for which of
those works do ye stone me?" And in the
prayer of the Pharisee, sarcasm mingles with
irony: "God, I thank thee, that I am not as
other men are." And in his comment on their
traditions: "Praiseworthy indeed!" he added,
"to set at nought God's commandment in order
to observe your own traditions!" (Mark 7. 9,
Weymouth Tr.). There is cutting irony in
the reference to Dives, who "also died, and
was buried." In view of the magnitude of the
accomplishment, perhaps also in the words
to the lawyer, "Do that and you will live"
(Luke 10. 28).
Gentle raillery as well as indignant pro- Raillery
test at racial exclusiveness appears in his
words to the Syrophcenician woman: "It is
not meet to take the children's bread, and cast
it to dogs." Likewise, in the words to the
sleepers in the garden: "Sleep on now, and
take your rest," but simple fact in the words
153

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
following : "Come, get up, here is my betrayer
close at hand."
wu He reduces the principle of loving only
those that love you to absurdity by asking,
"Do not even the publicans so?" — those whom
you so detest? This personal thrust would
not be lost on his hearers. There is the sharp
ness of wit in his retort: "If I by Beelzebul
cast out daemons, by whom do your sons cast
them out?"
satire There is abundant scathing satire in his
denunciations of the hypocrites, who "sound
a trumpet" before giving alms, who are
"whited sepulchers," "concealed tombs,"
"blind guides," self-righteous builders of
sepulchers of the slain prophets.
Humor is the perception of the unity of the
incongruous. It involves an intellectual as
well as an emotional element. Is there not
sufficient evidence that Jesus had the sense of
humor? II. The Gospel of Jot
From the sense of humor we turn naturally
to the emotion of joy. Fifty -nine times in the
New Testament the word for chastened and
restrained joy, or its equivalent, occurs. The
angels had announced to the shepherds at the
birth of Jesus "the good tidings of great joy."
154

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
When Mary came to Elisabeth following the
annunciation of the angel, the babe in Elisa
beth's womb "leaped for joy." John later de
scribed himself as the friend who rejoiced
greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Mary's
spirit rejoiced in God her Saviour.
Following the account of the return of the The joy ot
seventy, Luke says (10. 21) of Jesus, "He Jesus
thrilled with joy at that hour in the Holy
Spirit," apparently manifesting his joy by
outward signs. The disciples of Jesus did not
fast as did those of John, the reason being
that the sons of the bridechamber had in Jesus
the Bridegroom with them. Jesus sharply
distinguished between the asceticism of John,
who came neither eating nor drinking, and the
festival message of the Sgi; of man, who came
eating and drinking. Jesus attended a wed
ding and was a guest at social meals repeat
edly. Zacchaeus received him joyfully in his
home. He watched with interest the play
of children, and he loved children. His pres
ence was welcome to the people on the first
Palm Sunday and to the children crying
"Hosanna" in the temple. The occasion of
the rejoicing of Jesus in the Holy Spirit was
the victorious return of the seventy, and its
cause that it had been well-pleasing to the
Father to hide these things from the wise and
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
understanding and to reveal them unto babes.
So Jesus felt and expressed joy, and also by
his presence communicated joy to others.
"My joy He also refers specifically to "my joy." He
told his disciples about the vine, the branches,
and the husbandman "that my joy may be
within you, and your joy complete." He
speaks certain things in prayer "that they
may have my joy complete within them"
(John 17. 13). Their sorrow at the coming
separation should be turned into joy, for he
would see them again, and their heart would
rejoice, and their joy no one would take from
them.
The Kingdom The Kingdom as he pictures it is character
ized by joy. Fasting was not to be accom
panied by a sad countenance. With joy one
sells all and buys the hid treasure. As the
woman rejoices in finding the lost coin, the
shepherd in finding the lost sheep, the father
in finding the lost son, so there is joy in the
presence of the angels of God over one sinner
that repenteth. The Kingdom is likened to a
wedding supper. The apostles are to rejoice
not so much because devils are subject unto
them, but because their names are written in
heaven. Even persecution is a ground for leap
ing with joy. Those who mourn are blessed,
for they shall laugh. Faithful servants shall
156

Joyful

Desire

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
enter into the joy of their Lord, that is, in
creased responsibility and usefulness. Thus
the gospel is joyful tidings. Jesus himself re
joiced. He communicated joy to friends and
disciples, and he gave the kingdom the stamp
of joy. "Be of good cheer," he admonishes;
"I have overcome the world."
Longing desire Jesus also felt and ex- Longing
pressed. The Last Supper had been for him
an object of eager and glad anticipation.
"With desire I have desired to eat this pass-
over with you before I suffer." He promises
only an interruption, not a cessation, of those
happy personal relationships. He would not
again drink of the fruit of the vine until that
day when he should drink it new with them
in his Father's kingdom.
III. His Love op Persons and Nature
The heart of Jesus went out in love to both
man and nature. Five persons outside the
immediate family of Jesus are mentioned as
objects of his affection — three men and two
women: the disciple John, the rich young
ruler, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. John was
"that disciple whom Jesus loved." Jesus,
looking on the rich young ruler, seeing his
youth, earnestness, and goodness, loved him.
Lazarus was the brother of Martha and Mary,
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
all members of the Bethany household, be
loved by Jesus. Even the Jews testified, see
ing the sorrow of Jesus at the grave of Laza
rus: "See how he loved him!" In addition,
Jesus loved the company of the disciples, and
"having loved his own which were in the
world, he loved them unto the end." Jesus
loved Jerusalem, whose children he would
have gathered as a hen gathereth her brood
under her wings at night. From his readiness
and willingness to serve every person in need,
his love must have gone out also to all men.
His Teaching In harmony with his own love for all, he
taught a universal love. The great command
ment in the law was the love of God. The
second, which could not be divorced from the
first, was the love of man, the love of one's
neighbor as oneself. The parable of the good
Samaritan defines one's neighbor as any per
son in distress, even a member of a despised
mixed race. Even one's enemy is to be loved.
He gave a new commandment of love to his
disciples, that they should love one another as
he had loved them. He required that he him
self should be loved by his followers more than
any family or other earthly tie. The test of
such love he made the keeping of his com
mandments. Three times he secured an ex
pression of Peter's love, and three times
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THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
assigned him the proper task of love — feeding
his sheep and lambs. From the self-sacrificing
love that Jesus exemplified, laying down his
life for his friends, and from the first place
that he assigned love in both the great and the
new commandments, it is clear that again
Saint Paul transcribes the mind of Christ in
making love the "more excellent way" of the
gospel. In fact, the gospel is love, uniting
God, Christ, and man in reciprocal bonds.
Jesus loved nature as well as man. Alti- His Love of
tude and solitude he especially sought, finding
God there in meditation and prayer. The
high mountain, the wilderness, the desert
place had no terrors for him. Like a sensitive
poet he received impressions from nature only
to give them forth again clothed with aesthetic
emotional expression — such as sowing and
reaping ; seed-time and harvest ; day and night ;
labor and rest; the grass of the field; the
birds of the air — pigeons, partridges, finches,
and bulbuls; the lilies, perhaps the scarlet-
colored anemones, with which the hillsides of
Galilee abound; perhaps also the tulips and
poppies; pearls; mint, anise, and cummin; the
sparrows, into the tragedy of whose lives his
sympathetic imagination penetrated; the
holes of the foxes; the four kinds of soils;
the blowing wind and its mystery ; the ravens
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
which feed without sowing and reaping;
lambs and sheep, mentioned thirty-six times
in the Gospels ; the crowing cock ; the mother
ing hen ; the sympathetic dogs ; the wild beasts
of the wilderness of temptation, not lions, but
leopards, wolves, panthers, and jackals; the
ravening wolves ; the eagles at the carcass ; the
harmless doves; the common diet of bread
and fish; the wise yet spiteful and venomous
serpents and vipers; the undying worm of
corruption; the small gnat; the large camel;
the ravaging moth — all these and more en
tered into his teaching. With an observant
eye he caught the pageant of nature and tran
scribed it in living words. He loved the natu
ral and the real; they all had inner meaning
for him, and he made them significant of
spiritual realities for others.
IV. His Compassion
Akin to the love of Jesus for nature and
man are his compassion, sympathy, sorrow,
and even anguish. Though humor, joy, and
love were indeed his, as we have seen, he was
also the "Man of Sorrows."
Tho The cry, "Have mercy" frequently greeted
of°je^ufon the ears of Jesus. And he did have mercy, he
was moved with compassion, he did exercise
pity, upon those who besought him and also
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THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
upon others. Specified objects of his compas
sion are a leper; the widow of Nain; the two
blind men of Jericho, of whom Bartimaeus was
one; the Gerasene demoniac; and the multi
tudes. The afflicted, the sorrowing, and the
unshepherded people moved Jesus to pity.
Three times it is mentioned that the sight of
the multitude aroused his compassion: once
before sending forth the twelve, once before
feeding the five thousand, once before feeding
the four thousand. Jesus himself speaks of
the compassion he exercised for the demoniac
and by which he was moved by the four thou
sand. It is an interesting fact that this emo
tion is attributed to Jesus by the synoptic
writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but not
by John, to whom love seemed to embrace the
motive of pity.
In his teaching Jesus recognized this emo- His Teaching
tion in the command, "Be ye therefore merci
ful, as your Father also is merciful"; in the
parable of the good Samaritan, who was
moved with compassion at the sight of the
wounded man; in the parable of the unmerci
ful servant, whose lord through compassion
had forgiven him a large debt, but who him
self would show no pity on a fellow servant;
in the parable of the prodigal son, whose
father saw him a great way off and had com-
161

ConcerningCompassion

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Jesus Not an
Object of Pity

The Tears of
Jesus

At the Tomb
of Lazarus

OverJerusalem

passion on him; and in the beatitude concern
ing the merciful. The sum of the teaching of
Jesus concerning this emotion is that man
should be merciful to man because it is the
nature of God to be merciful.
Though Jesus was pitiful, he was unwilling
to be regarded as pitiable, and is never so pre
sented in the Gospels. He showed pity for
others, he commands that pity be shown, but
he did not pity himself, and he did not accept
the pity of others. When the daughters of
Jerusalem bewailed him on the way with his
cross to his crucifixion, he redirected their
pity to themselves and to their children.
Three times the tears of Jesus flowed. The
full humanity of those tears! First, at the
grave of Lazarus. When Jesus saw Mary
weeping and the Jews with her weeping, he
groaned in the spirit and was troubled, asked
where they had laid him, and himself wept.
His tears excited varied comment among the
Jews, some remarking on his love for Lazarus
as evidenced by his weeping; others question
ing whether he who restored sight could not
also have prevented death. Again groaning
in himself, Jesus came to the tomb. In sym
pathetic sorrow he wept with those who wept.
On Palm Sunday, while making his trium
phal entry on the peaceful ass's colt, not with
162

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
shouts of victory but with loud cries of lamen
tation did he draw nigh, see the city, and weep
over it. He had so yearned that the city
should learn from him the things of peace.
Too late now! Those things were hidden.
Instead, not recognizing the day of its oppor
tunity, its enemies should lay it waste, and
dash its children to the ground. They were
tears of anguish at the rejection in ignorance
of opportunity, tears anticipating Gethsemane
and Golgotha.
The gospels record only these two instances Perhaps in
of the tears of Jesus ; the third is recorded by
the author of the Epistlei to the Hebrews ( 5. 7 ) :
"In the days of his flesh, with bitter cries and
tears, he offered prayers and supplications to
him who was able to save him from death ; and
he was heard because of his godly fear. Thus,
Son that he was, he learned by all he suffered
how to obey." The reference is evidently to
the agony in the garden. The tears accom
panied the prayer that, if possible, he might
be saved from death. These three times the
tears of Jesus flowed; they dissolve the last
vestige of a spectral figure and leave a trium
phant "Man of Sorrows."
The tears of others Jesus transmuted into Affected by
smiles as the sun puts the rainbow over the others*™0'
waterfall. The epileptic lad whose father
163

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
cried out his belief with tears, Jesus healed.
The penitent harlot who in Simon's house
washed the feet of Jesus with her tears, Jesus
sent away in peace. "Why make ye this ado,
and weep?" he said to the hired mourners
before restoring the daughter of Jairus.
"Weep not," he said, before turning back with
joy the funeral procession out of Nairn
"Mary," he said, revealing himself to the weep
ing Magdalene the first Christian Easter. He
so marked the bitter weeping of the denying
Peter that he sent him a special message of
hope : "Go tell my disciples and Peter." So to
the weeping sisters Martha and Mary he re
stored their beloved brother, though first
mingling his tears with theirs. Such was the
responsive and effective sympathy of Jesus
with the tears of men and women.
Miracles and The miracles of Jesus are motivated by sym
pathy. He would do no sign to convince an
evil and adulterous generation of his Messiah-
ship — that he had determined upon at the
Temptation. But many works of mercy he
performed for the relief of those in any kind
of distress. His first miracle relieved the
social embarrassment of a rustic bridegroom
whose supply of wine ran short. His second
miracle restored to health the son of the be
lieving nobleman at Capernaum. The third
164

Sympathy

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
cast out an unclean spirit on the Sabbath in
the synagogue in Capernaum. The fourth
rebuked the great fever of Peter's wife's
mother. At this point the count is lost, for
"all the city was gathered together at the
door" of Peter's house in Capernaum. "He
laid his hands on every one, and healed them."
We might go through the whole list of mira
cles — some thirty-odd specific ones being re
corded, including individual healings, group
healings, restoration of life, and the nature
miracles — and in each case we should find the
same thing: the motive of sympathy. Jesus
was a relieving Friend in need, no worker of
wonders that people might gape at a sign.
Even the coin in the fish's mouth perhaps re
lieved the financial embarrassment of Peter,
as quieting the storm on the lake removed the
fear of the dismayed disciples. The miracles
of Jesus are thus the effective outgo of his
sympathetic spirit in the relief of human need.
Such sympathy of Jesus was costly to him. sympathetic
Saint Matthew expresses it by quoting Isaiah :
"Himself took our infirmities, and bore our
sicknesses." Jesus himself said that the deaf
and dumb spirit of the epileptic boy was of a
kind that only prayer could cause to come
out. Pressed on all sides by the multitude,
when touched by the woman with an issue of
165

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
blood, he felt virtue proceed out of himself.
Those sufferers with sane minds were regu
larly induced to cooperate in their cure
through exercising faith. Where there was
unbelief Jesus could not do many mighty
works. Thus his sympathy motivating his
miracles was in certain instances that deep
kind of suffering with another which by shar
ing divides and by dividing makes way for
healing. The method by which the sympa
thetic cure was effected is only hinted, not
described. Jesus took pains at times to estab
lish this bond of sympathy first, by putting
his finger in the ears of the deaf, by anointing
with clay the eyes of the blind. He himself
said that it was by "the finger of God" that
he cast out devils and that it was evidence
that the kingdom of God had come among
men.
Recognition of As compassion, so also sympathy is recog-
H^x^fiJn'g nized in his teaching. The Golden Rule itself,
given in the Sermon on the Mount, involves
putting oneself in the place of another so as
to determine how one would be treated in that
position, that one may treat another likewise.
One trouble with Dives was that he had no
sympathy for Lazarus lying full of sores at
his gate, eating the crumbs from his table,
whose wretchedness the unowned street-dogs
166

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
increased by coming and licking his sores. The
Pharisees had no sympathy with the publi
cans — they "despised others" — which led Jesus
to speak the parable of the two men who went
up in the temple to pray. The elder brother
had no sympathy with the returning prodigal
and the father's merrymaking. The Levite and
the priest had no sympathy with the man who
had fallen among thieves, bent as they doubt
less were upon business of their religion. The
Pharisees were "separatists," divorced in sym
pathy from the common people, against whose
lack of sympathy the teaching of Jesus was
especially directed. Jesus both had sympathy
and taught that all men should have it.
Though joy and blessedness were deeper "AManof
notes in the life of Jesus, he also had sorrows, Sarrows"
both physical and spiritual. He missed the
comforts of home and had not where to lay
his head, though he said this in no self-pity,
but to help a would-be disciple count the cost.
He had a yoke, though easy, and a burden,
though light. He took up his cross daily. In
the presence of the deaf-mute, he sighed ; upon
other occasions he groaned in spirit. With
his mind filled with the sufferings awaiting
him in Jerusalem, his manner on the way go
ing up there for the last time was such as to
amaze his disciples and to make them that
167

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
followed afraid. He had a baptism to be bap
tized with, and "how am I straitened," he said,
"till it be accomplished." When the Greeks
came to see him, he said his soul was troubled,
he realized that his hour was at hand. At the
Last Supper he was troubled in spirit at the
thought of the betrayal. In the garden of
Gethsemane, being tempted to save himself;
being greatly amazed and sore troubled ; being
in an agony; sweating as it were great drops
of blood falling down upon the ground; pray
ing earnestly that if possible the cup might be
removed; feeling perhaps as never before
the adversative "nevertheless" between the
Father's and his own will, yet conquering it
by obedient submission; seeking alternately
divine and human sympathy, he states his own
feeling to the three most intimate disciples:
"My heart is sad, sad even to death." It was
the anguish of anticipated separation from
God on the cross, of the foreseen dereliction.
Not saving himself, he was saving others. He
was betrayed, forsaken by his own, denied by
Peter, bound, stricken, falsely testified against,
stripped, arrayed in purple, given a crown of
thorns, given a reed in his right hand for a
scepter, mocked, spit upon, smitten on the
head with the reed, and delivered unto a
shameful death. He went out bearing the
168

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
cross for himself, until relieved by Simon of
Cyrene. Women bewailed and lamented him
on the via dolorosa, though he deprecated
their doing so. He thirsted on the cross. The
climax of his sorrows came in the cry from the
cross at the ninth hour: "Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabachthani?" It had come as he knew it
would, the obscuring for a time of his sense
of the Father's presence, while his strength
ebbed away and his soul identified itself with
the suffering of the sinning world. But his
spirit recovered in the strength of the twenty-
second psalm which he began to quote, and
the end was the everlasting triumph of a fin
ished work and a spirit commending itself
into the Father's hands.
The end of Jesus's life was not unhappy, sorrow
or miserable, but a glorious overcoming of the Subsumed
tribulations of the world. A Man of Sorrows,
yes, but more truly still, a Man of good cheer.
His own beatitude was his: "Blessed are the
mourners ! they will be consoled."
Though it is said of Jesus by John that he Twice jesus
IWa rv p 1 cd
knew what was in man, upon two occasions he
was led to marvel. He marveled at the un
belief of his fellow townsmen in Nazareth and
he marveled at the faith of the Roman cen
turion, as he begged in behalf of a favorite
slave the authoritative ministration of Jesus
169

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
from a distance. Jesus was not surprised
that his old friends should not believe in him,
for a prophet, he recalled, is not without
honor save in his own country and among his
own people, but their unbelief did excite his
wonder and reprobation.
The faith of the centurion awakened both
his sense of surprise that unexpectedly he had
met such faith outside of Israel and wonder
at the magnitude of it. Likewise when he said
to the Canaanitish woman, "O woman, great
is thy faith," the elements of surprise and
wonder seem to mingle. Thus Jesus marveled
at two things — unbelief in Israel and belief
beyond Israel. The one he condemned, the
other he approved.
The surprise Though surprise is not asserted of Jesus, the
element of surprise seems to be present on
several occasions. Thus his question at twelve
to his parents, "Why did you look for me?"
seems to indicate surprise that they did not
come at once to the temple to find him. The
sudden rising of the storm on the lake with
the disciples in the boat far from land and
Jesus alone on the mountain in prayer, Jesus
himself having constrained the disciples to go
before him unto the other side, may well have
been a surprise to Jesus as well as to the dis
ciples. Would he have sent them into known
170

of Jesus

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
danger? He would not tempt God in the
wilderness. Likewise, an element of surprise
appears in the question addressed to Peter on
finding him sleeping in the garden after hav
ing been told to watch: "Simon, sleepest
thou?" And to Nicodemus : "Art thou a master
of Israel, and knowest not these things?"
Once the soul of Jesus was seized with The
amazement. In the garden he began to be rfj^ent
greatly amazed and sore troubled (Mark 14.
33). At what was Jesus amazed? Was the
agony greater in fact than he had been led to
anticipate? Was it something of the same
surprise and shock that entered into the cry
from the cross, the unexpected sense of God-
forsakenness? Or, are the amazement of Geth-
semane and the cry from Golgotha just ex
pressions of now felt but hitherto anticipated
anguish? We cannot be sure. I am inclined
to think that both the agony in the garden
and the sense of separation from God on the
cross were greater in fact than Jesus had
fully realized in advance, so that the element
of surprise mingles with dreadful awe in his
amazement. Jesus was himself a marvel not only to jesus
others but also to his disciples. They were £%££,,
astonished at his command of the storm; at
his teaching concerning the rich and concern-
171

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

And Others

Discouraged
Idle Wonder

ing divorce; at his demeanor as he, literally,
stiffened his face to go to Jerusalem, know
ing what awaited him there; at the wonderful
draught of fishes; at the withering away of
the barren fig tree; and at the news of his
resurrection. They saw in him an unusual
manner of man.
Others too, individually, in groups, and in
multitudes, were astonished at him. Joseph
and Mary marveled at the prophecy of Simeon
concerning the infant Jesus; and they did
not understand his twelve-year-old saying in
the temple, where his auditors had marveled
at his understanding and answers. Nicode-
mus marveled at the teaching of his need for
a new birth. The multitudes marveled at the
authority with which he taught, in contrast
with the scribes, at his healings, his forgiving
sins, his knowing letters, his wisdom in an
swering questions, his words of grace as he
preached, his disregard of current customs in
eating and in social intercourse, and in the
freedom allowed his disciples.
What was the attitude of Jesus toward the
repeated astonishment he and his teaching
excited? Two things: he discouraged idle
wonder, and he raised expectations of more
wonderful things to come. His wonderful
works were not primarily "wonders," but
172

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
"signs"; not something at which to open the
physical eyes, but something to open the spirit
ual eyes. He recognized that false prophets
and false Christs could show "signs and won
ders," and that the sons of his enemies could
cast out demons. His wonderful works were
to him not a proof but an effect of his mission.
Unquickened souls to whom Moses and the
prophets did not appeal would not believe
though one rose from the dead. To seek after
a sign was characteristic of an evil and adul
terous generation. To the nobleman of Caper
naum, seeking help for his sick son, Jesus said,
"Unless you see signs and wonders, you never
will believe." So Jesus discredited material
marvels, distinguished his own works from
them as "signs" of the presence of the King
dom, and would not have faith built upon
them, unless one understood the works aright
as spiritual.
But expectation of greater spiritual accom- Encouraged
plishment, he aroused. His disciples should ^^
do greater works than his own after he was
gone and they must rely upon him and them
selves. He had, after all, told Nicodemus only
"earthly" things, while the true "heavenly"
things waited to be told. Nathanael should be
a witness of greater things than being told
Jesus had seen him under the fig tree, even the
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
heavens opened and the angels of God ascend
ing and descending upon the Son of man. The
Father would show the Son greater works
than these, "that ye may marvel." They
should not marvel even at the idea, so as to
reject it, of the Son of man executing judg
ment. "I have done one work, and ye all
marvel" (John 7. 21). Jesus thus opens the
imagination to new spiritual wonders waiting
to be revealed. He had many things to tell
which not even his disciples were yet ready
to hear. V. The Anger of Jesus
Once Jesus was angry and once at least
indignant. In each case it is Mark alone who
has recorded these emotions of Jesus, for
which we may be grateful to Mark, as these
are essential traits in his character. It is
Mark who especially of the evangelists empha
sizes the human feelings of Jesus. The occa
sion of the anger of Jesus was the silence of
his critics at his question concerning the law
fulness of doing good on the Sabbath day
before healing the man with the withered hand
in the synagogue. He "looked round about
on them with anger, being grieved for the
hardness of their hearts" (Mark 3. 5). What
made him angry? Their inhumanity and un-
174

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
godliness: their attitude was both unsympa
thetic toward human misfortune and mis-
representative of God's mercy. It was the
flaming out of righteous anger, accompanied
by a grieved heart.
Jesus was moved with indignation at his The
own disciples who rebuked those bringing JJuJ^fon
babes and little children to him that he might
lay his hands on them and pray. At what was
he indignant? At the idea that the kingdom
of heaven was not for little children. "And
he called them unto him, took them in his
arms, and laid his hands upon them, and
blessed them."
Though indignation and resentment are not Possible cases
mentioned, these feelings would naturally
accompany certain other things that Jesus
did and said. He cleansed the temple ; he put
forth those who laughed him to scorn in the
home of Jairus ; he cursed the barren fig tree,
which, like the religious leaders of the time,
put forth leaves of promise but yielded no
fruit; he once addressed Peter, who was re
buking him for anticipating suffering, as
"Satan," and he denounced with repeated
woes the hypocrites.
With whatever emotions accompanied, three Three
rebukes of Jesus are recorded. He rebuked
the unclean spirit in an afflicted man, and, as
175

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
though they too were moved by spirits, he
rebuked the great fever of Peter's wife's
mother, and he rebuked the winds and the
sea. In this connection it may be proper to
recall, though without any satisfactory inter
pretation, the marginal readings in the ac
count of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus. When
Jesus saw Mary and the Jews weeping, "he
chafed in spirit and was disquieted" (John
11. 33 ) . Later he came to the tomb, and "this
made Jesus chafe afresh" (John 11.38). Shall
we say the suggestion is that Jesus was moved
with indignation at the agency causing the
death of Lazarus? Or, was his groaning in
spirit an expression of sympathetic sorrow?
The In contrast with the indignation of Jesus
ottersatl0n ° at inhumanity to an afflicted man or to little
children, we have the indignation of the ten
at the supposed preference shown to James
and John; the indignation of the disciples,
especially Judas, at the "waste" of precious
ointment ; the indignation of the rulers of the
synagogue at healing on the Sabbath ; and the
indignation of the Pharisees at the "Hosan-
nas" of the children in the temple. At the
bottom of such indignation we find jealousy,
envy, avarice, inappreciation of woman's
gracious and grateful homage, and religious
prejudice. At the bottom of the indignation
176

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
and anger of Jesus we find resentment at any
interference with God's love or his own for
men and children. There is a righteous anger,
there is a wrath of God — they are redeeming
love thwarted.
The teaching of Jesus concerning anger is Teaching
that every one who is angry with his brother (j^"uae
shall be in danger of the judgment (Matt. 5.
22). Some ancient authorities, in order to
make it plain that inevitable righteous anger
is not meant, insert "without cause." Such
insertion is not necessary, as the context
shows the anger forbidden is that associated
with calling contemptuous and contumelious
names and dissociated from love. Such anger
is to be removed, the offended brother is to be
reconciled, before a gift acceptable to God can
be offered at the altar. Likewise, turning the
other cheek is a doctrine of showing resent
ment in love rather than in anger. When
Jesus was struck by one of the officers in the
trial before the high priests, Jesus did not
literally turn the other cheek, but answered
him: "If I have spoken evil, bear witness of
the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?"
So Jesus neither practiced nor taught that
all anger is unrighteous; he both exemplified
and recognized in his teaching anger at the
hindering of the course of love, condemning in
177

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

In His
Disciples

In His
Generation

practice and precept the anger unmotived by
love. VI. The Disappointment of Jesus
The sense of disappointment is a peculiarly
human and interesting emotion. If we are
correct in interpreting the emotional coloring
of his words, Jesus was repeatedly disap
pointed. One source of his disappointment
was the lack of faith and dullness of under
standing of his disciples. "Are ye also even
yet without understanding?" "O ye of little
faith !" "Do ye not yet perceive?" "How is it
that ye do not perceive?" "Do ye not yet
understand?" "O faithless generation, how
long shall I be with you? How long shall I
suffer you?" "Couldest not thou watch one
hour?" "Have I been so long time with you,
and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?"
These are some of the expressions showing a
measure of disappointment in the disciples.
He warned Judas of the betrayal, Peter of
the denial, and the twelve of their being
offended in him the last night. It troubled
him in spirit that one of the disciples should
betray him, and he recognized that of those
given him by the Father he had lost one.
Jesus was also disappointed at the unbelief
of his generation. He set out to win his peo-
178

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
pie, only to come to see that the grain of wheat
must first fall into the ground and die. He
sighed deeply in spirit as he said : "Why doth
this generation seek after a sign?" He was
"grieved for the hardness of their hearts."
The unbelief of the Nazarenes caused him to
marvel. He upbraided the cities in which
mighty works were done for their unbelief —
Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Capernaum. In the
same breath he denounces with woes the
Pharisees and laments over Jerusalem. On
Palm Sunday he wept over the city. It was
the faith of Jesus in what would transpire
after his death that kept him from dying a
disappointed man and enabled him to say at
the last: "It is finished."
Outward circumstances at times, as well as By
the character of his disciples and his people,
disappointed him. He came seeking fruit on
the fig tree, being hungry, perhaps after a
night spent in the open, and found none. He
sought retirement in the borders of Tyre and
Sidon, but he could not be hid. He sought
rest with his disciples in a desert place apart
by boat, but the people saw them and outwent
them by land. So in the minor as well as in
the major matters of life, Jesue «lt disap
pointment. By laying hold on the future, he
avoided both pessimism and cynicism.
179

Circumstances

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Prepared His
Disciples for
the Worst

For Daily
Bread

For the Bread
and Wine

He taught his disciples too that "tribula
tions" and "persecutions" and frustration of
hopes and plans — "another shall gird thee" —
awaited them in the world, but they were to
be of good cheer, nevertheless, for he had over
come the world.
VII. The Gratitude of Jesus
A very characteristic emotion of Jesus is
that of gratitude. One of the blessings of life
for which he gave thanks was the daily bread.
Before feeding the four thousand, after taking
the seven loaves and the fishes, "he gave
thanks and broke." In Mark's account he
gave thanks for the bread and blessed the fish.
Before feeding the five thousand he took the
loaves, and "having given thanks," he began
to distribute. How this thanksgiving im
pressed John is indicated by the way he intro
duces it into his later narrative as marking a
point of reference: "So, as some boats from
Tiberias had put in near the spot, where they
had eaten bread after the Lord's thanksgiv
ing" (John 6. 23). According to the other
three evangelists he blesses before feeding the
five thousand; that is, he blesses God as the
giver of sustenance.
Jesus also gave thanks for the bread and
wine of the Last Supper. "He took bread,
180

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
and when he had blessed, he brake it." "And
he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it
to them." How was it possible for Jesus to
bless God for the token of his broken body
and to return thanks for the symbol of his
shed blood? Perhaps through seeing the end,
that by the way of the cross all men would
be drawn unto him. There was something so
striking in the manner of his blessing the
bread that thereby the two disciples in Em
maus at last recognized their risen Lord:
"He was known of them in breaking of
bread."
Jesus also gave thanks to God for the reve- For Revelation
lations of the mysteries of the Kingdom unto
babes. "I praise thee, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, for hiding all this from the wise
and learned, and revealing it to the simple-
minded." Luke's setting for this rejoicing in
the Holy Spirit is the return of the seventy;
Matthew's is the upbraiding of the unrepent
ant cities ; that is, Luke emphasizes the revela
tion unto babes, and Matthew the concealment
from the wise.
Still another source of thanksgiving to For Answer to
Jesus was the answer to prayer. Standing
by the opened tomb of Lazarus, Jesus "lifting
his eyes to heaven, said, 'Father, I thank thee
for listening to me.' " Thus, all told, Jesus
181

Prayer

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

He Noted
Gratitude and
Ingratitude

When No
Thanks Are
Due

No Thanks
from God to
Man

expresses gratitude for sustenance of both
body and soul.
Jesus not only himself gave thanks, but
he also recognized and appreciated thanks
giving in others and reproved ingratitude.
" 'Were all the ten not cleansed? Where are
the nine? Was there no one to return and
give glory to God [= to render thanks] except
this foreigner?' " The occasion was the heal
ing of the lepers in a certain village on the
borders of Samaria and Galilee.
In his teaching concerning thanks, Jesus
shows that no thanks are due in making a fair
exchange, such as loving and doing good to
those who love and do good in return, in lend
ing to those from whom one hopes to receive.
"Even sinners do the same." By implication
those are due thanks who love and do good to
enemies and lend, "despairing of no man,"
which things lead to sonship of the Most High
as their reward.
Jesus also teaches that men are the unprofit
able servants of God, deserving no thanks for
doing all the things commanded, which is sim
ple duty. "Does he thank the servant for doing
his bidding?" (Luke 17. 9.) The reason man
is entitled to no thanks from God is that he
receives so much from God. It is impossible
that God should be beholden to man for lov-
182

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
ing, and doing good to, and lending to him,
who is already kind to all, even the unthankful
and the evil. God has already recompensed
us for all we can ever do for him, and so owes
us no thanks.
Jesus holds up to ridicule that hypocritical Hypocritical
thanksgiving which is really self-flattery. ThankSEiTing
"The Pharisee stood and prayed by himself
as follows : 'I thank thee, O God, I am not like
the rest of men.' " The trouble was he felt
meritorious, he felt himself to be a profitable
servant because he had certain negative vir
tues. He used the words of prayer, but he
was really communing with his own soul. In
sum, Jesus teaches that thanks are due from
man to God and from man to the sons of the
Most High who serve without recompense, but
that no thanks can be due from God to man,
or from man to man on a basis of fair
return. Jesus, himself thankful to God, and teach- Gratitude for
ing men whom to thank and how, has himself esus
become a source of thanksgiving to God from
man. At his birth the choir of angels glori
fied God, at the sight of him in infancy the
aged prophetess Anna gave thanks unto God,
and especially the apostle Paul has spoken for
Christendom in saying : "Thanks be unto God
for his unspeakable gift." 183

DependentUpon Elders

Dependent
Upon the Laws
of Nature

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
VIII. His Sense of Dependence
Jesus felt his dependence upon God. This
feeling of dependence has been made the
essence of religion by some theologians, nota
bly Schleiermacher. Jesus expressed his
sense of dependence in both words and prayer,
but his sense of dependence was something
more than a subjective feeling : he felt himself
dependent upon a personal Father.
The birth, infancy, and childhood of Jesus
emphasize his dependence upon his elders. As
in the case of other children, the loving care
of his mother and the tender watchfulness of
Joseph were requisite. He acquired the Ara
maic speech of the Palestine of his day, which
was a dialect of Hebrew, recorded words of
his witnessing to which are : Boanerges ; Tali
tha cumi; Ephphatha; Abba; Eloi, Eloi, lama
sabachthani; Cephas; Raca; and Moreh (Matt.
5. 22, margin).
He was dependent for his growth upon the
laws of nature. By continuous and gradual
development he became full of wisdom (Luke
2. 40) . He increased in wisdom and in stature
and in Divine and human favor (Luke 2. 52).
After fasting, he hungered; after a journey,
he was wearied and thirsty; once he was
asleep in the boat; being sorely wounded on
the cross, he thirsted. 184

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
He depended in a measure upon others for Dependent
his own relief and for some of his cures. He °*°n
others
would not relieve his hunger by turning stones
into bread, and thereafter he never worked a
miracle in his own behalf. Once his disciples
were gone into the city to buy meat. He asked
drink of the woman of Samaria. Peter's
wife's mother, when healed, ministered unto
them. He went to the fig tree looking for
fruit. Soldiers gave him vinegar for his thirst
on the cross. At the temptation and in the
garden, though not, so far as the record goes,
on the cross, he received the ministry of
angels. Some of his cures were made dependent in Faith of the
a measure upon the faith of the recipient. In PatteBt
some places he could do no mighty work be
cause of unbelief. "All things are possible
to him that believeth." "Believe ye that I am
able to do this?" "Thy faith hath made thee
whole." At the tomb of Lazarus it may have
been the spirit of criticism in the company,
suggesting that he who restored sight to the
blind might have prevented death, made him
groan in spirit.
Though dependent on his elders, on the laws Dependence
, ,, . j, ,. Upon God
of nature, and on others m a measure for his
own relief and for his cures, it was upon God
that he felt himself entirely dependent. His
185

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
statements are unequivocal and oft-repeated:
"I can do nothing of my own accord." "The
Son can do nothing of his own accord." "I
do nothing of my own accord." "I do not
speak of my own accord." "I have not spoken
of my own accord." "My teaching is not my
own." "It is the Father who remains ever in
me, who is performing his own deeds," and
many others of similar import. He came to
do the will of Him that sent him ; his meat was
to do his Father's will; he taught others to
pray: "Thy will be done"; he himself three
times in succession prayed, "Yet, not what I
will, but what thou wilt." He claimed as his
brother, sister, and mother whosoever should
do the will of his Father in heaven. His son-
ship consisted in this functional identity of his
will and his Father's; it meant dependence:
"My Father is greater than I."
Dependence The same dependence that he felt toward
rfoiscipies on God he taught that his disciples should have
toward him : "Apart from me you can do noth
ing"; "I am the vine, ye are the branches,"
"and my Father is the husbandman." He
prayed that the unity between his Father and
himself might be extended to include all his
followers, that there might be one flock and
one shepherd. The risen Christ worked with
and confirmed the word of the early disciples
186

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
by the signs that followed. So the dependence
upon him was not only taught but also pres
ent. IX. His Dependence Through Prater
The prayers of Jesus also exemplify in a
special manner his sense of dependence and
need for communion with his Father. At
least eleven, and perhaps fourteen, times the
Gospels present Jesus as praying, as follows:
at the baptism, after a day of healing in
Capernaum, before forgiving the paralytic, be
fore choosing the twelve, before teaching his
disciples how to pray, before feeding the five
thousand, before the great confession of Peter,
at the transfiguration, when the Greeks were
brought to him, in Gethsemane, and on the
cross. The three probable additional in
stances were when "he looked up to heaven"
on feeding the five thousand, when "he looked
up to heaven and sighed" on healing the deaf-
mute, and when "he lifted up his eyes" at the
tomb of Lazarus. He also gave thanks, or
blessed, before breaking bread, which is one
form of prayer. It is difficult not to think
that Jesus prayed also at the temptation and
at each of the healings and miracles. In fact,
the truer view is that Jesus lived a life of
prayer which he deepened at seasons of espe-
187

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

For Whom
Jesus Prayed

Posture

Time

Place

TeachingAbout Prayer

cial need, either before, during, or after some
unusual experience.
He prayed for himself, in the garden; for
Peter, that his faith fail not; for his disciples,
that they be kept from evil; for all believers,
that they may be one; and for those who
crucified him, that they might be forgiven.
Though he represented the Pharisee as
standing in the temple to pray, he himself
knelt in the garden. He probably was stand
ing when transfigured, and on some of the
other occasions.
Following the Capernaum healings, he rose
before daylight to pray. Before choosing the
twelve, he continued all night in prayer. In
the garden it was night.
He prayed in the desert places; on the
mountain-top; in the garden; in the upper
room; perhaps also in the temple, which he
regarded as a house of prayer; and perhaps
also in the synagogues. He taught that one
should pray also in one's inner chamber.
But one gathers from the example of Jesus
that prayer, not posture, time, or place, is the
important thing. His practice of prayer is
one expression of his sense of dependence on
God for guidance, strength, and help.
His teaching, as well as his example, is full
of recognition of prayer as a form of express
es

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
ing human dependence on God. The subject
is so large that it would take us too far afield
to enter upon it in detail. Jesus not only gave
the example of prayer, he also enjoined it as
a duty: "Men ought always to pray, and not
to faint," — words used by Luke in introducing
one of the parables. "Ask, and it shall be
given you," said Jesus.
In response to the request of a disciple, who The Lord's
was evidently impressed by seeing Jesus in Prayer
prayer, and perhaps also a second time during
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus himself gave
a definite form of prayer, "The Lord's Prayer,"
so-called not because he used it but because
he gave it. It contains adoration, petitions
for spiritual and physical good, and confes
sion. We are to pray "after this manner," and
not use even this matchless model as a
Thibetan Buddhist turns his prayer-wheel,
with "vain repetition."
Three parables Jesus spoke dealing pri- parables of
marily with prayer, namely, the Friend at Prayet
Midnight, the Unjust Judge, and the Pharisee
and Publican, teaching lessons of importunity,
perseverance, and humility in prayer. In two
parables, prayer appears secondarily, namely,
the Prodigal Son, and the Unmerciful Servant,
teaching again the lesson of unworthiness and
the lesson of forgiveness in prayer.
189

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

FurtherConditions of
Prayer

Objects of
Prayer

Prayer a Mode
of Dependence

In his further sayings about prayer Jesus
emphasized the necessity of the forgiving
spirit, coupled the virtue of watchfulness with
prayer, made faith one of its conditions,
eliminated the danger of selfishness by teach
ing concert in prayer, warned against prayer
for show, urged secret prayer instead, and for
bade thoughtless prayer — using "vain repeti
tions." This phrase does not exclude such
repetition as the widow used with the unjust
judge and Jesus used in the garden. Clearly,
a new feature he introduced in prayer is the
"in my name" petition; that is, in the power
of a surrendered will.
Among the objects proper to prayer he indi
cated these four general ones: adoration,
thanksgiving, confession, and petition. And
among the objects proper to petition he in
cludes : the gift of the Holy Spirit, the coming
of the Kingdom, the doing of the Father's will
on earth, the daily bread, the forgiveness of
sins, deliverance from temptation and evil,
one's enemies, more harvesters, and that one's
flight at the end be not on a Sabbath or in
winter, that is, escape from temporal hard
ships. He himself granted the petition of his
disciples frightened in the storm.
Thus Jesus recognized the inevitable place
of prayer in the spiritual life, and by such
190

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
recognition, supporting his practice, we
realize something of his dependence on God
and how he would have men likewise so de
pendent. Jesus exercised caution in the presence of jesus and
misunderstanding or hostility, but fear was e"
subsumed in courage. Others about him were
afraid, he and his works excited fear, but he
himself feared only God and had no other
fear, and taught men the same. A few words
about each of these points.
X. Caution, But Not Fear
The caution of Jesus preserved him in
safety until the time for him to be delivered
up — "his hour." He escaped the multitude
who, after the feeding of the five thousand,
would take him by force and make him king.
Four times he withdrew from his enemies,
once from the Pharisees and Herodians, once
into the borders of Tyre and Sidon from the
Pharisees and scribes, once from the Jews into
Galilee, and once from the Jews into Ephraim.
On each occasion something he had done or
said — healing on the Sabbath, forgiving sins,
eating with unwashed hands — had aroused
their special enmity. He was not afraid of
them; he was only biding his time. He was
especially cautious in selecting a safe place in
191

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Others Had

Jesus Excited
Fear

the upper room of a friend's house for the
Last Passover, prearranging the signal of a
man carrying a pitcher. (It is natural but
vain to wonder if the same friend tied out the
colt for the Master's use on Palm Sunday.)
Those with whom Jesus came in contact
had fear. Herod would not put John the Bap
tist to death because he feared the people.
The Pharisees were afraid of the multitude
who took Jesus for a prophet. The multitude
likewise feared the Jews; so did the parents
of the man born blind, who was healed; so
did Joseph of Arimathaea; so probably did
Nicodemus; so did the disciples of the risen
Lord, who had locked their door. The disci
ples too were afraid in the storm on the lake.
Jesus himself by both act and word excited
fear on the part of others, as though he were
supernormal. The scribes and Pharisees
feared him. The disciples were afraid to ask
him the meaning of his words concerning his
being delivered up ; they were afraid after the
stilling of the tempest, and when he walked
on the sea, and at the transfiguration. The
Judaeans were afraid on seeing the demoniac
healed. All of those in the funeral procession
out of Nain were afraid, seeing the son re
stored to his mother. The Roman centurion
at the crucifixion was afraid. So were the
192

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
guards of the tomb, and the two Marys who
early visited it. There was something awe-
inspiring in what Jesus at times did and said.
Though living and moving among people His Freedom
who were afraid, Jesus himself never showed
fear. Yet he was never foolhardy, and always
cautious, as when he went up secretly to the
feast, which shows he realized what danger
was. He had the courage to do his Father's
will, without fear, in the face of danger. Not
once do the Gospels record the emotion of fear
in his case. Once the author of the Epistle
to the Hebrews (5. 7) attributes "godly fear"
to him, for which "he was heard." But the
Gospels do not refer even to his fear of God
in the sense of reverential awe, which appar
ently is merged in the perfect love which casts
out fear. The Gospel of Luke twice refers to
the fear of God, but not in the case of Jesus.
Mary sings in the Magnificat of his showing
mercy on them that fear him (Luke 1. 50).
The penitent thief says to his fellow, "Dost
not thou fear God?" Jesus describes the un
just judge as neither fearing God nor regard
ing man. So fear appears in the gospel narra
tive, but neither the fear of man nor the fear
1 of the Father is attributed to Jesus. The lat
ter is very significant of his sense of union
with the Father's will. 193

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Teaches the
Fear of God

Teaches No
Other Fear

Yet Jesus teaches men to fear God. The
absence of this emotion was one of the charac
teristics of the unjust judge. And very em
phatically he says: "I will show you whom
to fear — fear Him who after he has killed has
power to cast into Gehenna" (Luke 12. 5), or,
as Matthew puts it: "Fear Him who can de
stroy both soul and body in Gehenna." But
some expositors think the reference is to
Satan, the tempter, who indeed is to be feared,
but the persecutor who can destroy only the
body is not to be feared.
Fear God, and nought else beside is the
teaching of Jesus on this subject. Neither
death, nor a miracle, nor a supposed appari
tion, nor men are to be feared. To Jairus,
whose daughter lies dead, he says, "Fear not."
To Peter, who has witnessed the miraculous
draught of fishes, he says, "Fear not." To
the disciples in the storm to whom he appears
walking on the waves, he says, "It is I, be
not afraid." To Peter, James, and John at
the transfiguration, touching them, he says,
"Be not afraid." To the twelve, ready for
their mission, he says three times : "Fear them
not," "Be not afraid of them that kill the
body," "Fear not therefore." To the "little
flock," he says, "Fear not." He allows no
occasion whatsoever for fear, save of God only.
194

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
To such fear he refers only twice, once very
strikingly. So, on the whole, Jesus was without physi- conclusions
cal fear, though both his friends and his FeaT*"1"18
enemies felt it; even his fear of God was lost
in loving communion with the Father; and
he teaches men not to fear, save God only.
The fearlessness of Jesus is one of the striking
convictions resulting from a study of his
emotions. XI. The Peace of Jesus
The soul of Jesus was at peace. He gives
us the impression of being unruffled and calm,
even in the midst of some of his bitterest
trials. Instances when his inward peace of
soul did not desert him are when thought be
side himself by his mother and brethren ; when
accused by the Pharisees of being mad, of
being a Samaritan, of being in league with
Beelzebul, the prince of devils, of having a
devil, of breaking the Sabbath, of blasphemy;
when on trial before both the ecclesiastical
and the state authorities; and when enduring
scourging and mockery.
Three times, we may suppose, his soul was His Peace of
not in perfect peace. Once when disturbed by j^^^J*
suggestions of evil during the temptation; it
took him fo*ty days to win that peace which
195

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
carried him to the garden. Once when the
"but" entered between his, and the Father's
will in Gethsemane during the agony; in per
haps an hour ( Matt. 26. 40 ) peace came again.
And once when the "why" entered between his
and the Father's understanding on the cross;
as this was at the ninth hour, the end of the
period of darkness, it was only shortly there
after that his soul regained its self-possession,
and he said, "I thirst." In these three cases
there is successive increase in the disturbance
of his peace of soul, but successive decrease in
the time before full peace is restored.
He Gave Peace Jesus possessed peace ; he also gave peace
to others. He made the unclean spirit in one
man hold its peace; literally, he "muzzled" it.
Repeatedly he spoke peace to those whom he
had healed. To the woman who had touched
his garments in the press, he said, "Daughter,
go in peace." To the sinful woman who had
anointed his feet, he said, "Go in peace." Even
the stormy wind he rebuked, and said, "Peace,
be still." He promised rest to all those that
labor and are heavy laden who would come
unto him, and to his sorrowing disciples he
said, "Peace I leave with you ; my peace I give
unto you." The risen Christ stood in their
midst and said, "Peace be unto you." "My
peace," he said, by which he meant the heart
196

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
untroubled and unafraid, because it rests in
unison with the Father.
In his teaching Jesus recognized that peace Peace
is a product of preparedness: "When the %£%%££
strong man in armor guards his homestead,
his property is undisturbed" (Luke 11. 21) ;
that peace was something that had to be made :
"Blessed are the peace-makers! they will be
ranked sons of God"; that the peace worth
while could come only after conflict: "I have
not come to bring peace, but a sword"; that
"Peace" was the proper salutation and promise
of the Kingdom to be used in their mission by
both the twelve and the seventy; that his fol
lowers should "be at peace one with another" ;
and that Jerusalem, not knowing the things
that belong unto peace, would be destroyed.
Thus Jesus taught that peace is one of the
possessions of the Kingdom, to be had not by
compromise, but by conquest of evil. Jesus
claimed that he had overcome the world with
its tribulation. So he won peace for himself
and his followers, anticipated by the angels'
song at the Nativity: "Peace on earth, good
will toward men."
XII. Many Other Emotions
Into the many more emotions of the rich
and complex feeling life of Jesus, our lack of
197

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
space forbids us to enter in detail, though they
may be suggested in a general way. He was
interested in observing the ways of men, chil
dren, animals, and things, and in studying
the law and the prophets. He felt reverence
for Moses and the temple and the angels of
children. There were periods of spiritual
exaltation, when he was led or driven by the
Spirit, or must needs go through Samaria,
or rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. He felt an
earnest and consuming zeal in cleansing the
house of prayer of thieving merchants. He
was keenly sensitive to the lack of gratitude
shown by nine of the ten cleansed lepers, to
the lack of hospitality of the Pharisee who
gave him neither water for his feet nor oil
for his head, and to the charge of being a
legate of Beelzebul. He was inexpressibly
tender in the words addressed to the young
daughter of Jairus : "Lambkin, arise." He had
such fine feeling that he stooped for shame in
the presence of the accused woman and wrote
upon the ground. He anticipated the time
when the Son of man would be ashamed be
fore angels of those ashamed of him before
men. He was appreciative of the poor widow's
two mites and of the acts of gracious social
courtesy extended himself in the anointings.
It was a satisfaction to him to fulfill all right-
198

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
eousness by baptism and at all times to do
his Father's will. And they sang a hymn be
fore they went out together for the last time.
XIII. Jesus as an Artist
Where shall we discuss the fact that Jesus
was an artist in words? Though our Gospels
are an English translation of a Greek transla
tion of his spoken Aramaic, they cannot con
ceal the fact that Jesus was essentially a poet
in his powers of expression. Much is involved
in seeing the world with the poet's eye and
telling what one sees with the poet's vocabu
lary. It involves full vital force to supply the
strength for creative self-expression; it in
volves a sincerely good soul to supply a
worthy content to beautiful form; it involves
the heat of emotion and the fire of imagination
to produce lasting symbols of truth; it in
volves a heightened intellectual perspective to
bring eternal meaning into things temporal;
and it involves for highest attainment the sense
of the indwelling God in all things. Thus, the
discussion of Jesus as an artist might with
some reason fall under any one of our five
ideals. But because art and beauty are more
immediately related to the emotions than
to the other elements of human nature, we
199

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

His Poetry

Artistic
Portrayal of
Children

will at this point briefly discuss the art of
Jesus. Jesus had the soul of an artist. His
medium of expression was not colors, tones,
marble, or metal, but language. The poetry
of the Hebrews was not modern rhyme, nor
classical rhythm and accent, but balanced
structure in the sentence corresponding to bal
anced thought. In the old Scriptures poetry
in this sense occurs in the Proverbs, Psalms,
and the Prophets. And this form of poetry
Jesus used in the Beatitudes.
We have seen the refined emotional develop
ment of Jesus, the sensitiveness of his soul,
which naturally demands poetic expression as
its fitting instrument, fitting because unusual
and uncommon. When he called a little child,
it came (Matt. 18. 2), which happens only to
those who retain childhood in their hearts.
He had observed with interest their very
childish games in the market place. With
appreciation and imagination he said that
children possessed the Kingdom, that they re
ceived the revelation hidden from the wise and
prudent, that out of their mouths came per
fect praise, and that their angels always be
held the Father's face. Here are the emo
tional appreciation and imagery requisite to
poetry. Apart from the rhyme and rhythm
200

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
of most poetry, imagery, clothed with emotion
and suitable to its object, is poetry.
Such poetic material we find in abundance survival v«iu«
in the teaching of Jesus. In view of the fact sf *£*£
that his words lived for about a generation
in the memory of others before being written
down in their present form, it may be confi
dently affirmed that the survival of his very
words is due not only to their inherent truth,
but also to their poetic beauty. They are not
easily forgotten, they catch the imagination,
they remain as pictures, they are easily quot
ed, and they stimulate the minds of others.
An incomplete list of the more striking The imagery
images of Jesus, usually visual, but sometimes °' Jesus
auditory, in type, would include the follow
ing: the fields whitening to the harvest, the
well of water springing up within, the night
wind blowing where it listeth, the branch abid
ing in the vine, the fig tree putting forth her
leaves, his disciples as children of the bridal
chamber, the wise and foolish virgins with
their lamps, the violent taking the kingdom
of heaven by force, drinking the cup of sorrow,
the light of the world, the children of light,
the outer darkness, the power of darkness,
fishers of men, hands on the plow, the cup of
cold water, the hair black or white, the sower,
Dives clothed in purple and fine linen, the
201

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
king among his guests in their wedding gar
ments, the sheep and the goats, the blind lead
ing the blind, the crowing cock, the hen gather
ing her brood under her wing at night, God
clothing the grass of the field and feeding the
ravens, twelve legions of angels, angels ascend
ing and descending on the Son of man, the
twelve thrones, the righteous shining forth
as the sun ("There is no more impressive
figure in literature," says the poet, Edwin
Markham1), Satan falling as lightning from
heaven, the many mansions in the Father's
house, binding and loosing on earth and in
heaven, the Son of man seated on the clouds
of heaven, the trumpet's sound throughout the
world, the lightning's flash, coming from the
east and the west, the four winds of heaven,
the Queen of the South, the great gulf fixed,
the undying worm, the unquenched fire, the
weeping and gnashing of teeth, the whited
sepulchers, the foul platter, the corruption of
moth and rust, eating his flesh, drinking his
blood, casting fire on the earth, cross-bearing,
the dead burying their dead, compassing sea
and land, casting a sycamine tree into the sea,
being cast into the sea with a millstone about
one's neck, the roaring of the sea and the
billows, the prince of this world, the gates
1 The Poetry of Jesus, Forum, March, 1910, p. 287.
202

THE EMOTIONS OF JESUS
of hell, the woman sweeping for her one lost
coin, the shepherd leaving the ninety and nine
and seeking the one lost sheep, the loving
father seeing his returning prodigal son a
great way off and running and falling on his
neck and kissing him.
Such images pass into the social inheritance The Artist ia
Words
of the race. They become like current coin.
We use them without even recalling their
origin or first significance. They are feathers
to the arrows of truth. They are unmatched
in striking quality and economy of language
and appropriateness. They reveal Jesus an
artist in words. The human ear will never
cease hearing that night wind blowing, that
sea with its billows roaring, that trumpet blow
ing, that undertone of weeping and gnashing
of teeth in the final settlement of the destiny
of souls. And the eye of the mind will never
cease seeing those fields whitening, that fig
tree budding forth, that rich man sitting
clothed, that king among his wedding guests
detecting one without the wedding garment.
Once and for all the art of words, coined in
a poet's soul, has caught and portrayed those
bits of life, charged them with emotion, sur
charged them with spiritual meaning, and
committed them to the keeping of man's heart
forever. 203

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
XIV. Conclusions
Thus we have reviewed the rich and full emo
tional life of Jesus, including the beauty of
his words, all based evidently upon a complete
equipment of the human instincts, and his
teaching concerning the major emotions. Here,
as in the case of his physique and his will, it
is evident we have a complete emotional de
velopment, suitable to serve as an ideal stand
ard by which to test and to upbuild human
life. Not once in dealing with the feelings of
Jesus have we had occasion to observe that he
was too this or too that. Some have felt he
was tactless in his first sermon to his towns
people, that he showed race prejudice in talk
ing with the Syrophcenician, that he showed
temper in cursing the barren fig tree, that he
was unduly vehement in denouncing the
Pharisees, but the context in the record makes
compulsory no one of these interpretations.
We conclude there is a beauty in his life and
teaching worthy a place in our ideal standard
of complete manhood.
And this brings us to treat of the fourth
ideal of complete living in relation to Jesus,
namely, intellectuality and truth.

204

CHAPTER V
THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
"He will lift up an ensign to the nations
from far." — Isaiah 5. 26.

205

CHAPTER V
THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
There are several standpoints from which
we may profitably study this phase of the liv
ing of Jesus, including the qualities of his
intellect, with especial reference to his dialec
tic skill; the range of his knowledge, espe
cially of the Scriptures; the two sources of
his knowledge; his view of the world, or, his
philosophy; and his recognition of truth in
his teaching. These might all be embraced
under the three topics of his logic, his knowl
edge, and his philosophy.
I. His Intellectual Alertness
One of the outstanding characteristics of
the intellect of Jesus is his alertness. This
is the more remarkable because Nazareth did
not provide a particularly stimulating social
environment. It was not the center of any
recognized intellectual and social movement.
Nathanael did not think at first that any good
207

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Illustrations

Interest in
Historic Illustrations

thing could come out of Nazareth. Its citizens
were not open-minded for any prominence
that might come to one of their number. But
the Scriptures, the hills, and God were there,
ready to stimulate an awakened soul, and from
these sources Jesus drew his inspiration.
To illustrate the intellectual alertness of
Jesus. Already at twelve he quickly found
the best place in Jerusalem at the feast of the
passover, and remained there until called away.
During his public ministry he used as illustra
tions what he had seen and appreciated in
nature and human nature, the raiment of the
flowers by the wayside, the birds of the air
and their nest, the holes of the foxes, the reed
shaken by the wind, the winds blowing as they
list, the various fortunes of the sower's seed,
the falling sparrow, the captive sparrows sold
five for two pence in the market, the games
of the children in the market, the sheep in the
pit on the Sabbath, the ox and ass led away
to watering on the Sabbath, the woman sweep
ing for her lost coin, the two mites of the
widow, the proud and self-conscious Pharisees
choosing out the chief seats for themselves,
and Nathanael under the fig tree.
Even the past history of his people, so dead
to many of its readers with their preference
for their own tradition, presented to his mind
208

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
living characters whose words and examples
shaped his thinking — Naaman, the widow of
Zarephath, Zachariah, Noah, Jonah.
Current events called forth his comment current Events
and spiritual interpretation, as in the case of
the prophets. They told him of the Galilaeans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices. He reminded them of the eighteen
upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, drawing
the lesson of repentance and fruit-bearing for
those spared from calamities.
Coming events also cast their shadow before coming Events
him, both in his own and the nation's life. He
reproved the scribes and the Pharisees for not
being able to discern the signs of the times.
He saw that the stones of the temple would
be thrown down, that Jerusalem was the car
cass where the Roman eagles would be gath
ered together. So Jesus was mentally alert,
being interested in men and things, in past
and future happenings, and abreast of the sig
nificant issues of his day.
II. Qualities of His Intellect
Coming closer to the quality of the intellect His intellect
of Jesus, we note from his form and manner
of teaching that his thinking was intuitive
rather than discursive or argumentative; con
crete rather than abstract; positive rather than
209

Intuitive

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
negative; creative rather than critical. Like
Socrates, the great Greek conversationalist,
the thinking of Jesus was intuitive, like a
woman's, going straight to the essential point
quickly, not discursively reaching conclusions
by way of premises, and feeling one's way
carefully by the facts to the end or final state
ment. Writers, like Plato and Aristotle,
not speakers, like Socrates and Jesus, can
take time to be argumentative in presenting
their conclusions, though we shall see Jesus,
when necessary, could also use the dialectic
of the scribes. He more commonly appealed to
the mother wit, good judgment, common and
moral sense of his auditors, mostly untrained,
than to their ability to follow an argument.
The intuitive mind is poetic, imaginative,
direct, and unqualified in its assertions, not
bothered by verbal inconsistencies, shades of
meaning, limiting conditions, and extenuating
circumstances. It uses indicatives and im
peratives, not subjunctives and conditionals.
Thus, as we listen to Jesus, we hear : "Blessed
are," "come," "follow," "abide," "go," "ask,"
"preach," "teach," "give," "lend," "turn," "I
am," etc. It is foreign to his manner of think
ing to use such adverbial qualifiers as "gen
erally," "under ordinary circumstances," "as
a rule," etc. He sees truth too clearly and
210

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
feels it too vividly for that. His adverbs are :
"Verily, verily," "of a truth."
His intellect was concrete in its working concrete
rather than abstract. He dealt with indi
viduals, not cases — Nicodemus, the woman at
the well, the rich young ruler, Zacchaeus. He
gave illustrations, not definitions. The lawyer
probably wanted a definition in answer to his
question : "And who is my neighbor?" He re
ceived the story of the good Samaritan. Not
once in all his teaching does Jesus give a
logical definition, the necessity of which Soc
rates felt. The difference is due to the fact
that Socrates was aiming at the intellect,
Jesus at the heart by way of the intellect.
The thinking of Jesus was positive rather Positive
than negative. He summed up the negative
words of the ten commandments in two posi
tive ones. Religion to him consisted rather
in doing than in abstaining, under no ascetic
ideal of withdrawal from the world but under
the positive ideal : "Ye shall be perfect."
The intellect of Jesus was productive, creative
originative, creative, not primarily imitative,
recombining old material, or critical. We do
not see in him primarily a critic of life, but
Life. He indeed was himself a criticism of
his age, and he pointed out its weaknesses, but
the standard he used was not external to him-
2U

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
self. He could criticize because he was, and
had supplied, an ideal. "Ye search the Scrip
tures; for in them ye think ye have eternal
life: and they are they which testify of me.
And ye will not come to me, that ye might have
life." Here is criticism subordinated to an
existent and present ideal. The light excludes,
not criticizes, the darkness. To express the
idea of intellectual creativeness in Roman, not
Greek or Hebrew, terms, Jesus was a genius
in the field of religion.
III. His Love of Truth
The prime intellectual virtue is the love of
truth. Jesus impressed not only his friends
but even his enemies with his undivided and
fearless loyalty to truth and singleness of pur
pose. Thinking they might flatter him by this
route, that he prided himself upon this quality,
spies from the Pharisees joined with the He-
rodians in setting this trap for him, thinking
thereby to induce him to say something sedi
tious against Caesar. "Teacher," they said,
"we know you are sincere, and that you teach
the way of God honestly and fearlessly; you
do not court human favor. Tell us, then, what
you think about this. Is it right to pay taxes
to Caesar or not? Are we to pay or are we not
to pay?" This was the general impression
212

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
he made on his hearers. He was sensitive and
quick on the matter of true witnessing. Once
he said: "If I testify to myself, then my evi
dence is not valid" (John 5. 31), referring to
the recognized principle that the truth must
be established in the mouth of two witnesses
(Matt. 18. 16). He fortified his position by
adding: "I have Another to bear testi
mony to me, and I know the evidence he
bears to me is valid" (John 5. 32). Once the
Pharisees said to him ; "You are testifying to
yourself; your evidence is not valid"; to which
Jesus replied : "Even if I bear witness of my
self, my witness is true; for I know whence
I came, and whither I go" (John 8. 13, 14).
In connection with his sense of surety in He Reasons
knowing the truth, it is an interesting and Himself*3'
related fact that the reasoning of Jesus is not
that he himself may arrive at a knowledge
of the truth, but that he may convince others.
Jesus impresses us not as seeking the truth
hut as already possessing it. He said, "I am
the truth." Thus, at the open tomb of Lazarus,
he asserted: "I am myself resurrection and
life"; this form of speech was natural to him,
the outright assertion of truth in personal
form. But he reasoned to immortality as a
conclusion from the incident of Moses and
the bush to convince the skeptical Sadducees.
213

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
"The Son of man is lord of the Sabbath," is
his natural mode of affirmative, categorical
speech, but he reasons under criticism from
what David did on the Sabbath to justify his
disciples in plucking and eating grain on that
day. IV. His Reasoning and Dialectic Skill
Jesus had what is very much better than in
tellectual cleverness, he had spiritual insight
and heart-power. But he also had intellectual
cleverness. He never exhibited intellectual
cleverness for its own sake, which would have
been a vain parade in the intellectual world
which he so detested in the moral world, which
would have also been another descent from the
pinnacle of the temple, but he was intellec
tually clever as a means to worthy ends —
meeting his skillful adversaries on their own
ground, convincing them of truth when they
were sincere, reducing them to silence when
insincere.
Training of Illustrations. We have a number of in
stances illustrating the intellectual cleverness
of Jesus, not indeed recorded by the evan
gelists for this purpose. The initiative in
these intellectual encounters was taken at first
by his critics, the scribes, or "lawyers," and
Pharisees ; at the end the initiative was taken
214

His Critics

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
by Jesus, who silenced his questioners. His
critics had been trained in the scribal colleges,
the main one of which was in Jerusalem
within the precincts of the temple, of which
Jesus had been a remarkable pupil for three
days when he was only twelve years old.
There was another one of these colleges, or,
as they were then called, House of the Mid
rash, in Jabne where Rabbis Eleasar and
Ishmael taught, the site of which was the
"Vineyard." Sometimes the classes were held
in the home of the rabbi, or teacher, who sat
on a low platform while his pupils sat around
him on the floor. So Paul was "educated at
the feet of Gamaliel" in one of these schools.
The subject studied was not the written study of the
Law (Torah), or the Old Testament, as we Traditions
know it, which was presupposed as known be
fore entering the House of the Midrash
(= exegesis, exposition, and illustration),
but the oral Law, or, the "Tradition of the
Elders" as it is called in the New Testament
(Matt. 15. 2), which was carried in memory
and venerated even beyond the Torah.
The method of study was by repetition on Method of
the part of the pupils of the words of the rabbi study
until the traditions were perfectly remem
bered. Also pupils could ask questions, some
of which were important, some of which were
215

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

CurrentQuestions

IntellectualCombat

trivial. As an illustration of a trivial ques
tion we may instance the following. In de
scribing the duty of the deceased husband's
brother, the Law had said (Deut. 25. 8, 9) :
"If he stand and say, 'I like not to take her,'
then shall his brother's wife come unto him in
the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe
from off his foot, and spit in his face." Ques
tion : "If his brother's wife have lost her hands,
how is she to loose his shoe?"
Among the important questions current
among the scribes or students of these institu
tions, in the time of Jesus were these : "Which
is the great commandment in the law?" "Is
it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any
cause?" "Are they few that are being saved?"
To the second question the school of Shammai
said no, only for unfaithfulness, but the school
of Hillel said yes, for such causes as hating
her, poor cooking, going deaf or insane, or
even seeing a woman whom he fancied more.
To the third question likewise there were dis
senting answers, some rabbis teaching that
only a few of Israel would have part in the
reign of the Messiah, others that all Israel
would. Now a new teacher, or rabbi, arises, one not
trained in the House of the Midrash, called
therefore by the nickname "Samaritan," which
216

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
was commonly applied to all such, a Galilaean,
not even a Judaean, eleven of whose disciples
are also Galilaeans, mostly fishermen, despised
taxgatherers, and the like. So they come to
him with their puzzling questions, "trying
him," seeking to show him up before his ad
miring followers, not seeking the knowledge
of the truth. So the match is on between the
skilled and trained exponents of the schools
and the unschooled, self-taught, nature-taught,
God-taught, qarpenter Prophet of Nazareth.
They are sparring for his intellectual defeat,
he for their spiritual humiliation ; they for his
head, he for their heart. It is a royal combat;
let us watch a few passes.
The question concerns the sinful woman case of the
Sinful Woman
(John 8. 1-11). "Now Moses has commanded
us to stone such creatures; but what do you
say?" The scribes and Pharisees had set this
trap that they might have something against
him. What was the trap? If he had said,
"Yes, stone her," then he loses favor with the
publicans and sinners whose friend he is. If
he had said, "No, do not stone her," then he
rejects Moses — a crime indeed. But what
does he do? First, in modesty and shame and
sympathy, such as her accusers had not, he
stooped and wrote on the ground, relieving
his embarrassment and giving them an oppor-
217

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
tunity to retreat. They, however, brought the
inevitable down upon themselves by continu
ing to ask their subtle question, now moment
by moment becoming more transparent in its
vulgarity and duplicity. Then he lifted up
himself, and said unto them : "Let the innocent
among you throw the first stone at her."
Again he stooped and wrote, and this time,
his eye averted, they every one took their
moment and escaped, like whipped curs with
their tails between their legs, one by one, be
ginning with the oldest sinner of all. He had
escaped between the horns of their dilemma;
he had upheld Moses and he had saved the
soul of another sinner, both at the same time.
And, further, he had intellectually shamed
his opponents, and had, characteristic of his
handling the Old Testament, their Torah,
spiritually interpreted the letter of Moses as
upholding the single standard of social mo
rality. And it was all done so quickly. But
they did not like him any the better for his
having overmatched them. This story, told
by John, is omitted by most of the ancient
authorities and given variously by those which
report it, but it is true to the ability and spirit
of Jesus.
The case of Again they bring to him the question on
which two of their own leading schools were
218

Divorce

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
divided, "trying him" : "Is it lawful for a man
to put away his wife for every cause?" Was
he a strict constructionist, like Shammai, or
a liberal constructionist, like Hillel? His
answer might reveal that he had not consid
ered the question at all, or, at least, would
alienate from him the one school or the other.
When it comes, it cuts below both schools, be
low Moses himself, and roots itself in the
creative act of God. "Have you never read
that He who created them, male and female,
from the beginning said, 'Hence a man shall
leave his father and mother, and shall cleave
to his wife; and the pair shall be one flesh?
So that they are no longer two, but one flesh.
What God has joined, then, man must not
separate.'" Instead of agreeing with one
school or the other as to whether divorce
should be strict or loose, he interpreted an act
of God recorded in their own Scriptures as
signifying no divorce whatsoever. (It is true
that Matthew, but not Mark and Luke, adds
"except for fornication.")
Though half-beaten in the argument, and
no doubt amazed at an exegesis that had never
occurred to any one of their literalistic and
tradition-bound doctors, they rallied to ask:
"Then did Moses lay it down that we were to
divorce by giving a separation notice?" With
219

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
a final thrust he concludes the argument with
them that day: "For your hardness of heart
he wrote you this commandment and suffered
you to put away your wives : but from the be
ginning of the creation it hath not been so."
They came to him with a question, they went
away not only with their question answered
but with a stinging rebuke of the easy divorces
of the day. Again he had escaped each horn
of their dilemma, had interpreted spiritually
a familiar letter of their law, and had ap
pealed from Moses to God.
The Question During Passion Week they came to him in
Angrily0* Jerusalem with the question: "By what au
thority doest thou these things?" They had
no inner witness in themselves to the truth
of his claims, which was the only basis for
accepting him that he sought. If he should
say, "From men," they would reply, "Then
no one should believe you" ; if he should say,
"From God," they would reply, "Prove it by
a sign." What did he say? "I will also ask
of you one question, and answer me, and I
will tell you by what authority I do these
things. The baptism of John, was it from
heaven, or from men?" It was a fair proposi
tion. They brought him a dilemma. He took
the bull by the horns. He matched theirs with
another, having the same two possible an-
220

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
swers. They probably withdrew somewhat
from the company to consider his question.
And they reasoned not concerning the truth
of John's baptism but concerning the conse
quences of each answer they might give. They
were not seekers after truth, ready to confess
it when found; they were intellectual posers.
"Now they argued to themselves, 'If we say,
"From heaven," he will ask, "Then why did
you not believe him." No, let us say, "From
men'" — but they were afraid of the people,
for the people all held John had been really
a prophet." Then with intellectual insin
cerity they answered that they knew not
whence it was. The victory was won. He had
revealed them to themselves as not true seek
ers for the source of his authority. They had
not met his fair condition. It was easy for
him to finish the encounter with "No more will
I tell you what authority I have for acting
as I do." In form he had not answered their
question; in fact he had answered them, very
much more effectively than if he had said in
so many words : "If you had had the grace to
recognize John's baptism as from heaven and
had received it, you would then recognize with
out need to question that my authority is
likewise from heaven. Not my word, but the
inner witness of truth alone is convincing,
221

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
which you lack." But, instead of hating them
selves, they turned the more against him,
hearing these and his following words, and
would have laid hold on him then and there
but for their fear of the multitudes, who took
him for a prophet. So they left him and went
away for a season, while they thought out
some still deeper difficulty with which to con
found him.
The Question The Pharisees did not return themselves,
but sent spying disciples of theirs with their
own enemies, the Herodians, feigning right
eous jealousy of Rome in behalf of Jewish
nationality. With flattery they approached
him with the question: "Is it right to pay
taxes to Caesar, or not?" An affirmative an
swer meant he was not a Jewish patriot; a
negative answer meant he was not a loyal
subject of Rome. In either case they had
something against him. They hoped he would
give a negative answer which would enable
them to deliver him up to the governor.
Jesus perceived their craftiness. It was not
a question on a quest for truth but put forth
in battle for a conquest. He sternly de
manded: "Why tempt ye me? — bring me a
penny, that I may see it." He would give
them an unforgettable object lesson. They
brought him a denarius. He asked: "Whose
222

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
likeness, whose inscription is this?" doubtless
pointing to the effigy and legend on the Ro
man coin. They said unto him, "Caesar's." It
was the current coin of the realm; with it
public accounts were paid ; a silver coin, worth
about twenty cents, issued by the Roman im
perial authority; not the half -shekel with
which the temple-tax was paid; "the money
of the tribute" indeed. Having reminded
them of these things, Jesus said: "Render to
Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God
the things that are God's."
Here he had taken the bull by both horns.
He was a loyal subject of Rome; at the same
time he had so answered as to give no offense
to Jewish patriotic feeling, which had always
construed itself in religious terms as render
ing unto God the things that are God's. There
is also the clear intimation that, in springing
such a question, they had not been themselves
truly worshiping God. They marveled at his
answer, were not able to take hold of it before
the people, held their peace as though, literally,
"muzzled," left him master of the field, and
went their way. His disappointing answer to
them did not deter them from falsely testi
fying the following Thursday night before
Pilate that he had forbidden to give tribute
to Caesar. 223

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
The Question The same day in Passion Week came the
Resurrection skeptical, intellectual Sadducees, who said
that there was no resurrection from the dead,
bringing him the question: "In the resurrec
tion whose wife shall she be of the seven? for
they all had her." The question was intended
as a reductio ad absurdum of the doctrine of
the resurrection, which had been first clearly
stated in the book of Daniel, and later de
veloped in the apocryphal book of Enoch.
In his reply Jesus answered both their ques
tions and them. They mistakenly supposed
that the marital relation would continue
after death, if there were a resurrection. In
this they knew not the power of God. They
also mistakenly supposed there was no resur
rection at all. In this they knew not the Scrip
tures. Jesus answered their question by say
ing the woman would be the wife of no one of
the seven brethren, and he answered the Sad
ducees themselves by showing from the nature
of God as implied in the Scriptures there was
a resurrection. "Those who are considered
worthy to attain yonder world and the resur
rection from the dead neither marry nor are
married, for they cannot die any more; they
are equal to angels, and by sharing in the
resurrection they are sons of God.
"But as touching the dead, that they rise:
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THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
have ye not read in the book of Moses, how
in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am
the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob? He is not the God
of the dead, but the God of the living ; ye there
fore do greatly err." That is to say, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob still live, have been raised
from the dead, else God would be a God of the
dead, which is repugnant to our notion of
God. Thus again with originality and spirit
ual insight he both answers a question and
refutes the questioners at once, bringing for
ward an unsuspected spiritual meaning out of
familiar scriptural incidents.
So the man "without letters" put to silence Effect of his
the learned Sadducees, the multitudes were the sadducess
naturally astonished at his teaching, and even
some of the scribes, compelled by the beauty
and finality of his answer, spoke up and said :
"Right, teacher ! you have truly said."
According to the record, only once did Jesus mB Question
Concerning the
take the initiative in propounding difficult Christ
questions. And this one he raised as a protest
against the scribes thinking so much of the
Messiah in physical relationship to David, and
so little of him in spiritual relation to God.
The question: "David therefore calleth him
[the Christ] Lord, how is he then his son?"
It was a new question to the Pharisees. They
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
had thought and studied much about David,
his greater Son to come, the temporal Mes
sianic reign. They had failed to note that
David had called the Messiah his Lord, a term
which David would never have applied to any
descendant of his who should simply sit on
his physical throne. The question is answer
able only by regarding the Messiah as spirit
ual, not as temporal. But this was against
every prepossession of the Pharisees. And so
no one of them was able to answer him a word.
With one question he had revealed the real
difficulty why the scholars of his generation
would not accept him as Messiah. And again
he had given a spiritual interpretation to a
letter of Scripture. He himself had settled
that question of the nature of the Messiah at
the time of the temptation. So he did not call
himself "Son of David," which would raise
false expectation concerning the kind of king
dom he would establish, but he called himself
preferably by the term borrowed from the
book of Daniel, "Son of man."
The critics This time he had silenced them indeed. By
his answers he had shown himself the master
of their questions, and by his answers and one
question he had shown himself their master.
"And no man after that durst ask him any
question." They would resort to baser
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Silenced

Questions

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
strategy. Even so, the common people heard
him gladly, no doubt appreciating and enjoy
ing the discomfiture of their arrogant leaders
at the hands, as it were, of one of their own.
We have by no means reviewed all the illus- other
trations that might be cited to show the readi
ness and cleverness of Jesus in handling in
tellectually the forms of argumentation of his
day. It is a study in itself. "And who is my
neighbor?" "We be Abraham's seed: how
sayest thou, ye shall be made free?" "Are
there few that be saved?" "Which is the great
commandment in the law?" and many more
such questions they asked him. He too asked
his critics what seemed to them no doubt an
absurd question, yet it put them in a dilemma
in which they held their peace: "Is it lawful
on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil?"
In fact, the mind of Jesus in conflict with
his critics played with religious truth, so
thoroughly had he mastered every difficulty.
But their mind was so closed against new
truth by religious prejudice that not even he
could win them. So he thanked the Father
that, hiding these things from the wise and
prudent, he had revealed them unto babes,
even unto his unsophisticated Galilaean disci
ples who loved him, did as he said, had the
witness to his truth within them, and agreed
227

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
with their spokesman, Peter, that he had the
words of eternal life.
V. The Marvel of His Wisdom
The wisdom of Jesus was a marvel both to
his old friends and his new foes alike. In
Nazareth, where he had been brought up, they
all bore him witness, and wondered at the
words of grace which proceeded out of his
mouth. But many hearing him were aston
ished and said : "From whence hath this man
these things? Is not this the carpenter, the
son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses,
and Juda, and Simon? And are not his sis
ters with us?" Their many questions reveal
how offended they were in him. Likewise in
Jerusalem, when he was teaching in the tem
ple in the midst of the feast of the tabernacles,
the Jews marveled and said, "How does this
man know anything of books?" (Weymouth.)
They meant, having never attended one of the
scribal colleges.
1. Two Sources of His Knowledge. How
shall we answer the same question? The evan
gelists clearly indicate two sources of the
knowledge which Jesus had — experience and
Divine intuition. The first involves his tute
lage by man and nature, the second his tute
lage by God. Throughout the whole process
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THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
of his acquisition of knowledge he was yield
ing to the leading of the spirit within. A few
words about each of these sources of his
knowledge. 2. His Formal Acquisitions. The formal
acquisitions of Jesus involved at least an
ability to write and to read. Twice upon one
and the same occasion he stooped and wrote
on the ground, in what language or what
words we know not. In the Nazareth syna
gogue at his first sermon he stood up to read,
received the book, or roll, of the prophet
Isaiah, opened it, found the sixty-first chap
ter, and read. Then he closed the book,
handed it back to the synagogue attendant,
and sat down to teach. He may have read
Isaiah in the original Hebrew, or in an Ara
maic paraphrase, it being necessary in his day
to paraphrase the original Hebrew in Ara
maic for the people to understand it. As his
quotations from the Old Testament are usually
from the Greek Septuagint translation instead
of from the original Hebrew, it is possible that
he could read Greek, though another possi
bility is that the evangelists who reported his
speech used the Septuagint. As the Greeks
would see Jesus, not out of bare curiosity but
to converse with him, it is possible that he
understood Greek, though another possibility
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
is that Andrew, whose name is Greek and
who was of Bethsaida where Greek was com
monly spoken, acted as interpreter. The spoken
language of Jesus was Aramaic; so our Eng
lish New Testament, based on the Greek New
Testament, is a translation of a translation,
and in the quotations from the Old Testament
is an English translation of a Greek transla
tion of a Hebrew original. Apart from the
question of the languages which Jesus may
have spoken, understood, and read, we are
sure that his formal acquisitions involved the
ability to read, write, and think in numerical
terms. "Seventy times seven," he says to Peter.
He makes a king in one of his parables raise
the question whether with ten thousand he
can go against twenty thousand. In addition,
Jesus had an ability to interpret spiritually
the old Scriptures which no existent school
of exegesis of his day could have given him,
which, indeed, if possible, it would have taken
away from him.
3. Home Training. The law in Deute
ronomy (6. 6, 7) made every Jewish home a
school and every Jewish parent a teacher.
Josephus says that every Jewish child "from
the very dawn of understanding learned the
Law by heart, and had it, as it were, engraved
on his soul." Further, he was trained to keep
230

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
the feast, fast, and holy days, to join in the
prayers and grace at meat, and, when large
enough to journey so far, to attend the
chief festivals at the temple in Jerusalem,
even before he was a "son of the law" at
twelve. 4. School Training. At the age of six or
seven the boy went to the elementary school.
For some two hundred years practically every
Jewish town had had a synagogue and prac
tically every synagogue had a school. It was
a place of instruction as well as worship. It
was known as "The House of the Book," which
indicates its curriculum. Here reading, writ
ing, and memorizing the Law were taught.
Jesus frequently taught as well as preached
in the synagogues of the Jews.
In all probability, in view of the pious ob- Religious
servance of the law by his parents, the youth
ful Jesus did all these things. In addition,
he formed the habit of attending the Sabbath
services in the synagogue, where he heard the
Law read in Hebrew, paraphrased in Ara
maic, and interpreted. He may not improb
ably have himself so read along with others
of his townsmen before he was thirty, but, if
so, not in a way to arouse their expectations
concerning him, as his later coming forth was
a great surprise, even shock, to them.
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Not a
"College
Graduate"

Knowledge by
Experience

Action Guided
by Perception

Being destined by social custom to follow
his father's occupation and become a carpen
ter, not being intended for a scribe or rabbi,
he was not sent to one of the scribal colleges
or House of the Midrash. When he was
twelve he was a remarkable student for three
days of one of these institutions in the temple
in Jerusalem. He was not there as a teacher
of the doctors of the Law, but as an interested
auditor and questioner. He astonished the
learned men by his understanding and an
swers. It shows that he had been taught of
nature and of God some things not learned
in the Nazareth "House of the Book." This
process continued for eighteen more years dur
ing the full ripening of his soul.
The idea that Jesus acquired knowledge
through an expanding experience of men and
things is strictly Scriptural. The physician
Luke, with an eye for development, distinctly
says of the period before twelve: "And the
child grew and became strong; he was filled
with wisdom, and the grace of God was on
him" (2. 40), and of the period after twelve:
"And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature,
and in favor with God and men" (2. 52).
Like other men, Jesus acquired knowledge
of sensible things, was guided by his senses,
and made inferences concerning inner states
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THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
of mind from outward appearances. "When
Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation."
"So when Jesus disembarked he saw a large
crowd, and out of pity for them, as they were
like sheep without a shepherd, he proceeded
to teach them at length." "And when he saw
the city, as he approached, he wept over it."
"But as Jesus knew of it, he retired from the
spot." "But Jesus detected their malice. He
said: 'Why do you tempt me, you hypo
crites?' " "But Jesus was aware of what they
said, and he replied, 'Why are you annoying
this woman?' " "Conscious at once that they
were arguing to themselves in this way, Jesus
asked them, 'Why do you argue thus in your
hearts?' " "He noted this and said to them,
'Why do you argue you have no bread?' "
"Jesus saw him lying, and knowing he had
been ill for a long while he said to him, 'Do
you want your health restored?' " "Where
fore Jesus perceived they meant to come and
seize him, to make a king of him ; so he with
drew by himself to the hill again." "Jesus
knew they wanted to ask him, so he said to
them," etc. Such familiar expressions of the
Gospels clearly indicate that Jesus acquired
part of his knowledge in the usual human way,
and was guided accordingly.
It is possible — indeed, probable — that his
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
Development views experienced some development and
condnHiForth? modification during the three years of his pub
lic ministry. Surprises were in store for him
at belief beyond Israel and unbelief within
Israel, and betrayal by his only Judaean disci
ple. Undoubtedly he was disappointed in not
winning his people to accept him. He desired
it wholly. Even after excoriating the Phari
sees for rejecting him, he wept over the city
which he tenderly loved. He adjusted himself
to these unforeseen circumstances. The con
tent of his message shifted somewhat from the
ethical present to the spiritual future. At
the rising signs of opposition he speaks more
of his death, adopts the parable as a safer
form of instruction, and widens his outlook
toward the Gentiles.
5. The Wide Range of His Information.
The experience of Jesus, both in and out of
school, mainly out, thus brought him a great
fund of common knowledge. From the range
of the content of his teaching it is evident that
until he was thirty Jesus was not only a car
penter but a student of Scripture and a care
ful observer of the ways of men and nature,
being even before twelve and all the while
conscious of God as his Father. This is the
central point of his consciousness, and his
later public ministry, both in deed and word.
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THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
His teaching is a reflex of the life of Palestine
of his time, in its agricultural, commercial,
industrial, domestic, social, military, political,
and religious phases. The sower, vine-dresser,
shepherd, pearl merchant, two women grind
ing at the mill, tailor, the woman sweeping
or leavening dough, the man with his children
in bed, the hen and her brood, marriages,
feasts, kings, the military trench and embank
ment, Caesar, the Roman eagles, the Law, the
scribes, Sadducees, Pharisees, publicans, sin
ners, common people, money, philanthropy,
the poor, labor, wages, the observance of the
Sabbath, fasting, ceremonial washings, tith
ing, birth, death — these all, and almost in
numerable other things figure in his life and
teaching. Even a brief summary of his knowl
edge acquired from experience as indicated in
the Gospels would appear as almost encyclo
paedic for his day, and reflect not only the
great range of his information but his eager
interest in nature and man. There is not the
slightest intimation that Jesus was not a well-
informed man in whatsoever company he might
be placed, whether Roman or Jewish. But all
of this information he kept not for its own
sake but for use in teaching a religion of the
spirit. Did Jesus possess supernatural knowledge
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Supernatural
Knowledge of
Sense World?

His Omnipresence,Omnipotence,
andOmniscienceNot in the
Flesh

of the sense world? Some passages may seem
to indicate that he did. How did he know
that the woman of Samaria had had five hus
bands? that Nathanael had been meditating
under a fig tree? that his disciples would find
an ass tied in the village? that a man bearing
a pitcher of water would meet them in Jeru
salem? Some see in these instances the exer
cise of supernatural knowledge on the part of
Jesus, others the results of information re
ceived normally, though in an unspecified
manner, for example, that Jesus had actually
seen Nathanael as he says, that he had ar
ranged on these signals with unnamed friends
in preparation for the triumphal entry and
the Last Supper. Furthermore, there are
some other sense facts, equally involved in his
ministry, which he clearly did not know, of
which we will take account in a moment. So,
unless we are willing to multiply mysteries
beyond necessity in the interest of the theory
that Jesus was omniscient, the above instances
may well be regarded as cases of knowledge
attained in customary, though unrecorded,
ways. In passing, it may be remarked that Jesus
was not omnipresent, that he was not in two
places at the same time, and that he journeyed
from one place to another, though once by a
236

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
miraculous process in appearing to his disci
ples in distress in the boat on the lake, his
miracles without exception always being to
help someone other than himself. Also, that
he was not omnipotent, saying that of himself
he could do nothing, that his Father was
greater than he, and of whom Mark says,
"There he could not do any miracle" (6. 5),
referring to the unbelief in Nazareth. So, if
Jesus was not omnipresent, nor omnipotent,
he may well also have been not omniscient.
These conclusions need not surprise us, if we
accept the view that it was indeed flesh which
the Word became. This is part of the self-
emptying process described by Paul. His
second method of acquiring knowledge, by
divine intuition, we have to consider later.
6. Some Things Jesus Did Not Know. So
we may properly consider next some things
indicated by the Gospels that Jesus did not
know. This does not detract from our rever
ence for him, unless we are willing to revere
a fictitious Christ not of the Gospels. The
first and most striking thing of all is his own
statement: "Now no one knows anything
about that day or hour, not even the angels in
heaven, but only the Father" (Mark 13. 32).
There is a parallel statement in Matthew. As
the gospel writers were concerned to exalt,
237

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
not to limit, the figure of Christ, we may be
sure there is foundation in fact for this state
ment in the words of Jesus. It agrees also
with his parable of the Seed Growing Un
observed: "He knoweth not how" (Mark 4.
27). So, it is important to notice, Jesus does
not claim to know everything, nor does any
evangelist make this claim for him, omitting,
of course, the periods before birth and after
death. During the days of his earthly humili
ation Jesus had unusual, but not unlimited,
knowledge.
His Questions He asked questions to gain information and
he showed surprise, both in keeping with a
state of limited knowledge. "Who touched
my garments?" "How many loaves have ye?
Go and see." "How long time is it since this
hath come unto him?" "Where have ye laid
him?" These are the questions of one seeking
desired information. He showed surprise at
the centurion's faith and at the unbelief of the
citizens of Nazareth. And he came to the
barren fig tree, "if haply he might find any
thing thereon." It is gratuitous Docetism, as
well as an unworthy reflection upon the sin
cerity of his character, to suppose he is really
possessed all the time of the knowledge he
seeks and that he feigns surprise.
7. Medical and Literary Views. Like the
238

forInformation

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
men of his time, he regarded mental diseases
as due to demon-possession. Some of these
diseases were evidently cases of religious in
sanity. Such demons were cast out by "sons
of the Pharisees" and by other unrighteous
persons who in the Day of Judgment, he said,
would remind him of it in vain. He too cast
them out, or, as we should say, restored sanity
by suggestion, with sympathetic and righteous
motive. He likewise reflects the current views
in referring to Jonah as a prophet and to the
one hundred and tenth Psalm as David's,
though these views are not commonly held by
the competent to-day. He did not claim to
be an alienist or literary critic of the Scrip
ture. He was working the works of God in
cures and warning his generation that the
Ninevites had repented at Jonah's preaching
and showing the scribes that even according
to David it was more important for the Mes
siah to be related to God than to David. It
is nothing against the knowledge of Jesus that
in some matters not essential to his work he
should reflect the views of his contemporaries.
The marvel is that he could see so much more
of spiritual significance in what was at hand
than they.
8. His References to Future Events. With
reference to the future Jesus correctly fore-
239

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
told his own death and resurrection and the
doom of Jerusalem, as a true prophet with
insight and choice, though certain of his words
about the future, apocalyptic in character, have
been only spiritually, not literally, fulfilled.
"You will not have covered the towns of Israel
before the Son of man arrives." "I will tell
you truly, there are some of those standing
here who will not taste death till they see
the Son of man coming himself to reign"
(Matt. 10. 23; 16. 28). It is possible Jesus
meant these sayings of his to be interpreted
as spirit and life, not as letter.
9. Divine Intuition. It is time to consider
the second source of his knowledge and its
effects upon his reading the facts of the reli
gious life, which have in turn so modified
human religious experience. When the Jews
marveled at his teaching and said, "How
knoweth this man letters, having never
learned?" Jesus himself gave the very sig
nificant answer: "My teaching is not my
own, but his who sent me. Anyone who
chooses to do his will, will understand whether
my teaching comes from God or whether I am
talking on my own authority." That is, the
truth he taught came to him from God, of
which any person could convince himself by
undertaking to do the will of God. Millions
240

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
have accepted the condition and found it even
as he said.
This supreme source of his knowledge of God within
religious truth, that is, the whole field of
man's relation to God, Jesus repeatedly
asserted in various terms: "The Son can do
nothing of his own accord, nothing but what
he sees the Father doing." "I can do nothing
of my own accord: I pass judgment on men
as I am taught of God, and my judgment is
just, because my aim is not my own will but
the will of him who sent me." "He who sent me
is true, and so I tell the world what I have
learned from him." "I do nothing of my own
accord, but speak as the Father has taught
me." "I speak as the Father has told me."
"The Father who sent me, he it was who
ordered me what to say and what to speak."
"The words I speak to you I do not speak
of my own accord; it is the Father who re
mains ever in me, who is performing his own
deeds." These quotations are all from John, but The son the
Matthew is equally clear, though not at such of°me Fatner
length: "All has been handed over to me by
my Father : and no one knows the Son except
the Father — nor does anyone know the Father
except the Son and he to whom the Son
chooseth to reveal him" (11. 27). Here are
241

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

His Second
Source of
Knowledge

The Witness
Within

three truly wonderful statements whose sig
nificance deepens with meditation.
We conclude, then, that the second source
of knowledge Jesus is presented as having is
divine intuition; that is, an internal and im
mediate awareness of moral and religious
truth through the indwelling spirit of God.
10. His Central Truth. The most remark
able of these truths is that God was his Father
and the Father of all men. From this every
thing else flows. It was an insight of his
attained before he was twelve, requiring only
to be exemplified and taught among men.
Such was the consciousness of Jesus, the cen
ter of his being. From this central truth come
other truths: his Sonship and the sonship of
all men, his Messiahship, his authority, his
inspiration, his revelation, his exaltation.
It is a consciousness the deliverance of
which Christians have proved in practice
everywhere at all times. Yet these deliver
ances cannot be proved to non-Christians by
signs, wonders, or Euclid, but only by inner
experience as one wills to do the will of God.
11. The Source of His Consciousness. How
did Jesus attain this consciousness? Here
ancient and modern philosophies and theolo
gies and modern psychologies exhaust them
selves. Mark offers no explanation. Matthew
242

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
and Luke report his miraculous birth, to
which he never refers and which would have
been one of those outer signs to which he at
tached no spiritual significance. John uses
the theory of the Logos, foreign to Jesus's own
way of thinking. Harnack says, "No psy
chology will ever fathom it."1 Yet, Jesus him
self gives us the clue: "Anyone who chooses
to do his will, will understand whether my
teaching comes from God or whether I am
talking on my own authority." This was part
of his answer to the Jews who were wondering
at the source of his teaching. He only sec
onded at every point the movement of the
spirit of God dwelling in his own soul. This
was as far as he went in his answer. We need
hardly try to go further as he also said, "No
one knoweth the Son, save the Father."
This judgment of his soul, that God was His Humiuty
his Father and that he, as Son, was his re- ^u.Assertioa
vealer, he himself sacredly affirmed, yet with
humility, as one "meek and lowly in heart,"
as "he that serveth." His isolated self could
do nothing, his self in the Father, conscious
of unity, possessed all things. Of this larger
divine self he could without blasphemy say:
"Ye have heard that it hath been said unto
"Compare G. Stanley Hall, Jesus, the Christ, in the
Light of Psychology, 2 vols., New York, 1917,
243

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
you [in the Law] . . . , but I say unto you" ;
"One greater than the temple is here"; "A
greater than Jonah is here"; "A greater
than Solomon is here"; "The Son of man is
lord even of the Sabbath"; "He had still one
left, a beloved son; he sent him to them last,
saying, 'They will respect my son' " ; "I am the
light of the world" ; "Before Abraham was, I
am" ; "I and the Father are one."
12. His Knowledge of the Scriptures. This
consciousness that the Father was speaking
through him explains his attitude toward the
Scriptures which had nourished his soul. He
knew the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms —
the three divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Of their thirty-nine books he is recorded as
quoting fourteen, namely, Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Samuel,
Kings, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel,
Hosea, Zechariah, and Malachi. Some of these
are quoted several times, and his thought
shows the influence of other books — for ex
ample, his words about wisdom and her chil
dren suggest Proverbs. He quoted most from
Isaiah, Psalms, Hosea, and Deuteronomy;
that is, the prophets, the devotional hymns,
and the spiritual rendering of the law. With
Isaiah he begins his ministry and later justi
fies it to the Baptist, and condemns the scribes
244

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
and Pharisees for lip-service and teaching the
precepts of men. With the Psalms he speaks
of the chief corner stone, the Christ as Son
of David, and on the cross utters both his
despairing cry and his final word of recovered
faith. With Hosea he refers more than once
each to God's desire for mercy and not sacri
fice, and to his own resurrection on the third
day (Hos. 6. 2). With Deuteronomy he three
times repels the tempter. With the Septua
gint form of Isaiah he condemns Capernaum
(Isa. 14. 13-17). With Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
Malachi he cleanses the temple. With the ex
ample of David he defended his Sabbath-day
conduct. With the Commandments he an
swered the question of the rich young man.
From Daniel he draws the title by which he
prefers to be known — "Son of man." From
the Scriptures he expounds the suffering of
the Christ on the road to Emmaus. The natu
ralness with which Old Testament thoughts
and expressions rise in his mind and fall from
his lips, the ready use he makes of these in
meeting the needs and issues of his own day,
show the thoroughness with which he had
assimilated the religious records of his race.
That he knew the books of history, rated his Knowledge
as a part of the Law, as well as the Prophets, Historical
the Psalms, and the laws, appears from his Books
245

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Consonance of
His Views
with Other
Material

His Respect
for the Torah

illustrative, not historical or critical, use of
the accounts of Noah, Lot, Sodom, the Cities
of the Plain, Tyre, Sidon, David, Elijah,
Elisha, Solomon, Jonah, Abel, Zachariah, and
the ill treatment of the prophets.
His knowledge covered apocryphal books
not contained in our Old Testament. His
reference (Luke 11. 51) to Zachariah is prob
ably drawn from the Book of Enoch (9. 1),
which also describes the imminence of redemp
tion, the twelve thrones, Gehenna, demons,
and the resurrection. The Psalms of Solomon
refer to the expected deliverer as "Christ," as
the "Son of David," and describe the right
eousness of the scribes and Pharisees. But
similarity of thought does not necessarily
mean borrowing.
Jesus not only knew the old Law, but he
appreciated and respected it. He used its
texts as a basis for his discourses. He taught
obedience to those who sit in Moses' seat,
through respect for the office, not the officers.
"What does Moses command you?" "What
is written in the Law, how readest thou?" he
would ask. He said not a jot or tittle should
pass from the Law till all be fulfilled. His
own mission and teaching he regarded as not
destroying but fulfilling the Law and the
Prophets. And he made keeping and teaching
24?

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
the commandments a basis for promotion in
the Kingdom. But, conscious of the superior
interpretation he gave to Scripture, indeed,
which he himself was, he could say with force
ful figure : "All who ever came before me have
been thieves and robbers."
So Jesus always kept his intellectual in- how He
tegrity and independence in treating the £u^Uedthe
Scriptures, recognizing not their error but
their incompleteness, and affirming the judg
ment of his own soul in completing and inter
preting them. It is wrong to kill, and also
to have a murderous motive. It is wrong to
commit adultery, and also to harbor lecherous
thoughts. It is wrong to swear falsely, and
also to swear at all in a world of sacred
things. It is wrong to exact more than an
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and
even to exact anything whatever in retalia
tion. He was no literalist in interpretation.
The stories of the creation of male and female
and of the burning bush meant more to him
than the letter said; the one passage meant
no divorce, and the other immortality. In
this he showed his spiritual originality in in
terpretation. 13. His Rejection of the Scribes as Inter
preters. Because his interpretations of Scrip
ture and his teachings about the Father were
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
new and original, the people marveled. He
was a voice, not an echo. He gave judgments,
not opinions of others. He taught with au
thority, not as the scribes. In fact, he rejected
outright the traditional interpretations of the
Law, venerated in his day even beyond the
original. He plainly and courageously told
the scribes that they understood neither Scrip
ture nor the power of God, that they made the
Word void by their traditions, and that they
bound burdens grievous to be borne on man
without lifting a finger themselves, and that
they neither entered the Kingdom themselves,
nor permitted others to enter. It was prob
ably rather to those oppressed by legalistic
burdens of mint, anise, and cummin than to
the laboring classes that he addressed the invi
tation : "Come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Four contrasts The intellectual perspective of Jesus, in con-
irlterp^rs trast with that of the scribes, placed emphasis
on the inner relation to God rather than the
outer relation to the Law, and to the tradi
tions that had grown up about it through the
interpretations of the elders; on the present
character of the Kingdom, which was "at
hand," "come near to you," "among you,"
rather than on the future coming of a de
liverer; on the spiritual rather than the tem-
248

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
poral character of the Kingdom; and on the
relation of the individual, rather than the
nation as a whole, to the Father.
14. His Originality. These four contrasts
constitute a part of his intellectual originality,
though the prophets and John the Baptist
shared all of these views except that of the
spirituality of the Kingdom ; Jesus sharpened
them all by his example and teaching; they
made it impossible for the religious leaders
of his people to accept, or even correctly un
derstand, him; and they made it impossible
for him to remain contented with the syna
gogue and necessary for him to found his
church on the new confession of himself as
the Christ. His leading ideas — Fatherhood,
Sonship, the Kingdom and its virtues — spring
indeed out of Jewish soil, but they bear other
than Jewish fruit. The reasons were that he
lived them, and so individualized them, and
taught them for all, and so universalized them.
Thus it was that Jewish national ideals be
came in Christianity personal and interna
tional. The modern thoughtful Jew who re
jects Christianity does so because he prefers
a principle to a Person; yet he still looks for
One who should come. The originality of
Jesus consists in his having done something
new — lived as a Son ; and said something new
249

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
— God is spirit, also my Father, and your
Father. In consequence, his followers are
sons of liberty, not subject to legalism. Per
haps Jeremiah before Jesus had most ap
proached his type of suffering experience,
though far removed from the consciousness of
Fatherhood and Sonship which Jesus had.
The idea of the Fatherhood of God appears
in the Old Testament, but it does not occupy
the central and consistent place Jesus gave it.
Perhaps every idea of Jesus, except the love
of enemies, can measurably be duplicated in
the old and contemporary Hebrew writings —
his originality does not consist so much in say
ing something different as in saying it differ
ently, and in selecting, unifying, and, most of
all, exemplifying his teaching. Thus two
things about Jesus are original, his person
ality and his teaching, the latter in what it
excludes and emphasizes.
VI. Jesus as Philosopher
We will conclude our account of the intel
lectuality of Jesus with a brief survey of what
may be called his philosophy, or view of the
world. We must hasten at once to say that
Jesus is not a philosopher in the usual sense
of this term, namely, a systematic theorizer
concerning the first principles of existence.
250

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
Jesus does not speculate or reason abstractly ;
he asserts. His appeal is not primarily to
man's reasoning ability, but to his heart, con
science, and common sense. Still, Jesus had
a world-view, a very pronounced one, though
nowhere systematically expounded. It under
lies and is presupposed by all his deeds and
it appears here and there incidentally and
sometimes centrally in his teaching. Espe
cially is it embodied in his manner of life.
1. A World of Persons. The first thing to
note is that the world to Jesus is essentially,
though not exclusively, a world of persons.
These occupy the foreground of his conscious
ness. They include, first of all, the Father,
the term which Jesus commonly used in teach
ing about God, and always in prayer, except in
the despairing cry from the cross; and also,
angels, men, Satan, and demons. There is
no doubt also that in this world of persons
Jesus was conscious himself of occupying a
unique relation to the Father, to men, and
to the works of Satan, "the prince of this
world." We must briefly consider the thought of The Father
Jesus concerning each member of this world
of persons. Of these, the figure of the Father
occupies the center of his thinking. How
Jesus came to think of God as Father we can-
251

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
not be sure. It was probably through the
selective tenderness of his own soul as he read
the Old Testament, coupled with the loving
kindness of his father Joseph to Jesus. The
Jehovah of the Old Testament, though mainly
thought of as Creator, God of battles, King,
and Judge, is also portrayed as calling Israel,
his son, out of Egypt, and pitying like a father
those that fear him. However Jesus reached
this conception, it so dominated his thinking,
even from the tender age of twelve, that it
practically ceased to be a figure of speech, and
was for him a vital experience.
The Loving The term "Father" as applied to God occurs
Father forty-five times in Matthew, five in Mark,
Revealed by •' ' m '
the Loving Son seventeen in Luke, and ninety times in John,
the latest Gospel to be written, indicating
how the conception of love and Fatherhood
stood out more and more in the ministry of
Jesus with the lapse of time. God is the lov
ing Father of all men, prodigals as well as
righteous elder brothers, and he is Father not
primarily through any creative act, though
God "made them male and female," but sim
ply because he loves. Not even the philo
sophical Gospel of John puts any metaphysi
cal words in the mouth of Jesus. The rela
tions of Father and sons and Son are all prac
tical relations of love, and obedience revealing
252

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
love. Jesus found in his own soul love for
all men, all sorts and conditions of men and
women and children. So living, through
identifying himself with all, the sick, the
prisoner, the hungry, the naked, he was the
"Son of man," and so living, he revealed the
love of the Father for men, it not being pos
sible that he should be more loving than God,
and in this way was the "Son of God."
The relations of the Father to the world of The Father's
nature and man are described in practical Relations to
terms. To him as "Our Father" the prayer ^[!^nd
of disciples is made in adoration, confession,
and petition for body and soul. He is holy,
his spirit assists, it may be spoken against
with "eternal sin," and by it devils are cast
out at the word of Jesus. He may be met in
the inner chamber, he reveals his truth to
babes, he speaks through Jesus and the disci
ples, and he gives the persecuted what to say
under trial. His loving kindness through
natural agencies is impartial to all men, as
he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the
good and sends rain on the just and the un
just. This impartial love is his perfection,
and men, though "being evil," are likewise to
be perfect, and love and pray even for enemies,
that they may indeed be "sons of your Father
who is in heaven." Especially does he give
253

God

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
good things, even the gift of the Spirit, to
them that ask him.
Attributes of (1) God. The thought which Jesus had
of God as distinct from his fatherly relations
to man includes his unity, truth, spiritual
existence, his unceasing activity, and provi
dential relation to the world, as well as know
ing and being able to do all things. He quotes
the monotheistic, at least the henotheistic,
words of the Old Testament: "Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God is one God" (Henotheism
means God is one, though there may be other
gods ; monotheism means God is one, and there
are no other gods). He affirms monotheism
in making eternal life to consist in knowing
"the only true God." In prophetic language
the heaven is described as the throne of God
and the earth as the footstool of his feet. The
whole world is the Father's house, in which
are many mansions. Unlike the Jehovah of
the Jews, who rested from his labors on the
Sabbath day, he works unceasingly, which
was the justification to Jesus for doing good
on the Sabbath. With wonderfully sweet and
poetic imagery, the natural outpouring of his
spiritually sensitive soul, Jesus describes God
as Lord of heaven and earth, clothing the grass
of the field, arraying the lilies with a splendor
past Solomon's man-made robes, feeding the
254

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
ravens and the birds of the air, entering into
the tragedy of life as well as its beauty in
marking the sparrow's fall, and as numbering
the very hairs of the head.
Thus the whole of the physical order of Providence
things is itself providential, revealing the pres
ence, the power, the care, and the sympathy
of God. It is all so natural, both the exist
ence of nature, and God, and God's working
through nature at every point. There is no
slightest hint that a Providence which is uni
versal either needs, or does, "violate" any
existent order in its ministration. God in
nature to Jesus is not a matter of philosophic
thought, but of religious consciousness. Thus,
on another occasion, he can say that the earth,
previously regarded as the footstool of God's
feet, "bringeth forth fruit of herself." A
philosopher of the schools would have wanted
to "reconcile" the two apparently discrepant
statements. How can the earth fructify
of itself, he would have asked, if it is at the
same time a divine footstool? Jesus affirms
God; he does not prove his existence, or sys
tematically expound his nature. And all this
providential relationship of God to nature
and to man through nature, Jesus uses to
reach the practical religious conclusion that
God knows we have need of meat, drink, and
255

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
clothing, and that therefore there is no occa
sion for anxious thought. If God cares for
the birds which do not sow, and reap, and
gather into barns, how much more shall he
care for the rational creatures that do these
things ! The thought of Jesus is not that men
should live as the birds.
God is spirit Of all the affirmations of Jesus concerning
God, perhaps the most philosophical is that
"God is Spirit," but he at once passes to the
two practical conclusions that men must wor
ship in spirit and that God seeks spiritual
worshipers; that is, not provincial, legalistic,
or ceremonial, but sincerely loving and inner
worshipers. The seeking of God for such wor
shipers suggests that God takes the initiative
in religion, that his love follows the prodigal
and his eye waits on the road for his return.
Power and God has all power and all knowledge. With
him all things are possible. Such phrases as
"the power of God," "the right hand of power,"
"come with power," are repeatedly on his lips.
It was God's power, not his own, that Jesus
used, who, of himself, could "do nothing."
Though there was force in the world not
exerted by men in accordance with God's will,
which would take the Kingdom violently,
which would compel him to be a king, which
Pilate too exercised over him, all such force
256

Knowledge

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
was "given from above." The knowledge of
the day of the coming of the Son of man,
denied to all men, to the angels, even to the
Son, the Father possessed.
Speaking a language foreign to the thought
of Jesus, we may summarize his view of God
as not materialistic nor pantheistic, nor
deistic, nor agnostic, but theistic.1
(2) Angels. In his views concerning God
and the Father, Jesus made his most original
and most valuable contribution to religious
thinking. In his views concerning angels, his
thought is practically one with that of his
times and of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
his biographers. Two main motives lead to
belief in angels: first, the thought of God
apart from the world, yet not alone, but sur
rounded by a company; second, the need of
messengers from a remote God to men on the
earth. Both of these motives had supplied
the Persian as well as the Jewish religion with
belief in angels before Jesus came.

1 Readers who are not familiar with these terms need
not he disturbed by them. Materialism holds the world ia
ultimately matter. Pantheism holds that the unknown
All is God. Deism holds that God is not intimately
concerned with man's affairs — "The gods care for large
and neglect small things," said Cicero. Agnosticism
says man does not and cannot know the ultimate.
Theism holds there is a personal God.
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JESUS— OUR STANDARD
His views Jesus uses a military figure in referring to
concerning the «twelve iegi0ns of angels" his Father
would send to his aid in answer to prayer.
The Son of man would confess or deny before
the angels those who had confessed or denied
him before men. The disciples are told to
rejoice because their names "are written in
heaven," presumably in a book kept by an
angel. Jesus told the Sadducees that those
accounted worthy to attain the heavenly world
are "equal to the angels." They are holy, they
are glorious, they will attend the Son of man
at his coming, and it is they who do the will
of God in heaven as it should be done in earth.
As there are no marriages in heaven, men and
women being equal to the angels, it is clear
Jesus thought of the angels as asexual. Like
the Son, not even the angels know the day of
his second coming. The angels of little ones
continually behold the Father's face. They
rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. At the
temptation Jesus rejected the idea of tempting
God by casting himself down from the pin
nacle of the temple, expecting angels to bear
him up, but received instead, following the
temptations, the ministration of angels — the
story of the temptation being autobiographi
cal. Luke says an angel from heaven strength
ened Jesus in Gethsemane. Prayer is made
258

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
not to the angels but to God. The angels are
the reapers in the final harvest, they separate
the wheat from the tares, they gather the elect,
and gather out all that offend. Angels carried
the soul of Lazarus to Abraham's bosom.
Though Jesus thought of God being sur
rounded by a company of angels, perhaps as
a king by his court, he did not think of God
being so remote from earth as to require
mediating angels. It is in keeping with these
views that the evangelists introduce angels in
the gospel story in connection with the an
nunciation, Nativity, flight into Egypt, return,
and the resurrection, as well as the tempta
tions in the wilderness and Gethsemane. There
can be no reasonable doubt that Jesus sin
cerely believed in the objective reality of
angels as one part of his view of the world.
(3) Man. Concerning man, Jesus thought views
of him as soul and body. The body is more ^etmas
than raiment, the life is more than the food,
and the soul is more than the body. Each soul
is worth more than a sheep, many sparrows,
and even the whole world. It lives after death
in the company of God and his angels or the
devil and his angels, according to its right
eousness or iniquity. There is a judgment to
come. Man has choice — he may strive to enter
in at the strait gate, he may do the will of
259

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
God, he may buy the pearl of great price,
he may turn and become as a little child, he
may deny himself, take up his cross daily, and
follow. On the one hand the Father draws,
on the other hand the devil tempts. Jeru
salem would not.
(4) Satan. The views of Jesus concerning
the devil and his angels correspond by contrast
to his views concerning the Father and his
angels. In these views also Jesus is reflecting
the accepted notions of his day. Four terms
are used practically synonymously with each
other, Satan or adversary; devil or slanderer;
Beelzebul, god of flies or dung; and prince of
demons. Satan appears in the narrative of the
temptation, whether we say Jesus saw him
objectively or was only inwardly aware of his
presence. Jesus addressed Peter as "Satan"
when Peter remonstrated with him for includ
ing suffering in his plan. Jesus told Peter
Satan had desired to sift him as wheat, in
which r61e Satan appears as in the case of Job,
but that Jesus had prayed for him that his
faith fail not. The sifting took place at the
time of the three denials. Luke and John say
Satan prompted Judas to betray Jesus. Satan
had bound the woman with an infirmity for
eighteen years. Satan catches away the good
seed, and is the enemy of man that sows tares
260

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
in his heart. The Jews were of their father,
the devil, a liar and a murderer from the be
ginning, who stands not in the truth. He is
"the prince of this world," "the power of dark
ness," who, however, finds nothing of his own
in Jesus. On the contrary, Jesus is stronger
than the strong Beelzebul, whose house is not
divided against itself, but whom Jesus binds,
and whose goods he despoils. The prince of
this world is judged and condemned by the
lifting up of the Son of man. Jesus says he
beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
This statement coupled with the one about the
devil standing not in the truth [supply, "as
once he stood"], has led some to think Jesus
held that Satan was a fallen angel. There is
a punishment prepared for the devil and his
angels. The fact that Satan is finally to be
overcome indicates that the moral dualism
held by Jesus is finally relieved.
(5) Demons. The demons are the subjects
of the power of darkness, the prince of this
world. They are evil spirits. They enter and
leave man at will. They may be compelled to
leave before they will, as by the sons of the
Pharisees, by one using the name of Jesus,
though not his followers, and by Jesus through
the finger or spirit of God, by means of the
spoken word, sometimes by prayer. A man
261

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
or child need not through prior sin invite such
possession. They speak through their medium ;
they can possess animals; they anticipated a
time of torment ahead; some of them feared
Jesus as their tormentor ahead of time; they
group themselves, sometimes in seven, some
times as a legion; they can raise a storm on
the lake by the wind, and so receive the rebuke
of Jesus (compare "the wind bloweth where
it listeth," etc.), and some are more evil than
others. They cause all manner of bodily and
mental distress and disease to their unfortu
nate victims. They had means of communica
tion between themselves and some are more
evil than others. Jesus described one who
when cast out found seven others more evil
than himself. They haunt the less frequented
spots and take their victims there — deserts,
waterless places, tombs, and mountains. If
cast into "the abyss," they could not return
(Luke 8. 31). Even John and Jesus were
supposed at times to have a demon of insanity
— John because he came neither eating nor
drinking, and Jesus because he said the Jews
sought to kill him.
Parallels Instructive parallels with these conceptions
are found in the jinn of the Arabians;1 also
'Compare Robertson Smith, The Religion of the
Semites. 262

Demons

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
in the phenomena of multiple personality,
aphasia, stuttering, epilepsy, nervousness,
mental derangements known to modern psy
chology ; also in the observations of some mis
sionaries in China and elsewhere.
Did Jesus believe in the real objective exist- Physical Evils
ence of these demons? Though we cannot be lhm '°
positive, the evidence is that he did. He saw
in dumbness, deafness, stammering, blind
ness, ferocity, unusual strength, fallings into
fire and water, convulsions, ravings, grinding
the teeth, pining away, foaming at the mouth,
and certain combinations of these, evidences
of the presence of demoniacal agency ; in some
cases though not in all, the sin of the victim
was involved, in all cases these symptoms were
the signs of the works of the devil he had come
to destroy, and he destroyed them, not, as the
Jews said, with unpardonable sin, through be
ing in league with Beelzebul, but by the power
of God working through his sympathy for
human suffering and the faith of the patient
or his representative. It is easy to trace the
use of suggestion in the method used by Jesus
in effecting the cures, as in putting his fingers
in the ears, anointing the eyes with clay, and
asking for an expression of belief. Undoubt
edly many of the patients were victims of
nervous disorders and religious insanity. In
263

HeU

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
the presence of Jesus physical, mental, and
spiritual normality was restored, but he was
unwilling that any one of these cures should
be capitalized to increase his following. On
the contrary, he strictly charged that the
healed person should tell no man, and he
taught that the casting out of demons in his
name was not the highest source of joy to his
disciples and was no sure token of admission
to the heavenly kingdom.
Heaven and The abode of the Father and the angels is
heaven; of the devil and his angels is hell, a
place of torment, whither the soul of Dives
went, symbolized now by the flaming fire, now
by the outer darkness, now by the undying
worm. Between these two abodes a great gulf
was fixed. The origin of the imagery of the
outer darkness is the unlighted street flanked
by the windowless stone walls of the houses
into which the guest without the wedding gar
ment is cast; of the Gehenna of fire is the
vale of Hinnom where decaying and worm-
infested bodies were cast for incineration. A
final Judgment would separate the sheep from
the goats. This means to say, philosophically
speaking, that the universe of Jesus is a moral
order; that the ends of righteousness are met
ultimately, though not in this life; that jus
tice triumphs; that not even mercy defeats
264

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
the ends of justice but prevents unjust con
demnation and saves all who will be saved.
Jesus did not answer the question : "Are there
few that be saved?" but urged strenuous effort
to enter the strait gate.
2. The Natural Order. So the world of
Jesus is primarily one of persons, divine,
human, and fiendish, in a moral order. But
though this world is the most real, it is not
the only type of existence. In addition, there
are animals, plants, sun, rain, summer and
harvest — objects of common-sense experience,
all regular in their habits, and dependable fea
tures of common life. In the world of Jesus,
as in that of every man, salt has its savor; a
house built on the sand falls ; trees are known
by their fruits ; grapes do not grow on thorns
nor figs on thistles ; corrupt trees do not bring
forth good fruit; the leopard cannot change
his spots nor the African his skin; there are
wayside, thorny, thin, and good soil ; the fruit
ful earth; the sheep following the shepherd;
the vine and the branches; the march of the
seasons ; hearing only if there are ears to hear ;
giving to him that hath, and other like things.
Jesus did not use the term "natural law," but
he recognized the facts supporting such a
conception. Had he been a technical scientist
or philosopher he would have described these
265

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
common experiences as "the natural order"
and their regularity and dependability as "the
reign of law." Had he spoken the philosophi
cal lingua, he might have said there are no
secondary causes, like gravitation, heat, elec
tricity, etc., there is but one cause, a primary
cause, the Father, whose beneficent action is
immediate upon the course of nature, "work
ing hitherto." The presence of such a uni
versal Providence leaves no occasion for
special providence. It is hardly necessary to
say that the intelligence of Jesus was unso
phisticated philosophically, and that conse
quently, as regards the physical order, he was
no solipsist, denying any existence beyond his
own ego, and no subjective idealist, denying
the reality of the external physical world.
3. Sense and Spirit. Though real, the world
of sense is not so real as that of spirit. It is
a kind of parable of the spirit world. Its
familiar occurrences suggest the nature of
spiritual facts and relationships. "He who
sows the good seed is the Son of man ; the field
is the world; the good seed means the sons
of the Realm; the weeds are the sons of the
evil one; the enemy who sowed them is the
devil ; the harvest is the end of the world, and
the reapers are angels." How truly wonder
ful all this is, especially when we recall that
266

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
the method of teaching by parable was rather
suddenly adopted by Jesus in the face of grow
ing opposition as a way of continuing to teach
with more safety and as a penalty upon hear
ers with unwilling hearts. With a kind of
poetic idealism he recognizes that facts exist
in a system of meaningful spiritual relation
ships, as the half-shekel temple tax suggests
the freedom of the sons, that nature is the
spirit's mirror, "a whispering gallery of spirit
ual truths."
4. Time. In the world of Jesus there is
time, a river of the ages, flowing on and on,
till it reaches the great goal of the consumma
tion of the ages. There is no thought that all
this succession may be subjective in the mind
of man, nor yet that God himself is finite, sub
ject to growth and age in time. The temporal
order is real, but it is not all.
5. Space. There is space, unlimited, with
the directions of "east and west," and the four
winds of heaven. It is no contracted, limited,
time-and-space world in which the mind of
Jesus moves.
6. Progress. There is progress in the world
toward the great goal of the coming kingdom
of God, a regeneration (Matt. 19. 28), when
the will of the Father shall be done on earth
as it is done in heaven. That the kingdom
267

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
is to come, shows there is progress in human
life on the earth. Prayer is one method of
bringing in the kingdom. There is continuity
in development, the new fulfilling the old, as
he fulfilled the law and the prophets, and as
the scribe brings forth things both new and
old. Yet the new wine requires new bottles
and a new patch is used on new cloth. The
method of progress is by growth, as the leaven
works in meal, as the mustard seed becomes
the largest tree, as the fig tree puts forth its
leaves, as the grain grows — first the blade,
then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.
Jesus never states a theory of progress in
abstract terms. Should we formulate one con
sonant with his thought, it would probably
be : Progress is the will of God working itself
out in time through the wills of men, or, in
his words, the hidden becoming manifested.
7. Truth. The great conception of truth
was to Jesus primarily moral and religious,
not scientific and abstract. It was not the
quality of correctness inhering in a proposi
tion, but it was the right life. Truth is some
thing to be done, not formulated. Doing the
truth brings one to the light. Willing to do
the will of the Father brings one to a knowl
edge of the doctrine. The kingdom of Jesus
is not of this world but of the truth, to which
268

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
he bears witness. "I am the truth," he says,
meaning that he himself is the universal man
in harmony with the will of God, as all men
should be. Thus truth is right personal rela
tionship. Jesus has no thought of knowing
truth for its own sake, of truth as the quality
of harmony between thought and fact. His
conception that truth is concrete, the right
thing to be and to do, is "pragmatic" in char
acter. Jesus did not criticize the scientific
truth of his day; he did not advance it; he
dealt with objects of spiritual intuition; he
explained by reference to the purposes of God,
as in the case of the man born blind ; he criti
cized the Scriptures not textually, nor for
their date and authorship, but spiritually. He
would himself be accepted not because he was
the Son of David, nor came into the world in
an unknown way (John 7. 27), nor worked
cures, nor by any external sign, but by the
inner witness of the truth, hearing his voice
as sheep hear their shepherd's voice, eating
his flesh, drinking his blood, walking in his
light, coming and seeing, following where he
leads. His was not the truth of thought pri
marily, but the truth of life. To him wisdom
is justified by her works, her children.
8. Life. Life is serious, involving moral s^0*8™8*
' i "" Simplicity
issues, even the life and death of the soul. 0fLUe
269

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
But one thing is needful — there is but one
pearl of great price, but one hid treasure. This
needful thing is right relationship to the
Father, membership in the Kingdom, which
children have, which Mary had. The King
dom had already partially come, was gradu
ally coming more and more, and would finally
come suddenly within his generation. Those
cast out would be the unfaithful, the unwatch-
ful, the unprofitable, the unfruitful, the apos
tate disciple, disobedient hearers, those who
deny or are ashamed of him — all "workers of
iniquity." In the parables of the drag-net
and the tares he taught the final separation
of the good and the wicked.
9. His Sense of His Mission. His own
unique work he conceived as revealing the
Father. "No one knows the Son except the
Father — nor does anyone know the Father ex
cept the Son, and he to whom the Son chooses
to reveal him." He came that men might have
life and have it more abundantly. He came
to call sinners to repentance. He came to bear
witness to the truth. He came to give his life
a ransom for many. He came not to be minis
tered unto but to minister. Jesus conceived
the philosophy of his own life primarily in
terms of mission.
PhaMophy Such is the bare intellectual framework of
270

THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
the philosophy of life which Jesus held. It
is essentially practical in character, deter
mined by the moral and religious, not the
abstractly intellectual, interests. As such it
should not be compared with the theoretical
constructions of the universe, intentionally
such, made by Plato and Aristotle, though it
might properly be compared with the views
of Socrates, the intellectual saviour of the
Greeks. Neither should it be compared with
the modern scientific generalizations about the
world based on systematic observation of vast
ranges of fact, whose viewpoint is foreign to
that of Jesus. It is a philosophy not in ad
vance of its time as regards angels and demons,
though notably so in its central position of
God as Father. And it is a philosophy whose
moral and spiritual insights are based on a
unique consciousness of union with God — a
consciousness that has perpetually challenged
philosophies to explain, from the time of the
prologue of the Gospel of John to Hall's
Jesus, The Christ, In the Light of Psychology.
There are no standard, or final, philoso- its Truth
phies. From the nature of the case, no philoso
phy can finally prove its position. We do not
ask Jesus to be our standard in speculative,
but in practical, philosophy, though specula
tive philosophy in some of its forms has been
271

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

Its Intellectual
Quality

No Conceit of
Knowledge

His Appreciation of
Truth in His
Teaching

glad to learn from the spiritual intuitions of
Jesus. His practical philosophy was put
forth to be lived. The only fair way to judge
such a philosophy is to try it and see. The
Christian world is agreed that when tried the
gospel of love works, it solves the problem of
living completely, and thus has practical
truth. The philosophy of Jesus reveals an intellect
dominantly practical, concrete, and intuitive
in character, and sure of its ground. The
question mark of doubt written at the end of
every system of speculative philosophy does
not appear here. Its alpha at the age of
twelve is the "Father's house" and its omega
at the age of thirty-three is the "Father's
hands." It should be further said that the philoso
phy of Jesus contains no attack on science and
pure philosophy, and no appreciation for the
willful ignoramus or the obscurantist. Jesus
thanks the Father that these things are hid
from the wise and prudent — those with the
conceit of spiritual knowledge, like the Phari
sees — and revealed to babes — those with will
ing and obedient hearts, like his disciples.
The life of Jesus was the truth of religion
embodied. His teaching reveals appreciative
recognition of intellectuality, knowledge, and
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THE INTELLECTUALITY OF JESUS
truth. To those who abide in him he promises
the knowledge of the truth, "and the truth
shall make you free." He rejected the views
of the expounders of the Law because they
had taken away the key of knowledge (Luke
11. 51). Unto his disciples he said it was
given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom,
which were concealed by parable from others.
He taught that eternal life consisted in know
ing the only true God and the one he sent,
even Jesus Christ. No higher value could be
placed upon practical knowledge than this.
VII. Summary.
Thus we have reviewed the intellectuality
of Jesus. In quality and spiritual content, is
it not a standard, a realized ideal? In in
formational content, the intellectuality of
Jesus reflects the age in which he lived. It
remains for us to consider only the final ideal
of complete living, and most significant word,
spirituality.

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CHAPTER VI
THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
"Fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and
terrible as an army with banners."
— Song of Songs 6. 10.

ZlQ

CHAPTER VI
THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
I. Nature of Spirituality
Spirituality is man's sense of divine rela
tionship. It is the fifth ideal, the inclusive
ideal, of complete living. It is not a new ele
ment in human nature ; it is the old elements
of human nature in a new relationship. It
does not stand on a par with the physical,
moral, emotional, and intellectual ; it includes
each and all of these in relationship to God.
Spirituality is sensing all life in its true per
spective, seeing the world as an expression of
the life of God, realizing one's own unity at
every point with the whole.
From this standpoint it is a mistake to sup- Mistakes
pose one can be right with God and wrong
with his fellow, pious and at the same time
immoral, spiritual and at the same time abuse
the welfare of the body, religious and yet
irreverent, holy and yet unclean, devout and
yet intellectually blind. Spirituality is a
plant whose roots are in the clay of common
life, whose flower and fruit are in the heavenly
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About Spirituality

Treatment

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
air. One must be spiritual with his body, his
will, his emotions, his intellect, or not so at
all.
Method of So in treating the spirituality of Jesus, we
do not have to bring out something new and
distinct in his living and teaching; we have
only to show how he sensed his life at the four
main points and elsewhere as related to God.
Did he treat his physical life with reverence,
his volitional life as related to God's will, his
emotional life as related to God's perfection,
and his intellectual life as related to God's
truth? Did the sense of God's presence abide
with him? In answering these questions we
have only to bring to the foreground matters
already suggested.
II. How Jesus Spiritualized His Body and
the Physical Order
Jesus regarded his own body as a sanctuary,
and so spoke of it (John 2. 19) as a temple
where the spirit dwells. He taught that God,
who so clothed the grass of the field, would
clothe the body, that he could destroy both
soul and body, that the life is sustained by
spiritual food (John 4. 32-34), and that physi
cal kinship either to his mother or to David
was subordinate to spiritual kinship to God.
Concerning the physical order of which the
278

THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
body is a part, Jesus taught that God is the
Lord of heaven and earth, that the heavens
were his throne upon which he sat, that the
earth was his footstool, that he clothed the
grass, fed the ravens, remembered the sparrow
in its fall, made his sun rise on the evil and
the good, sent his rain on the just and the
unjust, and numbered the hairs of the head.
The whole system of things is "the Father's
house," in which there are many mansions,
and in which also there is plenty and to spare
for all prodigal sons. In the beginning God
created the creation. Male and female were
so created by God from the beginning, and
what God hath joined together, man should
not put asunder. In the calamities of life
Jesus did not see a punishment for sin, but
a call to those spared to repent and bear fruit.
The Galilaeans murdered by Pilate, the eight
een victims of the fall of Siloam's tower, were
not sinners above others, "but except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish." The man was
born blind, not through sin of self or parents,
but that the works of God should be made
manifest in him. The sickness of Lazarus was
for the glory of God and of his Son.
The parables, his matchless stories concern- The parables
ing the kingdom of God, spiritualize the life ^^ z
Of man and nature. Common experiences
279

Final Causes

Vocational

Personal

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
yield to his poetic and spiritual imagination
analogies of heavenly truth. The mysteries of
the Kingdom, not clear to outsiders, he de
clares to his disciples. The seed he sows is the
word of God.
Manifestly, here are views of the body, the
natural order, its calamities and customary
happenings, not mechanical but spiritual in
character. The causes of things in which
Jesus was interested were final rather than
efficient; that is, he looked to consequents
rather than antecedents. With eyes of rever
ence he beheld natural objects and processes
as, the doings of God.
III. How Jesus Spiritualized the Three
Kinds op Goodness
Goodness too, like the body, Jesus saw in its
relationship to God. His parables spiritualize
vocational goodness, or skill, expressing a
sense of heavenly meaning in the lives of serv
ants, laborers, sowers, stewards, merchant
men, tailors, vine-dressers, shepherds, fisher
men, plowmen, women sweeping and leaven
ing dough, marriage customs, and all the
varied relations of the life of his day.
The personal goodness of Jesus he likewise
associated with God. "Why call me 'good'?
No one is good, no one but God." He would
280

THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
not have the term "good" used as a formality
in polite intercourse, but directed the eager
young inquirer's thought to God as the only
one absolutely good, whose goodness all good
lives share. Though challenging his critics to
convict him of sin, Jesus directed their
thoughts not to himself but to the Father. "I
do always those things that please him."
Social goodness too Jesus viewed in relation social
to God. The social command to love one's
neighbor as oneself he made second to the
spiritual command to love God with all one's
being, and inseparably connected the two. The
kingdom of heaven is a social conception, but
its nature is doing the will of the Father on
earth as it is done in heaven. Our good works
lead men to glorify not ourselves but our
Father in heaven. He himself taught as he
had been taught by the Father and wrought
as the Father wrought through him. So good
ness in all its forms did not stand alone to
Jesus without any connection with God.
IV. How Jesus Spiritualized Beauty
The ideal of beauty, typical of the emotional
life, Jesus also sensed, but not out of relation
ship to God. "Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they
spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solo-
281

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
mon in all his glory was not arrayed like one
of these." Here is clearly an expression of
aesthetic emotion, delighting in the work of
nature rather than man. Not content to leave
the matter so, however, Jesus continues:
"Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the
field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast
into the oven, shall he not much more clothe
you, O ye of little faith?" This addition is
the spiritualization of beauty. "The flower
in the crannied wall" awakens in Tennyson
an aspiration for the knowledge of God and
man; the lilies of the field awaken in Jesus a
realizing sense of God's presence and beauti
fying power. The ideal of beauty is perfection
which, in the mind of Jesus, is ultimately
the perfection of God. "You must be perfect,
as your heavenly Father is perfect."
V. How Jesus Spiritualized Truth
Truth, the ideal of the intellect, no less than
the body, and goodness, and beauty, Jesus
viewed in relationship to God. Truth to Jesus
was not abstract but personal. "Thy word is
truth." "I am the truth." "Sanctify them
through thy truth." He told Pilate that he
came to bear witness of the truth, and that
every one that was of the truth heard his
voice. It was the Father, not flesh and blood,
282

THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
who revealed to Peter the truth of his great
confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son
of the living God, but the keeper of the keys
was prompted by Satan to rebuke Jesus for
choosing the way of suffering and "minded not
the things of God." "This is eternal life, that
they know thee, the only real God, and him
whom thou hast sent." Here the highest good
is distinctly stated in intellectual terms that
are also spiritual. Jesus does not lecture
about the truth he has investigated but is not,
rather his teaching reveals the truth he is,
that is, a Person revealing the Father's per
sonality.VI. Spirituality of Jesus Vital and Inclu
sive
Thus, all told, spirituality lives in Jesus as
his sense of relationship to God in body, good
ness, beauty, and truth. He not so much
teaches spirituality as he is it, revealing and
expressing it. The whole world to him is one
spiritual order with indeed a related material
side. He did not speak of the universe, but of
"my Father's house," meaning not only the
temple, but also perhaps at times the whole
world, in which were "many mansions," and
plenty and to spare for all prodigal sons.
Thus, the fifth standard of spirituality em- spirituality
Inclusive
283

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
braces the other four standards of the physi
cal, volitional, aesthetic, and intellectual. This
standard of spirituality, the truly unique
thing in the consciousness of Christ, and the
most significant thing for the welfare of the
world, may properly engage our study fur
ther. Let us follow it consecutively through
the gospel story.
VII. His Life Spiritual
Let us repeat that by the spirituality of
Jesus we mean his sense of relationship of
nature and man to God. We have seen how
he spiritualized the four ideals of the physi
cal, the volitional, the emotional, and the in
tellectual. In now illustrating further his
spirituality, let us follow in general the course
of his own development, though somewhat
disconnectedly, as it appears in the gospel
narratives. 1. The Temple Incidents. Already at twelve
the temple was to Jesus "my Father's house" ;
on cleansing it, whether once or twice, it is
still "my Father's house"; again it was "the
house of God" that David entered when he
ate the shewbread. We have also seen that
Jesus perhaps used "my Father's house" for
the world at large other than the temple.
2. The Baptism. At his baptism, what
284

THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
Jesus saw was to him the Spirit of God de
scending as a dove, the emblem of gentleness,
and what he heard was the voice of God,
affirming his sonship.
3. The Temptation. It was the Spirit that
drove him into the wilderness of temptation,
the Spirit of gentleness which could not be
reconciled with the Messianic figure of vio
lence preached by John. In the wilderness
he met temptation at each point with the
thought of God: Man lives by the words of
God; man must not tempt God; man must
worship God and serve only him.
To Nathanael, recalling the great experience To Nathanael
in the life of Jacob, Jesus promises that he
shall see the angels of God ascending and de
scending upon the Son of man.
4. The Kingdom. Second only to the reve
lation of the Fatherhood of God, the Kingdom
of God, the doing of the Father's will on earth
as it is in heaven, engrossed the interest of
Jesus. His ministry begins with the nearness
of the Kingdom, continues with the Kingdom
being among and within men, and ends with
its coming with power. It is his Father's
Kingdom, and his Kingdom, and it is not of
this world.
5. The Teaching on the Hill. In the great
Sermon, the pure in heart are promised the
285

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
vision of God, the peace-makers (peace is
something that has to be made) are called the
children of God, and the good works of disci
ples lead men to glorify the Father. Twice
Jesus refers to the heavens as the throne of
God, once to God sitting on this throne, once
to the earth as his footstool. The sun is his
and he sends the rain. By loving enemies and
being kind and merciful to the unthankful
and evil, men are sons of the heavenly Father,
and perfect as the Most High is perfect. The
secret service, the secret prayer, are seen by
the Father and openly recompensed. Our
needs are known by him before they are ex
pressed. To him we are to look in prayer for
the daily bread, forgiveness of sin, and de
liverance from evil. But forgiveness from God
is conditioned by man's forgiveness for man.
The service of mammon is irreconcilable with
the service of God. The food of the birds and
the clothes of the grass come from him, who
gives good things to them that ask, and even
numbers the hairs of the head.
6. The Miracles. Some thirty-five miracles
are recorded of Jesus. No one of them was
ever done in response to demand for a sign or
as display or as a punishment. They are a
revelation of compassion, a part of the reveal
ing of the Father, not an argumentative prop
286

THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
for it. Many of these were the casting out
of demons, which, said Jesus, he did through
the finger and the Spirit of God. The charge
that he was in league with Beelzebul he de
nounced as eternal sin against the Holy Spirit.
Having healed the Gadarene demoniac of his
"Legion," he directed his thought to God as
the real agent, moved by compassion : "Return
to thine own house, and show how great things
God hath done unto thee." God is the Healer.
7. Spiritual Background of Ethical Rela
tions. The proper object of man's fear is not
man, who can destroy only the body, but God,
who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
The sparrows are sold in market, two for a
farthing, yet not one falls without the Father.
Man's confession or denial of Jesus before
man leads to Jesus' confession or denial of
man before the Father and the holy angels.
In the presence of synagogues, rulers, and
authorities, the disciples were not to be anx
ious how or what they should answer, for
the Holy Spirit would teach them in that very
hour what they ought to say. One is first to
be reconciled with his brother before offering
his gift at the altar. One cannot receive for
giveness from God until he has forgiven his
brother. All the ethics of Jesus have this
kind of spiritual background. Even the ties
287

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
of blood he sublimated in spiritual kinship.
"They that hear the word of God and do it"
are his brother, sister, and mother, and are
more blessed than the womb that bore him and
the breasts that gave him suck. It was God
who required of the rich fool his soul, and like
the rich fool are all those not rich toward God.
Jesus reproved the Pharisees for tithing mint
and rue and every herb, and passing over jus
tice and the love of God.
Human The repenting of one sinner causes joy in
HMvetfTjo" tne presence of the angels of God. As a man
seeks the one sheep lost from his hundred, as
a woman seeks one piece of money lost from
ten, as a father waits and watches for the one
son lost from two, so does God seek and wel
come the repentant sinner. The thanksgiv
ing of the poor healed Samaritan leper, a
stranger, was a form of giving glory to God.
8. The Scriptures the Revealing Word of
God. The law of Moses that parents should
be honored he regarded as the "commandment
of God." The Jews by their tradition con
cerning Corban had made void "the word of
God." But every plant not planted by his
heavenly Father should be rooted up. In the
Scriptures, which he said could not be broken,
he saw the testimony of himself. It was "the
wisdom of God" which had said, "I will send
288

THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
unto them apostles and prophets." He quoted
the prophets that all men should be taught of
God. 9. Prayer Answered. Prayer, to Jesus, was
no subjective exercise, it was asking and re
ceiving, it was adoring the Father, it was con
fession and absolution, it was thanksgiving,
it was the yielding, though in struggle, of the
human to the Father's will, the only condition
of receiving spiritual blessing. The elect who
cry to God day and night will be avenged,
though he is long suffering over them. A trait
of character in the unrighteous judge was that
he did not fear God. The penitent publican
rather than the self-righteous Pharisee is
justified. Jesus draws a distinction between
material blessings, like sunshine and rain,
sent by God upon all men alike, and spiritual
blessings, the good gift of the Spirit, given
those who ask.
10. Children Emblems of the Divine. Chil
dren also Jesus regarded from the divine
standpoint. One is to beware of despising one
of them, because their angels always behold
the Father's face in heaven, and it is not his
will that one of them should perish. Even the
Kingdom is constituted of members who have
become as little children.
11. The Second Coming of Jesus. The fail-
289

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
ure of the Jews to accept Jesus necessitated
his death, resurrection, and second coming,
which was to be with the glory of the Father,
when the Kingdom of God should come with
power. With poetic imagination, using the
figures of apocalyptic splendor, Jesus de
scribes his second coming, when the material
order is supplanted by the spiritual.
12. "The Father" the Spiritual Center. The
spiritual center of the thinking of Jesus is
"the Father." This term occurs forty-five
times in Matthew, five in Mark, seventeen in
Luke, and ninety times in John. The term is
sometimes unqualified, sometimes qualified, as
by "my," "your," "heavenly," "holy," and
"righteous." Once, when speaking of not
swearing by Jerusalem, Jesus refers to God
as "the Great King," once as "the Lord of
the harvest," once as "the Lord of heaven and
earth," and once as "the Most High."
God is spirit Jesus told the woman of Samaria that God
is spirit, that the object of worship is the
Father, who seeks worshipers in spirit and in
truth.
The unity in As at the temptation he lived by the word
FathTrand or God, so during his ministry his meat was
Son to do his Father's will and to finish his work.
His own work every day and the Sabbath like
wise was a phase of the unceasing activity
290

THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
and work hitherto of his Father. He could
do only what he saw him doing, quickening,
and judging, and receiving honor, and having
life in himself. His works were given him of
God, and bore witness that the Father sent
him. He came not in his own but in the
Father's name.
Jesus had the sense that the Father, even his own work
God, had sealed him and his work. The work o?,G0siealed
of God was to believe on him whom he had
sent. He was the true bread given by the
Father. No man could come unto him, except
the Father draw him, and all that the Father
gave him should come. It was the will of his
Father that every one believing on him should
have eternal life, "eternal life" being John's
synonym for membership in the Kingdom. He
alone had seen the Father, he alone knew the
Father, and so he alone was in a position to
reveal him to others. He himself lived be
cause the living Father had sent him.
Jesus, though being rejected, had the sense Th" sense of
that he was not alone, but that the Father Presence
who sent him was with him, and bore witness
of him, and had taught him what things to
speak. By willing to do his will anyone could
know whether his teaching were of God. The
things he did were pleasing to the One that
sent him, he spoke the things he had seen with
291

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

His Unity with
the Father

The Father
Above All

his Father,, he came forth from God, he hon
ored his Father, and his Father, whom he
knew, glorified him. This consciousness of
God which Jesus had is his most remarkable
quality. Himself Jesus felt to be the Son of God,
known by the Father, and knowing the
Father, and loved by the Father for laying
down his life, which he would take again, hav
ing received this commandment from his
Father. The works he did in his Father's
name bore witness of him. No wolf can snatch
his sheep out of the Father's hand. The
Father is greater than all, and he and the
Father are one (John 10. 29, 30) . The Father
had sanctified him and sent him into the
world, and it was no blasphemy for him to call
himself the Son of God, they of old being
"gods" because the word of God came to them
(John 10. 35). The works he did indicated
that the Father was in him and he in the
Father. At the tomb of Lazarus he thanked
the Father.
As it was only the Father who knew the day
of his second coming, so it was only the Father
who could give to sit on his right or left hand,
who had prepared a heavenly kingdom for
those whom he had blessed. The lesson he
drew from the withering of the cursed barren
292

THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
fig tree was, "Have faith in God." To make
the stone rejected of the builders the head
of the corner was the marvelous doing of the
Lord. The things of Caesar exist and have their The Power of
place, but they are not the things of God. The God
trouble with the Sadducees was that they did
not know the power of God, by which those
accounted worthy to attain the resurrection
from the dead are sons of God, neither marry
ing nor giving in marriage, but living unto
him who is the God of the living. All things
are possible with God, even the rich man may
be saved. God knows the heart, and what is
exalted among men is an abomination in his
sight. God alone is absolutely good, even the
goodness of Jesus being God's goodness (Mark
10. 18). And human life is a day, wherein
the works of the Father must be done.
In summarizing the commandments, Jesus God First
put the love of God first and the love of man
second. To him it was more important that
the Messiah be the Son of God than the son
of David, and that we call God Father than
any man on the earth. He himself rode into
Jerusalem in the name of the Lord.
His servants would be honored by the Fellowship
Father. His own sacrifice would glorify the Father
name of the Father. To believe on him was
293

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
to believe on Him that sent him. He spoke
what he had been commanded by the Father
who sent him. The Kingdom he appointed
his disciples had first been appointed him by
his Father. He that received Jesus received
Him that sent him. Even his suffering was
a way of glorifying God and God's way of
glorifying him in himself.
13. Spiritual Comfort. The sorrowing dis
ciples were comforted by being told to believe
in God ; that there were many mansions in his
Father's house; that he was the way to the
Father; that seeing him was seeing the
Father; that the Father would give them an
other Comforter, and would love those who
loved him, and kept his word ; that he and the
Father would come and abide with those who
loved him and kept his word; that the Holy
Spirit would teach them all things; that he
was going to the Father who was greater than
he, and whom he loved; that the Father was
the vine-dresser, glorified in the branches that
bear much fruit; that the Father loved him;
that he had kept the Father's commandments
and abode in his love; that he had made
known to the disciples all things he heard
from his Father; that the Father would give
what was asked in his name ; that hating him
was hating the Father also; that the Com-
294

THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
forter, proceeding from the Father, sent by
the Son, would bear witness of him ; that they
would be persecuted because their persecutors
had not known the Father, nor him; that the
world would be convicted of righteousness, be
cause he went to the Father and was seen no
more; that all things of the Father were his;
that the hour would come when not in para
bles but plainly would he tell them of the
Father; that when they all would leave him
alone he would not be alone, because the
Father was with him.
14. Spiritual Prayer. The spirituality of
Jesus, the sense of the Father's nearness,
righteousness, and holiness, reaches the acme
of expression in his farewell prayer, in which
Jesus is conscious that his hour has come;
that the Father will glorify him ; that he had
given him authority over all flesh ; that eternal
life is knowing him, the only true God, and
himself, sent of God; that his accomplishment
on earth had glorified the Father; that he
had glory with the Father before the world
was; that he had manifested the Father's
name unto the disciples; that they too were
the Father's; that the Father would keep
them; that he had given them the Father's
word; that the Father's word was truth; that
all future believers through their word should
295

JESUS— OUR STANDARD

The Arrest

Consciousnessof Sonship and
Exaltation

The Sole Sense
ofForsakenness

be one; that he had transmitted the glory
given him to them; that they might be with
him and behold his glory.
15. Spiritual Sorrow. In Gethsemane he
cries to his Father, with whom all things are
possible, that if he be willing, he would remove
the cup from him; but affirms his willing
obedience. "Thy will be done."
At the arrest he was conscious that he could
beseech his Father and receive more than
twelve legions of angels, but he would drink
the cup that the Father had given him, and
fulfill the Scriptures.
During the trial, in answer to the question
of Caiaphas, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of
the Blessed?" Jesus replied: "I am." Before
the Council he said: "From henceforth shall
the Son of man be seated at the right hand of
the power of God."
On the cross he intercedes for his crucifiers
to his Father, "for they know not what they
do." Some six hours later, in physical and
spiritual anguish, Jesus for once and briefly
lost the sense of the Father's sustaining pres
ence in the cry of forsakenness. Under such
circumstances the breaking down of his spirit
ual sense but accentuates its habitual pres
ence. With the final flickerings of mortal
consciousness, he is again sure of his work,
296

THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
now finished, and of his Father, into whose
hands he commends his spirit.
16. The Risen Christ. The risen Christ,
with different yet familiar consciousness and
a spiritual body, is unwilling that Mary
should cling to him, for he must ascend to the
Father ; sends the disciples as the Father had
sent him; sends forth the promise of the
Father upon them; commissions them to bap
tize in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit; and once again says
that times and seasons the Father hath set
within his own authority.
VIII. Spirituality of Jesus the Standard
Thus we have reviewed the spirituality of
Jesus, his sense of everything in divine rela
tionship, as indicated in the continuous gospel
narrative. There is no evidence that Jesus
regarded any object or event as out of relation
ship to the Father, the consciousness of whose
presence characterized all his life. Is there
not here a record of unparalleled spirituality?
Can it be matched in range, depth, or intensity
elsewhere? Is it not a standard of all spirit
uality, unapproached, if not unapproachable?
And have we not all received of his fullness?
The following modern poem of wonderful «The Eternal
imagery and in a difficult classical rhythm, by
297

Presence"

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
Clinton Scollard, breathes the spiritual sense
of Jesus, though in a less personal form :*
"The 'Eternal Presence'
"I have watched the glow on the morning sky-line
When the kindling spring from out of the palm-isles
Came, with lilt of lutes and with touch of timbrels,
Winged as the swallow.
"Summer I have seen o'er the fertile loam-lands
Spread its gleaming gold and its burnished amber —
Barley, wheat, and rye in the soft winds waving,
Ripe for the reapers.
"I have walked with autumn down through the orchards,
Where lay heaped the fruit with its veins of crimson,
Globes that vied with all of the hues of sunset,
Harvests ambrosial.
"Winter I have known, with its shroud of silence,
Vestal, virginal, clad in its arctic ermine,
When the midnight brightened the frosted sky with
Torches auroral.
"Just the shifting sands in the Year's great hour-glass,
Turned by Time who works at the Master's bidding,
Where we mark, if we look with eyes unclouded,
The Eternal Presence!"
jesus as It remains only to add a word concerning
standard foe practicability of Jesus as a standard of
human life, an infinite, receding, and yet, we
must think, a possible standard. He calls
himself the "Son of man," borrowing the term
from the book of Daniel, associated as it was
with apocalyptic splendors, yet not lending
1 Quoted by permission of the author. 298

THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
itself to false associations of temporal rule
clinging about the term "Messiah" in his day,
and forever suggesting the fullness of his
humanity. He also called himself "the Son
of God," having nothing physiological or meta
physical in mind, but practical, a will doing
the Father's will, exemplifying the kingdom
of heaven on earth. He also called himself
"the Christ," the Messiah, the Anointed of
God to reveal his character as Father to men.
Thus Jesus as Son of man, Son of God, and
Messiah means that men can ("Son of man")
and should ("Son of God") follow him ("Mes
siah") in establishing the family of God in
the world. That is the challenge of his life,
that is the meaning of Jesus as standard, that
is the philosophy of his appearing — the process
of growth of mankind Godward.
Is not making Jesus the standard therefore The world's
the hope of the welfare of the world? Bernard
Shaw has recently dropped satire, irony, and
irreverence long enough to say: "I am ready
to admit that, after contemplating the world
of human nature for nearly sixty years, I see
no way out of the world's misery but the way
which would have been found by Christ's will
if he had undertaken the work of a modern,
practical statesman." Mr. H. G. Wells, in
his God the Invisible King, though rejecting
299

JESUS— OUR STANDARD
formal Christianity and the leadership of
Jesus, describes a God after the very pattern
of the risen Christ, whom, in fact, he calls "the
Christ God," and admits "there is a curious
modernity about very many of Christ's re
corded sayings."
The way of in these days of the world's darkness and
Tfi BUS desolation, everything else has failed as a plan
of human action except the ideal, the way of
Jesus. Is it not time this way was tried? It
at least has succeeded in proportion as it has
been truly tried. Many are ready to say in
advance of trial that it won't work; they are
the real skeptics. Few will say after trial that
it won't work ; they have faith. Jesus asked :
"Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh,
shall he find faith on the earth?" That is, the
willingness to try the ideal way. This is the
fire Jesus came to scatter in the world, the
torn world, which is now being salted with
this fire. The way of Jesus, the incomparable
Saviour of man, is our fivefold ideal standard.
All other standards of man have something
to be forgiven, as expressed in the poem of
Sidney Lanier, "The Crystal," as follows:1
AH, all, I pardon, ere 'tis asked,
Your more or less, your little mole that marks
Your brother and your kinship seals to man.

1 By courtesy of The Independent and Charles Scribner's Sons.
300

THE SPIRITUALITY OF JESUS
But Thee, but Thee, O sovereign Seer of time,
But Thee, O poets' Poet,' Wisdom's Tongue,
But Thee, O man's best Man, O love's best Love,
O perfect life in perfect labor writ,
O all men's Comrade, Servant, King, or Priest,
What if or yet, what mole, what flaw, what lapse,
What least defect or shadow of defect,
What rumor tattled by an enemy,
Of inference loose, what lack of grace
Even in torture's grasp, or sleep's, or death's,
O, what amiss may I forgive in Thee,
Jesus, good Paragon, Thou Crystal Christ?

301

INDEX

Abgar, 62
Acquisitions, 229, 230
Action and perception, 232,
233
Activity, 136
Adolescence, 55, 56
Agnosticism, 257
Alertness, 207, 208
Amazement, 171
Ambrose, Saint, 61
Ames, E. S., 20
Angels, 257-259
Anger, 174-178
Apocrypha, 52, 53, 99, 246
Appearance of Jesus, 61-67
Aramaic, 184
Arrest, 296
Astonishment, 171, 172
Augustine, Saint, 61
Aurelius, Marcus, 58
Authority, 220-222
Bankers, 91, 92
Baptism, 284
Beauty, 31, 32, 281, 282
Body, 22, 67, 70-73, 76, 77,
77-82, 83-84, 84, 85, 278
Brahman, 42
Buddhists, 42
Business, 97, 98
Calmness, 108
Carlyle, 28, 29, 38

Carpenter, 58, 60, 61
Causes, 280
Caution, 191-195
Character, 105-122
Childhood, 52-55
Children, 200, 289
Chrismon, 43
Christ, the, 225, 226
Christianity, 42
Chrysostom, Saint, 61
Clemens, J. S., 51
Clement of Alexandria, 61
Codex Bezse, 101
College, 232
Comfort, 294, 295
Commanding Presence, 67, 68
Companionship, 127
Compassion, 160-167
Complete Living, 40
Concrete type of intellect, 211
Confucius, 42, 128
Conscience, clear, 121
Consciousness, source of, 242,
243
Contrasts, in character, 111
with scribal teaching, 248,
249
Courage, 107
Crane, Dr. Frank, 37-39
Creative intellect, 211, 212
Critics, 115-118, 214-216
Current Events, 209
questions, 216

303

INDEX

Day's Program, 44
Defects lacking, 112
Deism, 257
Demons, 261-265
Dependence, 184-187
Development, 233, 234
Dignity, 110
Disappointment, 178-180
Divorce, 218-220
Docetic viewB, 75, 76
Drummond, H., 32
Emotions, Chapter IV.
Endurance, 72, 73, 110
Ethical relations, 287, 288
Evils, 263, 264
Eye, 63-65
Faith, 185
Faithfulness, 108
Farmer, George, 56
Father, the, 251-257, 290-
294
Fatigue, 69, 70
Fear, 191-195
Fechner, 22
Feeling, 24
Fellowship, 293, 294
Figures of speech, 93, 94
First sermon, 59, 143, 144
Fishermen, 90
Forsaken, 296
Four significant Gospel facts,
119, 120
Four-square living, 33, 34
Friends, 127
Friendship, 127, 134
Functions of the soul, 24-26

304

Future Events, 239, 240
Gethsemane, 163
God, 34-39, 241, 254-257,
290, 293
Goodness, Chapter III, 30,
31, 102-122, 280-281
Gospel, joyous, 154-157
Gratitude, 180-183
Greek moral education, 41
Grotesque, 152
Habits, 231
Hall, G. S., 243
Hands, 66, 67
Harnack, 243
Health, 27-29
Heaven, 264
Hell, 264
Heredity, 49-52
Historic illustrations, 208
Historical books, 245, 246
Holmes, Justice O. W., 36
Home training, 230, 231
Hope, 109, 122, 299, 300
Human nature, 24
Humility, 109, 243
Humor, 150-154
Hunger, 69, 70
Huxley, 22
Hyperbole, 152, 153
Hypocrisy, 183
Ideal, physical, 27
volitional, 29
vocational, 29
social, 29
emotional, 31

INDEX

Ideal, intellectual, 32
spiritual, 34
personal, 41
Ideals, Chapter I
nature of, 19
value of, 20
growth of, 20
and human nature, 21
hierarchy of, 40
Imagery, 201
Impressions on contempo
raries, 113, 114
Indignation, 175, 176
Individual vs. social salva
tion, 139, 140
Information, 234, 235
Instincts, 73, 74
Intellectual combat, 216-228
Intellectuality, Chapter V
Intuition, Divine, 240-242
Intuitive Intellect, 209-211
Irony, 153
Jeremiah, 17
Jesus as Ideal, 41, 42
as Provider, 78-80
as Healer, 80-82
as Artist, 199-203
as Social Worker, 134-137
as Philosopher, 250-273
as Standard, 298-301
Jewish law, 42, 215
Joy in heaven, 288
of Jesus, 154-157
Judas, 92, 93
Justin Martyr, 61
Juvenal, 28

Kant, 29-30
Kingdom, joyful, 156, 285
Knowing, 24
Knowledge, 228-229, 232,
235-236, 237, 238, 244-247,
256, 272
Laborers, 94-95
Lanier, Sidney, 300, 301
Last judgment, 145-146
Law fulfilled, 247
Lentulus, 62
Liddell, Catherine C, 60, 61
Life, philosophy of, 269, 270
Literary views, 238, 239
Locke, John, 28
Longing desire, 157
Love, 106, 157-160, 158, 159
212-214
Loyalty, 107
Man, 259, 260
"Man of Sorrows," 167-169
Markham, Edwin, 202
Materialism, 257
Medical views, 238, 239
Men and things, 253
Message to John, 144, 145
Miracles,' 164, 286, 287
Mission, 145, 270
Moffatt translation, 114, 144
Mohammed, 42
Natural order, 265, 266
Nature, 55
Obedience, 106
Omnipresence, 236
Omniscience, 236

305

INDEX

Oneness with the Father, 120 Raillery, 153

Organizing ability, 134, 135
Origen, 61
Originality, 249, 250
Out-of-doors, 57-59
Palm Sunday, 162
Pantheism, 257
Parables, 95, 98, 189, 279, 280
Passion for service, 136
Patience, 108
Paul, Saint, 20, 32, 85, 10Q,
183
Peace, 195-197
Perception and action, 232,
233
Persons, 251-265
Philosophy, 270-272
Physical order, 278-280
Physique, Chapter II, 49,
74, 75
Plato, 28
Play, 54, 55
Poetry of Jesus, 200
Positive type of intellect, 211
Power, of God, 256
Prayer, 181, 187-191, 289,
295, 296
Progress, 267, 268
Providence, 255
Prudence, 108
Publicans, 90, 91
Qualities of Jesus, 134-137,
209-212
Questions, 82, 83, 216, 227,
238

306

Reasoning, 213-228
Rebukes, 175-176
Religion, 42
Repentance, 288
Resurrection, 224, 225, 297
Ross, Professor, 140
Royce, J., 107
Satan, 260, 261
Satire, 154
School training, 231-234
Scollard, Clinton, 298
Scribes, 247-249
Scriptures, 288, 289
Second coming, 289, 290
Self-Assertion, 243
Self-Control, 106
Self-Denial, 106
Self-Respect, 107
Self-Sacrifice, 111
Sense and Spirit, 266, 267
Sermon on the Mount, 285,
286
Setting others to work, 137
Silent years, 56-59
Sincerity, 107
Sinful woman, 217, 218
Sinlessness, 122
Skill, 89-101
Smith, Robertson, 262
Social goodness, 125-146
Social Gospel, 143-146
Social reform, 142, 143
Social teachings, 137-146
Social themes, 140-142
Solitude, 127

INDEX

Son, the, 241, 242, 252-253
Sonship, 296
Sorrow, 296, 297
Soul, 24
Space, 267
Spirit, 256
Spirit and sense, 266, 267
Spirituality, 34-36, Chapter
VT, 277-278, 283, 284,
297-301
Study, 215
Supernatural knowledge, 235,
236
Surprise, 169-171
Symbol, 43
Symmetry of character, 112
Sympathetic cures, 165, 166
Sympathy, 164-167
Talmud, 99
Teaching and life, 123-125
Tears of Jesus, 162, 163
Temple incidents, 284
Temptation, 102-105, 285
Tender consideration, 109
Tertullian, 61
Testimony, 118-122
Theism, 257
Thirst, 69, 70
Time, 267

Torah, 246
Trade, 59-61, 95-96
Traditions, 215
Traits, 126, 127
Tribute money, 222, 223
Truth, 32, 33, 242, 268, 269,
272, 273, 282, 283
Unique consciousness, 120,
121
Unity of Father and Son,
290-294
Veronica, Saint, 62
Victory, intellectual, 225-227
Vision, 135, 136
Voice, 65, 66
Weeping, 162-164
Wells, H. G., 299
Weymouth translation, 20,
100, 126
Whittier, 47
Willing, 24
Wilson, Frank E., Ill
Wisdom, 228-250
Wit, 154
Witness, 242
Wonder, 172-174
Zoroaster, 42

307