1. Jesus, a peasant, is hailed today as King by people speaking 750
languages and dialects, in all climes, and of all classes. People of
every color raise to Him the song of praise and crown Him "Lord of
all." There is nothing like this in all history. No other has ever
approached this degree of sovereignty. His kingdom pervades the
world. It is a fact that challenges thought. No world conqueror has
ever had such an empire. Beside this the royalty of men like
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon, and more modern aspirants is
shadowy and ghostlike. His is an abiding and a spiritual dominion.
2. Though an unlettered peasant, Jesus has become the world's greatest
teacher. For all our best knowledge of God, for the revelation of
divine Fatherly love, for our highest ideals of virtue, for man's most
glorious hope, people on all sides look to Him. Not only men of the
highest rank, but men of the richest culture sit at His feet. The
purest souls sit at His feet. His golden rule will never be
supplanted. His name has become the synonym for all that is true and
gracious. To be Christ-like must ever remain man's highest ideal.
3. He was a Jew, and yet He founded the brotherhood of man. In His day
Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. But Jesus had. Jews were fenced
off from all other nations in the most exclusive way. But His heart
was all-inclusive, and He broke down all walls that separated class
from class as well as nation from nation. His thought was
universal. His spirit was international. He founded a kingdom based,
as Napoleon said, not on force but on love, and love is universal. It
leaps over mountains, it spans oceans. It speaks in all tongues. The
true League of Nations and the real disarmament are part of His plan
for the world. He was son of Israel only incidentally. Essentially He
was Son of Man--the true brother of all mankind.
4. His life was short, but it changed the world. No one ever did so
much in so short a time. At the most his years numbered thirty-three
years, and of these only a little less than three were devoted to
public ministry, and these were spent in a conquered province of the
Roman Empire. He was killed by aliens at the request of His own
countrymen. And yet time is reckoned from His birth. The very terms
B.C. and A.D. have great significance. He divides not only time, but
also space. The nations are Christian and non-Christian, which is
about equal to saying, civilized and barbarous. One has only to think
of the ideals and practices of pagan people before they received the
influences of Christianity to see the difference He makes
everywhere. No tribe on earth was ever lifted from savagery by the
influence of Socrates, no crime-soaked soul was ever saved by his name
and yet Socrates was the wisest and noblest of the Greeks. He lived
for seventy years and for forty years taught the young men in the most
cultured age and among the most intellectual people in the world. But
Jesus has lifted cannibals and washed the souls of men who were
steeped in blackest vice. The rationalist Lecky said that the simple
record of His three brief years of active life had done more to
regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of
philosophers and than all the exhortations of moralists.
5. He was crucified, and made of the cross a throne from which to rule
the hearts of men. The cross was a gallows far more hideous and cruel
than the hangman's gallows. It was the symbol of crime, of shame, of
degradation. He transformed it. It is today the symbol of love, of
purity, of virtue. His dream came true. Once only did a man dream that
by dying upon a cross would He teach men to say that God is love, that
love is universal, that there is hope for sinners, and that the
worship of God must be spiritual. This is the miracle of the ages.
The Crucified has become the King.
Here then are five tremendous facts. They are unique. If only one
were true it would make Him remarkable, but they are all true.