THE KINGDOM OF GOD CONCEIVED AS THE INHERITANCE OF THE POOR.
These maxims, good for a country where life is nourished by the air
and the light, and this delicate communism of a band of children of
God reposing in confidence on the bosom of their Father, might suit a
simple sect constantly persuaded that its Utopia was about to be
realized. But it is clear that they could not satisfy the whole of
society. Jesus understood very soon, in fact, that the official world
of his time would by no means adopt his kingdom. He took his
resolution with extreme boldness. Leaving the world, with its hard
heart and narrow prejudices on one side, he turned toward the simple.
A vast substitution of classes would take place. The kingdom of God
was made--1st, for children, and those who resemble them; 2d, for the
outcasts of this world, victims of that social arrogance which
repulses the good but humble man; 3d, for heretics and schismatics,
publicans, Samaritans, and Pagans of Tyre and Sidon. An energetic
parable explained this appeal to the people and justified it.[1] A
king has prepared a wedding feast, and sends his servants to seek
those invited. Each one excuses himself; some ill-treat the
messengers. The king, therefore, takes a decided step. The great
people have not accepted his invitation. Be it so. His guests shall be
the first comers; the people collected from the highways and byways,
the poor, the beggars, and the lame; it matters not who, the room must
be filled. "For I say unto you," said he, "that none of those men
which were bidden shall taste of my supper."
[Footnote 1: Matt. xxii. 2, and following; Luke xiv. 16, and
following. Comp. Matt. viii. 11, 12, xxi. 33, and following.]
Pure _Ebionism_--that is, the doctrine that the poor (_ebionim_) alone
shall be saved, that the reign of the poor is approaching--was,
therefore, the doctrine of Jesus. "Woe unto you that are rich," said
he, "for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are
full, for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now, for ye shall
mourn and weep."[1] "Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou
makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren,
neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee
again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast,
call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be
blessed; for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be
recompensed at the resurrection of the just."[2] It is perhaps in an
analogous sense that he often repeated, "Be good bankers"[3]--that is
to say, make good investments for the kingdom of God, in giving your
wealth to the poor, conformably to the old proverb, "He that hath pity
upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord."[4]
[Footnote 1: Luke vi. 24, 25.]
[Footnote 2: Luke xiv. 12, 14.]
[Footnote 3: A saying preserved by very ancient tradition, and much
used, Clement of Alexandria, _Strom._ i. 28. It is also found in
Origen, St. Jerome, and a great number of the Fathers of the Church.]
[Footnote 4: Prov. xix. 17.]
This, however, was not a new fact. The most exalted democratic
movement of which humanity has preserved the remembrance (the only
one, also, which has succeeded, for it alone has maintained itself in
the domain of pure thought), had long disturbed the Jewish race. The
thought that God is the avenger of the poor and the weak, against the
rich and the powerful, is found in each page of the writings of the
Old Testament. The history of Israel is of all histories that in which
the popular spirit has most constantly predominated. The prophets, the
true, and, in one sense, the boldest tribunes, had thundered
incessantly against the great, and established a close relation, on
the one hand, between the words "rich, impious, violent, wicked," and,
on the other, between the words "poor, gentle, humble, pious."[1]
Under the Seleucidæ, the aristocrats having almost all apostatized and
gone over to Hellenism, these associations of ideas only became
stronger. The Book of Enoch contains still more violent maledictions
than those of the Gospel against the world, the rich, and the
powerful.[2] Luxury is there depicted as a crime. The "Son of man," in
this strange Apocalypse, dethrones kings, tears them from their
voluptuous life, and precipitates them into hell.[3] The initiation of
Judea into secular life, the recent introduction of an entirely
worldly element of luxury and comfort, provoked a furious reaction in
favor of patriarchal simplicity. "Woe unto you who despise the humble
dwelling and inheritance of your fathers! Woe unto you who build your
palaces with the sweat of others! Each stone, each brick, of which it
is built, is a sin."[4] The name of "poor" (_ebion_) had become a
synonym of "saint," of "friend of God." This was the name that the
Galilean disciples of Jesus loved to give themselves; it was for a
long time the name of the Judaizing Christians of Batanea and of the
Hauran (Nazarenes, Hebrews) who remained faithful to the tongue, as
well as to the primitive instructions of Jesus, and who boasted that
they possessed amongst themselves the descendants of his family.[5] At
the end of the second century, these good sectaries, having remained
beyond the reach of the great current which had carried away all the
other churches, were treated as heretics (_Ebionites_), and a
pretended heretical leader (_Ebion_) was invented to explain their
name.[6]
[Footnote 1: See, in particular, Amos ii. 6; Isa. lxiii. 9; Ps. xxv.
9, xxxvii. 11, lxix. 33; and, in general, the Hebrew dictionaries, at
the words:
[Hebrew: evion, dal, ani, anav, chasid, ashir, holelim,
aritz].]
[Footnote 2: Ch. lxii., lxiii., xcvii., c., civ.]
[Footnote 3: _Enoch_, ch. xlvi. 4-8.]
[Footnote 4: _Enoch_, xcix. 13, 14.]
[Footnote 5: Julius Africanus in Eusebius, _H.E._, i. 7; Eus., _De
situ et nom. loc. hebr._, at the word [Greek: Chôba]; Orig., _Contra
Celsus_, ii. 1, v. 61; Epiph., _Adv. Hær._, xxix. 7, 9, xxx. 2, 18.]
[Footnote 6: See especially Origen, _Contra Celsus_, ii. 1; _De
Principiis_, iv. 22. Compare Epiph., _Adv. Hær._, xxx. 17. Irenæus,
Origen, Eusebius, and the apostolic Constitutions, ignore the
existence of such a personage. The author of the _Philosophumena_
seems to hesitate (vii. 34 and 35, x. 22 and 23.) It is by Tertullian,
and especially by Epiphanes, that the fable of one _Ebion_ has been
spread. Besides, all the Fathers are agreed on the etymology, [Greek:
Ebiôn] = [Greek: ptôchos].]
We may see, in fact, without difficulty, that this exaggerated taste
for poverty could not be very lasting. It was one of those Utopian
elements which always mingle in the origin of great movements, and
which time rectifies. Thrown into the centre of human society,
Christianity very easily consented to receive rich men into her bosom,
just as Buddhism, exclusively monkish in its origin, soon began, as
conversions multiplied, to admit the laity. But the mark of origin is
ever preserved. Although it quickly passed away and became forgotten,
_Ebionism_ left a leaven in the whole history of Christian
institutions which has not been lost. The collection of the _Logia_,
or discourses of Jesus, was formed in the Ebionitish centre of
Batanea.[1] "Poverty" remained an ideal from which the true followers
of Jesus were never after separated. To possess nothing was the truly
evangelical state; mendicancy became a virtue, a holy condition. The
great Umbrian movement of the thirteenth century, which, among all the
attempts at religious construction, most resembles the Galilean
movement, took place entirely in the name of poverty. Francis
d'Assisi, the man who, more than any other, by his exquisite goodness,
by his delicate, pure, and tender intercourse with universal life,
most resembled Jesus, was a poor man. The mendicant orders, the
innumerable communistic sects of the middle ages (_Pauvres de Lyon_,
_Bégards_, _Bons-Hommes_, _Fratricelles_, _Humiliés_, _Pauvres
évangéliques_, &c.) grouped under the banner of the "Everlasting
Gospel," pretended to be, and in fact were, the true disciples of
Jesus. But even in this case the most impracticable dreams of the new
religion were fruitful in results. Pious mendicity, so impatiently
borne by our industrial and well-organized communities, was in its
day, and in a suitable climate, full of charm. It offered to a
multitude of mild and contemplative souls the only condition suited to
them. To have made poverty an object of love and desire, to have
raised the beggar to the altar, and to have sanctified the coat of the
poor man, was a master-stroke which political economy may not
appreciate, but in the presence of which the true moralist cannot
remain indifferent. Humanity, in order to bear its burdens, needs to
believe that it is not paid entirely by wages. The greatest service
which can be rendered to it is to repeat often that it lives not by
bread alone.
[Footnote 1: Epiph., _Adv. Hær._, xix., xxix., and xxx., especially
xxix. 9.]
Like all great men, Jesus loved the people, and felt himself at home
with them. The Gospel, in his idea, is made for the poor; it is to
them he brings the glad tidings of salvation.[1] All the despised ones
of orthodox Judaism were his favorites. Love of the people, and pity
for its weakness (the sentiment of the democratic chief, who feels the
spirit of the multitude live in him, and recognize him as its natural
interpreter), shine forth at each moment in his acts and
discourses.[2]
[Footnote 1: Matt. xi. 5; Luke vi. 20, 21.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. ix. 36; Mark vi. 34.]
The chosen flock presented, in fact, a very mixed character, and one
likely to astonish rigorous moralists. It counted in its fold men with
whom a Jew, respecting himself, would not have associated.[1] Perhaps
Jesus found in this society, unrestrained by ordinary rules, more mind
and heart than in a pedantic and formal middle-class, proud of its
apparent morality. The Pharisees, exaggerating the Mosaic
prescriptions, had come to believe themselves defiled by contact with
men less strict than themselves; in their meals they almost rivalled
the puerile distinctions of caste in India. Despising these miserable
aberrations of the religious sentiment, Jesus loved to eat with those
who suffered from them;[2] by his side at table were seen persons said
to lead wicked lives, perhaps only so called because they did not
share the follies of the false devotees. The Pharisees and the doctors
protested against the scandal. "See," said they, "with what men he
eats!" Jesus returned subtle answers, which exasperated the
hypocrites: "They that be whole need not a physician."[3] Or again:
"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them,
doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after
that which is lost until he find it? And when he hath found it, he
layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing."[4] Or again: "The Son of Man is
come to save that which was lost."[5] Or again: "I am not come to call
the righteous, but sinners."[6] Lastly, that delightful parable of the
prodigal son, in which he who is fallen is represented as having a
kind of privilege of love above him who has always been righteous.
Weak or guilty women, surprised at so much that was charming, and
realizing, for the first time, the attractions of contact with virtue,
approached him freely. People were astonished that he did not repulse
them. "Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake
within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have
known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she
is a sinner." Jesus replied by the parable of a creditor who forgives
his debtors' unequal debts, and he did not hesitate to prefer the lot
of him to whom was remitted the greater debt.[7] He appreciated
conditions of soul only in proportion to the love mingled therein.
Women, with tearful hearts, and disposed through their sins to
feelings of humility, were nearer to his kingdom than ordinary
natures, who often have little merit in not having fallen. We may
conceive, on the other hand, that these tender souls, finding in their
conversion to the sect an easy means of restoration, would
passionately attach themselves to him.
[Footnote 1: Matt. ix. 10, and following; Luke xv. entirely.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. ix. 11; Mark ii. 16; Luke v. 30.]
[Footnote 3: Matt. ix. 12.]
[Footnote 4: Luke xv. 4, and following.]
[Footnote 5: Matt. xviii. 11; Luke xix. 10.]
[Footnote 6: Matt. ix. 13.]
[Footnote 7: Luke vii. 36, and following. Luke, who likes to bring out
in relief everything that relates to the forgiveness of sinners (comp.
x. 30, and following, xv. entirely, xvii. 16, and following, xix. 2,
and following, xxiii. 39-43), has included in this narrative passages
from another history, that of the anointing of feet, which took place
at Bethany some days before the death of Jesus. But the pardon of
sinful women was undoubtedly one of the essential features of the
anecdotes of the life of Jesus.--Cf. John viii. 3, and following;
Papias, in Eusebius, _Hist. Eccl._, iii. 30.]
Far from seeking to soothe the murmurs stirred up by his disdain for
the social susceptibilities of the time, he seemed to take pleasure in
exciting them. Never did any one avow more loftily this contempt for
the "world," which is the essential condition of great things and of
great originality. He pardoned a rich man, but only when the rich man,
in consequence of some prejudice, was disliked by society.[1] He
greatly preferred men of equivocal life and of small consideration in
the eyes of the orthodox leaders. "The publicans and the harlots go
into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you and ye
believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him."[2]
We can understand how galling the reproach of not having followed the
good example set by prostitutes must have been to men making a
profession of seriousness and rigid morality.
[Footnote 1: Luke xix. 2, and following.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. xxi. 31, 32.]
He had no external affectation or show of austerity. He did not fly
from pleasure; he went willingly to marriage feasts. One of his
miracles was performed to enliven a wedding at a small town. Weddings
in the East take place in the evening. Each one carries a lamp; and
the lights coming and going produce a very agreeable effect. Jesus
liked this gay and animated aspect, and drew parables from it.[1] Such
conduct, compared with that of John the Baptist, gave offence.[2] One
day, when the disciples of John and the Pharisees were observing the
fast, it was asked, "Why do the disciples of John and the Pharisees
fast, but thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, Can the
children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But
the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them,
and then they shall fast in those days."[3] His gentle gaiety found
expression in lively ideas and amiable pleasantries. "But whereunto,"
said he, "shall I liken this generation? It is like unto children
sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, and saying, We
have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you,
and ye have not lamented.[4] For John came neither eating nor
drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating
and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber,
a friend of publicans and sinners. But Wisdom is justified of her
children."[5]
[Footnote 1: Matt. xxv. 1, and following.]
[Footnote 2: Mark ii. 18; Luke v. 33.]
[Footnote 3: Matt. ix. 14, and following; Mark ii. 18, and following;
Luke v. 33, and following.]
[Footnote 4: An allusion to some children's game.]
[Footnote 5: Matt. xi. 16, and following; Luke vii. 34, and following.
A proverb which means "The opinion of men is blind. The wisdom of the
works of God is only proclaimed by His works themselves." I read
[Greek: ergôn], with the manuscript B. of the Vatican, and not [Greek:
teknôn].]
He thus traversed Galilee in the midst of a continual feast. He rode
on a mule. In the East this is a good and safe mode of traveling; the
large, black eyes of the animal, shaded by long eyelashes, give it an
expression of gentleness. His disciples sometimes surrounded him with
a kind of rustic pomp, at the expense of their garments, which they
used as carpets. They placed them on the mule which carried him, or
extended them on the earth in his path.[1] His entering a house was
considered a joy and a blessing. He stopped in the villages and the
large farms, where he received an eager hospitality. In the East, the
house into which a stranger enters becomes at once a public place. All
the village assembles there, the children invade it, and though
dispersed by the servants, always return. Jesus could not permit these
simple auditors to be treated harshly; he caused them to be brought to
him and embraced them.[2] The mothers, encouraged by such a reception,
brought him their children in order that he might touch them.[3] Women
came to pour oil upon his head, and perfume on his feet. His disciples
sometimes repulsed them as troublesome; but Jesus, who loved the
ancient usages, and all that indicated simplicity of heart, repaired
the ill done by his too zealous friends. He protected those who wished
to honor him.[4] Thus children and women adored him. The reproach of
alienating from their families these gentle creatures, always easily
misled, was one of the most frequent charges of his enemies.[5]
[Footnote 1: Matt. xxi. 7, 8.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. xix. 13, and following; Mark ix. 35, x. 13, and
following; Luke xviii. 15, 16.]
[Footnote 3: Ibid.]
[Footnote 4: Matt. xxvi. 7, and following; Mark xiv. 3, and following;
Luke vii. 37, and following.]
[Footnote 5: Gospel of Marcion, addition to ver. 2 of chap. xxiii. of
Luke (Epiph., _Adv. Hær._, xlii. 11). If the suppressions of Marcion
are without critical value, such is not the case with his additions,
when they proceed, not from a special view, but from the condition of
the manuscripts which he used.]
The new religion was thus in many respects a movement of women and
children. The latter were like a young guard around Jesus for the
inauguration of his innocent royalty, and gave him little ovations
which much pleased him, calling him "son of David," crying
_Hosanna_,[1] and bearing palms around him. Jesus, like Savonarola,
perhaps made them serve as instruments for pious missions; he was
very glad to see these young apostles, who did not compromise him,
rush into the front and give him titles which he dared not take
himself. He let them speak, and when he was asked if he heard, he
replied in an evasive manner that the praise which comes from young
lips is the most agreeable to God.[2]
[Footnote 1: A cry which was raised at the feast of tabernacles,
amidst the waving of palms. Mishnah, _Sukka_, iii. 9. This custom
still exists among the Israelites.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. xxi. 15, 16.]
He lost no opportunity of repeating that the little ones are sacred
beings,[1] that the kingdom of God belongs to children,[2] that we
must become children to enter there,[3] that we ought to receive it as
a child,[4] that the heavenly Father hides his secrets from the wise
and reveals them to the little ones.[5] The idea of disciples is in
his mind almost synonymous with that of children.[6] On one occasion,
when they had one of those quarrels for precedence, which were not
uncommon, Jesus took a little child, placed him in their midst, and
said to them, "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little
child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."[7]
[Footnote 1: Matt. xviii. 5, 10, 14; Luke xvii. 2.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. xix. 14; Mark x. 14; Luke xviii. 16.]
[Footnote 3: Matt. xviii. 1, and following; Mark ix. 33, and
following; Luke ix. 46.]
[Footnote 4: Mark x. 15.]
[Footnote 5: Matt. xi. 25; Luke x. 21.]
[Footnote 6: Matt. x. 42, xviii. 5, 14; Mark ix. 36; Luke xvii. 2.]
[Footnote 7: Matt. xviii. 4; Mark ix. 33-36; Luke ix. 46-48.]
It was infancy, in fact, in its divine spontaneity, in its simple
bewilderments of joy, which took possession of the earth. Every one
believed at each moment that the kingdom so much desired was about to
appear. Each one already saw himself seated on a throne[1] beside the
master. They divided amongst themselves the positions of honor in the
new kingdom,[2] and strove to reckon the precise date of its advent.
This new doctrine was called the "Good Tidings;" it had no other name.
An old word, "_paradise_," which the Hebrew, like all the languages of
the East, had borrowed from the Persian, and which at first designated
the parks of the Achæmenidæ, summed up the general dream; a delightful
garden, where the charming life which was led here below would be
continued forever.[3] How long this intoxication lasted we know not.
No one, during the course of this magical apparition, measured time
any more than we measure a dream. Duration was suspended; a week was
an age. But whether it filled years or months, the dream was so
beautiful that humanity has lived upon it ever since, and it is still
our consolation to gather its weakened perfume. Never did so much joy
fill the breast of man. For a moment humanity, in this the most
vigorous effort she ever made to rise above the world, forgot the
leaden weight which binds her to earth and the sorrows of the life
below. Happy he who has been able to behold this divine unfolding, and
to share, were it but for one day, this unexampled illusion! But still
more happy, Jesus would say to us, is he who, freed from all illusion,
shall reproduce in himself the celestial vision, and, with no
millenarian dream, no chimerical paradise, no signs in the heavens,
but by the uprightness of his will and the poetry of his soul, shall
be able to create anew in his heart the true kingdom of God!
[Footnote 1: Luke xxii. 30.]
[Footnote 2: Mark x. 37, 40, 41.]
[Footnote 3: Luke xxiii. 43; 2 _Cor._ xii. 4. Comp. _Carm. Sibyll.,
prooem_, 36; Talm. of Bab., _Chagigah_, 14 _b_.]