“JESUS CHRIST TOOK THE WAY OF PERISHING.”
If Jesus was only a man there is another marvelous thing you must
have thought of before this time. He talked of a kingdom that was to
endure forever, that was to conquer the world, and that was to bind the
human race into a holy brotherhood; but he made no preparation for a
successor. He expected to die early, as he did; he told his disciples,
time and again, that he would not be with them long; but he provided
for no representative or visible headship when he was gone. The idea
of such a representative did not occur in all his thoughts, as it was
not intimated in any of his words. Napoleon shows us a man’s way in his
eager concern for a successor and in the cruel and wicked method he
took to secure his ends.
What Jesus did not ordain and require men may use in his work, if their
methods be in themselves good, and consistent with the spirit of his
kingdom. But what he did not require men must not demand of his free
children.
So far as plans are concerned, of a sort recognizable by men as
plans--of a sort they will admit who believe he was only a man--there
was just one thing he did and commanded. He called about him a few
fishermen and other plain people--of what are called by some the “lower
classes”--and said in effect: “Go up and down through the earth and
tell every body what you have seen me do and what you have heard me
say; tell the people of me; tell them to go on repeating the story;
tell them to hand it down through the ages, telling it over and over.”
These are the very words: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in
earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I
am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”
Mere men, undertaking great and perilous enterprises, conceal from
their followers the hardships and perils that await them; they tell
them of victories and rewards. So did the Genoese, mustering a crew to
help him find a new world. So all mere human leaders do. And no mere
man in such a case ever yet clearly saw the difficulty and danger of
the undertaking; if men could see clearly the toils and tribulations
between them and success they would never enter upon any great and
hazardous enterprise. But Jesus saw all the antagonisms that were
in his path and, unlike any other leader that ever lived, told his
disciples what awaited them. In words like these he spoke to his
disciples:
“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye
therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men:
for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you
in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings
for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.... And ye
shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to
the end shall be saved.... The disciple is not above his master, nor
the servant above his lord. If they have called the master of the house
Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?... He
that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for
my sake shall find it.”
Let us think of all this. Such an end to accomplish, such a plan, such
a claim, such a promise! If Jesus was only a man this was lunacy,
unless we should impeach his sincerity.
Yet with perfect simplicity, perfect composure, perfect confidence,
Jesus relies upon such a plan as this. It is not a man’s way at all; it
is not only above and beyond a man’s way, it is unlike it, foreign to
it, and impossible to a mere man.
How do men plan? Read history; look about you. It is easy to find out
from books; if you know how to read men it is easier to find out from
observation.
Alexander, Cæsar, Mohammed, among warriors and conquerors; Richelieu,
Macchiavelli, Jefferson, Hamilton, Disraeli, Bismarck, among statesman
and the men who know state-craft; the fathers and popes, Ignatius
Loyola, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, among churchmen--these show us the
methods of men. Studying the lives of those mentioned here and of
others of their order we will find plans many and diverse--wise and
foolish, good and bad--but they show a man’s way.
If you wish something more like a parallel consider the plans of
those who fastened what is called Buddhism, or Confucianism, upon
hundreds of millions. Or consider Mohammedanism. In these systems we
see the handiwork of men. The authors of these systems recognize the
ordinary influences that determine men’s conduct and use them with
rare human skill. These employ agencies that Jesus repudiates; they
appeal to motives that he ignored; offer inducements that he utterly
denied; these planned as men plan in all they did. What Pascal says,
in effect, in comparing Christ and Mohammed, we may say of Christ
and any other founder of a religion: “If Mohammed took the way of
succeeding, according to human calculations, Jesus Christ took the way
of perishing, according to human calculations.”
Never did Jesus look to using the strongest drifts in human nature to
secure his ends; his ends required him to arrest and reverse these
drifts. He was not ignorant of the forces locked up in human nature;
no man ever so deeply read the heart, so absolutely “knew what was in
man.” As no other who ever taught men the truth Jesus knew the force
of the torrent that bore down upon him--the Niagara his cause had to
ascend.
If Jesus was only a man how happened it that the methods he adopted are
as unlike the methods of men as the end he sought is unlike the end
that any man ever yet proposed to himself? How happened it that in his
plans he did every thing that a man would not do, and nothing--all
history being witness--that a man would do?
These pages are not written for exhortation; but would it not be better
every way, for the cause they stand for, if his friends studied the
plans of Jesus more and their own plans less?
Placing ourselves, in imagination, in the company of those few
faithful friends, men and women--who were of the humble and obscure
people--among those who received his command to “disciple all nations,”
let us look about us and consider what are our prospects of success.
What predominant influence in the world is friendly to the cause of
our Lord and Master? The only people who believe in the Lord God have
crucified Jesus. The Romans are masters not only in the holy city but
in all the world we know, and the Roman power has just sanctioned the
death of Jesus. The Greeks still give philosophy and art to the world,
but there is not among the Greeks sympathy with the teachings and work
of Jesus. No people befriend his cause; no hand is stretched out to his
disciples; the world is against his cause, and for his sake against us,
his disciples.
Looking at it all as a man might, was there then a single human
probability that the cause represented by the crucified Galilean would
have the least place in history? That it would abide among men for a
single generation? If Jesus was only a man could any thing conceivable
by the human mind be more impossible than the realization of the dream
(if he was only a man it was but a dream) of this man of Galilee,
crucified like a felon?
No wonder certain men, while Jesus was yet among them, “laughed him to
scorn.”