the dishonest dealers from the temple with which the Lord initiated his
mission: that was his first parable to Jerusalem; to Nazareth he comes
with the sweetest words of the prophet of hope in his mouth--good
tidings of great joy--of healing and sight and liberty; followed by the
godlike announcement, that what the prophet had promised he was come to
fulfil. His heart, his eyes, his lips, his hands--his whole body is full
of gifts for men, and that day was that scripture fulfilled in their
ears. The prophecy had gone before that he should save his people from
their sins; he brings an announcement they will better understand: he is
come, he says, to deliver men from sorrow and pain, ignorance and
oppression, everything that makes life hard and unfriendly. What a
gracious speech, what a daring pledge to a world whelmed in tyranny and
wrong! To the women of it, I imagine, it sounded the sweetest, in them
woke the highest hopes. They had scarce had a hearing when the Lord
came; and thereupon things began to mend with them, and are mending
still, for the Lord is at work, and will be. He is the refuge of the
oppressed. By its very woes, as by bitterest medicine, he is setting the
world free from sin and woe. This very hour he is curing its disease,
the symptoms of which are so varied and so painful; working none the
less faithfully that the sick, taking the symptoms for the disease, cry
out against the incompetence of their physician. 'What power can heal
the broken-hearted?' they cry. And indeed it takes a God to do it, but
the God is here! In yet better words than those of the prophet, spoken
straight from his own heart, he cries: 'Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' He calls to him every
heart knowing its own bitterness, speaks to the troubled consciousness
of every child of the Father. He is come to free us from everything that
makes life less than bliss essential. No other could be a gospel worthy
of the God of men.
Every one will, I presume, confess to more or less misery. Its apparent
source may be this or that; its real source is, to use a poor figure, a
dislocation of the juncture between the created and the creating life.
This primal evil is the parent of evils unnumbered, hence of miseries
multitudinous, under the weight of which the arrogant man cries out
against life, and goes on to misuse it, while the child looks around for
help--and who shall help him but his father! The Father is with him all
the time, but it may be long ere the child knows himself in his arms.
His heart may be long troubled as well as his outer life. The dank mists
of doubtful thought may close around his way, and hide from him the
Light of the world! cold winds from the desert of foiled endeavour may
sorely buffet and for a time baffle his hope; but every now and then the
blue pledge of a great sky will break through the clouds over his head;
and a faint aurora will walk his darkest East. Gradually he grows more
capable of imagining a world in which every good thing thinkable may be
a fact. Best of all, the story of him who is himself the good news, the
gospel of God, becomes not only more and more believable to his heart,
but more and more ministrant to his life of conflict, and his assurance
of a living father who hears when his children cry. The gospel according
to this or that expounder of it, may repel him unspeakably; the gospel
according to Jesus Christ, attracts him supremely, and ever holds where
it has drawn him. To the priest, the scribe, the elder, exclaiming
against his self-sufficiency in refusing what they teach, he answers,
'It is life or death to me. Your gospel I cannot take. To believe as you
would have me believe, would be to lose my God. Your God is no God to
me. I do not desire him. I would rather die the death than believe in
such a God. In the name of the true God, I cast your gospel from me; it
is no gospel, and to believe it would be to wrong him in whom alone lies
my hope.'
'But to believe in such a man,' he might go on to say, 'with such a
message, as I read of in the New Testament, is life from the dead. I
have yielded myself, to live no more in the idea of self, but with the
life of God. To him I commit the creature he has made, that he may live
in it, and work out its life--develop it according to the idea of it in
his own creating mind. I fall in with his ways for me. I believe in him.
I trust him. I try to obey him. I look to be rendered capable of and
receive a pure vision of his will, freedom from the prison-house of my
limitation, from the bondage of a finite existence. For the finite that
dwells in the infinite and in which the infinite dwells, is finite no
longer. Those who are thus children indeed, are little Gods, the divine
brood of the infinite Father. No mere promise of deliverance from the
consequences of sin, would be any gospel to me. Less than the liberty of
a holy heart, less than the freedom of the Lord himself, will never
satisfy one human soul. Father, set me free in the glory of thy will, so
that I will only as thou willest. Thy will be at once thy perfection and
mine. Thou alone art deliverance--absolute safety from every cause and
kind of trouble that ever existed, anywhere now exists, or ever can
exist in thy universe.'
But the people of the Lord's town, to whom he read, appropriating them,
the gracious words of the prophet, were of the wise and prudent of their
day. With one and the same breath, they seem to cry, 'These things are
good, it is true, but they must come after our way. We must have the
promise to our fathers fulfilled--that we shall rule the world, the
chosen of God, the children of Abraham and Israel. We want to be a free
people, manage our own affairs, live in plenty, and do as we please.
Liberty alone can ever cure the woes of which you speak. We do not need
to be better; we are well enough. Give us riches and honour, and keep us
content with ourselves, that we may be satisfied with our own likeness,
and thou shalt be the Messiah.' Never, perhaps, would such be men's
spoken words, but the prevailing condition of their minds might often
well take form in such speech. Whereon will they ground their complaint
should God give them their hearts' desire? When that desire given closes
in upon them with a torturing sense of slavery; when they find that what
they have imagined their own will, was but a suggestion they knew not
whence; when they discover that life is not good, yet they cannot die;
will they not then turn and entreat their maker to save them after his
own fashion?
Let us try to understand the brief, elliptical narrative of what took
place in the synagogue of Nazareth on the occasion of our Lord's
announcement of his mission.
'This day,' said Jesus, 'is this scripture fulfilled in your ears;' and
went on with his divine talk. We shall yet know, I trust, what 'the
gracious words' were 'which proceeded out of his mouth': surely some who
heard them, still remember them, for 'all bare him witness, and wondered
at' them! How did they bear him witness? Surely not alone by the
intensity of their wondering gaze! Must not the narrator mean that their
hearts bore witness to the power of his presence, that they felt the
appeal of his soul to theirs, that they said in themselves, 'Never man
spake like this man'? Must not the light of truth in his face, beheld of
such even as knew not the truth, have lifted their souls up truthward?
Was it not the something true, common to all hearts, that bore the
wondering witness to the graciousness of his words? Had not those words
found a way to the pure human, that is, the divine in the men? Was it
not therefore that they were drawn to him--all but ready to accept
him?--on their own terms, alas, not his! For a moment he seemed to them
a true messenger, but truth in him was not truth to them: had he been
what they took him for, he would have been no saviour. They were,
however, though partly by mistake, well disposed toward him, and it was
with a growing sense of being honoured by his relation to them, and the
property they had in him, that they said, 'Is not this Joseph's son?'
But the Lord knew what was in their hearts; he knew the false notion
with which they were almost ready to declare for him; he knew also the
final proof to which they were in their wisdom and prudence about to
subject him. He did not look likely to be a prophet, seeing he had
grown up among them, and had never shown any credentials: they had a
right to proof positive! They had heard of wonderful things he had done
in other places: why had they not first of all been done in _their_
sight? Who had a claim equal to theirs? who so capable as they to
pronounce judgment on his mission whether false or true: had they not
known him from childhood? His words were gracious, but words were
nothing: he must _do_ something--something wonderful! Without such
conclusive, satisfying proof, Nazareth at least would never acknowledge
him!
They were quite ready for the honour of having any true prophet, such as
it seemed not impossible the son of Joseph might turn out to be,
recognized as their towns-man, one of their own people: if he were such,
theirs was the credit of having produced him! Then indeed they were
ready to bear witness to him, take his part, adopt his cause, and before
the world stand up for him! As to his being the Messiah, that was merest
absurdity: did they not all know his father, the carpenter? He might,
however, be the prophet whom so many of the best in the nation were at
the moment expecting! Let him do something wonderful!
They were not a gracious people, or a good. The Lord saw their thought,
and it was far from being to his mind. He desired no such reception as
they were at present equal to giving a prophet. His mighty works were
not meant for such as they--to convince them of what they were incapable
of understanding or welcoming! Those who would not believe without signs
and wonders, could never believe worthily with any number of them, and
none should be given them! His mighty works were to rouse the love, and
strengthen the faith of the meek and lowly in heart, of such as were
ready to come to the light, and show that they were of the light. He
knew how poor the meaning the Nazarenes put on the words he had read;
what low expectations they had of the Messiah when most they longed for
his coming. They did not hear the prophet while he read the prophet! At
sight of a few poor little wonders, nothing to him, to them sufficient
to prove him such a Messiah as _they_ looked for, they would burst into
loud acclaim, and rush to their arms, eager, his officers and soldiers,
to open the one triumphant campaign against the accursed Romans, and
sweep them beyond the borders of their sacred country. Their Messiah
would make of their nation the redeemed of the Lord, themselves the
favourites of his court, and the tyrants of the world! Salvation from
their sins was not in their hearts, not in their imaginations, not at
all in their thoughts. They had heard him read his commission to heal
the broken-hearted; they would rush to break hearts in his name. The
Lord knew them, and their vain expectations. He would have no such
followers--no followers on false conceptions--no followers whom wonders
would delight but nowise better! The Nazarenes were not yet of the sort
that needed but one change to be his people. He had come to give them
help; until they accepted his, they could have none to give him.
The Lord never did mighty work in proof of his mission; to help a
growing faith in himself and his father, he would do anything! He healed
those whom healing would deeper heal--those in whom suffering had so far
done its work, that its removal also would carry it on. To the Nazarenes
he would not manifest his power; they were not in a condition to get
good from such manifestation: it would but confirm their present
arrogance and ambition. Wonderful works can only nourish a faith already
existent; to him who believes without it, a miracle _may_ be granted. It
was the Israelite indeed, whom the Lord met with miracle: 'Because I
said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, believest thou? Thou
shalt see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.'
Those who laughed him to scorn were not allowed to look on the
resurrection of the daughter of Jairus. Peter, when he would walk on the
water, had both permission and power given him to do so. The widow
received the prophet, and was fed; the Syrian went to the prophet, and
was cured. In Nazareth, because of unbelief, the Lord could only lay his
hands on a few sick folk; in the rest was none of that leaning toward
the truth, which alone can make room for the help of a miracle. This
they soon made manifest.
The Lord saw them on the point of challenging a display of his power,
and anticipated the challenge with a refusal.
For the better understanding of his words, let me presume to paraphrase
them: 'I know you will apply to me the proverb, Physician, heal thyself,
requiring me to prove what is said of me in Capernaum, by doing the same
here; but there is another proverb, No prophet is accepted in his own
country. Unaccepted I do nothing wonderful. In the great famine, Elijah
was sent to no widow of the many in Israel, but to a Sidonian; and
Elisha cured no leper of the many in Israel, but Naaman the Syrian.
There are those fit to see signs and wonders; they are not always the
kin of the prophet.'
The Nazarenes heard with indignation. Their wonder at his gracious words
was changed to bitterest wrath. The very beams of their ugly religion
were party-spirit, exclusiveness, and pride in the fancied favour of God
for them only of all the nations: to hint at the possibility of a
revelation of the glory of God to a stranger; far more, to hint that a
stranger might be fitter to receive such a revelation than a Jew, was an
offence reaching to the worst insult; and it was cast in their teeth by
a common man of their own city! 'Thou art but a well-known carpenter's
son, and dost thou teach _us_! Darest thou imply a divine preference for
Capernaum over Nazareth?' In bad odour with the rest of their
countrymen, they were the prouder of themselves.
The _whole_ synagogue, observe, rose in a fury. Such a fellow a prophet!
He was worse than the worst of Gentiles! he was a false Jew! a traitor
to his God! a friend of the idol-worshipping Romans! Away with him! His
townsmen led the van in his rejection by his own. The men of Nazareth
would have forestalled his crucifixion by them of Jerusalem. What! a
Sidonian woman fitter to receive the prophet than any Jewess! a heathen
worthier to be kept alive by miracle in time of famine, than a
worshipper of the true God! a leper of Damascus less displeasing to God
than the lepers of his chosen race! It was no longer condescending
approval that shone in their eyes. He a prophet! They had seen through
him! Soon had they found him out! The moment he perceived it useless to
pose for a prophet with them, who had all along known the breed of him,
he had turned to insult them! He dared not attempt in his own city the
deceptions with which, by the help of Satan, he had made such a grand
show, and fooled the idiots of Capernaum! He saw they knew him too well,
were too wide-awake to be cozened by him, and to avoid their expected
challenge, fell to reviling the holy nation. Let him take the
consequences! To the brow of the hill with him!
How could there be any miracle for such! They were well satisfied with
themselves, and
Nothing almost sees miracles
But misery.
Need and the upward look, the mood ready to believe when and where it
can, the embryonic faith, is dear to Him whose love would have us trust
him. Let any man seek him--not in curious inquiry whether the story of
him may be true or cannot be true--in humble readiness to accept him
altogether if only he can, and he shall find him; we shall not fail of
help to believe because we doubt. But if the questioner be such that the
dispersion of his doubt would but leave him in disobedience, the Power
of truth has no care to effect his conviction. Why cast out a devil that
the man may the better do the work of the devil? The childlike doubt
will, as it softens and yields, minister nourishment with all that was
good in it to the faith-germ at its heart; the wise and prudent
unbelief will be left to develop its own misery. The Lord could easily
have satisfied the Nazarenes that he was the Messiah: they would but
have hardened into the nucleus of an army for the subjugation of the
world. To a warfare with their own sins, to the subjugation of their
doing and desiring to the will of the great Father, all the miracles in
his power would never have persuaded them. A true convincement is not
possible to hearts and minds like theirs. Not only is it impossible for
a low man to believe a thousandth part of what a noble man can, but a
low man cannot believe anything as a noble man believes it. The men of
Nazareth could have believed in Jesus as their saviour from the Romans;
as their saviour from their sins they could not believe in him, for they
loved their sins. The king of heaven came to offer them a share in his
kingdom; but they were not poor in spirit, and the kingdom of heaven was
not for them. Gladly would they have inherited the earth; but they were
not meek, and the earth was for the lowly children of the perfect
Father.
_THE HEIRS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH._
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, 'Blessed are the poor
in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' ...'Blessed are the
meek; for they shall inherit the earth.'--_Matthew_ v. 2, 3, 5.
The words of the Lord are the seed sown by the sower. Into our hearts
they must fall that they may grow. Meditation and prayer must water
them, and obedience keep them in the sunlight. Thus will they bear fruit
for the Lord's gathering.
Those of his disciples, that is, obedient hearers, who had any
experience in trying to live, would, in part, at once understand them;
but as they obeyed and pondered, the meaning of them would keep growing.
This we see in the writings of the apostles. It will be so with us also,
who need to understand everything he said neither more nor less than
they to whom first he spoke; while our obligation to understand is far
greater than theirs at the time, inasmuch as we have had nearly two
thousand years' experience of the continued coming of the kingdom he
then preached: it is not yet come; it has been all the time, and is now,
drawing slowly nearer.
The sermon on the mount, as it is commonly called, seems the Lord's
first free utterance, in the presence of any large assembly, of the good
news of the kingdom. He had been teaching his disciples and messengers;
and had already brought the glad tidings that his father was their
father, to many besides--to Nathanael for one, to Nicodemus, to the
woman of Samaria, to every one he had cured, every one whose cry for
help he had heard: his epiphany was a gradual thing, beginning, where it
continues, with the individual. It is impossible even to guess at what
number may have heard him on this occasion: he seems to have gone up the
mount because of the crowd--to secure a somewhat opener position whence
he could better speak; and thither followed him those who desired to be
taught of him, accompanied doubtless by not a few in whom curiosity was
the chief motive. Disciple or gazer, he addressed the individuality of
every one that had ears to hear. Peter and Andrew, James and John, are
all we know as his recognized disciples, followers, and companions, at
the time; but, while his words were addressed to such as had come to
him desiring to learn of him, the things he uttered were eternal truths,
life in which was essential for every one of his father's children,
therefore they were for all: he who heard to obey, was his disciple.
How different, at the first sound of it, must the good news have been
from the news anxiously expected by those who waited for the Messiah!
Even the Baptist in prison lay listening after something of quite
another sort. The Lord had to send him a message, by eye-witnesses of
his doings, to remind him that God's thoughts are not as our thoughts,
or his ways as our ways--that the design of God is other and better than
the expectation of men. His summary of the gifts he was giving to men,
culminated with the preaching of the good news to the poor. If John had
known these his doings before, he had not recognized them as belonging
to the Lord's special mission: the Lord tells him it is not enough to
have accepted him as the Messiah; he must recognize his doings as the
work he had come into the world to do, and as in their nature so divine
as to be the very business of the Son of God in whom the Father was well
pleased.
Wherein then consisted the goodness of the news which he opened his
mouth to give them? What was in the news to make the poor glad? Why was
his arrival with such words in his heart and mouth, the coming of the
kingdom?
All good news from heaven, is of _truth_--essential truth, involving
duty, and giving and promising help to the performance of it. There can
be no good news for us men, except of uplifting love, and no one can be
lifted up who will not rise. If God himself sought to raise his little
ones without their consenting effort, they would drop from his foiled
endeavour. He will carry us in his arms till we are able to walk; he
will carry us in his arms when we are weary with walking; he will not
carry us if we will not walk.
Very different are the good news Jesus brings us from certain prevalent
representations of the gospel, founded on the pagan notion that
suffering is an offset for sin, and culminating in the vile assertion
that the suffering of an innocent man, just because he is innocent, yea
perfect, is a satisfaction to the holy Father for the evil deeds of his
children. As a theory concerning the atonement nothing could be worse,
either intellectually, morally, or spiritually; announced as the gospel
itself, as the good news of the kingdom of heaven, the idea is monstrous
as any Chinese dragon. Such a so-called gospel is no gospel, however
accepted as God sent by good men of a certain development. It is evil
news, dwarfing, enslaving, maddening--news to the child-heart of the
dreariest damnation. Doubtless some elements of the gospel are mixed up
with it on most occasions of its announcement; none the more is it the
message received from him. It can be good news only to such as are
prudently willing to be delivered from a God they fear, but unable to
accept the gospel of a perfect God, in whom to trust perfectly.
The good news of Jesus was just the news of the thoughts and ways of the
Father in the midst of his family. He told them that the way men thought
for themselves and their children was not the way God thought for
himself and his children; that the kingdom of heaven was founded, and
must at length show itself founded on very different principles from
those of the kingdoms and families of the world, meaning by the world
that part of the Father's family which will not be ordered by him, will
not even try to obey him. The world's man, its great, its successful,
its honorable man, is he who may have and do what he pleases, whose
strength lies in money and the praise of men; the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven is the man who is humblest and serves his fellows the
most. Multitudes of men, in no degree notable as ambitious or proud,
hold the ambitious, the proud man in honour, and, for all deliverance,
hope after some shadow of his prosperity. How many even of those who
look for the world to come, seek to the powers of this world for
deliverance from its evils, as if God were the God of the world to come
only! The oppressed of the Lord's time looked for a Messiah to set their
nation free, and make it rich and strong; the oppressed of our time
believe in money, knowledge, and the will of a people which needs but
power to be in its turn the oppressor. The first words of the Lord on
this occasion were:--'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven,'