the others. For instance, it seemed strange, and even shocking, that Jesus should have expressly repudiated the title of honor, "good," and consequently Matthew simply omits it altogether. Again, he lays the chief stress upon the fulfilment of the precepts of the Law in simple love to one's neighbor as the condition of citizenship in the kingdom of God, while Mark and Luke emphasize the breaking of all worldly ties to follow Jesus. But in the essential points our authorities are all agreed. Now Jesus had never demanded such a sacrifice before. Even the Twelve had never been required to sell their property and give away the money. We must bear it carefully in mind that he was by no means uttering a general precept, but was speaking with special reference to the individual requirements of the man who stood before him, and to the critical importance of the time, which would less than ever brook the smallest indecision. It was this that raised his demands so high. The eye, the hand, the foot that caused offence must be plucked out or hewn off. It seems that the result, in this special instance, was a painful disappointment to Jesus himself. At least, when the man was gone he looked round upon his disciples and said with a sigh, "How hard it is for those that have riches to enter into the kingdom of heaven!" And in answer to their look of amazement he repeated, "Beloved, what a mighty effort is required to secure an entrance! I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." "Worse and worse!" thought the disciples. "He said it was hard before, but now he says it is impossible." "Who will be saved then?" they whispered to one another in the utmost consternation. Jesus heard, and looking significantly upon them said, "Yes; to man it is impossible, but not to God; for every thing is possible to God." We can see what Jesus meant. These last words express the thought which sustained him in all his disappointments, and which the experience of his own soul was ever confirming. It is, in truth, beyond the power of man to secure for himself or others an entrance into the kingdom of heaven; but it is here that God's almighty power is displayed. Jesus, however, was not proclaiming the dogma of divine 1 After an amended text. 2 Compare pp. 168 ff., 174 ff., 187 ff. omnipotence, but was simply stating what the life of his own soul had taught him; namely, that God can enable us to make the greatest sacrifices, - to renounce ourselves absolutely, to accomplish what would be utterly impossible without him; that the man whose heart God has once stirred cannot in the long run resist the impulse of his spirit, the impulse of sacred love. He spoke, of course, in part to encourage his followers and direct them to man's only refuge in conscious weakness and impotence; but he spoke yet more to quicken his own hope, for he had felt, and surely not for the first time, the unhallowed power of gold, and much as he longed to rescue this man from his slavery to the world, he found that he was powerless. "How many good hearts," he thought," are only held back by wealth and distinction from joining me! But God's power, I know, is greater than any worldly influence. He can break these chains, and He will!" Meanwhile the disciples had partially recovered from their consternation, and Peter, perhaps with some lingering hesitation in his voice, began: "But we have left every thing to follow you." It was as though he would say, "Surely, we are safe?" Naturally, Jesus was more than ever inclined at this moment to value their devotion; so he answered, with warm affection, "I tell you truly, every one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my sake, shall be compensated many fold even now in this present time; and when the day of salvation dawns, he shall receive everlasting life. Then shall many be last instead of first, and first instead of last." Here again Jesus looks forward into the glorious future. Then shall men change their parts, and the world's great ones shall be cast down from the seat of honor, while those whom the world despises now shall be exalted then by God. After what has been said already,' we shall not wonder that these words also have been misunderstood and tampered with. To begin with, the first Gospel makes an addition to Peter's question, and gives it thus: "But we have left every thing to follow thee. What shall we have therefore?" This addition changes the diffident disciple's timorous question into a bold and selfish demand for a reward, which would have succeeded strangely to the anxious exclamation of the disciples the moment before, and would certainly have drawn a very different answer from Jesus. It is true that Matthew finds a 1 See pp. 331 ff. 1 warning against self-exaltation in the saying about "the first and the last," and in the parable of the laborers in the vineyard called at different hours; but this corrective comes too late, and is altogether too weak to balance the express promise of glory and blessedness just made to the Twelve. And indeed this very Gospel heightens the promise in a truly remarkable fashion; for, in contradiction to a saying which we shall consider presently, it makes Jesus sanction the Jewish-Christian expectations and say: "I tell you that when all things are made new, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me shall likewise sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." This saying is also found in another connection in the third Gospel, in which we should hardly have expected it.3. Finally, Matthew misunderstands the sense in which Jesus spoke of compensation for every sacrifice that his disciples made. Jesus spoke of what he knew by experience; namely, that when we have left our old surroundings in pain and toil, the new surroundings into which we enter more than compensate us; that the fellowship of many kindred spirits makes ample amends for the ties of kindred we have had to break for the kingdom of God's sake; in a word, that the joy which God gives to his faithful servants even now far outweighs the pain of every voluntary sacrifice. But the Evangelist failed to understand him, and omitted the words "now in this time," thinking that this new kinship and these new possessions referred to the treasures of the kingdom of heaven. Mark, on his side, falls into circumlocutions and repetitions, and adds, from the experience of his own times, "with persecutions" for the Gospel's sake. Thus we see how determined the early Christians were to force the Master's words into agreement with their own ideas and experience upon this point, if upon no other. 1 See p. 296. 8 Luke xxii. 30. 2 See pp. 351, 352. CHAPTER XXVIII. ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. (Continued.) LUKE XII. 49-53, 57-59, XIII. 1–9, XI. 24-26, XIX. 1-10; EVE VEN if we had no direct indications or accounts of such a thing, we should suspect from what we know of the gloomy forebodings entertained by Jesus that he often had moments of deep depression in the course of this journey. Sometimes it was the probable result to himself of all his efforts that afflicted him; sometimes the fearful judgment that his people were drawing upon themselves; sometimes the great strain and ferment which he himself was causing. Did not his gospel hurl the torch of dissension among his contemporaries? And what a sharp contrast was offered by this fact to the sweet hopes he himself had formerly cherished and the fair, bright anticipations still entertained by his followers. And was he not constantly compelled himself to insist on the rupture of the tenderest and holiest ties? The kingdom of peace and love promised by the prophets would surely come, but who could say after how long and how terrible a struggle? Listen how he poured out his heart to his friends! "I am come to bring fire into the world. What shall I do then? Would that it were already kindled! But I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and how am I troubled till it be over! Do you think that I have come to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but divisions and war! For henceforth the five inmates of one house shall be divided, three against two, and two against three, the father against his son, and the son against his father; the mother against her daughter, and the daughter against her mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. So shall the members of the same household become one another's foes!" 2 We shall presently hear Jesus speak of this baptism again. He means that he will be plunged into the depths of suffering; 1 Matthew x. 34-36, v. 25, 26, xii. 43-45; Mark x. 32-52; Luke xviii. 31-43. 2 Compare Michah vii. 6. that the waters of affliction will not only rise to his lips, but flow over his head. It is a striking metaphor, like that of the cup of suffering filled to the brim. But here let us consider some of the solemn warnings and denunciations which he addressed to the bystanders or the people at large. We could sometimes fancy that we were listening to John instead of Jesus. He was greeted on a certain day with the mournful tidings that Pilate had laid hold of certain Galilæans who had come to offer their sacrifices at Jerusalem, and had slain them in the forecourt of the temple. We know nothing as to the exact date of this event or the circumstances which occasioned the murder. Possibly there was some slight tumult to which the restless, excitable temperament of the countrymen of Jesus might easily give rise. The news doubtless made a very different impression upon different hearers. While one would clench his fist and turn his eyes to heaven, wondering whether the measure of Israel's oppression by these cursed heathen did not yet overflow, and whether the hour of redemption had not yet struck; others of a more cautious and submissive temperament would shake their heads, and declare that the victims had fallen before a righteous judgment of the Lord. But Jesus, while emphatically repudiating this Jewish doctrine of divine "judgments," warned his hearers no less earnestly against being excited to revenge by the murderous event, and urged them rather to regard it as a presage of the fate that hung over their own heads also. He took the same opportunity to remind them of an accident that had happened a short time before in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, opposite the south-west corner of the city wall, from which false conclusions had likewise been drawn. "Do you think,” he said severely, "that the death of these Galilæans shows that they were special sinners among their fellow-countrymen? I tell you no! but unless you repent you shall all perish likewise! Or do you think that the eighteen men who were crushed in the ruins when the tower of Siloam fell were specially guilty among all the citizens of Jerusalem, in God's sight? I tell you no! but unless you repent you will all perish likewise. To enforce the necessity of a speedy repentance, Jesus used an illustration borrowed from the administration of earthly justice. It was best, he said, even at the very last moment, to come to some friendly agreement with a creditor. What he meant was that it was wise for a man to be reconciled 1 See Map IV. |