CHAPTER XI.
NEVER MAN PLANNED LIKE THIS MAN.
What are we to say of the means which Jesus proposes to use for the accomplishment of his vast and unheard-of ends?
I say broadly, and with certain assurance, Jesus proposes none of the means which mere men would use; of the sort they have always used. His plans and methods are utterly unlike the plans and methods of men, except as they have learned most imperfectly from him in humble and earnest efforts to do his will. The methods that mere men trust in—always trust in—he will have none of.
Jesus utterly excludes mere force. His symbol is not a sword; it is a cross. He said, “He that taketh the sword shall perish by the sword.”
Some weak thinkers or insincere men have tried to fasten on Christianity the guilt of barbarous cruelties, and many wicked and horrible deeds, perpetrated by ignorant or wicked men in the holy name of Christ. Bad men, in the darkness of ignorance and in the malignity of sin, have used his name to force their brothers to think their thoughts. The rack for Galileo was an evil thought and a wicked method of bad and ignorant men. But Jesus does not tolerate force in carrying on his work, nor persecution of any sort whatsoever.
On one occasion two of his disciples, John and James, were offended because a Samaritan village did not offer hospitality to Jesus and his friends. Then said the brothers, “Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” They were men, and their method was pure human. What Jesus said to them he says to all: “But he turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”
To charge upon Christianity the wicked deeds of those who have violated the teachings of its founder is like charging upon medicine the death of men who, in the name of medicine, have been doctored to their death by impostors.
Force could not do any of his work; it was man’s love that he sought; and love cannot be forced by God or man. Love dies under force. The Cæsars use force; it is a man’s way. The God-man uses love.
Jesus does not trust in the purchasing power of wealth, or of money, its representative. He hardly spoke of money except to show the danger of it. The love of money he denounced. He taught that greed of money is debasing. Getting to heaven, for a rich man, is like a camel’s passing through the eye of a needle—only “harder.” The only rich man who volunteered discipleship turned sorrowfully away when told to sell his estates and give the proceeds to the poor. Jesus warns his disciples with gracious vehemence of the folly and danger of laying up treasure upon earth. Personally he had no concern about wealth, except to warn his disciples of the terrible spiritual dangers that lurk in riches. He provides no treasure for carrying on his work. He taught that the love of money is the source of more moral evils than any other thing in the world.