Jesus did not confine his creative abilities to the solid comforts of life, but exercised them upon the liquid luxuries of existence. Being invited to a wedding, and there being no wine, his mother, with a woman's natural solicitude on such an occasion, said to him, "They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come." Now, what such a churlish answer had to do with the simple remark made by his mother, we leave to gentle Christians to say. However, after a time he became more amiable; and, no doubt, reflecting upon the disappointment of those who had come to a marriage feast, and found nothing but water to drink, he took compassion on them, and turned the water into wine, to the extent of "six water pots, containing two or three firkins apiece." "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him." Well they might; and we fear that any man in these days who should do such things, would have many followers, in spite of all the preaching of all the teetotallers, who, strange to say, for the most part profess to be good Christians, notwithstanding that Christ, when he had the opportunity of rebuking wine bibbing, did not do so, but encouraged it by supplying the very beverage which teetotallers so vehemently condemn.
When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am? He was anxious to know what people thought of him now that he was become so famous. "And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?" Of course Peter was ready to crown all, and he said—"Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." For which Jesus blessed Peter, and promised him the keys of the kingdom of heaven; but they soon fell to quarrelling, when Jesus said that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Peter rebuked him, and said it should not be; but Jesus turned upon him, and said, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me." It was not very dignified or in good taste after Peter had imparted such an important fact to him, which was done by a revelation of his Father which is in heaven.. But such was the manner of Jesus.
When he left Galilee, and came into Judæa, he resolved to go to Jerusalem; and when he was come to the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples to a village on a very questionable errand. It was to perform no less an act than the appropriation of a donkey and her colt. He told them that, if any one said aught unto them, they were to say, "The Lord hath need of them." That kind of answer would scarcely be deemed satisfactory in these days, especially to a policeman. He would very likely reply, If the Lord hath need of the ass, the magistrate hath need of thee; and if the instigator of the deed were not the actual thief, he would be charged as an accessory before the fact, and would be provided with board and lodging at the expense of the county for at least twelve months. This was done that another prophecy might be fulfilled, which said, "Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." But this prophet must have been an ass, or he would have known that even the Son of man would find it difficult to sit upon two asses of such unequal size at the same time. Apart from the absurdity of the story, it is an example of very loose notions indeed of the rights of property, which, if stated of Mahomet, of Joseph Smith the Mormon, or any other founder of a religious sect, would be quoted as a proof of his obliquity of moral vision. After this successful exploit of taking unto himself other people's goods, Jesus became quite daring; and when he got to Jerusalem he went into the temple of God, where he found a number of people carrying on their usual business. He had no more right there than they had—in fact, not so much, as he was a stranger to the city. But, notwithstanding this, he got a rope, and thrashed every one out of the place, upsetting the tables and chairs, and creating such a consternation as only a Bedlamite broken loose would be likely to produce. Though this was immediately after the appropriation of the two donkeys, upon which he had actually ridden to the temple, he called all the tradespeople dishonest, and accused them of having turned the place into a den of thieves. Whatever it might have been before he came, certainly one would think the designation not inappropriate after the arrival of himself and his disciples. He was not arrested on the spot for this act of assault and battery; but what should we think of the City Police Commissioner if he neglected to order into custody any mad enthusiast who might so conduct himself on the Stock Exchange? But he would not, and the enthusiast's vagaries and his visit to the police cell would be a very little time apart. It would be no use his alleging that he was about his Father's business, and that he was fulfilling prophecy—that would only aggravate the offence. He would be told that if his father did not take better care of him, the county asylum would; and the prophet would very soon be "wanted" who had instigated such folly.
Jesus did not remain in the city during the night—it was not prudent after such an advent in the morning, but he went and lodged in Bethany, a little way out of town. In returning next morning he was hungry, so, when he came to a fig-tree, he looked at it hoping to find some fruit on it, but there was none, as it was not the right season. We should forgive an excited hungry man here if he, in a moment of forgetfulness, looked for apples in winter; but if he began to curse the tree for not bearing fruit out of season, we should think he was mad past doubt. Yet this is exactly what Jesus did; and not only so, but he withered the tree that it should not bear fruit thenceforward forever. His disciples marvelled at what he had done, as well they might. "Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." No persons have ever yet had the requisite amount of faith to remove mountains; and the less they try such credulity on fruit trees, the better for our orchards. Nobody does or can believe such insane talk. Jesus went to the temple again, and whilst he was preaching, the Chief Priests and elders came and asked him by what authority he did such things. In true Quaker style he answered them by asking a question, which had the merit of being impossible of solution. He said—"The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?" They said: "We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things." That seemed to silence his interrogators, but it did not answer them. It was a favourite way with this Messiah; and we remain as much in the dark to this hour as did the Chief Priests and elders. This method of evasion is also exemplified in the case of the tribute money. When asked whether it was lawful to render tribute unto Cæsar, he said, looking at a coin, "Whose is this image and superscription?" They said, Cæsar's. "Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's." Rénan says on this point—"To establish as a principle that we must recognise the legitimacy of a power by the inscription on its coins, to proclaim that the perfect man pays tribute with scorn, and without question, was to destroy Republicanism in the ancient form, and to favour all tyranny. Christianity, in this sense, has contributed much to weaken the sense of duty of the citizen, and to deliver the world into the absolute power of existing circumstances." But we are not surprised that he should so readily teach the payment of tribute, considering how easy he found it to pay tribute himself; for the ludicrous account given in Matthew, in the same chapter which describes the transfiguration, shows Jesus discharging his own liability and that of Peter in the most original manner imaginable. Not wishing to offend the tax collectors, he said to Peter—"Go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: take that, and give unto them for me and thee." If fish of this description swam in rivers now, they would be preserved to the exclusion of the most delicious members of the finny tribe. Every man would be an angler, and fishing-tackle making would be the most lucrative trade known. Take another instance of evasion. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, so they put a question to Jesus on that point. They instanced a woman who had been married to seven brothers in succession, all of whom had died. Therefore, in the resurrection, they asked whose wife she would be out of the seven when they met again. This was quickly disposed of, for "Jesus answered and said onto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." If this is so, what becomes of the hope which believers in immortality have that in heaven they will be joined again to those they have lost on earth? This great consolation of the Christian is founded on a delusion. Jesus also supplemented his statement with this remarkable declaration, "But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," What then is the use of Catholic prayers for the souls of those in Purgatory? What is the utility of our burial service, which goes upon the supposition that God will attend to our requests as touching the dead we are about to consign to the grave? Freethinkers and rational thinkers discard the whole ceremony as a mockery. When once dead, the particles which composed our bodies are dissolved, and pass into new combinations—we never live again.
After he had done all his preaching, and had thoroughly aroused the ire of the authorities and most of the people of Jerusalem against him, he began to fear that he would have to suffer for it, and he told his disciples so. After they had supped together in the house of one of the friends, they departed to the Mount of Olives outside the city, and Jesus said they would all be offended with him because of that night. Peter the loquacious declared, that though all men might be offended because of him, he would never be. Jesus had no great opinion of Peter's steadfastness, and told him, notwithstanding his protestations of attachment, that before the cock crew he would deny him thrice. Peter asseverated again: "Though I should die with ye, yet will I not deny thee." Poor Peter's word, like his judgment, however, was not to be relied upon, for the very next day he denied all knowledge of Jesus, and when pressed for an answer, he began to curse and to swear that he had never seen him. Soon after this the Garden of Gethsemane, into which they had entered; was surrounded by a multitude with staves and with swords, and Jesus was arrested, Peter the dauntless did make some resistance, and cut off the ear of Malchus, a servant of the High Priest; but the loss was only temporary, for we are told that Jesus immediately "touched his ear, and healed him," and if this does not mean that he stuck the ear on again, what does it mean? When Jesus was arrested in the Garden, all the disciples, escaped as quickly as possible, but Peter followed at a distance; and when Jesus was taken to the house of Caiaphas the High Priest, Peter entered and mixed with the servants. He was soon recognised as a follower of Jesus; but when accused of the fact, he stoutly denied it three times, the last with oaths, like the low-bred man he was; for though he had been consorting with Jesus a long time, he had not learnt refinement of manners, which is not wonderful, as Jesus certainly did not set an example of choiceness of language, his favourite mode of speech being to call people fools, and to launch curses at them. But Peter had to fulfil a prophecy—namely, that he would deny his master thrice, before the cock crew twice, which he did before the cock crew once. And so that prophecy was fulfilled!
When Jesus was first examined on the charge of blasphemy he remained silent, and would not answer any questions put to him. Then Caiaphas said—"I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be Christ, the Son of God." Jesus at last replied—"Thou hast said," which may fairly be interpreted to mean, "You say I am, not I." This is in keeping with his usual evasive mode of answering, as before pointed out. Especially as he continued—"Nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." This was declared blasphemous, and we know how excited bigoted people get when that word is pronounced. So they struck the enthusiast, as he had struck others in the temple. In the morning he was bound and led before Pilate the governor, who asked him, "Art thou the king of the Jews?" He again answered, "Thou sayest" And when the Chief Priests and elders repeated their charges, he still refused to answer them, which surprised Pilate. However, Pilate saw no harm in what he had done, and was anxious to set him at liberty; but the priests, as is usual with them, persisted in their demands of vengeance against one who had offended them. Then Jesus was delivered over to the soldiers to be crucified, which was a very barbarous mode of execution. He was cruelly treated by the soldiers, who were incited thereto by the priests. He died the death of a malefactor, but his end was brought about by his own wild and extravagant conduct. In these days he would have been confined as a lunatic, but in that barbarous time, and under the influence of priests, he was tortured to death. No one can contemplate his fate, whatever his faults may have been, without feelings of sorrow. But if his death was to fulfil prophecy, and to save a lost and ruined world, we ought to regard it with exultation and great joy, and not only observe Good Friday as a national holiday, but every Friday as a public festival. But who, on calmly reading the narrative, and dismissing from his mind the fables taught him in his childhood, can see anything supernatural in Jesus' life and death? He displayed through life all the infirmities and littlenesses of a man, and he died like one who had brought about his own death by his own acts. When on the cross, and no doubt in mortal agony, he exclaimed, in the utterness of despair, like one who had long trusted to a delusion, and when too late had found out his mistake—"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The Chief Priests and elders, the people about, and even the two thieves who were dying with him, jeered him for his folly, saying, "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God." But there was no deliverance from heaven for him more than for any other man.
Jesus had acted so extravagantly from the time he entered on public life that it is not surprising that his followers were infected by his example, and it is to them we are indebted for the re-appearance of Jesus after he was dead and buried. He himself said that he was to fulfil the prophecy of Jonas, for, as he was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so should the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Yet he never went into the heart of the earth, but was laid in a tomb or cave with a door to it; and he was not even there three days and three nights, but only two nights, and not two days altogether. And so that prophecy was fulfilled! Jesus prophesied his own resurrection only, but the earthquake which followed his death was no respecter of persons, for when the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks were rent, the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. No orthodox, Christians doubt for a moment that Jesus rose again from the dead, because he was to do so, and he was the Son of God; but do they believe these unknown saints revisited the glimpses of the moon, and experienced a resurrection equal to that of Jesus, for no purpose at all, and for no merit of their own? Yet we have no more authority for the one than the other, and no reason to believe one more than the other. Toward the end of the Sabbath (that is, Saturday evening) came Mary Magdalene, with the other Mary, to see the sepulchre where Jesus was laid, and another earthquake took place, and the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment like snow. He told the women that Jesus had risen, and asked them to see the place where the Lord lay. But whether they looked or not we are not told, but they ran away with fear and great joy to tell the disciples. And as they went, whom should they meet but Jesus himself, who said to them, "All hail." But then there is some little confusion in this infallible narrative. It was not towards the end of Saturday, but very early in the morning of Sunday, at the rising of the sun, that the women came, and for the purpose of anointing the body. And the stone was still against the door, and they said, Who shall roll us away the stone? But when they looked again the stone was away, and on entering the sepulchre they saw a young man dressed in white sitting inside, and no angel with a lightning face sitting outside. The women fled with terror, but told no man what they had seen; and it isa mystery to this day how that which was never told to any one is known to nearly all the world. Jesus did not meet the two Marys, but appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. She went and told the disciples about the resurrection, but they believed her not. He appeared afterwards to two of his disciples, but they did not believe in his resurrection, neither did the eleven disciples, to whom he appeared. If they who knew him intimately did not believe in it after only three days' absence from them, shall we, after a lapse of eighteen hundred years, put faith in this clumsy, impossible, and absurd fable? But perhaps the condition he attached to the belief may have something to do with the faith of so many people in these days. He said, after upbraiding his disciples for their unbelief and hardness of heart—"He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." That threat, fulminated from thousands of pulpits, has frightened timid and weak people in nearly every age of the Christian era. But then again there were not two women but many who went to the sepulchre, and they found the stone away; and when they entered they saw two men in shining garments, and the women did not conceal what they had seen, but went and told all the disciples, but they were not believed. This time the lively Peter ran to the tomb to look for himself, and saw nothing but the linen clothes lying by themselves. After that two of the disciples went to Emmana, where Jesus himself joined them, but they knew him not, and did not believe the story of his resurrection. He then rebuked them in his usual sweet and placid style, by exclaiming, "O fools, and slow of heart," and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, "he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself," which must have been a tolerably long discourse for one so recently out of the grave. They asked him to stop with them and have something to eat, which, his appetite being as good as ever, he consented to do; and it was his mode of breaking bread and blessing it that convinced them that he was Jesus. And he then vanished out of their sight. They went to Jerusalem and told the others what they had seen, and while they were talking Jesus stood in the midst of them; but they did not know him again, but took him to be a spirit. He said—"Behold my hands and my feet, that it is myself; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." And while they yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them, "Have ye here any meat?" He was again hungry, and they gave him a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. That was enough to convince them a second time. "And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven," with the broiled fish on his stomach, where he entered into joy everlasting.
The foregoing will certainly be declared "blasphemous" by all true believers, and will no doubt be pronounced a "caricature" of Jesus by even Unitarians. But the fault does not lie with us—it is in the text, which we did not make. We are not responsible for the representation, for we have scrupulously followed the inspired delineations of the Evangelists. Let us briefly sum up this biography.
Jesus was the Son of God, and not the son of his mother's husband, and his mother remained a virgin notwithstanding his conception and birth, although she strangely offered the usual sacrifice when the days of her purification were accomplished.
He was descended from the royal line of David, that is, Joseph the husband of his mother was so descended; but then Joseph was not his father at all.