After the fashion of the major social prophets, Jesus cried out vehemently against social injustice. He denounced the persons who devour widows’ houses, or who lay unnecessary economic burdens upon their fellowmen.
Anti-social religion, above all things else, angered Jesus. He wanted no followers who were practicing social or political injustice. Cursed are those persons who appear righteous, who make long prayers, or who go about in long robes, but who inwardly are hypocrites, are full of dead men’s bones, of uncleanness, of extortion and excess.[VIII-15] The shedding of innocent blood is condemned. The paying of money in order to expiate sin will avail nothing. Such money is tainted; it is blood money.[VIII-16]
Anti-social and commercialized religion so angered Jesus that, contrary to his customary attitudes toward sinners, he committed violence on one occasion against offenders. He overthrew the tables of the money changers in the temple, and, making a scourge of small cords, he drove out the money changers. In so doing, he declared that the worship of God should not be commercialized.[VIII-17] He would not have the house of worship turned into a cultured den of thieves.
So furious were the scribes and the chief priests because of the attack of Jesus upon anti-social religious practices that they planned how they might kill him.[VIII-18] It appears that as a direct result of the antagonism of Jesus to the anti-social practices of the religious, or temple, authorities and of the other religious leaders the conspiracy against Jesus finally brought about his death. Jesus went about stirring up the common people in a democratic movement against the autocratic, hypocritical, anti-social religious leaders among the Jews. He met his death while championing the needs of the masses who were being exploited in the name of religion.
Jesus was the highest type of social democrat. The perfected social order which he foresaw is a democracy, ruled by the principles of love and service in the name of God. Furthermore, no one shall be compelled to come into the Kingdom. The good tidings shall be presented to all individuals, but the liberty of the individual shall not be violated. The principle of voluntary assent, not compulsion or conscription, rules in recruiting for the Kingdom. Moreover, within the Kingdom, compulsion is unknown. Love sufficeth.
Jesus hated sin. To him, sin was anything which overcomes love and which causes the individual or society to disintegrate. Sin is that which defeats or hinders the coming of the Kingdom of Love. Sin breaks up or holds back the social process. Sin, like love, is organic. Sin grows. An evil tree brings forth evil fruit; grapes and figs are not gathered from thorns or thistle-bearing plants.
Jesus forgave sinners; even social sinners. By means of his imagination, he put himself in the place of the sinner and sought to understand the causes of the sinning. As his mind filled with an understanding of sin, his heart overflowed with pity and forgiveness for the sinner. He sought primarily to reclaim; he thought secondarily of punishment. Even in the case of the adulterous woman, he sought to save what was left of the broken spirit rather than to punish. His cardinal penological principle was reformation.
It is significant that the social institution which Jesus supported above all others, even above the church and the state, was the family. Jesus spoke frequently for the family. He commanded that children should unwaveringly act loyally toward parents; he used not only the clear-cut terms of the writer of Exodus but added a curse of death upon those who abuse their parents.[VIII-19]
An even stronger command was given by Jesus concerning loyalty to the marriage relation. A man’s genuine loyalty to his parents, undiminished in intensity, must be subordinated to faithfulness to his wife.[VIII-20] This social theory is opposite in character to that of Confucius concerning attitudes toward parents and wives. The conception which Jesus urged leads to social progress, while the teaching of Confucius leads to social stagnation.
A man and woman who have been spiritually joined together in wedlock are one flesh, above and beyond separation by civil authorities. Jesus uttered the stern and awe-inspiring sanction: What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. The family as an institution is accorded a sacredly fundamental place in the social order.