II.
The “suggestion of an analogy that immediately exposes the absurdity of an action or proposition,” was the favorite method of argument with Jesus.
He spun no metaphysical cobwebs, he used no long chains of linked propositions; it is no irreverence to say that his quick wit was his main reliance. In a sentence or two, with a simple, homely figure, he reduced to an absurdity the conduct he censured and the proposition he opposed.
On one occasion he was asked, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?” “What man shall there be among you,” he answered, “that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and bring it out? How much more, then, is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath day.”
At another time the same subject came up. Because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, the ruler of the synagogue was filled with indignation and made a very grotesque spectacle of himself. He stormed, scolded, and roared to the people, “There are six days in which men ought to work; in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Jesus answered: “Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” The indignant ruler had to smother his wrath. “And when he (Jesus) had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed.” The people enjoyed their confusion, and evidently applauded the sharp-witted young prophet who had silenced the fault-finding tongues of the rulers. “All the people rejoiced for the glorious things that were done by him!”
The Scribes and Pharisees were once murmuring and complaining that he mingled with publicans and sinners, and even condescended to eat with them. “And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance!”
When the Pharisees and Sadducees desired that he would show them a sign from heaven, he answered and said unto them, “When it is evening, ye say that it will be fair weather for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day; for the sky is red and lowering. O, ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” He uses essentially the same argument for a similar request: “When ye see a cloud rise out of the West, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower, and so it is. And when ye see the South wind blow, ye say, There will be heat, and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?” Says Geike, “With biting irony, he turned on them in a few brief, incisive sentences. * * * An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign of the approach of the Kingdom of God, while it is blind to the signs around that the Messiah must come, if the nation is not to perish.”
In a similar manner he shows how ridiculous are the doubts of those who fear that God will not answer prayer. “If a son ask bread of any of you that is a father, will ye give him a stone?” How this must have arrested the attention of his auditors; how they began to listen, curious to know what was coming next. “Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?” Now they exchange glances as much as to say, “No, no; surely we would not do that!” But only for a moment. The expectant faces are again turned upon the Great Teacher. “Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?” “No, no!” and now they are eager for the conclusion: “If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” It is the climax of absurdity for you to think that you are better than God, and will do more for your children than the Great Father will do for his children!
The disciples of Jesus came to tell him that the Pharisees are offended at some of his sayings. His only reply is, “Let them alone; they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”