When he charges the Pharisees with tithing mint, anise, and cummin, while neglecting judgment, mercy and faith, he stamps their conduct with an “analogy” that makes them ludicrous forever, “Ye blind guides which strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.”
At dinner, he was rebuked by his host for permitting a penitent woman to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hairs of her head. “Simon,” calmly returned the guest, “I have somewhat to say to thee.” “Master, Say on.” Jesus then proceeds to impale him upon the following question: “There was a certain creditor which had two debtors; the one owed him five hundred pence, the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most?” Simon understands whither the question tends, and slowly and reluctantly comes his answer: “I—suppose—that—he—to—whom—he—forgave most.” “Thou hast rightly judged.” Yes, Simon, but thou hast condemned thyself and justified the woman.
The story of the vineyard and its application are similar to Nathan’s parable. “There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about and digged a wine-press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did unto them likewise. But last of all, he sent unto them his Son; saying, They will reverence my Son. But when the husbandmen saw the Son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on the inheritance. And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.”
This is the story. Jesus turns to the Pharisees: “When the Lord, therefore, of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto these husbandmen?” Priests and Pharisees are moved with indignation. This is horrible; it almost exceeds belief. Those husbandmen were monsters of ingratitude and wickedness! The Pharisees answer: “He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.”
Fatal answer for you, O Scribes and Pharisees! “Therefore I say unto you, the Kingdom of God shall be taken from YOU, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” There is a touch of humor in Matthew’s description of the manner in which the real object of this story dawned upon the minds of the hearers. “And when the Pharisees had heard his parable, they perceived that he spake of them.” Are we not irresistibly reminded of Falstaff, when the fairies in the forest turned out to be flesh and blood, “I do begin to perceive that I am made an ass?” Do we not feel about many of these condensed arguments of Jesus, as Milton did about the “sophist sweating and turmoiling under the inevitable and merciless dilemmas of Socrates,” that “he who reads, were it Saturn himself, would be robbed of more than a smile?”
Let us add by way of comparison, a passage from the Athenian Master. Here is a fragment of dialogue upon the enslaving power of money.
“Come, now, and let us reason with the unjust who is not intentionally in error. ‘Sweet sir,’ we will say to him, ‘what think you of things esteemed noble and ignoble? Is not the noble that which subjects the beast to the man, or rather to the god in man? and the ignoble that which subjects the man to the beast?’ He can hardly avoid saying Yes,—can he now?”
“Not if he has any regard for my opinion.”
“But if he admit this, we may ask him another question,—How would a man profit if he received gold and silver on condition that he was to enslave the noblest part of him to the worst? Who can imagine that a man who sold his son or daughter into slavery for money, especially if he sold them into the hands of fierce and evil men, would be the gainer, however large might be the sum which he received? And will any one say that he is not a miserable caitiff who sells his own divine being to that which is most atheistical and detestable, and has no pity?”
This selection will enable us to see that the method commonly used by Socrates was essentially the method that Jesus so frequently employed.