"Yea! The reason that is always given for their hatred of Jesus is that they were 'covetous'?"
"Dost thou think that the fact that they were rich and covetous could account for their rejection of their own scriptures, which showed them the Messiah plainly, and in which they all believed, unless the gospel which Jesus taught in some way antagonized their legal right to their property?"
"Nay, verily," said the boy. "The gospel must have interfered with their property, or the fact that they were 'covetous' would not be given as the reason for their hatred of Jesus."
"Then let us examine what this gospel was that was 'good news to the poor.' Dost thou remember any other place in which the same words occur?"
"Yea," answered Arius. "It is written in Luke: 'And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath-day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it is written, The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor: he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the captives; and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.'"
"Now canst thou find the place in Isaiah referred to in the text?"
"Yea," replied Arius; "it readeth as follows: 'The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings.'"
"Stop," said Ammonius; "thou seest that the 'gospel' is the same thing which the prophet calleth 'good tidings?'"
"Yea," answered the lad, "but whence cometh this expression of 'the acceptable year of the Lord,' and what signifieth it?"
"It cometh from the statute of the year of jubilee, set forth at large in the book of Leviticus. When thou shalt examine this statute fully, thou shalt find that it is emphatically a law against private property, providing that debts expire every seventh year, and that all Israel was prohibited from seeking to make gain every seventh year, and from saving what they had already made. Thou wilt see that it was a statute restoring all real estate every fiftieth year to the original possessors thereof, and providing for the release of all prisoners, the manumission of all slaves, the cessation of all oppressions--a year of joy to all that were poor and afflicted. Thou wilt see that Isaiah, and other prophets also, foretold that this great and acceptable year of jubilee was simply a type of the condition, social and political, which should be established permanently in the kingdom of heaven: and that our Lord declared that this prophecy was fulfilled in himself. Thou wilt find, if thou shalt grasp this one truth in its fullness, that the gospel which was good news to the poor was simply the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning Christ--the permanent establishment of 'the acceptable year'; and that the Pharisees, who were rich and 'covetous,' hated the gospel because it required all who believe to hold all rights and property in common for the good of all; and they preferred their own selfish aggrandizement to the common good of all; and thou wilt see that the chief priests and rulers of the people conspired together to crucify Jesus, not because they ever doubted his divinity and Messiahship, but because they worshiped Mammon more than God. For the same reason, Rome, that welcomed every heathen superstition under heaven, and built a Pantheon for all the gods, persecuted the Christians from the very beginning, because the gospel of our Lord is eternally opposed to Mammon-worship, war, slavery, polygamy, and the princes and powers of the earth--a kingdom in which Christ only is king, and all men are brethren."