66 He was exceedingly displeased with his disciples, and said, Let the children come to me and forbid them not! Verily the kingdom of heaven is of such as they." When he had thus rebuked the disciples, the parents came boldly to him, and he took the little ones upon his knee or in his arms, and embraced them and kissed them. Then he laid his hands upon them, and prayed for a blessing on them, and sent them away happy. "The kingdom of heaven is of such as they." What did he mean by these words? He may have meant that- sad experience having taught him how dull of heart the grown-up people round him were his chief hopes for the kingdom of God were now built upon the rising generation, whose innocence and freedom from prejudice made them so precious in the heavenly Father's eye. Or else, as Mark and Luke would have it, he meant that no one can enter into the kingdom of God unless he becomes as simple as a child. On more than one occasion when Jesus speaks of children, it is exceedingly difficult to say whether he means to be understood literally or only refers to the simple, the weak, the lowly, and those of whom the world takes no account. In any case, this winning scene of Jesus blessing the little children crowns and confirms his views of marriage and domestic life. But most of the conversations and occurrences of this jour ney had, as we should expect, some direct reference to the kingdom of God. Inasmuch as the disciples' minds were filled with thoughts of the great events now near at hand, their disposition could not fail to exercise an influence upon those with whom they came in contact. Thus a certain man once came to Jesus and asked him, anxiously, whether there were not very few who would be saved at the last judgment and would share the salvation of the Messianic age. His answer was an exhortation to all who heard him to increased moral effort. "Strive with all your might to gain an entrance at the narrow door; for I tell you that many shal seek in vain to enter by it. When the master of the house has received his guests and welcomed them, and has risen and closed the door, then you may begin to knock from outside, and cry, Lord! open to us!' but he will answer, I know not whence you are!"'" 6 On another occasion, when a question of similar import was addressed to him, his answer showed that the effort he 1 See pp. 163, 174. required included the voluntary renunciation of every thing which could hold back the heart from its sacred mission. The circumstances were as follows: He was met upon his way by one who bowed down before him reverently and said, "Good Master, what must I do to secure eternal life in the kingdom of God?" There was something in the words themselves, or in the man who uttered them, which pleased Jesus, something which spoke of straightforward purity and simplicity, earnestness and trust; but there was also a certain air of self-satisfaction about the man, which argued a superficial conception on his part of the requirements of the moral life, and warned Jesus against making the smallest concession to his weakness. So he began by condemning the careless use of such a word as good, which, rightly considered, implied nothing less than absolute perfection: "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God. You know the commandments, not to commit adultery, not to murder, not to steal, not to bear false witness, to defraud no man, to honor your father and mother." What did he mean by this answer? That every man would be judged according to his light? — or that the Ten Commandments, properly carried out, embraced the whole moral law? Or did he wish to draw from the other a declaration of what his conduct hitherto had been? However this may be, the man answered, "All this I have observed from childhood." The frank, straightforward air with which he made this declaration won the heart of Jesus, and, in hopes of discovering the man to himself and at the same time winning him finally for the kingdom of God, he said, with all the force and persuasion of which he was master, "You still lack one thing. Sell all you have and give the money to the poor. Then you will have a treasure laid up for you by God when the kingdom of heaven comes; and do you meanwhile come and follow me." Alas! the demand was too hard for him, for he was very rich. break the ties which bound him to the world. much for the great salvation, but not all. Deeply cast down, perhaps more at his own weakness than any thing else, he went away in a far other frame of mind than that in which he had come. He could not He could spare The version of the story we have given is that of Mark and Luke, the latter of whom describes the interrogator as “a ruler." Matthew calls him a young man, whence the story is commonly described as that of the rich young man." This is not the only point in which the first Gospel departs from the others. For instance, it seemed strange, and even shocking, that Jesus should have expressly repudiated the title of honor, "good," and consequently Matthew simply omits it altogether. Again, he lays the chief stress upon the fulfilment of the precepts of the Law in simple love to one's neighbor as the condition of citizenship in the kingdom of God, while Mark and Luke emphasize the breaking of all worldly ties to follow Jesus. But in the essential points our authorities are all agreed. Now Jesus had never demanded such a sacrifice before. Even the Twelve had never been required to sell their property and give away the money. We must bear it carefully in mind that he was by no means uttering a general precept, but was speaking with special reference to the individual requirements of the man who stood before him, and to the critical importance of the time, which would less than ever brook the smallest indecision. It was this that raised his demands so high. The eye, the hand, the foot that caused offence must be plucked out or hewn off. It seems that the result, in this special instance, was a painful disappointment to Jesus himself. At least, when the man was gone he looked round upon his disciples and said with a sigh, "How hard it is for those that have riches to enter into the kingdom of heaven!" And in answer to their look of amazement he repeated, "Beloved, what a mighty effort is required to secure an entrance! 8 I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." "Worse and worse!" thought the disciples. "He said it was hard before, but now he says it is impossible." Who will be saved then?" they whispered to one another in the utmost consternation. Jesus heard, and looking significantly upon them said, "Yes; to man it is impossible, but not to God; for every thing is possible to God." We can see what Jesus meant. These last words express the thought which sustained him in all his disappointments, and which the experience of his own soul was ever confirming. It is, in truth, beyond the power of man to secure for himself or others an entrance into the kingdom of heaven; but it is here that God's almighty power is displayed. Jesus, however, was not proclaiming the dogma of divine 1 After an amended text. 2 Compare pp. 168 ff., 174 ff., 187 ff. omnipotence, but was simply stating what the life of his own soul had taught him; namely, that God can enable us to make the greatest sacrifices, to renounce ourselves absolutely, to accomplish what would be utterly impossible without him; that the man whose heart God has once stirred cannot in the long run resist the impulse of his spirit, the impulse of sacred love. He spoke, of course, in part to encourage his followers and direct them to man's only refuge in conscious weakness and impotence; but he spoke yet more to quicken his own hope, - for he had felt, and surely not for the first time, the unhallowed power of gold, and much as he longed to rescue this man from his slavery to the world, he found that he was powerless. "How many good hearts," he thought," are only held back by wealth and distinction from joining me! But God's power, I know, is greater than any worldly influence. He can break these chains, and He will!" Meanwhile the disciples had partially recovered from their consternation, and Peter, perhaps with some lingering hesitation in his voice, began: "But we have left every thing to follow you." It was as though he would say, "Surely, we are safe?" Naturally, Jesus was more than ever inclined at this moment to value their devotion; so he answered, with warm affection, "I tell you truly, every one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my sake, shall be compensated many fold even now in this present time; and when the day of salvation dawns, he shall receive everlasting life. Then shall many be last instead of first, and first instead of last." Here again Jesus looks forward into the glorious future. Then shall men change their parts, and the world's great ones shall be cast down from the seat of honor, while those whom the world despises now shall be exalted then by God. After what has been said already,' we shall not wonder that these words also have been misunderstood and tampered with. To begin with, the first Gospel makes an addition to Peter's question, and gives it thus: "But we have left every thing to follow thee. What shall we have therefore?" This addition changes the diffident disciple's timorous question into a bold and selfish demand for a reward, which would have succeeded strangely to the anxious exclamation of the disciples the moment before, and would certainly have drawn a very different answer from Jesus. It is true that Matthew finds a 1 See pp. 331 ff. 8 warning against self-exaltation in the saying about "the first and the last," and in the parable of the laborers in the vineyard called at different hours; but this corrective comes too late, and is altogether too weak to balance the express promise of glory and blessedness just made to the Twelve. And indeed this very Gospel heightens the promise in a truly remarkable fashion; for, in contradiction to a saying which we shall consider presently, it makes Jesus sanction the Jewish-Christian expectations and say: "I tell you that when all things are made new, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me shall likewise sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." This saying is also found in another connection in the third Gospel, in which we should hardly have expected it. Finally, Matthew misunderstands the sense in which Jesus spoke of compensation for every sacrifice that his disciples made. Jesus spoke of what he knew by experi ence; namely, that when we have left our old surroundings in pain and toil, the new surroundings into which we enter more than compensate us; that the fellowship of many kindred spirits makes ample amends for the ties of kindred we have had to break for the kingdom of God's sake; in a word, that the joy which God gives to his faithful servants even now far outweighs the pain of every voluntary sacrifice. But the Evangelist failed to understand him, and omitted the words "now in this time," thinking that this new kinship and these new possessions referred to the treasures of the kingdom of heaven. Mark, on his side, falls into circumlocutions and repetitions, and adds, from the experience of his own times, "with persecutions" for the Gospel's sake. Thus we see how determined the early Christians were to force the Master's words into agreement with their own ideas and experience upon this point, if upon no other. 1 See p. 296. 8 Luke xxii. 30. 2 See pp. 351, 352. |