[ p. 243 ]
The inner spiritual dynamic of the religion of Jesus is apparent to every earnest student. No appreciation of Jesus, however, is complete without a study of the effective ways in which he expressed his religion. Every great teacher not only has large ideas of life and truth, but also clothes those ideas in vigorous and decisive terms which, because of their striking and picturesque quality, lodge in the minds of the listeners and refuse to be forgotten. The story of the lost sheep and the parable of the prodigal son are remembered and treasured not only for their deep religious truth, but because of the rugged beauty inherent in their figures.
“You are the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5: 13).
“The rains come, the rivers rise, the winds blow” (Matt. 7: 27).
“What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed waving in the wind?” (Lk. 7: 25.)
“I have wished to gather your children around me as a hen takes her chickens under her wings” (Lk. 13: 34).
“Blessed are they who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness” (Matt. 5: 6).
“Jesus called a little child to him . . . and said, ‘Unless you become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven’ ” (Matt. 18: 2). [ p. 244 ]
“No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a bowl” (Lk. 8: 16).
“No one putting his hand on the plow and looking back is fitted for the Kingdom” (Lk. 9: 62).
“Make yourselves purses which will not wear out” (Lk. 12: 33).
A careful reading of the Gospels reveals the wide variety of figures and illustrations used by Jesus. In the realm of inanimate nature he uses the items of darkness and light and sun just as the Apostle Paul also does. But beyond that, Jesus has a long list of references to natural scenery which are not found in the list of Paul. The list includes heat, wind, cloud, shower, grass, floods, rock, mountain, fire, reed, tree, waterless places, morning. Many of these are found in the rich poetry of the Prophet Isaiah. But Jesus goes even beyond Isaiah in speaking of salt, earthquake, evening, lightning.
The list of animals which Jesus uses as illustrations continues the story of the wealth of his imagery. Paul refers to the sheep and the ox; there his list ends. Jesus’ list includes dog, viper, vulture, snare, worm, moth, lamb, dove; Isaiah has these and a few others. But neither Isaiah nor Paul mentions any of the further items of Jesus’ world of animal life: Swallow, wolves, goat, fox, fish, ass, camel, scorpion, gnat, hen, chicken.
A similar list can be presented in the realm of the activities of the physical body; another in the realm of family relations; another in the field of social customs. In this last list Jesus goes beyond Isaiah and Paul in speaking of seeking, knocking, sons of the bride chamber, marriage feast, dinner, supper, chief seat, cup and platter, taking of bread, lamp-stand, beating, binding, reclining at table, weeping and gnashing, heating, sweeping, putting wines into skins, children playing, whitening sepulchers, giving alms; all of these social customs Jesus uses to illustrate his ethical and spiritual teaching and message.
A similar list of building and agricultural activities may be suggested. Jesus goes beyond Isaiah or Paul in speaking of [ p. 245 ] grapes, blade and ear and corn, plowing, thrashing, tares, brambles, mustard seed, digging and dunging, gathering into barns. In the field of business and occupational relationships Jesus alone speaks of the lender, talents and pounds, the shepherd, the fisher and the net, the pearl merchant, the householder, going to a far country, gaining by trading. Political references and allusions to military affairs comprise another list, although it does not markedly excede the references of other biblical writers.
Finally, a search of his references to Old Testament material shows that they exceed even those of the Apostle who was trained under Gamaliel. Jesus, but not Paul, refers to Noah and the Flood; to the Queen of the South; to Solomon; to the killing of the prophets; and to the jot and tittle of the law, to Elijah, Jonah, the men of Nineveh, Lot and Lot’s wife.
“The righteous will shine like the sun” (Matt. 13: 43).
“I saw Satan, fallen, like a flash of lightning from the sky” (Lk. 10: 18).
“The hairs of your head are all counted” (Matt. 10: 30).
Not only is there wealth of power in the wide range of Jesus’ illustrations, but also distinct forcefulness in the individual sayings. One of the most striking is the radicalness of their physical bases. To emphasize a truth or principle Jesus often compares it with some object, action, or relation which is the most radical of its class, in quantity or quality. The righteous shine not as the stars nor as the brightness of the firmament (Dan. 13: 3), but as the sun (Matt. 13: 43).
To be sure, Isaiah can speak of a sevenfold sunlight (Isa. 30: 26), but Jesus never oversteps the natural, and would make no gain by doing so. Satan falls from heaven not as the [ p. 246 ] day star (Isa. 14: 12), but as the down-flashing lightning (Lk. 10: 18). Exceeding minuteness compared with great possibilities of growth has often been noted in Jesus’ illustration of the mustard seed (Lk. 17: 6). A drag-net, similarly, is the specific kind of net cited by Jesus, which catches all kinds of fish, and is hauled up on the beach, that the baskets may be filled (Matt. 13: 47) Matthew ascribes to Jesus a peculiarly radical expression, “serpents, offspring of vipers” (Matt. 23: 33). The camel going through the eye of the needle is so extreme a figure that the reader hunts for some mollifying interpretation of the passage (Lk. 18: 25). The hairs of the head have each one its number (Matt. 10: 30). To cut off a hand or a foot, and to cut out an eye, are expressions the very radicalness of which have opened men’s eyes to the metaphorical quality of the passage (Mk. 9: 43-47). Jesus’ expression for renunciation of married life is no less radical (Matt. 19: 12). Again, he likens his simple-hearted disciples not to youths or children, but to babes (Lk. 10: 21; Matt, 11: 25). The affectionate relationship which should exist between members of the kingdom of God is for Jesus not sufficiently described by the term “brother,” but would seem to be a combination of the beauties of relationship of mother, brother, and sister (Mk. 3: 34-35; Matt. 12: 49-50; Lk. 8: 21).
Extreme indeed is the contrast between the joy of sitting down with Abraham, and the chagrin of those outside who gnash their teeth (Lk. 13: 24-29; cf. Psa. 119: 10). The parable of the feast, in Matthew 20, shows the same absolute quality. The host is a king; the guest of honor his own son; the occasion is his marriage; the men who decline the invitation are murderers; he who accepts, but appears without the garment, is not only cast out, but bound hand and foot beforehand.
Another contrast appears when he speaks of the bread of children which is thrown to the dogs (Mk. 7:27; Matt. 15: 26). It is so extreme that it keeps interpreters busy explaining Jesus’ attitude toward the Syro-Phcenician woman. Casting pearls before [ p. 247 ] swine is just as radical a procedure, as is also the giving of what is holy to the dogs. One who puts his hand to the plow and so much as looks back is not fit for the kingdom.
Other illustrations are numerous. One of the clearest and most easily understood is contained in the story of the man who owes ten million dollars and attacks his brother, who owes only a hundred denarii. The contrast between ten million dollars and eighteen dollars is sometimes missed by the reader of the American standard version, because the terms “talents” and “shillings” are unfamiliar (Matt. 18: 23).
Again, the conduct of the man who pays a day’s wages for one hour’s work from five until six o’clock (Matt. 20: 12) is too strong to be understood without considerable thought. Exceptional, too, the story of the man who sold all he had to buy the field containing the hidden treasure (Matt. 13: 44), and that of the pearl-fancier who bought a single pearl at the same exhaustive price.
It seems a severe punishment to tie a millstone about a criminal’s neck and throw him into the sea. But the figure is not so mildly put by Jesus. He pictures a millstone so large an animal is required to turn it (Mk. 9: 42), the place is the deepest part of the sea; and the drowning is so absolute that the English version cannot reproduce the intensity of the original words.
Even crucifixion, the most disgraceful form of legal execution, is intensified into the figure of the man going in search of a cross and taking it up daily (Lk. 9: 23, and elsewhere). Again Jesus’ metaphorical references to the Old Testament are often made to the most unusual scenes or characters. The all-destroying flood in the days of Noah, and the terrific destruction of Sodom (Lk. 17: 26; Matt. 24: 37) are examples. Note the detailed story of Dives and Lazarus. Here the sumptuous fare and the outer garments of the rich man contrast sharply with the extreme sufferings of the beggar. Abraham’s bosom, the flame, the tip of the finger, and the great separating gulf further vivify the illustration as told by the master maker of parables.
[ p. 248 ]
“I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions” (Lk. 10: 19).
“The kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed which a man planted in his garden; and the seed grew and became a tree, and the birds of the heavens lodged in its branches” (Lk. 13: 19).
“If one of you has a hundred sheep and has lost one, does he not leave the ninety and nine and go after the lost sheep?” (Lk. 15: 4).
Another element of power in Jesus’ illustrations is the exclusion of non-contributing details. Jesus never gives his fancy free play; much less does he allow the poetry of a thing, or its artistic form, to run away with him. The spirit of the prophet is always subject to the prophet. Herein lies a great source of power. Power moves in a straight line, and strikes its blow directly at its object. With all the poetry of the Old Testament literature in his mind, Jesus could have framed his teaching in elaborate figures, but he never yielded to the temptation. He does not start the sun like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber to run a race (Psa. 19: 5). The sun is used with the utmost simplicity, as an illustration of the shining of the righteous.
Jesus pictures the Satanic downfall as but a single flash (Lk. 10: 18), although he probably had in mind the marvelous presentation of the 14th of Isaiah. He knows the fourth chapter of Daniel, and Ezekiel 17: 22 ff., but he paints no tree reaching to heaven, and spreading to the ends of the earth. He does not feed all flesh from this tree, but simply calls up the vastness of these Old Testament pictures by the suggestive image of the birds, which is common to both. At the same time, he does not overstep the modesty of nature (Lk. 13: 19). In using metaphors, great power is achieved by suggesting the largest [ p. 249 ] amount of appropriate detail in the fewest possible words. The figure of the mustard seed is uniquely effective, because of its combination of simplicity of structure and vast possibilities of growth.
When Jesus speaks about hunger or thirst in a spiritual sense (Matt. 5: 6) he doubtless has in mind the whole range of illustrations to be found in such a passage as Isaiah 55: 1, but he simply mentions, without adornment, the two bodily needs and their satisfaction. There is no exhortation not to spend money for that which is not bread, or to buy without price.
Similarly, the figure of treading upon serpents and scorpions is not amplified, but decidedly condensed from its source in Psalms 91: 13. And Jesus’ illustrations from shepherd life (cf. Matt. 10:6) are also strikingly concise.
It has been said that the story of the prodigal son is an elaborated and ornamental narrative. The real fact is that many details of fanciful imagination are carefully excluded. Isaiah 55: 2; 44: 22; Proverbs 29: 3, Isaiah 61: 10, Zech. 3: 2-5, and other references are suggestive of the flowery .anguage which Jesus might have used. In particular contrast with Jesus’ parable is the fourteenth chapter of Hosea, which has been called the Old Testament parallel to the story of the prodigal son.
Another instance of the exclusion of all merely poetic material is found in what Jesus says to his disciples at the Last Supper. In very simple language he likens the outpoured wine to his own shed blood. Jesus did not attempt such poetic imagery as did the writer of Ecclesiastes 12, making no mention of the loosing of the silver cord, or the breaking of the golden bowl or of the pitcher at the fountain, or of the wheel at the cistern. The foam and the mixture, and the dregs and the draining of them (Psa. 75: 8) are absent. It is not a “cup of staggering,” or the “bowl of a cup of wrath” (Isa. 51: 22). It does not make him “reel to and fro and be mad” (Jer. 25: 15-17). It is simply a “cup.” But the one word is stronger than the many.
Often Jesus keeps out distracting details to such an extent that at first glance the interpretation of the saying is uncertain, [ p. 250 ] as in the saying with regard to the unfinished tower. The principle involved, however, makes clear many of his extremely abbreviated remarks. “If a man strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other.” As Wendt expressed it, Jesus was unique in his art of combining popular intelligibility with impressive pregnancy of meaning.
“Of the bramble men do not gather grapes” (Lk. 6: 44) is but a suggestion of the extended metaphors of Isaiah 5: 22 ff., regarding vineyards and grapes, and briers and thorns. And where in all literature is a story to be found which has larger meaning, yet is condensed into such a short compass, as the parable of the lost sheep? For contrast, it is only necessary to turn to such a passage as Ezekiel 34: 11-31. As examples of effective brevity and straightforwardness the parables of the talents and of the pounds are unsurpassed.
“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees” And they began discussing among themselves, saying, “It is because we took no bread” (Matt. 16: 6-7).
“Let him sell his cloak and buy a sword” (Lk. 22:36; cf. 38).
“There is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or land . . . but will receive a hundredfold” (Mk. 10: 29,30).
“She is not dead, but is asleep” (Mk. 5: 39).
A fourth element of power in the sayings of Jesus is the delayed spiritual application of some striking statement. When Jesus spoke to his disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees, for instance, he let them think at first that he was speaking about literal yeast. When they had pondered over the saying long enough to fix it in their consciousness, he explained his meaning.
[ p. 251 ]
Again, when he asked his disciples to find out how many swords they could muster in case of need, they apparently set about the task in great earnest, perhaps hoping at last he was to assume military leadership. When they could find but two swords, he laconically says, “That is enough” (Lk. 22: 38).
In the case of the raising of the daughter of Jairus, everyone recognizes the impressiveness of Jesus’ statement that she only slept and was not dead. When Jesus speaks of digestion and its accompanying bodily processes, his disciples insist impatiently that he explain what he means; then he proceeds to do so (Matt. 15: 10-20).
Other interesting instances of deferred application of the spiritual truth may be seen in the saying with regard to the destruction of the temple and its rebuilding in three days and in the reference to the mote and the beam (Lk. 6: 41).
“You are the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5: 13).
“And he took the city and slew the people; and he beat down the city and sowed it with salt” (Judges 9: 45) “The miry places and the marshes shall not be healed; they shall be given up to salt” (Ezek. 47: 11).
“He turns rivers . . . into thirsty ground; and fruitful land into a salt desert” (Psa. 107: 34).
“To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven” (Lk. 13: 20, 21).
“Take heed and beware of the leaven” (Matt. 16: 6 ).
“Come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Mk. 1: 17).
“I will send for many fishers and they shall fish them up . . . and they shall hunt them from every mountain . . . and I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double” (Jer. 16: 16-18). [ p. 252 ]
“As the fishes that are taken in the evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sins of men” (Eccl. 9: 12).
A fifth element of power in Jesus’ sayings is the effective reversal of the previous usage of striking words. “Salt” had been used in a bad sense, not only by the Jews, but by Semitic people in general, as shown by Assyrian inscriptions and other sources. The saltness of the Dead Sea was one of the associations of the word. There was the story of Lot’s wife, turned into a pillar of salt. The Old Testament has many passages reflecting the idea (Judges 9: 45; Ezek. 47: n; Psa. 107: 34).
When Jesus called his disciples “salt” the remark must have startled and perhaps offended them. But all the more powerful would be the impression of his saying, when once they understood his meaning.
“Leaven” also was generally used in a bad sense figuratively. Even Jesus himself so uses it. The disciples must have done some acute thinking when Jesus told them that the kingdom of Heaven itself is like leaven. Their attention must have concentrated upon the one idea of the silent spreading and assimulating quality of the leaven.
“Fishing” had been used very widely and unfortunately, as applied to the catching of men. Hostile armies are fishers who shall fish the people of Israel out of the land to die (Jer. 16: 16). Other Old Testament passages (Amos 4: 2; Hab. 1: 15; Eccl. 9: 12) may be supplemented to show occurrences of the figure in a bad sense. [1]
Perhaps the most interesting instance of Jesus’ reversal of the ordinary sense of an illustration is noted in his references to infants and children. The current Jewish conception of the child is shown in Paul’s epistles; to him the child represents a low stage of development, out of which one must grow as rapidly [ p. 253 ] as possible (Rom. 2: 20; I Cor. 3: 1; 4: 14; 13: 11; 14: 20; Gal. 4: 19). In striking contrast to these concepts, Jesus not only calls his own disciples “babes” (Lk. 10: 21; cf. Matt. 11: 25), but he takes the child as an ideal symbol of the perfect spirit which men should have toward the Kingdom of God (Mk. 10: 15,16; Matt. 19: 14; 18: 3, 4).
“It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail” (Lk. 16: 17).
“You blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow the camel” (Matt. 23: 24).
“Consider the lilies. . . . Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Lk. 12: 27).
“We pipe to you and you do not dance; we weep and you do not weep” (Lk. 7: 32).
A sixth feature of Jesus’ power lies in his use of antitheses. He contrasts the minute with the infinite. The sweep of heaven and earth is set against the microscopic “tittle,” the dotting of an “i” to distinguish between one letter and another. Ten thousand talents, or ten million dollars, is a large sum to set over against a little debt of a hundred “pence,” or a hundred shillings. The gnat is contrasted with the heavy bulk of the ungainly camel. A most effective cartoon could be drawn to picture the process by which a patriarchal Pharisee tries to open his mouth and throat sufficiently wide to accommodate, first the head, then the long fuzzy neck, then the hump, then, as Glover has said, “a second hump.” The ridiculousness of the picture exhibits the extreme quality found in many of Jesus’ contrasts.
But it is not always the large and the small which make up the antitheses of Jesus. He often contrasts the unique and the common. The somber magnificence of Solomon’s court is coarser and poorer than the beauty with which God clothes one of the [ p. 254 ] lilies of the field, lilies which the disciples possibly at the time were treading underfoot by the dozen.
Antithetical characteristics and natures are also contrasted by Jesus. Light and darkness (Matt. 6: 23; Lk. 11: 35), figs and thorns (Lk. 6: 44), good fruit and rotten (Lk. 6: 43), wolves and lambs, doves and serpents (Matt. 10: 16), pearls and swine (Matt. 7: 6) are examples of an almost endless list.
Opposite ways of behavior furnish another group of contrasts. Dancing is thus opposed to weeping (Lk. 7: 32) and putting a lamp under the bed is in extreme contrast to putting it upon a lamp-stand (Matt. 5: 15). The Pharisee in his selfrighteous prayer is a fine foil for the publican’s self-denunciation (Lk. 18: 10); the Father’s house of prayer has not merely been disgraced; it has become a den of robbers (Mk. ix: 17; cf. Isa. 56: 7; Jer. 7: 11).
“If your eye is bad, your whole body will be dark; if the light that is in you is darkness, how intense must that darkness be” (Matt. 6: 23).
“If any man wishes to follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross” (Mk. 8: 34).
“Do for others everything that you would like to have them do for you” (Matt. 7: 12).
Much has been said in the previous chapter in regard to the positive quality of Jesus’ teaching. Our purpose just here is to cite the fact that Jesus often directly changed a current negative use to its corresponding positive significance.
The clearest example is his use of the term “darkness,” usually thought of simply as the absence of light. But the effective comparison of righteousness to light suggests the comparison of wickedness to darkness. Wickedness is far from being a negative quality. Jesus seems to conceive of an eye which admits into the body a radiating essence of darkness, which [ p. 255 ] floods the whole body with its blackness. It is as powerful a conception as would be the idea of a heavenly ball of blackness so intense that it could hide all the rays of the sun and extinguish all life from the earth. Having such a diseased eye, filling the soul with this sort of evil is far worse than having no eye at all.
A similar quality belongs to Jesus’ figure of providing purses which shall endure. Others might teach that money is not a blessing (I Cor. 7: 29); but Jesus, making a negative into a positive, advises men to lay up treasure—the kind of treasure which cannot be stolen.
Similarly, the negative idea of non-marriage, Jesus converts into a startling and positive figure of an aggressive, spiritual renunciation of marriage for the kingdom of heaven’s sake (Matt. 19: 12).
The current idea that Jesus’ religion teaches one to bear his cross bravely is only half right. What he did and what he asked others to do was to find a cross and take it up. He turns the negative metaphor into a positive one.
“Beware of false teachers, who come to you in sheep’s skins, but, inwardly, are ravenous wolves” (Matt. 7: 15).
“Why do you look for the splinter in your brother’s eye, and do not perceive the beam in your own eye?” (Matt. 7: 3).
“My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11: 30).
“Does not the Scripture say, ‘My house shall be called the house of prayer for all nations’? but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’ ” (Mk. 11: 17).
“If the blind guide the blind, both of them will fall into a ditch” (Matt. 15: 14).
[ p. 256 ]
A further way in which Jesus secures power in his sayings is by a combination of figures or pictures. The combination is not a mere collecting of two or more separate items, but is a remarkable fusion and blending. The antithesis of the wolfish prophet and the innocent sheep becomes a combination which secures unity by the vivid figure of putting the wolf inside the sheep’s clothing.
One of the most striking examples of this skillful unification is seen in the Pharisee’s prayer (Lk. 18: n) where he speaks of “this Publican.” That little phrase binds the pictures of the two characters together, so that they are seen in focus.
There seems to have been frequent reference to some man’s lack of vision as being due to a speck in his eye. One rabbi would say, “Take the splinter out of your eye,” and another would answer, “Take the beam out of yours,” but Jesus has the combination scene of a man with a beam in his eye straining to see the mote in his brother’s eye.
A very beautiful combination of figures is that of the yoke and the burden. The yoke is often used in the Old Testament to represent taxation, bondage, and sin (I Kings 12:4; Jer. 2: 20; Lam. 1: 14). The figure of the burden of iniquity or trouble is equally used (Psa. 38: 4; 55: 22), but where are the two bound together into one figure? Isa. 9: 4 is not a case at point. Jesus’ picture, however, shows a man with a galling yoke to which a particularly heavy burden is attached. Jesus offers an easy-fitting yoke; even so the burden hung from it is light.
When Jesus cleansed the temple, he took his phrase, “house of prayer,” from Isaiah 56: 7, and his “den of robbers” from Jeremiah 7:21. The combination is a powerful one.
Likewise widely separated in the Old Testament are the picture of the stone of stumbling (Isa. 8: 14) and the picture of the stone which struck the composite image (Dan. 2: 34, 35; cf. Psa. 118: 22). But Jesus combines the three passages into the single image of a great stone upon which men fall and are hurt while it is stationary; but later, as it is loosened and [ p. 257 ] crashes down the slope, it scatters as dust whatever sets itself up in its pathway (Lk. 20: 18).
Perhaps the best remembered of Jesus’ combinations of this sort is that of the blind guides. The picture of a blind man being led along the street is a common one in Palestine. The blind guide is a frequent reference in the Old Testament (Isa. 56: 10; 42: 19; 42: 16; 6: 10), but the intense brevity and power of Jesus’ picture of one blind man trying to lead another blind comrade is apparent to everyone. When the ditch or pit is placed in front of them, the vividness is still further heightened.
In fact, Jesus often combines two previously independent figures and adds a still further element. This is the explanation of the effectiveness of the story of the unclean spirit expelled and wandering through the desert, finally returning with companions (Lk. 11: 24, 25; cf. Matt. 12: 43, 44). The imagery is largely from Isaiah 13: 21-22 and 34: 14.
Another example is that of the strong man armed (Lk. 11: 21), where the imagery is from Isaiah 40: 10; 49: 24, 25; 53: 12. Jesus’ figure has compacted the Old Testament references into one by the use of the comparative “stronger.” A strong man considers himself safe, especially when fully armed and intrenched in his own home. But a stronger man may appear with overturning power.
“Those who do right will shine like the sun” (Matt. 13: 43)
“The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his garden. The seed grew and became quite a tree and the birds roosted in its branches” (Lk. 13: 19).
“I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions” (Lk. xo: 19).
“You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the [ p. 258 ] platter, while inside you are full of wickedness” (Lk. 11: 39) “He will separate the people as a shepherd separates sheep from goats, placing the sheep on his right and the goats on his left” (Matt. 25: 32).
“No one lights a lamp and then sets it in a cellar, or hides it with a cover, but he sets it on a lamp-stand” (Lk. 11: 33).
“No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it upon an old one; if he does, he will not only tear the new garment, but the patch from the new will not match the old” (Lk. 5: 36).
The ninth element of power in Jesus’ sayings may be designated as naturalness. The more Jesus’ words are compared with those of the Old Testament or of other religious writings, the more clearly the fact stands out that his teaching kept close to the natural and the probable. The student of Jesus’ religion instinctively feels that it is straightforward and selfevident in its main outlines. Jesus never gives distorted descriptions to bring out a religious truth.
Nature worship is the first worship; a teaching which appeals to nature and to human nature acquires a certain force from that very fact. We turn to Jeremiah to read, “They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns (12: 13), but where is there such a statement in the teaching of Jesus? His tares come from tare seed, sown by the enemy (Matt. 13: 25). It is hardly natural to graft a wild olive into a cultivated tree. The figure just suits Paul (Rom. 11: 17). But Jesus apparently has no such figure.
Of course, we read in Luke 19: 40 that the “stones” would “cry” out; but the point of that statement is to assert the impossible. On the other hand, Isaiah (55: 12) has the trees clapping their hands and the mountains breaking forth into singing. The poetical amplifications are beautiful, but Jesus gains a quality of power by his holding to the natural.
[ p. 259 ]
The sun is not very bright in comparison with the brightness which we meet in Isaiah 30: 26, which is “sevenfold” brighter. But Jesus, with all his love of radicalness of statement as suggested earlier, does not go beyond the bounds of nature when he says that the righteous will shine forth as the sun (Matt. 13: 43). Likewise, the reeds shaken in the wind (Lk. 7: 24) have a natural appearance. And the trees which Jesus mentions (Lk. 13: 19; 23: 31) are strikingly natural as compared, for instance, with the tree of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision.
Jesus’ disciples will tread upon serpents. The reference, of course, is figurative, but it is strikingly effective when set against the more extreme and unnatural statement of Psalms 91: 13, “Thou shalt tread upon the lion.”
It is not only true that Jesus generally stays within the limits of the natural, but he also shows a decided preference for the very common daily acts of domestic life. The washing of dishes he transformed into one of his most effective sayings with regard to the cleansing of the heart (Lk. 11: 39). The shortage of hands at harvest-time was as common as it is in Kansas or Nebraska (Lk. 10: 2). The shepherds did separate sheep from goats (Matt. 25: 32). Pearl merchants pursued their trade (Matt. 13: 45). Agents embezzled and falsified their accounts (Lk. 16: 1 ff.). Doors were shut upon outsiders who did, with Oriental demonstrativeness, weep and gnash their teeth (Lk. 13: 24-29).
There are, to be sure, many instances of unnatural events in the words of the Gospels. But in most cases the purpose of Jesus is to portray something in the spiritual world as unnatural or impossible. It is not natural to put a lighted lamp in a cellar, or under a peck measure (Lk. ix: 33); but it is no more unnatural than it is for men who have received the light of great new truth to fail to communicate it to others.
A blind man leading another blind man into a ditch is no more unnatural than Pharisaic leaders with their eyes shut to new truth, leading those who are blind enough to follow them, into the ditch of spiritual ruin (Lk. 6: 39). Likewise, cutting a [ p. 260 ] piece out of a new garment to patch an old one is absurd. Just so is it absurd to think of taking a piece out of Jesus’ religion and new spirit of life, as a patch for mending and renewing Pharisaic Judaism.
Socrates brought philosophy down from heaven to earth. Jesus’ sayings did the same for religion. God is no longer, for Jesus, a “king,” as in the Old Testament day, but a Father. The story of a father’s love in the parable of the prodigal son demonstrates the naturalness of Jesus’ religion. It does, indeed, require a spirit of great purity and power to make common things vehicles of ethical illustrations, without appearing simple and old-fashioned, and Jesus’ use of the commonplace is a new and distinctive element of power.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matt. 5: 6).
“The kingdom of God is like leaven which a woman took and buried in three measures of flour” (Lk. 13: 21).
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man sowing seed in the ground . . . the ground bears the crop of itself” (Mk. 4: 26, 28).
A final phase of Jesus’ power may be called the inwardness of his way of expressing religious truth.
To fully describe this element would lead far down into the essence of his religion, as presented in other chapters of this book. Suffice it to make brief reference here to a very few examples.
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress tells the story of the struggles of a human soul, pictured as on a journey. A similar story is told in the Holy War under the figure of a siege. A journey and a siege are external. Jesus is more inward. Conceptions of leaven, of soil with the seed in it, and of a tenant in the house, [ p. 261 ] surely point toward the inner spiritual life. The use of such language to portray spiritual inwardness is an element of power. Hunger and thirst are inward. A hidden treasure, a tomb, the process of digestion are among the more graphic instances of this manner of expression.
Isaiah has his agricultural parable (28: 23-28). He levels the ground and goes through the whole process of farming, on its external side. Even Paul has his farm (I Cor. 3: 6-9), his planting and watering (5: 6). Isaiah and Paul stay above ground in the open air. Jesus looks below the surface. The parable of the sower is a parable of the differing fate of the seed within the different soils. The grain of mustard seed is seen from the viewpoint of the secret start it gets when it is sown. Similarly, in Mark 4: 26-29 the farmer’s activity is carefully excluded.
Again, Jesus’ references to children have a peculiarly inward trend. Contemporary illustrations, like those of Paul, review the child externally, but the illustrations of Jesus, even the one of children in the marketplace, refer to their inward tempers and dispositions. He has nothing to say of the child as wrought upon, guided, or educated. He does not, like the Old Testament prophets, speak of the child as being nursed or taught to walk. Every reference of Jesus points to the child’s interior nature.
There are many illustrations which are not in themselves inward, but to which Jesus gives an inward trend. The most interesting and best-known instance involves the use of the word “neighbor” in the parable of the good Samaritan (Lk. 10: 36). The lawyer asks how much area the word covers. Jesus tells him, instead, how deep its meaning is, answering in terms of quality and inner spirit.
In all these respects the sayings of Jesus attained a power which carried them into the hearts of his listeners. He used words and illustrations from Old Testament Scripture and other existing sources. The subjects about which he taught were also familiar: the character of God, the way of salvation, the nature of true righteousness; but Jesus stated these elemental [ p. 262 ] needs of the soul with new clearness and power. He gave no mere code of ethics for the instruction and information of his disciples; he took the whole range of illustrations at hand; he made his rules radical and striking; he excluded all non-contributing details; he created interest by deferring his applications and explanations.
He achieved power by effective reversal of previous figurative usage; he was fond of antitheses and contrast; his positive spirit changed negative commandments and negative illustrations of negative ethics into positive expression of a positive religion of service. His skill in combining several illustrations into one, his constant avoiding of the imaginary, his loyalty to nature and the natural, and finally his portrayal of the inward qualities and capacities of the soul, are elements in the unique power and forcefulness of his expression of his religion.
Robinson, B. W., “Some Elements of Forcefulness in the Comparisons of Jesus,” Journal of Biblical Literature, 1904, pp. 106-179.
Robinson, W. H., The Parables of Jesus , pp. 129-142.
Wood, H. G., The Parables of Jesus, Abingdon Bible Commentary, pp. 914-920.
In classical Greek compare Homer, Iliad, VI: 46; Her. I: 86; Plato, Laws VIII: 68-B. It is interesting to note that Socrates also uses the idea of “catching men” in a good sense (Xenophon Mem . 11:6). ↩︎