Christian biography -- Palestine; Jesus Christ -- Biography
He proclaimed the rights of man, not the rights of
the Jew; the religion of man, not the religion of the Jew; the
deliverance of man, not the deliverance of the Jew.[6] How far removed
was this from a Gaulonite Judas or a Matthias Margaloth, preaching
revolution in the name of the Law! The religion of humanity,
established, not upon blood, but upon the heart, was founded. Moses
was superseded, the temple was rendered useless, and was irrevocably
condemned.
[Footnote 1: _Orac. Sib._, book iii. 573, and following, 715, and
following, 756-58. Compare the Targum of Jonathan, Isa. xii. 3.]
[Footnote 2: Luke xvi. 16. The passage in Matt. xi. 12, 13, is less
clear, but can have no other meaning.]
[Footnote 3: Matt. v. 17, 18 (Cf. Talm. of Bab., _Shabbath_, 116 _b_).
This passage is not in contradiction with those in which the abolition
of the Law is implied. It only signifies that in Jesus all the types
of the Old Testament are realized. Cf. Luke xvi. 17.]
[Footnote 4: Matt. ix. 16, 17; Luke v. 36, and following.]
[Footnote 5: Luke xix. 9.]
[Footnote 6: Matt. xxiv. 14, xxviii. 19; Mark xiii. 10, xvi. 15; Luke
xxiv. 47.]
CHAPTER XIV.
INTERCOURSE OF JESUS WITH THE PAGANS AND THE SAMARITANS.
Following out these principles, Jesus despised all religion which was
not of the heart. The vain practices of the devotees,[1] the exterior
strictness, which trusted to formality for salvation, had in him a
mortal enemy. He cared little for fasting.[2] He preferred forgiveness
to sacrifice.[3] The love of God, charity and mutual forgiveness, were
his whole law.[4] Nothing could be less priestly. The priest, by his
office, ever advocates public sacrifice, of which he is the appointed
minister; he discourages private prayer, which has a tendency to
dispense with his office.
[Footnote 1: Matt. xv. 9.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. ix. 14, xi. 19.]
[Footnote 3: Matt. v. 23, and following, ix. 13, xii. 7.]
[Footnote 4: Matt. xxii. 37, and following; Mark xii. 28, and
following; Luke x. 25, and following.]
We should seek in vain in the Gospel for one religious rite
recommended by Jesus. Baptism to him was only of secondary
importance;[1] and with respect to prayer, he prescribes nothing,
except that it should proceed from the heart. As is always the case,
many thought to substitute mere good-will for genuine love of
goodness, and imagined they could win the kingdom of heaven by saying
to him, "Rabbi, Rabbi." He rebuked them, and proclaimed that his
religion consisted in doing good.[2] He often quoted the passage in
Isaiah, which says: "This people honor me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me."[3]
[Footnote 1: Matt. iii. 15; 1 _Cor._ i. 17.]
[Footnote 2: Matt. vii. 21; Luke vi. 46.]
[Footnote 3: Matt. xv. 8; Mark vii. 6. Cf. Isaiah xxix. 13.]
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