The Agony of the Church | Page 5

of John the
Baptist and the Nazarenes on the one hand; and on the other the
Confucian moderate feasting, in the houses of friends, at the marriage
feast and on other solemn occasions.
His life-drama was interwoven into the lives of all classes of people:
men, women and children, Judaists and heathen, King Herod and the
proconsul Pilate, priests and soldiers, merchants and beggars, learned
sophists and ignorant fools, the sick and the healthy, the righteous and
the sinful, Jews and Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, and all others who
could be met in Palestine, the very market of races and creeds.
He was by no means a party man like the Pharisees and the doctors of
law. He called both the Pharisees and their enemies to follow Him. He
went to the temple to pray, but He also prayed alone in the desert. He
kept the Sabbath and He broke the Sabbath by healing the sick and
doing good on this sacred day. He came not to destroy the Law, but He
brought something which was higher than the Law and even included
the law itself, i.e. love and mercy.
He rebuked people who used to pray and say. "Lord, Lord!" And yet
He prayed very often Himself. He rebuked those who were fasting, and
yet He used to fast Himself. What He really looked for was neither
prayer nor fasting, but the spirit in which one prayed or fasted.

He commanded the people to give to Caesar things which were
Caesar's, and to God that which was God's. He did not criticise this or
that form of government, nor did He accentuate Monarchism,
Republicanism, or Socialism as one form preferable to another. Under
His scheme all forms of government were included as equally good or
evil according to what place they reserved for God, what gifts they duly
gave to God, and by what spirit they were inspired.
He followed the customs of His nation, and did not break them or
evade them purposely. He took food according to the Law, and washed
hands according to the Law, and went to the Holy City and took part in
worship in the temple (though He was "greater than the temple"),
according to the Law. It seems that He excluded no form of worship or
social life, though He despised the unclean and petty spirit with which
the hypocrites filled these forms. And when it came to a dispute He, the
Messenger of a new spirit, naturally tried to save rather the pure spirit
even without a form than a form filled with an impure spirit. Therefore
He felt bound to say: "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a
man," or "to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man," or "thou,
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet," etc.
Even so, too, He embraced all nationalities and races. Nothing was for
Him unclean that God had created, nothing but unclean spirits. When
the Roman centurion asked help from Him, He gave it. And when the
people beyond the Israelitish boundaries, from the coasts of Tyre and
Sidon, cried after Him, He did not listen to the exclusivistic warnings
of His disciples, but He distributed even there His divine mercy. He
was mindful even of the people of Nineveh. And when He sent His
disciples, He sent them to "all nations."
Finally, He included the natural and the supernatural. He talked with
spirits. He saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven. He stood amongst
Peter, John and James on one side, and Moses and Elias on the other.
All the people saw lilies in the field and sparrows upon the roof, but He
saw more, He saw how, His Father clothed the lilies and how He fed
the sparrows. He united the natural and the supernatural in His
teaching.

"Love those who love thee" was a natural teaching. But He added: "and
those who hate and persecute thee," which was supernatural.
"Give to them who give to thee" was a natural teaching. But He added:
"and to them who do not give to the", which was supernatural.
"Bless those who bless thee." But He added: "and those who curse
thee," which was supernatural.
And He united the natural and supernatural in His death. He suffered
and died in agony. He rose from the dead, descended to Hell and
ascended to Heaven. For Him there was as little boundary between
heaven and earth, between nature and supernature, as between Israel
and Canaan, or as between man and man, or form and form.
His wisdom was inclusive from the beginning to the end. What did He
ever exclude--save unclean spirits? His disciples were as exclusive as
anybody could be, exclusive when judging and acting according to
natural wisdom. But when they looked at