THE BROTHERHOOD AT CAPERNAUM 195 the numbers of his followers must have increased with marvellous rapidity. Paul, the oldest New Testament writer, states in I Corinthians 155 that five hundred were gathered together soon after Jesus' death. This remarkable growth in the face of growing opposition and the distracting fear of persecution is the strongest possible testimony to the drawing power of the social ideals which Jesus held up before the men and women of Capernaum, and to his supreme ability as a social leader and organiser. The Breadth of Jesus' Social Plan. Jesus' pathetic words, as he finally left the greater Capernaum to avoid the bitter attacks of the Pharisees and to escape the clutches of Herod Antipas, reveal clearly the hope and purpose with which he had gone to this great metropolis (Mt. 1120-24): Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his mighty deeds had been performed because they did not repent: 'Woe to thee, Chorazin! Woe to thee, Bethsaida! for had the mighty deeds that have been performed in thee been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Yet I tell you, Tyre and Sidon shall find it more bearable on the day of judgment than you. And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted to the sky? Thou shalt go down to Hades! For had the mighty deeds performed in thee been performed in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. Yet I tell thee the land of Sodom shall find it more bearable on the day of judgment than thou.' The vivid narrative of Mark indicates that Jesus' early public work in Galilee was characterised by a buoyant optimism. As he said, he came to bring life, and it was difficult to believe that men loved darkness more than light. It was with surprise as well as with superlative sadness that he saw the multitudes in time fade away, and felt instead the treacherous toils of Herod Antipas tightening about him, even as they had about the valiant John the Baptist, while the deadly leaven of the Pharisees threatened to penetrate even the ranks of his chosen disciples. His tragic words addressed to Capernaum and its suburbs indicate clearly that he had hoped not merely to save a few, but to touch and transform the heart of this community. In this large and representative centre of population he laboured to establish a great fraternity which would concretely illustrate the social principles which he proclaimed. In other words, Jesus hoped that the fraternal community which he founded would grow until it embraced the entire civic community. The figure ("repent in sackcloth and ashes") which he employed in his address to Chorazin and Bethsaida was drawn from the vivid description in the book of Jonah of the complete repentance of the ancient city of Nineveh. It is also significant that in the lament just quoted Jesus departed from his usual custom and addressed not individuals but cities. As he analysed the situation in the light of experience, he asserted that his plan of transforming and socialising these communities was not impracticable. It had been only in part realised simply because they had failed to respond to his teachings and to the supreme opportunity which had been held out to them. From occasional references in the gospels it is evident that the Second Isaiah's marvellous picture of the servant of Jehovah, who voluntarily and joyously gave himself to the service of humanity, made a profound impression upon Jesus. He evidently regarded it not as a messianic programme to be carried out in detail, but as the dramatic statement of an ultimate social principle. Its influence upon his thought appears to have been especially strong during his period of retirement after the close of his Galilean ministry, when he was weighing the wisdom of going up to Jerusalem. He finally decided to face death there in order to hold up his teachings vividly and dramatically before his nation in the hope that it might at last appreciate and accept them. He also went up to Jerusalem in order to transfer to the capital city itself the fraternal community which he had built up at Capernaum. As Jesus set out on his last heroic journey to Jerusalem we are told that (Lk. 1331-34) At that very hour certain Pharisees came and said to him, 'Go forth, leave this place, for Herod wishes to kill you.' But he BREADTH OF JESUS' SOCIAL PLAN 197 said to them, 'Go and tell that fox, "Behold, I cast out demons and perform miracles to-day and to-morrow, and on the third day I am finished! But to-day and to-morrow and on the following day I must go on my way, for it cannot be that a prophet perish outside Jerusalem!" Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem! that kills the prophets And that stones those who are sent to her! How often would I have gathered thy children together, These tragic words indicate that Jesus had longed to see a far different outcome of his work. He had ardently hoped that his nation (which is here concretely represented by its capital city, Jerusalem) would not repeat the mistakes and crimes of the past, but would give ready ear to his teachings. He trusted that he would be able to gather together the diverse elements of his race, even as a bird her brood, and to establish with Jerusalem as its centre a happy, harmonious community that would live together under his paternal direction as one great family. That Jesus himself impressed his social plan on the minds of his immediate followers in this comprehensive form is the only satisfactory explanation of the fact that almost immediately after his death scores if not hundreds of them left their Galilean homes and went up to the Jerusalem which had slain their Master, and founded there, in the face of poverty and bitter persecution, a fraternal community which survived until the capital city itself was left by Titus a mass of smoking ruins. XVIII THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN Jesus' Estimate of the Value of Personality. The foundation of Jesus' social teachings is his profound estimate of the value of personality. He regarded every individual not as a mere automaton, nor simply as a member of a class, but as a person. It made no difference to him whether the individual was a learned Pharisee, a high priest, a humble peasant, a despised tax collector, or an adulteress. He treated each with that superlative chivalry which was the one great redeeming quality of medieval Christianity. In him women and children found their best friend and champion. His words to those who were inclined to despise their humble or less gifted fellow men reveal his own attitude (Mt. 1810): See that you do not despise one of these little ones; For I tell you that their angels in heaven look ever on the face of my Father who is in heaven. In emphasising personality Jesus avoided two dangerous extremes: the one is that of selfish individualism, which impels a man to regard the whole world simply as a great field to be reaped for his own benefit. Jesus pointed out the utter folly and fallacy of this philosophy of life in his paradoxical teaching (Mt. 1626): He who finds his life shall lose it, And he who loses his life for my sake shall find it. He clearly saw and taught that equally fallacious was the opposite extreme of regarding men only as impersonal units to be herded together or exploited or sacrificed at the whim of JESUS' ESTIMATE OF PERSONALITY 199 a political or industrial tyrant. At the basis of his estimate of the importance of personality was the knowledge that each man was a son of God. His own close fellowship with his heavenly Father led him to look upon every man as his brother, and to regard him with the same loving interest that God himself feels in his children. Viewed through the eyes of love, the faults and sins of men could not conceal from him their essential personality and potentiality. Jesus, however, was by no means blind to the blighting effect of ignorance and sin. In his thought they were the only real evils in all the universe. It is also clear that he did not devote his attention to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" simply because they were weak and sinful. No teacher in human history ever held up with greater insistence the pragmatic standard of values. "By their fruits you shall know them" was the test to which he submitted every life. Christianity during its varied history has sometimes made the mistake of fostering weakness and inefficiency, even at the expense of the strong and able, but it has never done so on the authority of Jesus. He went to the weak and sinful because he saw in them divine potentialities. What is more, he developed these potentialities. The sick he made strong; the demoniacs, under the influence of his faith-inspiring personality, recovered their reason and again took up their tasks as efficient members of society; the grafting Zaccheus was transformed into a public benefactor; the adulteress was allowed to go forth to redeem her virtue by honest living. Profoundly true is the declaration of the Fourth Gospel that his supreme aim was that men might have life, and that in abundant measure. With the ex Jesus' Doctrine of Social Individualism. treme socialistic position, which tends to relieve the individual of his personal responsibilities and to treat men in the mass rather than as distinct personalities, Jesus had no sympathy. The doctrine of man which he set forth conserves all that is significant in both individualism and constructive socialism. It may, indeed, be designated as social individualism. He advocated the largest degree of individual freedom. His whole effort was |