was obsessed with the ceremonial conception of religion. In his thought the priests and the Levites were the most conspicuous examples of piety, and the Samaritans were little better than pagans. Jesus wasted no time in stripping him of his false prepossessions. At the same time he gave him a concrete definition of true religion in action which has no equal in literature (Lk. 1030-37):

A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell in with robbers, who even stripped him, and after beating him, went off, leaving him half dead. Now it happened that a certain priest was going down by that road; but when he saw him, he went past on the opposite side. And in the same way a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, went past on the opposite side. But a certain Samaritan, travelling, came to where he was. And on seeing him, he bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine. And putting him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the following day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, "Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I return.' Which of these three do you think proved himself the neighbour to him who fell in with the robbers? He said, "The man who dealt mercifully with him.' Jesus said to him, 'Go, and do likewise.'

This familiar parable presents its great teachings so plainly that they need little interpretation. In the presence of real human need no racial prejudices can deter the truly social citizen. Petty and absurd seem the ceremonial interpretations of religion (represented by the priest and Levite) in contrast with that love for man which prompts immediate action. The Samaritan gives not merely his money, he gives himself and his own personal possessions, quickly, spontaneously, and wholeheartedly. Like a brother, he puts himself in the other man's place and generously supplies those needs of which the wounded man was scarcely conscious. In rendering help he uses in the most scientific way the resources at his disposal. He gives freely, but not in a way to pauperise the object of his charity. His sympathetic imagination even anticipates the poor man's

ILLUSTRATION OF SOCIAL CITIZENSHIP

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future needs, but he gives only what is necessary to set the stricken man on his feet. When he has done this the Samaritan hastens on his way, for he is a busy man and faithful to all his social obligations.

XIX

JESUS' APPRECIATION OF THE SOCIAL VALUES OF RECREATION AND POPULAR AMUSEMENTS

Jesus' Own Enjoyment of Wholesome Recreation. Medieval thought and art have sadly obscured the real personality of Jesus. Under the influence of this alien ascetic note they have pictured him as pre-eminently a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. To him have been attributed all the characteristics of a medieval saint. Nothing could be more misleading or pernicious. Jesus was indeed acquainted with sorrow, but it was by no means a dominant note in his active life. When temptation and opposition came to him, he met them heroically and triumphantly. His was the joy of the conqueror and the exhilaration of one who achieves, so that even pain and struggle were to him but the steps that lead to the highest types of happiness. Fortunately in the early Marcan narrative there remain many vivid, first-hand impressions of the personality of him whose message was pre-eminently one of good tidings. Not the least of the charms which drew all men to him were his abounding optimism and his strong human interests.

Chief among the charges which the Pharisees flung at Jesus was that he associated with all classes, and especially during their hours of social recreation. To use an expressive modern term, he was naturally a "good mixer," a man among men. There is no evidence that he ever refused an invitation to a banquet. Undoubtedly he entered this open door that leads directly to the hearts of men because he wished to win them, but he could not have done so with such grace and success had he not thoroughly enjoyed mingling with them and sharing their social joys. Tireless worker that he was, he took genuine

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213 pleasure in all forms of wholesome recreation. No one delighted more than he in the good fellowship of the banquet or weddingfeast at which the spirit of genuine hospitality prevailed. The real Jesus who won the unbounded loyalty of the Galilean peasants and of the varied population of Capernaum was not an emaciated mediæval type of saint but a rugged, stalwart man of the hills, browned by the hot Palestinian suns, and keenly alive to all the beauties of nature and the joys of life.

Jesus' Sense of Humour. The modern age is at last beginning to appreciate fully the humanising and socialising value of humour. No one can read Jesus' teachings with open mind without being impressed by the spontaneous and kindly humour which is constantly bubbling forth. Amusing because grotesquely absurd is the figure of casting priceless pearls before swine, which in antiquity, as to-day, did not have the reputation of being gifted with a highly developed æsthetic appreciation! The picture of the pompous man who took the front seat in the banquet-hall and then was invited to sit lower appeals strongly to the universal sense of humour. The facile way in which Jesus escaped the carefully laid snares of the scribes and Pharisees must have proved a great source of amusement to his disciples and to the people. His flashing wit enabled him to turn upon his assailants the very weapons with which they attacked him.

Equally effective were the striking hyperboles which Jesus constantly employed, as for example, that of an awkward camel, the most ludicrous of beasts, trying to get through the eye of a needle. The vivid portrait of the man with perverted moral vision, who irritated his friends by trying to strain out a tiny gnat but who was ready to swallow a huge camel, appeals to the pity and risibilities of the modern man as well as to Jesus' first-century audience. Equally ludicrous were those who were officiously eager to extract the infinitesimal splinter from the eye of a friend, while their own eye contained a huge beamthe great rafter which supported the roof of an Oriental house. Jesus performed an inestimable service for the sad and sinstricken Jews in his audiences, for he taught them to laugh to

gether and to see how ridiculous were the follies that obsessed them.

The Joyous Life of the Capernaum Community. The oldest narratives testify that Jesus' life with his disciples was especially full of joy and good fellowship. This spirit was one of the potent forces which attracted and permanently held his followers. They had no heart for the ceremonies which were usually associated with sorrow and long faces. Jesus himself spoke in defense of their joyousness, even though they were bitterly criticised by the Pharisees because they did not spend time in fasting (Mk. 218-22):

And John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to him, 'Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples fast not?' And Jesus said to them, 'Can bridal guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then will they fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old garment, lest the piece tear away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no man puts new wine into old wine skins; else the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wine skins be destroyed. Instead one puts new wine into fresh wine skins.'

Thus Jesus likened his life with his disciples to a weddingfeast. To appreciate the strength of this figure it is important to remember that a wedding was by far the most joyous social function in Jewish life. He declared that as long as he remained with his disciples this spirit of jubilant good fellowship would prevail-in fact that anything else was impossible. He also described their communal life as "new wine" in contrast to the rather sombre, exacting, punctilious life which Judaism imposed upon its followers. It is clear that the men and women who joined the fraternal community at Capernaum did so not under the sense of stern compulsion but because they found it irresistibly attractive.