Adventures in Religion

W. Carl Ketcherside

[Page 11]

     Jesus was a perplexing person to many who heard him while he was on earth. They were disturbed by the fact that he taught, as well as by the facts which he taught. In the first place he did not make teaching his profession so he was not a professional teacher. Indeed, many of the greatest truths he uttered were spoken almost casually, some of them as answers to questions from hecklers. He did not attend one of the schools for scribes or go to a college for rabbinical students. He made no appeal to formal degrees or educational attainments as a reason why he should be heard. He was not a theologian and he offered the people no course in systematic theology.

     The scribes were always sure of themselves, but they were not always sure of their teaching. It was too frequently a subject of dispute with other scribes. The difference between Jesus and the scribes was easily seen by the people. "When Jesus had finished this discourse the people were astonished at his teaching; unlike their own teachers he taught with a note of

[Page 12]

authority" (Matt. 7:28,29) Any person who dares to rise above the narrow concepts of his age and set forth great principles will gain both enemies and friends. Jesus was no exception as his attendance at the Feast of Tabernacles upon one occasion demonstrated. "The Jews were looking for him at the festival and asking, 'Where is he?', and there was much whispering about him in the crowds. 'He is a good man,' said some. 'No,' said others, he is leading the people astray.'"

     It was this occasion which gave Jesus an opportunity to enforce some great truths. One of these is the inner testimony to the truth of God which is resident in every sincere individual who is unreservedly following Christ to the best of his ability. It is not essential that one be conversant with the logical processes which go into books on apologetics in order to have assurance of the divine origin of the message of our Lord. Another principle is that a man demonstrates his sincerity when he aims at the honor of the one who sent him, rather than seeking for self-praise. These affirmations were called forth because of the astonishment of the Jews. Here is the way the scriptures record it, "When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up to the temple and began to teach. The Jews were astonished. 'How is it,' they said, 'that this untrained man has such learning?' Jesus replied, 'The teaching that I give is not my own, it is the teaching of him that sent me. Whoever has the will to do the will of God shall know whether my teaching comes from him or is merely my own. Anyone whose teaching is merely his own, aims at honour for himself. But if a man aims at the honour of him who sent him he is sincere, and there is nothing false in him'" (John 7:14-18).

     It is our personal conviction that the teaching of Jesus would provoke about as much astonishment today as it did among the Jews, if it was correctly evaluated. Actually, most of us take what Jesus said and fit it into thought-patterns of our own. We have formulated our ideas of goodness and righteousness and into these moulds we pour the great teachings of the Master and conceive of the crystallized forms we produce as being those of heaven. Men tend to think of holiness in terms of places and times. They define goodness in relation to specific deeds. To them, it consists of particular performances in a particular manner. The one who does these things is considered to be a righteous man because he does them. All of this would be regarded by Jesus as superficial, perhaps even a hypocritical approach. We believe that the following principles are very important in the concept of righteousness which was enunciated by our Lord.

     1. Jesus taught the ideal of a completely unified life, an existence wholly integrated and not separated into various departments. The entire personality is governed by a central force, and it is this abiding internal principle which makes one good. Goodness does not consist in the mere performance of deeds. It is an inner quality of being. There is no distinction between thoughts and deeds, or between motives and actions. Things are good because they are done by good men. It is the man, not merely the transaction, which makes the difference. "A good man produces good from the store of good within himself; and an evil man from evil within produces evil" (Matt. 12:35).

     The nobility of this concept escaped the legalists in the days when Jesus was on earth. It still escapes those on earth since Jesus returned to heaven. Few of us dare even yet to believe that "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, or a poor tree good fruit" (Matt. 7:18). An apple tree is not an apple tree because it has apples on it, but because it is that kind of tree it bears apples. If it is impossible for a good tree to produce bad fruit, then whatever is produced by such a tree must be good. However, men tend to exalt laws instead of the principles such laws were given to preserve. The keeping of such laws then becomes the chief good. Any deviation therefrom is regarded as evil.

     There is a higher good than that of keeping laws. Laws are given to regulate relationships and those relationships are superior to the regulations. Jesus used as an example the case of David and his men

[Page 13]

when they were fleeing from Saul. Being hungry, they entered the sacred precincts of the House of God and ate the loaves of the Presence "which it was not lawful for them to eat." When there is a conflict between perpetuation of life and performance of law, the first becomes the chief good. Life is superior to law! Actually there is no conflict about this in the heart of the one who truly understands Jesus, for he spontaneously does what is right. He "produces good from the store of good within." He does not have to stop and quibble about the matter. The decision has long ago been made. It is not the good deed that produces the store within, but it is the good store within that produces the good deed. It is not new deeds or new acts that Jesus wants, but new men! "You must be made new in mind and spirit, and put on the new nature of God's creating, which shows itself in the just and devout life called for by truth" (Eph. 4:24).

     2. Jesus taught that while all righteousness welled up from within, it had to flow out. He knew nothing about a religion kept bottled up by traditional restraints. So effervescent was true religion and goodness that it would burst the bottles (Luke 5:37). Religion was not a stagnant pool. It was a flowing spring. It was not a cistern but an artesian well. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "The water that I shall give him will be an inner spring always welling up for eternal life." On the last day of the festival in Jerusalem he said of the believer, "Streams of living water shall flow out from within him" (John 7:38).

     The true religion was to he known by its fruits. Jesus knew that a religion which did not reveal itself openly was empty and vacuous. He pronounced a sentence of condemnation on the fig tree when he came and found not fruit. He could not be content with mere leaves. There are no ornamental trees in God's acreage. One either bears fruit or cumbers the ground. God demands the whole man and nothing less. Someone said "It does not take much of a man to make a Christian but it takes all of him there is." Jesus only painted one word picture of the final judgment and in it he made no allusion to worthiness based upon knowledge of doctrine, theological perception or argumentative ability. The criterion for entering into and possessing the kingdom was simply the good done for others.

     It is interesting to note that in this presentation Jesus goes to some length to show that those who gave food and drink, showed hospitality, sheltered the homeless and clothed the naked, did not know they were doing it for him. They were motivated purely by compassion and not by hope of reward. They were not so much demonstrating their religion as their character. Their good deeds were not partisan gimmicks to advertise "our church" or to influence people toward it. They were simply sharing what they had with suffering humanity and they were surprised to hear Jesus say, "Anything you did for one of my brothers here, however humble, you did for me."

     This may help to explain another statement of Jesus. "I tell you there is not a thoughtless word that comes from men's lips but they will have to account for it on the day of judgment." The King James Version has "idle word." The Revised Standard Version renders it "careless word." I confess that this used to bother me. That was before I considered it in the light of the context. At first it seems very extreme. It tends to portray God as a harsh and exacting taskmaster instead of a loving Father. But we must remember that a man does not reveal his true self when he is on guard and watching every word. It is when his guard is down and he is not trying to make an impression for social or other reasons that he shows what he really is. It is the careless or idle word, the chance act, which gives you a glimpse into the heart. You cannot judge a man so well by his formal as by his informal speech. Since judgment has to do with the man as he is, not as he wants others to think he is, this is the proper criterion--the word idly or carelessly spoken, the thoughtless expression.

     3. Jesus taught that the inner quality called goodness was never static. It was

[Page 14]

ever changing and amending character for the better. The good man was never satisfied with his current state. He must be ever climbing and never standing still. Complacency has no place in the life of the concerned one. The man who stands and boasts of what he is and what he has done merits no notice from God. An outcast from society who bows his head, smites his breast, confesses his sins, and prays for forgiveness, goes to his house justified rather than the other. The apostle Paul makes a statement which portrays the creative nature of the goodness which keeps the eye fixed on Jesus. "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:16).

     "The unveiled face...are being changed." Think about these expressions. It is the man who "sees through a glass darkly" who does not change. His vision is distorted, his perspective is warped, his sight is clouded. There are veils over the faces of many--veils of prejudice, of tradition, and of partisanship. These allow only a blurred image of the Christ. One cannot properly discern his Lord through a film of legalism. Such a man may be like the disciples on the way to Emmaus. They were actually talking about Jesus and what had happened unto him. It was inconceivable to them that anyone who resided in the vicinity of Jerusalem should not know these things. "As they talked and discussed it with one another, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but something held their eyes from seeing who it was" (Luke 24:15). It is possible to know a lot of things about Jesus and still not know him! There are so many things which seem to hold our eyes!

     The goodness of which Jesus spoke is not merely outgoing. It is also ongoing. It produces a flexibility of spirit, an elasticity of soul, which allows itself to be shaped and reshaped by increasing knowledge. It is not hardened by conformity to the past or the infirmity of the present. It is transformed and transforming, striving ever to an unattainable ideal, yet becoming more ideal for the striving. It regards law not as horizontal but as vertical. It is not a restraining fence but a ladder, and even as one climbs the rungs he looks between them to a new vista and a better world offering new challenges for tomorrow.