CHAPTER XXXI
THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY
The teachings of Jesus. Great trading routes had converged upon Jerusalem and the Jews had long carried on an extensive commerce with distant countries. Wealth poured from all quarters and the rich accumulated vast fortunes. Side by side with all this opulence, there was growing in large towns a propertyless, proletarian, discontented class. The Romans were drawing vast numbers under their yoke of slavery. Discontent with life upon earth was increasing among the helpless population. God had destined man to reap happiness upon earth, but through the life of inequity and sin, man had lost his fellowship with God the Father. Out of compassion for his erring children, God became man in Jesus. He alone among all, it was given out, could secure forgiveness of man's sins from God as the mediator and restore him to divine fellowship Jesus lived and suffered, and by his supreme sacrifice of dying as ransom for humanity, he undertook to save and redeem mankind.
The world was in great peril and there was no hope that man could save it. Superhuman help alone could revive its dying hope. God loved the world and therefore sent Jesus so that it might be saved through him. The Saviour of the world speaks authoritatively not only as a messenger or a prophet of God, but in the person of God so that despairing humanity may find supremest consolation. Jesus knows God, and is from him. Furthermore, he asserts that he and his Father are one, the Father being in him and he in the Father. It is the Father who dwells in him that does the works that Jesus seems to be doing. He owns those as his kith and win who do the will of his Father. They alone will enter the Kingdom of Heaven after death. Jesus promises eternal life to those who sacrifice their all to follow in his steps. God is a spirit. He does not relish burnt offerings and sacrifices. He demands that man shall worship him in spirit. He is merciful, forgiving, and just. He makes the sun rise on the good and the evil, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. The inhumanity of man has extinguished all hope in the heart of man that erring humanity can ever be redeemed. Jesus consoles man that all hope is not lost. God can help man in his woe, if only man has faith in God. For, says he, faith can accomplish what verges on the border of impossibility. It can move the mountain and cast it into the sea. Let man love God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his strength, and let him love his neighbour as himself and all will be well with the world. Love for God and love for God's children are the two fundamental commandments, says Jesus. Love is the fulfilment of the law. Humanity's salvation lies in its faithful practice of universal love. The Kingdom of Heaven, says Jesus, is at hand and he exhorts his disciples to preach this gospel of hope throughout the earth.
Men and women, says Jesus, are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in them. The world would be a paradise if they remained true to their noble inheritance and lived godly lives. But given freedom of action, they have gone astray from the path of equity and made life upon earth full of suffering and sorrow. Avarice and envy, jealousy and hatred have split the world of human beings who began life upon earth on terms of equality as children of the common Father, into two antagonizing factions of the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor. The strong and rich own and rule the world, the weak and poor toil and suffer, and the number of the weak and poor is legion. Jesus comes as the friend and saviour of the weak and poor. He consecrates weakness and poverty in his own person and lives his life as the weakest and the poorest of mankind. He extols the virtues wedded to weakness and poverty and preaches a philosophy of life for the rescue and uplift of the weak and poor, the sorrowing and suffering.
The philosophy of life that Jesus teaches us has love for its basic principle. To love one's neighbour as one loves one's self, is the chief commandment. Love is the binding force, the bond of unification between man and God, and man and man. This sphere of love knows no limits. It is neither tribal, nor communal, nor national. It is universal. Wherever man meets man, there love should be. If a man loves God, but hates his fellowmen, his love for God is false. The world would change its sombre hue if men were kindly affectioned with brotherly love. As a sentient being, man wishes well to himself. Let him only recognize that his neighbour, his fellowman has equal right to his own well-being. The golden rule of life for man, therefore, is, as Zarathushtra and Confucius had said, to do unto others what he would men should do unto him.
The world groans under misery, because men wish evil unto their fellowmen. Evil recompensed by evil furthers evil. It is incumbent, therefore, upon all to overcome evil done to them by good. If a wicked person smites another on one cheek, the injured person should on no account retaliate but meekly turn to the aggressor his other cheek. Hate from the enemy is to be returned with love, his curse with a blessing, and persecution by him with prayer for him. If the enemy hungers, he has to be fed and if he thirsts he is to be given water. In his infinite mercy, God forgives trespasses of the sinners, even so has man to forgive him who wrongs him. Forbearance is a virtue and the strong should bear with the weak. If one lends something to his neighbour, let him do it with indifference whether the borrower returns it or not, because God, in his goodness, will recompense him. If some one takes away his goods, let him not pursue the usurper with the object of regaining them.
Man cannot serve both God and Mammon. The root of all human ills is the love of money. The riches of the earth can be corrupted by moth and rust and stolen by thieves. Let man give up his pursuit after them and let him by his virtue store up for himself his treasure in heaven, where it shall be imperishable. Jesus lived and died a poor man. Let man take his example, and use his wealth, if he has any, for helping the poor and the needy. And this act of relieving poverty and distress with his money is to be done so unostentatiously and with no ulterior motive but only with the object of discharging his duty towards his fellow-beings, that his left hand may not know what his right hand does. Treasure acts as a snare; it is a source of temptation. Hence it is that a rich man finds his entrance into the portals of heaven more difficult than a poor man. Faith and hope elevate life, but charity is the greatest virtue. It is the bond of perfection. A man of great possessions approached Jesus, saying he had faithfully observed all the commandments and was anxious to be assured of eternal life. The prophet of God answered that though he had practised all virtues, he had left out one and that was charity. He should therefore return home and sell whatsoever he had and give to the poor, so that God would reward him with treasure in heaven. It is practising true religion to visit the orphans and widows and alleviate their sufferings. Man does not bring anything into this world with him when he is born, neither can he take anything from his amassed fortune when the call of death comes to him. Contentment with what little he has, even if it is not beyond his daily food and raiment, is godly virtue leading to happiness.
Jesus gives a sublime manifestation of humility throughout his life. He glories in speaking of himself as a servant of humanity whose pious mission in life is to minister to the poor and the weak. He who ostentatiously exalts himself, says he, before his fellowmen shall be abased by the hand of God, but whoso humbles himself before all shall win exaltation. Let him, therefore, who is hailed as the great among men, minister to the needs of the many that are far from greatness; and let him who is saluted as the chief among his compatriots act as a willing servant of the populace. Jesus gave his life a ransom for mankind and he exhorts his hearers to practise such supreme sacrifice. Man instinctively loves life, but he gains more life and nobler life by losing it as a sacrifice for the good of others, than by saving it for the love of self. The best expression of love for others is the laying down of one's life as a loving sacrifice for the good of others. So did the Son of Man offer the very life of his body for the sake of mankind. Let the children of men hold their lives ready for sacrifice for one another in their mutual need. Love is the active rule of life; sacrifice is the passive, concludes Jesus.
The religion of Jesus, as we shall see in subsequent pages, was destined soon to enter Iran as a rival to Zoroastrianism.