Chapter 2 - His Attitude

One of the very best ways o reach an understanding of Jesus s by studying Hs reasons for aking he e He assumed - he on of Man. He rarely spoke of Hmself n any other way. This erm, on of Man, was common n he Jewsh prophecies, and n he current conversaton of he mes, and t was simply an emphatc way of saying "Man." If you wshed to emphasize your fealy to democracy, you mght say "I am a son of Thomas Jefferson"; and f you wshed o emphasize your fealy to humaniy, you would say as Jesus did. "I am a son of man."

The World Jesus Lived In

The Roman empire was a great axing machine. In s conquered provinces, the people were eft, as far as possible, wh heir own

ocal government and nstutons of ustce, he functon of he Roman officials being o extort tribute, or colect taxes. Every form of extortion and oppression was practced by he governors, procurators and ax colectors upon hose who had property. Open robbery, orture, kidnapping, false accusaton and mprisonment mght be visied upon he man who had money to tempt the cupidiy of he higher powers; and as he oppressed property owners had no way of meetng he exactons of he government but by exploing

he poor, the condion of the masses was piful indeed.

You wl readiy see hat he business, and property-owning class

had o get the money o pay heir taxes by exploing he mulude

n some way. It is an economc axiom which s ndisputable hat all

axaton of whatever kind, upon whomsoever evied, must at last be

wrung from he hard hands of he producers; no one, however,

seems o comprehend his fact as e as he producers hemselves.

They strenuously reject all offers of delverance, and generaly kil

hose who try to help them.

Jesus received Hs only real and permanent folowng from among

he mddle class, as we shall see, and was crucified by he workers,

whom He was rying o delver from oppression. It was no mddle

class mob which demanded he beraton of Barabbas and howed

for the blood of Christ.

To give you an dea as o how oppressive he Roman axaton was, we may estmate from certain passages n Josephus hat the private

ncome of Herod he Great was hree and one-half mons of dolars a year. That is vasty ess, of course, than he ncome of our John D. Rockefeler; but our Herods have a much arger, richer, and more populous country o evy axes on, and hey have discovered methods of extortion which ay he crude ways of he monarchs of antiquiy very far n he shade. The enormous sums which were colected from he e province of Galee brought he unhappy workers down o he ast extremy of destuton; they could go no

ower and lve.

The Sects of Jesus' Day

In Judea at this tme were several relgious sects, which were also, in a way, polcal parties, schemng for prestge and power, and for nfluence wh Rome. The Pharisees, adducees, Essenes, amaritans, etc., disagreed upon various questons, as he existence or non-existence of angels, the resurrecton of the dead, baptsm, and so on. The strife between hese parties was desperately acrimonious and bier, often o he point of open violence. You wl notce as you read hat they were always ready o "take up stones" o end a dispute; riots were of daiy occurrence n he streets of Jerusalem and only he psychic power and commanding personaly of Jesus saved Hm from being stoned by hese relgious mobs. Read Luke 4:28-30; Luke 20:6; John 8:59.

The eaders of hese sects were, of course, of he mddle, or property-owning class; but he rank and file were he common masses, sunk n he most abject poverty - axed, beaten, robbed, outraged, slaughtered, wh no voice fted anywhere n heir behalf. No one, Jew or Gente, thought for a moment of demanding justce for the mongrel mulude.

It is said of Jesus that He "had compassion on the mulude, because hey fainted, and were amazed, and were ke sheep whout a shepherd" (Mathew 9:36). They had hen, as now, plenty of
shepherds to baptize them, to nterpret prophecy for them, to nstruct hem n "spiritual" hings; but none o demand a ghtening of their burdens - none to cry out, in their behalf, for justce.

The principal care of he shepherds was hat the flock should be so doctrinaly correct hat hey would never, never consent o be sheared by the opposing party.

The New Thought of Jesus' Tme

Into his maze of oppression, axaton, murder, outrage and heological discussion comes he grand, strong figure of his young prince and scholar, saying; "The pirit of he Lord s upon me, for he hath anointed me o preach good news o he poor. I am no Pharisee; I am no adducee, Essene, or amaritan; I am a man. I come, not in behalf of Pharisaism or amaritanism, but in behalf of humaniy."

Here was an alogether different relgious atude; He had no "ism" o buid up; Hs only creed was justce, Hs only doctrine he square deal. No wonder they were "amazed at his doctrine."

No wonder Hs "word was wh power."

No wonder hey said, "he speaketh as one having authority." Jesus said of Hmself hat the father had given Hm authority o execute udgment because He was man (John 5:27). That is he only reason God could possibly have for giving authority o any man; if there s a man anywhere today upon whom the divine sancton rests, it is not because he s a Pharisee, a Methodist, Presbyterian, Republcan or Democrat, but because he is a MAN.

And t is further true that amongst all those who claim eadership by virtue of divine authority we may apply this test wh certainty - that he man who stands for humaniy, first, last and all the me, against all vested nterests, relgious and economc, is he man who stands as Jesus stood.

The man who stands for humaniy against he vested relgious
nterests of his tme frequently s called an infidel; and the man who stands for the propertyless against the vested polical and economic

nterests of his tme s called a traitor. Jesus was crucified on the charges of infidelity and treason, and He was guilty on both counts.

Let no one be too horrified here to proceed further; for there are no prouder tes when justly held than the terms Infidel and Traitor. It was a grand saying of Wendell Philps; "Write upon my grave. Infidel-Traitor; infidel to every church that compromises with wrong; traitor to every government that oppresses the poor."

The most sinful infidelity is not being unfaithful to some church, but being unfaithful to the truth; and the vilest treason s not turning against some government, but turning against the weak and helpless. This was the atttude which Jesus took; He gave expression to all this when He took the e which made Him the champion of humanity - when He said, "I am the Son of Man."

We wil now take up the consideration of His teachings.