Chapter 2 - His Attitude

One of the very best ways to reach an understanding of Jesus is by studying His reasons for taking the title He assumed — the Son of Man. He rarely spoke of Himself in any other way. This term, Son of Man, was common in the Jewish prophecies, and in the current conversation of the times, and it was simply an emphatic way of saying "Man." If you wished to emphasize your fealty to democracy, you might say "I am a son of Thomas Jefferson"; and if you wished to emphasize your fealty to humanity, you would say as Jesus did. "I am a son of man."

The World Jesus Lived In

The Roman empire was a great taxing machine. In its conquered provinces, the people were left, as far as possible, with their own local government and institutions of justice, the function of the Roman officials being to extort tribute, or collect taxes. Every form of extortion and oppression was practised by the governors, procurators and tax collectors upon those who had property. Open robbery, torture, kidnapping, false accusation and imprisonment might be visited upon the man who had money to tempt the cupidity of the higher powers; and as the oppressed property owners had no way of meeting the exactions of the government but by exploiting the poor, the condition of the masses was pitiful indeed.

You will readily see that the business, and property-owning class had to get the money to pay their taxes by exploiting the multitude in some way. It is an economic axiom which is indisputable that all taxation of whatever kind, upon whomsoever levied, must at last be wrung from the hard hands of the producers; no one, however, seems to comprehend this fact as well as the producers themselves. They strenuously reject all offers of deliverance, and generally kill those who try to help them.

Jesus received His only real and permanent following from among the middle class, as we shall see, and was crucified by the workers, whom He was trying to deliver from oppression. It was no middle class mob which demanded the liberation of Barabbas and howled for the blood of Christ.

To give you an idea as to how oppressive the Roman taxation was, we may estimate from certain passages in Josephus that the private income of Herod the Great was three and one-half millions of dollars a year. That is vastly less, of course, than the income of our John D. Rockefeller; but our Herods have a much larger, richer, and more populous country to levy taxes on, and they have discovered methods of extortion which lay the crude ways of the monarchs of antiquity very far in the shade. The enormous sums which were collected from the little province of Galilee brought the unhappy workers down to the last extremity of destitution; they could go no lower and live.

The Sects of Jesus' Day

In Judea at this time were several religious sects, which were also, in a way, political parties, scheming for prestige and power, and for influence with Rome. The Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Samaritans, etc., disagreed upon various questions, as the existence or non-existence of angels, the resurrection of the dead, baptism, and so on. The strife between these parties was desperately acrimonious and bitter, often to the point of open violence. You will notice as you read that they were always ready to "take up stones" to end a dispute; riots were of daily occurrence in the streets of Jerusalem and only the psychic power and commanding personality of Jesus saved Him from being stoned by these religious mobs. Read Luke 4:28-30; Luke 20:6; John 8:59.

The leaders of these sects were, of course, of the middle, or property-owning class; but the rank and file were the common masses, sunk in the most abject poverty — taxed, beaten, robbed, outraged, slaughtered, with no voice lifted anywhere in their behalf. No one, Jew or Gentile, thought for a moment of demanding justice for the mongrel multitude.

It is said of Jesus that He "had compassion on the multitude, because they fainted, and were amazed, and were like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36). They had then, as now, plenty of shepherds to baptize them, to interpret prophecy for them, to instruct them in "spiritual" things; but none to demand a lightening of their burdens — none to cry out, in their behalf, for justice.

The principal care of the shepherds was that the flock should be so doctrinally correct that they would never, never consent to be sheared by the opposing party.

The New Thought of Jesus' Time

Into this maze of oppression, taxation, murder, outrage and theological discussion comes the grand, strong figure of this young prince and scholar, saying; "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he hath anointed me to preach good news to the poor. I am no Pharisee; I am no Sadducee, Essene, or Samaritan; I am a man. I come, not in behalf of Pharisaism or Samaritanism, but in behalf of humanity."

Here was an altogether different religious attitude; He had no "ism" to build up; His only creed was justice, His only doctrine the square deal. No wonder they were "amazed at his doctrine."

No wonder His "word was with power."

No wonder they said, "he speaketh as one having authority." Jesus said of Himself that the Father had given Him authority to execute judgment because He was man (John 5:27). That is the only reason God could possibly have for giving authority to any man; if there is a man anywhere today upon whom the divine sanction rests, it is not because he is a Pharisee, a Methodist, Presbyterian, Republican or Democrat, but because he is a MAN.

And it is further true that amongst all those who claim leadership by virtue of divine authority we may apply this test with certainty — that the man who stands for humanity, first, last and all the time, against all vested interests, religious and economic, is the man who stands as Jesus stood.

The man who stands for humanity against the vested religious interests of this time frequently is called an infidel; and the man who stands for the propertyless against the vested political and economic interests of this time is 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 titles when justly held than the terms Infidel and Traitor. It was a grand saying of Wendell Phillips; "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 is not turning against some government, but turning against the weak and helpless. This was the attitude which Jesus took; He gave expression to all this when He took the title which made Him the champion of humanity — when He said, "I am the Son of Man."

We will now take up the consideration of His teachings.