Part III

The Minister

I

The Friend of Men

223.  In nothing does the contrast between Jesus and John the Baptist appear more clearly than in their attitude towards common social life.  John had his training and did his work apart from the homes of men.  The wilderness was his chosen and fit scene of labor.  From this solitude he sent forth his summons and warning to his people.  They who sought him for fuller teaching went after him and found him where he was.  They then returned to their homes and their work, leaving the prophet with his few disciples in their seclusion.  With Jesus it was otherwise.  His first act, after attaching to himself a few followers, was to go into Galilee to the town of Cana, and there with them to partake in the festivities of a wedding.  While it is true that most of his teaching was by the wayside, among the hills, or by the sea, it is still a surprise to discover how often his ministry found its occasion as he was sitting at table in the house of some friend, real or feigned.  The genuine friendships of Jesus as they appear in the gospels are among the most characteristic features of his life—­witness the home at Bethany, the women who followed him even to the cross, and ministered to him of their substance, and the “beloved disciple.”  Jesus calls attention to this contrast between himself and John, reminding the people how some of the scornful pointed the finger at himself as “a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.”  He received his training as a carpenter while John was in his wilderness solitude.  Men who would probably have stood with admiration before John had he visited their synagogue, found Jesus too much one of themselves, and would none of him as a prophet (Mark vi. 2, 3).

224.  A like contrast sets Jesus apart from the scribes of his day.  These were revered by the people, in part perhaps because they held the common folk in such contempt.  Their attitude was frank—­“this multitude which knoweth not the law is accursed” (John vii. 49).  The popular enthusiasm for Jesus filled them with scorn, until it began to give them alarm.  They were glad to be reverenced by the people, to interpret the law for them “binding heavy burdens and grievous to be borne;” but showed little genuine interest in them.  Jesus, on the other hand, not only had the reverence of the multitudes, but welcomed them.  First his words and his works drew them, then he himself enchained their hearts.  Outcasts, rich and poor, crowded into his company, and found him not only a teacher, a prophet of righteousness rebuking their sins and calling to repentance, but a friend, who was not ashamed to be seen in their homes, to have them among his closest attendants, and to be known as their champion.  It was when such as these were pressing upon him to hear him that Jesus replied to the criticism of the scribes in the three parables of recovered treasure which stand among the rarest gems of the Master’s teaching (Luke xv.).