CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
JESUS THE INCARNATION
WE started out on this inquiry with the question "Who is Jesus?'
We have sought to answer it in various ways.
He was a devoted Bhakta who lived in close, unbroken fellowship with God, both in prayer and in work.
He loved God with all His mind and strength and He loved His neighbour as Himself.
He_ was an ideal Guru possessing all the qualifications which are expected of a religious teacher.
He was the Suffering Servant who died on the Cross that we may be saved.
In describing Him as a Bhakta, as a Guru and as a Suffering Servant we feel that we have not adequately described Him.
He was far more than any of these.
He was a Bhakta but neither among those whom I personally know nor among those about whom I have read in books is there any one else who had such Bhakti.
I know of no one else who identified himself so completely with God in feeling and will and who worked in the world for God and man in such a spirit of utter renunciation.
He taught great and wonderful truths.
Some of these truths have also been taught by others in other lands and in other ages.
But there has been no one else whose teaching has been on such a consistently high level throughout and whose life has so entirely confirmed his teaching.
Other teachers may have set forth such doctrines here and there, but they have not always moved on such a lofty height of thought and experience nor have their lives been as completely in harmony with their teaching as was the life of Jesus.
He was a Suffering Servant but He suffered more than any one else and in an absolutely different spirit. We feel that here is someone whom our ordinary descriptions do not at all fit.
No man could have taught and worked and suffered like this. We know only too well what men are, even the best among us.
The more we study the Gospels, the more we meditate on them, the clearer this becomes to us.
The Claims of Fesus If we are going to understand Jesus aright, we must consider what He said about Himself.
He made certain extraordinary claims; these must now be'stated.
THE GOSPEL AND INDIA'S HERITAGE
From the beginning of His ministry Jesus called Himself the Son of Man.
This term meant "the Man."
The Prophet Ezekiel was constantly addressed as the "Son of Man" by a Divine voice The name meant that Ezekiel was a man, chosen for a special work. When Jesus used the title " the Son of Man 8
- He regarded Himself as the Man, representing mankind in some special way.
Jesus taught as one having authority.
He did not say " This is the word of the Lord" or " Thus saith Scripture."
But He said, "I say unto you."
He did not support His teaching with the sanction of Scripture but He Himself on His own authority laid down the law.
He spoke of Himself as being the final judge of men in various passages.
" But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left." ?
" And then shall they see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send forth the angels, and shal! gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven." *
Jesus claimed also the right to forgive sins.* Constantly He exercised this right and forgave men and women their sins.
This was one of the primary reasons which increased the hatred of the religious leaders of the day against Him.
They regarded the right to forgive sins as belonging only to God.
When Jesus continually claimed and exercised that right, it seemed quite clear to them that He was guilty of the serious crime of blasphemy.
He laid claim to a special knowledge of the Father.
" All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him." * He called for men's absolute devotion and complete surrender to Him.
He said: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are * Ezekiel ii. 1; iii.
1; in other places.
? Matthew xxv. 31-33.
* Mark xiii. 26, 27.
* Mark ii. 1-12.
* Matthew xi. 27.