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The Sixth Lesson: The Work of Organization.1007
the good pious folk, urged on by the priests, began to abuse and condemn
the Healer and patient, after the manner of the formal pietists of all lands
and times, even of our own. Clinging to the letter of the law, these people
overlook its spirit—bound by the forms, they fail to see the meaning lying
back of all forms and ceremonies.
Braving the storm that was arising around Him, Jesus boldly walked to
the Temple. He was plunged in a sea of conflicting opinions and voices. On
the one hand was the healed man and those who sympathized with him, in
earnest argument concerning the righteousness of the deed. But arrayed
against these few were the good folk of the place who loudly denounced
the Sabbath-breaker and demanded His punishment. Were the ancient laws
of Moses to be thus defied by this presumptuous Nazarene, whose religious
ideas were sadly lacking in orthodoxy? Surely not! Punish the upstart! And
again Jesus was in actual peril of bodily hurt, or perhaps even death, owing
to the religious bigotry of the orthodox people.
Jesus was ever a foe to the stupid formalism and ignorant fanaticism
regarding “holy days,” which is ever a characteristic of certain classes of mind
among people. On the above occasion, as well as upon other occasions, and
notably upon the occasion of the Sabbath when He directed His hungry
disciples to pick corn to satisfy their hunger, Jesus opposed the strict,
ironclad law of Sabbath observance. He was ever filled with the idea that
the “Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” There was
nothing Puritanical about the Master, and in view of His attitude regarding
this matter it is surprising to witness the attitude of some in our own time
who, wearing His livery, oppose these teachings of His in theory and practice.
And so, driven out once more by the intolerance and bigotry of the
public, Jesus returned again to Galilee, His land of retreat and rest, and the
scene of much of His best work. Galilee was filled with His many followers
and admirers, and He was less in danger of disturbance and persecution
there than in the neighborhood of Jerusalem. Large congregations attended
His ministry there, and His converts were numbered by the thousand. The