In reading the gospels about Jesus ministry I cannot help but be moved by his message and manner and I know I am not alone in feeling like this. I marvel, smile, and slowly shake my head as I read about the miracles that he performed and have, at one time or other, wished that I could have been there to witness those marvels and to hear his voice. Perhaps like many others I have also wondered at those people who heard him and yet walked away. What would I have done?
I think that we cannot fully realize just how radical Jesus teachings were to those people at that time and how hard that message hit them. He was Jew in a Jewish land speaking out against the religious system in which all Jews put their implicit trust. Jesus gave them new ways of looking at the Law. He condemned their religious leaders for their hypocrisy, their haughty and superior attitude, their rapacious appetite for power over their fellow man, and their lack of empathy for those under their charge. In short, he attacked the very fabric of their faith and it must have terrified a great many who heard him.
The religious leaders, who held considerable power and control over the common people, repeatedly condemned this brash young man for his unorthodox teachings and interpretations of the Law. They reviled him particularly for undermining the authority they had given themselves over their brothers. They warned those under their charge to have nothing to do with him. These were not empty threats for expulsion from the synagogue created a tremendous hardship on the victim. Those who chose to listen were putting a great deal in jeopardy. Those who followed risked everything.
Still people were drawn to this radical and defiant young man who seemed bent on a self-destructive course. The message Jesus preached was tantalizing, it was exciting, it was a message of liberation, it was a concept that few had dared to entertain given their seemingly inescapable enslavement to the poverty and ignorance into which they had been born. But to enter into that new mindset they would have to leave the shores of familiarity and brave the sea of uncertainty. They would have to break out of the imaginary bonds they had been convinced were sanctuary for them but were really prison bars that kept out the glorious concept of freedom which Jesus was offering.
It was a frightening thing for those who had for a lifetime pursued what they had been convinced was the one and only path to God and to step outside that prison in which they had willingly confined themselves in their ignorance of the true nature of their situation. Many, in fact most, lacked the courage and could not step across that mental threshold and sadly they remained in the relative comfort and false security of their prison of ignorance and fear. A few, like the American pioneers who left Missouri and braved the unknown frontier to the California, stepped out and put it all on the line. For them Jesus words: "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" became a reality as they became sons of God.
What an exciting time that must have been! What a fearful time as well. What separated the two groups? Surely all must have had a measure of trepidation. Surely all must have met opposition when they went against the tide. Surely all must have questioned and doubted back and forth for a while. What is it that pushed that small group across the line that the majority could not ever bring themselves to cross? There are as many reasons as there were people back then. Each person constituted a unique situation for each was a unique personality with a unique set of circumstances.
I cant help but think about those days and those Israelites that lived contemporaneously with Jesus. I cant help but wonder what would have been my situation. If I were a Pharisee I would have believed that I was upholding the Law of God which had been handed down from generation to generation for fifteen centuries. How would I have viewed this Johnny-come-lately Nazarene who was being so irreverent of the sacred traditions I had so diligently studied and so scrupulously observed all my life? What pressures would have been brought to bear against me by my superiors? What if I were a commoner? What would have been my attitude then? Would I have surrendered to my fears or would I have seen that truth and would that truth have burned within me to where I was not able to deny it?
I wonder.