THIS "UNSETTLING PERSON”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21976, 10 June 1933, Page 19

THIS "UNSETTLING PERSON”

Written for the Otago Daily Times. By the Rey. D. Gardner Miller. I have borrowed not only the'title, but also the basic idea of my article from a little book on a great subject, “What did Jesr.s Teach?” This book is written by Professor J. Alexander Findlay, of Diclsbury Methodist College, Manchester, and is published in the Westminster Book series by Hodder and Stoughton (price 3s). It is one of the best books published this year. Here the wealth of learning is poured out in simple, understandably language, which any intelligent person can enjoy. I do not agree with all the author says—indeed, I would violently disagree in one particlar instance—but I do agree with many other reviewers that the book is a valuable contributor to our understanding of those penetrating and terrific principles underlying the spoken word of Jesus. | And indeed this wonderful man Jesus I intrigues us all. Althoufih nearly two thou- ! sand years have elapsed since He appeared as a man, the world of thought and action ' is still trying to sum Him up and, somej times, trying to get rid of Him. No man has ever straddled human hisI tory as Jesus Christ has done. As Renan 1 said many years ago, " To tear Thy name i from this world were to shake it to its j foundations.” Now, Whatever else may be ■ said about Jesus, it can never be said ' that He made terms with complacency. There was a caustic quality in His makelup that rattled complacent people. And j a deep study of the psychology of those I who put Him to death might reveal the fact that the uncontrollable bitterness and i hatred exhibited by them was that of com- | plaeont people who hated to be disturbed. 1 Yes, as Professor Findlay says,,“Jesus | was, in the very nature of things, a terI ribly unsettling Person to have about.” Not that Jesus took any delight in shocking people, but He simply couldn’t bear insincerity. I don’t think you could show me another religious genius who said such daring, biting, and caustic things as Jesus is reported to have said, i This aspect of Jesus has been lost sight of, generally speaking, by the modern habit ,of referring to Jesus in a sentimental way. Not that I decry sentiment, indeed a little more sentiment in the pulpit and pew, and soon onr churches would cease being cold stores. But “ sentiment” and “sentimental” are not identical. .For instance, think how often Jesus is referred to as “ dear,” “ sweet,” “gentle,” “meek and mild,”, etc. All very sugary! But no one who knew Him ever called Him by any of these endearing names. People who lived close to Him never talked glibly about Him. All of which is a parable to many of us in these days.

To no class was Jesus so unsettling as to the professional experts in religion. He railed them with His incisiveness, and penetrated their subterfuges with the bracing blast of His own reality. This class of experts (ahd I am reminded of the modern explanation of experts as “those who know more and more about less and less ”) doled out their beliefs in God and Scriptures as the very last word that could be said about either or both. They were professional expositors and, like all professionals (not even excluding the modern Christian ministry) they were wild at any one who competed with them, or dared to enter their preserves, without having a diploma or degree or other little docket that could be accepted as evidence that they were “ trained.” Jesus always hated monopolies and none more so than that of so-called religious experts. Listen to this: “When this unaccredited Expositor (Jesus) broke in upon their comfortable world, in which they were surrounded - by respectful pupils and were greeted ■ everywhere with cries of ’Rabbi, Rabbi,’ they were intelligent enough to know that, if He had His way, their prestige would vanish. If they could have ‘ put Him in His place,’ found a niche for Him in the Church where He would not interfere with them, all would have been well. But He would not leave them alone, and they wanted to be left alone with the illusion that they were doing good. Because they wanted to be left alone, and He would not let them be, they turned upon Him at last, and incited other people to make away with Him.” . It would be stupid and wrong to say that all religions experts are like the crowd that “ringed” religion in the days of Jesus, but it would neither be stupid nor wrong to say that the danger always hovering around the modern professional exposition of religion is that they may bind the Supreme Expositor in the web of their own weaving—and, as of old, He will break through and be found in the street among the children. Whatever else you may do to this Unsettling Person—yes, you may crucify Him afresh—you cannot pin your puny label on Him;

Economics are very much with us these days. I often wonder just what -would happen if we allowed for 24 hours this Unsettling Person, Jesus Christ, to have His way with us. I feel certain He would once again utter that terrifying statement of His: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Economics would be turned upside down if this scarifying, sacrificial principle became operative. Within 24 hours there wouldn’t be a vestige of unemployment or of a hungry youngster. EveryMiuman contact would be altered, values would be changed—and then, probably, there would be enough disgruntled, selfish people left to hurry Him off to a cross which they always keep ready for such a person as Jesus. You see, Jesus insisted and insisted upon the value of the individual. To Him the most ordinary, trying, obstinate man or woman was of real value—indeed, of such great value that the visible world was made for him. This value of the individual and also the quiet acceptance (without argument) that God really did exist and that He was a Father, can be said to be the foundation of all that Jesus taught. His teaching is still needed. But He won’t be put in a niche, or even in a stained-glass window. He is an unsettler, for He knows that men are prone to complacency and insincerity, and so He prods them —because He loves them so much — to get a move on.