WHAT THE POLICEMEN SAID

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22392, 13 October 1934, Page 19

WHAT THE POLICEMEN SAID

Written for the Otago Daily Times. By the Rev. D. Gardner Miller. There was no doubt about it; Jesus had become a public nuisance. At least, that was the decision of the authorities. This young man must not be allowed to speak so openly about religion. Who was He anyway? And as for healing sick people in. the streets on the Sabbath, why, that must be stopped at once. Had this young man no respect for the law? Every day they were hearing things about this Jesus. Some even said he was the Messiah. There was only one thing to do before affairs got out of hand and that was to curb this religious pretender and put him under authority. So they called the police and told them to arrest this Jesus and bring him to them. This nuisance must bo stopped. So the policemen went off on their errand. But I wonder if the authorities really told the truth! I think they lied, even to themselves. Were they not anxious to get rid of Jesus simply because he was showing them, up as mean-spirited, commercially-minded men who were using religion to fill their pockets? I think that was the real reason why they sent the police after the Master. (You will find the thread of the story in the seventh chapter of John.) At the time when Jesus appeared in the public streets of Jerusalem there were at least 20,000 people in the pay of the tempi*. 'So huge was the temple system that the priests were split up into shifts of eight ' hours each. It is estimated that at a religious festival there would be three million pilgrims present. Besides the purely religious aspect of the temple, nil j kinds of trading as well as money chaugj ing were carried out under, its 'direct ! auspices. The immense amount of monev that poured into the coffers of the religious leaders through the various " business" sides of religion made such leaders very wary of anyone who dared say anything displeasing about the temple. And this young man Jesus had dared to say openly that the temple was a place of prayer, not a place of merchandise. No wonder they wanted to arrest him. He was attacking their income. Religion had become an industry; the biggest industry in Jerusalem. These men were living' on religion! In the eyes of Jesus, religion was being prostituted by the men who were there to show an example and to lead the people to higher things. ( Yes, Jesus was a nuisance and He must be brought to book. "Off with you and bring this young fanatic to us, we will cure Him of His nonsense! "

I often wonder what kind of man the policemen saw when they mingled with the crowd one day while Jesus was speaking. No portrait of Jesus is in existence. I am glad of that for I think all of Jus would rather have our own picture of Jesus in our minds than a fixed idea of what He was like. But I am sure of one thing—His hands were the hands of a working man. The policemen, that day, would notice these hands. How dignified is labour in the New Testament! There's nothing mean or shoddy about work in that glorious book. God's Son was a working man. Not only so, but as a working man He was allied to one of the most ancient crafts in the history of the world. There are four sucli crafts that go back almost to the beginning of time—the ploughman, the mason, the smith and the carpenter. I would almost go so far as to say that these four crafts, which are so intimately connected with human life, are in the nature of being sacred. And God's Son was a carpenter. His hands showed His craft. But when the policemen listened to this carpenter they were annoyed. He didn't hypnotise them. No, there was nothing like that about Jesus. But He had a moral authority, a charm, a personality that gripped and held. And those policemen were drawn to this wonderful man whom they were sent to arrest. A few days passed, >et they couldn't do it. Somehow this young man had revealed things to them, about God and themselves, that they had not known before. At last they came to the conclusion that even though they lost their jobs—and they probably did—they couldn't arrest this man. And when they were asked why they had not arrested him, they replied with words that the world has never forgotten, "Never man spake like this man." The policemen of to-day should make these policemen of old their patron saints. • It is impossible to say what exactly the policemen heard when they went ro arrest Him. There are a few hints in the chapter, but not sufficient to enable one to draw any definite conclusion. But, as one eminent preacher said, there arc* some things that Jesus was always talking about. Have you ever noticed how fond He was of certain words? There are, for instance, those three words that were often on His lips—least, last, lost. And when you browse on these words you find that they sum up practically all that made up the unique message that Jesus preached. And what did He say about the least, the last, and the lost? He said the least would be the greatest, the last would be first, and the lost found. If that is not an original message, then I do not know what is. No wonder the policemen were themselves arrested. The whole religion that we call Christianity is contained in the glorious things that Jesus said about the least, the last, and the lost. "Never man spake like this man "; —true, for this carpenter they came to arrest, this young man who was the leader of a band of young men, was none other than the Son of God. But some of us to-day must not forget that it is easy to praise Jesus for the wonderful things He said, while at the same time we take no heed of them ourselves. Has He spoken to us? And what has been our reply?