First, then, our Master

I. First, then, our Master, the Nazarene, was despised, and is despised even to this day.

He was despised, first, because in his person, his parentage, his state, his apparel, his language, his habits — there was nothing of grandeur, nothing of parade, nothing but what was simple, gentle, lowly. He rode once — but it was on a colt, the foal of an donkey. It was said, "Behold your king comes"; but his coming was meek and lowly. He might have been a king: he was very near being taken by force to be pushed up into a throne; but he withdrew himself, for he did not strive, nor cry, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets. He was no popularity-hunter, or flatterer of the great. He was no man of confusion and strife, who sought to push himself forward and tread down others.

Those who opposed him were weak like bruised reeds; but he would not break them though he could have done it. They offended him with their weak arguments, for they were like a smoking flax to him; but he would not quench them. He left them for another day when he shall bring forth judgment unto victory.

I suppose, if we had seen the Savior, we would not have thought him "altogether lovely"; for his heavenly beauty was not of the kind that strikes the natural eye. Hence the impossibility of any painter ever being able to paint him, for though he must have been superlatively lovely, it must have been a beauty with which nobody would be charmed unless their eyes were opened to perceive the beauty of holiness. His was the loveliness of virtue, the charm of purity — and not that sensuous beauty which excites desire and kindles the passions of mankind. He was loveliness itself; but only to those who know what loveliness is.

About his dress, there was nothing remarkable. He wore the ordinary smock-frock of the country, a garment without seam, woven from the top throughout: a very serviceable, useful piece of work-day apparel — but possessing nothing in it of official dignity, or princely richness, to distinguish him from an ordinary person.

As for the place where he lived, it was no bishop's palace, nor even an ordinary house; for he had nowhere to lay his head.

He sought no dignity and no honor.

As for his companionships, they were of the lowest, for it is said of him, "This man receives sinners and eats with them"; "Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him." The offcasts of society delighted in his discourses, and they gathered around him to receive blessings at his hand. He lifted them up from the dunghill, renewed them, and set them among princes.

He was the last person in the world to be hampered by pride. There was nothing of the kind about him. He was the personification of love. He condescended — but he did not seem to condescend; for graciousness was natural to him. He did it so really that one almost forgot the condescension in the altogether naturalness of the way in which he sympathized with all grief, and helped all who came for support. Hence the proud despised him. Those who looked for dress and garb, as so many do in our day; those who looked for a show of learning, quotations from great writers, continual novelties to human minds — could not see much in him. Those who wanted a display of power, a leader bold and brave to drive out the Romans, and play Judas Maccabeus for the people — turned away and said, "He is nothing but an ordinary Nazarene!"

His followers, too, were another cause of the contempt poured upon him; for his chosen friends were to those who knew them, nothing but common fishermen. Indeed, that is all they were. Unlearned and ignorant men they are said to have been, though they baffled the pretended wisdom of the age in which they lived. How could he have selected such followers? There were scribes, and there were Pharisees; there were Rabbis and Rabbonis — He might surely have called some of those to follow him; but, you see, the Savior was not a preacher that at all attracted the elite of society. Those highly cultured minds, as a rule, went to hear Rabbi Simeon, the Pharisee, who expounded points of no earthly importance; but Jesus was one of whom it is written, "The common people heard him gladly."

And so the wise ones ran him down as "a Nazarene." "Look," said they, "look and see who they are, whom he has chosen to be his chief helpers. See how the lower orders flock around him. They are no judges; what notion have they of profound learning and research? They like a man who is ignorant — for he is like themselves. They have no taste, they have no education — and so they gather to one of themselves."

"Ah!" said one of these wiseacres, "I am ashamed of him — quite ashamed. Indeed, I shall speak to him, for he ought not to be so lost to all sense of propriety." And so he goes to the Master and says, "Do you hear the boys crying, 'Hosanna!' in the temple? Do you hear what these say?" He thought that the Lord would be ashamed of having such admirers as mere street boys; but the Savior answered, "Have you never read" — as if he was going to question this great man's reading — "have you never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings he has perfected praise"? He was not ashamed even of the children that strewed the pathway for him, nor ashamed of the sick and sinful people that gathered around him, nor ashamed of the poor fishermen that were the lieutenants of his salvation army; but rather did he rejoice therein, and say, "Father, I thank you that you have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight." But the higher classes, the refined and the cultivated, said, "Tush! he is nothing but a Nazarene!"

Well, then, when they came to listen to his doctrine they were not a bit more pleased, nor did they hold him any higher in esteem. What do you think he taught them? Among other things it is reported that he said, "Except a man be born again — he cannot see the kingdom of God;" and, would you believe it, he said this not to one of the lower order at all — but to a learned gentleman who was a ruler in Israel? Why, it has come to a pretty pass, this, to tell educated people, refined, aesthetic people — that they must be born again, or else they cannot see the kingdom of God — to insist upon regeneration as a thing as necessary to a philosopher as to a prostitute, as necessary to a senator as to a jailbird; as needful to the purest as to the most defiled. Oh no! We cannot bear such leveling doctrine! It is shocking. So they turned their backs to him and called him a Nazarene. When a man tells you unpalatable truth — it is very easy and natural to call him bad names. If you cannot answer him any other way — you can always answer him by reviling him.

And, then, what do you think he said beside that? On one occasion he had the audacity to say — and I am sure the Pharisees thought it was audacity indeed, "Except you eat my flesh, and drink my blood — there is no life in you." What could the man mean — that they, even they the sons of Abraham who were born free; the priests who had partaken of the sacrifices, must actually eat him? Did they think that they would accept his teaching as food for their souls? I wonder if they went as far as that in understanding him; but if they did, they liked it no better. They were indignant that he should say that the only food for their souls must be himself; that unless he became their life, and the nourishment of that life; unless he became part and parcel of their very being, they could not be saved! Even those who did think a little of him, said that after this they must give him up. They could not stand that, and so they walked no more with him.

He went even further. Why, he actually dared to tell the scribes and Pharisees who had fasted so many times in the week, and never ate bread without washing their hands, and tithed the mint and the cummin — that there was nothing in all this, and he said, "You blind guides, you hypocrites, you strain out a gnat — and you swallow a camel." He went on to tell them that all their external religion was a lie and a falsehood, unless the inner part of the soul were cleansed. He said that it was not that which a man ate or drank — but that which came out of the man which really defiled him. People said, "Did you ever hear such talk as that? Why, he is putting us all down — we who are the best people. If we are not good, who can be? — we who are the leaders of society, the pink of perfection? We do swallow a widow's house sometimes — but we always do that behind the door. It is true that we are not as clean inside as we should be; but then we always make the outside of the cup and platter clean. He has been talking against us; and at the same time he is inviting the fallen sinners to himself, and saying, 'Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.'" "Well, well," they said, "we cannot bear it: he is nothing but a Nazarene!" And so they turned their backs upon him.

Dear friends, today Jesus Christ is as much despised as ever, by those ungodly and vain-glorious men who understand what his gospel is. How frequently you will find in the public newspapers, and in the magazines of those who think themselves the cultivated class, remarks against the doctrine of justification by faith. You and I are simpletons enough to believe that we are justified by faith in Christ Jesus, because God has told its so, and we sing,

"Nothing in my hands I bring

Simply to Your cross I cling!"

And they tell us that this is inconsistent with public morality; that the masses ought to be told that unless they behave themselves — they cannot possibly go to Heaven, and so on. When we tell about free grace, which pardons the vilest through faith in Christ, men are changed, and made moral and holy — but our unbelieving critics choose to ignore all that, and go and talk against what is the very essence of the gospel of Christ, as though it were a poor, miserable thing, only fit for a set of fanatics to preach. "Only believe, and you shall be saved," say they, "that is their absurd doctrine." Thus, in other words, they repeat the old abuse, and call us Nazarenes.

But if you want to see the ungodly world foam at its mouth — oh if you want to see rage get to its worst, and wish to see pretended learned men upon their mettle — preach the doctrine of atonement by shed blood! Tell them that remission of sin is by substitution — that Christ stood in the sinner's stead, and took the sinner's sin, and that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. See how they writhe and rage! They cannot bear this horrible doctrine of atonement by sacrifice — and yet most learned sirs, it is upon that horrible atonement that our hope depends! It is upon that horrible doctrine that we hinge our destiny for time and for eternity; and we are not ashamed to bring it out with all plainness of speech, for the precious blood of Christ, God's dear Son, and that alone, cleanses us from all sin.

"Ah, well," they say, "that is just the old story which your Puritan fathers used to tell; that is the old Methodist doctrine: that is your Presbyterianism, and as James the First said, Presbyterianism is no religion for a gentleman." These learned men admire the broad-church school, where everything is taken to be true — except the truth! Still Jesus is to the mass of mankind, the despised Nazarene.

I will not dwell longer upon it, however, because you that know the Lord need not be told that he is to this day despised and rejected of men. Call yourself a Christian, and forget what real Christianity is — and you will have easy times of it. Instead of preaching the simple gospel of Christ — get fine music, and fix up fine shows, turn the place of worship into a theater — and there will be no persecution for you. Of course not, that is not Jesus Christ! But preach Jesus Christ, and see if all the dogs will not howl at you directly. You shall have bad names, and wicked stories, and all sorts of jests poured upon you. Go through the world as a respectable professor of religion, and never let fall a single distinctive truth from your lips, never perform one single distinctive action of Christianity — but just do as others do, and live as others do — and I will warrant you, you shall be in a whole skin from the first of January to the end of December. But be a real Christian, and live your Christianity and speak it out — and see how long you will be before they of your own house are at war with you. If we are true to the Master, we shall find that we have not enlisted in a service which is all fine feathers and music. There is war to be borne, and hardness to be endured by every good soldier of the cross, for still Jesus is called the Nazarene.

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