Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-25
HIS TWO QUESTIONS.
Lesson in the Conduct of the Scribe
Who Tested the Master,
A SUDDEN CHANGE OF POSITION.
The Man Who Assumed Superiority Was
Soon on the Defensive
CONDUCT A MEASURE OF RELIGION
WRITTEN FOR THE prspAroH.I


life? And who is my neighbor?
The meaning Of question depends upon
the spirit Of the questioner. 1t may be
asked in jest or in earnest. The purpose o.
1t may be to discover or to evade the truth.
We have learned much about question
when we know who asks it and why he
asks it.
Here is q man who comes to Jesus asking
this urgent question: What shall I do tc
inherit eternal life? A deep question:
Rightly asked. the most profitable, the
most important, the most imperative of
questions How shall 1 live that my life
may best approach the ideal life and be
good enough to go on, without reversal,
without interruption, into the life to come?
But the man who asks the question is a
lawyer 1t Is a part of his profession to ask
questions. And the record tells us, what
We might have guessed, that he asked the
question professionally, tempting" the
Master; that is, testing Him, putting Him on
trial, undertaking . cross-e1amination Of
Him.
Question With Trick Behind 1t.
.
really there was no religion in it Religion
is essentially concrete and personal When
1t ceases to have a personal reference, and q
personal interest, and a practical applica-
tion to our daily living. It ceases to be re-
ligion, 1t becomes philosophy or ma
chinery. The discussion OF theology may
be as un-religious as the discussion OF math-
ematics. The LAWYER did not ask his ques-
tion because he longed after eternal life
and desired to have the way of it made
plain. He wanted to make q point He
stool up to begin an argument, in which he
hoped to entangIe Jesus in His speech, aud
from which he expected, not truth, but trI-
umph. It makes great difference in what
spirit people ask questions about religion.
You see how the meaning of this question
lies behind the words, in the heart of the
questioner.
Presently the lawyer asks another ques-
tion-Who is my neishbor? Between the
questions Christ has spoken, and His words
have made an evident impression. This
question is quite different from the other,
and Is asked in quite different spirit
himself" Notice the change of attitude. A
moment ago this lawyer was setting Christ
upon the defensive; now he feels the need
OF defending himself His former question
may have been hostile. or 1t may have been
condescending. 1t was certainly asked in
tone of superiority. Let US see, he said to
himself, how this peasant prophet will
solve this theological problem.
Who the Scribes Were.
There was much in the circumstances to
make that superior tone perfectly natural.
The lawyer belonged to the most powerful
IS i. -
commonly as the "scribes." He was ac-
customed to salutations in the markets.
and to the best seat at feasts, and TO the
chiet place in the synagogue, and to be
called rabbi. He despised everybody who
had not been educated out of the text books
which he learned at college. While Jesus
of Nazareth was without social or ecclesias-
tical position; he lacked that elaborately
useless knowledge OF ritual and casuistry
which in that day passed tor learning; and
he had no money. That is, he was not
dressed in the conventional garments of
greatness. And the lawyer did not know
him.
There is story In the "Gesta Roman
orum" of q King who lost his robe and his
scepter and his crown. Somebody stole
presented himself at his own court nobody
King without robe, scepter and q crown.
This lawyer, like great many other peo-
pie, found it difficult to believe that any
man could be great who was not attired in
the garments of greatness And when he
encountered the'Prophet of Nazareth, with
out anv of the usual marks OF greatness
about Him, poor, and the friend and asso-
ciate of the poor, of no reputation, and not
wearing very good clothes, he felt, no doubt,
that he was justified in putting on that air
of superiority.
A Change in the Questioner.
But in this second question there is no
longer any accent of superiority. The man
recognized the Master. He who was for
putting Jesus to the test is now conscious
that he himself is being tested. "Willing
to justify himself" anxious to keep the
good opinion of the crowd, he says unto
Jesus, "And who is my neighbour"
1 think that we can read between these
questions three significant facts about this
man, three notable changes made iu him
already by this brief conversation with
Jesus
The first is that of which have just been
speaking, the recognition that Jesus Christ
was greater and wiser than himself A
most fruitful recognition The trouble
with great many people who take it upon
themselves to catechise religion is that they
have never really looked into the face of
Jesus Christ They think, as this lawyer
thought, that they know more than He
does-because they do not know Him. To
know Christ is the real beginning of re-
ligion. To recognize the mastership of
Christ is the first step In Christianity.
Then we go on, indeed, asking questions,
but we ask different questions aud in an al
together different spirit.
A New Meaning in Old Words.
And here is second change in the atti-
tude. of the man. SGT the motives of the
questions side by side One he asks for the
purpose of testing Jesus; the other that he
may Justify himself. There is great diff
ference in the endeavor to find faw in the
doctrine of teacher. and the endeavor
to hide flaw in ones own doctrine;
still more in ones own practice. See how
this man, as he listens to the voice of the
Master, begins to think about himself He
mas not learned any truth that he did not
know before. 1t is not new truth which
works this change in him. Jesus has made
him answer his own question. He has sent
him to his own law books
"What is written in the law? how readest
thou?" And his answer is approved-thou
shalt love God aud thy neighbor. ''This do
and thou shalt. live" All this has the
lawyer known from his youth up. What
has he learned here to set him thinking in q
new direction? Something in the look of
Christ, something in his voice, in his pres
ence, has flashed q new meaning into the
old words They have suddenly been lifted
out of the lists of definitions and formulas
and theological propositions, and behold
they are alivei They breathe and are real
And the man begins to think new thoughts.
He thinks about the relation OF all this to
himself
When Relieion Becomes Real,