The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1949-02-10

and he turned green. S
Then some m a n sf
person set him down Il
on q Christmas neck
tie-and the poor lit &ll.szs II @1sas2a
tie thing exploded. Dr Foreman
This is a parable of
the person who tries to please every
body 1t can't be done-and it ought
not to be tried. 'Woe unto you, ,"
said Jesus, ''when all men speak
well of you"
Jesus Christ himself did not
please every one. Not even a per-
feet personality can be 100 per cent
popular. Not that Jesus enjoyed
rubbing people the wrong way.
There was nothing pervcrse about
him. He was deeply sincerely,
friendly, and to lose any friendships
must have been even more painful
for him than for us who are so sell
fish. Nevertheless he did make
enemies, he had his critics; and his
followers may expect no better.
misunderstanding Motives
NNE POINT on which Jesus met
" terrific opposition was his at
titude toward the Sabbath. Repeat
edly he or his disciples would do
things on the Sabbath which (as
Jews then understood the law) were
cutie wrong. There are Jewish com
munities in Palestine today where
a man walking on the street on the
Sabbath smoking cigarette would
be warned to put it out; for it is
against the Mosaic law % light a
fire on the sacred day, even a tiny
fire at the end Of a cigarette.
It was just that sort Of thing
that Jesus ran into, more than
oncc. His enemies misunder-
stood, CIR at least nlisrepres-
ented, his motives.
They claimed that he was "blas-
phemous," that is, that he was de
.liberately making light Of Gods
law. The truth was that he was act
ing by Gods highest laW-the law
of love. Helping people in need was
more important than keeping the
letter of the Sabbath law. Jesus ex-
ample may help US here.
Stepping Out of Bounds
yETHEN Jesus healed the man with
w the palsy, it was not the cure
his critics found fault with, it was
his first saying "Your sins are for
given. " ''Who can forgive sins but
God alone?" they said In short. the
tPharisees thought = some of them
perhaps sinccrely-that Jesus was
stepping out Of bounds, pretending
to do something that he had no right
to attempt and no power to accom-
plish.
Now Jesus did have beth the
right and the power to say what
he said to that sick and sinful
man. And he made no apologies
for going beyond the limits his
critics set for him.
So we too may sometimes be ac-
cused of "biting off too much" of
going beyond our powers or capa-
cities. Our critics may be right, you
know, though Jesus critics never
were. But how often they are wrong!
If Lincoln had listened to his critics
he never would have left his back
woods law office; they did not think
him fit to be president. If the Wright
boys had listened to their neighbors,
they never would have flown an air.
plane, for who would have thought
a couple of bicycle mechanics could
do what so many scientists said was
impossible?
The Company You Keep
TESUS' friends got him into trou-
j BILE, as Mark shows us. For one
thing, some were the wrong sort"
like Matthew the tax-collector Then
his friends had an unconventional
kind of religion, they actually
seemed happy about it instead of
gloomy like some of Johns dis
ciples. And to make matters worse,
his friends "broke" the Sabbath
laws much as Jesus did. All in all,
Jesus critics complained h t
Jesus friends were bad lot, and
they judged him by the company he
kept. But Jesus knew his friends
better than his enemies did.
He never gave I'D or loosened