By James Stalker
BEYOND the narrow circle of those whom we properly call our friends, there is a large circle of acquaintances, brought into connection with us in various ways, which may be designated by the vague term Society. Our intercourse with those to whom we are thus related raises questions, which are not free from difficulty, but they receive light from the study of the conduct of Jesus.
I.
In this relationship there was a remarkable contrast between our Lord and His forerunner, the Baptist. John shunned society, living in the desert far from the abodes of men. His clothing was unsuited for the house or the town, and he confined himself to the ascetic fare of a hermit. The Saviour, on the contrary, descended among His fellowmen. Instead of waiting, like the Baptist, till people went out to Him, He came to them.
In village and city, in street and market place, in synagogue and Temple-wherever two or three were gathered together, there was He in the midst of them. He entered beneath men's roofs, to rejoice with them when they were rejoicing and to weep with them when they wept. It is astonishing how often we read of His being at feasts. He began His ministry by attending a wedding. Matthew made Him a feast, and He went and sat down among the publican's motley guests. He invited Himself to the house of Zacchaeus, another publican. Indeed, His eating with this class of persons came to be notorious. But, when people from the other end of the social scale invited Him, He accepted their hospitality with equal readiness and sat down as frankly with scribes and Pharisees as among publicans and sinners. St. Luke mentions at least three occasions when He dined with Pharisees. Thus, " the Son of man came eating and drinking." Indeed, so free was His conduct in this respect, that sour and narrow souled critics were able to call Him a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber. False as these nicknames were, they derived a colour of truth from His way of living; none would ever have dreamed of applying them to the Baptist.
This contrast is remarkable between two so closely associated as John and Jesus. Both were religious teachers, whose disciples imitated them; but in this particular their examples led in opposite directions. The disciples of John fasted, while Christ's disciples feasted. Could these opposite courses both be justified?
The Baptist no doubt had reasons for his conduct, which satisfied himself. There are dangers in society. The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are there. Company, is the ruin of many a man and of many a family. There are social circles in which religion would not be tolerated, and there are others in which those who profess it are under sore temptation to hide their colours. The Baptist felt that these influences were so predominant in the society of his day that neither he nor his followers could bear up against them. The only alternatives between which they had to choose were either, on the one hand, to flee from society and keep their religion pure and entire or, on the other, to enter it and lose their religion; and there could be no doubt which was the path of duty. *
Jesus, on the contrary, could go into society not only without striking His colours, but for the purpose of displaying them. So completely was His religious character the whole of Him, and so powerful and victorious were His principles, that there was no fear of any company He might enter obscuring His testimony for God. And He lent His followers the same power; He filled them with an enthusiasm which wrought in them like new wine; they moved through the world with the free and glad bearing of wedding guests; and therefore wherever they went they gave the tone to society; their enthusiasm was so exuberant that it was far more likely to set others on fire than to be extinguished by worldly influences.
Here we seem to find the true answer to the perplexing questions often raised as to how far the people of God ought to venture into society and take part in its engagements. What is its effect on your religious life and profession? Does it silence your testimony? does it cool down your enthusiasm? does it secularise you and render you unfit for prayer? If so, then you must adopt the Baptist's line of conduct and keep away from it, or seek for company in which your principles will be safe. But there are those who can venture far into the world and yet everywhere be true to their Saviour; they are known as Christians wherever they appear, and people respect their position; they would not go anywhere if they knew that their mouths were to be stopped on the subjects lying nearest their hearts; the energy of Christ in them k so glowing and victorious a force that they mould the society in which they are, instead of being moulded by it. This may be a difficult attainment; but there can be no doubt that it is the attitude towards the world most worthy of Christ's followers and likest to His own.
II.
It has been mentioned how often He is recorded to have been present at feasts. This part of His conduct was of a piece with all the rest; for nothing He ever did, however trivial it might seem to be, was unconnected with the grand mission upon which He had come to the world. This mission was to make known the love of Heaven and to awaken and foster love on earth. He lived to increase the love of man to God and the love of man to man; and nothing, which could serve either of these ends, was unimportant in His eyes.
He encouraged hospitality because it promotes one of these ends: it helps to break down the obstacles, which separate men, and to bind them together in the bonds of goodwill. When men meet one another, the misconceptions and misunderstandings which have caused estrangement dissolve in the light of better acquaintance. How often we come away from a first conversation with one against whom we have entertained a prejudice with the remark that he is not a bad fellow after all; and not unfrequently after a social rencontre we carry away an enthusiastic admiration for a character which we have previously considered proud, or formal, or shallow. Our dislikes and suspicions breed and grow great at a distance, but they die at the touch of actual acquaintance.
Jesus did not regard even the courtesies of life as beneath His notice and encouragement. These foster respect between man and man, causing us to think of one another as personalities, not as things to be neglected or trampled on. Once He was invited to dine at a house where the host neglected to show Him the ordinary Oriental courtesies. The man had no real regard for his Guest, but invited Him for a selfish purpose of his own. He wished to gratify his curiosity by examining at leisure one who was the talk of the country and to honour himself by having the distinguished man beneath his roof. But he felt it to be condescension, and he showed this by omitting the courtesies, which he bestowed on the guests of his own standing. Jesus felt the slight; and, before leaving the table, He exposed Simon's little and loveless heart, enumerating one by one, ** in tones of scathing indignation, the courtesies he had grudged Him. He could not enjoy a loveless feast.
Where, on the contrary, love was, He would not have it controlled. When, at the feast of another Simon, His gentle disciple Mary poured her costly treasure on His head and brought down on herself the reproaches of narrow hearts that grudged the extravagance, Jesus defended her against the pretended champions of the poor and insisted on love having its way.
It is a violation of the sacrament of hospitality when any other motive underlies it but love. Jesus pointed the finger of condemnation at those who extend hospitality only to guests who, they hope, will extend it to them in turn, thus degrading it to a business transaction. It is, if possible a meaner motive still to make it only an opportunity of selfish display. Cumbrous luxury is the death of true hospitality. It narrows the scope of it; for even the wealthy can indulge but seldom in such extravagance, and people of humbler means are not able to face it at all except at the risk of ruin. This is one of the growing evils of the present day. With the money spent on a single tiresome feast, half a dozen simple and frugal entertainment's might be furnished forth, and thus the scope of hospitality widened. ***
Instead of gorging the wealthy, who have too much already, influential entertainers might occasionally open their doors to those younger and humbler than themselves, and parents might assemble often round their tables suitable company for their children, instead of driving them to public places to seek occupation for their hours of leisure. There is a mission of social kindness still remaining to be opened up as one of the agencies of Christianity.
III.
Though the encouragement of hospitality, and through it of love, was one reason for which Jesus went to the tables of those who invited Him, He carried there a still higher purpose. When He went to dine at the house of Zacchaeus, He said, " Today is salvation come to this house; " and salvation came to many a house when He entered it. Hospitality affords unrivalled opportunities of conversation, and Jesus made use of these to speak words of eternal life. If you carefully examine His words, you will be surprised to find how many of them are literally table-talk words spoken to His fellow-guests at meals. Some of His most priceless sayings, which are now the watchwords of His religion, were uttered in these commonplace circumstances, such as, "They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that arc sick;" " The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost; " and many more.
This is an instance of how Jesus dignified life and found golden opportunities of doing good in those elements of it which are often treated .is mere waste. The talk and the hilarity of the table are a snare. Men of social charm often use their gift to their own undoing and to the injury of others. The meeting-place of boon companions is to many the vestibule of ruin. Even where sociality is not permitted to degenerate into temptation, the conversation of the table is too often allowed to lapse into triviality and stupidity; and the meetings of friends, which might give intellectual stimulus and kindle noble purpose, become weariness and satisfy nobody. It is a rare gift to be able to lift conversation out of the ditch and lead it to manly and profitable themes.
There have, however, been servants of God who in this respect have followed very closely in the footsteps of their raster. They have made conversation a delightful and profitable art; and to enjoy their company in the free interchange of social intercourse has been an education in everything good and true. A man of note recently deceased, son of a father still more notable, has left a striking picture of the circle of scholars and men of God who used to be assembled round his father's hospitable table, and of the wonder and delight with which he and his brothers, then only children, used to listen to the discussions and pick up the crumbs of wisdom.****
No parent can do his children a better service than by making his house a resort of the wise and good, in whom the keen observation of childhood may see examples of noble manhood and womanhood. "Be not forgetful," says the Epistle to the Hebrews, " to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares; " on which one of the wise has thus commented: " By exercising hospitality, by treating with sympathy and hearty interest those who are still in many respects strangers to us, by showing ourselves kindly and opening our houses to them, as circumstances permit and opportunities offer it may also happen to us to entertain angels; that is, men in whom we must recognise messengers sent to us from God, or from the world of mind and ideas, and whose sojourn in our house, whose conversation, whose influence on our souls, may bring us a blessing far outweighing all we can do for them."*****
IV.
We have been looking at our Lord as the guest of others; but He comes before us in the Gospels also as Himself an entertainer.
Jesus never, indeed, had a house of His own to which He could invite people. But on the two occasions when He fed the five thousand and the four thousand He acted as entertainer on a colossal scale.
It was a character in which He was thoroughly Himself; for it displayed His consideration for the common wants of man. Spiritual as He was and intent on the salvation of the soul, He never undervalued or overlooked the body. On the contrary, He recognised on it the stamp and honour of its Maker, and He knew quite well that it is often only through the body that the soul can be reached. The great majority of His guests were doubtless poor, and it gratified His generous heart to confer a benefit on them. It was, indeed, but common fare He gave them; * the table was the ground, the tablecloth was the green grass, and the banqueting hall was the open air; but never did His guests enjoy a better meal, for love presided at the table, and it is love that makes an entertainment fine.
As we see Him there, beaming with genial delight over the vast company, it is impossible not to think of such words of His as these: "I am the bread of life; " " The bread which I shall give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." In His teaching He delighted to represent the gospel as a feast, to which He invited all the sons of men in the beautiful spirit of a royal host.
But nothing else shows so strikingly how characteristic of Him this spirit was as the fact that the memorial by which He has chosen to be remembered to all generations is a feast. He might have selected any one of a hundred other mementoes. He might, for instance, have instituted among His followers a periodical fast. But this would have been a thoroughly unsuitable memorial of Him; for His is a gospel of abundance, joy and union, He chose what was fitting and truly significant; and so throughout all ages at the head of His own table the Saviour sits in the character of Entertainer, His face radiant with goodwill and His heart overflowing with generosity; and over His head, on the wall behind where He sits, these words are written: " This Man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them."
******John was well aware, however, of the imperfection of his own standpoint. "He pointed across to the sweetness, freedom and glory of the new dispensation, as Moses from Pisgah saw the land of promise."-SCHLEIERMACHER, Predigten, vol. iv. In this volume there are four discourses which may be called a kind of first sketch of what has been attempted in this book. They are entitled - Christ as a Teacher
Christ as a Miracle-Worker
Christ in Social Life.
Christ among His disciples
** "Notanda sunt antitheta in quibus Simoni mulier praefertur: nempe quod haec lachrymis suis rigavit Christi pedes, et capillis abstersit, quum ille ne vulgarem quidem aquam dari jussisset: quod haec non desierit osculari pedes, quum ille ne hospitali quidem osculo dignatus esset Christum excipere: quod pretiosum unguentum ilia effuderit in pedes, hic autem ne oleo quidem caput unxerit."-Calvin, in loc.
*** "Hospitality is threefold: -for one's family, this is of necessity; for strangers, this is courtesy; for the poor, this is charity.
"To keep a disorderly house is the way to keep neither house nor lands. For whilst they keep the greatest roaring, their state steals away in the greatest silence. Yet, when many consume themselves with secret vices, then hospitality bears the blame; whereas it is not the meat but the sauce, not the supper but the gaming after it, doth undo them.
"Measure not the entertainment of a guest by his estate, but thine own. Because he is a lord forget not that thou art but a gentleman; otherwise, if with feasting him thou breakfest thyself, he will not cure thy rupture, and (perchance) may rather deride than pity thee."-Fuller, The Holy and Profane State.
**** "Here almost every night, for long years, came Professors Dod and Maclean, and frequently Professors J. W. Alexander, Joseph Henry, and the older professors, A. Alexander, and Samuel Miller, President Carnahan, and frequently, when visiting the town, Professors Vethake and Torrey, and Dr. John W. Yeomans. Thus, at least in the eyes of the young sons gleaming out from the corners, from the shadows of which they looked on with breathless interest, this study became the scene of the most wonderful debates and discourses on the highest themes of philosophy, science, literature, theology, morals, and politics." -Rev. D. A. A. Hodge in Princetoniana, by Rev. C. A. Salmond, M.A.
***** Martensen, Christian Ethics, vol. iii.
****** "Barley loaves, "the bread of the poor.
