Of the New Law

Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord by Edwin Abbott Abbott is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. Of the New Law

Of the New Law

On the morrow, about the second hour, we began to go up the mountain which Jesus had appointed. But having strayed from the path, we knocked at the door of a house which was near the foot of the mountain, and besought the goodman of the house that he would guide us. There opened the door a man of churlish appearance; but he would neither come out, nor so much as speak with us. This delayed us for a time, but we soon found the path, and the way became steep. The sun shone, but not with too fervent a heat, and the north wind blew gently from Hermon, whose top we saw clearly toward the north, clad in snow. On the west was the Mount Carmel, shining with a brightness as of purple; and further off the Great Sea, resembling a blue plain, whereon appeared many sails, almost too small for sight by reason of the distance. We climbed upward through groves of terebinth and oak. As often as we turned round to recover breath, the houses and fields grew smaller, till, at the last, when we drew nigh unto the top, the whole plain of Esdraelon seemed but as a small ground-plat; and large towns appeared as little hamlets, and all the works of man became very small in our eyes, as though we were leaving earth and approaching heaven.

Then said Baruch, “Is not this a second Sinai? For verily Jesus of Nazareth is about to give us a new law.” But Eliezer the son of Arak, the principal Scribe of Capernaum (for he at this time followed Jesus and was now with us) rebuked him, saying, “Even though Jesus of Nazareth were the greatest of prophets, yet were he not equal to Moses; for it is said, Sinai is to be preferred even to the uprooter of mountains!” And another said, “Behold, the Word of God, when it went forth from Sinai from the mouth of the Holy One (blessed be His Name), was like sparks, and lightnings, and flames of fire; a torch of flame was on his right hand, and a torch of flame on his left hand: it flew and hovered in the air of the heavens, and returned and graved itself upon the tables of the covenant which were given into the hands of Moses. How then is it possible that the like wonders should be wrought on this mountain?”

Then said Nathanael to Simon Peter that it might perchance please the Lord not always to speak by the whirlwind or by the fire, but, as in the days of Elias, by the still small voice. And to this Peter agreed, but others did not agree: for though they inclined not to Eliezer the son of Arak, yet it was because they thought that Jesus would of a surety soon work some sign in heaven to prove that he was the Redeemer. But Judas of Kerioth affirmed that Jesus would not, at this present time, lay down laws for the Kingdom, but only ordinances for a season, to instruct the host in the journey towards Jerusalem; but until Jerusalem should be ours, lasting laws would not be made.

While we were disputing among ourselves concerning the saying of Judas, Peter cried “Peace:” for, said he, “yonder is the Prophet:” and looking upward, we saw Jesus on a rock stretching out his hands in prayer. When he had made an end of praying, Peter approached him and besought him a second time to teach us to pray; and Jesus gave us that well-known prayer which is used in all the churches. Afterwards he beckoned to us to follow him, and he came down and stood in the bed of a torrent, which was dry by reason of the drought. While we were following him, I heard the companion of Eliezer murmuring because there were no words in the prayer concerning the Redemption of Israel; “moreover,” said he, “albeit the prayer asketh for bread, yet is there no mention of wine, nor oil, nor even of raiment. But how can a man sit and search the Law and the Traditions, and know not whence he is to drink as well as eat, and whence to be clad and covered?” To this I would have made reply; but Peter again cried to us to hold our peace, for Jesus was beginning to speak.

When he opened his lips, every one was silent for expectation; but, as he proceeded, the silence was a silence as of them that are astonished and disappointed. For he began with setting forth in his discourse a character and image of a citizen of the New Kingdom; and lo, it was not the image of a conqueror, but of one conquered. Also he drew as it were a model of the palace of the Great King, and of the princes and nobles which stand about His throne; and behold, when we compared the model with that which we had imagined in our hearts, and with that which we had read of in histories, the model of Jesus was in all things contrary to the model in our hearts. For in old times men had done reverence unto the valiant, the proud, the strong, the rich and the wise; but Jesus said that the chief places about the throne of God should be given to the hungry and thirsty, and poor; to them that were innocent and simple; to them that made not war, but peace; yea, even to them which resisted not evil, but rewarded evil with good. Upon all these, as being the nobles and princes of the New Kingdom, Jesus pronounced a blessing; to wit, that all things should work together for good to them, so that they should have all that they needed, according to the words of the prophet, “Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed.” Even so did Jesus ordain that they which hungered should be satisfied, and that the makers of peace should conquer and inherit the earth.

Next, he described the statutes and judgments of the New Kingdom; and, behold, instead of an easier yoke, he seemed to be placing upon us a yoke even heavier than the yoke of the ancient Law, too heavy to be borne. For the old Law forbade us to commit murder; but the new Law forbade us even to hate our enemies. Again, the old Law forbade us to commit adultery; but the new Law forbade us even to entertain a lustful thought in our hearts. In a word, the old Law laid down certain ordinances, which if a man obeyed, he should live therein; but the new Law laid down nothing fixed nor certain for us, so that we might say “I have done this or that, and therefore I have fulfilled the Law of Christ.” For the Law of Moses touched the life of man, as it were, in certain points; as for example, in sacrifices, and feasts, and purifications, and Sabbaths, and in the obeying of the Ten Commandments: but the Law of Christ covered the whole of the state of man, the thoughts as well as the deeds; even as the encompassing air, which pierceth into every corner and cavern of the earth, wheresoever human life is. In fine, whereas the Law of Moses commanded us what we should do, the Law of Christ commanded what we should be. For this cause Jesus set himself against all bookishness, and against all worship of Traditions, and even of the precepts of the Scriptures; for he taught that precepts, howsoever they may shape the outward action, shape not the inner man.

Again, as concerning the laws, and the judgments, and the rewards, and the punishments, in the New Kingdom, he spake as if they were not laws of man’s device, but rather Laws according to the nature of things, like unto the ordinances of the rain and the sunshine, the harvest and the seed-time. For he said that righteousness was not any such thing as could be attained by a price, nor by the doing of deeds; but that it consisted in a seeing of that which may be seen of God. He also spake of a certain eye of the soul, which, if it were clear, the man would be righteous; but if it were darkened, the man would be unrighteous. Also he spake of a certain law of retributions, which decreeth that whoso judgeth shall be judged, whoso forgiveth shall be forgiven, whoso giveth shall receive: adding thereunto this most strange doctrine, that if we would go forth into the world, giving and ready to give, then, from all sides, the world would give to us again; yea, the angels of God, and the elements of the world (which are His ministers) and even the children of men, should make us marvel by reason of their gratitude, giving us back good measure pressed down and running over. Now there is a saying in the Traditions that, “Whensoever a poor man standeth at thy door, the Holy One (blessed is He) standeth at his right hand. If thou givest him alms, know that thou shalt receive a reward from Him who standeth at his right hand.” Jesus therefore added to this doctrine, teaching that God standeth at the right hand not of the poor only, but of every one that is in need of aught, that is to say, of every one of the children of men: wherefore whatsoever is given to men, is given to God, and from God cometh back multiplied to the giver. Howbeit, we were neither to give alms, nor to do aught else, for hope of reward; but only out of love.

Concerning citizenship in the Kingdom and how men should become citizens therein, he spake little to us, as being already citizens therein: save only this, that whoso would come, must come unto him; and through him, as through a door, they should pass into the Kingdom. And behold, the Kingdom was no other than a family, wherein God was at once Father and King, and all men were as children of the Father in Heaven. For the foundation of all was, that the heart and not the hands shaped the goodness and badness of all deeds, and made men to become citizens of the Kingdom: wherefore the heart and not the hands must be purified; nor could any be in truth citizens of the Kingdom except they had the thought of the Kingdom always in their hearts, so that their hopes and treasures were all stored up, not in the banks of money-changers, but in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Then he spake of the exceeding joys of the citizens of the Kingdom of God, and how they are free from all troubles and all disquietudes. But none, he said, could serve God and Mammon at one time; neither was it possible to serve God aright and yet to be distracted and torn asunder by cares concerning meat or raiment. Hereat the companion of Eliezer murmured again, saying that Jesus had before spoken blasphemously in joining the forgiving of sins by God with the forgiving of sins by men, and now he had spoken as a madman, in forbidding us to be careful about food and raiment; “Can a man sit,” said he, “and search the Law, and not know whence he is to eat, and drink, and to be clad?” Now whether Jesus perceived his murmuring I know not: but he pointed, first upwards to the birds (for even at that instant there was a flight of pelicans above us) and then downward to the flowers, which bestrewed the side of the brook, and he said that our Father in Heaven fed the birds and clothed the flowers; and should He not much more care for us? Then he bade us seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things else should be added unto us.

Now concerning this Kingdom of God (or Kingdom of Heaven, for he called it by both names) we understood not much at this time: but my judgment now is that Jesus desired that all the Lord’s people should be as Prophets, not teaching one the other and saying “Know the Lord,” but all knowing the Lord from the least to the greatest. For he perceived that all the tribes of the earth were joined together under one emperor through desire of wealth and ease, and that Israel was joined together through hatred of the Romans and through desire to be rescued from them; but he saw that neither love of ease nor hatred of enemies could bind men together in an enduring Kingdom: but that which bindeth men together is the Spirit of love, which is a Spirit of brotherhood among men and of childhood unto God. For all nations begin with being first families, and then many families together; helping one another by reason of kindred, and not by reason of manhood. Now such a nation as this, and all men of such a nation, Jesus called “born of flesh and blood:” and he said that no nation could leave off to be a tribe and become a nation indeed, except it were born again, not of flesh and blood, but of the Spirit; so as to enter into a certain government of God, which the Greeks called theocratia, but Jesus called it the Kingdom of God. Such a theocratia Moses had partly established in old times; howbeit the King in the kingdom of Moses was the God of Abraham, but the King in the kingdom of Jesus was the Father of the Son of man.

But now to return to the words of Jesus. He ended his discourse with warning. First he warned us to beware of the common saying, “Give judgment according to the greater number”; for he said that the path to destruction is broad, and many go thereby. He bade us also try teachers and prophets by their works. Last of all, he spake very earnestly against certain which pretended to obey him but obeyed him not. We were the salt of the earth, he said, but if we lost our savour, how could the world be salted, and to what end could we serve, but to be cast out and trampled under foot? Whoso heard him and obeyed him not, such an one he likened unto a foolish shepherd (and even as he spake, there was nigh, within a bow-shot of us, a sheep-cote that had been cast down by the swollen waters of the brook) which built his house upon the sand, so that it fell: but whoso heard and obeyed, he likened him unto a wise shepherd, which built his house upon a rock so that it fell not. This parable Jesus did not at this time interpret to us, but afterwards he made it clear. For even as the Psalmists of Israel spake often of a certain Rock of Salvation, even so was it afterwards a common saying with Jesus both that each citizen of the New Kingdom must build his house upon a Rock, and that the Kingdom itself must be founded on a Rock, so that the gates of Hades or Destruction should not prevail against it. Howbeit what this Rock might be, we did not as yet understand; for he had not at this time revealed it unto us.

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This book is part of the public domain. Edwin Abbott Abbott (2015). Philochristus: Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/48843/pg48843-images.html

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