xpectation of the coming Reign of God to his
mind signified some substantial relief and release to the submerged and
oppressed. Our modern human feeling glories in this side of our Saviour's
work. Art and literature love to see him from this angle.

I

His concern for the poor was the necessary result of the two fundamental
convictions discussed by us in the previous chapters. If he felt the
sacredness of life, even in its humble and hardworn forms, and if he felt
the family unity of all men in such a way that the sorrows of the poor
were his sorrows, then, of course, he could not be at ease while the
people were "skinned and prostrate," "like sheep without a shepherd."
Wherever any group has developed real solidarity, its best attention is
always given to those who are most in need. "The whole have no need of a
physician," said Jesus; the strong can take care of themselves.

So he cast in his lot with the people consciously. He slept in their
homes, healed their diseases, ate their bread, and shared his own with
them. He gave them a faith, a hope of better days, and a sense that God
was on their side. Such a faith is more than meat and drink. In turn they
rallied around him, and could not get enough of him. "The common people
heard him gladly."

Furthermore, the feeling of Jesus for "the poor" was not the sort of
compassion we feel for the hopelessly crippled in body or mind. His
feeling was one of love and trust. The Galilaean peasants, from whom Peter
and John sprang, were not morons, or the sodden dregs of city slums. They
were the patient, hard-working folks who have always made up the rank and
file of all peoples. They had their faults, and Jesus must have known
them. But did he ever denounce them, or call them "offspring of vipers"?
Did he ever indicate that their special vices were frustrating the Kingdom
of God? They needed spiritual impulse and leadership, but their nature was
sound and they were the raw material for the redeemed humanity which he
strove to create.

II

There is one more quality which we shall have to recognize in the attitude
of Jesus to "the poor." He saw them over against "the rich." Amid all the
variations of human society these two groups always reappear--those who
live by their own productive labor, and those who live on the productive
labor of others whom they control. Practically they overlap and blend, but
when our perspective is distant enough, we can distinguish them.