ng shall I bear with you?" (Mark ix.
19), and the lamentation over Jerusalem comes from a longing heart (Luke
xiii. 34).

229. The independence of human sympathy which Jesus often showed is all
the more glorious for the evidence the gospels give of his longing for
it. When he put the question to the twelve, "Would ye also go away?" (John
vi. 67), there is no hint in his manner that their defection with the rest
would turn him at all from faithfully fulfilling the task appointed to him
by his Father. In fact only now and then did he allow his own hunger to
appear. Ordinarily he showed himself as the friend longing to help, but
not seeking ministry from others; he rather sought to win his disciples to
unselfishness by showing as well as saying that he came not to be
ministered unto but to minister. He washed the feet of his disciples to
rebuke their petty jealousies, but we have no hint that he showed that he
felt personal neglect. His own heart was full of "sorrow even unto death,"
but his word was, "Let not your heart be troubled;" he asked in vain for
the sympathy of his nearest friends in Gethsemane, yet when the band came
to arrest him he pleaded, "Let these, the disciples, go their way."

II

The Teacher with Authority

230. To his contemporaries Jesus was primarily a teacher. The name by
which he is oftenest named in the gospels is Teacher,--translated Master
in the English versions and the equivalent of Rabbi in the language used
by Jesus (John i. 38). People thought of him as a rabbi approved of God by
his power to work miracles (John iii. 2), but it was not the miracles that
most impressed them. The popular comment was, "He taught them as one
having authority, and not as the scribes" (Matt. vii. 29). Two leading
characteristics of the scribes were their pride of learning, and their
bondage to tradition. In fact the learning of which they were proud was
knowledge of the body of tradition on whose sanctity they insisted; their
teaching was scholastic and pedantic, an endless citing of precedents and
discussion of trifles. To all this Jesus presented a refreshing contrast.
In commending truth to the people, he was content with a simple "verily,"
and in defining duty he rested on his unsupported "I say unto you," even
when his dictum stood opposed to that which had been said to them of old
time.

231. In this freedom from the bondage of tradition Jesus was not alone.
John the Baptist's message had bee