hom Jesus set in the
midst of the circle to whom he was talking (Mark ix. 35-37). The unworthy
ambitions of the disciples were rebuked by Jesus' taking himself the
menial place and washing their feet (John xiii. 1-15).

240. The simplicity and homeliness of Jesus' teaching are not more
remarkable than the alertness of mind which he showed on all occasions.
The comment of the fourth gospel, "he needed not that any one should bear
witness concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man" (ii. 25),
doubtless refers to his supernatural insight, but it also tells of his
quick perception of what was involved in each situation in which he found
himself. Whether it was Nicodemus coming to him by night, or the lawyer
asking, "Who is my neighbor?" or a dissatisfied heir demanding that his
brother divide the inheritance with him, or a group of Pharisees seeking
to undermine his power by attributing his cures to the devil, or trying to
entrap him by a question about tribute, Jesus was never caught unawares.
His absorption in heavenly truth was not accompanied by any blindness to
earthly facts. He knew what the men of his day were thinking about, what
they hoped for, to what follies they gave their hearts, and what sins hid
God from them. He was eminently a man of the people, thoroughly acquainted
with all that interested his fellows, and in the most natural, human way.
Whatever of the supernatural there was in his knowledge did not make it
unnatural. As he was socially at ease with the best and most cultivated
of his day, so he was intellectually the master of every situation. This
appears nowhere more strikingly than in his dealing with his pharisaic
critics. When they were shocked by his forgiveness of sins, or offended by
his indifference to the Sabbath tradition, or goaded into blasphemy by his
growing influence over the people, or troubled by his disciples' disregard
of the traditional washings, or when later they conspired to entrap him in
his speech,--from first to last he was so manifestly superior to his
opponents that they withdrew discomfited, until at length they in madness
killed, without reason, him against whom they could find no adequate
charge. His lack of "learning" (John vii. 15) was simply his innocence of
rabbinic training; he had no diploma from their schools. In keenness of
argument, however, and invincibleness of reasoning, as well as in the
clearness of his insight, he was ever their unapproachable superio