Article March 9, 1912 Issue

THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST JESUS

ANNE DODGE

In John's gospel, third chapter, we read: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." This is a declaration that humanity is saved by and through belief in divinity and the demonstration of this faith, which gives special significance to Mrs. Eddy's statement that "the divinity of the Christ was made manifest in the humanity of Jesus" (Science and Health, p. 25). A careful study of Jesus' life, words, and works emphasizes a humanity rising higher and higher until it disappears entirely in divinity and is replaced by spiritual being.

Jesus was born in a manger, and he submitted step by step to the customs of the age in which he lived, saying, when baptized by John, "Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." His ever-ready sympathy for those who were overburdened with the cares of this world, in need or in distress, is expressed in such words as, "He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted;" "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,"—conveying a promise of deliverance to the captives of sense, and reward to those who value spiritual gifts more than worldly ones, seeking Principle rather than personality. Consider the comforting assurances and hope he brought the sorrowing, as when he said: "Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted;" and when he restored to the weeping widowed mother her only son; to Jairus, his cherished daughter; to Mary and Martha, their beloved brother.

His pitying tenderness was shown toward repentant sinners (those who had suffered for their sins), as in the case of Mary Magdalene, whose sins were completely obliterated by divine Love and the sinner reformed; his parables of the "lost sheep," the "lost piece of money," the "good Samaritan" whose mercy toward the unfortunate was symbolical of divine mercy, and the "prodigal son." The spirit of all this is seen in Jesus' words: "If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray."

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