Editorial December 22, 1928 Issue

The Triumph of Spirit

Duncan Sinclair

The whole of Christendom celebrates in some form or other the birth of Christ Jesus, for there is not a single Christian worthy of the name who does not realize something of the debt of gratitude the entire world owes to him who is honored by the name of Saviour. The Bethlehem babe was the child of promise—of prophecy. Through long years the Jewish people had looked for his coming; and it had been the hope of many a woman of their race that she should be the one favored of God to give birth to him who would redeem Israel. And when in the fullness of time Jesus was born of Mary, the event was heralded by the star in the east, and heaven itself proclaimed it in angelic song.

Now the Jews of Jesus' day, as a whole, did not in the slightest degree comprehend the mission of the Master. They were materially-minded and worldly; their religion they had molded to suit their lack of spirituality; and they were a down-trodden people, suffering unjust persecution under the tyrannical heel of Rome. Their worldly-mindedness, their lack of spirituality, blinded them to the spiritual truths which Jesus taught; and they saw nothing to rejoice over or to emulate in the "man of sorrows," notwithstanding the numerous gracious healing and saving works he did among them in accordance with his teachings. The Jews of Jesus' time looked not for a Saviour who would deliver them from the yoke of their own materiality, but for one who would deliver them from servitude under the Roman emperor.

The humble Nazarene did not deliver his nation from the yoke of Rome in the way it would have liked. He did not even stir them up against the empire: that was not his mission. Jesus' aim went far beyond the freeing of any particular people from the rule of any other people; it extended even to the complete releasing of all men from the bondage of matter or the material senses. And no one was ever equipped as he for this great work. John the Baptist recognized the fact; for after Jesus' baptism in Jordan, was there not heard, as Matthew relates, "a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"?

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