E. Stanley Jones

E. Stanley Jones said of this Man who is the revelation of God to creation, “He did not argue that life was a growth and character an attainment — He ‘grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.’  He did not speculate on why temptation should be in this world — He met it, and after forty days’ struggle with it in the wilderness He conquered, and ‘returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.’  He did not discourse of the dignity of labor — He worked at a carpenter’s bench and His hands were hard with the toil of making yokes and plows, and this forever makes the toil of the hands honorable.  As He came among men He did not try to prove the existence of God — He brought Him.  He lived in God, and men looking upon His face could not find it within themselves to doubt God.  He did not argue about whether or not there was a resurrection, for the Pharisees believed there was and the Sadducees believed there wasn’t — He raised the dead.

“He did not teach in a didactic way about the worth of children — He put His hands upon them and blessed them, and setting one in their midst said, ‘Of such is the kingdom of God.’  He did not argue that God answers prayer — He prayed, sometimes all night, and in the morning ‘the power of the Lord was present to heal.’  He did not teach in the schoolroom manner the necessity of humility — He girded Himself with a towel and kneeled down and washed His disciples’ feet.  He did not discuss the question of the worth of personality — He loved and served all men from the least to the greatest.  He did not discourse on the ‘equality’ of men — He went to the poor and the outcast and ate with them.  He did not try to prove how pain and sorrow in the universe could be compatible with the love of God — He took on Himself at the cross everything that spoke against the love of God, and through that pain and tragedy and sin showed the very love of God.  He did not discourse on how the weakest human material can be changed and empowered to change the world — He called to Him a set of weak men,  ignorant and temperamental Galilean fishermen, transformed them and sent them out to begin the mightiest movement for uplift and redemption the world has ever seen.

“He wrote no books — only once are we told that He wrote and that was in the sand — but He wrote upon the hearts and consciences of people about Him and it has become the world’s most precious writing.  He did not paint a Utopia, far off and unrealizable — He announced that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us, and is ‘at hand’ and can be realized here and now.  He did not discourse on the beauty of love — He loved.  We do not find Him arguing that the spiritual life should conquer matter — He walked on water and fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes.  He did not argue the possibility of sinlessness— He presented Himself and said, ‘Which of you convinceth me of sin?’  He did not merely ask men to turn the other cheek when smitten on the one, to go the second mile when compelled to go one, to give the cloak also when sued at the law and the coat was taken away, to love our enemies and to bless them — He Himself did these very things, and in the agony of the cruel torture of the cross He prayed for His enemies, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’

“He did not merely tell us that death may be conquered — He rose from the dead, and lo, the tomb now glows with light.  Many teachers of the world have tried to explain everything — they have changed little or nothing.  Jesus explained little and changed everything.  Many teachers have tried to diagnose the disease of humanity — Jesus cures it.  Many philosophers speculate on how evil entered the world — Jesus presents Himself as the way by which it shall leave”