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CONCEPTS
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INSIGHT
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COMMENTARY
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[Mohandas Gandhi] |
“My interpretation, in other words, is that in Jesus’ own life is the key of His nearness to God; that He expressed, as no other could, the spirit and will of God.” |
| What Jesus means to me | |
| What,
then, does Jesus mean to me? To me, He was one of the greatest teachers
humanity has ever had. To His believers, He was God’s only begotten
son. Could the fact that I do or do not accept this belief make Jesus
have any more or less influence in my life? Is all the grandeur of
His teaching and of His doctrine to be forbidden to me? I cannot believe
so. To me it implies a spiritual birth. My interpretation, in other
words, is that in Jesus’ own life is the key of His nearness
to God; that He expressed, as no other could, the spirit and will
of God. It is in this sense that I see Him and recognize Him as the
son of God. But I do believe that something of this spirit that Jesus
exemplified in the highest measure, in its most profound human sense,
does exist. I must believe this; if I did not believe it I should
be a sceptic; and to be a sceptic is to live a life that is empty
and lacks moral content. Or, what is the same thing, to condemn the
entire human race to a negative end.
It is true that there certainly is reason for scepticism when one observes the blood butchery that European aggressors have unloosed, and when one thinks about the misery and suffering prevalent in every corner of the world, as well as the pestilence and famine that always follow, terribly and inevitably, upon war. In the face of this, how can one speak seriously of the divine spirit incarnate in man? Because these acts of terror and murder offend the conscience of man; because man knows that they represent evil; because in the inner depths of his heart and of his mind, he deplores them. And because , moreover, when he does not go astray, misled by false teachings or corrupted by false leaders, man has within his breast an impulse for good and a compassion that is the spark of divinity, and which some day, I believe, will burst forth into the full flower that is the hope of all mankind. An example of this flowering may be found in the figure and in the life of Jesus. I refuse to believe that there now exists or has ever existed a person that has not made use of His example to lessen his sins, even though he may have done so without realizing it. The lives of all have, in some greater or lesser degree, been changed by His presence, His actions, and the words spoken by His divine voice. I believe that it is impossible to estimate the merits of the various religions of the world, and moreover I believe that it is unnecessary and harmful even to attempt it. But each one of them, in my judgment, embodies a common motivating force: the desire to uplift man’s life and give it purpose. And because the life of Jesus has the significance and the transcendency to which I have alluded I believe that He belongs not solely to Christianity, but to the entire world; to all races and people, it matters little under what flag, name or doctrine they may work, profess a faith, or worship a God inherited from their ancestors. —from What Jesus Means to Me (Ahmedabud: Navajivan Publishing House, 1959) in The Book of Jesus, © Calvin Miller (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996) |
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