POPULARITY
PUPULAKiTY
3S1
was neither to nor bi/ flesh and blood that He desired to reveal Himself and to win a place in the hearts of men, but fo the Divine germ within each soul, and bj/ the revelation of the Heavenly Father (Mt 16''). See following article.
And as with the Master so must it be with the servants. As the world had hated Him, so would it hate them. He had come to send not peace on the earth, but a sword and tire (Mt 10^ Lie 12='), the sword which would part brother from brother and father from son — the tire which should try and reveal the essential nature of each heart. This hatred and persecution are therefore to be to the disciples a cause of rejoicing (Mt5"-'-), for these will be the signs that they are in truth the fol- lowers of Christ. ' If the world hate you, ye know tliat it hated me before it hated j'ou. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own : but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you' (Jn IS'*-'"). But the more the world persecutes them, the more must they bear testimony to the cause of Christ by their loving fellowship one with another. ' By this,' He says, 'shall all men know that ye are mj- disciples, if j-e have love one to another" (Jn 13^) ; and again — ' (I pray) that they also may be one in us : that the world may believe that thou hast sent me {J^, 17"'). Among the disciples there must be no seitish striving for place or power. The truest popularity, the truest greatness, is to belong to the humble heart that ever prcferreth other to itself, that rejoiceth to minister and to serve, to give itself freely to all even as Christ did (Mt 20^ il Mk 10«).
Literature. — Comni. on the Gospels; works on AT Theol. by Beyschlag: and by Weiss : Stalker, Life, of Jesus ChriM, ch. iv. ; Pressense, Jesxis Christ T, pp. 253-28(5.
W. J. S. Miller.
POPULARITY (of Jesus).— The general subject of popularity, as treated in the foregoing article, is strikingly illustrated by the course of our Lord's public ministry ; and in the present article we shall consider (1) the popularity of Jesus, (2) the grounds on which it rested, (3) the value He at- taciied to it, and (4) the reasons of its decline.
1. The fact of His popularity. — Although the earthly life of Jesus Ijegan in a stable and ended on a cross, there m as a period in His ministry A\hen He was at once the most conspicuous and the most popular ])ersonage in Palestine. From Jn. we learn that His first <lefinite appeal to the nation was made in Jerusalem (2'-''^i. There, however, the dominant influences were hostile to His accept- ance (vv.'"''- 3-'-). He soon felt that the nation was not yet ripe for a direct Messianic ministry, and so for <a time He fell back in Judaea on a work of preparation similar to tliat which the Bajitist was still carrying on (3--4'--). But when John was cast into pri.son. He knew that the time was come to make His own distinctive appeal to Israel, and liaving met with little favour in Jerusalem, He now chose Oalilee as the scene of His labours (Mk l''"'^- !I). The Synoptic Gospels sliow that an extraordinary po]iularity was the almost immedi- ate result (Mk 1^"*). Crowds flocked to Him from every quarter (l'*' 2'^ 4^ 5'-' and passim), and fol- lowed Him about wherever He went (3' 6*^). The people were astonished at His teaching (l--^), but also delighted with it (Lk 5'- 1-, cf. Mk 12=*^) ; they saw His miracles with joy and amazement, and glorified God in Him (Mk 2'- ). The enthusiasm and excitement soon spread far teyond the borders of Galilee ; and from Jerusalem and Idumrea, from beyond Jordan, and even from the region of Tyre and Sidon, multitudes came to see and hear the great Propliet of Nazareth (3*). All along, it is true, the scribes and Pharisees persistently opposed Him (•2«ff. i6f. 2-iiT. 3-;ff.)j coming from Jerusalem for
this express purpose (3- 7^). But with the great mass of His countrj-men, during the earlier period of His Galihean ministry. Jesus had a popularitj- of the most uniiuaiilied kind.
2. To what was this popularity due?— (1) Much must be ascribed to His personal qualities, and among these (a) to His perfect accessibility and entire naturalness. In His attitude to the people there was nothing either of the sujjercilious con- tempt of the scribes and Pharisees (Jn ~^->'^) or of the ascetic austerity of John the Baptist (Mt 3* 11'*). Any one might apjiroach Him at any time, with the certainty of being readilj- and kindly received. It mattered not who came to Jesus, — rough Hshers of the Galila?an lake (Jn 1=*^"-, Mk I'^iO, anxious parents seeking a blessing for their children (Mk b~«- 7^^- lO'^"'-), publicans whom everyone else despised (Mt 9i» 10-' ll'^ Lk 19-'f-). sinful women from the city streets (Lk 7^*'^., Mt 2P'), — to all He presented Himself as a man and a brother, (b) No personal gift conduces more to popularity than the subtle, indehnable qualitj- of charm, and Jesus appears to have possessed this in an exceptional measure. It may be that the x"/"s or ' grace." of wliich St. Luke tells us in his account of the sermon in the synagjgue at Nazareth (4--), refers wholly to Christs message, and not at all to the manner of His speech. But the Avay in which men and women and little children were drawn to the Saviour, as if by a kind of magnetism, testifles to a winsomeness of nature that must have gone far to secure the favour of every unprejudiced heart, (c) Still more the intense sympathi/ of Jesus must have ap})ealed to the ])eoiile. A man may make himself accessible for reasons of policy, and even the quality of charm sometimes proves to be a .superHcial gift of pleasing that is no guarantee for anj- expenditure of heart. But the Saviours profound sj-mpathy for the sick, the sinful, the sorrowful, could not fail to make an impression on the popular mind. We can hardh" realize, perhajis, what it meant for Him to be besieged daj' after day b3' a pressing crowd of men and women with loathsome diseases and festering sores — all de- manding the touch of His hand as well as the pity of His heart (Lk 4'"^' i). The nervous tension must have been tremendous, the physical and spiritual ' expenditure a constant drain upon His strength (Mk 5^, Lk 6'»). But the crowd, which not only read in His face that compassion Mhich was one of His most characteristic qualities (Mt 9*' U'-* 15^-, Mk \*\ Lk 7'^), but saw Him in the thick of His daily deeds of grace, nmst have dimly perceived something of that vicarious sacrifice which laj- at the root of the Kedeemer's sympathy, as it lies at the root of all true sympathy, and which led an Evangelist to bethink himself of the prophet's words, ' Himself took our inhrmities, and bare our diseases' (Mt 8'', cf. Is 53-*).