Mark 11:1-6

THE SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF CHRIST

‘And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, He sendeth forth two of His disciples.… And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loosing the colt? And they said unto them even as Jesus bad commanded.’

Mark 11:1

This incident of Gospel story is emblematic of the whole social influence of Christ as the great Emancipator of the world. ‘Why loose ye the colt?’ ‘The Lord hath need of him.’ Here is a question and an answer. A question, expressing an outraged sense of private property. An answer, revealing the true ground upon which all property rests, the ultimate social good, the common well-being or wealth of the community.

I. Rights of property.—There never was a time in the social history of our country when the rights of property were regarded with more reverence than they are to-day in England. ‘The sacredness of property’ is indeed the commonest of phrases. If the theory be true—if money, heaped-up property, be the one thing, the chief thing to struggle for—what are we to make of the teaching of Christ? ‘Ye cannot serve God and mammon.…’ ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.’ How shall we escape from the contradiction?

II. There is but one solution of the problem.—We shall have to change our conception of life; we shall have to change our conception of property.

(a) First, as to the motive of life, its moving spring. That, Christ says, must be religion. ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.’ Apply this to the subject before us, and we reach, I think, this position: that no re-arrangement of society, no social transformation is possible, has ever been possible, or ever will be, except as the application of a religious principle—of a moral development—of a strong and active common faith. To change institutions for the better, we need to change men for the better.

(b) Again, we need also a new conception of the objects of life and its possibilities. ‘A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.’ Does not Christ in these words remind us that we all need a moral revaluation of the things of life, a new appraisement of the things which are best worth pursuing?

III. We need a new conception of property, its rights and duties.—I must be satisfied with merely stating baldly these five propositions, which I think may be logically deduced from Christ’s doctrine of property, which briefly I take to be this—that of worldly possessions, as of all worldly gifts, the Christian is the steward of God, holding his wealth in trust for the common well-being.

(a) That the true social order, according to the laws of the Kingdom of Heaven, as revealed in the teaching of Christ, should have for its basis, not the accumulation of wealth through self-interest and competition, but human progress and well-being, through self-sacrifice and association.

(b) That society exists not for the sake of private property, but private property for the sake of society.

(c) That the right use of property must be insisted upon as a religious duty; that as capital arises from common labour, so in justice it should be made to minister to common wants.

(d) That wealth does not release the rich man from his obligation to work, but only enables him to do unpaid work for society.

(e) Finally, it is not the equalisation of property that is needed, but its moralisation.

—Bishop C. W. Stubbs.