"How much, then, is man better than a
sheep!"—Matt. 12:12
On the lips of Christ these noble words were an exclamation. He knew, as
no one else has ever known, "what was in man." But to us who
repeat these words they often seem like a question. How much, after all,
are humans better than a sheep?
It is evident that the answer to this question must depend upon our general
view of life.
Suppose that we take a materialistic view of
life. Looking at the world from this standpoint, we shall see it a great
mass of matter, curiously regulated by laws which have results but no purposes,
and agitated into various modes of motion by a secret force whose origin is,
and forever must be, unknown. Life, in man as in other animals, is but
one form of force. Rising through many subtle gradations, from the first
tremor that passes through the gastric nerve of a jellyfish to the most
delicate vibration of gray matter in the brain, it is really the same from the
beginning to the end—physical in its birth among the kindred forces of heat and
electricity, physical in its death in cold ashes and dust. The only
difference between man and the other animals is a difference of degree.
As the ape takes its place in our ancestral tree, the sheep becomes our distant
cousin.
If, then, we accept this view of life, what answer can we give to the
question. How much is a man better than a sheep? We must say: He is
a little better, but not much.
Undoubtedly it is true that Christ came to reveal God to humans. But
undoubtedly it is just as true that He came to reveal man to himself. He
called Himself the Son of God, but He called Himself also the Son of man.
His nature was truly Divine, but His nature was no less truly human. He
died for the human race. And what is the meaning of that sacrifice, if it
is not to teach us that God counts no price too great to pay for the redemption
of the human soul? This gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
contains the highest, grandest, most ennobling doctrine of humanity that ever
has been proclaimed on earth. It is the only doctrine from which we can
learn to think of ourselves and our fellow men as we ought to think.
I ask you to consider for a little while the teachings of
Jesus Christ in regard to what it means to be a human.
Suppose, then, that we come to Him with this question: How much are humans
better than a sheep? He will tell us that humans are infinitely better,
because they are children of God, because they are capable of fellowship with
God, and because they are made for an immortal life.
Think, first of all, of the meaning of humans in the light of the truth that
they are the offspring and likeness of God. This was not a new doctrine
first proclaimed by Christ. It was clearly taught in the magnificent
imagery of the Book of Genesis. The chief design of that great picture of
the beginnings is to show that a personal Creator is the source and author of
all things that are made. But next to that, and of equal importance, is
the design to show that humans are incalculably superior to all the other works
of God–that the distance between them and the lower animals is not a difference
in degree, but a difference in kind.
Yes, the difference is so great that we must use a new word
to describe the origin of humanity, and if we speak of the stars and the earth,
the trees and the flowers, the fishes, the birds, and the beasts, as "the
works" of God, when humans appear we must find a nobler name and say,
"This is more than God's work; they are God's children."
Our human consciousness confirms this testimony and answers to it. We
know that there is something in us which raises us infinitely above the things
that we see and hear and touch, and the creatures that appear to spend their
brief life in the automatic workings of sense and instinct. These powers
of reason and affection and conscience, and above all this wonderful power of
free will, the faculty of swift, sovereign, voluntary choice, belonging to a
higher being.
Christ spoke to man, not as a product of nature, but as the child of God.
He took it for granted that we are different from plants and animals, and that
we are conscious of the difference. "Consider the lilies,"
Jesus says to us; "the lilies cannot consider themselves; they know not
what they are, not what their life means; but you know and you can draw the lesson
of their lower beauty into your higher life. Regard the birds of the air;
they are dumb and unconscious dependents upon the divine bounty, but you are
conscious objects of divine care. Are you not of more value than many
sparrows?
He is always appealing to reason, to conscience, to the
power of choice between good and evil, to the noble and godlike faculties in
humans.
YOU are worth more to God than any other created thing on this earth!
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