62
The Desire of Ages
At all times and in all places He manifested a loving interest in men,
and shed about Him the light of a cheerful piety. All this was a rebuke
to the Pharisees. It showed that religion does not consist in selfishness,
and that their morbid devotion to personal interest was far from being
true godliness. This had roused their enmity against Jesus, so that they
tried to enforce His conformity to their regulations.
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Jesus worked to relieve every case of suffering that He saw. He
had little money to give, but He often denied Himself of food in order
to relieve those who appeared more needy than He. His brothers felt
that His influence went far to counteract theirs. He possessed a tact
which none of them had, or desired to have. When they spoke harshly
to poor, degraded beings, Jesus sought out these very ones, and spoke
to them words of encouragement. To those who were in need He
would give a cup of cold water, and would quietly place His own meal
in their hands. As He relieved their sufferings, the truths He taught
were associated with His acts of mercy, and were thus riveted in the
memory.
All this displeased His brothers. Being older than Jesus, they felt
that He should be under their dictation. They charged Him with think-
ing Himself superior to them, and reproved Him for setting Himself
above their teachers and the priests and rulers of the people. Often
they threatened and tried to intimidate Him; but He passed on, making
the Scriptures His guide.
Jesus loved His brothers, and treated them with unfailing kindness;
but they were jealous of Him, and manifested the most decided un-
belief and contempt. They could not understand His conduct. Great
contradictions presented themselves in Jesus. He was the divine Son of
God, and yet a helpless child. The Creator of the worlds, the earth was
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His possession, and yet poverty marked His life experience at every
step. He possessed a dignity and individuality wholly distinct from
earthly pride and assumption; He did not strive for worldly greatness,
and in even the lowliest position He was content. This angered His
brothers. They could not account for His constant serenity under trial
and deprivation. They did not know that for our sake He had become
poor, that we “through His poverty might be rich.”
2 Corinthians 8:9
.
They could understand the mystery of His mission no more than the
friends of Job could understand his humiliation and suffering.