94 Ancient Ideals
may diff er radically enough from the values of the Hebrew Bible for
him to have founded a new religion, but Jesus strives for as much
continuity with the old order as he can reasonably achieve. He does
not want a full break.
Why? Why doesn’t Jesus become a prophet of humanity, in
the mode of Buddha and Confucius, fi gures who are not terribly
attached to transcendental gods? The Buddha never tired of in-
sisting on his mortal identity. What are you, people asked him. I am
a man, I will die, just as you will. Perhaps Jesus understands the
need for the abiding father fi gure who grants stability to the turbu-
lent lives of mortals. Maybe he comprehends the need for a loving
father (and indeed even a punitive one), as well as for the inspiring
brother and teacher that he is. We long for the father, it’s been said.
Humanely, generously, Jesus grants the satisfaction of this wish.
Jesus does all he can to revise Yahweh, to make him less a fearful
fi gment of our childlike imaginations. But beyond that he will
not go. His last act, as Blake suggests, was to consent to his own
crucifi xion— for he could presumably have fl ed, foreseeing it in the
garden as he did; or master dialectician that he was, he could have
defended himself against Pilate.
Had Jesus said no to the sacrifi ce, he would have been saying no
to the Lord God. He would have broken off , begun a faith entirely
his own. But Jesus would not put too much pressure on mankind.
(Human Kind, the poet famously says, cannot bear very much re-
ality.) Jesus did what he could to modify the standing conception
of the deity, and he brought into the world his religion of love and
forgiveness. He taught the West compassion and opened up another
possibility for the life of Soul.
The Soul States of courage and compassion seem quite diff erent,
and in some senses they are. The hero fi ghts: he aspires to fi ght with
justice on his side, but his world is the world of war. The saint lives
for kindliness and respects all living beings— all that exists is holy,