Jesus and Gandhi By Karansank

Source: Various Sources

In view of the Merry Christmas, Gandhi’s thoughts on Jesus would be relevant.

 

Lord Irwin asked Gandhi what he thought would solve the problems between Great Britain and India. Gandhi picked up a Bible and opened it to the fifth chapter of Matthew and said: "When your country and mine shall get together on the teachings laid down by Christ in this Sermon on the Mount, we shall have solved the problems not only of our countries but those of the whole world."

“Enter through the narrow gate,” Jesus says at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. “For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.” (Mt. 7:13-14).

Gandhi summed it up this way: “There is no hope for the aching world except through the narrow and straight path of nonviolence.”

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the reign of heaven,” Jesus says at the end, “but only the one who does the will of my God in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me you evildoers.’ (Mt. 7:21-23)

One Bible verse Gandhi quoted most throughout his life was the very conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount extracted above. From his earliest days in London and South Africa, Gandhi was besieged by born-again Christians begging him to be baptized. But Gandhi was appalled by the behavior of most Christians. “I like your Christ, but not your Christians,” Gandhi wrote. “They are so unlike your Christ.”

“Why do Christians go about saying ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do the will of Jesus?” Gandhi asked many times to his Christian friends. “Why don’t they obey the Sermon on the Mount, reject war, practice nonviolence and love their enemies? Isn’t that what Jesus wants, more than the false adulation of ‘Lord, Lord?’”

Jesus says in his last concluding parable:” Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them, will be like a wise person who built her house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.” (Mt. 7:24-27)

The Sermon on the Mount appealed to Gandhi although he had harsh words for Christianity. Gandhi believed that when Christianity had the backing of the Roman Emperors, the church distorted Christianity into an "imperialistic faith." "If Indian Christians," Gandhi said, "will simply cling to the Sermon on the Mount, which was delivered not merely to the peaceful disciples but a growing world, they would not go wrong, and they would find no religion is false. Cooperation with forces of good and non-cooperation with forces of evil are the two things we need for a good and pure life, whether it is called Hindu, Muslim, or Christian.”

Gandhi was also attracted to the inwardness of the Sermon on the Mount, which was his guiding principle. Gandhi was delighted that the Sermon on the Mount emphasized motives rather than action. Above all, the Sermon on Mount provided Gandhi sound basis for his advocacy of non-violent resistance. On the Sermon on Mount, Gandhi commented, "It was the new testament which awakened in me the righteous and value of passive resistance. When I read in the Sermon on Mount, such passages as Resist not him that is evil, but whatsoever smiteth thee on thy right check, turn him the other also.” 

In Gandhi's view, Jesus' death on the cross was a supreme example of commitment and self-sacrifice. Gandhi attributed his advocacy of nonviolence not only to the Sermon on Mount but also to the suffering shown by the Jesus on the cross. To a newspaper Editor, Gandhi would comment “the example of Jesus' suffering is a factor in the composition of my undying faith in nonviolence which rules my actions, worldly and temporal.”

 

Gandhi's Satyagraha demands that the nonviolent take suffering upon themselves rather than unflinching it on the opponent. “Life is a living death; pray for your enemies who persecute you, as they may be sons of your father which is in heaven". When Gandhi read these passages in the Bible, he was simply overjoyed.