Although the work of Jesus was world-wide and universal in the ultimate scope of its purpose, it was none the less immediate in its application to the conditions by which he was surrounded. His ministry, from beginning to end, was a supreme rebuke to the perverted ideals of that time, which he endeavored to dispel. Apparently no opportune occasion to correct the then prevalent Judaic and pagan misconceptions was lost; and a recognition of Jesus' teachings in relation to the false ideals they were intended to correct at that time reveals in a clearer light the purpose of his mission and its application to the misconceptions that have continued, in changed or varied forms, to the present day.
Chief among the Jewish expectations was the belief that Christ would descend on the clouds of heaven and reign as supreme monarch over the earth a thousand years. This illusion, evidently misinterpreted from the prophecy of Daniel, was held by the Pharisees, whose love of personal glory led them to hope for increased priestly authority and power through carnal accession. The Sadducees, their political antagonists, renouncing a hereafter, could therefore hope only for a fuller exploitation of earthly pleasure and material belief, which conceivably would be enhanced by the exaltation of the Jewish race. Still another current teaching averse to the pure spirituality of the Master was that of the Essenes, who sought salvation in seclusion and fasting, in the belief that this could be attained through the purification, or, as they thought, the spirit ualization of the material. Through this process they expected to attain eternal peace and life hereafter.
In his refutation of these misconceptions as to the mode of salvation, Jesus both indicated and demonstrated the way to harmony and enduring life. In those words with which he rebuked the throng that besought him to repeat the miracle of the loaves and fishes, he declared, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing;" emphasizing the truth that Spirit maintains and sustains man's life, and that the pursuit of matter or any material mode or belief is no aid in working out the problem of being Neither, therefore, should men expect that the material body was to be raised to eternal life by means of death, as the Pharisees and others believed; and an apostle later stated this point directly and clearly in the words. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."
