It was because the Authorities feared the whole world would go after him, and bring Roman disapproval down on their heads, that they determined to destroy him. Yet how do we maintain this balance? I think the answer can best be illustrated by the concept, which Christians often have, that the risen Jesus is their daily companion.
This device or conception bridges the gap between the human individual world, and the world of man’s future destiny - for them. The first question one asks is how can He be the companion of millions, or tens of millions at the same time? The answer is that nobody has the faintest idea. The next question is whether it is truth, or fantasy? I suspect the answer is a bit of both. Let me make one thing clear. Some of the best and nicest people I have known have subscribed to this belief or myth. Yet sensibility demands that one does not attempt to discuss it with them. If one tried, there would be an eruption of protest; ‘It is my sheet-anchor in life, I’m not prepared to compromise it, or even discuss it’. But they are not alone; I think many other people have sheet-anchors in life; and it is best to see this belief or myth about the companionship of Jesus as an example of a much wider phenomenon.
One can have a perfectly proper pride in school, regiment, and university college. These institutions often stand for a great deal that is good, and public spirited; and there is nothing wrong whatever in a man or woman wanting to live up to the standards which they enshrine. When Marcus Aurelius exhorted himself in his Meditations to, “Remember you are a Roman”, and “Remember you are immortal”, he was telling himself to live up to the standards which these concepts personified for him. It was a slightly more austere version of thinking or believing that Jesus is your daily companion. It represents a slight hardening of the consciousness, so as to liberate the discipline that these concepts embody; very similar to the hardening of the consciousness necessary for the professional approach to life, but nothing like so tense or continuous. The professional lawyer may make his sheet-anchor an unwillingness ever to lose face. He may be prepared to betray his client, his colleagues, even his clerk, provided he himself is never asked to lose face. I think that most men who have to do things in the machiavellian world of affairs need something to give them a sense of direction, something to stiffen their backbone, in order to avoid losing their sense of purpose. Someone who has no “principles”, soon finds that in the world of affairs he has to be prepared to say anything that is expedient to stay the course. So the problem is fairly universal; although I do not suppose everyone solves it in this way. And this belief or myth that one has a spirit companion of some sort, even regimental spirit, is both an inspiration for daily action, and also can provide a sticking point, beyond which one refuses to go.