An Important Lesson in the Most Useful "Science of Human Nature" (Part One)

(Editor's note: This is the first segment in a new two part series which begins here today.)

The constancy of human nature provides authority for the notion that it must be classified as its own science. Viewed in the light of predictability, human nature rises to the level of a most useful science. And among the recurring patterns of predictable human behavior, both good and bad, the most useful science of human nature contains an important lesson.

My law partner, Mr. Blythe, frequently says that one can expect reasonable men to act reasonably in their own best interest. This is a simple statement.  However, it is rendered meaningless, absent some context.  In fact, when the message is repeated over and over from the same voice, one naturally begins to tune it out. But in light of Harry Truman’s experiences regarding the constancy of human nature, this got me to thinking.

Wasn't there a familiar story about an expectation of reasonable men acting reasonably in their own best interest?  Yes!  And some say it is the greatest story ever told, the story of Jesus Christ. As the story goes, Christ voluntarily chose to forego his immortality to take on human form, that is, an imperfect form. His purpose was to provide ordinary people a working model as to how to set the main priorities of human existence.

We don’t have a lot of detail on Christ’s day to day life, unfortunately.  But one scene depicts Christ in the temple.  There he overturns the tables of the money changers who had infiltrated its halls, casting them out with a rare display of anger.  It seems that economics had gained an undesirable preference over morality.

"Love one another" is the main message I seem to recall from my old Catholic grammar school days. And, coupled with that idea, the greatest gift a human can give to another is to sacrifice one’s own life for that of another. But the greatest story ever told also contains a very interesting and important message about how the other humans in the story behaved themselves.

The theme from the original Broadway musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, illustrates the basic story. Christ’s popular following and the threat to the authority of Rome that it represented reached a critical mass upon his riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Whether Christ meant it or not, the act was seen as an act of extreme provocation.

For the Jewish people, who were Roman subjects, the physical protection of Rome’s economic and military might could be relied upon, only if they adhered to two simple rules. Those rules were, first, pay your taxes (hence the phrase “Give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s”), and second, don’t rebel. The violation of either was sure to bring trouble.

In Christ’s case, his ride to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday would surely rouse the masses and thereby constitute a clear violation of Rome’s second rule. And so, the Jewish people had to confront a serious problem, sooner rather than later, or face the reality that the Romans would solve the problem for them.

The names Pharisees and Sadducees were the fancy old terms for the lawyers and priests of the day. Together, they constituted a powerful leadership body that claimed greater moral authority and righteousness than the rest of the Jewish society of Christ’s time. Setting themselves up as models of what was right and “godly,” they were hyper-zealous to preserve and protect the name of God on earth and his laws. While we may detect the obvious strain of self-interest in this arrangement, they did not see themselves as bad people.

And so the problem of Christ logically devolved to them.

(Next week's second segment analyzes how they utilized an important lesson in the most useful "science of human nature" as the means of efficient resolution.)

-Michael D'Angelo