Nothing but the obedience of the Son, the obedience unto death, the absolute doing of the will of God because it was the truth, could redeem the prisoner, the widow, the orphan. But it would redeem them by redeeming also the conquest-ridden ruler, the stripe-giving jailer, the unjust judge...

And how would our Lord, in thus conquering, be a servant of Satan? Wherein would this be a falling-down and a worshiping of him who was the lord of misrule and its pain?

Could it not be other than a temptation to think that he might, if he would, lay a righteous grasp upon the reins of government? Glad visions arose before him of the prisoner breaking jubilant from the cell of injustice, of the widow lifting up the bowed head before the devouring Pharisee. Could he not mold the people at his will? Could he not, transfigured in his snowy garments, call aloud in the streets of Jerusalem, “Behold your King?” The fierce warriors of his nation would beat their ploughshares into swords to fight a grand holy war against the tyrants of the race.