All through His [Jesus] blessed life He suffered oppression
and hardship, and in spite of all this humanity was His enemy! They denied Him,
scorned Him, ill-treated Him and cursed Him. He was not treated like a man—and
yet in spite of all this He was the embodiment of pity and of supreme goodness
and love. He loved all humanity, but they treated Him as an enemy and were incapable
of appreciating Him. They set no value on His words and were not illumined by
the flame of His love. Later they realized who He was; that He was the Sacred
and Divine Light, and that His words held Eternal Life. His heart was full of
love for all the world, His goodness was destined to reach each one—and as they
began to realize these things, they repented—but He had been crucified! It was
not until many years after His ascension that they knew who He was, and at the
time of His ascension He had only a very few disciples; only a comparatively
small following believed His precepts and followed His laws. The ignorant said,
‘Who is this individual; He has only a few disciples!’ But those who knew said:
‘He is the Sun who will shine in the East and in the West, He is the
Manifestation who shall give life to the world’. What the first disciples had
seen the world realized later.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk; ‘Paris Talks:
Addresses given by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris in 1911-1912’)
