Christmas gold, p.266
Christmas Gold, page 266
Eighteen more years, years of monotonous labour, did Jesus live in Nazareth. Changes came to His home as well as to others. Joseph died, and left His mother altogether dependent upon Him. Galilee was still governed by Herod Antipas; but in Judea the King Archelaus had been dethroned, and the country was made a province of Rome, under Roman governors. This had happened whilst Jesus was a boy, and a rebellion had been attempted under a leader called Judas of Galilee, which had caused great excitement Though it had been put down by the Romans, there still remained a party, secretly popular, who used every effort to free their country from the Roman yoke. So strong had grown the longing for the Messiah, that a number of the people were ready to embrace the cause of any leader, who would claim that title, and lead them against their enemies and masters.
There was a numerous class of His fellow-countrymen to whom Jesus must have been naturally drawn during His youth, and to whom He may have attached Himself for a time. This was the sect of the Pharisees, noble and patriotic as our Puritans were, in the beginning; and at all times living a frugal and devout life, in fair contrast with the Sadducees, who were wealthy, luxurious, and indifferent The Pharisees were mostly of the middle classes; and their ceaseless devotion to religion gave them great authority among the common people. To the child Jesus they must have appeared nearer to God than any other class. There were among them two parties: one following a Rabbi of the name of Hillel, who was a gentle, cautious, tolerant man, averse to making enemies, and of a most merciful and forgiving disposition. Some say that he began to teach only thirty years before the birth of Christ; and it is certainly amongst his disciples that Jesus found some friends and followers. The second party was that of Shammai, who differed from the other in numberless ways. They were well known for their fierceness and jealousy, for stirring up the people against any one they hated, and for shrinking from no bloodshed in furthering their religious views. They were scrupulous about the fulfilment of the most trivial laws which had come down to them through tradition. These had grown so numerous through the lapse of centuries, that it was scarcely possible to live for an hour without breaking some commandment.
Yet among the Pharisees there were many right-minded and noble men, to whom Jesus must have been attracted. ‘The only true Pharisee,’ said the Talmud, that collection of traditions which they held to be of equal authority with the Scriptures—‘the only true Pharisee is he who does the will of his Father which is in heaven because he loves Him. Such Pharisees, when He met with them, as He did meet with them, won His love and approbation. It was the ‘Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites whom He hated.
BOOK II.
THE PROPHET.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I.
JOHN THE BAPTIST.
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Jesus was about thirty years of age when a rumour reached Nazareth of a prophet who had appeared in Judea. It was more than four hundred years since a prophet had arisen; but it was well known that Elias must come before Messiah as His forerunner. Such a prophet was now baptizing in Jordan; and all Judea and Jerusalem itself were sending multitudes to be baptized by him. Before long his name was known: it was John, the son of Elisabeth, Mary’s cousin, whose birth had taken place six months before that of Jesus.
We have no reason to suppose that any person living at this time, except Mary, knew Jesus to be the Son of God. Those who had known it were Joseph, Zacharias, and Elisabeth; and all these were dead. John, to whom we might suppose his parents would tell the mysterious secret, says expressly that he did not know Him to be the Messiah until it was revealed to him from heaven. He was familiar with his cousin Jesus, and felt himself, with all his stern, rigid life in the wilderness, to be unworthy to stoop down and unloose the latchet of His sandals; although he was a priest, who was known throughout the land as a prophet, and Jesus was merely a village carpenter, whose life had been a common life of toil amidst His comrades. Mary alone knew her son to be the promised Messiah; and though the long years may somewhat have dulled her hopes, they flamed up again suddenly when the news came that John the forerunner had begun to preach ‘The kingdom of God is at hand,’ and that multitudes, even of the Pharisees, were flocking to his baptism, so to enlist themselves as subjects of the new kingdom.
But this news did not make any change in our Lord. There was not less tenderness and pity in His heart when He lived among His neighbours in Nazareth than when He healed the sick who came to Him from every quarter. Neither was there any more ambition in His spirit when He passed from town to town, amid a throng of followers, than when He climbed up into the loneliness of the mountains about His village home. How could He be touched by any earthly ambition, who knew Himself to be not only a Son of God, but the only-begotten Son of the Father? He had been waiting through these quiet, homely years for the call to come, and now He was ready to quit all, with the words in His heart, ‘Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God!’
It may well be that Mary went with Him a little way on His road towards Jordan, on that wintry morning, when He quitted His workshop, and the familiar streets of Nazareth, to dwell in them no more. There was no surprise to her in what had come to pass; but there must have been a thrill of exultation mingled with fear. He had been her son all these years, but now He was to belong, not to her, but to the nation. What sorrow and triumph must have been in her heart when at last He bade her farewell, and she watched Him as long as He was in sight, clad in the robe she had woven for Him without seam, like the robe of a priest Was He not a priest and a king already to her?
It was winter, and though not cold in the valley of the Jordan, the heavy and continuous rains must have dispersed the multitudes that had gone out to John, leaving him almost in solitude once more. There could have been no crowd of spectators when Jesus was baptized. Yet even in January there are mild and sunny days when He and John might have gone down into the river for the significant rite which was to mark the beginning of His new career. But John would not at first consent to baptize his cousin Jesus, declaring that it would be more fit for himself to be baptized by one whose life had been holier and happier than his own. The rich and powerful and pious Pharisees John had sent away with rebukes, yet when Jesus came from Galilee, he forbade Him.
But Jesus would not take his refusal For some months John had been waiting for a sign promised to him from heaven, which should point out to him the true Messiah; and the people of the land looked to him to show them the Christ, whose kingdom he was proclaiming. Now, after he had baptized his cousin in the waters of the Jordan, already troubled with the rains from the mountains, and they were coming up again out of the river, he saw the pale, wintry sky above them opening, and the Spirit of God descending, visible to his eyes in the form of a dove, which lighted upon Jesus, whilst a voice came from heaven, speaking to him, and saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ What passed between them further, the Messiah and His forerunner, we are not told. Jesus did not stay with John the Baptist, for immediately He left him, and the place where He had been baptized, and went away into the wilderness, far from the busy haunts of ordinary men, such as He had dwelt among until now. His commonplace, everyday life was ended, and had fallen from Him for ever. A dense cloud of mystery which no one has been able to pierce through surrounds the forty days in which He was alone in the wilderness, suffering the first pangs of the grief with which He was bruised and smitten for our iniquities, being fiercely assailed of the devil, that He might Himself suffer being tempted, and so able to succour all those who are tempted. The compassion and fellow-feeling He had before had for sufferers He was henceforth to feel for sinners. There was to be no gulf between Him and the sinners He was about to call to repentance; He was to be their friend, their companion, and it was His part to know the stress and strain of temptation which had overcome them. Sinners were to feel, when they drew near to Him, that He knew all about them and their sins, and needed not that any man should tell Him. He had been in all points tempted as they had been.
CHAPTER II.
CANA OF GALILEE.
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When Jesus returned to Jordan the short winter of Palestine was over, and already an eager crowd had gathered again about John. On the day of His return, a deputation from the Pharisees had come from Jerusalem to question John as to his authority for thus baptizing the people. They were the religious rulers of the nation, and felt themselves bound to inquire into any new religious rite, and to ask for the credentials of any would-be prophet These priests who had come to see John knew him to be a priest, and were, probably, inclined to take his part, if they could do so in safety. They asked him, eagerly, ‘Art thou Christ?’ ‘Art thou Elias?’ ‘Art thou that prophet?’ And when he answered, ‘No,’ they ask again, ‘Who art thou? What sayest thou of thyself?’ The crowd was listening, and Jesus, standing amongst them, was also listening for his reply. ‘I am a voice,’ he said, ‘the voice spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the ways of the Lord.’ The priests were disappointed with this answer, and asked, ‘Why baptizest thou then?’ They had not given him authority to appear as a prophet, yet here he was drawing great multitudes about him, and publicly reproving the most religious sect of the nation, calling them a generation of vipers, and bidding them bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. From that time they began to throw discredit upon the preaching of John the Baptist, and spoke despitefully against him, saying, ‘He hath a devil.’ Nothing is easier than to fling a bad name at those who are not of our own way of thinking.
Two days after this, John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to two of his disciples as the Messiah whose coming he had foretold. These two, Andrew and a young man named John, immediately followed Jesus, and being invited by Him to the place where He was staying, they remained the rest of the day with Him; probably took their first meal with Him, their hearts burning within them as He opened the Scriptures to their understanding. The next morning Andrew met with his brother Simon, and said, ‘We have found the Messiah,’ and brought him to Jesus. The day following, Jesus was about to start home again to Galilee, and seeing Philip, who already knew Him, He said to him, ‘Follow Me!’ Simon and Andrew, who were Philip’s townsmen, were at that time with Jesus; Philip was ready to obey, but he first found Nathanael, and said to him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, is He of whom Moses and the prophets did write!’ ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ cried Nathanael, doubtingly; but he went to Jesus and was so satisfied by the few words He spoke to him, that he exclaimed, ‘Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel!’
With these five followers Jesus turned His steps homewards, after an absence of nearly two months. All of them lived in Galilee; and Simon Peter and Andrew, who had a house in Capernaum, at the head of the Lake of Galilee, appear to have turned off and left the little company, at the point where their nearest way home crossed the route taken by the others. Jesus went on with the other three: Philip, whom He had distinctly called to follow Him; Nathanael, whose home in Cana of Galilee lay directly north of Nazareth; and John, who was hardly more than a youth, and as yet free from the ties and duties of manhood. A pleasant march must that have been along the valleys lying south of Mount Tabor, with the spring sun shining overhead, and all the green sward bedecked with flowers, and the birds singing in the cool, fragrant air of morning and evening.
But they did not find Mary at Nazareth. She was gone with the cousins of Jesus to a marriage at Cana in Galilee, the town of Nathanael, where he had a home, to which he gladly urged his new-found Rabbi to go. He could not have foreseen this pleasure; but now, as they went on northward to Cana, the Messiah was his guest, and, with Philip and John, was to enter into his house. But no sooner was it known that they were come into the village than Jesus was called with His friends, one of whom was an old neighbour of the bridegroom, to join the marriage feast.
There was very much that Mary longed to hear from her son after this long absence; but the circumstances could not have been favourable for it In His beloved face, worn and pale with His forty days of temptation and fasting in the wilderness, her eyes saw a change which told plainly that His new life had begun in suffering. He looked as if He had passed through a trial which set Him apart Perhaps He found time to tell her of His hunger in the desert, and the temptation which came to Him to use His miraculous powers in order to turn stones into bread for Himself. It seems that, in some way or other, she knew that, like Elijah and Elisha, the great prophets of olden times, He could, and would, work miracles as a sign to the people that He came from God; and she felt all a mother’s eagerness that He should at once manifest His glory.
So when there was no more wine she turned to Him, hoping for some open proof to the friends about her that He possessed this wonder-working power. Besides, she had been accustomed to turn to him in every trouble, in any trifling, household difficulty; casting all her cares upon Him, because she knew He cared for her. So she said to Him, quietly, yet significantly, ‘They have no wine.’ Some of Elisha’s miracles had been even more homely; he had made the poisoned pottage fit for food, and had fed a company of people with but a scanty supply of barley-cakes. Why should not Jesus gladden the feast and save His friends from shame, by making the wine last out to the end?
A few days before our Lord had been in the desert, amid the wild beasts, with the devil tempting Him. Now He, who was to be in all things one with us, was sitting at a marriage feast among His friends; His mother and kinsfolk there, with His new followers; every face about Him glad and happy. It was not the first marriage He had been at, for His sisters, no doubt, were married, and living at Nazareth; and He knew what the mortification would be if the social mirth came too suddenly to an end. He cared for these little pleasures and little innocent enjoyments, and would not have them spoiled. The miracle He refused to work to satisfy His own severe hunger He wrought for the innocent pleasure of the friends who were rejoicing around Him. There were six water-pots of stone standing by for the use of the guests in washing their hands before sitting down to the table, and He bade the servants first to fill them up again with water to the brim, and then to draw out, and bear to the ruler of the feast Upon tasting it He cried out to the bridegroom, ‘Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; but thou hast kept the good wine until now.’
So Christ changes water into wine, tears into gladness, the waves and floods of sorrow into a crystal sea, whereon the harpers stand, having the harps of God. But He can work this miracle only for His friends; none but those who loved Him drank of that wine. It was no grand miracle of giving sight to eyes born blind, or raising to life a widow’s son. Yet there is a special fitness in it He had long known what poverty, and straitness, and household cares were, and He must show that these common troubles were not beneath His notice; no, nor the little secret pangs of anxiety and disappointment which we so often hide from those about us. We are not all called to bear extraordinary sorrows, but most of us know what trifling cares are; and it was one of these small, household difficulties the Son of Man met by His first miracle.
After this, Jesus, with His mother, and brethren, and disciples, went down to Capernaum for a few days, until it was time to go on their yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to the feast of the passover, which was near at hand. Peter and Andrew were living there, and might join them in their journey to Judea; though they do not seem to have stayed with our Lord, but probably returned after the passover to their own home until He considered it a fit time to call them to leave all and follow Him.
CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST SUMMER.
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For the first time Jesus went up to Jerusalem with His little band of followers, who knew Him to be the Messiah; and His cousins, who did not yet believe in Him, but were apparently willing to do so if He would act as they expected the Messiah to act. If He would repeat His miracle on a large scale, and so convince the mass of the people, they were ready enough to proclaim Him as the Messiah.
Would not John the Baptist be there too? He as a priest, and as a prophet, would no doubt be looked for, as Jesus afterwards was, at the feast of the passover. He must have had a strong impetuous yearning to see Him, who had been pointed out to him as the Lamb of God that should take away the sin of the world. Maybe He ate the Paschal Supper with Jesus and His disciples. We fancy we see him, the well-known hermit-prophet from the wilderness, in his robe of camel’s hair, with its leathern girdle, and his long, shaggy hair, and weatherbeaten face, following closely the steps of Jesus, through the streets, and about the courts of the Temple, listening to His words with thirsty ears, and calling himself ‘The friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth Him, rejoicing greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice.’ It was the last passover John the Baptist would ever celebrate; though that he could not know.
Upon going up into the Temple, Jesus found the court of the Gentiles thronged with sheep, and oxen, and doves, animals needed for the sacrifices, but disturbing the congregation, which assembled in the court of the women, by their incessant lowing and cooing. Moneychangers were sitting there also; for Roman coins were now in common use instead of the Jewish money, which alone was lawful for payment in the Temple. No doubt there was a good deal of loud and angry debate round the tables of the money-changers; and a disgraceful confusion and disorder prevailed. Jesus took up a scourge of small cords, and drove out of the Temple the noisy oxen and sheep, bidding the sellers of the doves to carry them away. The tables of the money-changers He overturned; and no one opposed Him, but conscious of the scandal they had brought upon the Temple they retreated before Him. ‘Make not My Father’s house a house of merchandise,’ He said. To Him it was always His ‘Father’s house;’ and before He could manifest forth His glory, His Father must first be glorified. The disciples, looking upon His face, remembered that it had been written, ‘The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.’
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