Christmas gold, p.267
Christmas Gold, page 267
But the priests and Levites of the Temple, to whom this traffic brought much profit, were not so easily con-science-pricked as the merchants had been. They could not defend the wrong practices, but they came together to question the authority of this young stranger from Galilee. If John the Baptist had done it, probably they would not have ventured to speak, for all the people counted him a prophet But this was a new man from Galilee! The Jews held the Galileans in scorn, as only little better than the Samaritans. ‘What sign shewest Thou,’ they ask, ‘seeing that Thou doest such things? The things were signs themselves; the mighty, prevailing anger of the Lord, and the smitten consciences of the merchants, if they had not been too blind to see them. Jesus gave them a mysterious answer, which none could understand. ‘Destroy this temple,’ He said, ‘and in three days I will raise it up.’ What! were they to pull down all they most prided in, and trusted in: their Temple, which had been forty and six years in building! They left Him, but they treasured up His words in their memories. The disciples also remembered them, and believed them, when the mysterious sign was fulfilled.
But Jesus did not seek to convince the people without signs, and signs which they could understand. He worked certain miracles in Jerusalem during the week of the feast, which won a degree of faith from many. But their faith was not strong and true enough for Him to trust to it, and He held Himself aloof from them. What they looked for was an earthly king, who should plot and conspire for the throne; and the Roman soldiers, who garrisoned the strong fortress which overlooked the Temple, would not have borne the rumour of such a king. There was at all times great danger of these expectations reaching the ears of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, who was not a man to shrink from needless bloodshed. For the sake of the people themselves Jesus did not commit Himself unto them.
Amongst those who heard of the miracles He had wrought was one of the Pharisees, a member of the great religious committee among them called the Sanhedrim. His name was Nicodemus, and he came to our Lord by night, to inquire more particularly what He was teaching. Jesus told him more distinctly than He had yet done what His new message to the Jews and to the whole world was: ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ Nicodemus went away strongly impressed with the new doctrine, though not prepared to give up all for its sake, and not yet called upon to do so. But from that time Jesus had a firm friend in the very midst of the Pharisees, who used his powerful influence to protect Him; and the feast passed by without any further jealous interference from the priests.
But it was not quite safe or suitable to remain in Jerusalem; and after the greater number of their friends and kinsmen had returned home, Jesus, with two or three of His disciples, sought the banks of the Jordan, whither John the Baptist had already returned. The harvest was beginning, for it was near the end of April, and bands of harvesters passed to and fro from uplands to lowlands until all the corn was gathered in by the end of June. Down in the valley of the Jordan the summer is very hot; and the wants of life are few. They could sleep in the open air, or in some hut of branches rudely woven together; and their food, like John the Baptist’s, cost little or nothing. There was to be no settled home henceforth for any one of them. The disciples had left all to follow the Son of Man, and He had not where to lay His head.
Crowds of eager and curious followers came to Jesus, as the year before they had flocked to John the Baptist, who had now moved some miles farther up the river, and was still preaching ‘The kingdom of God is at hand.’ But John did no miracle, and the crowds that followed Jesus were greater than those who followed him. In the eyes of the Pharisees it must have seemed that the two prophets were in rivalry; and many a jest and a sneer would be heard in the Temple courts and in the streets of Jerusalem as they talked of those ‘two fanatics’ on the banks of the Jordan. Even John the Baptist’s disciples fancied that a wrong was done their Rabbi by this new teacher, who had been with him for a while, and so learned his manner of arousing and teaching the people. They went to John, and said, ‘Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come unto Him.’
Now was John’s opportunity to manifest a wonderful humility and devotion. ‘I am of the earth, earthy, and speak of the earth,’ he said; ‘He that cometh from heaven is above all The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all tilings into His hands. I am but the friend of the bridegroom; I stand and hear Him, and rejoice greatly because of His voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled.’
Did he hear that voice often, and rejoice in it? There were not many miles separating them, and both of them were hardy, and used to long marches. It may well be that during those summer months they met often on the banks of the river—the happiest season of John’s life. For he had been a lonely, unloved man, living a wild life in the wilderness, strange to social and homelike ways; his father and mother long since dead, with neither brother nor sister, he would find in Jesus all the missing relationships, and pour out to Him the richest treasures of a heart that no loving trust had opened until now.
So the summer passed away, and the autumn with its vintage; then the rainy months drew near. Bands of harvestmen and bands of pilgrims had gone by, tarrying for a few hours to learn truths they had never heard before, even in the Temple. Many of them were baptized by the disciples, though Jesus baptized not The new prophet had become more popular than the old prophet, and John’s words were fulfilled, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’
CHAPTER IV.
SAMARIA
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There were several reasons why our Lord should leave the banks of the Jordan, besides that of the rainy season coming on. The Pharisees were beginning to take more special notice of Him, having heard that He had made more disciples even than John, whom they barely tolerated. Moreover, this friend and forerunner of His had been seized by Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee, and cast into a dreary prison on the east of the Dead Sea. This violent measure was likely to excite a disturbance among the people; and Jesus, whose aim was in no way to come into collision with the government, could not prudendy remain in a neighbourhood too near the fortress where John was imprisoned. He therefore withdrew from the Jordan, in the month of December or January, having been in Judea since the feast of the passover in the spring.
One way to His old home, the place where His relatives were still living, lay through Samaria, a country He had probably never crossed, as the inhabitants were uncivil and churlish towards all Jewish travellers, especially if their faces were towards Jerusalem. But Jesus was journeying to Galilee, and did not expect them to be actively hostile to Him and His little band of companions. It was an interesting road, and led Him through Shechem, one of the oldest cities in the world, lying between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, in a vale so narrow at the eastern end, that when the priests stood on these mountains to pronounce the blessings and the curses in the ears of all the children of Israel, there was no difficulty for the people standing in the valley to hear distinctly. Two miles away was a very deep well, the waters of which were cool in the hottest summer; a well dug by the patriarch Jacob upon the same parcel of a field where he built his first altar to the God of Israel. Here too were buried the bones of Joseph, which had been carried for forty years through the wilderness to the land his father Jacob had given to him and to his children specially. Shiloh also lay along the route; and Jesus, who possessed every innocent and refined taste, must have enjoyed passing through these ancient places, so intimately connected with the early history of His nation.
Shechem lay about eighteen or twenty miles distant from the fords of Jordan, near which we suppose Jesus to have been dwelling. By the time He and His disciples reached Jacob’s well, after this long morning’s march, it was noon-day, and He was wearied, more wearied than the rest, who appear always to have been stronger than He was. They left Him sitting by the side of the well, whilst they went on into the city to buy food for their mid-day meal. Their Master was thirsty, but the well was deep, and they had nothing to draw up the water. They hastened on, therefore, eager to return with food for Him whom they loved to minister to.
Not long after a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and was much astonished when this Jew asked her to give Him some to drink. She was probably less churlish than a man would have been, though she was barely civil. But as Jesus spoke with her she made the discovery that He was a prophet; and immediately referred to Him the most vexing question which separated the Jews from the Samaritans. The latter had a temple upon Mount Gerizim, which had been rebuilt by Herod, as the Temple at Jerusalem had been; and she asked which is the place where men ought to worship? Here, or at Jerusalem? She could only expect one answer from a Jew; an answer to excuse her anger, and send her away from the well without satisfying His thirst But Jesus had now forgotten both thirst and weariness. He knew that many a sorrowful heart had prayed to God as truly from Mount Gerizim as from the Temple at Jerusalem. There is no special place, He answered, for in every place men may worship the Father; the true worshippers worship Him in spirit and in truth, for God is a Spirit This was no such answer as the woman looked for; and her next words were spoken in a different temper. ‘We are looking for the Messiah, as well as the Jews,’ she said, ‘and when He is come, He will tell us all things that we do not yet know.’ Jesus had already told her the circumstances of her own life, and she was looking at Him wistfully, with this thought of the Messiah in her mind, when He said to her more plainly, more distinctly, perhaps, than He had ever done before to any one, ‘I that speak to thee am He.’
By this time the disciples had come back, and were much astonished to find Him talking to the woman. If they heard these last words they would marvel still more, for Jesus generally left men to discover His claims to the Messiahship. The wrong impression prevailing among the Jews concerning the Messiah was not shared by the Samaritans. The latter kept closely to the plain and simple law of Moses, without receiving the traditions which the Pharises held of equal importance with the law, and were thus more ready to understand the claims and work of Christ. The woman therefore hurried back to the city, leaving her water-pot, and called together the men of the place to come out and see if this man were not the Christ They besought Him to stay with them in their ancient city under the Mount of Blessing; and, no doubt very much to the amazement of .His disciples, He consented, and abode there two days, spending the time in teaching them His doctrine, the very inner meaning of which He had already laid open to the woman. ‘God is a Spirit; He is the Father, whom every true worshipper may worship in the recesses of his own spirit’ Many of them believed, and said to the woman, ‘We have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world? Wonderful words, which filled the heart of Christ with rejoicing. Not His own nation, not His own disciples, not even His own kinsmen, had learned so much of His mission as these Samaritans; ever afterwards He spoke of them with tenderness, and when He would take a type of Himself in the parable of the man fallen among thieves, He chose not a Jew, but a despised Samaritan.
From Sychar Jesus passed through one of the long deep valleys which lead to the plain of Esdraelon, where He was once more in Galilee. It was winter, and the snow was glistening on the lower mountains, as well as upon the distant range of Lebanon. The heavy rains had swollen the brooks into floods; and all the great plain before Him, which in four months’ time would be ripe for harvest, a sea of golden grain, scarcely rippled by a gust of wind, was now lying in wintry brownness and desolation, and swept by the storms of hail and rain. He seems to have passed by Nazareth, staying, if He stayed at all, for a few hours only, and to have gone on with Nathanael to his home in Cana, where Jesus had many friends, especially the bridegroom whose marriage-feast in the spring He had made glad with no common gladness.
He had not been long in Cana before the streets of the little village witnessed the arrival of a great nobleman from Capernaum, who had heard of the fame of Jesus in Judea, and the miracles He had wrought there. Until now, with the exception of Nicodemus, it would seem that none but people of His own class had sought Him, or brought their sick to be healed by Him. But this nobleman had a son, whose life all the skill of the Jewish physicians could not save; and his last hope lay with Jesus. His faith could not grasp more than the idea that if Jesus came, like any other physician, to see and touch the child, He would have the power to heal him. ‘Sir, come down,’ he cried, ‘before my son is dead.’ ‘Go thy way,’ Jesus answered; ‘thy son liveth.’ What was there in His voice and glance which filled the father’s heart with perfect trust and peace? The nobleman did not hurry away, though there was time for him to reach home before nightfall. But the next day, as he was going down to Capernaum, he met his servants, who had been sent after him with the good news that the fever had left his son yesterday at the seventh hour; that same hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Thy son liveth.’
Now He had a friend and disciple amongst the wealthiest and highest classes in Capernaum, as He had one amongst the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem. Both protected Him as much as it lay in their power; and it is supposed by many that the mother of the child thus healed was the same as Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, who, with other women, attended our Lord during the last year of His life, and ministered to Him of their substance. Thus, on every hand, Jesus was making friends and enemies. A year had scarcely passed since He quitted his humble home in Nazareth; but His name was already known throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria; and everywhere people were ranging themselves into two parties, for and against Him. Amongst the common people He had few enemies; amongst the wealthy and religious classes He had few friends. He felt the peculiar difficulty these latter classes had in following Him; and expressed it in' two sayings, ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,’ and ‘It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.’
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST SABBATH-MIRACLE.
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After staying a short time in Cana, Jesus went once more to Jerusalem, about the middle of March, a month or so before the passover. At this time there was a feast of the Jews, not a religious, but rather a national feast, in celebration of the deliverance of their race in the days of Esther. It drew together many of the poorer and lower classes, among whom our Lord’s work specially lay, and so offered to Him, perhaps, unusual opportunities for mingling with the common people living near Jerusalem. For we do not suppose that the Galileans went up to this feast; only the country-folks dwelling in Judea, within a few miles of their chief city, who could make a holiday at that time of the year. Either upon the feast-day itself, or the Sabbath-day nearest to it, Jesus walked down to the sheep-gate of the city, near which was a pool, possessing the singular property, so it was believed, of healing the first person who could get into it after there had been seen a certain troubling of the water. A great crowd of impotent folk, of halt, blind, and withered, lay about waiting for this movement of the surface of the pool. There was no spot in Jerusalem where we could sooner expect to find our Lord, with His wondrous power of healing all manner of diseases. Not even His Father’s house was more likely to be trodden by His feet than this Bethesda, or house of mercy. Probably there was a greater throng than usual, because of the feast, which would offer an opportunity to many to come out of the country. Jesus passed by until He singled out one man, apparently because He knew he had now been crippled for thirty-eight years, and had been so friendless that during all that time he had no man to help him to get down first to the water. The cripple was hopeless, but still lingered there, as if to watch others win the blessing which he could never reach.
Upon this miserable man Jesus looked down with His pitying eyes, and said, as though speaking to one who would not hesitate to obey Him, ‘Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.’
It seems as though Jesus passed on, and was lost in the crowd; but the cripple felt a strange strength throbbing through his withered limbs. He was made whole, and he took up his bed, to return home, if he had any home, or at least to escape from that suffering multitude. Then did the Pharisees behold the terrible spectacle of a man carrying his bed through the streets of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day! They cried to him hastily, ‘It is not lawfull for thee to carry thy bed on the Sabbath-day.’ He answered them by telling the story of his miraculous cure, though he did not know who the stranger was, for Jesus was gone away. No doubt he put his burden down at the bidding of the Pharisees, but he did not lose the new strength that had given him power to take it up.
The same day Jesus found him in the Temple, whither he had gone in his gladness. Once more those pitying, searching eyes were fixed upon him, and the voice that had spoken to him in the morning sounded again in his ears. ‘Behold,’ said Jesus, ‘thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.’ The man departed and told the Pharisees who it was that had made him whole, thinking, no doubt, to bring praise and glory to his deliverer.
Possibly until now the presence of Jesus at this feast had not been known to the Pharisees. The last time He was in Jerusalem He had solemnly and emphatically claimed the Temple as His Father’s house, and had indirectly reproved them by assuming the authority to rid it of the scandals they had allowed to creep into it Now they found Him deliberately setting aside one of their most binding rules for keeping the Sabbath. John the Baptist, though both priest and prophet, had never ventured so far. Their religion of rites and ceremonies, of traditions, of shows and shams, was in danger. With their religion, they firmly believed their place and nation would go, and Jerusalem and Judea would become like the heathen cities and countries about them. It was time to put a stop to it. John the Baptist was in prison. What if Jesus of Nazareth could be slain quietly, so as not to disturb the common people, who heard Him gladly?
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