Christmas gold, p.272
Christmas Gold, page 272
But Jesus, discerning their motives, bade them go up to the feast alone; whilst He remained behind in Galilee, until after the caravan, with its ever-increasing band of enthusiastic pilgrims, had gone on. Then, with His own little band of faithful friends, He set out for Jerusalem through Samaria, the nearest and least frequented route. In fact, no other pilgrims were likely to choose this way; for when Jesus Himself sent forward some messengers to a village in Samaria, to make ready for them, the inhabitants would not supply them with any necessaries, would not even receive them into the village, because their journey was towards Jerusalem. But when James and John asked if they should not copy the example of Elijah, and call down fire from heaven to consume them, Jesus rebuked them, uttering one of the sayings which all His life through had been His motto, ‘The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.' And they went to another village less bigoted, where, perhaps, He was known as the prophet who had passed by that way early in the year.
At the feast there was a good deal of argument and discussion about Jesus. He was sought for in the Temple, amid the worshippers with their palm branches, but He was not to be found. Quietly all the people were talking about Him, some saying, ‘He is a good man;’ others, ‘Nay, but He deceiveth the people.’ The Pharisees had already widely spread their opinion that He was an impostor, and His miracles deceptions, by which the people were misled. But no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Sanhedrim, who possessed the dreaded power of casting an offender out of the synagogue, a punishment similar to that of excommunication.
In the midst of the feast, however, Jesus appeared in the Temple, not quietly either, but openly in His office as teacher and prophet. The people were amazed at His boldness, and equally amazed at the inactivity of the Sanhedrim, who seemed reluctant to interfere with Him at the first. They were in truth privately planning how to take Him; but the feasts were so often the occasion of riot and confusion that they sought rather to lay hands on Him in secret, so as to avoid any open disturbance. This the constant presence of His disciples and friends from Galilee made impossible during the week of the feast On the last day, that great day of the feast, when the priests marched seven times round the altar, singing Hosannah, and the leaves were shaken off the willow boughs in the hands of the worshippers, and the water from Siloam was poured for the last time on the altar, then Jesus stood forth, before the crowded congregation and cried, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.’
Many of the people upon hearing this saying, and feeling the awful courage of any prophet standing thus in their midst, and crying aloud words of such meaning, could not but believe that He was of a truth the Christ. Others asked, ‘Shall Christ come out of Galilee?’ And there was a division among them, some being even willing to take Him; but no man laid hands on Him. The Temple officers, who had been sent by the Sanhedrim to arrest Him, and bring Him before them, were so impressed by His words and manner of speaking, that they dared not touch Him, but chose rather to return to their masters, and own that never man spake like Him. The Pharisees answered sharply that they, too, were deceived, though none of the rulers or Pharisees had believed on Him; none but the common people, who were too ignorant to know the law. Nicodemus, who was His disciple, though secretly, now ventured to remonstrate, but met with a sharp and sneering reply. After which every man went home; and Nicodemus probably took care that Jesus should be warned of the plots of the Pharisees.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LAST AUTUMN
Table of Contents
From that time Jesus appears to have spent his nights out of Jerusalem, only venturing to appear there in the daytime, when his friends were about him. On the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, about two miles from Jerusalem, was a small village called Bethany. This low mountain was henceforth to be his favorite haunt, and this village his most frequent home. There lived in it a family of friends whom he loved dearly, with a marked and special friendship. They were people of some importance, and were well known in Jerusalem; and it was now, probably, that they often received him into their house as their beloved guest.
Early on the first Sabbath day, after the feast of Tabernacles, Jesus came to the temple, and sat down to teach in the treasury, which was a colonnade surrounding the court for women, the usual place for worship. Here, of course, most of the congregation could both see and hear him; and especially those who paused to cast in their gifts into the trumpet-shaped chests which stood against the wall. His teaching was interrupted by the questions and remarks of the Pharisees, who grew more and more malicious, until, at length, after calling him a Samaritan, and telling him he had a devil, they madly gathered up the stones which were lying by to be used in repairing part of the building, and would have stoned him to death in the courts of the temple itself, had he not hid himself from them, and passed by through their midst. No riot ensued, for, now the feast was over, the great mass of people were dispersed; and this, probably, gave them the courage to attack him thus suddenly and openly.
But no danger to Himself could hinder Him from a work of mercy. As He was passing from the Temple His disciples called His attention to a blind man, who was, perhaps, begging at the gate by which they left the Temple.
From this gate, which was at the north-west of the Temple enclosure, there ran a causeway down into the Lower City, where the poorer classes, to whom the blind beggar belonged, had their shops and houses. The disciples asked Him which had sinned, the man or his parents, that he should be born blind. Jesus answered them this blindness was no effect of sin either in himself or his parents; and, repeating the words with which He had begun His sermon in the Temple—‘I am the light of the world’—He anointed the poor man’s eyes with clay, and bade him go to wash in the pool of Siloam. Siloam lay south of the Temple mount, and many a joyous procession had gone down to it for water during the feast The blind beggar had to make his way through the busiest streets of the Lower City, his eyes smeared with the clay. He must have been very well known in this poor neighbourhood, and when he came back from Siloam, with his sight restored, there was a great excitement Some among them disputed whether he was the blind beggar or no. They gathered about him, asking how his eyes had been opened, and he told them frankly all he knew. This Jesus, who was spoken of as one of those impostors who deceived the people of Galilee by false miracles, was He who had restored sight to him, although he had been born blind.
The escape of Jesus from their sudden attack must have left the Pharisees in a state of irritated dissappointment; and their vexation was certainly not lessened when a throng of people from the Lower City brought to them a man upon whom such a wonderful miracle had been wrought at the very moment of His escape. They had been carefully fostering the opinion that Jesus was an impostor, and here was direct proof to the contrary. They could seize only upon the one point which might be made to bear an evil aspect—‘This man is not of God, because He keepeth not the Sabbath-day.’ But some of the Pharisees themselves objected to this, asking,’ How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? There was a division amongst them. They even referred to the beggar, asking him what he said of the man who had opened his eyes. ‘He is a prophet,’ he answered, unhesitatingly.
Upon this they professed not to believe that the man had been blind, and they sent for his parents, both father and mother. They were timid people, poor, of course, in circumstances, and therefore the more afraid of being turned out of the synagogue, and so of losing their livelihood. They could not afford to be bold in behalf of their son. ‘He is of age,’ said the poor trembling parents; ‘we know he is our son, and that he was born blind, but we do not know anything else. He shall speak for himself.’ It may have been, it probably was, the first time the man’s eyes had seen his father and mother; he knew their voices, but their faces he now looked upon with his new power of sight, marvelling, no doubt, at the strange world at once opened to him, and unable to read as we do the expression of those about us. The frowns of the Pharisees, the downcast timidity of his parents, the eager gaze of his old neighbours, were a strange language to him.
The Pharisees questioned and cross-questioned the poor beggar, but he was a man of shrewd common sense, and of great courage, perhaps the courage of ignorance. He maintained firmly, that one thing he did know, whereas he was blind, now he could see. The blue heavens above, the splendour of the Temple, the smoke rising from the altar, all those things of which he had heard so often, he could now see. At length, after being badgered into what seemed an outbreak of insolence from so mean a person, he cried, ‘Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence He is, and yet He hath opened mine eyes. Now, we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, He could do nothing.’ Not long before the Pharisees had said to Jesus, ‘Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil!’ These last words of the beggar so exasperated them that they immediately pronounced against him the sentence of excommunication, which, besides depriving him of his right as a Jew, would make him an alien and outcast in his father’s house, amongst those kinsmen whose faces he had never yet beheld, but who would now turn away from him with shame and terror. Better for him if he had been left a blind beggar sitting at the gate of the Temple.
But Jesus, who had bestowed upon him this blessing, now turned by the bigotry of the Pharisees into a curse, no sooner heard that he had been cast out of his synagogue, than He sought for him in his loneliness and misery. The blind man had boldly maintained that Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet come from God, in the face of those who were striving to put Him to death. So when Jesus found him, stript of love and religious rights, without father or mother in the world, and shut out from the Temple and its sacrifices for sin, he revealed Himself to the wretched man as being not a prophet merely, but the Son of God, that God from whom the sentence of excommunication seemed to cut him off. There was no need of the Temple and the sacrifices for him, if he would but believe in the Son of God, who was greater than the Temple. ‘Lord, I believe!’ cried the man, as he worshipped Him who had opened his eyes. And now, probably, as he was cast out of all other fellowship, he would be admitted into the circle of the disciples, who were willing to brave any penalties threatened by the Pharisees, and who already formed a little society of their own.
From amongst the disciples who had been with Him at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus had chosen seventy, and sent them by two and two on a similar missionary tour to that short journey of the twelve apostles, which had been made in Galilee in the spring. The Jewish tradition was that God had ordained seventy nations to inhabit the earth, and Jesus may have chosen this number to indicate that His mission was not to the Jews only, but to all the world. The seventy were directed to visit certain villages, whither Christ intended to go Himself chiefly in Judea, where he appears to have remained until about the middle of December.
Judea had little of the beauty which made Galilee so dear to Jesus; and it possessed none of those early associations, which makes all men cling to the place of their early childhood. The hills of Judea are bleak and bare the season was that of the sad and waning autumn, when the drought of summer was not repaired by the winter's rains. The people, though more polished, were less trustworthy and less independent than the Galileans. Society was more corrupt and artificial; and Jesus mournfully likened the religious leaders to whited sepulchres, full of dead men's bones, and declared that they made their proselytes tenfold more the children of hell than themselves. The political condition of the country was even worse than in Galilee, where there was at least a Jewish tetrarch. Judea was under a Roman ruler, and its fortresses were filled with Roman soldiers. Riots against Pontius Pilate were frequent Robbers infested the roads; and even between Jerusalem and Jericho, a highway between two chief cities, it was no uncommon occurrence to fall among thieves.
How Jesus avoided the snare of His enemies during these two months we are not told. But we must recollect they had no legal power to put Him to death; they had failed in crushing Him by a sudden outbreak in the Temple: and the number and faithfulness of His followers preserved Him from secret assassination. He passed from village to village, always dogged by the Pharisees who hoped to catch something out of His mouth, that they might accuse Him to Pilate, who, though he did not trouble himself to interfere with a Jewish prophet, would speedily put an end to any political agitator. There was constantly some danger of Jesus appearing to him in this character, from the innumerable multitudes which gathered about Him wherever He appeared; always a perilous sign when a country is ripe, as Judea was, for rebellion.
It was during this time that Jesus probably made that visit to Bethany when Martha is first mentioned as receiving Him into her house, and being so much cumbered about much serving as to speak somewhat sharply to Him, though He was both her Lord and her guest ‘Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?'she asked. ‘Bid her therefore that she help me.’ No doubt He had seen all this house-pride and hospitable impatience before, when His cousins in Nazareth had made feasts for their friends; and we can fancy Him smiling at the hurried and weary woman. ‘Martha, Martha,’ He answered, gently, ‘thou art careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that better part, which shall not be taken away from her.’
Once again, during these two months, die old blasphemy revived, that He was casting out devils by the prince of devils. The old accusation of breaking the Sabbath was also renewed. He was in some village synagogue, where he saw a poor woman bowed together so that she could not lift up herself. He did not wait for her to ask for help, but called her to Him, and laid His hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight The ruler of the synagogue was very indignant, and addressing the people forbade them to come to be healed on the Sabbath day. ‘Hypocrite!’ cried the Lord; ‘doth not each of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?’ For once all His adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for the glorious things that He had done.
The winter was now come, and with it the Feast of the Dedication of the Temple. This feast, like that of Purim, was not one appointed by the law of Moses, and therefore it was not generally kept by the Galileans, or the Jews living far from Jerusalem. It was celebrated in honour of the reconsecration of the Temple after a terrible and shameful pollution of it a hundred and sixty-six years before Christ. Comparatively a modem festival, it was however a time of great mirth and gladness; and it was called the Feast of Lights, from the custom of illuminating the city during its celebration. Once more Jesus resolved to show Himself openly amidst His deadliest foes. There was a colonnade running round the court of the Gentiles, called Solomon's porch which afforded shelter from the cold winds of winter. Here he chose to walk to and fro, teaching, as was his custom those who crowded about Him to learn. The Pharisees surrounded Him in this place, asking Him to say plainly if He were the Christ, or Messiah, probably with the hope that He would claim this kingly title, and so lay Himself open to an accusation before Pilate. The Lord’s reply afforded them no such ground, but He uttered words which excited their fiercest anger. Again they took up stones to stone Him; but He escaped out of their hands, and left Jerusalem to enter it but once more.
Jesus now withdrew altogether from Judea, into the place beyond Jordan, where John had at first baptized. It was in the same valley, beside the same river, where He had spent the first summer of His public life, whilst John was still alive, and teaching and baptizing not far from Him. Only twelve months had passed since He had left that quiet retreat, to enter upon a career full of change, of wanderings, of increasing difficulties and dangers. His enemies had laid wait for Him; had never wearied of hunting Him from place to place; had three times attempted His life' at the feasts. His own kinsmen did not fully believe in Him; His numerous friends were bewildered and disatisfied; and His disciples, though still faithful to Him, were disappointed, and looked anxiously into the future. It was wintry weather; the sky was heavy with clouds, and storms swept across the land. The summer seemed also to have faded out of His life; all that gladness with which His God had crowned Him above His fellows. Poor, homeless, and an exile; rich only in the friendship of a few fisherman and peasants who made themselves homeless and exiles for His sake: with a traitor always at His side, and a host of deadly foes conspiring against Him: thus Jesus passed the last winter of His life.
Whilst He was in Perea many people came to Him, who remembered what John the Baptist had said of Him. John had not yet been dead twelve months, and the anger of the people against Herod had not died away. Many of them believed on Jesus, as He went about, according to His custom, from village to village, teaching, in homely parables, which took firm hold of the minds and memories of His hearers. Very possibly the Pharisees sought to get Herod to arrest Him; but this he dared not do, so unpopular had he become by the murder of John. They tried, therefore, to frighten Jesus back into Judea, and they came to Him with a warning. ‘Get thee out, and depart hence,’ they said, ‘for Herod will kill thee.’ But Jesus had certain work to do in that country, and He was not to be driven from it by their cunning or Herod’s. One of the miracles He wrought at this time in Perea was in the house of one of the chief Pharisees of that neighbourhood, where He had been invited, that they might watch Him. It was the Sabbath day, and a man was set before Him afflicted with dropsy. As usual, Jesus did not hesitate to heal him, the lawyers and Pharisees finding nothing to say against His doing so. After this He gave both to the guests and to His host certain rules concerning feasts, which were very different from those usually observed. To this period also belong the parables of the Great Supper, the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the Prodigal Son, the Unjust Steward, and the Rich Man and Lazarus.
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