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Transcriber's Note:
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
copyright on this publication was renewed.
[Illustration]
The King nobody wanted
By NORMAN F. LANGFORD
_Illustrated by John Lear_
THE WESTMINSTER PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
COPYRIGHT, MCMXLVIII, BY W. L. JENKINS
* * * * *
CONTENTS
1 Waiting
2 A King Is Born
3 Growing
4 Jesus Goes to Work
5 A Busy Time
6 Friends and Foes
7 Slow to Understand
8 Jesus Is Strong
9 Refusing a Crown
10 The Way to Jerusalem
11 Nearing the City
12 In Jerusalem
13 The Last Night
14 The Last Day
15 The Victorious King
* * * * *
ABOUT THIS BOOK
_In a very real and interesting way_, THE KING NOBODY WANTED _tells
the story of Jesus. Where the actual words of the Bible are used, they
are from the King James Version. But the greater part of the story is
told in the words of every day._
_Since you will certainly want to look up these stories in your own
Bible, the references are given on pages 191 and 192. You will
discover that often more than one Gospel tells the same story about
Jesus, but in a slightly different way. In_ THE KING NOBODY WANTED,
_the stories from the Gospels have been put together so that there is
just one story for you to read and understand and enjoy._
[Illustration]
1. Waiting
Two thousand years ago, in the land of Palestine, the Jewish people
were waiting for something to happen--or, really, were waiting for
someone to come.
"When will he come?" was the question they were always asking one
another. "Will he come in five years? next year? Or is he already on
his way?"
They were waiting for someone, and when he came they would call him
"the Messiah." If they spoke the Greek language, they would call him
"Christ." The people thought he would be a great king.
They had one king already. His name was Herod the Great. But Herod was
not the kind of king they wanted. Herod was hard and cruel. He
poisoned and beheaded those who made him angry. He was not a Jew by
birth. The Messiah, when _he_ came, would be a good king. He would be
a Jew himself, and a friend to all the Jewish people. One of the
prophets said he would be like the shepherds of Palestine, who watched
their sheep night and day, and carried the small lambs in their arms.
But the most important thing about the Messiah was that he would drive
Caesar and his armies out of the country. Caesar! How they hated his
very name! For Caesar was the emperor of the Romans. Some years
before, the Romans had occupied the country and begun to rule it.
Herod was still king of the Jews, but now he took his orders from
Caesar. Everybody had to take orders from Caesar. The Jews were not a
free people any more.
"It used to be so different," the older people sighed, "before the
Romans came."
Everywhere in Palestine Roman armies went marching. Their shields
flashed in the sunlight, and when they were on the march they carried
golden eagles which stood for Caesar's power.
The Romans tried to rule the country well. They said that everybody
would get justice and fair play. But the Jews could not see the
fairness in having to pay taxes to a foreign king who did not even
worship God. They did not like to see Roman soldiers whipping people
with long leather whips called scourges, into which bits of glass and
lead and iron were fastened to make them bite more deeply into some
poor Jew's back. They were sick at heart when the Romans began to
punish criminals by nailing them up by their hands and feet to big
wooden crosses, and leaving them to hang there until they died.
[Illustration]
Well, the Messiah would take care of the Romans. He would gather an
army from east and west and north and south. Then there would be a
great day for the Jewish people, a great day for the nation that was
called by the glorious name of Israel! From all over the country the
men of Israel would rise up. They would come when their king called
them, and he would lead them to victory against Caesar. The Romans
would go back where they came from, and Israel would be free and
peaceful and rich and happy again. The Messiah would make Israel into
a great kingdom, bigger and more powerful than the Roman Empire ever
was. The Jews would rule the world. Everyone, everywhere, would
worship the God of Israel, and the Messiah would be King of all the
nations of the earth. If only he would come!
[Illustration]
It was hard to wait so long. They had waited for him a long time, and
their fathers and grandfathers had waited for him too. Sometimes word
would go around that he had finally arrived, and in great excitement
some of the Jews would get ready to drive the Romans out of Palestine.
But always it turned out to be a mistake, and the Jews would be
disappointed, and shake their heads, and say, "Will he ever come?"
But when they grew discouraged, they would remember what was written
in their Holy Scriptures. For it was surely written there that the
Messiah would come someday. There could be no mistake about it.
Someday he would come!
[Illustration]
And so it went on, month after month, year after year. The people
worked, and dreamed, and hoped, and prayed. The rains would fall in
October and soften the hard, dry ground after the heat of summer, so
that the farmer could do his plowing. And as he plowed the land, the
farmer thought about the Messiah, and wondered if he would come before
the harvest in the spring. Then spring would come, and the wheat and
barley would be growing up in the smiling fields, and all down the
hillside the grapevines and the olive trees would be full of fruit.
The Romans were still marching through the country, and still there
was no Messiah. But the farmer thought that maybe he would come before
the next fall rains.
The fisherman would go sailing across the deep-blue Sea of Galilee,
and while he waited for the fish to come into his net, he thought of
how long Israel had waited for the Messiah to come. The beggars in the
city streets, who were deaf, or blind, or crippled, would sit at the
corners and ask for money to buy food. They were wondering too if the
Messiah would ever come and help the poor folk of Israel.
The shepherds, out on the rocky hills where nothing would grow but
grass for sheep and goats and cattle, were also thinking of the
Messiah. In good weather and bad they were there, keeping an eye on
their sheep, and they had plenty of time to think. When the rain and
the snow were in their faces, the shepherds were thinking, _When will
he come?_ And when the hot sun climbed overhead, and the heat was
like a furnace, or when the east wind came and blew dust in their
faces, then too the shepherds thought, _When will he come and save
us?_
[Illustration]
Farmers, fishermen, shepherds--these were not the only people who were
thinking of the Messiah. Sometimes along the hot, lonely roads of
Palestine, where robbers and wild animals were hiding, a traveler
would have dreams. Or the dream might come to someone in sunny
Galilee, where camel caravans crossed with their loads of spices and
jewels and precious things from Far Eastern lands. But it was most
likely to come to a man when he was standing in the great, white,
gleaming Temple at Jerusalem, where all good Jews went to worship God.
And the dream would be that the sky opened, and a great light blazed
down from heaven. An army came marching down out of the sky, led by a
shining warrior whose face was bright as lightning. From his eyes shot
flames of fire. His arms and feet shone like polished brass or gold,
and when he spoke his voice was like the shouting of ten thousand men.
It was King Messiah! "Destroy the Romans!" he would cry. "Burn up
their armies! Let not a single one escape!" Fire would pour down from
the skies when he gave the order, and the Romans would melt away to
nothing, as though they had never been.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Then the dream would fade away. The dreamer would just be trudging
along the dusty road, or watching the camel caravans go by, or
standing in the Temple with the crowds of unhappy people pushing all
around him.
It was just a dream. The Romans were still there. There was no Messiah
anywhere to be seen.
If only the King would come!
[Illustration]
2. A King Is Born
Nobody saw the lions in the daytime, for they were sleeping in their
caves. But at night they might come out to prowl around the rocky
hills, looking for a fat sheep to eat. After dark the hyenas and
jackals began to howl. Robbers might be somewhere in the darkness too.
In the night, when other folk were fast asleep, a good shepherd needed
to be awake and on the watch, to see that no harm came to his sheep
and lambs.
One night when winter was in the air, some shepherds were huddled
together on a stony field not far from the town of Bethlehem. Not many
miles to the north lay Jerusalem, the capital city of Palestine. But
here in the fields it was quiet, and lonely, and cold.
The shepherds sat upon the rocks, or stood leaning upon their staves.
Now and again one of them would see something move, or hear a little
rustling sound. He would raise his eyes and peer out anxiously into
the darkness to make sure that all was well.
Suddenly, without any warning, the sky was flooded with light from
beyond the clouds. Everything had been dark a minute before, but now
every stone and tree and hillock in the field showed up bright as day.
The shepherds jumped to their feet. Some were too frightened to speak,
and others cried out in terror.
"What is it?"
"What can it be?"
"It's the glory of the Lord," one called out. "Lord, have mercy upon
us!"
Suddenly they heard a loud, clear voice.
"Shepherds!"
Silence fell upon the group.
"Shepherds, do not be afraid. I bring you the good news which all the
Jews have waited so long to hear. This very day, Christ your Saviour
has been born in the city of David. And this is how you will know him:
you will find him as a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying
in a manger."
[Illustration]
The voice broke off, and a great chorus began to sing. The sky rang
with the music, and these were the words of the song:
"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, good will toward men."
As quickly as they had come, the light and the singing were gone.
There was just the darkness again, and the far-off howling of wild
beasts. Everything was the same as before, except that the shepherds'
eyes were still blinded by the light, and their ears were full of the
music.
[Illustration]
Their excited voices broke the spell as they all talked at once.
"He's come at last--the Messiah's come!"
"Where did the angel say?"
"The city of David--that means Bethlehem."
"Why are we waiting here? Let's go to Bethlehem."
"Yes, let's go to Bethlehem at once, and find out what has happened
there."
For the first time in their lives, the shepherds left their sheep to
look after themselves. Across the hills and the stone fences and the
rocky fields the shepherds scrambled, and hardly stopped for breath
till they reached the edge of the town. Everything in Bethlehem was
dark as night can be. But no--not everything. One tiny speck of light
was flickering in the blackness.
"He must be where the light is," said one of the shepherds.
Down the street they ran, and in through a door.
They were standing in a stable. There were no angels there. Instead of
that, the shepherds saw cows and donkeys eating hay. A cold draft of
air was blowing in around the cracks of the door and over the dirt
floor. Beside one of the mangers they saw a man standing. A young
woman was resting close by. She was watching a baby who lay in the
straw.
"We came to see the Messiah," one of the shepherds stammered.
The baby cried. The animals munched their food.
There was some explaining to do. The shepherds told the story of what
had happened in the field.
The young man beside the manger did not have anything very exciting to
tell the shepherds.
"My name," he said, "is Joseph. This is my wife Mary. We used to live
here in Bethlehem, but no one remembers us now. I've been working in
Galilee for years. I have a carpenter shop there. The only reason we
came back to Bethlehem was to have our names entered in the government
records.
"We got here only yesterday. We tried to get a room in the inn, but
there wasn't any room for us with all the important people here. They
said we could sleep in the stable. The baby came tonight. Here he is,
if you would like to see him."
The shepherds looked at the baby. They hoped that they would see
something unusual about him, but he looked just like any other baby.
Then they remembered the angels' song.
Outside again, the shepherds looked up and saw a faint gray light
streaking the blackness in the east. Morning was coming. Soon the
people of the countryside would be getting up.
What a story the shepherds were going to tell them! Who would have
thought of looking for the Messiah in a manger! The shepherds were the
first to learn the secret. As they walked back to their flocks they
prayed and gave thanks to God.
[Illustration]
Meanwhile, the little family in the stable were gathered in silence
around the manger. Mary, the mother, said never a word, but her
thoughts were busy with the tale the shepherds had told about her
little child.
* * * * *
The shepherds were not the only people to see strange lights in the
sky. Many miles away, three men saw a new star. They were Wise Men,
and they knew all the stars, but this one they had never seen before.
It was not only a new star, but a moving star. Like a bright fingertip
in the heavens, it seemed to beckon them on. The Wise Men were rich
and important, and thought nothing of a journey. At once they made
ready and set out to see where the star would lead them. For many days
they traveled across the desert, and at last they came to Jerusalem.
Although they were not Jews, they had heard that a Messiah was
expected someday in Palestine. When they saw that the star had brought
them to Jerusalem, they decided that the Messiah must have come.
"We are strangers here," they said to each other. "We had better ask
our way."
King Herod was in Jerusalem just then, and the Wise Men went to his
palace. Since they were rich and famous, they had no trouble getting
in to see the king.
They bowed down respectfully before the king, and Herod received them
with courtesy. Then the Wise Men asked:
[Illustration]
"Where is the newborn King of the Jews? We have seen his star in the
east. We have come to worship him, but we do not know where he is."
Herod was surprised, and then he was angry. A new king of the Jews?
Why, Herod himself was the king of the Jews! However, he hid his
feelings, and answered,
"I will find out what you want to know."
He left the Wise Men, and hurried off to consult with his advisers.
"The Messiah!" he shouted. "Where do they say the Messiah will be
born?"
Solemnly he was told:
"In Bethlehem. An ancient book of the Holy Scriptures tells us that
out of Bethlehem shall come a governor to rule the people of Israel."
Fear and jealousy boiled up in Herod. But a king must control his
feelings, and Herod was old and wise. When he had called his three
visitors to him, he was as smooth and polite as ever. He told them
that they would find the child in Bethlehem.
"Go there," Herod said, "and look for him carefully. And when you have
found him come and tell me, for I too want to go and worship him."
The Wise Men thanked the king, and set out for Bethlehem. Soon they
arrived at the place where Joseph and Mary were staying with the baby.
It was very different from Herod's palace.
There the three Wise Men fell down on their knees as they would before
a king. They opened their treasures and put their gifts in front of
the baby. One brought gold. The others brought sweet-smelling
ointments, frankincense and myrrh.
"Hail, Messiah!" they murmured in adoration. "Hail, Christ! Hail, King
of the Jews!"
When they were once more outside on the road, one of them spoke:
"I think," he said, "that it would be well for us not to see anything
of Herod again. I had a dream...."
The others agreed with him quickly. They had had a dream too.
"God sent that dream to warn us that Herod is dangerous," they said.
"Herod means to harm the child. Let us find some other road back
home."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The days went by, and soon the baby was given his name. He was to be
called Jesus.
One day, when Jesus was about six weeks old, Joseph said to Mary:
"Now that we have a child, we must go up to the Temple in Jerusalem
and give an offering to the Lord. We cannot afford a lamb. But we can
at least take pigeons or a pair of turtledoves."
So Joseph and Mary left Bethlehem, and carried Jesus with them to
Jerusalem, five miles away.
An old man came up to them in the Temple.
"My name is Simeon," he said. "I have been waiting for you a long
time. All my life I have been waiting to see the Messiah. And now the
day has come."
He took Jesus from his mother's arms, and as he held the baby he began
to pray.
"Lord, let me now die in peace," he prayed. "For I have seen the
Messiah, the Saviour of all nations and the glory of the Jewish
people."
Simeon turned back to Joseph and Mary, who were looking at him in
wonder.
"Mary," he said, "this child of yours is going to break your heart. He
will make enemies, and cause great trouble in this country. He will
suffer, and others will suffer too, because of him. But also he will
give joy, and bring many people to God. God bless you now."
With these words the old man handed the baby back to Mary, and turned
away. Joseph and Mary never saw him again, but they remembered his
words forever after.
They took Jesus, and started on their walk back to Bethlehem. There
was so much for them to think about.
First there was the story of the shepherds. Then the Wise Men had come
with their wonderful gifts. And now there was this old man with his
strange words of blessing and warning.
Everything seemed to tell them that Jesus was the Messiah. They
should be happier than anyone in the world. And yet they were not
happy. There was trouble in the air. Their baby was going to be King
of the Jews. Why should there be any trouble about it? They could not
understand.
Trouble was not long in coming. One night Joseph had a dream. When he
awoke he called to his wife, and told her that they must leave
Bethlehem at once. God had sent the dream as a warning for them to get
out of the country. They did not dare to stay there any longer. So
Joseph and Mary packed up their belongings, and set out for the far
country of Egypt where they would be safe.
They left Bethlehem none too soon. For Herod was exceedingly angry
when the Wise Men did not come back. Now he was sure that the Messiah
really had been born! He was afraid that soon there would be a new
king in Palestine to take his throne away from him.
When Herod was afraid, he never wasted any time. Somewhere in
Bethlehem was a child whom he feared, and somehow that child must be
killed. But he did not know which child it was. How could he be sure
to find the right one? He thought of a simple plan.
He called his army officers together, and gave them their orders.
"Send your soldiers to Bethlehem," he told them, "and have them kill
every boy in the place who is two years old or younger."
The officers sent their men to Bethlehem, and all the little boys they
could find there were put to death. No matter who they were they had
to die. It did not take the soldiers very long.
In a few hours they were back in Jerusalem. Herod breathed more
easily.
_That's a good thing_, he thought. _If every little boy in Bethlehem
is dead, the Messiah must be dead along with the rest._
Herod did not know that the baby whom he feared was gone from
Bethlehem before the soldiers got there. While the fathers and mothers
of Bethlehem were crying because their little ones were dead, Joseph
and Mary and Jesus were safely on their way to Egypt.
Herod did not live long enough to find out his mistake. After he died,
the little family in Egypt learned that it was safe to go home again.
But this time they did not go back to Bethlehem. They went straight to
the town of Nazareth in Galilee, where Joseph had worked before Jesus
was born. There they settled down as though nothing unusual had
happened.
In Galilee nobody knew that anything strange had happened at all.
Nobody there had heard of the shepherds and the Wise Men, and nobody
knew what Simeon had said in the Temple. Nobody knew why it was that
so many babies in Bethlehem had been murdered. Nobody in Nazareth
thought that the Messiah had come.
[Illustration]
In Nazareth people only said, "I hear the carpenter has a son." When
Jesus began to walk perhaps they said, "Joseph's son is strong for his
age." And later they said, "The carpenter's lad is doing well at
school."
But there were more interesting things to talk about in Nazareth than
the carpenter's family. There was the Messiah to talk about. "When
will he come?" the people asked each other.
Nobody in Nazareth had heard the angels sing.
[Illustration]
3. Growing
When boys in Nazareth were about six years old, it was time for them
to go to school. No girls were there, for the girls stayed home with
their mothers. But every day except the Sabbath, the boys went to the
school and sat on the floor with their legs crossed, and there the
teacher taught them many things that every Jewish boy would need to
know.
He taught them their A B C's in the Hebrew language. Instead of A, he
showed them how to make a mark like this: [Hebrew: a]. Instead of B,
they learned to make this letter: [Hebrew: b]; and so on, through all
the alphabet. Then when they knew their letters, they could learn to
read. And every Jewish boy had first of all to read the Scriptures.
The teacher taught them what was in the Scriptures. Over and over they
said their lessons aloud, talking all at once, until they knew
everything they were supposed to know by heart.
The teacher taught them psalms which had been sung for many years in
the Temple of Jerusalem.
He taught them also about the prophets. The prophets were preachers
whose words had long ago been written down in the sacred Scriptures.
These books were long pieces of skin, which were kept rolled up when
no one was reading them. There were many prophets--Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, Amos, Malachi, and many others. Little by little the boys
began to discover what these preachers had said.
[Illustration]
The teacher also made sure that they knew about that part of the
Scriptures called the Law. The Ten Commandments were in the Law, and
many other sayings which told people what they must do and what they
must not do in order to please God. The boys learned how God gave the
Commandments to Moses, while lightning flashed and thunder crashed,
at the far-off mountain of Sinai.
The teacher told them stories of all that had happened to the Jewish
people in the years gone by. But the most important was the story of
the Passover. This story explained why their parents went to Jerusalem
each spring.
Now this was what every Jewish boy had to learn about the Passover,
and remember always:
Once there was a time, hundreds of years before, when the Jews did not
live in Palestine. They lived in Egypt, where they were slaves. They
wanted to escape, so that they might have a country of their own where
they could be free.
One spring night God sent a disease into Egypt, and thousands died of
it. There was not an Egyptian home where the oldest child in the
family did not die. But none of the Jews died. Therefore, they said
that God _passed over_ their doors that night.
Then there was a great uproar and clamor in Egypt, with the Egyptians
weeping, and nursing their sick, and burying their dead. The time had
come for the Jews to get away. Under their leader, Moses, they began
their long journey toward Palestine.
The Jewish people never forgot what God did for them in Egypt. So in
the spring of each year was held the Feast of the Passover, to give
thanks to God for the help he had given them long ago. They gathered
together and sang:
[Illustration]
"O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: For his mercy
endureth for ever."
To the Passover feast every family brought a lamb to be killed as a
sacrifice to God. Only the best could be given to God. They chose a
lamb that was white, and pure, and fine, and precious. Then they
roasted the lamb, and ate it. What a feast they had, so solemn and so
joyful, as they remembered all that God had done!
Everyone knew the best place to hold the Passover feast was at
Jerusalem. Therefore, every year, when spring came round, the people
said to one another, "It is Passover time," and as many as could leave
their homes went up to the great city.
When the boys heard the story, they understood why their parents went
there in the spring.
When Jewish boys were twelve years old, and could read the Hebrew
language, and knew the psalms, and understood the prophets, and were
learning to obey the Law--then they were practically grown up. At this
age a boy could be called "a son of the Law." He could go along with
his parents to Jerusalem when it was Passover time.
Each year Joseph and Mary liked to be in Jerusalem for the Passover.
When Jesus was twelve years old, he was "a son of the Law," like other
boys his age, and for the first time he went with them. Many friends
and relatives kept them company as they started on the road.
Now from Nazareth it was more than eighty miles to Jerusalem, and
eighty miles is a long way to walk.
It would have been easier to ride in a cart; but nobody traveled that
way in Palestine. The roads were too rough and narrow for anything but
walking. Donkeys and horses might carry the heavy luggage, but the
people went on foot. There were no bridges, and so the only way to get
from one side of a river to the other was to find a shallow place and
wade across.
It would take two or three days to go from Nazareth to Jerusalem. When
the travelers were tired at night, there was not likely to be any
place to sleep along the road, except under the open sky and the
stars.
There were three stages to their journey. The first was the pleasant
part, through Galilee. When the travelers left Nazareth that day, the
sky was clear and the air was fresh. The fields lay lovely in the
sunlight. The roads were full of people from many countries. There
were always merchants on the road traveling from the East to Greece
and Egypt, and back to the East again. Galilee was beautiful, and
Galilee was busy.
Sooner or later the time must come to leave pleasant Galilee behind.
But which way would they go from there? Should they go straight south
through Samaria? That would have been the shortest and the easiest
way. The only thing against it was that the people of Samaria were not
friendly to Jews. Long years before, Samaria had been the home of many
of the Jewish people. But foreigners came and settled among them. Then
their ways became so different that the people of Jerusalem said they
were not Jewish any more. They were bitter rivals of the Jews, and it
was hardly safe to go among them.
So the travelers chose, for the second stage of their journey, the
long road down the valley of the river Jordan. But they did not find
this very pleasant, either. High above the river stood the banks, and
it seemed as though the river itself were at the bottom of a great,
deep ditch. And down there was the road they had to take. In some
places they came to slime and mud, and dead trees and twisted roots.
But sometimes there were farms and villages. It was hot at the north
end of the Jordan, when first they came to it; and the farther south
the travelers went, the hotter grew the weather.
Very hot, very tired, and very thirsty, they finally reached the last
stretch of the journey--across country from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
They were nearly there. But the last part of the trip was the hardest
of all. Around them stretched a dreary desert. There were bleak hills,
and ugly rocks, and hardly a drop of water anywhere to drink. No
wonder nobody went to Jerusalem, except Jews and Roman soldiers! There
were no gay caravans of Eastern merchants here. Galilee seemed very
far away.
Up one side of a hill, and down another, and then another higher hill
to climb! Up and up, over stones and bare earth and bushes and thorns,
until they were high above the Jordan--that was the road to Jerusalem.
Would they ever get there? What they would have given just to sit down
and wash the sand off their hot, tired feet!
Then all at once they saw it. From the top of the hill they saw it,
walls and roofs and towers gleaming in the morning sun. A shout of joy
went up. Every man and woman and child joined in the shouting.
Jerusalem, the city of David! King David built that city, a thousand
years ago. The enemies of God had come and burned it to the ground,
but the Jews built it up again. They were sure that it could never be
destroyed. It would always be there, for ever and ever. Someday the
Messiah would come, and all the peoples and nations of the world
would come to see Jerusalem, as these poor folk from Galilee were
doing now.
[Illustration]
The travelers began to march again, but faster this time; forgotten
were the weary miles behind. They marched, and as they marched they
sang. They sang one of the psalms that the boys had learned at school.
Everyone took up the song:
"'I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the Lord.
Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem....
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
They shall prosper that love thee.'"
There were so many visitors in Jerusalem that they could not all find
a place to stay in the city. Some of them stayed in the villages near
by, and others slept in tents out in the open air. At an ordinary time
of the year, there would be only about thirty thousand people living
in Jerusalem. But at the Passover there might be twice that, or even
more.
Even the Roman governor was in Jerusalem at Passover time. He lived in
another city, but he always came to Jerusalem for the great feast. It
was not that he cared about the Passover. It was because he was afraid
that with such great crowds in Jerusalem there might be trouble unless
his Roman soldiers were on guard. It would be especially bad if anyone
showed up claiming to be the Messiah. All the people might make him
king, and rebel against Rome, and great numbers would be killed.
With such crowds in the city, it was hard for the people from Nazareth
to get through the narrow streets. All along the streets they saw
shops. Some of the shopkeepers were selling goods that had been
brought down from Galilee--fish and oil and wine and fruit. Besides
the merchants there were shoemakers, butchers, carpenters, tailors. On
the side streets gold-smiths and jewelers were making things for the
rich people. Here and there was a merchant selling fine silks which
had been brought from the Far East. A man could buy almost anything he
wanted in Jerusalem, provided that he had the money.
[Illustration]
The travelers from Galilee pushed their way through the crowded
streets, and on up to the Temple on the hill. Here was God's own
house! How large it was! Herod the Great had built this Temple. Ten
thousand men had worked many years to build it, and it was not quite
finished yet. Eight gates led into the beautiful building with the
white walls and the golden towers. Inside there was room for many
thousands of people.
What a clatter and a clamor and a tumult there was! It seemed as
though all the world were there. Doves and cattle, as well as lambs,
were offered in the Temple as a sacrifice to God. You could hear the
poor creatures calling out--the cows lowing, the lambs bleating, the
doves singing their sweet, sad song. Money was clinking on the tables.
Only one kind of coin could be used as an offering, and travelers had
to exchange those they were carrying for Jewish money. The men who
made the exchange often cheated the visitors.
The people from Galilee separated when they came to the Court of the
Women. The women and girls could go no farther, but the men and boys
went up some steps into the Court of Israel. There they watched the
priests of the Temple taking the doves and lambs and cattle that the
worshipers had brought, and offering them up as a sacrifice. The
priests killed the animals, and let the blood drip on the altar where
the sacrifices were given to God.
The Court of Israel was as far as anyone could go, unless he were a
priest. There was another room called the Holy Place, which only
priests could enter. To the people it was a place of great mystery.
Then farther on was a still more mysterious room called the Holy of
Holies. Even a priest did not dare to step inside that door. That was
the secret place of God. Only the high priest, who was head of all the
priests, could enter there. And he could go in only once a year.
The visitors from Nazareth saw a priest coming toward them. Anyone
could tell from his clothes that he was wealthy. He came from one of
the families that were known as the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the
only people who were at all friendly with the Romans. The reason for
this was that they were better off than most other people and
well-satisfied with things as they were. They thought it wise to stay
on good terms with Caesar. Nobody liked the Sadducees very well, but
everyone had to admit that they were certainly very important. They
sat in a high council and governed everything that went on around the
Temple.
And here was a Pharisee, looking very well pleased with himself! Jesus
had seen Pharisees before, around Nazareth, and they always seemed to
have that look. The word "Pharisee" meant "someone who is different."
What made the Pharisees different was that they were always talking
about the Law, and claiming that they obeyed it better than anyone
else. They were kindly folk, on the whole, and very well respected,
but they did not have any official position, like the Sadducees. All
they did was study the Law and tell other people about it. The
Pharisee whom the visitors were watching began to pray so that
everyone could see him. It seemed as if he were saying, "O Lord, I
thank thee that I am better than these other people here!"
Most of the great throng crowding the Temple were not priests, or
Sadducees, or Pharisees. They were plain people who had come to bring
their sacrifices, or to talk about the Scriptures, or simply to be in
the Temple because they loved God's house.
Nobody was paying much attention to Jesus. He was just a young boy,
lost in the crowd.
* * * * *
The days went by, and the lambs were killed and eaten. The prayers
were said and the hymns were sung. It was all over at last, and the
time had come to go home.
Joseph and Mary did not see Jesus the morning they all were supposed
to leave. They did not wait to find him, for the other travelers from
Nazareth were anxious to get started on the long journey back to
Galilee.
Joseph and Mary said to each other:
"Jesus is safe enough. There are so many of us from Nazareth that he
can't get lost. No doubt he is somewhere in the party."
The Nazareth people said good-by to the Temple for another year, and
started off for home. Out through the city gates they went, and back
into the desert through which they had come. They walked a whole day,
and still Joseph and Mary saw no sign of Jesus. This was beginning to
seem strange. Surely they would see him somewhere!
At last it dawned upon them. He wasn't there at all!
They were frightened now. What could have happened to Jesus? What
would become of him in Jerusalem? There was nothing to do but to leave
the party, and turn back alone to the city. But Jerusalem was a big
place, and they hardly knew where to hunt for Jesus. How would they
ever find one boy among all those thousands of people?
[Illustration]
They went to the Temple. But even if he were here, it would not be
easy to find him quickly. Walking through one of the courts, they
noticed a group of people gathered around a rabbi. There was nothing
unusual about that. There were a great many teachers in the Temple,
and a visitor often saw groups gathered around them to listen to their
teaching.
But there was something different about this group. Most of the men in
it were Pharisees who were themselves rabbis. And the strange thing
was that they were not doing all the talking as they usually did. They
were listening too. And they were not listening to a rabbi, but to the
voice of a boy.
Joseph and Mary moved closer. There could be no mistake about it--it
was Jesus who was talking! He was asking questions; he was answering
questions. The long-bearded rabbis were standing there, their mouths
open in astonishment. Jesus was not just a boy in the crowd any
longer. Men old enough to be his grand-father were listening to what
he had to say.
Mary's surprise turned to anger. She pushed her way through the crowd
and took Jesus by the arm.
"Why did you do this?" she cried. "Your father and I have been looking
for you everywhere."
Jesus stood just where he was. It was as though he belonged there. He
said:
"Why did you come to look for me? Don't you know that I must be
looking after my Father's business?"
Joseph and Mary stood there too, not knowing what to make of their boy
or of what he said.
They waited to see what he would do.
And then, in a minute, Jesus turned and went with them. They did not
have to ask him again. The three of them went home to Nazareth.
Jesus knew that someday he would go back to the Temple. But he was not
ready for that yet. He must do his duty to his parents. He must obey
God at home. Then he would always know how to obey God in the wide
world beyond Nazareth.
The lambs went quietly to the Temple when they were taken there to be
offered to the God of Israel. Jesus must be obedient like a Lamb of
God.
4. Jesus Goes to Work
[Illustration]
When Jesus was thirty years old, people began to talk about the great
man who had come to Palestine.
"This man is so great," they said, "that he may be the Messiah."
But it was not Jesus they were talking about. It was his cousin, John.
John was a preacher. He was afraid of no one, and as a result everyone
was a bit afraid of him. John was a rough, strong man. Next to his
skin he wore leather, and over that he wore a cloak of camel's hair.
Honey and locusts were his food.
Every day John preached down by the river Jordan. The people flocked
out from Jerusalem and from all the countryside round about to hear
him preach. It was a wild and dreary place to come to, but when John
preached everybody wanted to be there.
This was how he preached:
"Give up your sins, and begin a new life at once, for God is coming to
rule over men! I am a voice crying in the wilderness. I tell
you--prepare for the Lord!"
And when the people heard him, they were afraid. Many of them cried
out, "We have sinned!" and came forward out of the crowd. John led
them down the bank into the river and baptized them as a sign that
they wanted to be cleansed of their sins and begin a new life. Thus
John came to be known as "John the Baptist."
But when John thought that a man was not in earnest, then he refused
to baptize him. Some of the Pharisees and the Sadducees came to be
baptized, and John would have nothing to do with them. They might be
great men in Jerusalem, but John called them "snakes in the grass." He
told them:
"I've seen the snakes out here in the wilderness, wriggling for dear
life to get out of the way when the grass catches fire. That's what
you remind me of. You're scared. You think that something terrible is
going to happen, and so you're pretending to be good people so that it
won't go so hard with you. You will have to show me that you want to
be something different from what you are! And don't think that you
amount to anything just because you are Jews. God could make as good
Jews as you are out of these stones."
That is how John the Baptist talked to some of the great men of
Jerusalem. It made people think more than ever that he might be the
Messiah. Who except the Messiah would dare to talk that way to
Pharisees and Sadducees?
But others shook their heads and said, "No--this couldn't be the
Messiah!" For they thought that when the Messiah came he would drive
the Romans out of the country; and many people said that the only way
to do that would be to get an army together. Some men were meantime
killing all the Romans they could. They were called "Zealots," because
they were so much filled with zeal about killing off the Romans. A few
even carried daggers with them, and stuck the daggers into Romans
whenever they got a chance.
"The Romans will not be overthrown," they said, "just by preaching.
You will have to get out and kill the Romans."
John himself said that he was not the Messiah.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
"There is someone coming who is greater than I," he told the people.
"Someone is coming whose shoe-laces I am not worthy to stoop down and
untie. Compared to him, I am nobody. I am just preparing the way for
the Messiah."
One day there was a great crowd, as usual, down by the Jordan, and
John was busy baptizing the people as fast as they came to the water.
One after another they came. It went on for hours.
[Illustration]
John had just baptized one man and helped him to the bank. The next
one was coming forward. John looked up to see who it was. He was
looking into the face of Jesus of Nazareth.
"You! Not you!" John spoke in a hoarse whisper. "No! I can't baptize
you. You must baptize _me_ instead!"
Before anyone could notice that anything was wrong, Jesus stepped to
the water's edge.
"Don't say anything about it, John," he said softly. "Treat me just
like the rest of them. We shall all be baptized together into a new
life."
Jesus went forward into the river and John baptized him. In a moment
Jesus was up the bank and lost in the crowd. The next man was coming
forward.
John stared after the vanishing figure of Jesus. The crowd made way
for Jesus, thinking, _There goes another man who came to be cleansed
of his sins._
But John said: "When I baptized _him_, I saw the Spirit of God come
down out of heaven like a dove, and light upon him. Jesus is the Son
of God. I am nothing. He is everything. He is the Messiah. He is the
Lamb of God!"
The next man was coming down the bank toward John. John stood peering
into the crowd. Jesus was nowhere to be seen.
Jesus had gone away to be alone, as God wanted him to do. He went into
the loneliest part of the desert, where there were only the wild
animals to keep him company.
_I am the Messiah_, he thought. _There is no doubt that I am the
Messiah. I must save my people. How should I begin?_
There was nothing to eat in the wilderness, and Jesus grew hungry. He
looked around him, and saw that the stones were shaped like loaves of
bread.
There seemed to be a voice inside him which was not his own. The voice
said:
"_If you really are the Messiah, you oughtn't to be hungry. If you
really are the Messiah, you would just have to say the word and these
stones would be turned into bread. Then you would have plenty to eat
for yourself, and, besides, you could go and give bread to all the
hungry folk out there who are waiting for you to help them._"
It was very quiet in the wilderness. The voice spoke up again.
"_But maybe you are afraid to try. Suppose you said to the stones,
'Stones, become bread!' and then nothing happened! That would prove
that you weren't the Messiah, wouldn't it?_"
Jesus shook his head, to get rid of the thought. Some words from the
Scriptures came into his mind. "_Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God._" No, it
would not do to try playing tricks with stones. It would not matter
if he did turn them into bread. Bread was not the most important thing
in the world. People might think that there was nothing so important
as eating, but there were bigger things in life than that. People
might think that what the Messiah ought to do was to make the country
prosperous, but that would not help them so much as they thought. That
was not the kind of Messiah he was going to be.
But what was the best way to prove that he was the Messiah? The
tempting voice inside tried again.
"_Maybe the best idea_," it said, "_is to go to Jerusalem and climb up
on the tower and jump down! Everyone says that the Messiah is going to
come suddenly out of heaven. You would come down suddenly enough that
way! And nothing would happen to you. It says in the Scriptures that
God will send his angels to hold you up and keep you from being hurt.
Surprise the whole city by jumping off the Temple, and everybody will
worship you at once!_"
Again Jesus shook the thought away, and again he thought of what the
Scriptures said.
"_Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." I can't go and put God to
the test, to see whether he will keep me from being hurt. And it won't
make me the Messiah just to cause a big sensation in Jerusalem. That's
what everyone is expecting, but that is not the right way at all.
There must be some other way._
And the voice spoke up again.
[Illustration]
"_There is something else you could do. What the world needs is a
ruler like you. Everybody says that the Messiah is going to be a world
ruler, great and good. Don't let the people down! You are a great man.
You could be anything you wanted to be--a general, a governor, a
king._"
Jesus thought, _That's Satan tempting me, that's the devil himself
talking!_
He spoke out loud:
"Go away from me, Satan! For the Scriptures say, 'Thou shall worship
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve!'"
The voice said no more. A great quietness came over Jesus. There was
no great thing that he needed to do right away. He was the Messiah,
but he did not need to make the country wealthy. He did not need to
jump from the Temple, and he did not need to command an army or rule
an empire.
There was one thing that he would have to do, but he could not tell
anybody about it yet. It was going to be his secret for a while. But
someday everybody would see what he was doing. Someday it would be
understood.
And now it was time to be on his way. He had been in the wilderness
forty days, and that was long enough. He found the trail back to the
outside world, and soon he was on the road to Galilee.
* * * * *
When Jesus got home to Galilee, he began to preach to people in the
streets. What he said at first was very much like what John the
Baptist said:
"Give up your sins, and begin to live a new life, for God has come to
rule over you!"
But the crowds that heard Jesus were not so large as those that went
to the Jordan to hear John.
Jesus needed some followers now who would be with him all the time,
and learn everything he had to tell them. John the Baptist had his
followers; "disciples" was what they were called. Jesus began to look
for disciples of his own.
One morning he went down to the shore of the Sea of Galilee. When he
came back to the town, he had four disciples with him.
Two of them were brothers named Simon and Andrew. Andrew remembered
Jesus, for he had once been a disciple of John the Baptist. He had
seen John point to Jesus, and heard him say, "He is the Lamb of God!"
Andrew had told Simon all about it.
When Jesus came to them along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he
found them putting a net into the water, for Andrew and Simon were
fishermen.
Jesus said to them,
"Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Fishing was good business, but Simon and Andrew were ready to give it
up to follow the man John had called "the Lamb of God." They came away
with him at once.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Farther along the shore was another pair of brothers. One of them had
also been with John the Baptist. Their names were James and John, and
they were with their father, Zebedee. They had done so well at fishing
that they could afford to have servants to help them. But when Jesus
called them they also came at once, and left their father and the
servants behind.
That was four to start with, and soon he had eight others. But no one
of them was a very important person, and people said that one of them
was wicked. That was Levi, who was also called Matthew. The trouble
with Levi was that he was a taxgatherer. Everybody hated taxgatherers.
They were called "publicans," and it was thought that no one could be
much lower than a publican.
The publicans worked for the Roman government. They were not Romans
themselves, but Jews, which made it all the worse. They were looked
upon as traitors, for they collected the taxes for the hated Romans,
and made a fortune for themselves by cheating the people.
Levi's job was to collect the fee for traveling along the road, and
what he could collect over and above the amount he ought to have
charged, he kept for himself. Then Levi heard Jesus preaching. He
heard him say that he ought to give up his sins, and begin to live a
new life. When Jesus came to Levi's table one day, and said, "Follow
me," just as he had said it to the honest fishermen by the lake shore,
Levi was ready to come away. Without a word Levi got up and left his
taxgathering behind, and all his fortune. Levi became a disciple like
the other eleven, and was treated like the rest.
But other people were shocked when they saw a publican with Jesus, and
tongues began to wag. No one seemed to notice that Levi had stopped
collecting taxes. He had been a publican once, and no one except Jesus
was ready to give him a second chance.
Other publicans sometimes came to have dinner with Jesus and his
disciples, along with many people who were looked down upon in the
community.
The Pharisees in particular were angry when they saw the company that
Jesus kept. One day they came to one of these dinner parties, and told
the disciples that they did not care for Jesus' choice of friends.
"How is it," they asked, "that your master eats and drinks with
publicans and sinners?"
Jesus heard them, and replied:
"It is not well people who need a doctor, but the sick. I didn't come
here for the sake of the good people, such as you think that you are,
but for the sake of sinners--to lead them into a new life."
But the Pharisees still objected. They said:
"Look at John the Baptist. John is a good man. His disciples are so
religious that they sometimes go without their meals. Your disciples
always seem to be eating!"
"Why shouldn't they eat and feast and be merry?" Jesus answered. "They
are like the friends of a man who is being married. When someone is to
be married, his friends have a great feast. They are joyful because
the bridegroom is with them. In the same way my disciples are joyful
because they have me with them."
Jesus meant that they were joyful because he was the Messiah, and his
disciples were glad to be with him. But he did not say that he was the
Messiah, and no one knew what he was talking about. The Pharisees
would have had more respect for him if he had had a better class of
friends. Fishermen might do, but not publicans and sinners of that
sort! If only Jesus were more like John the Baptist!
They never once thought that Jesus might be the Messiah. When they saw
the kind of friends he had, they wondered if he was even a good man.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
5. A Busy Time
The Pharisees may not have liked Jesus, but no one could deny that he
knew how to preach. The crowds that came to hear him were growing
larger. Often Jesus stood at the foot of a hill and preached to the
crowd that had gathered on the hillside.
Now everyone who heard Jesus preach was likely to be surprised. For he
did not say the things that people expected to hear. Often he said the
very opposite of what they wanted him to say.
He did not believe in giving people a good opinion of themselves. He
told them what was wrong with them. He did not say that it was easy to
be good. He said that it was much harder than anybody thought. He did
not try to preach sermons that would make him popular, for he was not
thinking of himself. He was thinking of what God had to say to the
people, and so he told them plainly what they ought to know and what
they ought to do.
Jesus knew that his listeners found it easier to hate other people
than to love them. And so he stood one day at the foot of the hill and
said:
"You have all heard the saying, Love your friend and hate your enemy.
But that is not what I say. I say, Love your enemies, bless those who
curse you, and pray for those who use you badly. That is what God
does. He makes the sun rise on everybody, good or bad. He sends the
rain to fall on everyone, no matter who he is.
"If you love only those who love you, you don't deserve any credit for
that. That's what everybody does. Be like God. He is merciful, and you
ought to be merciful too. Forgive those who do you a wrong, or you
cannot expect God to forgive you."
[Illustration]
All the people thought that they were at least doing the right thing
in hating the Romans. How could anyone help hating those rough Roman
soldiers, who often came along and made Jews carry their packs for
them? But Jesus said,
"If a Roman soldier makes you carry his pack for a mile, carry it
another mile as well, to show that you love him."
Another thing that Jesus knew about his listeners was that many of
them were worried about money, and food and clothes. It was hard to
blame them for that; for some of the people were very poor, and were
never sure that they were going to get enough to eat.
Jesus was poor enough himself. His disciples were also poor, and they
got no richer by following him. Turning to the disciples, Jesus said
to them,
"Blessed are you who have nothing you can call your own."
The disciples pricked up their ears. "Blessed"--that meant to be
fortunate, or well off. What was good about having nothing? Jesus went
on:
"Blessed are you who have nothing, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.
"Blessed are you who often go hungry, you shall be fed later on.
"Blessed are you who are sad, the time will come when you will be
joyful.
"Blessed are you, when other people hate you, and will have nothing to
do with you, because you are my disciples. Be glad when that happens,
because that is what has happened to all God's servants. God will
reward you for everything you suffer for my sake."
There was silence. Jesus looked out over the crowd and spoke again,
"Woe to you who are rich!"
Again the disciples were amazed. The rich people would not like that!
The disciples were poor themselves, but they wondered what was wrong
with being rich.
Jesus thought of a rich man whom he knew, who wore fine purple clothes
and ate the best food in the land. And he thought of a poor beggar who
sat all day long outside the rich man's house. His body was covered
with sores, and he was so hungry that he would have been glad to get
the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. But the only friends
he had were the dogs that came and licked his sores.
Jesus continued, in a stern voice:
"Woe to you who are rich! For you have already had everything you are
ever going to have! Woe to you who are well-fed! The time is coming
when you will go hungry. Woe to you who are enjoying yourselves all
the time! Someday you will weep. Woe to you when everyone speaks well
of you! It is easy to be popular if you aren't faithful to God. That's
the way it has always been."
Jesus knew that all of them were too much interested in the things
that money could buy. They wanted the Messiah to come so that he would
make them all rich. And so Jesus said, to show them where they were
wrong:
"Don't be always thinking about what you are going to eat and drink
and wear. Why, that's the kind of thing the Romans worry about. There
is more to life than food and clothing."
He paused for a moment. It was a warm summer day. The birds were
flying overhead, and singing; and up the hillside the wild flowers
made patches of color in the grass. Jesus spoke again:
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
"Look at the birds of the air. They never plant crops, or reap
harvests, or gather the grain into barns. Yet your Heavenly Father
feeds them. Are you not more important than birds? Think of the lilies
of the field, how they grow. They never yet made any clothes for
themselves, and yet the great King Solomon in all his glory was not so
beautifully clothed as one of these little flowers. You people who
have so little faith in God--think! If God clothes the flowers of the
field, which are here today and gone tomorrow, will he not clothe you?
Seek the Kingdom of God first of all, and you will be given all the
food and clothes you need. Never worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will
look after itself when it comes. Think about how you ought to live
today."
There was another weakness that Jesus had seen in people, especially
in the Pharisees. They loved to show off their good deeds. He had to
speak about this too.
"When you give something to the poor," he said, "don't make a great
noise about it, like some people I could mention, who want to impress
everybody with how generous they are. If you give anything, keep quiet
about it. God will know what you have done, and that's enough.
"It's the same with prayer," Jesus continued. "Don't stand praying on
the street corners where everyone can see you. There are many people
who do that. When you pray, go into your own room and pray with the
door closed. God will hear you, and he is the only one who needs to
hear."
[Illustration]
Jesus had his admirers. Some people admired him so much that they
began to call him "Master" and "Lord." But Jesus did not think that
they were all in earnest. He spoke plainly about this also.
"It won't do you any good to come saying, 'Lord, Lord,'" he said,
"unless you do the things God expects of you. Someday, I suppose you
will come and tell me of all the wonderful things you have done in my
name. And then I will have to say to you: 'I don't even know who you
are. Go away!'
"If anyone hears my teachings, and does what I tell him to do, he will
be like a man who builds his house upon a rock. The rain comes down
and the wind blows, and the house keeps on standing there, because it
is built upon a rock. You will be strong like that house, if you do as
I say. But anyone who hears my teachings and pays no attention to them
is like a man who builds his house upon the sand. When the rains and
the floods and the winds come, the house will fall down and that will
be the end of it. You will be weak like that house, if you do not obey
my words."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Now when the people heard how Jesus preached, they were amazed. They
wondered who this was who spoke to them as though he were God himself.
That was not how other preachers taught. They were always quoting
somebody else, as though they were afraid to speak for themselves.
But Jesus simply said, "_I_ am telling you." He said, "Listen to
_me_."
* * * * *
Every Friday evening at sunset the Sabbath began, and there could be
no more work until sunset on the following day. Saturday morning all
the Jewish people went to attend the service in the synagogue. The
people would come in and take their places, with the most important
people up in front. At the beginning of the service, everyone stood
and faced in the direction of Jerusalem, and recited some verses from
the Scriptures. These were always the same. They began: "Hear, O
Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
might."
After this there was prayer. Then the minister opened a cabinet and
brought out the Scriptures, which were written on long pieces of skin
made into a kind of paper. The pieces were kept rolled up when they
were not in use. The minister brought two of the rolls and laid them
on the reading desk. Someone read the Scripture lessons then, and
after that anyone in the congregation who wished could go up to the
front and explain what the lesson meant.
Like all the other Jews, Jesus went to the synagogue on Saturday
mornings. One Saturday when he and his disciples were in the town of
Capernaum they went to the service as usual. When the time came to
explain the lesson, Jesus went up to the front. He surprised the
people as he always did; but something else happened which surprised
them even more.
There was suddenly a great commotion at the back of the synagogue. A
man began to cry out. There seemed to be some evil thing inside him,
which made him hate the very sight of Jesus. The people said that he
had "an unclean spirit."
Strange, wild words came pouring out of the man's mouth.
"Let me alone!" he cried. "What have I to do with you, Jesus of
Nazareth? Have you come to destroy me? I know who you are. You are the
Holy One of God!"
Jesus stood his ground, and spoke to the evil thing in the man.
[Illustration]
"Be quiet," Jesus said, "and come out of that man."
There was another wild shriek and then silence. The man looked around
him as though he wondered where he was. He was in his right mind
again.
The people were amazed by what they had seen and heard. On the way
home from the synagogue they asked each other,
"What kind of preaching is this, which makes a madman well again?"
Before the day was over, word of what Jesus had done had gone all over
town.
After the service, Jesus went to Simon's house, and there he found
more trouble waiting for him. Simon's wife's mother was sick in bed.
Jesus went to her bed-side, and took her hand, and helped her to her
feet. All at once the sickness left her, and she was able to prepare
the meal.
Jesus could rest in the afternoon, but when the sun went down in the
evening he had to go to work again. Everyone had heard of how he cured
people who were out of their minds, and of how he was able to heal the
sick. As long as the Sabbath lasted, the people had to stay quietly at
home. But once the sun had set the Sabbath was over, and they could do
as they pleased. It seemed as though the whole town wanted to do only
one thing, and that was to go to see Jesus.
A great throng of sick people were soon gathered outside the door of
the house, with everyone else in Capernaum looking on. Jesus came out
to heal the sick. Darkness fell, and night came on, and still the
people pressed around Jesus to have him touch them and make them well.
Hour after hour he worked with them, until it was too late to do
anything more that night.
Yet Jesus was out of bed in the morning before the sun was up. It had
been a busy Sabbath, and he needed to go off by himself and rest. And
what he needed more than anything else was to pray. He wanted to be
alone for a while with his Father. So many people to preach to! So
many men who had begun to hate him! Jesus needed strength for it all,
and he knew that praying would make him strong.
While everyone else was sleeping, and the darkness still lay upon the
land, Jesus silently slipped away from the house. He found a lonely
place, where no one would disturb him.
But when Simon and the other disciples woke up, they could not wait
for him to come back. They went at once to look for him. And when they
had found him, they said,
"Everyone is looking for you."
It was quiet out there in the hills. Jesus would have liked to stay
there for the whole day. All day long he could have rested and prayed.
But then he thought of the people who were waiting for him. He thought
of the people who needed him. He thought of the places he had not yet
visited. There was so much to do, and there was so little time.
[Illustration]
He rose to his feet.
"Let us go, then," he said. "Let us go to the next towns, so that I
can preach in them too. After all, that is why I came into the
world--to tell men the good news from God!"
He left the quiet countryside, and went back to the towns. The people
who loved him were there. The people who needed him were there. And
the people who were afraid of him, and the people who had begun to
hate him--they too were there.
Jesus returned to the towns, where his friends and his foes were
waiting.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
6. Friends and Foes
Jesus thought the time had come to visit Nazareth. Before he had gone
away, there was nobody who thought that he was a person of any great
importance. But he had become a famous man. The whole of Galilee was
talking about him. And now he was at home with his friends and family
again.
On the Sabbath morning he went to the old familiar synagogue. There
was a full congregation that day, for everyone supposed that Jesus
would preach. He had never preached in Nazareth before.
When the time came to read the Scripture lesson, Jesus walked up to
the front. He took the roll from the minister, and found the place he
wanted. It was in the book of the Prophet Isaiah. He began to read:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to
preach good news to the poor; he has sent me to heal the
broken-hearted, to preach liberty to the prisoners and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set free those who suffer, and to say that God
will be good to his people."
Jesus stopped reading and handed the roll back to the minister. He sat
down in the seat from which Jewish preachers always spoke to the
people in the synagogue.
The whole congregation was very still, waiting to hear what Jesus had
to say. That was an exciting lesson he had read from the Scriptures.
It made the people think of the Messiah. Someday a preacher would be
able to say, "This has all come true!" And that would mean that the
Messiah had come.
Jesus looked around at the faces he knew so well. Thirty years he had
lived among these people. Now he was back to tell them something that
they had never known before.
He began to speak.
"Today," he said, "you are seeing this Scripture lesson come true."
[Illustration]
A thrill ran through the audience. The Scripture had come true? The
Messiah was really here? Could he mean that _he_ was the Messiah?
The people gasped. Some laughed. Others were angry. They started to
talk among themselves.
"The Messiah? Him? Why, that's only Jesus! The carpenter's son!"
"Everybody knows who Jesus is! Lived down the street since I don't
know when!"
"Who does he think he is?"
Jesus again raised his voice above the others':
"I know what you are going to say. You are going to quote that old
saying, 'Doctor, cure yourself.' You are going to tell me to start
doing the things I am supposed to have done in Capernaum. I'm not
surprised. A servant of God never gets any honor among his own people.
The same thing happened to the prophets long ago.
"Don't expect me to do anything wonderful here in Nazareth. You
wouldn't believe it if you saw it. Why do you think you ought to get
any special favors from God?"
A great roar went up from the congregation. All his old friends got up
from their seats and rushed to the front of the synagogue. They took
hold of Jesus and dragged him out of the building. At the edge of the
town there was a high cliff, and they took him there to throw him down
on the rocks below. But Jesus slipped out of their hands, and turned
around. Calmly he walked through the crowd. Nobody had the courage to
touch him again.
Jesus never went back to Nazareth any more. Once, when he was
preaching in another town, someone came and told him that his mother
and his brothers had come to take him home. They thought that he ought
to stop this nonsense of pretending to be the Messiah.
But Jesus would not go home with them, for they did not believe in
him. It was better to stay with his disciples. He was at home with
those who trusted him.
"My mother?" he said. "My brothers?"
He looked around at his disciples, and said: "These are my mother and
brothers--my own disciples. Anybody who obeys the will of God is my
brother and my sister and my mother, all in one. That's the kind of
family I want!"
* * * * *
Back in Nazareth nobody thought that Jesus was of much account. But in
other places he meant everything to people who needed help. The
Pharisees were often glad to see him go away. But the poor and the
sick could never see enough of him.
Once there came to Jesus a man who was sick with the dreaded leprosy.
A leper's skin was deathly white, and his flesh was rotting, and he
was sure to die of the disease. Nobody needed help more than a leper
did, but no one would even touch him.
The people back in Nazareth were too proud to admit that the
carpenter's son from down the street might be the Messiah. But a
leper did not have any pride. This leper came to Jesus, and fell on
his face before him, crying out, "Lord, if you will do it, you can
make me clean from this disease!"
[Illustration]
Then Jesus did what everybody else was afraid to do. He reached down
and put his hand on the sick man, and said:
"I will. Be clean."
At once the man was healed of his leprosy. Jesus told him to go and
give thanks to God, and not to tell anyone what had happened. But the
leper could not help telling. Jesus became still more famous as the
man who healed the sick.
Another time he made a blind man see again. The Pharisees tried to get
this man to say that the person who cured him had not been sent from
God. But the man who had been blind knew better. When the Pharisees
tried to threaten him, he did not give an inch. He said:
"Who ever heard of anyone opening the eyes of the blind since the
world began? But this man did it. How could he have made me see, if he
hadn't come from God?"
When Jesus heard of this, he went and found the man who had been
blind, and asked him,
"Do you believe that I am the Son of God?"
The man answered,
"Yes, Lord, I believe."
The blind man had found his Messiah.
Then there was a man who was paralyzed so that he could not move. His
friends wanted to bring him to Jesus, but there were so many people
standing around the house where Jesus was teaching that they could not
get near him. But somehow or other they must get the sick man there.
Like many of the houses in Palestine, this house had a flat roof, with
a stairway leading up to it. They placed their friend on a mat,
carried him up the stairs, and cut a hole in the roof. After fastening
a rope to each corner of the mat, they gently lowered it to the floor,
right at Jesus' feet.
Jesus was glad when he saw the faith they had in him. He looked at the
helpless man, and said,
"Man, your sins are forgiven you."
There were scribes and Pharisees standing there, waiting, as usual, to
find fault with Jesus. They began to talk among themselves. They said:
"Who is this who is talking as if he were God? Such blasphemy! Who can
forgive sins, except God himself?"
But Jesus knew what they were saying, and he answered them:
"Which do you think is easier--to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,'
or to say to this man, 'Pick up your mat and walk away'? I will show
you that I can do one as well as the other!"
He turned to the paralyzed man and said,
"Pick up your mat, and go on back to your house."
The sick man got up from the floor, rolled up the mat and put it under
his arm, and went home. As he walked, there was a song of praise to
God in his heart. And many of the people who saw what had happened
were so surprised that they did not know whether to be glad or to be
afraid. But they all agreed on one thing. They said,
"We have seen strange things today!"
[Illustration]
Nothing that Jesus did seemed to please the Pharisees. But there was
one thing that made them especially angry. He was not so careful as
they thought he ought to be about keeping the Law.
Now the Law meant everything to the Pharisees. They were so much in
earnest about keeping God's Law that they were not satisfied with what
was in the Scriptures. They followed many rules which had been made up
since the Scriptures were written. Unless a man kept all these rules,
it did not matter to the Pharisees how much good he did.
Jesus was always getting into trouble with them about the Sabbath. The
Pharisees had a list of thirty-nine different kinds of work that
nobody was allowed to do on the Sabbath Day. This list included so
much that unless a Jew was careful, he would be likely to break the
Sabbath without even knowing it.
If he tied a knot that could be untied with one hand, that was all
right; but if he took two hands to untie it, then he had broken the
Sabbath. He even had to be careful about sitting in a chair, for if he
happened to drag his chair across the dirt floor the Pharisees said
that he was plowing, which was a great sin on the Sabbath Day. It was
forbidden to make a fire on the Sabbath. And so, if a woman wanted hot
food, she had to cook it the day before, and keep it warm. But that
did not mean that she could set it on a stove. For the stove might get
hotter than it was, and make the food hotter, and that was just the
same as making a fire. The only safe way to keep a meal hot was to
wrap the dishes in cloth or pigeon feathers.
Jesus did not think that rules like this were what the Scriptures
meant when they said, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." He
did not think that this was the way to honor God. And because Jesus
did not agree with them about the Sabbath, the Pharisees were always
watching for a chance to put him in the wrong.
Once, when Jesus and his disciples were walking through a field of
grain on the Sabbath Day, the Pharisees saw that the disciples were
eating some of the grain. There was nothing wrong with eating it, if
they were hungry. But the trouble was that in order to get the grain
they had to pluck the ears. That, said the Pharisees, was harvesting!
Moreover, they had to take the ripe ears and rub them in their hands
to get rid of the chaff. The Pharisees thought that that was just the
same as threshing! Such things to do on the Sabbath Day! The Pharisees
stopped the disciples, and demanded to know why they were doing
something that was against the Law.
[Illustration]
It was really Jesus with whom they wanted to pick a quarrel, and so
Jesus answered for the disciples:
"Why, you must have read in the Scriptures that King David and his
soldiers once went into the Temple and ate some of the holy bread
which only a priest is allowed to eat. Surely if David could do a
thing like that, my disciples can pick a few ears of grain in a field!
"You don't understand what the Sabbath is for," Jesus went on. "We
aren't supposed to be slaves to the Sabbath; this day is meant to do
us good. The Sabbath was made for man; man was not made for the
Sabbath."
Then he added something else, which took the Pharisees by surprise:
"The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath."
They were puzzled. Jesus was talking again as though he was the
Messiah. So far as the Pharisees could see, Jesus was just a preacher
who broke the Law.
The Pharisees began to watch him still more carefully. They found
another chance to get him into trouble soon after this. Jesus had gone
into the synagogue to teach, and in the synagogue was a man whose hand
was withered and useless. On any other day there was no doubt that
Jesus would heal this man. But this was the Sabbath, and it was
against the Law to heal anybody on that day unless he were in danger
of dying. A man with a withered hand could wait another day. Surely
even Jesus would not dare to break the rules again!
Jesus knew that they were watching to see what he would do. They would
never forgive him if he made a move to heal this man.
He called out to the man,
"Stand up--up here, in front of everybody!"
When the man had come to the front, Jesus turned to the Pharisees.
"I am going to ask you something," he said. "If any one of you owned a
sheep, and it fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn't you lift it
out? And don't you think that a man is worth more than a sheep? You
say that it is against the Law to heal a man on the Sabbath. _I_ say
that it is _always_ right to do good to somebody, on the Sabbath just
the same as any other day!"
He looked around at the whole crowd. He was angry now. Would they
actually let a man suffer one day more than was necessary? He turned
back to the man with the useless hand.
"Stretch out your hand!" he commanded.
And when he spoke, the withered hand was healed, and made as good as
the other one.
The Pharisees went out of the synagogue, and their faces were hard
with anger.
"He has gone too far!" they said to one another.
"He is breaking all our good rules. It is not safe for the country to
have him around. He ought to die!"
[Illustration]
They really meant it. They thought they were doing the right thing.
They were afraid of what Jesus would do. The Pharisees even called in
some of their enemies to ask their advice about the best way to get
rid of Jesus.
Meanwhile Jesus had gone out of the city to be alone again. On a
lonely mountain, under the moon-light, he prayed to his Father all
night long. Back in the city men were planning to take his life. And
out on the mountain Jesus prayed for power to do good to men.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
7. Slow to Understand
Not all the Pharisees treated Jesus as an enemy. There was one of
them, named Simon, who decided to have Jesus come to his house for
dinner.
Perhaps Simon thought that the other Pharisees were too hard on Jesus.
Perhaps he thought that he might show Jesus where he was wrong. Or
perhaps he was just curious. Jesus had become very well known, and
many people called him "Rabbi" or "Teacher." It would be interesting
to talk with the famous rabbi all afternoon.
Whatever the reason was, Simon asked Jesus to come and have a meal
with him and his friends.
While they were eating their dinner, a woman stole in quietly through
the open door. She had not been invited. Simon would never have
dreamed of inviting her into his house, for everyone in town gave her
a bad name. "She's not a good woman--not a nice woman at all," people
said. They turned their eyes away when they met her on the street.
At any other time the woman would not have wanted to come to Simon's
home, for no one likes to be stared at coldly and be put out of the
house. But today was different. Jesus was there.
She brought with her a box of ointment. Ointment was the gift that
Jewish people brought, when they wanted to honor an important person
or some dear friend.
Clutching her box of ointment, the woman crept across the room to
where Jesus was sitting. She began to cry. The tears rolled down her
cheeks and dropped on Jesus' hot, dusty feet. Then she wiped his feet
with her hair and kissed them. She opened her precious box and began
to rub his feet with the soft white salve.
No one spoke or moved. Simon was angry and disappointed with Jesus.
The other Pharisees were right after all!
_So this is the great new prophet, sent from God!_ he thought to
himself. _If Jesus were a prophet, we shouldn't be looking at a scene
like this. He would know what kind of woman that is who is touching
him. Why, everybody knows how bad she is!_
Jesus did not need to be told what Simon was thinking. Still sitting
there, while the woman clung to his feet, Jesus spoke.
"Simon, I have something to say to you."
"Yes, Rabbi?" Simon replied. "What is it?"
"Let me tell you a story," Jesus said. "There was once a moneylender
who had two men owing him money. One of them owed him five hundred
dollars, the other owed him fifty. Neither of them had anything with
which to pay him back, so the moneylender told them both to forget
about the debt--that they didn't need to pay. Now tell me--which of
those two men will love the moneylender most?"
Simon answered,
"Why, I suppose the man who owed him the most."
"That's right," Jesus replied. "Now, Simon," he went on, "look at this
woman. When I came to your house today, you didn't even give me any
water to wash the sand off my feet, though that is what is done in
friendly homes. But this woman has washed my feet with her own tears,
and dried them with the hair of her head. You have scarcely been
polite to me; but this woman has done nothing but kiss my feet. You
never thought of putting ordinary olive oil on my head; but this woman
has put precious ointment on my feet.
"You think this woman is a great sinner," Jesus continued, "and so she
is. She has done many things that are wrong. But her sins have been
forgiven her. I have brought her to a new life, and she doesn't have
to worry any more about the sins of the past. That is why she loves me
so much. But, of course, a person who hasn't had his sins forgiven
isn't going to know much about love."
Jesus turned away from Simon. He might have added:
"A cold Pharisee like you, so sure that nothing is wrong with you, is
a great deal worse off than this poor, sinful woman. You have got all
your sins still to worry about, and you don't even know it!"
But Jesus did not say it. He left Simon to think that out for himself.
Instead, he spoke to the woman,
"Your sins are forgiven."
The other people in the room began to mutter to themselves:
"There he goes--forgiving sins again! What right has he to forgive
anybody's sins?"
But Jesus paid no attention. He spoke once more to the woman at his
feet:
"Your faith in me has saved you," he said. "Everything is all right
now. Go in peace."
That was the end of the dinner party at Simon's house. But it was not
the end of the talk and gossip about the kind of friends that Jesus
made. Some thought he must be bad himself because he had so much to do
with people to whom the Pharisees would not even speak. Everywhere he
went, there was the same complaint.
Time and time again Jesus tried to explain why he was more interested
in sinners than in anyone else. Why, the people that the Pharisees
despised were the very people who needed his love the most! What could
be better than to save somebody from an evil life?
Jesus told story after story, to show the Pharisees what he meant. One
time he said:
"Suppose a shepherd had a hundred sheep, and one sheep strayed away
from the others and got lost. Would he not leave the other
ninety-nine, and go after the lost sheep until he found it? And when
he did find it, he would pick it up and carry it joyfully home. Then
he would go around and tell all his friends and neighbors. He would
say: 'Rejoice with me! For I have found my sheep that was lost.'
"Or suppose a woman had ten silver coins, and dropped one of them on
the floor. Wouldn't she light a candle and sweep the floor and look
everywhere until she found it? Then she would say to her friends and
neighbors: 'Rejoice with me! For I have found the coin that I lost!'
"In the same way," Jesus said, "God is more pleased over one sinful
person who stops sinning than over all the others who think they have
never sinned."
The Pharisees still did not get the point. So Jesus tried again with
another story. He said:
"A certain man had two sons. One day the younger son said, 'Father,
give me my share of the property which is coming to me,' So the
father gave each of the sons his share.
"Then the younger son packed up his belongings, and went away to a far
country. There he spent all his money foolishly. After his money was
gone, this young man had nothing left to live on. He went to work for
a farmer, who sent him out to feed the pigs. He was so hungry that he
would have been glad to eat the pigs' food, but no one gave him
anything.
"Then one day he said to himself: 'What a fool I am! Why am I staying
here?' He thought of how even the servants at home had plenty to eat,
while he was starving to death. He said: 'I will go back to my father,
and tell him that I have sinned against him and against God. I will
tell him that I am not worthy to be his son, and ask him to give me
work as one of his servants.'
"So he went home. But before he reached the house, his father saw him
coming, and ran out to welcome him. The young man started to say, 'I
have sinned, and I am not worthy to be your son.' But his father
called out to a servant: 'Bring the best clothes in the house, and
shoes for my boy's feet. Then kill the fattest calf we have, and get a
feast ready. My son is back, and we are going to celebrate!'
"Meanwhile, the older brother was out in the field. When he came home,
he heard music and dancing in the house. He asked a servant why they
were having a party. When he was told, he became very angry. He would
not even go into the house. When his father came out to ask him to
join the party, the older brother said: 'All these years I have stayed
at home and helped you! I did everything you told me to. In all that
time you never once gave me a party. But when my brother comes back
from spending your money--why, nothing is too good for him!'
"But the father answered him kindly. 'Son,' he said, 'you are always
with me, and everything I have is yours. It is right that we should
celebrate, and be happy. For it is as if your brother had been dead,
and now he is alive again. He was lost, and now he is found.'"
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The days went by. Some days were good, and some were bad. Once in a
while Jesus would find somebody who seemed to understand him and
believe in him. Then again it would seem that he was failing in what
he tried to do.
The time he healed the Roman officer's servant was one of the good
days. Jesus was just coming back to Capernaum after preaching out in
the country, when this officer approached him. Although he was a
Roman, and the captain of a company of Roman soldiers, this man was
well liked in Capernaum. For he had built the Jews a synagogue, and
everyone knew that he loved the Jewish people.
He came to Jesus, and said, "Lord, my servant is lying at home, very
sick and suffering greatly."
Jesus replied at once, "I will come and heal him."
But the officer shook his head.
"Lord," he said, "I am not worthy that you should come into my house.
Just speak a word, standing here, and that will heal my servant. You
see, I have an army under me. I say to a soldier, 'Come here,' and he
comes. I tell my servant to do something, and he does it right away.
You have that kind of power too. You just have to say that my servant
shall be healed, and he _will_ be healed."
Jesus was joyful when he heard these words. To those who were standing
around he said:
"I tell you, I have not found among the Jewish people anyone who
believes in me so much as this Roman does! And I tell you this too:
When you talk about the Kingdom of God you shouldn't think that God
has no place in it for anyone except Jews. God is going to bring
together people from every country, everybody who has faith like this
officer's faith. And some of the Jews may find themselves outside the
Kingdom looking in!"
Then he turned to the officer and said:
"Go back to your house. You have had faith in me, and I will give you
what you ask."
When the officer went home, he found that his servant had recovered
from his illness while Jesus was speaking.
That was one of the good days, when Jesus found a new believer. But a
bad day came, when Jesus found that his oldest friend had begun to
lose faith in him. John the Baptist was not sure any longer that Jesus
was the Messiah.
And John was in trouble. He had preached against King Herod, the son
of the king who had died when Jesus was a baby. Herod married another
man's wife, and John the Baptist said that this was a sin. Herod threw
John into jail.
As John lay in his prison cell day after day, he began to wonder about
Jesus. Had he been wrong in thinking that Jesus was the Messiah? Jesus
did not seem to have done very much as yet. The Romans were still in
the country. The rich people were as bad as they had always been, and
the poor were just as poor.
At last John could not stand it any longer. When two of his followers
visited him in jail, he sent them to ask Jesus who he really was.
"Ask him," said John, "'Are you or are you not the Messiah?'"
John's followers found Jesus busy healing the sick. They drew him
aside, and told him what John wanted to know.
"Are you the One who was to come," they asked, "or must we look for
somebody else?"
So even John the Baptist had his doubts! John, the man who had said
that he was not worthy to baptize Jesus; the same John who once
called Jesus the Lamb of God!
[Illustration]
Jesus pointed to the crowd of people whom he had been healing, and he
said to John's disciples:
"Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard here. Tell him I
am doing what I can. Tell him how the blind are getting back their
sight. Tell him too, how the lame are learning to walk, and how the
lepers are being cured. Tell him that I am preaching to the poor. Tell
him all about what I am doing, and let him decide for himself whether
or not I am the Messiah. And tell him this: Blessed is anyone who
believes in me, and takes me just as I am!"
Jesus never heard what John thought of this message. For John did not
live much longer. One night King Herod gave a birthday party, and a
pretty girl danced so well that the king offered to give her anything
she asked. The girl went to her mother, to find out what she ought to
say. Her mother hated John the Baptist because he had spoken the
truth, and so she told her daughter:
"Ask for the head of John the Baptist to be brought in here on a
platter!"
[Illustration]
The girl went to the king, and asked for John's head. The king was
sorry then that he had made that promise, for he was half afraid of
John. However, he had to keep his word. And so he sent servants to the
prison, and they cut off the head of John the Baptist with a sword,
and brought it back to the palace on a platter.
When Jesus heard what had happened, he felt very sad. He said,
"Let us go out to some quiet place, and rest awhile."
[Illustration]
Things were not going very well. John the Baptist was dead, and Herod
might be planning to kill Jesus next. Some men, in fact, came one day
to warn him to get out of Herod's kingdom.
"Go and tell that fox," he said, "that I am busy curing the sick and
conquering evil, and neither Herod nor anybody else is going to stop
me until I have finished my work!"
But things were going badly, just the same. Jesus saw that there were
not many of the people who understood his message or knew who he was.
A few believed in him, but others soon lost interest in him, if they
ever cared at all. Only once in a long while did he see any results
from all his work.
He explained this in one of his stories when he said:
"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some of the seed fell
in the pathway, and people walked on it, or the birds ate it up. Some
fell on a rock, and this seed began to grow; but no sooner had it
sprung up than it died, because it did not have deep roots. Some fell
among thornbushes; and the thorns grew faster than the seed, and
choked it. But some of the seed fell on good ground, and there it grew
into a good harvest."
When the disciples were alone with him, they asked Jesus to tell them
what this story meant. He said that the seed stood for the words that
he spoke to them. Some people heard him, but they soon forgot what he
said. That was like seed falling on the pathway.
Others were very excited about what he said when they first heard it,
but when it was hard to do what he told them they soon gave up trying.
That was like seed falling on a rock, where there was no soil or water
to give it root.
Then there were some who cared more about money and pleasure than they
cared about God. That was like seed being choked by thorns.
But some people heard Jesus preach; and they believed in him, with
good and honest hearts, and they were faithful. That was when his
preaching brought results, and it was like seed falling on good rich
earth.
"Unless people have faith in me," said Jesus, "they will never
understand God. They will see the things I do, and never even know
what they are looking at. They will listen to me, and never know what
they are hearing. I can do nothing with them. But you--my
disciples--you have faith in me. You will understand everything
someday."
The disciples were going to be good ground for the seed that Jesus
sowed.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
8. Jesus Is Strong
That night Jesus said to the disciples, "Let us go across the lake."
Simon and Andrew and James and John were fishermen. They knew where to
get a boat, and they knew how to sail it too.
All twelve disciples, along with Jesus, climbed into a boat and pushed
away from shore.
The Sea of Galilee was a lovely blue lake in the daytime, when the
sunlight sparkled on the water. In the evening it was lovely too, when
the waves were lapping peacefully against the side of a boat, and the
stars came out twinkling overhead.
But the Sea of Galilee was not always so lovely or so peaceful.
Sometimes the wind came roaring down the steep banks around the lake,
and the water grew white and angry.
Then again everything might be calm and quiet when a boat left the
land. But before it had gone very far a storm might be howling all
around. It would toss the boat around like driftwood, and then it
would be too late to turn back to shore.
Some of the disciples were fishermen, and they had fished here all
their lives. They knew what the sudden storms were like. It was no
surprise to them when the stars disappeared as though the rising wind
had blown them out. They knew what was coming now. The night would
grow black as ink, and the great foaming waves would smash against the
ship and fill it up with water. There was nothing anyone could do
about it. Nobody could sail or row or steer the boat any longer. Only
God himself could bring the poor sailors safe to shore.
The sea was rough already, and getting rougher every minute. They were
afraid. They were always afraid of the sea when storms began to blow.
It was so big and dangerous and terrible, and men were so small and
weak! It was like a frightful monster, tossing them up and down before
it swallowed them alive.
If only they had stayed on the good, safe land! They had been so
worried and so tired that night; so discouraged about Jesus and his
work. And now there was this storm on top of everything! It looked as
if none of them would live to see another day. They had left their
homes and families behind, to follow Jesus. What was the use of
following Jesus if they were all to be drowned?
Now the boat was full of water. They tried to bail it out, but the
fishermen knew that nothing they could do would be of any use.
In the dark they could hardly see one another's faces. Where was
Jesus? No one had heard a word from him since the storm began to blow.
They found him at the back of the boat, just where he was when they
left the shore. He was stretched out on a seat, resting on a pillow.
And he was fast asleep!
The disciples were angry. Any minute now the boat was going to turn
over, and there was Jesus sleeping as though nothing in the world were
wrong!
One of the men took Jesus by the shoulders, and shook him awake. They
shouted at him, "Master, doesn't it matter to you if we are all
drowned?"
Jesus rose to his feet in the tossing boat. The wind blew in his face,
and he seemed to be answering it. The sea smashed against the boat
again, and Jesus cried out, "Peace, be still!"
All at once the wind began to die away. The waves tossed for a minute
or two longer, but not so strongly now. Everything was growing quiet.
The stars began to shine again, and soon there was no sound but the
water lapping gently against the boat.
Jesus spoke to the disciples:
"Why were you so frightened? How is it that you still haven't any
faith in me?"
But the disciples scarcely noticed what he was saying. They were more
afraid than ever. This time it was not the sea that frightened them.
They were afraid of Jesus. They said to one another:
"What kind of man is this? When he speaks, even the wind and the sea
obey him!"
[Illustration]
In the morning they brought their little boat to land on the other
side of the lake. Over here in the country of the Gadarenes, Galilee
seemed very far away.
A high cliff rose above the sea. Jesus and the disciples climbed up
and looked around. There was nothing much to see except some men
feeding a herd of pigs. In the distance was a graveyard.
Suddenly a man came running out of the graveyard. He was naked, and
his body was covered with cuts and bruises. The man was out of his
mind, and he lived by himself in the graveyard, and wandered through
the mountains. Other people had often tried to chain him up, but he
was so strong that he broke the chains as if they were made of string.
He could be heard crying out, day and night, and he was always cutting
himself with sharp stones. No one dared to go near him.
The madman ran toward Jesus, shouting at him. His words were like
those of the other madman who had interrupted Jesus in the synagogue
service.
"What have I to do with you, Jesus? What have I to do with the Son of
the most high God? Don't torment me!"
Jesus said to him, "What is your name?"
The man answered: "My name is Legion. There's a whole legion of devils
inside me!"
The disciples were meanwhile listening in horror. There was something
evil in this man, something as dreadful as the storm of the night
before. They heard Jesus say: "Come out of the man!" Then they seemed
to hear many Voices crying out, and calling to Jesus, and pleading
with him. And they heard Jesus say, "Go!"
The wild look left the man's eyes. And at that very moment the pigs
went wild. The man was in his right mind now, but it seemed as though
the pigs had gone crazy. With a great snorting and squealing they ran
to the cliff and plunged into the sea.
After that everything was quiet. It was as quiet as it had been when
Jesus stilled the storm. The evil thing was gone. The morning sun was
shining brightly on a peaceful countryside. There was nothing dreadful
any more.
But what they had seen was too much for the men who had been feeding
the pigs. As fast as their legs would take them they ran to the
nearest town and told everybody what had happened. The people came
flocking out of the town to see for themselves. When they came they
found the madman sitting there talking to Jesus. He had put on his
clothes, and he was just as sensible as anybody else.
The people had been terribly afraid of the madman, but now they were
afraid of Jesus. They had tied this man up with chains, and still they
could not hold him. Yet here was a stranger from Galilee who cured the
madman with a few words. _What kind of man is this?_ they thought.
_What kind of power does he have?_
[Illustration]
They were so worried about what Jesus might do next that they asked
him to leave the country. Without a word Jesus took his disciples back
to the boat. The man who had been out of his mind followed him, and
asked if he might go along. But Jesus told him:
"No, you have work to do here. Go back home to your friends. Tell them
what the Lord has done for you."
The man went back to the city, and began to tell his story. The story
went abroad through that whole country, and everyone who heard it was
amazed.
* * * * *
For the disciples it had been a night and day of wonders. But as they
sailed home across the lake they did not know that an even greater
triumph was waiting for Jesus on the other side.
As their boat drew near to land, they saw a crowd standing on the
shore. Everyone had been watching anxiously, waiting for Jesus to
come.
When Jesus stepped ashore, the waiting crowd made way for a man who
was well known in the town. His name was Jairus, and he was the chief
officer of the synagogue.
Jairus fell down at Jesus' feet and began to plead with him to come to
his house at once:
"My little girl is dying. Please come and put your hands on her, and
heal her, and make her live!"
[Illustration]
Jesus went with Jairus, and the whole crowd followed to see what he
was going to do. As they walked along the street, with people
pressing in on them from every side, Jesus suddenly stopped and said,
"Who touched my clothes?"
The disciples could not imagine what he was talking about. They said
to him:
"Why, don't you see the crowd? Everybody is touching you! What do you
mean by asking, 'Who touched my clothes?'"
But Jesus answered:
"There's someone in particular who touched me. I felt power going out
of me."
With that, a poor woman came out of the crowd and fell down in front
of Jesus. She was trembling with fear. She told him her whole story.
For twelve years she had been sick. She had spent all her money on
doctors, and she never got any better. She thought that if only she
could touch his clothes, without anyone seeing her, she would be made
well.
Jesus looked at her kindly, and said:
"Your faith has made you well. Go in peace."
Meanwhile Jairus was waiting impatiently for Jesus to come along. Soon
it might be too late!
At that very moment a message came from Jairus' house. The worst had
happened. The little girl had died, and there was no use troubling
Jesus. Already it was too late.
But before Jairus could speak, Jesus took him by the arm and said:
"Don't be afraid. Just keep on believing."
He sent the crowd away, and told the disciples that none of them could
come with him except Simon and James and John.
Jairus led the way to his house. When they got there they found that
the bad news was true. The little girl had really died. Already the
flute players, who played at funerals in Palestine, had arrived.
Everyone was mourning and weeping.
Jesus spoke sharply to the mourners.
"Why are you making all this fuss?" he asked. "The little girl isn't
dead. She is only sleeping."
Everyone laughed at him, as though he were a fool. "So he doesn't know
the difference between being asleep and being dead," they said to
themselves. But Jesus told them to get out of the house. When they
were gone he took Jairus and his wife, and the three disciples, and
went into the little girl's room.
There could be no doubt about it--the girl was dead. She was lying
white and cold and still. No doctor in the world could ever help her
again.
Jesus bent over the still body, and opened his mouth to speak. Simon
and James and John held their breath. Not many hours before, they had
heard him say to the sea, "Peace, be still." When he spoke, the sea
obeyed him. They heard him speak to a madman, and after he spoke the
man was in his right mind again. But what use would it be to speak to
someone who was dead? The dead could not hear him!
Or could they hear him? Had Jesus not once told them, "The dead hear
my voice"?
[Illustration]
The little girl did not know anything. She did not hear anything. She
could not know or hear anything, for she was dead.
Then a voice came through the silence. The little girl began to hear
someone talking. It was a man's voice, and it was saying the very
words her mother used each morning to wake her up from sleep.
"Little girl, get up!" she heard.
She opened her eyes. She looked into the face of Jesus. He took her
hand, and helped her to her feet. Her parents were there too. She went
to them.
"Give her something to eat," said Jesus. "And say nothing about what
has happened."
But no one could keep a secret like that. Soon everyone had heard the
story. Everybody heard how Jesus spoke and brought the dead back to
life.
[Illustration]
9. Refusing a Crown
Up until this time, Jesus had done all the preaching, and the
disciples had listened. Jesus had healed the sick, and the disciples
had watched. Now, however, Jesus told the disciples that it was time
for them to work also. He called the twelve together, and said:
"I am going to send you out in my place. You are to divide up into
pairs. Each pair will go and preach in the towns and villages. You
will tell the people what you have heard me say--that God has come to
the earth to rule over men's hearts. When you see people who are sick
or out of their minds, you are to make them well, just as you have
seen me do."
[Illustration]
He told them plainly what they were to do.
"Don't take any money with you," Jesus said, "and don't ask for money
from anybody. Don't take many clothes, either; you are to travel
quickly, and attend to your work, without worrying about money or
clothes. You will be taken care of."
"When you go into a city or a village, find some family that will
welcome a preacher; and stay in that home until you go to the next
place. If nobody will listen to you, go somewhere else. But before you
go, warn the people in the place which you are leaving that they have
sinned by not paying attention to God's message."
So the disciples went out and preached as Jesus told them. They healed
the sick, as Jesus did.
[Illustration]
The trip was a great success. After many days the disciples began to
come back home, with many stories about their experiences. When they
were all with Jesus again, they sat down and told him everything they
had said and done.
Jesus listened to their stories, and then he said:
"It is time for you to take a rest. Come with me to some lonely place
where nobody will disturb us for a while."
They got into their boat, and sailed up to a quiet place they knew of,
near the town of Bethsaida. But they got no chance to rest after all,
for the people at Capernaum saw them leaving.
"There go Jesus and his disciples!" somebody said. "They're heading
for Bethsaida!"
A crowd of people began to walk around the shore of the lake. As they
went, others joined them from the towns and countryside round about.
Jesus was the most popular man in Galilee just then. Wherever he went,
he might be sure that a crowd would follow him.
The people walked and ran, and by hurrying they reached the quiet spot
near Bethsaida as soon as Jesus did. When he stepped out of the boat,
thousands of people were waiting for him on the shore. Jesus had gone
away for a rest, but when he saw the people he felt sorry for them.
_They are like a flock of sheep_, he thought--_a flock of sheep with
no shepherd to look after them._
They had spoiled his holiday, but Jesus spoke to the people and said
that he was glad to see them. Then he began to teach, just as he did
in the cities and towns. All day long he taught, and if there were any
who were sick, he healed them.
The day wore on, and evening was drawing near. One or two of the
disciples pulled Jesus' sleeve, and said to him:
"Master, it is getting late. Hadn't you better send them away to find
something to eat in the towns near by? There is nothing for them out
here in the country."
Jesus answered: "There is no need for them to go away. Give them
something to eat right here!"
The disciples looked at him as if they did not know whether he was
serious or not. They said: "Do you mean that you want us to go and buy
food for all these people? Where would we get enough money for that?"
Andrew said: "There's a boy here with five loaves of bread and a
couple of fishes. But how far will that go among five thousand
people?"
Jesus only answered, "Tell them to sit down on the grass."
The disciples went among the crowd, and had the people sit down in
groups, fifty in each group.
Jesus took the five loaves and the two fishes, and as he held them, he
said a prayer of thanks to God. Then he broke the loaves, and gave the
bread and the fish to the disciples and told them to pass the food
around among the crowd. They passed it here and they passed it there,
but they never ran out of food. Nobody could tell where it was coming
from, but there was enough for everyone and some left over.
The people were hungry after their long walk and the hours of standing
in the sun. They ate heartily. As they finished their meal, they began
to think about what had happened.
"Where did all this food come from?" they began to ask themselves.
"Where did Jesus get all that food?" "There were but five loaves and a
couple of fishes and yet we have all had enough and to spare!"
[Illustration]
The crowd began to talk in excited voices. "Jesus gave us this food."
"A wonderful thing! He gave us food to eat, when there wasn't
anything here!" "Why, this is just the man we have been looking for!"
"There's the man to make the Jews strong and rich--he makes food out
of nothing!"
The people were rising to their feet.
"Make him a king!" they started to cry. "Jesus is the man to be king
of the Jews!" they shouted. "We want our king!"
But Jesus was not there any longer. Jesus had gone; he had slipped
away through the crowd and disappeared. Even the disciples did not
know where he was. He stayed alone in the mountains until long after
dark.
Those foolish people! That foolish, foolish crowd! They did not
understand him at all. Did they never think of anything except their
stomachs?
Jesus remembered how the devil had once tempted him in the wilderness.
What was it that the devil had said? "If you are the Messiah, make
these stones into bread."
Yes, all the people would be for him so long as he gave them something
to eat. They would even make him a king, if they thought he was the
man to get rid of the Romans and make the country free and rich and
great. Why, they had offered to make Jesus a king that very day! They
said that he was just the man they had been waiting for!
But that was not what Jesus had come to do. He did not want to be that
kind of king.
It was soon to be Passover time. Many years ago, at Passover time,
Jesus had been a boy at the Temple in Jerusalem, watching as the lambs
were killed for a sacrifice. A year from now it would be Passover
again. And then it would be time to go to Jerusalem once more. He
would go to Jerusalem, and he would be the King of the Jews. Then he
would do what he always knew that he would have to do someday.
* * * * *
When Jesus came back to Capernaum, he gathered his band of disciples
together and took them away again. This time he took them so far away
that no one would follow them. No one wanted very much to follow,
anyway, for the people were hurt and angry because Jesus would not be
their king.
Jesus led the disciples away to the north, into the country near
Caesarea Philippi. Here one of the rivers that flowed into the Jordan
came springing out of a cave in a hill. Here too the Greek people
round about had built temples for their heathen gods.
Jesus wanted to be alone with his disciples, for the time had come to
have an important talk. He said to them: "Who do people say that I
am?"
The disciples answered: "Some people say that you are John the
Baptist, come back from the dead. Others say that you are Elijah, or
Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets come back to earth. Everyone
thinks that you are a great man."
[Illustration]
"But who do _you_ say that I am?" Jesus asked.
There was silence. Then Simon spoke up: "You are the Messiah--the
Christ--the Son of the living God!"
That was it! That was what Jesus was waiting for! His face lighted up
in joy. He turned to Simon, and exclaimed: "That is the best thing
that could happen to you, Simon, to find out who I am! And no human
being could have told you! Only God himself can have shown you that I
really am the Messiah, when nobody else believes it. And now you are
going to have a new name, Simon. I am going to call you 'Peter' from
now on, for the name 'Peter' means 'The Rock.' You have faith in me,
and your faith is like a rock. I am going to build my Church on faith
like yours, and nothing shall ever conquer it. It will be the
strongest thing in all the world.
"And now"--Jesus began to speak more quietly--"and now that you know
who I really am, I have many things to tell you. In the first place,
you must not say anything about my being the Messiah--not just yet.
And this is more important: I am not going to be very popular any
more. I am going up to Jerusalem, and when I get there, my enemies
will plot against me and put me to death."
Peter thought that this was nonsense. Everyone knew that the Messiah
would not be killed like that, but would instead be a great warrior
and a triumphant king. In a bold voice Peter spoke up again: "Don't be
foolish. Nothing of that sort is going to happen!"
Jesus turned on Peter. This time he was not joyful; he was angry. He
talked to Peter in the same way he had once talked to the devil in the
wilderness.
He said: "Get behind me, Satan! The devil has got into you, Peter! God
didn't have anything to do with what you said to me just now. You're
talking like everybody else. You're weak. A man who tries to save his
own life is sure to lose it. But if a man gives up his life because of
me--ah, that man will really know what it means to live!"
But Jesus saw that the disciples did not understand. Even Peter was
losing his faith again. Somehow he must make them believe in him and
trust in him.
So six days later he took Peter and James and John, to whom he showed
the most secret things, up into a high mountain. And there the
disciples saw a marvelous vision. Jesus' face became bright as the
sun, and his clothes shone like the morning light. They said afterward
that Moses and Elijah, who were great among the Jews in the days of
long ago, came down and talked with Jesus.
Peter spoke timidly this time, for he did not know what to say.
"Lord," he said, "it is good for us to be here. Let us build three
tabernacles here, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
Then a great cloud came, like a shadow, over the mountain. They heard
a voice from the cloud, like the voice of God, saying: "This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him!"
The disciples fell down to the ground, and there they lay until Jesus
came and touched them. At his touch they looked up, and there was no
one to be seen but Jesus standing there alone.
"Come away," said Jesus, "and tell nobody what you have seen."
They followed him down the mountain, back to where other people were.
Long afterward, they spoke of what had happened. They told of the
brightness, and the beauty, and the visitors from olden days, and the
voice which said that Jesus was the Son of God. But in those days they
never said a word.
They knew that on the mountaintop they had been with God.
10. The Way to Jerusalem
Jesus had made up his mind that he would go to Jerusalem for the
Passover next year. He knew that if he did he would get into trouble.
The disciples knew it too, for he had told them so. There was a hard
time ahead for them all.
There was hardly anyone whom Jesus could count on any more. Often even
the disciples did not understand him. Once in a while other people
would offer to come along and be disciples too. But few actually came,
after Jesus explained how much he expected his disciples to give up
for his sake.
There was one man who came to Jesus, and said bravely, "Lord, I will
follow you wherever you go!"
Jesus replied: "Even the foxes have holes in the ground to sleep in at
night. The birds of the air have their nests. But I travel across the
country without a home that I can call my own."
The man thought of his own comfortable house, and decided he did not
want to follow Jesus after all.
Another time Jesus invited a man to join him. This man said that he
would be glad to come, but that his father had just died, and he must
first look after the funeral. That would take a long time, for the
Jews loved their customs, and when anybody died they held ceremonies
which lasted for many days. Jesus could not wait for this man, so he
answered:
[Illustration]
"Let people who don't believe in me look after things like that. You
have something more important to do. Your job is to go out and preach,
right away. That's what you would do if you really believed in me."
Still another man was willing to come, if only he could first go home
and say good-by to his family. Jesus saw that this man too had not
really decided to give up everything for God. He told him:
"You're like a farmer who starts to plow a field, and then turns
around and wonders if he shouldn't be doing something back at the
house. Unless you put your whole heart into following me, I'm afraid
you will never be of much use."
Even some of those who used to call themselves followers of Jesus were
going away. Jesus said to the twelve, who had been with him from the
beginning:
"Are you going to leave me too?"
Peter answered: "Lord, where would we go? We should die if we did not
hear your words. We believe that you are the Christ."
Jesus said, "Yes, you are the men I have chosen to be with me--though
there is one of _you_ who will come to a bad end."
He was speaking of a disciple named Judas Iscariot, though the others
did not know it. Jesus knew that Judas was not to be trusted.
In those difficult days Jesus spent much of his time in prayer. The
disciples felt that they also needed strength and help from God. Once,
when Jesus had finished praying, they said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray, just as John the Baptist used to teach his
disciples."
So Jesus taught them a prayer, and this is how it went:
"Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day
our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for thine
is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."
Then Jesus looked at his disciples, and told them that they ought to
pray more than they did.
"Suppose," he said, "one of you went to a friend's house at midnight,
and called through the window, 'Lend me some bread, for company has
come unexpectedly and I haven't anything in my house.' Your friend
might not want to get up out of bed, but if you kept on pleading with
him, he would give you what you asked for. In the same way, keep on
praying to God! Prayer is like knocking on a door. Knock, and the door
will be opened."
Jesus knew, better than the disciples did themselves, how much they
were going to need God's help.
* * * * *
Jesus ran into a great many trying people in the next few months. One
day there was a lawyer who thought that he knew more than Jesus did.
He wanted an argument which would give him a chance to show how much
he knew, so he came and asked Jesus,
"What should I do to have eternal life?"
Jesus answered, "What does it say in the Law?"
The lawyer replied, "It says, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and
with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.'"
Jesus said: "That is right. Those are the things you ought to do."
It sounded to the lawyer as though Jesus were saying, "If you knew all
along, why did you need to ask me in the first place?" The lawyer
thought that he would get the better of Jesus, so he replied,
"Well, just who is the neighbor that I am supposed to love?"
[Illustration]
Jesus answered with a story:
"A man was traveling on the lonely road between Jerusalem and Jericho.
As so often happens there, some thieves jumped out of a hiding place,
and robbed him and beat him. He was lying there half dead, when a
priest from the Temple in Jerusalem came along. He took one look at
the wounded man, and kept on going along the other side of the road.
Then somebody else from the Temple, who was supposed to be a very
religious sort of person, passed by, and the same thing happened.
"Finally a Samaritan came along. I don't need to tell you how
Samaritans and Jews hate each other! But this Samaritan was sorry for
the wounded man. He put bandages on his wounds, and took him to an
inn. Before he left next morning, the Samaritan went to the innkeeper.
He paid the bill for the man who had been robbed. Then he told the
innkeeper to take care of the man, and the Samaritan said he would pay
for anything more that was needed the next time he came.
"Now, think of those three men who passed along the road. Which of
them was a real neighbor to the man who was robbed?"
The lawyer said, "Why, the one who helped him, of course."
"Then," said Jesus, "go and do the same."
What Jesus wanted the lawyer to understand was:
"You really know what a good neighbor should be, because God has been
good to you. But you are not much interested in being a neighbor to
people who need your help."
But if the lawyer did not see that for himself, there was no use
telling him. He would be too proud to understand.
Another day there was a man who came to Jesus and said:
"Master, I wish you would speak to my brother. Our father died a
little while ago, and my brother is keeping all the property for
himself. Make him give me my share of it."
Jesus would have nothing to do with the quarrel. He told this man:
"You ought to think of something besides money and property. There is
more to life than owning things. Let me tell you a story.
"There was a farmer whose crops were so good that he had no place to
put all the harvest. He said to himself: 'I will pull down my old
barns, and build bigger ones, and put my crops in them. Then I will
take life easy, for I have enough money to last me for many years.'
"But do you know what happened? That very night God said to him, 'You
fool, you are going to die tonight; and what good are your crops and
your money going to be to you then?' That's what becomes of people who
keep all their money for their own selfish use, and never think about
God."
There was another man who was a great disappointment to Jesus. He was
a young man--rich, and a leader in the community. He came and kneeled
before Jesus, and said,
"Good Master, what should I do in order to have eternal life?"
This was like the lawyer's question, but this man asked it in a
different spirit. He really wanted to know.
Jesus answered:
"Do you know what you are saying when you call me 'Good Master'? No
one is good except God."
Jesus was wondering if the rich young man knew that he was talking to
the Messiah, or if he thought that Jesus was just a man who was a
little better than others. However, he went on:
"If you want to have eternal life, keep God's commandments. You know
what they are: Do not kill, do not steal, live a pure life, do not
tell lies, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as
yourself."
[Illustration]
The young man exclaimed: "But I have kept all those commandments ever
since I was a boy! What is it that is wrong with me?"
When Jesus saw that the young man was in earnest, he loved him. He
replied:
"There is indeed something wrong with you. It is the way you love your
money. Give it away to the poor, and you will be rewarded in heaven.
Give up everything you have, and come and follow me."
The young man got slowly to his feet. No! That was asking too much!
How could he live without his money? He needed his money. How did he
know that God would look after him if he did not take care of himself?
Without another word he went away.
"How hard it is," Jesus said, "for rich people to obey God!"
The disciples were amazed. They had always thought that the reason why
some people were rich was that God was pleased with the good lives
they had been living. They said, "If there isn't any hope even for
rich people, is there any hope for _anybody_?"
"No," Jesus replied, "there isn't any hope for anybody. No one is good
enough. But God can help and save sinners, whether they are rich or
poor. God is everybody's hope."
Peter spoke for the rest of the disciples. He said, "Well, we have
given up everything to follow you."
Jesus answered, "If you have given up anything for my sake you will
never have reason to be sorry for it, either in this life or after you
die."
* * * * *
The months were going by, and it was time to be getting on toward
Jerusalem. Jesus took his disciples and crossed to the east side of
the river Jordan. They traveled south, and then crossed the Jordan
once again and came to the city of Jericho.
In the rich earth around Jericho beautiful gardens grew, and the palm
trees stood tall. Travelers who came from the swamps of the Jordan
loved to stop at Jericho before they took the hard and lonely road
that led to Jerusalem. There were desert lands and hills ahead, but at
Jericho there was water to drink, and good food to eat, and a place
to stay in comfort. But Jesus could not stay long in Jericho. It was
to Jerusalem that he was going, and nothing could hold him back.
The people at Jericho heard that Jesus was passing through their city,
and a crowd gathered in the streets to catch a glimpse of him as he
went by. There was a man named Zacchaeus there. He was shorter than
most other men, and he could not see Jesus because of the crowd around
him. There was no use asking anyone to help him, for no one liked
Zacchaeus. He was a taxgatherer, as Matthew once had been, and had
grown rich collecting taxes. But he had grown unpopular too. The Jews
thought him a traitor, for although he was a Jew he worked for the
Romans, and made his fortune out of cheating his fellow Jews.
But Zacchaeus was determined not to miss seeing Jesus. Running on
ahead of the crowd, he climbed a sycamore tree. High above the street,
he could look down at Jesus, but there was no reason to think that
Jesus would look up at him.
However, when Jesus reached the place where Zacchaeus was hiding in
the branches, he stopped, looked up, and saw him. He knew who this man
was. Jesus called out:
"Hurry and come down out of that tree, Zacchaeus. I am coming to stay
at your house today!"
[Illustration]
Surprised but happy, Zacchaeus scrambled down the tree and led Jesus
to his house. The other people also were surprised, but not so happy.
They muttered to themselves, as many people had done before. They
said,
"He's gone to be the guest of that miserable, cheating traitor of a
taxgatherer!"
But Zacchaeus became a changed man that day. He said to Jesus:
"I am going to give half my money to the poor. And if I have cheated
anybody I shall give back four times as much as I took."
Then Jesus was glad that he had called Zacchaeus down from the tree.
"You have been saved from your sins today, Zacchaeus," he said.
Jesus was glad that he had found at least one rich man who did not
love his money more than he loved God. Zacchaeus had not been a good
man. He was not like the rich young man who had kept all God's
commandments since he was a boy. But when he heard Jesus speak to him,
he knew that he had been in the wrong. He was ready to do what he
could to show that he knew how he had sinned.
"This is what I came for," Jesus said, "to look for sinners like this
man and to save them."
When Jesus got to Jerusalem, it was going to cost him a great deal to
help men find a new life. But whatever it might cost him, it would be
worth the price.
11. Nearing the City
[Illustration]
Passover time had almost come, so Jesus had to be on his way. Jericho
was left behind, and Jesus and the disciples pushed across the hills
and desert land that lay east of Jerusalem.
This was the country Jesus had crossed the first time he went to the
Passover feast. That was twenty years ago, when he was a boy of
twelve, and Joseph and Mary had taken him to the feast in the great
city. The stones were just as hard now as they had been then. The land
was as dreary to see as it had ever been, and the desert as dry. And
yet there were just as many pilgrims from all parts of Palestine
traveling up to Jerusalem, going, as their fathers did before them,
to keep the Passover in the holy city of the Jews. In a little while a
shout would go up, and many a party would burst into song. They would
sing:
[Illustration]
"'I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the Lord....
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
They shall prosper that love thee.'"
A few days more, and they would sacrifice their lambs in the Temple.
They would pray God to be good to the Jews, and to save them from
their enemies. A few nights more, and they would sit down to eat the
roasted flesh of the lambs at the Passover feast; and when they had
eaten they would sing:
"'O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good:
For his mercy endureth for ever.'"
Jesus and the disciples came out of the desert, and paused among the
olive groves near the village of Bethany. Now only the Mount of Olives
and the brook called Kidron stood between Jesus and Jerusalem. Already
the Passover pilgrims were pouring through the gates of the city and
up to the Temple. It was hard for all the pilgrims to find places to
stay during the week of the Passover. Here at Bethany, Jesus had
friends who loved him, and here he found a place in which to stay.
A man named Simon, whom Jesus once cured of the dreaded leprosy, had a
house in Bethany where Jesus was welcome. There also was a woman in
Bethany whose name was Mary. She thought that nothing was too much to
give to Jesus. Like another woman who once made the Pharisees angry,
she came to Jesus when he sat at dinner in Simon's house and poured
precious ointment on his head.
But this time it was not the Pharisees who were angry, for there were
no Pharisees in the house. It was Jesus' own disciples, especially
Judas Iscariot, who said that it was wrong to waste anything that cost
as much as the ointment. Judas spoke up and said, "Why was not this
ointment sold, and the money given to the poor?"
Judas did not really care about the poor. He looked after the money
for Jesus and the disciples, and when he wanted any, he secretly
helped himself out of what belonged to all of them. He thought that if
the precious ointment had been sold, there would have been more money
in the purse he carried.
When Jesus heard the disciples complaining about Mary's gift, he said:
"Let her alone. This is a good thing that she has done. There will
always be poor people, and you can give them all you like after I am
gone. But you will not have _me_ always. You know your custom is that
when your loved ones die you put ointment on their bodies before you
bury them. Well, Mary has come to get me ready to be buried, before I
am even dead. I tell you, this woman's name will be remembered all
over the world because of what she did for me today!"
The disciples begrudged Jesus the ointment that a loving woman pured
upon his head! That was a bad sign. Many times in these last few
months Jesus had had to speak sharply to his disciples. The longer
they were with him, the less they seemed to understand the things that
he had taught them. Jesus was growing lonelier every day, and the
hardest task was still ahead.
One time, when they were on the road, John came to Jesus, feeling very
proud of himself.
"Master," he said, "we saw a man curing people who were out of their
minds and he was using your name to do it! Naturally we told him he
would have to stop. He didn't have any right to use your name, when he
wasn't one of us!"
Jesus answered: "You shouldn't have stopped him. If he wasn't doing
us any harm, then he was on our side!"
Then there was a terrible scene one day, when Jesus found the
disciples quarreling about which of them would be the most important
when Jesus became king. Each thought that he ought to have a higher
position than the rest.
"You aren't supposed to be looking out for yourselves," Jesus told
them. "That's what the Romans do. They want to be kings, and order
other people about. But the greatest one of you will be the one who
does the most to help others, no matter what it costs him. Which would
you rather do--sit down to a dinner and have your food brought to you,
or bring the food for somebody else? You'd rather sit down and let a
servant wait on you, of course. But I am content to be a servant among
you, the servant of everyone."
The disciples could not get over thinking that some people were more
important than others, and that they themselves counted for more than
anyone else. Once some mothers brought their little children to Jesus,
hoping that he would put his hands on them and bless them. The
disciples did not think that the children counted for anything, and
they were going to send them away. They told the mothers that they
ought not to come where they were not wanted.
But Jesus called the little children to him, and said: "Let the little
children come to me, and don't stand in their way. God's Kingdom is
made up of people like these children. God hasn't any place for a
person who thinks himself important. These children aren't pushing
themselves forward. They are humble, and it would be better if you
were more like them!"
With these words Jesus laid his hands upon the children and gave them
his blessing, as the mothers wanted him to do.
Another thing that Jesus said, which the disciples could not
understand, was that they ought to forgive anyone who did them an
injury. One day Peter came to him and asked: "Lord, if somebody keeps
on doing wrong to me, how many times should I forgive him? Seven
times, perhaps?"
Peter thought that seven times would be doing very well. But Jesus
answered: "_Seven_ times! Multiply that by seventy! Forgive him until
you have lost count of the times!"
When the disciples heard that, they knew that Jesus meant they should
never stop forgiving anyone who wronged them. This seemed to them to
be more than they could do unless God helped them. They would need
more faith in God. So they said, "Lord, give us more faith than we
have."
Then Jesus had to tell them that they really did not have any faith at
all. He said: "If your faith were only as big as a mustard seed--the
smallest seed there is--you could say to that tree over there, 'Be
pulled up and be planted in the sea,' and it would be done."
No, the disciples did not have much faith. They did not understand
Jesus. They were jealous of one another. They thought that Jesus ought
to be a king, and each of them thought that he ought to be the king's
right-hand man. The disciples were afraid. If Jesus went up to
Jerusalem, they could not tell what would happen. Sometimes they
thought it would be best if Jesus would stay out of sight where his
enemies could not find him.
Worst of all, there was one of the disciples who was not loyal--Judas
Iscariot. Judas was planning something so terrible that no one except
Jesus knew what it was.
Jesus could not wait until his disciples understood. He could not wait
until they were brave enough, or strong enough or good enough. If he
did, he would wait forever. And there was very little time.
There was something that he had to do now--the thing he had planned to
do all along. Back in the days when he was all alone in the
wilderness, after John baptized him in the Jordan, he knew that this
was what he would have to do someday. Now the time had come. He must
go back to the Temple, where he had stood and watched the Passover
lambs being killed when he was a boy of twelve. He must go and get
ready for the Passover.
[Illustration]
Jerusalem was about two miles away. He could not stay on in Bethany.
He must go to Jerusalem at once.
He called two of his disciples and gave his orders.
"Go into the village, and there you will find a young donkey tied. No
one has ever ridden it. Untie it and bring it here. If the owner
questions you, tell him, 'The Lord needs this donkey.' He will let you
have it at once."
The disciples went to do as they were told, and they did not need to
be told twice. They knew what Jesus meant, for they knew the
Scriptures. If this was the way Jesus was going to Jerusalem, there
was nothing to be afraid of!
For it said in the Scriptures that the Messiah would come into
Jerusalem riding upon a donkey. How did the words go?
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of
Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just,
and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and
upon a colt the foal of an ass."
Jesus was going to do it! He was going to ride into Jerusalem as the
Messiah! Everyone would know who he was at last, for it said in the
Scriptures that this was how the Messiah would come to the city! Let
the Jews get ready to receive the King they had waited for so long!
They would have to wait no longer. Messiah--King Messiah--was marching
toward his throne.
12. In Jerusalem
[Illustration]
The disciples went to the village, as Jesus told them, and there they
found the donkey. They untied it, and led it away. Some of them put
their clothes on the donkey's back, for a king must ride in comfort.
Others spread their clothes out on the street, for a king should ride
in state.
Jesus got on the donkey, and started for Jerusalem. The disciples
walked ahead. When they had almost reached the city, the disciples
began to shout. Jesus used to say that they must not tell anyone that
he was the Messiah. But now they could tell the whole world, for Jesus
wanted everyone to know. They were glad that they did not have to be
quiet any longer.
They shouted, "Hosanna!" It meant, "Save us," and was a cry of
welcome. They shouted the words of a psalm: "'Hosanna to the son of
David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in
the highest.'"
The city was crowded with travelers from all over Palestine, and from
foreign countries too. They were the pilgrims who had come for the
Passover feast.
The crowds saw the procession coming. They saw the donkey, and they
remembered what the Scriptures said. They remembered that that was how
the Messiah would come riding in. They heard the shouting, and they
understood the words. They knew that that was what people would sing
when the Messiah came.
Some of the crowds began to shout with the disciples. A great cry of
"Hosanna!" went ringing down the street. Everyone seemed to be saying
it. "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Some cut
branches from the trees, and waved them before the Messiah. It was a
royal welcome.
Only the priests and the rulers and the Pharisees were sorry to see
Jesus come.
"What is there we can do?" they said to one another. "Look, the whole
world has gone after him!"
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The excitement spread through the city. There were strangers there who
had never heard of Jesus.
"Who is this?" they asked.
Others who knew him answered, "Why, this is Jesus, the prophet from
Nazareth in Galilee."
Jesus went into the Temple and looked about at the crowds which
thronged it. This was his Father's house and his house. These were his
Father's people and his people.
The king for whom the Jews had been waiting had come at last to reign.
In the evening, Jesus and the disciples returned to Bethany to sleep.
[Illustration]
The next day Jesus returned to Jerusalem and again went to the Temple.
This time he carried a whip.
In the Court of the Gentiles the money was clinking as it had done
when Jesus was a boy. At tables sat the men who grew rich by
exchanging the money of visitors for coins used in Jerusalem. Others
were selling doves for sacrifice. The poor had to pay heavily to
worship God in his own house.
Jesus strode down the room with the whip in his hand, and upset the
tables where the money was. When the men jumped up from their chairs,
he drove them out of the Temple. Then he drove the sheep and the
cattle out after the men.
"It is written in the Scriptures: God's house shall be a house of
prayer. But you have made it into a den of thieves and robbers!" he
cried.
This was too much for the priests of the temple, and all the important
men who ruled Jerusalem. The next day some of the rulers came to Jesus
and said:
"What right have you to do these things? Who told you that you could
act like this?"
So far, Jesus had never said that he was the Messiah. He had only
acted as if he was the Messiah. The rulers hoped that he would say
something they could punish him for. But Jesus was too quick for them.
He said:
"I'll answer your question if you answer a question of mine. When John
the Baptist used to preach to you and baptize people, who gave him the
right to do that?"
Then the rulers did not know what to say. They thought to themselves:
_Now if we say that John was sent by God to preach, he will say, "Why
didn't you listen to him, then?_"
_If we say that John didn't have any right to preach, the people will
be angry and will likely kill us; for everyone still thinks that John
the Baptist was a great prophet sent by God himself._
So all they said was, "We don't know--we can't tell."
"Very well," Jesus retorted, "neither am I going to tell you what
right I have to do these things!"
Every day that week, Jesus came and taught in the Temple. Several
times his enemies tried to trick him into saying something that would
turn the people against him, but Jesus always had an answer which
silenced them. Once they came and asked, "Should we pay taxes to the
Romans?"
That was a hard question. All the Jews hated the Romans, and if Jesus
said that it was their duty to pay the taxes, everybody would hate him
too. But if he said they should not pay the taxes--well, they could
count on the Roman governor to settle with Jesus then.
"Show me a penny," Jesus replied.
[Illustration]
Someone handed him a piece of Roman money. There was a man's picture
stamped on one side of it. Jesus said, "Whose picture is that?"
"Why," they answered, "that is a picture of Caesar, the emperor of
Rome."
"All right," said Jesus, "do whatever your duty is to Caesar and his
government. You will have to decide about that for yourselves. And
also do your duty to God!"
It was such a clever answer that no one had a word to say. And Jesus
still had not said anything that he could be punished for.
But he said a great deal to make his enemies angry. About the
Pharisees he spoke the hardest words he ever said.
"Watch out for the scribes and the Pharisees," he told the people,
"and don't be like them. They love to walk around in their long white
robes, and to have everybody bow to them in the street, and to sit in
the best seats in the synagogues and at dinners. All the time they are
taking money from poor widows and they try to cover it up by making
long prayers."
Turning to the Pharisees themselves, he went on:
"Woe to you Pharisees! You are like graves with rotting bodies in
them, which people walk over without knowing what is underneath.
Nobody knows how bad you are. You snakes! How can you escape the
punishment which God is bringing upon you?"
He left the Pharisees and went into the Temple, where people were
making their gifts to God. Many rich men came in, and put large sums
of money in the money box. Then came a poor widow who put two small
coins into the box.
Jesus called his disciples to him, and said:
"I tell you, this poor widow has given more than all these rich people
are giving. For the rich have plenty of money, and it doesn't cost
them anything to give what they do. But this poor woman needs her
money, and she has given all she has."
With many words and stories he taught the people who thronged around
him on the days of that week. And this was the last story he ever
told:
"Someday I shall sit upon my throne, and judge all the nations of the
earth. To some people I will say:
"'Come--my Heavenly Father loves you. Take the reward he has planned
for you to have. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was
thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you
took me into your homes. I had nothing to wear, and you gave me
clothes. I was sick, and in prison, and you came to visit me!'
"Then these people will be surprised, and say, 'Lord when did we ever
do anything for you?'
"And I will say: 'You were kind to the poor and the sick and the
hungry, who did not count for anything on earth. You did not know it
at the time, but when you did a kindness to them, it was to me you
really did it.'
"Then I will say to others: 'Go away. God wants nothing to do with
you! For I was hungry, and thirsty, and naked, and sick, and in
prison, and you did nothing at all for me.'
"These people will also be surprised. They will say: 'Lord, when did
we ever see you hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or sick, or in prison?
If we had seen you needing anything, we would have helped you!'
"And I will say: 'Many poor people needed your help, and you did not
help them. When you failed them, you failed me. And now it is too
late!'"
* * * * *
The priests and the rulers did not know what to do about Jesus. _The
Messiah, indeed!_ they thought. They hated him, and they were afraid
of him. They were afraid of the Romans too. What would the Roman
governor say if he heard that there was someone in Jerusalem
pretending to be King of the Jews?
The priests and the rulers wanted to kill Jesus. That was all they
talked about. But they did not know how it was to be done. For
whenever Jesus came to Jerusalem, great crowds gathered around him.
None of the priests dared to lay a finger on him in the open. The
crowds would never let them. It seemed to the people as if the Messiah
might have come at last.
But something had to be done, the priests and the rulers said. The
week was going by. The Feast of the Passover was nearly there.
"We shall have to do away with Jesus quietly," someone said.
"Yes," the others agreed, "we can't wait till the day of the Passover.
If we should do anything to him on that day, there would be a riot."
They were at their wits' end to know how to get rid of Jesus. The
craftiest men in Jerusalem could not think what to do.
There was a knock at the door. It was one of Jesus' twelve disciples,
who had come to see the priests and rulers.
His name? His name was Judas Iscariot.
"What will you give me," Judas said, "if I turn Jesus over to you?"
The priests and rulers could hardly believe their ears.
"Thirty pieces of silver you shall have," they cried, "if you give us
Jesus!"
So for thirty pieces of silver Judas agreed to show them where Jesus
was, at some time when there was no one around but the twelve
disciples.
"Send soldiers when I tell you," Judas said. "The other disciples will
all be there, and the soldiers won't know which man to take. But I
will go up to Jesus and kiss him. The man I kiss will be the one you
want."
Some dark night soon, a quiet place with no one around to see--and
nobody would have to worry about Jesus of Nazareth any more!
[Illustration]
13. The Last Night
It was Thursday. On Friday afternoon the lambs would be killed for the
Passover, and on Friday evening all good Jews would sit down to eat
the lambs at the Passover feast. The disciples wondered where Jesus
was planning to celebrate the feast with them.
But Jesus did not wait until Friday to have a meal with all his
disciples. On Thursday he sent two of them into Jerusalem from
Bethany. He told them the name of the man to whom they were to go.
"Go to this man," said Jesus, "and tell him that I said the time has
come. He will show you where we are going to have supper tonight. Then
you can get the supper ready."
That evening Jesus and the twelve disciples met together at the house
in Jerusalem. On the second floor there was a room, where food was
spread upon the table.
As they were eating supper, Jesus suddenly spoke.
"One of you is a traitor!"
[Illustration]
Everyone stopped eating. And each one of the twelve disciples thought
of his own sins. Each one wondered if he were loyal enough to Jesus.
Each one cried out:
"Master, is it I?"
Jesus only answered:
"It is one of you twelve men, eating with me now. It would have been
better for that traitor if he had never been born!"
A moment later Judas Iscariot slipped quietly out of the door. The
other disciples did not know where he had gone.
Jesus spoke again: "I wanted so much to eat the Passover feast with
you this year, before I suffer. But I shall not eat it again with you
until a better day, when we shall all be together once more."
He took up a piece of bread, and said a prayer of thanks to God. Then
he broke the bread, and passed the pieces among the disciples--only
eleven of them now. He said words that they did not understand.
"Take and eat this. This is my body."
He took a cup of wine, and once more he gave thanks. Then he passed
the cup among the disciples, saying:
"Drink--all of you--drink of this wine. It is my blood, which I am
going to shed so that the sins of many people may be forgiven. And in
the days to come, do this same thing often, always remembering me."
Then they sang a hymn together and walked out into the night air and
went up the Mount of Olives.
As they walked, Jesus said to the disciples:
"You will all desert me tonight. For it is written in the Scriptures
that when something happens to the shepherd the sheep will go away in
all directions. However, I shall meet you again."
Peter spoke up, and said bravely,
"Even if everyone else deserts you, I will not!"
Jesus answered: "Before the rooster crows at sunrise to tell you that
morning has come, you will have said three times that you do not even
know me."
But Peter cried out that even if he died for it he would be true to
Jesus. And all the other disciples said the same.
Presently they came to a grove called Gethsemane. It was late. Jesus
said to the disciples,
"Sit here, while I go and pray."
[Illustration]
He took only Peter and James and John with him, and went a little way
apart from the rest. To the three disciples he said:
"I am greatly troubled. I do not know how I can bear it any longer.
Wait here, and stay awake with me."
Going a few steps farther on, Jesus fell on his knees and began to
pray aloud:
"O my Father, if it is possible, take this cup away; do not let these
things happen to me! Yet not my will, but thine, be done."
When he had prayed this way, he came back to Peter and James and John.
All three were fast asleep. Jesus woke Peter up, and said:
"What! Couldn't you stay with me for one short hour? Stay awake and
pray. Pray for yourselves. You are going to need strength. You are not
so strong as you want to be."
He left them again, and once more he fell on his knees and prayed,
"O my Father, if I must suffer these things, thy will be done."
When he returned, the disciples again were sleeping. They were too
tired to stay awake.
A third time he went apart from them and prayed. He prayed in the same
words he had used before. And suddenly he began to feel stronger. He
rose from his knees at last, and came back to the disciples. His voice
broke in upon their sleep: "Are you still sleeping? Well, you've slept
long enough! My time is up. I am going to be turned over to sinners
now! Get up! Look, the traitor is coming!"
While he was still speaking, a crowd of soldiers carrying swords and
clubs burst into the grove. Judas Iscariot was leading them. Judas ran
to Jesus and kissed him, saying,
"Hail, Master!"
Jesus answered, "Well, friend--what have you come to do?"
Then a band of men laid their hands on Jesus, and held him so that he
could not escape.
Peter was wide-awake by now. He had brought a sword with him. Pulling
it out, he cut off the ear of a man in the crowd.
Jesus said to Peter: "Put your sword away. My Father gave me these
things to suffer. He would save me now if I asked him. But that is not
the way it is to be."
Then Jesus turned to the crowd of soldiers, and said:
"Have you come to arrest me with swords and clubs, as though I were a
robber? Every day I was in the Temple teaching, and you could have
taken me then, but you never laid a hand on me. But this is what the
Scriptures said would happen to the Messiah."
The disciples could stand no more. They left Jesus standing there, and
in terror they fled away.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
14. The Last Day
The soldiers bound Jesus and led him back to Jerusalem. They took him
to the palace of the high priest. All the chief priests and rulers
were gathered there in a council meeting.
The council had already decided that Jesus would have to die, but it
was hard to find a reason for killing him. They had to prove that
Jesus had said or done something for which he could be put to death.
They found a great many people who came and told lies about Jesus, but
no two of them told the same story.
At last the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, stood up and said to
Jesus:
"You hear all the things that are being said about you. Aren't you
going to defend yourself?"
Jesus did not say a word.
The high priest spoke again:
"In the name of the living God I ask you: Are you the Christ--the
Messiah--the Son of God?"
Jesus answered:
"You have said it."
That was all the council wanted to hear. Caiaphas tore his own clothes
in anger, and shouted:
"Why do we need any more witnesses? You have heard him say it with his
own mouth. He says he's God! What do you think about it?"
And the whole council answered,
"He ought to be put to death."
Then some of them spat in his face. They covered his eyes, and slapped
him, and shouted:
"If you were the Messiah, you would know who hit you! Tell us, you
Messiah you--tell us who hit you!"
Meanwhile, in another room of the palace, there stood a disciple who
was losing whatever faith he had once had. It was Peter. One of the
other disciples, who knew the high priest, had gone ahead, and he had
told the maid to let Peter in.
The maid looked at Peter and said, "You were with Jesus, weren't you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Peter.
The night was cool, and the servants of the high priest were standing
around a fire they had made to keep themselves warm. Peter went over
and began to warm himself too. Somebody else said to him,
"You are one of Jesus' disciples."
Peter's faith was all gone.
"Man," he said, "I certainly am not!"
But after a while another person spoke up and said:
"Of course you are one of Jesus' disciples. You are from Galilee. We
can tell from the way you talk."
Peter began to curse and swear, saying, "I don't even know this Jesus
that you are talking about!"
At that moment the rooster began to crow. At the same time Jesus
passed by the doorway, and looked at Peter.
Peter remembered what Jesus had said, "Before the rooster crows, you
will three times say that you do not know me."
Peter went out of the palace, and wept bitterly.
The great council of the Jews might say that a man deserved to die,
but they could not put anyone to death. Only the Roman governor could
do that.
The Roman governor, whose name was Pontius Pilate, was in Jerusalem
for the Passover. As soon as it was daylight, the council took Jesus
over to Pilate's palace.
When Judas Iscariot saw what was happening, he suddenly realized what
he had done. He came to the chief priests, and brought them back the
thirty pieces of silver they had given him for turning traitor. He
cried out:
"I have sinned! I betrayed a man who never did any wrong!"
The chief priests shrugged their shoulders.
"That's nothing to us," they said. "Take your money and go!"
But Judas threw the money down on the floor and ran out. He took a
rope, and found a tree, and hanged himself, for, after betraying
Jesus, he could not bear to live.
Meanwhile Jesus was standing before Pilate. The council had told
Pilate that Jesus was claiming to be the King of the Jews. They said
that he was stirring up the whole country against Caesar. They thought
that Pilate would put him to death for that, because the Romans would
be afraid that Jesus would lead a revolt against the Roman government.
Pilate said to Jesus,
"Well, are you the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered simply,
"You have said it."
Then the priests and rulers burst out with all kinds of evil stories
about Jesus.
Pilate spoke to Jesus again, and said:
"Aren't you going to say anything? Listen to what they are saying
about you!"
But Jesus did not speak. Pilate was astonished. He could see that the
only reason the council had brought Jesus to him was that they were
jealous of Jesus and hated him.
By now a large crowd had gathered to watch the trial. Many of the
people in it had been Jesus' followers, but they followed him no
longer. When they saw Jesus being tried like a criminal they decided
that their priests and rulers had been right all along. They began to
talk against Jesus, among themselves.
Pilate wondered how he could let Jesus go. Suddenly he remembered a
Jewish custom: every Passover a prisoner was set free.
[Illustration]
Pilate said: "Every year at this time I set a prisoner free. Now you
can have your choice. You know we have a man named Barabbas in
jail--he's the fellow that started a rebellion a little while ago. We
were going to crucify him. And now here is Jesus. Which one shall I
let go? Barabbas the murderer or Jesus who is called the Christ?"
A great shout went up,
"Barabbas!"
Pilate did not know what to do now. He spoke again to the crowd,
"Well, what shall I do to Jesus who is called the Christ?"
Again there was a great shout:
"Crucify him! Hang him up on a cross till he is dead!"
Everyone seemed to be against Jesus now. However, Pilate tried once
more.
"But," he protested, "I can't find that he has been guilty of any
crime!"
The Jewish rulers replied, "We have a law which says he ought to die
because he pretends to be the Son of God."
Pilate was worried now. He spoke to Jesus again, and again Jesus did
not answer.
"Aren't you going to speak to me?" Pilate asked. "Don't you know that
I can crucify you or let you go?"
Jesus answered, "You wouldn't have any power over me unless God had
given it to you."
Pilate, when he heard this, tried once more to save Jesus. But the
crowd was bigger, and louder, and more bloodthirsty than ever.
Everyone was shouting:
"Crucify! Crucify!"
"Shall I crucify your king?" asked Pilate.
The chief priests of the Jews, who hated Caesar, answered,
"We have no king except Caesar!"
Pilate was too weak to hold out any longer. He was beginning to wonder
what Caesar would say if he heard that Pilate refused to crucify a man
who claimed to be king of the Jews.
"Take him," Pilate said. "Take him, and crucify him."
But before the crucifixion came the scourging. Jesus was bound and
beaten with long leather thongs which had cruel pieces of glass and
lead fastened to them so that they would hurt all the more. When that
was over, and his back was covered with cuts and bruises, the Roman
soldiers who had scourged him wanted some more sport. They dressed
Jesus in a purple robe. They made a wreath, like the one that the
Roman emperor wore--only this one was made of thorns, which stuck into
Jesus' head so that the blood ran down his face. Some of the soldiers
spat on him; others made fun of him, bowing down and saying,
"Hail, king of the Jews!"
Then the soldiers stripped the purple clothes off Jesus, and put his
own clothes back on him, and led him outside the city to be crucified.
He was too worn out to carry his own cross, as those who were to be
crucified usually did, so the soldiers forced a man of Cyrene named
Simon to carry it for him.
[Illustration]
When they reached a hill called Calvary, they laid the cross down on
the ground, and stripped Jesus of his clothes. They put Jesus on the
cross, and stretched out his arms. They drove a nail through each
hand, and one through his feet, fastening him to the cross. Then they
stood the cross upright, and let Jesus hang there. On the top of it
was written: "This is the King of the Jews." There was a cross on
either side of him, with a thief hanging on each one.
Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
The soldiers took his clothes, and divided them up among themselves.
His coat was too good to tear up, so they threw dice to see which one
of them would get it.
Jesus was offered a drink which would have made the pain easier to
bear, but he would not take it. People passed to and fro in front of
the cross, shouting insults.
"He saved others, but he can't save himself." One of the thieves
turned his head and called out to him angrily,
"If you are the Christ, save yourself and us too!"
But the other thief spoke out of his pain:
"Don't you fear God, seeing that we are all going to die? Aren't you
afraid to talk that way? We deserve to die; but this man never did
anything wrong."
Then, turning to Jesus, he said, "Lord, remember me when you come to
your Kingdom."
Jesus said to him,
"I tell you, today you will be with me in heaven."
Near the cross stood Jesus' mother and other women who loved him. John
the disciple was also there. Jesus called to his mother and John, and
said:
"Mother, from now on John will be your son. John, this is your
mother."
John took Jesus' mother to his own house.
The hours passed by. It was about time for the Passover lambs to be
killed in the city. Clouds were beginning to cover the sun, and it was
growing dark although it was not yet night.
Jesus cried out,
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
There was a stir of interest in the crowd. _Let's see what will happen
now_, they thought.
Jesus was becoming weaker. He said, "I am thirsty."
A soldier dipped a sponge in vinegar, and held it up on a stick to
Jesus' lips so that he could drink.
Jesus cried out once more:
"It is finished. Father, into thy hands I give my spirit."
His head sank down upon his chest. There was a loud sound like a clap
of thunder, and the earth shook.
In the silence that followed, a Roman soldier spoke.
"This man--" he said, "this man was indeed the Son of God."
But Jesus did not hear him. For Jesus was dead.
* * * * *
When evening came, a man named Joseph of Arimathaea went to see
Pilate. Joseph was a rich man, and much respected; and he had believed
in Jesus. He went secretly to Pilate, for he was afraid of the Jews.
He asked Pilate if he might have Jesus' body, and Pilate gave
permission.
Joseph came then to the cross, and took down Jesus' body. He wrapped
it in a white linen cloth, and had it carried away to a tomb which had
been dug out of the rock. Not until after the Sabbath could Jesus'
family and friends come to put spices on the body of him whom they
loved.
Jesus' body was laid inside the tomb, and a great stone was rolled
against the door.
Standing there was a woman named Mary Magdalene with Mary the mother
of Jesus. They watched while the body of Jesus, so dear to them, was
laid away to rest.
[Illustration]
15. The Victorious King
At sunrise the day following the Sabbath, three women came to the
garden where Jesus was buried. They came, as the custom was, to put
ointments and spices on the body of Jesus.
On the way they remembered that a great stone had been rolled against
the door of the tomb. They wondered how they would get in.
"Who will roll the stone away?" they asked each other.
But when they reached the tomb, they found that the stone had been
rolled back. Someone had been there before them; the door was open.
The women went through the door of the tomb. A young man in white
clothes was sitting on one side. Seeing their amazement, the young man
spoke:
"Do not be surprised. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was
crucified. He is not here. He is risen from the dead. Look! There is
the place where he was!"
They looked, and they saw that his body was no longer there.
The young man went on, "Go quickly, and tell this to his disciples:
'Jesus is alive.'"
The women ran out of the tomb, trembling with fright and with
surprise. One of the women was Mary Magdalene. As she ran, she saw two
of the disciples coming, John and Peter. She cried out to them:
"Someone has taken Jesus' body out of the tomb. We don't know where
they have put it!"
John and Peter began to run toward the tomb. John ran faster, and got
there first. He looked through the door, and there he saw the white
cloths that Jesus' body had been wrapped in, but there was no body in
them any longer. Peter caught up to John, and ran right into the tomb.
He too saw the folded cloths. John and Peter went away to their homes,
not knowing what to think.
Meanwhile Mary Magdalene had come back. She stood in the garden near
the tomb, weeping as though her heart would break. She turned around,
and saw that a man was standing near her. He spoke to her, and said:
"Why are you crying? For whom are you looking?"
Mary thought that the man must be the gardener. Through her tears she
said:
"Sir, if you have carried away the body of my Lord, tell me where you
have laid him, and I will go and take him away."
The man said softly,
"Mary!"
She looked again. She knew that voice. It was Jesus--Jesus calling her
name!
She cried out,
"Master!"
She moved as though to take hold of him. Jesus spoke again. It was
really he.
"Do not try to hold me here. I am going to my Father in heaven. But
now go and tell that to the disciples. Tell them that I am going to my
Father."
And Mary went and told the disciples,
"I have seen the Lord!"
* * * * *
Afterward, no one could ever remember clearly all that happened on
that day. No one knew what to make of it all. No one knew whether to
believe that Jesus was really alive.
Late that afternoon, two disciples were walking along the road from
Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus. They talked of what had happened
on Friday, and now on Sunday. As they were talking, a stranger joined
them. The stranger said,
"What is it that you are talking about?"
[Illustration]
The disciples stopped. They were almost too sad to speak any more,
but one of them answered,
"Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn't know the things
that have been happening there these last few days?"
"What things?" the stranger asked.
[Illustration]
The disciples replied:
"Why, all about Jesus of Nazareth. He was a great prophet and teacher.
The chief priests and the rulers had him crucified. We had hoped that
he was the Messiah, who was going to save the Jewish people. But now
it is two days since he was put to death, and nothing has
happened--though there were some women who went to the tomb and came
away saying that he was risen from the dead."
The stranger said:
"O you foolish men--so slow to believe what it says in the Prophets!
Don't you see that the Messiah had to suffer this way in order to be
King?"
Then he explained everything in the Scriptures about the Messiah. He
spoke to them of how the Prophet Isaiah had said long ago:
"He was despised and cast out by men; a man of sorrows and
full of grief; and no one would look at him. He was hurt,
because we were so sinful. He suffered for our sakes. He was
killed like a lamb, and he did not try to defend himself."
The stranger explained that Isaiah was talking about the Messiah. The
Messiah was to be humble, and sacrifice himself, like one of the lambs
at the Passover feast. Isaiah meant that the only one who could help
others was the one who was willing to suffer for others. The Messiah
never wanted to be a king like other kings. He did not want to lord it
over others. He wanted to love them, and to give his life for them.
"And so," the stranger went on, "you ought not to be sad, thinking
that Jesus is not the Messiah after all. Jesus has lived and died as
the Scriptures said the Messiah would. His love and his sufferings
prove that he really is the Messiah. And if his believers love one
another, as he has loved them, and sacrifice themselves as he has
done, they will have peace and joy."
As the three walked on, the stranger talked. When they reached Emmaus,
they came to the home of one of the disciples. They said to the
stranger:
"Come in and stay with us. It is evening. The day is nearly over."
They went into the house. Someone lighted the lamps, and food was
placed before them.
The stranger took some bread, and said a prayer of thanks, and broke
the bread.
The disciples had seen something like that before--breaking bread.
They looked up quickly.
Why! This man was not a stranger at all. It was Jesus. They knew him
as they looked into his face. And as they looked, he vanished out of
their sight, and they were alone again.
They said to each other,
"Didn't you have a strange feeling, as he talked to us along the road
and explained the Scriptures?"
Although it was now night, they returned to Jerusalem at once. They
found the other disciples and told their story.
"The Lord is indeed alive!" they said. "We knew him the moment he
broke the bread!"
[Illustration]
While they were speaking, Jesus was suddenly among them once again.
Jesus said,
"Peace be with you."
They were frightened then, but Jesus spoke again.
"Do not be afraid," he said. "I am not a spirit."
They still could hardly believe it. It seemed too good to be true. And
while they stood there, not daring to believe that Jesus was alive, he
said,
"Have you anything here to eat?"
They set a piece of broiled fish before him, and Jesus sat down to
supper.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
One of the disciples was not there when Jesus appeared to the others.
His name was Thomas. And no matter what the others said, Thomas could
not believe that Jesus was alive again.
"Unless," he said, "I see in his hands the marks that the nails made
when they crucified him, and unless I put my finger into those marks,
I will not believe."
Eight days later the disciples were all together. This time Thomas was
with the others. The doors were shut.
Suddenly Jesus appeared again, and said as he had said before,
"Peace be with you."
Then Jesus turned to Thomas, and said,
"Put your finger into the nail holes in my hand, and doubt no more,
but believe in me!"
Thomas fell down on his knees. He cried out, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus said to him:
"You believe in me because you have seen me with your own eyes. It is
still better when people believe even though they have not seen me."
After this the disciples saw Jesus many times and at many places. But
a day came at last after which they did not see him on earth again.
On this day Jesus appeared to them outside Jerusalem, and said:
"All power has been given to me in heaven and earth. I am Lord and
King of all men. Go and tell people of every nation about me, so that
they will believe in me. Baptize everybody in my name. Teach them
everything that I have taught you. You will not be alone, for although
you do not see me, I shall be with you always."
Then Jesus said to them: "Wait a little while. Wait in Jerusalem, and
someday soon you will know that the time has come to go out and
preach. God will give you the power to make other people believe in me
as their Saviour. You shall tell about me in Jerusalem, and in the
country all around; in Samaria, and in the farthest parts of the
earth."
He lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And as he blessed them, a
cloud covered him, and they did not see him any more.
Jesus had gone home to his Father.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
They stared up into the sky, where he seemed to have gone. As they
looked, they heard voices saying:
"You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into the sky? The
Lord Jesus will come again!"
Then they remembered that they had work to do before they again would
see Jesus. They had to go and preach, as Jesus had told them. They had
to tell about him to all people everywhere.
They walked back into Jerusalem. They had to wait; but now they were
not waiting for Christ the Saviour to come. They were waiting only for
the sign that would tell them it was time to go out and preach that
Christ had already come.
* * * * *
The Passover was finished for another year, and the farmers of
Palestine had work to do. The warm spring weather spread over the
land, and the wheat was growing in the fields and on the hillsides.
Farmers reaped their crops, and gathered in the grain, and got ready
for another feast at Jerusalem. For when the wheat was gathered, it
was time to go and give thanks to God for the harvest, at the Feast of
Pentecost.
The disciples waited while the weeks of spring went by. Every day they
went to the Temple and praised God for his goodness, because they knew
that Christ had come.
Seven weeks passed by. The hot sun ripened the crops, and the farmers
cut their grain. The Day of Pentecost came around, and the streets of
Jerusalem were thronged again. There were men there from near and far,
from every country of which anyone had ever heard. The harvest was
over, and the feast was on!
That morning the disciples were all together when they heard the
sound. It was a sound like the rushing wind, bringing messages from
God. They saw a vision too, and what they saw seemed like tongues of
fire, coming down to each one of them so that all could speak what
God wanted them to say.
The disciples went out and began to speak. Everyone who heard them
understood what they were saying.
Excitement went through the city.
"This is strange!" the people said. "We have come from near and far.
We speak many different languages. Yet when these men tell us about
the wonderful things that God has done, we understand what they are
telling us. What is it that has happened?"
Peter stood up beside the other disciples, and boldly raised his
voice:
"Listen to me, everyone who is here at Jerusalem! You have read in the
Scriptures how God said that he would send his Holy Spirit to his
people. That is what has happened! The time has come to preach to you!
Therefore, listen to my words.
"God sent Jesus of Nazareth to you, and he did many wonderful things
among you, which you saw for yourselves. God let you take him and put
him to death with your own wicked hands. But it was not possible for
him to be held forever by death. God has raised him up from the dead,
and we have seen it! He is King; and he has given us the power to tell
you about him, and you can hear what we are telling you. Let everybody
know this for a fact: this very Jesus whom you crucified is Lord and
Christ!"
And when the people heard these words, they were greatly troubled.
"What shall we do?" they cried.
Peter answered:
"Repent! Give up your sins, and begin a new life! Believe in Jesus
Christ, and let us baptize you in his name. Then your sins will be
forgiven, and he will send his Holy Spirit to change you!"
Many were glad when they heard this, and they were baptized in Jesus'
name. That very day about three thousand people became believers and
followers of Christ. They joined with those who had been disciples
before, praying together, and sharing with each other everything they
had. Jesus had a Church, which believed that he was Christ the
Saviour.
Every day many more were added to the Church. Every day the Church of
Jesus Christ grew stronger.
It grew like the grainfields in the spring.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
Page
CHAPTER 2
17 Luke 2:1-20
22 Matt. 2:1-12
26 Luke 2:21-35
28 Matt. 2:13-23