FOLLOWING JESUS.
The next morning Jesus went out among the hills alone. All day He was
pressed upon by the poor, the sick, the blind, and the lame, or those
who were hungry for the word, and so at night or early morning He went
out to be alone, to think of the great work he had come to do, and to
pray or talk to the Father, for Jesus and the Father were one. But the
people followed Him, and begged him not to leave them.
"I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also," He said, "for
therefore am I sent." And He took his disciples and started on a
journey from village to village through Galilee. There were about two
hundred of these towns, and they were near together. It was the
springtime, and the fields and hills between the villages were
beautiful with flowers and growing grain. Sometimes He taught in their
churches, and sometimes under their trees or trellises, and wherever He
went the common people heard him gladly.
Once as He drew near a town a leper followed Him. He followed Him into
the town, which was against the law, for the leper was not allowed to
live inside a town, or to come near the people, as the touch of a leper
would give the disease to another. But so earnest was he to see Jesus
that he came through the crowd and fell on his face before Jesus,
saying,
"Lord if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean."
Jesus put forth His hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be thou
clean."
Suddenly the leprosy left the man, and his dead and filthy skin became
as healthy as a child's, and Jesus sent him to the priest to offer that
which the law commanded for the cleansing of lepers. It was a long,
and often costly process that a leper must pass through to be cleansed
from his disease, but the word of Jesus was with power, and brought
divine life to take the place of death, for leprosy was a slow death.
[Illustration: Jesus healing the sick]
When the Lord came back to Capernaum the people thronged Him, and when
He rested in the shaded court of a friend's house it was soon filled
with the eager people who longed to hear His word, or be healed by His
touch.
Once it was so crowded in the court that some men, who were bringing a
friend to Jesus who was helpless with palsy, took him up by the outside
stairs to the housetop. There, by taking up a few tiles, they made an
opening just over the place where Jesus sat, and the people soon saw
the man lying on his mat before Jesus, for they had let it down by
cords through the opening.
Jesus saw the faith of the four men who had let their sick friend down
at His feet, and it touched His heart. He also saw the longing in the
soul of the sick man to be good and pure, and He said,
"Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee."
The Scribes, who were always copying the Scriptures--for there was no
printing done in those days--were always watching to hear Jesus say
something contrary to the Law of Moses, that they might tell it to the
priests, and some who were sitting there looked at each other and said
in their hearts,
"Who can forgive sins but God only?"
Jesus heard their thoughts and asked them why they reasoned in this way
with themselves, and which seemed to them the easier, to forgive sins
or to heal the body.
But that they might know that He had power over the body as well as the
soul He said to the sick man,
"Arise; take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house."
The man rose and rolled up his mat and carried it out, the people
falling back astonished to let him pass, for his palsy had left him and
he walked out strong and well.
"We have seen strange things to-day," the people said among themselves
for they could not understand how a man could forgive sins or heal
disease.
When Jesus left the house to go down to the sea-shore He passed the
Custom-house, where the tax-gatherers, or "publicans," gathered money
from the Jewish people to pay to their conquerors, the Romans.
The Romans were very hard in their dealings with the Jews, and made
themselves rich by taking money from the poor of their provinces.
The people did not like the tax-gatherer, and his was not a pleasant
office.
Levi, also called Matthew, was a rich tax-gatherer at Capernaum, and as
he sat in his office looking out upon the market-place he saw Jesus
passing by. Perhaps he had often heard Jesus teach by the shore and in
the market-place, and longed to follow Him. He saw the Teacher stop at
his open door, and heard Him say,
"Follow Me."
That was enough; Matthew left all, rose up and followed Jesus. He had
a business that made him rich, but he was ready to leave it all to be a
disciple of Jesus.
He wanted all to know that he had chosen a new life, and so he gave a
great dinner to his friends, and invited Jesus and His five disciples
that he might confess before them all his faith in Jesus.
The Pharisees looked down upon the publicans and thought them a people
unfit to associate with, and when they passed by and saw Jesus sitting
in Matthew's house at the feast they asked His disciples as they went
in and out why their Master ate with "publicans and sinners," a thing
they felt themselves too good to do.
Jesus Himself answered them in words that have helped many sinful
people to come to Him since.
"They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I
came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."
And then He turned to talk with Matthew and his friends, who listened
to every word that fell from His lips, and did not try to find fault
with Him as the Pharisees did.
Matthew had made a rich feast, and his table was no doubt piled with
the beautiful fruits of the plain of Gennesaret, but the eyes of all
and the thoughts of all were fixed upon the wonderful Teacher, and
Matthew, the publican, who had become His disciple.