THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH--PETER'S CONFESSION OF FAITH.
Jesus was walking with His disciples one Sabbath day and talking of the
Kingdom of Heaven when they came to a field of ripe grain. They had
been gathering food for their souls from the teachings of Jesus, and
had forgotten to take food for their bodies until they saw the ripe
grain and knew that they were hungry. Some of them began to take the
heads of wheat (or barley), to rub them in their hands to separate the
grain from the chaff, and eat the kernels of wheat.
[Illustration: Jesus in the wheat fields]
Following close after them were some men who had been told to watch
Jesus and His disciples, and see if anything could be brought against
them.
They held very strict views about keeping the Sabbath, as all Pharisees
did, and here they saw something that might be called breaking the
Sabbath, for were they not really reaping the wheat, and sifting it
through their hands?
"Behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the
Sabbath day," they said. "The Son of Man," said Jesus, "is Lord even
of the Sabbath day."
Another Sabbath He entered into a synagogue and taught. Among the
people stood a man who had a helpless and withered hand. The same
Pharisees who had followed Jesus as spies when He walked through the
grain-fields were watching Him in the Synagogue to see if He would heal
on the Sabbath. He knew their thoughts, and called the man, saying,
"Rise up and stand forth in the midst."
The man rose, and while he stood waiting, Jesus turned to the Pharisees
who were eagerly watching to see if Jesus would do something that was
forbidden in their law, and said,
"Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? To save
life or to destroy it?" The Pharisees dared not answer, and Jesus,
looking round upon them all, said to the man, "Stretch forth thy hand."
The man obeyed. Although he had not been able to raise his hand, he
stretched it forth, and it became as whole and as strong as the other.
The Pharisees went away very angry, and tried to make a plan among
themselves for bringing Jesus into trouble.
Jesus came to fill the law about the Sabbath full of the spirit of
heaven; to teach love and service to the neighbor, as well as the love
and worship of God, but they could not understand Him.
Jesus was near the end of His ministry to the people east of the Jordan
in the country called Decapolis. They were not like the Galilean Jews,
they were half heathen people who lived among the wild, rocky hills of
that region. They were poor and ignorant, yet they were more ready to
accept the gospel than the wise and wicked Pharisees had been.
He had been kind to them in their sickness and poverty, and they
followed Him with their sick, and lame, and deaf, and blind, leaving
them at His feet until they arose praising God that they had been saved
from their sufferings.
Jesus had been teaching in the wild mountain country, and the people
would not leave Him to go away to their homes. After three days Jesus
said to His disciples, "I have compassion on the multitude because they
continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat, and I will not
send them away fasting lest they faint by the way."
The disciples did not remember the Lord's power to create bread, and
wondered where they should find it in the wilderness to feed such a
great multitude.
But when Jesus knew that they had seven loves of barley bread and a few
little fishes He told the people to sit down on the ground, and after
giving thanks over the loaves and the fishes, He divided them and gave
to His disciples, and the disciples gave to the people. There were
four thousand men beside women and children who took the bread that
came from the Lord's hands. After all had eaten and were filled they
took up seven baskets of the food that was left.
Jesus, though He could create food for the people, taught them to use
it wisely and waste nothing.
When the people had been sent to their homes, Jesus, with His
disciples, took a fishing boat and crossed the Lake only to find the
Pharisees there ready to question Him, and to tempt Him to show them
some great sign from heaven.
He told them that they could read the signs of the coming weather in
the sky, but they could not see the signs of the times.
Only a wicked people look for a sign, He said, and no sign should be
given except the sign that Jonah gave to the Ninevites--a call to
repentance.
Then He left them, for He saw the hardness of their hearts.
Again they took their journey in the little ship to the northern end of
the Lake, and after landing, followed the east side of Jordan until
they passed near the place where the five thousand had been fed by a
miracle as they sat on the green hillside.
The disciples found that they had forgotten to bring bread with them.
They remembered, perhaps, that they had here eaten the bread that the
Lord had created; but the heart of Jesus was heavy with the thought of
the unbelief of the people He had come to save, and He said,
"Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."
The disciples did not understand Him, and wondered if He spoke thus
because they had not brought bread.
Then Jesus, seeing that they had but little faith, reminded them of the
supper on the hillside, when more than five thousand were fed, and of
that later meal among the rocky hills of Decapolis, when four thousand
and more were fed, and that they did not need to be concerned about
food for the body so much as to beware of the false teaching of the
Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
They walked still further north, directly toward that beautiful
mountain that lifts its head, white with the glistening snow, high
above the hills that lead up to it, so that it may be seen over the
larger part of Palestine.
They came to Caesarea Philippi, one of the most beautiful places in the
world. It lay in the green lap of Mount Hermon high above the sea, and
shut in by cliffs and forests. The upper springs of the Jordan are
here. They leap out of a great cavern in the side of the mountain--a
river of clear, cold water.
The old Greeks loved the place, and built there a temple to the god of
nature, but after the Romans came it was named for the Emperor and
Philip the Tetrarch. Here there were more Gentiles than Jews, for it
was a gay town in the summer, and people from other towns came to this
city of palaces, temples, baths, theatres, and statues. These people
did not wish to hear the words of Jesus, but the coolness and beauty of
the country around this birthplace of the Jordan made it a fit place to
bring His disciples where they could talk over the things of the
kingdom without being disturbed by the Pharisees. Here He was able to
pray alone, and once, after prayer, He questioned His disciples about
Himself.
"Whom say the people that I am?" He asked. They remembered their talks
with the people and said, "John the Baptist, but some say Elias, and
others say that one of the old prophets is risen again." "But whom say
ye that I am?" He asked. Then Peter, the believing disciple, made his
confession of faith,--
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus was glad to
hear this, for many had come to doubt Him, and many had gone away from
Him since they knew that He would not be an earthly king.
"Blessed art thou Simon, son of Jonas," He said, "for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven."
He saw that Peter's faith in the truth was like his name, which means
"a rock," and so He said,
"Thou art Peter, and on this rock will I build my church, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it."
Peter's faith in the truth was also in the hearts of the other
disciples for whom He spoke, and Jesus saw that they could now bear
what he had to say to them without going away.
He told them that He must soon go to Jerusalem and suffer many things
from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, and that He
should be killed by them, and rise again from the dead the third day.
Even Peter's faith was shaken by this. How could the Son of God be
killed? He could not believe His Master meant it so.
"Be it far from thee, Lord," he said, "this shall not be unto thee."
Jesus saw the spirit of fear and unbelief rising up in Peter, and to
this--not to Peter himself--Jesus said,
"Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me; for thou
savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men."
Then He plainly told them what they must be ready to meet if they
followed Him. They must not hope for any earthly honors or riches, and
they must put aside their own wishes and obey the Lord alone.
He told them that whoever wished to live for this world alone would
lose all, but whoever was willing to lose all for His sake should find
eternal life.
"For what is a man profited," He said, "if he shall gain the whole
world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for
his soul?"