AT THE HOUSE OF MARTHA--THE GOOD SHEPHERD.
While Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem a lawyer came and asked Him
questions. He did not want to be a disciple, yet he asked what he
should do to have eternal life.
Jesus asked him what the commandments said about it, and the lawyer
repeated the two great commandments concerning love to the Lord and to
the neighbor.
"Thou hast answered right," Jesus replied. "This do and thou shalt
live."
"And who is my neighbor?" said the lawyer.
Then Jesus told a story of a man who went down to Jericho, and was
nearly killed by thieves. A priest came that way and when he saw a man
who needed help he passed by on the other side of the road. So did a
Levite, one of the helpers in the temple worship, but a Samaritan (and
the Samaritans were despised by the Jews) came that way, and he stopped
in pity for the poor man, dressed his wounds, set him upon his own
beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. When he left the
inn he also left money for his care, with the promise of more if it
should be needed. Then Jesus asked the lawyer which of these three men
was neighbor to him who fell among thieves.
[Illustration: The good Samaritan]
"He that showed mercy on him," said the lawyer. Then said Jesus unto
him,
"Go thou and do likewise."
As Jesus came near to Jerusalem He passed through Bethany, a little
town at the foot of the Mount of Olives, where perhaps some of His
disciples had been preaching the new gospel before Him. There He was
gladly received into the house of Martha, who prepared the table with
her own hands to offer the best in her house to her honored Guest. She
had a brother named Lazarus, who was probably at the feast in
Jerusalem, and a younger sister named Mary who loved to listen to every
word that Jesus spoke. As every family built a bower of branches
during this feast to remind them that for forty years they lived in
such houses in the wilderness while coming out of Egypt, there must
have been one in the court of Martha's house, and there, perhaps, Jesus
rested while Mary sat at His feet and heard His word.
[Illustration: Jesus in the house at Bethany]
Martha was very busy serving her honored guest, and thought Mary ought
to help her in the house, but Jesus said, "Martha, Martha, thou art
careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful, and
Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her."
When the Feast of Tabernacles was at its height Jesus came up to the
Temple at Jerusalem. The people had been looking for Him, and as soon
as the noble, earnest-faced young Teacher was seen walking in the
marble court of the Temple they thronged around Him to hear Him teach,
or to see if He would do any miracle.
Some wondered at His wisdom and His doctrine, and asked where it came
from, "My doctrine is not mine," He said, "but His that sent me. If
any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine."
He taught them many things that day, and hinted at the same thing that
had troubled His disciples, and these were His words,
"Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him that sent me.
Ye shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am thither ye
cannot come."
The priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees were listening, and He knew
that their hearts were too full of pride and self-love to receive His
word. They could not go to Him, for they would not let Him come into
their hearts.
On the last day, the great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and cried to
the people who were about to go back to their homes. His great heart
was breaking to bring them into the Kingdom of Heaven, and He knew that
they would be scattered as sheep having no shepherd.
"If any man thirst," He cried, "let him come unto me and drink." And
He then promised to such as believe the Holy Spirit to dwell in them,
and to flow out toward all the world like rivers of living water.
So wonderfully did He preach that many said, "Of a truth this is a
prophet," and others said, "This is the Christ," while others were
filled with anger and wished to arrest Him. Indeed, when the priests
and Pharisees urged the officers to take Him, they said,
"Never man spake like this man," and they would not lay hands on Him.
But Nicodemus, a learned doctor of the law, was a friend of Jesus. He
it was who had a talk with Him one night under the olive trees about
the Spirit--the breath of God, and he with wise words turned the hatred
of the Jews away from Jesus for the time, and they went to their own
houses.
Jesus taught in the Temple again the next day, and all the people came
to listen.
It was here, perhaps, that the wicked Scribes and Pharisees brought to
Him a poor woman who had sinned. They told Him that according to the
law she ought to be stoned, and asked what He would say about it. He
did not answer, but seemed to be writing on the ground before Him as
though He did not hear them. At last, because they would have an
answer He looked at them saying,
"He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone," and
He wrote again on the ground. No one answered Jesus, but one by one
they went away too much ashamed to speak. "Hath no man condemned
thee?" asked Jesus of the woman standing sorrowful and alone.
"No man, Lord," she said.
"Neither do I condemn thee," He said, "go and sin no more."
Then Jesus sitting in the Treasury of the Temple said,
"I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in
darkness but shall have the light of life."
Many other things He said that His enemies tried to turn against Him,
and the healing on the Sabbath day of a man who had been born blind
stirred the anger of the Jews against Him, so that they sought by much
questioning to accuse Jesus of sin, not knowing that they were
themselves spiritually blind.
But He turned from them to call to the people again as He did on the
last day of the Feast, for in His love and pity He longed to bring the
lost children of Israel to Himself that He might bless them, as a
shepherd brings back the sheep that stray from the fold.
"I am the Good Shepherd; and I know my own, and my own know me," said
Jesus, "even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay
down my life for the sheep, and other sheep I have which are not of
this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and
they shall become one flock, one Shepherd."
Other beautiful and blessed words He said about the Shepherd and His
flock which are written in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John, but
the learned Jews would not listen to Him, and thrice tried to kill Him
by stoning Him, but they could not harm Him, for His time had not come.
Then he went away beyond Jordan, where John first baptized, and many
believed on Him there.