"He came unto his own, and his own received him not." That is, he
entered Jerusalem. Yet now he entered, not Jerusalem, which by
interpretation is "The Vision of Peace," but the home of
tyranny. For now the elders of the city have so manifestly conspired
against him, that he can no longer find a place of refuge within
it. This is not to be attributed to his helplessness but to his
patience. He could be harbored there securely, seeing that no one
can do him harm by violence, and that he has the power to incline
the hearts of men whither he wills. For in that same city he freely
did whatever he willed to do; and when he sent his disciples
thither, and commanded them that they should loose the ass and the
colt, and bring them to him, and said that no man would forbid them,
he accomplished that which he said, although he was not ignorant of
the conspiracy against himself. Of which he saith to his disciples
whom he sends, "Go ye into the castle over against you"; that is, to
the place which is equally opposed to God and to you; no longer to
be called a city, an assembly of men living under the law, but a
castle of tyrannical fortification. Go confidently, saith he, into
the place, though such it is, and though it is therefore opposed to
you, and do with all security that which I command you. Whence he
adds, also: "And if any man say aught unto you, say that the Lord
hath need of them, and he will straightway send them away." A
wonderful confidence of power! As if the Lord, using his own right
of command, lays his own injunction on those whom he knows already
to have conspired for his death. Thus he commands, thus he enjoins,
thus he compels obedience. Nor do they who are sent hesitate in
accomplishing that which is laid upon them, confident as they are in
the strength of the power of him who sends them. By that power they
who were chiefly concerned in this conspiracy had been more than
once ejected from the Temple, where many were not able to resist
one. And they, too, after this ejection and conspiracy, as we have
said, when he was daily teaching in the Temple, knew how intrepid he
showed himself to be, into whose hands the Father had given all
things. And last of all, when he desired to celebrate the Passover
in the same night in which he had foreordained to be betrayed, he
again sent his Disciples whither he willed, and prepared a home for
himself in the city itself, wherein he might keep the feast. He,
then, who so often showed his power in such things as these, now
also, if he had desired it, could have prepared a home wherever he
would, and had no need to return to Bethany. Therefore, he did these
two things intentionally: he showed that they whom he avoided were
unworthy of his dwelling among them; and he gave himself, in the
last hours of his life, to his beloved hosts, that they might have
their own reception of him as the reward of their hospitality.