SOME WORDS AND WORKS OF JESUS
Jesus having to go to Galilee, made up His mind to pass through
Samaria. It was a long, rough journey, and at last they came near a
town called Sychar. Near by was the well dug by Jacob when he lived in
Shechem. Jesus was so tired that He sat down to rest on the edge of
the well, while His disciples went on to buy food.
[Illustration: Jacob's well.]
While Jesus was sitting by the well, a woman came there to draw water.
Jesus asked her to do something kind for Him, He said 'Give Me to
drink.' The woman was surprised, and said to Him, 'You are a Jew, and
I am a Samaritan. Why then do you ask me for water?'
Jesus said, 'IF YOU KNEW WHO I AM, YOU WOULD HAVE ASKED ME, AND I WOULD
HAVE GIVEN YOU LIVING WATER.' Jesus meant the Holy Spirit. He gives
the Holy Spirit to everyone who asks Him.
Then Jesus spoke to the woman about the bad things she had done, and
she tried to make Him talk about something else. But she could not
stop His wonderful words. At last she said, 'I know that the Messiah
is coming. He will tell us all things.' Then Jesus said to her, 'I
THAT SPEAK UNTO THEE AM HE.'
Just then His disciples came up to the well, and they were very much
astonished to see Him talking to the woman. The Jew men were too proud
to talk much to women, even if the women were Jews; and this was a
Samaritan. But the disciples did not ask Jesus any questions about why
He talked to the woman. They brought Him the things they had been
buying, and said, 'Master, eat.' But Jesus was so happy that He had
been able to speak good words to that poor woman that He did not feel
hungry any more. He told His disciples that doing God's work was the
food He liked best.
After this Jesus lived for awhile first at Nazareth, and then at
Capernaum. There was a boy ill in Capernaum just then with a fever.
It is so hot near the Sea of Galilee that the people who live there
often get fever. That sick boy's father was rich, but money could not
make the dying boy well. His father had heard of Jesus, and when he
knew that Jesus had come into Galilee, and that He was only a few miles
away, he came to Him, and begged Him to come down to Capernaum and make
his child well. At first Jesus said to him, 'You will not believe on
Me unless you see Me do some wonderful thing.' But when He saw how
eager the poor father was, He thought He would try him, and He said to
him, 'Go thy way, thy son liveth.' Directly Jesus said that, the man
felt sure in his heart that his boy was well. He did not ask Jesus any
more to come with him, but he just went back home quietly by himself.
Next day, as he was going down the long hilly road from Cana to
Capernaum, some of the servants from his house came to meet him, and
they said to him, 'Thy son liveth.' Then the father asked them what
time it was when the boy began to get better, and said, 'Yesterday, at
the seventh hour (that means at one o'clock) the fever left him.' Then
the father knew that that was the very time when Jesus had said to him,
'Thy son liveth,' and he and all the people in the house believed in
Jesus.
The Jews could not bear paying taxes to the Romans, and they hated the
publicans. They would not eat with them or talk with them. But Jesus
did not hate the publicans. He only hated the wrong things they did.
So one day, when He was outside the town of Capernaum, and saw Matthew
sitting and taking the taxes, He said to him, 'Follow Me.' And Matthew
got up from his work, and at once left all and followed Jesus.
Jesus often told His disciples beautiful stories. One day He told them
a story to teach them not to be proud like the Pharisees. 'Two men
went up into the Temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a
publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I
thank Thee that I am not as other men are; I thank Thee that I am not
even as this publican. Twice a week I go without food, and I give away
a great deal of money. But the publican, standing afar off, would not
lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast,
saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. When the publican went home
that night he was better and happier than the Pharisee. The Pharisee
_thought_ he was good; he did not want to be forgiven, and so God let
him carry all his sins back home with him again. But the publican
_knew_ he was a sinner, and was sorry, and so God forgave his sins.'
While Jesus was in Capernaum, He went every Sabbath day to teach in the
synagogue. One day a man shouted out--
'What have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? I know Thee who
Thou art, the Holy One of God.'
Satan had put an unclean spirit, or devil, in that man. Jesus was not
angry with the poor man, but He spoke to the unclean spirit, and said,
'Be silent, and come out of him.' He came out, and the man became
well. The people in the synagogue were greatly surprised. They said,
'What thing is this? He commandeth even the unclean spirits and they
obey Him.'
When the service was over, the people who had seen the miracle went
home, and talked to everybody about what they had seen. Some of them
had sick friends, and some had friends with unclean spirits, and they
longed to bring them to Jesus. But it was the Sabbath, and they would
not bring them until the evening, at which time their Sabbath came to
an end. So as soon as the sun set that Sabbath day, a great crowd was
seen standing round Peter's house. It seemed as if all the people of
Capernaum must be there! They had brought their sick friends, and laid
them down at the door. And Jesus put His hands on the sick people, and
healed them all.
In the east there is a dreadful illness called leprosy, and the people
who have it are called lepers. No doctor can cure it. At the time
when Jesus lived on the earth, lepers were not allowed to come into
cities. And they had to go about with nothing on their heads, and with
their dresses torn, and with their mouths covered over; and when they
saw anybody coming, they had to call out, 'Unclean! unclean!'
One day when Jesus went into a town a leper saw Him. The poor man came
to Jesus and knelt down before Him, and fell on his face. And he said,
'If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.' And Jesus put out His hand,
and touched him, and said to him, 'I will; be thou clean.' And as soon
as Jesus had said that, the leper was well.
Sin is just like leprosy. A baby's naughtiness does not look very bad;
but that naughtiness spreads and gets stronger as baby gets older, and
nobody but Jesus can take it away.
Jesus Christ's body must often have felt very tired, for crowds
followed Him about all the time. They came from Perea, and from
Judaea, and from other places too, to see the wonderful new Teacher.
And Jesus preached to them all, and healed their sicknesses. The most
wonderful sermon that was ever preached in all the world is called the
Sermon on the Mount, because Jesus sat down on a hill to preach it.
After a time Jesus went up again to Jerusalem. In or near Jerusalem
there was a spring of water which was as good as medicine, because it
made sick people well if they bathed in it often enough. This spring
ran into a bathing-place called the Pool of Bethesda. Numbers of sick
persons came to bathe in that pool. One Sabbath day Jesus saw quite a
crowd there. Some were blind, some were lame, some were sick of the
palsy. They were sitting, or lying, by the side of the pool. Jesus
was very sorry for one poor man there. He had been ill thirty-eight
years. So Jesus said to the man, 'Arise, take up thy bed, and walk.'
And at once the sick man was well, and took up his mattress and walked.
Now the Rabbis had a number of very silly rules about the Sabbath day.
Even if a man broke his arm or his leg on the Sabbath the Rabbis would
not allow the doctor to put the bone right till the next day. So they
were very angry when they found that Jesus had made that poor man well
on the Sabbath day, and had told him to carry his mattress home. They
told the man he was doing very wrong, and they tried to kill Jesus.
But Jesus told them that His Heavenly Father was never idle, and that
He must do the same works as God. That made the Rabbis more angry than
ever. They said, 'He calls God His own Father, making Himself equal
with God.' From that time the Jews in Jerusalem made up their minds
more than ever to kill Jesus; and wherever He went they sent men to
watch Him and listen to His words, so that they might make up some
excuse for putting Him to death.
What kind of work does God do on Sunday, dear children? Why, He does
all sorts of kind and beautiful things. He makes the sun rise, and the
flowers grow, and the birds sing; and He takes care of little children
on Sunday exactly the same as he does on other days. And Jesus did the
same kind of work, He made people happy and well on the Sabbath. And
we may do _works of love_--kind, loving things for other people--on
Sunday.
Another Sabbath day, soon after that, the Lord Jesus and His disciples
were walking through a cornfield. The disciples were hungry, so they
rubbed some corn in their hands as they went along, and ate it. Some
of the Pharisees saw the disciples, and they were shocked; and they
spoke to Jesus about it. But Jesus told the Pharisees that the
disciples were doing nothing wrong. He said, 'THE SABBATH WAS MADE FOR
MAN, AND NOT MAN FOR THE SABBATH; THEREFORE THE SON OF MAN IS LORD ALSO
OF THE SABBATH DAY.' Jesus meant that God gave the Sabbath day to Adam
and his children as a beautiful present, to be the best and happiest
day of all the seven. God meant it as a rest for our souls and bodies.