OF WHAT JESUS DID AT JERUSALEM DURING THE SECOND PASSOVER IN HIS
MISSION.
Our doctor having closed the first year of his mission in a glorious
manner, he proceeded to Jerusalem, to try his fortune, and gather the
fruits of his labour, or form a party in the capital, after having
acquired adherents in the country. There was reason to expect that the
wonders which he had performed the year preceding in Galilee, would have
a powerful effect on the populace of Jerusalem; but they produced
consequences opposite to those which Jesus had hoped for. It might be
said that the infernal legion which he had sent into the swine of the
Gerasenes, had returned and fixed their abode in the heads of the
inhabitants of the country. The gospel shows in the former an incredible
hardness of heart. In vain Jesus wrought before their eyes a multitude
of prodigies, calculated to confirm the wonders related to them; in vain
did he employ his divine rhetoric to demonstrate the divinity of his
mission. His efforts served only to increase the anger of his enemies,
and induce them to devise means to punish him whom they persisted in
regarding as a juggler, a charlatan, and a dangerous impostor.
It is true, the adversaries of Jesus surprised him sometimes at
fault--They reproached him with violating the ordinances of a law
venerated by them as sacred, and from which he had promised never to
depart. They regarded these violations as a proof of heresy, and it did
not enter their heads that a God could raise himself above ordinary
rules, and possess the right of changing every thing. They were Jews,
and therefore obstinately attached to their ordinances; and they did not
conceive how a true messenger of God could allow himself to trample
under foot, what they were accustomed to regard as sacred and agreeable
to Deity.
So many obstacles did not discourage Jesus. He determined to succeed at
any price; and though he might have foreseen what would be the issue of
his enterprise, he was sensible he must conquer or die; that fortune
favours only the brave; and that it was necessary to play an illustrious
part, or tamely consent to languish in misery in the solitude of some
obscure village in Galilee.
On arriving at Jerusalem, he devoted his attention to sick paupers--the
rich had their own physicians. At this time there was in the city, and
near the sheep port, a fountain, or pool, of which, with the exception
of the gospel, no historian has ever spoken, though, it well deserved to
be transmitted to posterity. It was a vast edifice, surrounded with five
magnificent galleries, in the centre of which was a sheet of water, that
possessed admirable properties; but these were known only to indigent
people and mendicants; and they knew them, doubtless, by a particular
revelation. Under these galleries were soon languishing a great number
of sick persons, who patiently waited for a miracle. God, on giving to
the water of this pool the faculty of curing all diseases, had annexed a
condition to it--The first who could plunge therein after an angel had
troubled it, which happened only at a certain time, could alone obtain
the benefit of a cure. The chief magistrate of Jerusalem, who probably
knew nothing of the existence of this extraordinary fountain, had not
established any regulation respecting it. The most forward and agile,
and such as had friends always in readiness to lead them to the water
when it was troubled, succeeded often in obtaining deliverance from
their diseases.
A paralytic had been there for thirty-eight years, without any one
having had the charity to lend him a helping hand in descending to the
fountain. Jesus, who beheld him lying, asked him if he wanted to be
cured? "Yes," answered the sick man, "but I have nobody to put me into
the water when it is troubled." "That signifies nothing, (replied
Jesus,) Arise, take up thy bed and walk." This wretched man, perhaps not
unlike many of our beggars, who, to soften the public, feigned diseases,
and who on this occasion might be gained over by some trifle to be
accessary to the farce; this miserable, we say, did not leave him to
speak twice--on the order of Jesus he took up his couch and departed.
This cure was performed on the Sabbath. Our paralytic having been met by
a man of the law, the latter reprimanded him for violating the
ordinances of religion by carrying his bed. The transgressor had no
other excuse to give, but, that he who had cured him had commanded him
so to do. He was then questioned about the person who had given this
order, but he knew nothing of him. Jesus had not said who he was; and,
as if the act had been very trifling, the person on whom the miracle was
performed had not informed himself of the author of it. Here the matter
ended; but Jesus having some time after met the paralytic, made himself
known to him, and then the latter informed the Jews of the name of his
physician. The priests were so irritated, that from this instant they
formed the design of putting Jesus to death, because, according to John,
_he had done these things on the Sabbath day_.
It is not probable that this was the true cause of the rage of the Jews.
However scrupulous we suppose them, it is presumed that their physicians
did not think themselves obliged to refuse medicines to the sick on the
Sabbath. Jesus, not content with curing, also authorised those he cured
to violate the Sabbath by carrying their bed, which was a servile work;
or rather these unbelievers regarded the miracles of the saviour as mere
delusions, impostures, tricks of dexterity, and himself as a cheat who
might excite disturbances.
Jesus having learned that the Jews were ill disposed towards him,
attempted to justify himself. He made a speech to prove that he was the
Son of God, and that his Father authorised him not to observe the
Sabbath. But he took care not to explain himself very distinctly on this
_filiation_; and by his ambiguous language, insinuated the eternity of
his father, though he did not call him God. Yet the Jews perceiving his
object, were very much offended at this pretension. He changed,
therefore, his ground, and threw himself on the necessity by which he
acted. "Verily," said he to them, "the Son does nothing of himself, but
what he seeth the Father do. The Father, who loves him, sheweth him all
things that he himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than
these." By these expressions, Jesus seems to overthrow his own eternity
and infinite knowledge; for he announces himself as susceptible of
learning something, or as the pupil of the Divinity.
To impress the minds of these unbelievers, whom his enigmatical language
could not convince, he declared that henceforth the Father would no
longer interfere in judging men, but had devolved that care on his Son.
This, however, had no effect; as the Jews expected a great judge, they
were not yet staggered. Jesus, like our modern teachers, for want of
better arguments proceeded to intimidate his audience, knowing well that
fear prevents the exercise of reason. He gave them to understand, that
the end of the world was near, which ought to make them tremble.
The testimony of John Baptist, had facilitated the first successes of
Jesus; but the difference remarked between his conduct and that of the
forerunner, destroyed the force of this testimony. Our orator pretended
to have no need of it and endeavored to weaken its value. "_He was a
burning and a shining light_" to them; "_you were willing for a season
to rejoice in his light; I have a greater witness than his_." Here he
appealed to his own works, which he maintained to be infallible proofs
of his divine mission. He undoubtedly forgot at this moment, that he
spoke to people who regarded his marvellous deeds as delusions and
impostures. His works were precisely the thing which it was necessary to
prove even to the Jews, who saw them performed! This manner of reasoning
has been since adopted with success by Christian doctors, who, when
doubts or objections are advanced against the mission of Jesus, appeal
to his miraculous works, which were at all times incapable of convincing
the very persons whom they tell us had been witnesses of them.
Among the proofs employed by Jesus to exalt his mission, he advanced
one, the tendency of which is to destroy the mission of Moses, and cause
him to be regarded as an impostor. He told them, _You have never heard
the voice of my Father_; whilst it was on the voice of this Father, of
whom Moses was the interpreter, that the law of the Jews was founded.
After having annihilated the authority of scripture, our orator wished
to prop his mission on the same scriptures, by which he pretended he was
announced. "Fear" says he, "the Father; I will not be the person who
will accuse you before him; it will be Moses, in whom you trust, because
you believe not in him; for if you believed in him, you would also
believe in me. I am come in the name of the Father, and you pay no
attention to it; another will come in his own name, and you will believe
in him."
The hearers of this sermon were not moved by it: they considered it
unconnected, contradictory, and blasphemous; the fear of seeing the end
of the world arrive, did not hinder them from perceiving the want of
just inference in the orator, who took away from his Father, and
restored to him the quality of judge of men, which he had at first
appropriated to himself. Besides, it would appear the Jews were of good
courage as to this end of the world, which events had so often belied.
Their posterity, who beheld the world subsisting after this,
notwithstanding the express prediction of Jesus and his disciples, have
founded their repugnance for his doctrine, among other things, on this
want of accomplishment. From his sublime discourse the incredulous
conclude, that it is very difficult for an imposter to speak long
without contradicting and exposing himself.
The inefficacy of this harangue convinced Jesus that it was in vain to
rely on miracles, in order to draw over the Jews of Jerusalem. He
forbore to perform them, though the festival of the passover might
furnish him with a favourable opportunity. It appears he was completely
disgusted with the incredulity of these wretches, who showed themselves
no way disposed to witness the great things which he had exhibited with
success to the inhabitants of Galilee. To make miracles pass in a
capital, there must be a greater share of credulity than in the country.
Besides, if the populace are well disposed even in large cities, the
magistrates and better informed oppose a bulwark to imposition. The same
thing happened to Jesus in Jerusalem. Perhaps he despaired of the
salvation of these infidels, for during the short time he sojourned in
that city, he kept no measures with them, but loaded them with abusive
language. It does not appear, however, that this plan gained proselytes,
though since that time his disciples and the priests have frequently
endeavored to succeed by similar means, and even by coercion.
In this journey, Jesus had no success--his disciples did not meet with
good cheer; to sustain life they were reduced to the necessity of taking
a little corn in the environs of the city; and were caught in this
occupation on the Sabbath day. Complaint was made to their master; but
no satisfaction could be obtained. He replied to the Pharisees, by
comparing what his disciples had done with the conduct of David, who, on
an emergency, ate, and also made his followers eat, the shew bread, the
use of which was reserved for the priests, adding, that "the Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath;" therefore, he concluded,
"the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath."
Critics have remarked in several circumstances of the life of Jesus,
that he was frequently liable to commit mistakes. For example, on the
occasion we speak of, he gave the name of _Abiathar_ to the high priest
who permitted David to eat the shew bread. The Holy Spirit, however,
informs us, in the first book of Kings, that this high priest was called
_Achimelech_. The error would be nothing if an ordinary man had fallen
into it, but it becomes embarrassing in a man-God, or in God made man,
whom we ought to suppose incapable of blunders.
On the same occasion, Jesus maintained that the priests themselves
violated the Sabbath, by serving God in the temple on that day; and,
this, according to the principles of theology, is confounding _servile_
works with _spiritual_. But this is to have the same idea of a robbery
and of an oblation; it is to tax God with being ignorant of what he did,
by ordaining, at one and the same time, the observance and the violation
of a day which he had consecrated to repose.
Our doctors further justify Jesus by saying, that, as God, he was
absolute master of all things. But in that case he ought to have
procured better fare for his disciples. It would not have cost him more
to have permitted them to encroach on the table of some rich financier
of Jerusalem, or even that of the high priest, who lived at the expense
of God his Father, than to permit his followers to forage in the fields
of the poor inhabitants of the country. At least it was previously
necessary to verify such sovereignty over all things in the eyes of the
Jews, who, from not knowing this truth, were offended at the conduct
which the Son of God seemed to authorise. It is apparently on this
principle several Christian doctors have pretended, that _all things
appertain to the just_; that it is permitted them to seize on the
property of infidels and the unholy; that the clergy have a right to
levy contributions on the people; and that the pope may dispose of
crowns at his pleasure. It is on the same principle that actions are
defended, which unbelievers regard as usurpations and violence,
exercised by the Christians on the inhabitants of the new world. Hence
it is of the utmost importance to Christians not to depart from the
example which Jesus has given them in this passage of the gospel; it
appears especially to concern the rights of the clergy.
Pretensions, so well founded, did not, however, strike the carnal minds
of the Jews; they persisted in believing that it was not permitted to
rob, particularly on the Sabbath; and not knowing the extent of the
rights of Jesus, they considered him an impostor, and his disciples
knaves. They believed him to be a dangerous man, who, under pretence of
reformation, sought to subvert their laws, trample on their ordinances,
and overturn their religion. They agreed, therefore, to collect the
proofs they had against him, accuse, and cause him to be arrested. But
our hero, who had information of their designs, frustrated them by
leaving Jerusalem.