Gradually they were reaching the end of their journey. They met with
no persecution during this last stretch. Indeed, they rather saw how
some of the seeds, although mingled with weeds, had taken root. They
reached the last hills after a night in which they had encamped under
sycamore and fig trees. Jesus was walking in front. Although He was
exhausted with the long wandering, and His feet almost refused their
office, He still walked on ahead. The disciples came behind, and when
they reached the top of the hill they gave a great cry. There opposite
them on the tableland of the other hill lay the metropolis! In the
morning sun it looked as if built of burnished gold, Solomon's Temple
with its innumerable pinnacles overtopping everything.
Several of the disciples had never before been to Jerusalem, and a
feeling of inspired reverence came over them at the sight of the Holy
City of the kings and prophets. Here--so thought Judas and many
another--here will the glory begin for us. They sat down under the
olive-trees to rest and to put their clothes in order, while some even
anointed their hair. Then they ate figs and the fruit of the currant
bushes. But they were anxious about the Master. The exertions of the
last few weeks had told on Him, and His feet were very sore. But He
said nothing. The disciples agreed that they could not let this go on
any longer. James went down the slope to where he saw some cottages,
and asked if anyone had a riding horse or at least a camel on which a
traveller could ride into the town. They would like to borrow it.
A little bent old man sidled up to the stranger and assured him with
much eloquence that neither horse nor camel was to be had, but that
there was an ass. Yet that ass was not to be had either.
Could the Messiah make His entry on an ass? No, we could not begin
like that. Such was the disciple's first thought. Then it occurred to
him that ancient prophets had foretold: He would make His entry on an
ass. Whereupon James declared himself willing to take the ass.
"You may want him and I mayn't give him," said the old man with a
cunning laugh. "If anything happened to this animal I should never get
over it. It is no ordinary ass, my friend!"
"It is no ordinary rider who needs him," said James.
The little old man took the disciple to the stable. The animal stood
by the manger, and was certainly of a good breed. It was not gray, but
rather bright brown and smooth, with slender legs, pretty,
sharp-pointed ears, and long whiskers round its big intelligent eyes.
"Isn't it the colour of a thoroughbred Arab?" said the old man.
"It's a beautiful creature," assented James. "Will you lend it for a
silver piece and much honour? It can easily be back by noon."
To which the little old man replied: "It stands to reason that we can
make something out of it during this time of visitors. Let us make it
two silver pieces."
"One silver piece and honour!"
"Let us make it two silver pieces without honour," haggled the little
old man. "A steed for princes, I tell you. In the whole of Judaea you
won't find such another beauty! It is of noble descent, you must know."
"We can dispense with that honour," said James, "if only it does not
stumble."
Then the old man related how in the year of Herod's massacre of the
innocents--"a little over thirty years ago, I think--you must know that
the Infant Messiah lay in a stable at Bethlehem with the ox and the
ass. The child rode away into foreign lands, as far as Egypt, they
say, on that very ass. And this ass is descended from that one."
"If that's so," said James brightly, "it's a marvellous coincidence!"
And he whispered softly in the old man's ear: "The man who will enter
Jerusalem to-day on that ass is the Messiah who was born in the stable."
"Is it Jesus of Nazareth?" asked the old man. "I will hire the animal
to Him for half a silver piece. In return I shall implore Him to heal
my wife, who has been rheumatic for years."
So they made their compact, and James led the ass up the mountain where
they were all sitting together, unable to gaze long enough at
Jerusalem. Only Jesus was wrapt in thought and looked gloomily at the
shining town.
"Oh, Jerusalem!" He said softly to Himself. "If only thou wouldst heed
this hour. If thou wouldst recognise wherein lies thy salvation. But
thou dost not recognise it, and I foresee the day when cruel enemies
will pull down thy walls so that not one stone remains upon another."
John placed his cloak on the animal, and Jesus mounted it. He rode
down to the valley followed by His disciples.
And then an extraordinary thing happened. When they reached the valley
of Kedron where the roads cross, people hurried up shouting: "The King
is coming! The Son of David is coming!" Soon others ran out of the
farms and the gardens, and kept alongside them at the edge of the road,
shouting: "It is the Messiah! God be praised. He has come!"
No one knew who had spread the news of His arrival, or who first
shouted the word Messiah. Perhaps it was Judas. It caught on like
wildfire, awaking cries of acclamation everywhere. When Jesus rode up
to the town, the crowd was so great that the ass could only pace slowly
along, and after He had passed the town gate the streets and squares
could scarcely contain the people. The whole of Jerusalem had suddenly
become aware that the Prophet of Nazareth had come! Strangers from the
provinces, who had already seen and heard Him in other places, pressed
forward. Now that He entered the metropolis with head erect and the
cry of the Messiah filling the air, people who had scorned the poor
fugitive were proud of Him and boasted of meetings with Him, of His
acquaintance. Hands were stretched out to Him. Many cast their
garments on the ground for the ass to step on. They greeted Him with
olive and palm branches, and from hundreds of throats sounded: "All
hail to Thee! All hail to Thee! Welcome, Thou long-expected, eagerly
desired Saviour!" The police, with their long staves, made a way
through the streets that led to the golden house, to the king's palace.
From all doors and windows they shouted: "Come into my house! Take
shelter under my roof, Thou Saviour of the people!" The crowd poured
forward to the palace. The disciples, who walked close behind Him and
could scarcely control their agitation, were surrounded, overwhelmed,
fanned with palm-leaves, pelted with rose-buds. Simon Peter had been
recognised as soon as the Master, and could not prevent the people
carrying him on their shoulders; but he bent down and implored them to
set him on the ground, for he did not wish to be lifted higher than the
Master, and he feared if they held him up like that over the heads of
the others many would take him for the Messiah. John had managed
better; bending down and breathing heavily, he led the animal, so that
the people only took him for a donkey-driver. All the rest of the
disciples enjoyed the Master's honours as their own. Had they not
faithfully shared misery with Him!
"Jerusalem, thou art still Jerusalem!" they said, intoxicated and
filled with the storm of exultation around Him. "However well it went
with us, it has never gone so well as here in Jerusalem."
Judas could not congratulate himself enough that, despite the poor
procession, the Master was recognised. "I always said He would work
His miracle when the time came."
"Well, I am full of fears," said Thomas. "They shout far too loudly.
The sounds come from the throat, not from the heart."
"Oh, take yourself off. You're always full of foreboding."
"I understand people a little. Idle townsfolk are easily pleased; they
like to enjoy themselves, and any cause serves their turn."
"Thomas," said Matthew reprovingly, "It is not your humility that makes
you heedless of the honour. It is doubt. See that fat shopkeeper
there who brings more faith out of his throat. Listen! 'Hail to Thee,
Son of David!' he shouts, and is already hoarse through his loud
shrieks of joy."
Thomas did not answer. Stooping down in irritation, he hastened
through the crowd. Cries of welcome filled the whole town, and the
streets along which the procession took its way were like animated palm
groves. All traffic was at a standstill, windows and roofs were filled
with people, all stretching their necks to see the Messiah.
Jesus sat on the animal, both feet on the one side, holding the reins
with His right hand. He looked calmly and earnestly in front of Him,
just as if He was riding through the dust clouds of the wilderness.
When the pinnacles of the royal castle towering above the roofs of the
houses were in front of Him, He turned the animal into a side street,
to the Temple square. Two guards at the entrance to the Temple signed
violently with their arms to the crowd to go away, but the people
remained standing there. The procession stopped, and Jesus got off the
ass.
"He is not going to the palace, but to the Temple?" many asked in
surprise. "To the Temple?"
"To the Rabbis and Pharisees? Then we'll see what we shall see."