Hurlbut's Life of Christ For Young and Old
by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut · English · Gutenberg #40460 · 608,013 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Hurlbut's Life of Christ For Young and Old
Author: Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
Illustrator: William Hole
Release date: August 9, 2012 [eBook #40460]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HURLBUT'S LIFE OF CHRIST FOR YOUNG AND OLD ***
Hurlbut's Life of Christ
For Young and Old
[Illustration: Coming to Jerusalem these strangers asked of every one
whom they met: "Can you tell us where to find the little child who is
born to be the King of the Jews?"]
HURLBUT'S LIFE OF CHRIST FOR YOUNG AND OLD
A COMPLETE LIFE OF CHRIST WRITTEN IN SIMPLE LANGUAGE, BASED ON THE
GOSPEL NARRATIVE
BY REV. JESSE LYMAN HURLBUT, D.D.
_Author of "Hurlbut's Story of the Bible"
Former Editor International Sunday-School Lessons_
ILLUSTRATED
With Colored Plates and Full Page Halftone Reproductions
from the Paintings of WILLIAM HOLE,
R.S.A., R.E., and other artists. Also including
Maps and Photographs of the Holy Land.
PHILADELPHIA
THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, MCMXV, by
L. T. MYERS
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
HUNDREDTH THOUSAND EDITION
Preface
IN the preparation of this volume the aim in view has been to tell the
story of Jesus Christ in a manner that will be attractive to both young
and old, to children and their teachers. While the purpose of the writer
has been to adapt the narrative to the understanding of a child of ten
years, so that he will not need to ask the meaning of a sentence or a
word: yet it has also been his desire to make it not childish, but
simple, so that older readers may find it interesting and profitable.
In order that this book may not lead its younger readers or listeners
away from the Bible, but directly toward it, no imaginary scenes or
conversations have been introduced. The design has been to write the
biography of Jesus, not a romance founded upon his life.
The order of events has been carefully considered; and follows that of
the best authorities, accepting as historical _all_ the four gospels and
_all_ their contents; raising no questions concerning miracles or the
relative values of different portions of the record. The first purpose
of every student or reader of the Bible, whether young or old, should be
to become thoroughly familiar with its contents. Without a full
knowledge of the Scriptures as they are, he is absolutely unfit to cope
with the questions of authorship or the credibility of the sacred
writings.
No attempt has been made to formulate from the record of Christ's life a
doctrinal system. Theology is the loftiest study for the human
intellect; but it belongs to the mature mind, not to the realm of
childhood. Nor has it been the writer's aim to find in this story moral
lessons for the young. The works and words of Jesus will make their own
application to their reader, whether they be children or adults.
The typography, the illustrations, and the mechanical execution of such
a work as this are of almost equal importance with its literary
material. All that diligent effort, artistic taste, and abundant
resources can do to make this book attractive and helpful to its
readers, has been done by the Publishers.
That this volume may awaken a new interest in that Life of lives, which
has brought the light of life to untold millions since it was lived upon
the earth: that the children of this generation, who are to become the
pillars of the coming years, may learn to love and follow Him who is the
Elder Brother and Saviour of us all, is the prayer of the author of
these pages.
Jesse Lyman Hurlbut
August 28, 1915.
Contents
PAGE
PREFACE 3
WHY EVERYBODY SHOULD KNOW THE STORY OF JESUS 9
CHAPTER
1. THE LORD'S LAND 17
2. THE PEOPLE IN THE LORD'S LAND 24
3. THE STRANGER BY THE GOLDEN ALTAR 31
4. THE ANGEL VISITS NAZARETH 37
5. A YOUNG GIRL'S JOURNEY 45
6. THE BOY WHO NEVER TASTED WINE 50
7. THE CHILD-KING IN HIS CRADLE 55
8. THE BABY BROUGHT TO THE TEMPLE 63
9. THE FOLLOWERS OF THE STAR 66
10. SAFE IN EGYPT 73
11. A CHILD'S LIFE IN NAZARETH 77
12. THE BOY LOST AND FOUND 85
13. THE YOUNG WOODWORKER 93
14. THE VOICE BY THE RIVER 97
15. THE CARPENTER LEAVES HIS SHOP 103
16. ALONE IN THE DESERT 107
17. THE EARLIEST FOLLOWERS OF JESUS 115
18. THE WATER TURNED TO WINE 121
19. THE LORD IN HIS TEMPLE 127
20. AT THE OLD WELL 132
21. THE NOBLEMAN'S BOY 139
22. THE CARPENTER IN HIS HOME-TOWN 143
23. FOUR FISHERMEN CALLED 149
24. JESUS IN THE CHURCH, IN THE HOUSE, AND IN
THE STREET 153
25. THE LEPER AND THE PALSIED MAN 157
26. HOW THE TAX-COLLECTOR BECAME A DISCIPLE 163
27. THE CRIPPLE AT THE BATH 167
28. THE LORD OF THE SABBATH 171
29. JESUS ON THE MOUNTAIN 175
30. THE GOOD ARMY CAPTAIN 181
31. HOW JESUS STOPPED A FUNERAL 183
32. THE SINFUL WOMAN FORGIVEN 189
33. JESUS AND HIS ENEMIES 192
34. THE STORY-TELLER BY THE SEA 195
35. MORE STORIES TOLD BY THE SEA 199
36. SAILING ACROSS THE SEA 205
37. THE SICK WOMAN MADE WELL, AND THE DEAD
GIRL BROUGHT TO LIFE 211
38. SIGHT TO THE BLIND AND VOICE TO THE DUMB 216
39. TWELVE PREACHERS SENT OUT 218
40. A DANCE; AND HOW IT WAS PAID FOR 223
41. THE BOY WITH HIS FIVE LOAVES 227
42. HOW THE SEA BECAME A FLOOR 233
43. THE BREAD OF LIFE 235
44. JESUS IN A STRANGE COUNTRY 239
45. IN THE LAND OF THE TEN CITIES 242
46. AGAIN ON THE SEA OF GALILEE 246
47. THE GREAT CONFESSION 249
48. THE VISION ON THE MOUNTAIN 255
49. THE BOY WITH THE DUMB SPIRIT 259
50. THE LAST VISIT TO CAPERNAUM 262
51. GOOD-BYE TO GALILEE 267
52. PASSING THROUGH SAMARIA 271
53. THE SCRIBE'S QUESTION; AND MARY'S CHOICE 275
54. JESUS AT THE FEAST OF TENTS 281
55. JESUS AND THE SINFUL WOMAN 285
56. THE BLIND MAN AT THE POOL OF SILOAM 290
57. THE GOOD SHEPHERD 296
58. SENDING OUT THE SEVENTY 300
59. LAZARUS CALLED OUT OF HIS TOMB 303
60. JESUS PREACHING IN PEREA 311
61. IN THE CHURCH AND AT THE FEAST 317
62. ON COUNTING THE COST 321
63. SEEKING THE LOST 324
64. THE PARABLE OF THE LOST SON FOUND 328
65. THE PARABLE OF THE DISHONEST STEWARD 333
66. A PARABLE FOR THE LOVERS OF MONEY 336
67. TWO PARABLES UPON PRAYER 339
68. THE LITTLE CHILDREN; AND THE RICH YOUNG
MAN 341
69. THE WORKERS IN THE VINEYARD 346
70. THE BLIND MAN AT THE GATE 351
71. IN THE RICH MAN'S HOME AT JERICHO 353
72. THE ALABASTER JAR 357
73. PALM SUNDAY 362
74. MONDAY ON THE MOUNT AND IN THE TEMPLE 367
75. TUESDAY MORNING IN THE TEMPLE 371
76. THREE PARABLES OF WARNING 375
77. THE HEAD ON THE COIN 379
78. THE WOMAN WITH SEVEN HUSBANDS 382
79. THE GREATEST OF ALL THE COMMANDMENTS 385
80. THE GREATEST GIFT; AND THE STRANGERS
FROM AFAR 388
81. JESUS TELLING OF DARK DAYS TO COME 391
82. THE PARABLE OF THE TEN BRIDESMAIDS 395
83. THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS 398
84. THE LAST GREAT DAY 402
85. WASHING THE DISCIPLES' FEET 405
86. THE LORD'S SUPPER 410
87. THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES 412
88. THE LAST WORDS OF JESUS TO HIS DISCIPLES 416
89. IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE 421
90. JESUS BEFORE ANNAS 427
91. JESUS BEFORE CAIAPHAS 431
92. JESUS BEFORE THE ROMAN GOVERNOR 439
93. JESUS BEFORE HEROD 442
94. JESUS SENTENCED TO DEATH 445
95. JESUS LED TO CALVARY 453
96. JESUS ON THE CROSS 459
97. THE TOMB IN THE GARDEN 465
98. THE RISEN CHRIST AND THE EMPTY TOMB 469
99. JESUS AND MARY MAGDALENE 475
100. A WALK WITH THE RISEN CHRIST 479
101. TWO SUNDAY EVENINGS WITH THE RISEN CHRIST 483
102. THE BREAKFAST BY THE SEA 487
103. JESUS RISING UP FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN 493
Why Everybody Should Know the Life of Christ
THERE HAVE been many famous men in this world, and every one wishes to
know who they were and why they are called great. In almost every city
in America may be seen a statue of George Washington, or Abraham
Lincoln, or Benjamin Franklin, or General Lee, or General Grant.
Whenever you see one of these statues, you ask--if you do not know
already--who this man was and why his statue has been set up. In Canada,
every house has on the wall a portrait of the great and good Queen
Victoria, and when a child sees it he wishes to know something of her
life and her greatness. You see pictures of a man standing on the deck
of a ship, or going ashore under palm trees on an island, and are told
that he is Christopher Columbus--and every child in America knows
something of his story. Men like Napoleon Bonaparte, and Julius Caesar,
and Alexander the Great, are written about, and talked about; and every
child should know who these men were and why they are famous.
Did you ever think that there is one man who has been talked about, and
written about, and sung about, more than any other man in all the world;
and that man is Jesus? For one book telling of Washington, or Napoleon,
or Columbus, there are hundreds of books telling of Jesus. Every year at
least fifteen million copies of the Bible are printed and sent out into
the world, in every language spoken on this earth. Why does everybody
wish to have a Bible in his house? It is because that book tells of
Jesus. If the pages that tell of Jesus should be torn out of the Bible,
few people would care to have it or to read it.
There are more portraits of Jesus Christ, painted and drawn and printed,
than of any other man who has ever lived. Everybody knows the picture of
Jesus as soon as he sees it, whether it be of the baby Jesus in his
mother's arms, or the boy Jesus in the Temple, or the Saviour teaching,
or dying upon the cross. You do not need to be told which one in any
picture is Jesus--his face is so well known that you know it at once. No
other face among all the men who have ever lived from Adam the first man
down to today, is known to as many people as the face of Jesus. Then,
too, look in the hymn books of the churches and the song books of the
Sunday-schools, and see how many of the hymns and songs are in praise of
Jesus Christ. You do not find songs in praise of Julius Caesar, nor of
Christopher Columbus, nor even of George Washington. No one who gives it
thought doubts that the most famous man in all the world is Jesus
Christ; and because he is so famous and so great, every one should know
something of his life.
Then, too, everybody likes to hear stories of wonderful things. Even
though we know that they are not true stories, every one listens to
fairy tales and the stories of the "Arabian Nights." But how often, when
the story is ended, the child looks up to the story-teller's face and
says, "Is it all true?" Now, the story of Jesus is full of wonders. You
read of his turning water into wine when the guests at the feast needed
it, of his touching the eyes of a blind man and giving him sight, of his
speaking to the storm and bringing peace, of his walking upon the waters
in another storm to help his friends in danger, and, most wonderful of
all, of his coming out of his own tomb living, after he had died.
Wonderful indeed are the stories told of Jesus; and the greatest wonder
is that they are all true. You would like to hear those stories, I am
sure; and every child should know them and be able to tell them to
others.
Let me give you another reason why every one should know the story of
Jesus. He came to show us who God is, what God is to us, and how God
feels toward us. Every one, even every child, thinks of God and in his
heart wishes to know about God. How terribly some people have mistaken
God! They have thought of him as an enemy, not as a friend. You can see
in some countries images of a person with forty arms, and on every hand
something to kill a man with--a sword, a spear, an arrow, a club, a cup
of poison, or some other fearful thing--and that is the thought of God
in that land: a mighty being who hates men! In old times, many people
thought that their gods were pleased when men killed their own children
and burned their bodies on an altar as an offering to God. God saw all
over the earth that men had wrong and cruel thoughts of him; and he sent
his Son Jesus Christ to teach men by his words, and to show men in his
life what God is, how God feels toward us, and how we should feel toward
God. If Jesus had done no more for us than to teach us the Lord's
Prayer, beginning with the words "Our Father who art in heaven," he
would have done enough to make us love him. He showed people that God is
their Father, the Father of every one in all the world, and that as a
Father we may call upon him, just as any child can go to his father for
whatever he needs.
There was once an artist who was called upon to paint the portrait of a
good man. But the man had died ten years before; the artist had never
seen him, and there was no picture of him to be used as a copy. At first
the artist did not know what to do. Then a thought occurred to him.
"Is there no one," he said, "who looks like this man, so that I can see
him and know something of the man's face?"
"Why, yes," they answered. "He has left a son, a man grown, who looks
exactly like his father."
The artist studied the face of the son, and from it painted a likeness
of the father, whom he had never seen. No one has ever seen God, but if
we would know, not his face, which we cannot know, but his nature, how
kind, and loving, and helpful, and willing God is, we have only to think
of Christ; and if we know Christ, the Son of God, we know God, his
Father and our Father. For this reason, because in Jesus we may know
God, everybody should know about Jesus.
But Jesus came to this world, not only to show us what God is, but to
show us what we should be and how we should live. Whatever his work may
be, every one needs a copy which he can look at and follow. The child
who is learning to write must have a copy, so that he may know how to
shape his letters. The boy or girl learning to draw has a copy or a
model to guide him in his drawing. When a man is about to build a ship,
he first makes a model and then shapes his great ship exactly like it.
Perhaps you have heard the lines in Longfellow's poem, "The Building of
the Ship."
"In the shipyard stood the Master,
With the model of the vessel
That should laugh at all disaster,
And with wave and whirlwind wrestle."
Well, we are all builders. Each one of us, boy or girl, man or woman, is
building for himself what no one else can build for him: his character,
what he is to be, whether good or bad, whether wise or ignorant, whether
noble or selfish. And in building up ourselves we need a model, one
perfect man, on whom we can look and whose life we can copy. That model
we can find in Jesus. He lived our life, and in living showed us how we
should live. Even a little child may say, "Jesus was once a little
child; and I will try my best to be just such a child as he was." A boy
of twelve may think of Jesus as a boy and resolve to live as Jesus
lived. The young man, working in a shop, or office, or in the field, may
take Jesus the workingman for his pattern. When Jesus was on the earth,
he said many times, and to different people, "Follow me!" He says it to
every one of us. But if we are to follow Jesus and to be like him, the
best man that ever lived, we must study him, must know about his life,
must have every story of him in our mind and in our heart; and that is
another reason why every one should know the story of Jesus.
It is now almost two thousand years since Jesus lived on the earth and
walked among men. Since he came, the world has become a different world,
just as far as they have heard the story of Jesus and have learned to
follow him. People have become less selfish and more thoughtful of
others, more willing to help others, more generous in giving to others.
Think of all the homes for the poor, of all the hospitals for the sick,
of all the places where little children are cared for, of the
playgrounds, of the love shown at Christmas time, of ten thousand ways
in which the world is better. And then remember that all these good
things come from Jesus Christ and his love in the hearts of men. But for
Jesus, this would have been a dark world. The proof of this is that
these good things are to be seen only in the lands where Jesus is known
and loved and followed. Look at the lands where Christ is unknown and
you find them dark and sad. There is still much to be done to make this
a perfect world. We see terrible wars, and the poor still suffering
wrong, and many people still selfish and cruel to their fellow-men. What
can we do to make this a better and a brighter world? We can do as Jesus
did. It was said of him, "He went about doing good"; and that may be
said of us if we will follow Christ. But to make this world good, we
must know him who is its power for goodness; and that is another reason
why every one should know the story of Jesus.
Let me name only one reason more why we should know the story of Jesus:
through him we have what we need most of all--the forgiveness of our
sins. Suppose that someone who watches us all the time should keep a
list of every wrong-doing, of every fiery temper, of every angry word,
of every blow struck, of every time that one of us failed to do what is
right, of every time that one let pass a chance to do some good act to
another--what a long list it would be! There is such a list kept. An eye
that never sleeps sees every act, the eye of God; and he remembers all
our deeds, and the things left undone which we ought to have done. Is
there any way to have that list against us taken away, blotted out and
forgotten? Yes, there is one who can take our sins away and make the
black story of our life as white as snow. That one is Jesus Christ, the
Son of God. He can forgive our sins, as he forgave the sins of men while
he was on the earth; and he longs to have us ask him for forgiveness.
Should we not love him for this? And should we not wish to hear about
him and to know all the tender story of his love?
These, then, are some of the reasons why we should all seek to know the
story of Jesus: because he is the greatest and most famous man that ever
lived; because his story is full of interest and full of wonders, and is
true; because he came to show us how kind and loving God is, and how
willing to have us call upon him; because his life shows us a pattern
of what we may be and tells us how we may be like him; because Jesus has
made and is still making the world better, and brighter, and happier,
wherever he is known; and best of all, because through Jesus our Saviour
our sins may be forgiven and taken away, and we may be pure and holy as
Jesus was upon the earth.
With these thoughts and aims, this Story of Jesus has been written. May
it help many, young and old, to know Jesus better, to love him more, and
to follow him more closely!
[Illustration: PALESTINE IN THE TIME OF CHRIST
Copyright 1911, by W. A. Wilde & Co.]
The Lord's Land
CHAPTER 1
FIRST OF ALL, let us take a journey to the land where Jesus lived. We
will sail in one of the big ocean steamers across the Atlantic, heading
our prow a little to the south, and in eight days will pause at the Rock
of Gibraltar, which stands on guard at the gate of the Mediterranean
Sea. Do you know what "Mediterranean" means? It means, "among the
lands"; and when you look at this sea on the map, you see that it has
lands around it on every side, with only a narrow opening at Gibraltar,
where its blue waters pour into the Atlantic Ocean.
We will enter the Mediterranean Sea, and sail its entire length, past
Spain and France and Italy on the left. We just miss touching the toe of
Italy, for you know Italy runs into the sea like a great leg with a
high-heeled boot upon its foot. And just beyond Italy we sail by Greece,
which looks somewhat like a hand with fingers wide apart.
While we are passing by these lands on the left, we are also sailing
past Morocco and Algiers, and Tunis and Tripoli on the right. We stop at
Alexandria in Egypt, at one of the mouths of the river Nile, and soon
after we leave the big steamer at Port Said, where the great Suez Canal
begins.
There in the afternoon about ten days after our leaving America, we go
on board a smaller ship, and sail northward past the eastern shore of
the Mediterranean Sea. The next morning we awake to find our ship at
anchor in front of a city on a hillside, rising up in terraces from the
water.
That city is now called Jaffa, or Yafa; and it is the place where the
steamers stop to send ashore those who are about to visit the Holy Land,
for that is the name given to the land where Jesus lived. Do you
remember in the Old Testament the story of Jonah, the prophet who tried
to run away from God's call to preach in the city of Nineveh? Well, it
was from this city of Jaffa, then called Joppa, that Jonah started on
his voyage, which ended inside the big fish. Perhaps you remember also
the story of Dorcas, in the New Testament, that good woman who helped
the poor; and after dying was raised to life through the prayer of the
Apostle Peter. Dorcas too lived at Joppa; and they show the house where,
it is said, Peter stayed while he was visiting in that city.
[Illustration: The Mediterranean Sea]
Here at Jaffa or Joppa we end our long sea-voyage of about six thousand
miles. We go ashore in a small boat, tossing up and down on the waves,
for there is no wharf where a steamer can land its passengers. And now
we are standing on the soil of the Holy Land, where Jesus lived. In
Christ's time this land was called Judea. In our day its name is
Palestine.
It is a small country. If you will turn to the map of the United States,
and look at New Hampshire, you will see a state in form quite like
Palestine, and only a little smaller in size; for Palestine, or the Holy
Land, contains about twelve thousand square miles, and New Hampshire a
little more than nine thousand.
[Illustration: There is no real harbor at Jaffa. Steamers must anchor
some distance out, and passengers are landed by rowboats]
From Joppa we must go across Palestine if we would look at the part of
the land among the mountains where Jesus lived. We can now ride in a
railroad train, something that Jesus never saw while he lived on the
earth; or we can go in a carriage, or on a horse, or on the back of a
camel, as you will see some people riding, or in what they call "a
palankeen," which is something like a coach-body set not on wheels, but
between two pair of shafts, one in front, the other behind, and a mule
harnessed in each pair, so that the rider has one mule in front and the
other back of him.
As we ride over the land we notice that at first it is very level. This
part of the country is called "the Sea Coast Plain," and a plain it
surely is, almost as level as a floor. All around, you see gardens and
farms, orange trees and fig trees. If you could pluck one of these
golden oranges and taste it, you would find that it is one of the
sweetest and richest and juiciest that you have ever eaten, for the
Jaffa oranges are famous for their flavor. You ride between great fields
of wheat and rye and barley, for this Sea Coast Plain is a rich farming
land.
[Illustration: House of Simon, the tanner, in Joppa, where Peter stayed
while visiting in that city]
But after a few miles, ten or fifteen, we notice that we have left the
plain and are winding and climbing among hills. In place of the
farm-lands, we see here and there flocks of sheep with shepherds
guarding them just as the boy David watched over his flock three
thousand years ago. Indeed, in our journey we might pass over the very
brook where David found the round, smooth stones, one of which he
hurled with a sling into the giant Goliath's forehead. This is the
region of low hills, the foothills of the higher mountains beyond. It is
called "the Shephelah," a name not easy to remember. In the Old
Testament days, many battles were fought on these hills between the
Israelites and the Philistines, their fierce enemies.
[Illustration: A saddled camel]
These foothills of the Shephelah are not many miles wide; and beyond
them we come to the real Mountain Region of Palestine. Mountains rise on
every hand, bare, stony, with scarcely any soil upon their steep sides,
and with not a tree to be seen for miles. They are rocky crags, with
here and there a village perched on their summits or clinging to their
walls. This mountain land, more than the hills and plains below, was the
home of the Israelites, the people from whom Jesus came. We wonder how
they could ever have found a living in such a desolate land; but
everywhere we see the ruins of old cities, showing that once the land
was filled with people. In those times, two thousand and more years ago,
all these mountain-sides, now bleak and rock-bound, were covered with
terraces, where grew olive trees, fig trees and vineyards; where gardens
blossomed and great crops were raised to feed the people. Even now in
the spring and early summer, the valleys between these mountains are
covered with flowers of every color. Scarcely another land on earth has
as many wild flowers as this land of Palestine. This mountain-belt,
running from the north to the south throughout the land was the part of
Palestine where nearly all the great men of Israel lived and died. Here
among the mountains in the south is Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. In
a mountain village in the north, Nazareth, was the home of Jesus during
nearly all his life; and over these mountains everywhere in the land,
Jesus walked in the three years of his preaching and teaching.
We pass over these mountains from east to west, and then from the
heights we look down to a valley which runs north and south, the deepest
in all the world, where we can see a little river with many windings,
and rapids and falls, rolling onward to drop at last into a blue lake in
the south. This river, as you know, is the Jordan, crossed by the
Israelites when they first came to this land; the river where Naaman
washed away his leprosy, where Elijah struck the waves with his mantle
and parted them, and in whose water Jesus was baptized.
We journey across this Jordan valley, from ten to twenty miles wide, and
then we climb again high and steep mountains. This region is called the
Eastern Table Land, because the mountains gradually sink down to a great
desert plain on the east. Here we see the ruins of once great cities,
where now only a few wandering Arabs pitch their tents.
We have now crossed the land of Palestine, and we have found that it
contains five parts lying in a line: first, the Sea Coast Plain; second,
the Shephelah, or foothills; third, the Mountain Region; fourth, the
Jordan valley; and fifth, the Eastern Table Land.
But we must keep in mind that the land when Jesus lived there was very
different from the land as we see it. Now it is a poor land; then it was
rich. Now its villages are made of miserable mud-houses, where live
people who look half starved; then it was a land of well-built towns and
happy people. Now we find roads that are mere tracks over the stones;
then there were good roads everywhere. Now the hills rise bare and
rocky; then they were covered with gardens. Now scarcely a tree can be
seen in miles of travel; then the olive and the vine and the palm grew
everywhere. We see the land in its ruin; Jesus saw it in its riches.
[Illustration: The valley of Gehenna, to the east of Jerusalem]
The People in the Lord's Land
CHAPTER 2
NEARLY ALL the people living in Palestine in the time of Jesus were of
the Jewish race. Two thousand years before Jesus came, a great man was
living in that land, named Abraham. To this man, God gave a promise that
his children and their children after them for many ages should live in
that land and own it. Abraham's son was named Isaac, and Isaac's son was
named Jacob. All the people of Palestine had sprung from the family of
Jacob, and by the time Jesus came, these descendants of Jacob, as they
were called, were in number many millions, and were to be found in other
lands besides Palestine; although more of them lived in Palestine than
in any other land.
Jacob, Abraham's grandson, was also named Israel; and on that account
all the people sprung from him were called the Israelites. Jacob or
Israel had twelve sons, from whom came the twelve tribes of Israel. But
one son, named Judah, had more descendants or people springing from him
than any other; and as most of the people in Palestine were of Judah's
family, all of them were spoken of as Jews, a word which means sprung or
descended from Judah. So the people to whom Jesus belonged were
sometimes called Israelites, but more often Jews. They had another name,
"Hebrews," but that was not used as often as the two names, Israelites
and Jews.
For many years, long before Jesus came, the Jews were rulers in the land
of Palestine, with kings of their own race, as David and Solomon in the
early times, and King Jeroboam and King Hezekiah later. But in the time
of Jesus, the Jews were no longer rulers in their own land. Palestine
was then a small part of the vast Roman Empire, which ruled all the
lands around the Mediterranean Sea. Its chief was an emperor, who lived
at Rome in Italy. At the time when Jesus was born the emperor was
Augustus. He was then an old man, and died very soon after the birth of
Jesus. The emperor who followed him was named Tiberius, and he ruled
most of the years that Jesus was living in Palestine.
[Illustration: Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, where Herod lived]
But there was another king ruling the land of Palestine under the Roman
emperor, at the time when Jesus came. His name was Herod, and because he
was a very wise and strong man, although a very wicked man, he was
called Herod the Great. He ruled the land of Palestine, but in his turn
obeyed the orders of the emperor Augustus at Rome. Herod also was a
very old man at the time of Jesus' birth, and died soon afterward.
When Herod the Great died, his kingdom was divided into four parts. Each
of these parts had a king of its own, and three of these kings were
Herod's sons. Herod Antipas ruled over Galilee in the northwest, and
Perea in the southeast; Herod Philip was over the country in the
northeast; and Herod Archelaus ruled the largest portion, in the south.
None of these little kings were good men. They had their father's
wickedness, but did not have his ability to rule. One of them,
Archelaus, was so bad that all the people asked the emperor at Rome to
take his rule away. This the emperor did, and sent a man from Rome to
govern the land in his place. You have heard of the Roman governor who
was over this part of the land while Jesus was teaching. His name was
Pontius Pilate; and he it was, you remember, who sent Jesus to die upon
the cross.
The land of Palestine at that time was divided into five parts, which
were called "provinces." The largest of these provinces was Judea, the
one on the south, between the Dead Sea and the river Jordan on the east,
and the Mediterranean Sea on the west. North of Judea was a small
province called Samaria, where lived a people who were not Jews but
Samaritans. The Jews hated the Samaritans, and the Samaritans, in turn,
hated the Jews. Samaria was governed as a part of Judea, not with a
separate ruler. These were the two provinces at first under Archelaus
and then under the Roman governor.
In the north of Palestine, west of the river Jordan and the Sea of
Galilee, was the province of Galilee, a country full of mountains, where
Jesus dwelt for nearly all his life. The ruler of this province was
Herod Antipas. He lived most of the time at a city which he had built
beside the Sea of Galilee, and had named Tiberias, after the Roman
emperor Tiberius.
[Illustration: Samuel anointing Saul to be the first king of Israel]
Across the Jordan, on the east, opposite to Galilee was another
province. In the Old Testament times, this land had been called Bashan,
which means "woodland," because it was a land of many forests. In the
New Testament time it was generally spoken of as "Philip's province,"
because its ruler was Herod Philip, the best of Herod's sons, and none
too good, either.
South of Philip's province, and east of the river Jordan, was a province
named Perea, a word meaning "beyond," because this region was beyond or
across the river Jordan. At the time of Jesus' life, Perea was like
Galilee, ruled by Herod Antipas. Once at least Jesus visited this
province; and here he told the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which
everybody has heard.
Although the mighty Roman empire gave to the Jews in Palestine a
government that was just and fair, it was not a Jewish rule; and the
Jews were not contented under the power of foreigners. They felt that
they more than other nations were the people of God, and that they had a
right to rule themselves, under kings of their own race. Also they read
in their Bible the promises of the prophets that from Israel should come
forth a king, out of David's line, who should rule the world.
[Illustration: A heathen idol]
This great King, whom the Jews hoped for and looked for, they called
"Messiah," a word in the Jews' language meaning the same as the word
"Christ," which is a Greek word, meaning "the Anointed One," that is,
"the King." You remember that in the Old Testament story the prophet
Samuel anointed Saul to be the first king of Israel, that is, he poured
oil on his head; and that afterward he chose the boy David to be the
next king by the same sign. When we say "Jesus Christ," Jesus is his
name and "Christ" is his title; and we mean "Jesus the King."
We know that this promised King whom the Jews called Messiah was Jesus
Christ who rules over the hearts of men everywhere; but the Jews thought
that it meant a king like Herod or the emperor Tiberius, only better and
wiser, who should live in a palace at Jerusalem, their chief city, and
make all lands obey his will. This hope made the Jews very restless and
unhappy under the Roman power. They were always looking for the coming
of this mighty King of the Jews, who should lead them to conquer the
earth.
[Illustration: Interior of Jewish synagogue in Palestine]
In their worship the Jews were different from all the rest of the world.
Every other people had gods of wood and stone, images before which they
bowed and to which they gave offerings. In all the cities of that world
were temples and altars to these idols, made by the hands of men. But in
the land of the Jews were no images, no idol-temples, and no offerings
to man-made gods. The Jews, whether in Palestine or in other lands,
worshipped the One God who was unseen, the God to whom we also pray. In
their chief city, Jerusalem, was a splendid temple where God was
worshipped; and in every Jewish city and town were churches, where the
people met to read the Bible, to sing the psalms of David, to offer
prayer to God, and to talk together about God's laws. These churches
were called "synagogues," and wherever Jews lived, synagogues were to be
found. The Jews looked with great contempt upon the idol-worship of
other nations, and were proud of the fact that ever since the days of
their father Abraham, they had worshipped only the Lord God.
[Illustration: Ruins of ancient synagogue at Kefr Birim, in Galilee]
The Stranger by the Golden Altar
CHAPTER 3
IN THE land of Palestine one city was loved by the Jews above all other
places. That was Jerusalem, the largest city in the land in the province
of Judea. It was to the Jews everywhere, not only in Palestine but over
all the earth, wherever Jews lived, "the holy city." From all parts of
the land the people came at least once in every year, and many families,
three times each year, to worship God in Jerusalem. At these great
feasts, as they were called, all the roads leading to Jerusalem were
thronged with travelers going up to Jerusalem for worship. And the Jews
in other lands, many hundreds of miles away, even as far as Rome itself,
tried at least once in their lives to visit the city. They sang about
Jerusalem songs such as:
"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget her cunning;
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth
If I remember thee not,
If I prefer not Jerusalem
Above my chief joy."
That which made Jerusalem a holy city was its Temple, a magnificent
building on Mount Moriah, just across a valley from Mount Zion, where
the larger part of the city stood. The Temple they called "The House of
God," for in it the Jews believed their God made his home. In front of
this Temple stood an altar, which was like a great box made of stone,
hollow inside, and covered with a metal grating. Upon this altar a fire
was kept burning night and day, and on the fire the priests who led in
the worship of God, laid offerings of sheep and oxen, which were burned
as gifts to God; while around the altar the people stood and prayed to
God as the offering, which they called "a sacrifice," was burning.
[Illustration: Looking up the Kedron Valley toward Mt. Moriah]
Inside the Temple building were two rooms. The room in front was called
"the holy place," and in it stood on one side a table covered with gold,
on which lay twelve loaves of bread as an offering to God; one loaf for
each of the twelve tribes of Israel. On the other side of the room stood
a golden lamp-stand, with seven branches, called "the golden
candlestick." At the farther end of the room stood another altar, made
of gold, smaller than the great altar in front of the Temple. On this
golden altar the priest offered twice each day a bowl of incense, which
was made by mixing some sweet-smelling gums, frankincense and myrrh, and
burning them, so that they formed a fragrant white cloud, filling the
Holy Place.
Beyond the Holy Place was another room called "The Holy of Holies." Into
this room no one entered except the high priest, and he on only one day
in the year; for this inner room was set apart for the dwelling-place of
God; and the Jews believed that in this room the light of God was
shining so brightly that no one could endure it. In the first Temple
built by King Solomon, the Ark of the Covenant stood in the Holy of
Holies. This was a chest covered with gold, within which lay the two
stone tables on which the Ten Commandments were written. But the Ark of
the Covenant had been lost, and in the time of which we are speaking,
nothing was in the Holy of Holies except a block of marble.
[Illustration: The Mosque of Omar, now on the place where the Temple
once stood]
One day an old priest named Zacharias was offering incense upon the
golden altar in the Holy Place. He had filled the bowl, which they
called a censer, with the frankincense and myrrh, and had placed in it
some coals of fire from the great altar in front of the Temple. He had
come into the Holy Place, bringing his censer of incense, which sent its
white cloud into the air, and was just about to lay it upon the altar,
when he was startled at suddenly seeing someone standing by the golden
altar on the right side.
Zacharias was surprised to see anyone in the room, for he knew that no
one but himself had a right to be there. But he was still more surprised
and filled with fear when he looked at this stranger standing by the
altar. He seemed like a young man, and his face and body and clothes
were bright and shining like the sun, so glorious that the old priest
could not bear to look upon him.
[Illustration: High Priest, altar of incense, table for shew bread, and
Ark of the Covenant]
At once Zacharias knew that this glorious person was an angel sent from
God. He trembled with fear; his knees shook, and he could scarcely keep
from falling on the floor. The angel spoke to him, gently and kindly:
"Zacharias, do not be frightened. You have nothing to fear. I have come
to you with good news. God has heard the prayers that you and your good
wife Elizabeth have been sending up to heaven for these many years. You
shall have a son, and shall call his name John. Your son when he becomes
a man will bring joy and gladness to many people; for he shall be great
in the sight of the Lord; and it shall be his work to make his people
ready for the coming of the King for whom they have been looking so
long. You must see that your son never drinks any wine or strong drink,
for he is to be set apart for God, to serve God only, and to speak the
word of God to the people, telling them that their King and Saviour is
at hand."
[Illustration: The golden candlestick]
The priest was so filled with surprise and fear that he could scarcely
believe what he heard.
"How can these wonderful words be true?" he said. "I am an old man, and
my wife is also old. We are too old now to have children. How can I
believe all this?"
The angel was not pleased when he saw that Zacharias doubted his word,
and he said:
"I am the angel Gabriel, that stands before God; and I have been sent
from God to speak to you and to bring you this good news. Now, because
you did not believe God's word, you shall be stricken dumb, and shall
not be able to speak until my words come true and your child is born."
And then the angel vanished out of sight as suddenly as he had come, and
Zacharias was left alone.
All this time a great crowd of people was standing outside the Temple,
worshipping God while the offering was made. They wondered that
Zacharias was waiting so long in the Temple; and they wondered more when
he came out and they found that he could not speak. He made signs to
them, trying to show them he had seen an angel, but he did not tell them
what the angel had said, for that was meant for himself only and not for
others.
Each priest stayed for one week in the Temple and then went to his
house; so after a few days Zacharias left Jerusalem and returned to his
house in the southern part of the land, not far from the old city of
Hebron, the place where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the early fathers of
the Israelites, were buried.
How happy Elizabeth was when her husband, by signs and by writing, told
her of the angel and his promise that she should be the mother of one
who was to bear the word of the Lord to the people. Such men, to whom
God spoke and who spoke for God, were called "prophets." Many great
prophets in past years had spoken the word of God to the Israelites, men
like Samuel and Elijah and Isaiah. But more than four hundred years had
passed away since the voice of a prophet had been heard in the land.
Their promised son was to rise up and speak once more God's will to his
people. Zacharias and Elizabeth might not live long enough to hear his
voice as a prophet, but they had God's promise, and in that promise they
were happy, waiting for their child to come and grow up to his great
work.
The Angel Visits Nazareth
CHAPTER 4
FOR OUR next story we visit Nazareth, a village in Galilee, nearly
seventy miles north of Jerusalem. Galilee, as we have seen, was the
northern province or division of the land, lying between the river
Jordan and the Great Sea. The lower part of Galilee is a great plain,
called "the plain of Esdraelon," or "the plain of Jezreel," where many
battles have been fought in past times. The upper part of Galilee is
everywhere mountains and valleys, with villages perched on the mountain
tops or clinging to their sides, and sometimes nestled in the valleys.
Just where the plain ends and the mountains begin, we find a long range
of steep hills. If we climb to the top of this range, on one side we see
the plain stretched out, and far in the distance the Mediterranean Sea;
and on the other, or northern slope of the hills, we come to the city of
Nazareth. There the mother of Jesus lived as a young girl before her son
was born, and there Jesus lived during most of his life.
Nazareth is there still, although many of the old towns in that land
have passed away; and now it is quite a city, but in the time of which
we are telling it was only a village. All around it are hills. One can
stand in the town and count fifteen hills and mountains, all in sight.
[Illustration: Nazareth from the road to Cana]
Its narrow streets climb the hills between rows of one-story white
houses, many of them having a little dome on the roof. Around each roof
in those times of which we are telling was a rail with posts on the
corners, to prevent any one on the roof from falling off, for the flat
roof was used as a place of visiting and of rest, since the house inside
was dark, having no glass windows, but instead only one small hole in
the wall. None of these houses had a door opening upon the street.
Beside the road was a high wall, and in it a gate leading to an open
court, at one end of which stood the house.
In the village was one fountain, to which all the women went for water.
There were no wells or pumps or pipes with water in the houses; and
around the fountain might be seen in the morning a crowd of women
bringing water-jars empty, and carrying them home full of water,
balanced on their heads. No one often saw a man carrying a jar of water,
for this was looked upon as a woman's work.
In one of those small white houses of Nazareth lived a young Jewish girl
named Mary. We do not know how she looked, for although many artists
have made pictures of her, all have drawn or painted her as they
imagined her to be, not as she was. All that we really know of Mary, we
read in two of the four gospels, Matthew and Luke; and neither of these
tell us anything about her early life or her family. It has been said
that her father's name was Joachim and her mother's was Anna; but this
is not found in either of the gospels, and we do not know whether it is
true.
We do know, however, that she was a pure-hearted, lovely girl, who
served the God of Israel with all her heart and lived a holy life. She
knew her Bible well, we are sure, for its words came readily to her
lips; and she was a girl who thought much and talked but little. In
those years she might have been seen often going with the other girls of
the village to the fountain for water, or sitting in the women's gallery
in the church, listening thoughtfully to the reading from the Bible,
and with her rich young voice joining in the chanting of David's psalms.
In that land girls are promised in marriage while very young, and Mary
was at this time promised to be married to a man named Joseph, who was a
carpenter, or, as he is called in the gospels, a worker in wood. The two
families, Joseph's and Mary's, were not rich. They belonged to the
working class of people, but they were not like many, wretchedly poor.
They were just plain, honest, working people, able to earn a comfortable
living.
[Illustration: The well of the Virgin Mary, at Nazareth]
[Illustration: Mary beheld the angel Gabriel suddenly beaming upon her.]
Although Joseph and Mary were of the common people, they came from the
noblest blood in all the land. Both were sprung from the royal line of
David, the greatest of the kings of Israel, and the singer of many
beautiful psalms. They lived in little one-room houses, and their hands
were hard from work, but they could trace their line back to the palace
where David the founder of their family dwelt.
On one day Mary was alone. It may have been in her own little home, or
upon its roof, where she often went for prayer, or perhaps under a tree
on the hillside near the village. Just as Zacharias a few months before
had seen a heavenly, gloriously-shining being in the Temple, so now Mary
beheld the same angel Gabriel suddenly beaming upon her. In a sweet
voice he said:
"Peace be with you, Mary! You are in high favor and love, for the Lord
is with you!"
The voice was gentle, but the sight of this shining form filled the
young girl with alarm. She knew not what to think, nor why this glorious
being had come to her. But after a moment the angel went on speaking,
and said:
"Do not be afraid, Mary, for God has chosen you among all women for his
special favor. You shall have a son; and you shall give him the name
Jesus, because he shall save his people from their sins. He shall be
great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest God. God shall give to
him the throne and the kingdom of his father David. He shall reign
forever over the people of Israel, and of his kingdom there shall be no
end."
The angel paused and Mary found words to speak, tremblingly and with
fear:
"How can all this come to me? I do not understand what it all means!"
Then the angel spoke again to the troubled and frightened girl:
"The Holy Spirit of God shall come to you, and the power of God shall be
upon you; and therefore that holy child that is to be given you shall
be called 'The Son of God.' Also, let me tell you that your cousin
Elizabeth is soon to have a son in her old age. This may seem strange to
you; but no word of God is without power. Every promise of God shall
surely come to pass."
Then Mary said:
"I am the Lord's servant, and I can trust him. Let it be to me as you
have spoken. I will rest without fear in the will of the Lord."
Then, as suddenly as he had come, the angel vanished out of sight, and
Mary was left alone. She was filled with wonder at what she had seen and
heard. Any young Jewish girl to whom came the news that the words of the
prophets in the Bible were now to come true, that the long-promised King
of Israel was soon to be born, and that she should be his mother, would
be amazed and perhaps alarmed at the message.
Some girls would have talked about it, and might even be proud at such
an expectation. But Mary's was a quiet nature, not apt to speak of her
deepest thoughts. She felt in some way that there was no one in her home
or in her village with whom she could speak of these things. She hid
them silently in her heart, but thought about them day and night.
[Illustration: Elizabeth greeting Mary: "Blessed, most blessed are you
among women!"]
A Young Girl's Journey
CHAPTER 5
AFTER THE visit of the angel and the message which he had brought,
Mary's mind was filled with many thoughts and her heart was full. She
was only a young girl, not older than sixteen years, perhaps as young as
fifteen; for if she were older she should have been already married. In
that land nearly all young women are married as soon as they are sixteen
years old; and very few stay unmarried.
Mary felt that she must talk with somebody of all these wonderful things
that had been spoken to her. We would think that her mother was the one
with whom she could open her heart most freely, but we are not sure that
her mother was living. And is it not true that a young girl can
sometimes tell to a dear grandmother, or some other old lady who is her
friend, the deep things of the heart that she may hesitate to mention
even to her own mother?
She thought of one who was not her grandmother, but who from her age and
sweetness seemed like one. Her mind turned to Elizabeth, living far away
in the south. The angel, you know, had told her that Elizabeth was also
to have a child, and perhaps she would be able to understand Mary's
feelings better than any other woman.
Elizabeth was related to Mary. She is named in the gospel of St. Luke as
Mary's cousin, though very likely they were not near, but distant
relatives. Mary knew that she was wise and good, that she loved her, and
being old, could give her advice. Mary made up her mind to visit
Elizabeth and open her heart with her fully about what the angel had
spoken to her. From Nazareth to Elizabeth's house was a long distance,
in a straight line more than eighty miles, but much farther by the road
which travelers from Galilee generally followed in going from the north
to the south of the land.
Very soon after the angel's visit, Mary left her home and began her
journey southward. Of course, a young girl could not take a journey so
long alone. But there were always caravans or parties going from Galilee
to Jerusalem, and Mary would travel with one of those companies. A
soldier would ride on a horse, a general in his chariot, and an Arab on
his camel; but most men in those times walked, even on long journeys. A
woman would ride on an ass, which was the animal preferred by the Jews
for travel.
We may think of Mary with a beating heart leaving her home in Nazareth
in company with a caravan or party of people journeying to Jerusalem to
attend one of the great feasts held every year in that city. Their most
direct way would be over the mountains; but it would be rough and stony;
up one mountain, down another, and around a third mountain, nearly all
the way. Besides, this way would lead them through the country of the
Samaritans, which lay between Galilee and Judea, and such was the hatred
between Jews and Samaritans that it was scarcely safe for a company of
Jews to go through their land. A large company would need to stop by
night at some inn, and the Samaritans often shut their inns against
those who were going to Jerusalem.
The line of travel from Nazareth would be to go over the steep hill on
the south of their village, then follow a well-trodden way eastward down
to the river Jordan. There they would find a very good road built by
the Romans, straight down the Jordan Valley, with mountains on either
side. This they would follow about sixty miles until they came to
Jericho. There they might rest for a few days; and then climb the steep
path up the mountains to Jerusalem. This Jericho road was a hiding place
for robbers, and it was never safe for anyone to travel it alone. But in
a large company, with many men, and often a guard of soldiers, the
travelers need not fear. They would easily reach Jerusalem in a week or
ten days after leaving Nazareth, and might make the journey in five days
if they were in haste.
In Jerusalem Mary would visit with some friend. All the families in the
land had friends in Jerusalem with whom they stayed while attending the
great feasts, of which three were held each year; and the dwellers in
Jerusalem opened their houses to the same families year after year.
After the feast, Mary would find another caravan or party going home to
Hebron and the villages near it, and she would travel the rest of her
journey, about twenty miles, with this party. Altogether, Mary's
journey, from Nazareth to Hebron, was nearly one hundred and twenty
miles long. Although many people were with her all the way, she was
alone in spirit, for she could speak to no one of the great thoughts
which burdened her mind and her heart.
At last her long journey was over. She stopped at the door of the house
of Zacharias; and in a moment was clasped in the arms of Elizabeth. In
some strange way God had given to Elizabeth to know all that had come to
Mary. In a loud voice she said:
"Blessed, most blessed are you among women! And blessed among men shall
be the son born to you! High indeed is the honor mine today when the
mother of my Lord comes to my home! Blessed is she that believed the
angel's word, for that word shall surely come true!"
In that moment Mary's feelings, long held in, broke out into song. For
this young woman's soul was not only pure and tender and devout, it was
the soul of a poet whose thoughts shape themselves into verse. Mary
spoke and sung a song which has become famous. Someone wrote it down,
and Saint Luke, who wrote the gospel, found a copy of it and gave it to
the world. Everyone should read it. We give it here.
MARY'S SONG
My soul beholds the greatness of the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath looked upon his servant in my lowly state;
And from this time people in all ages shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things;
And holy is his name.
And his mercy is from age to age
On those who fear him.
He hath showed strength with his arm;
He hath scattered the proud in the vain thoughts of their heart.
He hath put down princes from their thrones,
And hath lifted up those of humble state.
The hungry he hath filled with good things;
And the rich he hath sent empty away.
He hath given help to Israel his servant
That he might remember mercy
As he spoke to our fathers,
Toward Abraham and his children forever.
For three months Mary stayed with Elizabeth in that quiet home, the old
woman and the young woman, both soon to be mothers, talked together day
after day. Perhaps by this time people were going to another feast in
Jerusalem, and Mary found again a party of pilgrims--for that was the
name that they gave to people going to Jerusalem to worship--who were
returning to Galilee. She went home, comforted in spirit and made strong
by her visit with Elizabeth.
It was either while Mary was visiting with Elizabeth, or soon after her
return to her home, that Joseph, her promised husband, began to question
in his mind whether he ought to marry her. There was a strange look in
her face, and he saw that she had thoughts in her mind of which she
could not speak to him. He loved her deeply, and it was with sorrow that
he asked himself whether they would be happy together.
But one night, while he was sleeping, a dream came to Joseph. In his
dream he saw an angel standing by his side. The angel said to him:
"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary for your wife. She
shall have a son; and his name shall be Jesus, for it is he that shall
save his people from their sins."
The word Jesus, in the language of that people, means "Saviour," and
often Jesus is spoken of as "Our Saviour" because he came to take away
our sins.
After this message, Joseph hesitated no longer. He did as the angel had
bidden him. He was married to Mary, and led her to his own home, in
which was also the shop where he followed his trade as a carpenter.
The Boy Who Never Tasted Wine
CHAPTER 6
NOT LONG after Mary's visit, the child promised to Zacharias and
Elizabeth was born. In Jewish families the coming of a child into the
home was always the cause of great gladness; and the gladness was
greater at the birth of this baby, because this was the first child, and
the father and mother were old. All the friends of Zacharias and
Elizabeth came to see them and to rejoice with them over the boy whom
God had given them.
"He must be named Zacharias after his father," said the visitors.
"Not so," answered the mother; "he shall be named John."
"Why should you give him that name?" they said. "None of your family has
ever been called John."
But Elizabeth insisted that her boy should bear the name John.
You remember that Zacharias had been stricken dumb at the time when the
angel spoke to him in the Temple. In all the months since he had not
spoken a word. Nor could he hear what was said; for now they made signs,
to ask him what should be the child's name. They brought him a writing
table, and on it he wrote, "His name is John." So that was the name of
this child of promise, just as the angel Gabriel had said.
You may ask, what was a writing table? In those times paper was very
scarce and high in its cost. It was used only for writing down matters
that were important. For common uses, each family had a writing table,
which was a board over which was spread a thin layer of wax. On this wax
they marked what they wished to write, with a sharp-pointed pen of iron
or steel. This kind of a pen was called a stylus. The other end of the
pen was flat, like an ivory paper-cutter. After writing, they could
smooth it all out again; and the wax was then ready to be used once
more.
Just as soon as Zacharias had written the words "His name is John," the
power to hear and to speak came back to him. He began to praise God in a
loud voice, and gave forth a song of rejoicing. This song was afterward
written, and may be read in the gospel by St. Luke, near the end of the
first chapter.
[Illustration: Writing tablets]
In this song, Zacharias gave thanks to God for having blessed his people
and kept the promises that had been made in God's name by all the
prophets of old time. The prophets, as you may know, were the good men
who listened to God's words and then gave them to the people, speaking
with God's power; and sometimes telling, long before the time, of great
events that were to take place. They were men like Moses, who saw God
face to face, and Samuel the wise ruler, and Elijah the prophet of fire,
and Isaiah, who declared Christ's coming long before his day. In the Old
Testament times there was always a prophet to tell the people the will
of God. But since the Old Testament had been finished, almost five
hundred years before this time, no prophet had stood up in Israel with
the word of the Lord.
Zacharias knew that this newly-born child should grow up to give God's
message to the people. He said in his song:
"And you, O child, shall be called the prophet of God;
For you shall go before the Lord Christ, to make ready a way for him;
You shall give to his people the good news of a Saviour,
And the forgiveness of their sins
Because of the tender mercy of God."
[Illustration: John the Baptist in the desert]
In the home of Zacharias and Elizabeth the baby John grew up a strong,
noble boy. Very early they told him of the angel's visit, and of the
command that throughout his life he was not to taste wine nor any strong
drink. He was under a vow or pledge of special service for God; and one
sign of his pledge was to be his not tasting wine nor even eating
grapes. Another sign was in leaving his hair to grow long and never
cutting it. Everyone who saw him would know by these signs that he was
pledged to a life of peculiar service to God.
When John became a young man he went away from his home and lived in the
desert, alone with his own thoughts and with God. Very likely, his
father and mother died before he went to live alone, for at the time of
his birth they were old people and could not live many years.
John lived upon the plainest of food, the locusts that could be gathered
in the field, and were boiled, to be eaten by the poorest people. He ate
also the honey made by the wild bees and stored by them in hollow trees
and holes in the rocks. All those years of his young manhood, John was
thinking upon the work to which God had called him, talking with God and
learning God's will; so that when the time came, he could give God's
message to the people.
[Illustration: Plowing in Bible time]
[Illustration: They sought out the inn at Bethlehem but Joseph found
within its walls no place where his wife could rest after her long and
wearisome ride.]
The Child-King in His Cradle
CHAPTER 7
FOR A FEW months after their marriage, Joseph and Mary lived in their
little house at Nazareth. Joseph worked at his trade as a carpenter,
while Mary cared for the home and carried the water for the needs of the
house from the well in the middle of the village, walking with her jar
full of water on her head.
One day Joseph came home and told his wife that he had been called to go
on a journey to Bethlehem, which was the town from which their family
had come. Both Joseph and Mary, as we have seen, had sprung from the
line of the great King David, who had been born in Bethlehem more than a
thousand years before. Every one who belonged to the line of David,
wherever he might be living, looked upon Bethlehem as the home-town of
his family.
The Emperor Augustus at Rome, who ruled over all the lands and was above
Herod, the king of Judea, had given orders that a list should be made of
all the families in his wide empire. He wished to lay a tax upon every
family; that is, to call upon every family to pay money for the support
of his officers, his army, his court; and in order to fix this tax, he
must have written down the names of all the people.
In our land such a list is made every ten years, and is called a census.
With us, men are chosen in every city and town to go to the people where
they live and make the list of their names. From all the states
throughout the land, these lists are sent to one office, and there the
names are arranged in order.
[Illustration: Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, said to enclose the
birthplace of the Saviour]
[Illustration: The shepherds came to the stable, opened the door and
found just what the angel said they would see, a tiny babe lying in the
manger.]
But the Romans who were ruling the world at that time chose a plan for
making this great list which would give themselves the least trouble,
even though it gave to the people under them much more trouble, and
compelled them to make long journeys. Instead of appointing in each
place an officer to take the names of the people at the places where
they were living, they made a law that every family must go to the city
or town from which they or their fathers had come, and there give their
names to the officers who were making the roll of the people. Those who
were living in Jerusalem, and had come from Shechem or Joppa or Cæsarea,
must journey to one of these places and there make their report; those
who were living in Nazareth and had come, or their parents before them
had come, from any other place, must go to their home-town, however
far it might be, and in that place be enrolled or written upon the list
of names.
There is no reason to suppose that Mary, although herself sprung from
the family of David, was compelled to make this journey to Bethlehem
with her husband. The Roman laws took very little notice of women,
unless they were rich women who could be taxed. Joseph could go alone to
Bethlehem, and there have both their names written upon the list. But at
once a thought came to Mary, and she said to her husband:
"You shall not make the journey to Bethlehem alone. I will go with you."
We are not told why the young wife was resolved to go with her husband
on the long journey, but the reason may have been this: Mary knew that
she was to have a son, and the time for his coming was now near at hand.
She knew, too, that her child should be the Son of David and the King of
Israel, that he was to sit on David's throne. She wished him to be born,
not in the village of Nazareth in Galilee, but in David's own town of
Bethlehem. He was to spring from the royal line, and she was willing to
endure a hard, trying journey, and even to suffer, that her son might
come from the royal city where David lived. Mary had read the books of
the Old Testament, and she knew that in those books it had been written
by the prophets, to whom God had spoken, that this king, whom they
called Messiah and Christ, should be born in Bethlehem. These were the
reasons that made Mary decide so quickly to go with her husband on his
journey to Bethlehem, the city of their fathers.
So Joseph locked up his carpenter's shop and set his wife upon an ass,
and with a staff walked beside her, over the mountain and down the
valley to the river Jordan, and thence following the river, over the
Roman road, the same long road that Mary had taken in the caravan or
company of pilgrims some months before. Joseph had been over that road
many times, going up every year to the feasts at Jerusalem, so that he
knew all the places which they passed, and could tell Mary stories of
their people and the great events which had taken place on the mountains
or in the cities as they came into view in their journey.
They stopped at Jericho, near the head of the Dead Sea, and there turned
westward, climbing the mountains over the robber-haunted road, and
reaching Jerusalem. Perhaps they rested a day or two in this city and
then went over to the mount of Olives, past the village of Bethany; and
six miles south of Jerusalem they entered the gate of Bethlehem.
They had no friends with whom they could stay in Bethlehem, and so they
sought out the inn, or the khan, as it was called. This was a large
building with rooms around an open court. In this court the animals and
the baggage were placed, and the guests of the inn were in the rooms
around it. But Joseph and Mary were not the only people who had come to
Bethlehem to have their names enrolled or written upon the lists for the
taxing. Others had reached the inn or khan before them. When they came
the courtyard was filled with asses and camels and chariots and baggage,
and all the rooms around the court were crowded with visitors. Joseph
found within the walls of the khan no place where his wife could rest
after her long and wearisome ride.
But at last Joseph learned of a place where they might stay through the
night and for a few days. It was only a cave, hollowed out in the
hillside, used as a stable for cattle; but miserable as it was, Mary
was glad to lie down upon the straw and rest. And in that cave-stable
Mary's child was born. She wrapped her little baby in such clothes as
she could find at hand, and laid him for his first sleep in the manger
where the oxen had fed. This was the lowly cradle of the Son of David,
the King who was to rule over all the earth! King Herod in his palace
did not know, and the Emperor Augustus at Rome did not dream, that in
the humble stable at Bethlehem was lying a Prince who should reign over
a realm vastly greater than Judea or the Roman Empire; that all the
world should date their years from the year when that baby was born; and
that his name would be praised long after their names had been
forgotten.
[Illustration: Main street in Bethlehem]
But although neither King Herod, nor the Emperor Augustus, nor the
high-priest and rulers in Jerusalem were there to welcome their new-born
King, there were some visitors at his manger-cradle. In the open fields
around Bethlehem were shepherds, watching at night over their flocks of
sheep, just as, a thousand years before in the same fields, the young
shepherd David had cared for his sheep, guarding them from wild beasts
of the wilderness and from robbers.
Suddenly a great, dazzling light flashed upon these shepherds, and they
saw, as Zacharias had seen by the altar, and as Mary had seen in
Nazareth, a glorious angel standing before them. The shepherds were
filled with fear and fell upon their faces on the ground, not daring to
look up at the shining form. But the angel spoke to them kindly and
graciously, saying:
"Do not be afraid, for I come with good news, which will make you glad;
news for all God's people. On this very night is born in yonder city of
David, one who shall be the Saviour, even Christ your Lord and King.
Would you wish to go and see this child? I will tell you how you can
find him. Look for a newly-born baby wrapped in such clothes as babies
wear, and lying, not in a cradle in a house, but in the manger of a
stable, where the oxen and the asses are kept. There you will find the
child who is to be the King of all the earth!"
While shepherds were listening to the words of this angel, they saw that
the entire midnight sky over them was filled with a multitude of
heavenly beings. The shepherds heard them sing:
"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men in whom God is well pleased."
Then the vision faded away, the angelic host passed out of sight, and in
the dark sky only the stars were shining above them. Then the shepherds
said to each other:
"Let us leave our sheep here for a little while, and go to the village
and see this wonderful thing that has come to pass. How good it is that
the Lord has given this word to us, that we may be the first to look
upon our King!"
It did not take the shepherds a long time to find the right stable and
the manger, for Bethlehem was then only a small village. They came,
opened the door, and found just what the angel had said they would see,
a tiny baby lying in the manger, his mother hovering near, and Joseph
watching over them both in tenderness.
They saw the royal little one, and bowed low around his manger cradle,
then went again to their flocks in the field, praising God for his
goodness in sending the long-promised King. The people to whom the
shepherds told this story, wondered at it, hardly knowing whether to
believe it or not; for this was not the way in which they looked for the
King of Israel to come. They were expecting a prince to be born in a
palace, not a working-woman's child in a dark cave where cattle were
kept.
But Mary, happy with her little one, clasped him to her heart and said
nothing to anyone of the angel that had come to her in Nazareth, and of
the promises given her about this child. When the day came to name the
child, she simply said, "His name shall be Jesus," but she told no one
why the name was given. It was a common name among the Jews, so no one
was surprised at the name. But no word could tell better than his name
"Jesus" what this child should become, for the word Jesus means
"Saviour."
[Illustration: Simeon came forward and took the infant Jesus into his
arms, and lifting up his eyes to heaven gave thanks that he had seen the
Saviour.]
The Baby Brought to the Temple
CHAPTER 8
ALTHOUGH JESUS was born in a stable and slept in a manger, he did not
stay in that place long. After a few days Joseph was able to find a more
comfortable home, where the young mother and her baby were taken. The
Jews were very kind to strangers of their own people, and welcomed them
to their houses when passing through their towns.
Joseph and his family were in Bethlehem for some weeks, perhaps for some
months. It may have been their purpose to make Bethlehem their home, and
to bring up this child, the Son of David, in David's own city, where he
could have a better training for his coming life, whatever that life
might be, than in the country village of Nazareth.
On the day when Jesus was forty days old, he was brought with his mother
to Jerusalem, which was only six miles from Bethlehem. There he was
taken to the Temple for a service which showed that he was given to God
and to be brought up as God's child. It was the rule of the Jews that
after the first child had come to a family, an offering should be made
on the altar in the Temple for him and prayers should be said. A family
that was rich would offer for their first child a sheep, which was
killed and burned on the altar as a gift to God in place of the child.
If the family was poor, or of the working class of people, the parents
offered a pair of doves or pigeons. Joseph and Mary brought a pair of
doves, and stood by while these were burned on the altar, Mary holding
her baby in her arms.
At that moment there was in the Temple an old man named Simeon. He was a
good man and very earnest in his prayers to God that he might live to
see the Messiah-King of Israel, the Christ of God, who had been promised
through the prophets of old. And God had said to Simeon that he should
not die until he had seen Christ. On that morning a voice had seemed to
say to him, "Go to the Temple." He obeyed it, not knowing why he had
been sent to that place on that day.
As Joseph and Mary brought the baby Jesus into the Temple, the voice of
the Lord spoke again to Simeon, saying:
"This child is David's Son, the King of Israel."
[Illustration: Mary and the doves]
The old man came forward, held out his arms, and took the child into
them, folded him to his bosom, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, said
in Hebrew verse:
"Now, Lord, thou mayest let thy servant go
According to thy word, in peace.
For these eyes of mine have seen thy Saviour
Whom thou hast sent to all the people.
A light to shine upon the nations,
And the glory of thine own people Israel."
Joseph and Mary were filled with wonder at the act and words of the old
man, whom they had never seen before and did not know. But as he placed
the child in their arms again, he prayed for God's blessing upon both
Joseph and Mary.
"Listen," he said, "this child will become a cause for many to fall and
to rise again in Israel. He shall be God's sign of mercy, but many shall
speak against him. Also, sorrow like a sword shall pierce through your
soul, O mother; and the thoughts out of many hearts shall be made
known."
Those words seemed very strange at the time; but long afterward, when
Jesus had grown to be a man, Mary found how true they were, as she saw
enemies gathered against her son, and at last looked at him dying upon
the cross. Then, indeed, a sword went through Mary's soul.
Just at that moment a woman came up to the little group. She was very
old, more than ninety years of age; and being a widow and a devout
worshipper of God she stayed nearly all her days in the Temple praying.
God had spoken to her also with the promise of a coming Christ, the
Saviour and King. She too saw in this little baby the promised Messiah,
and in a loud voice gave thanks and praise to God. All who heard her
wondered at her words, and wondered all the more as they looked on this
plainly-clad father and mother with their baby, all evidently from the
country, and the speech of Joseph and Mary showing they had come from
Galilee in the far north.
Thus even while Jesus was a very young baby, only forty days old, here
in Jerusalem a few people had looked upon him and spoken of him as the
coming King of Israel.
Joseph and Mary carried the child back to their new home in Bethlehem;
and Mary had more thoughts to hide within her silent heart long after
that day in the Temple.
The Followers of the Star
CHAPTER 9
WHILE JOSEPH and Mary with the child Jesus were still staying in
Bethlehem, the city of Jerusalem was stirred by the coming of some men
from a land far away, with a strange question. These men were not Jews,
but were Gentiles, which was the name that the Jews gave to all people
except themselves. All Romans and Greeks and Egyptians and all others
who were not of their own race, the Jews called by the name "Gentiles."
These Gentile strangers who came to Jerusalem were asking of everybody
whom they met this question:
"Can you tell us where is to be found the little child who is born to be
the King of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east, and we have
come to do him honor?"
Who were these men, and what was the star that they had seen?
We are not certain as to their land, but it is generally thought to have
been the country now called Persia, then known as Parthia, a land about
a thousand miles to the east of Judea. Although some Jews lived in that
land--for Jews were to be found then as now in all lands, especially in
large cities--the people of Parthia were not Jews, but, as the Jews
called them, Gentiles. Although not of the Jewish race, these people
were like the Jews in one respect--they never bowed down to worship
images which men had made. They worshipped the One God of all the earth;
and they prayed with their faces toward the sun. They said that they did
not worship the sun, but the One God who was like the sun, the light of
the world.
Among these Parthian people were many men who at night studied the stars
in the sky. They did not have telescopes, as those who look at the stars
now have, to bring the heavenly bodies, the moon, the planets, and the
stars nearer to them; they could only use their own eyes, but by long
study they had learned much about the stars, could tell of their
movements and where in the sky to find each one of them. The men who
gave their lives to this study of the stars were called Magi, a word
meaning "Wise Men"; and these strangers who were seeking the child-king
in Jerusalem are sometimes spoken of as "the Wise Men," sometimes as
"the Magi."
[Illustration: The Wise Men on their journey]
The people of that time believed that when great kings were born, or
before they died, strange stars suddenly appeared in the heavens, shone
for a time and then as suddenly passed out of sight. A year or perhaps
two years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, such a star, very bright,
that had never before been seen, began to shine. In some way it came to
the minds of these men that this star pointed to the coming of a great
king who was to rule over all the lands, and who was to be found in the
land of Judea.
These Wise Men at once made up their minds to go to the land of Judea
and see this child-king. It was a long and hard journey of more than a
thousand miles. They must pass from the high plains of Parthia down to
the lowlands of Babylonia, must find some way to cross two great rivers,
the Tigris and the Euphrates. Then they would come to a vast trackless
desert, where nothing grew and there was no water. If they went around
this desert they must follow up the Euphrates River far to the north,
and then traveling southward under the shadow of lofty mountains, they
would come at last to Judea, and to Jerusalem, its largest city. Through
all that long and trying journey, which would last a year, traveling
most of the way on camels, they saw the wonderful star in the sky
seeming to lead the way.
From the story as told in the Gospel by St. Matthew it appears that when
these men came to Jerusalem the star was no longer shining. However, the
loss of the star would not matter so much, now that they were in the
King's own land, for they supposed that everybody in that country, and
especially in the city of Jerusalem, would know that their Prince was
born. But to their surprise, nobody seemed to have heard about the
newly-born King. They did not meet the shepherds of Bethlehem, who had
seen the angel on the night of Jesus' birth, nor did they hear of old
Simeon and Anna who a month or more before had seen the Christ-child.
Very, very few were those who knew that the King had come, and none of
these few people did these strangers chance to meet.
They thought that at one place they could surely learn where to look for
this young Prince. That was the king's palace in Jerusalem. Herod was
still living, although old and very feeble, yet as fierce and cruel as
ever. Perhaps they thought that this Prince for whom they were looking
might be a son or a grandson of the king. Herod did not live in
Jerusalem, for he did not like its people and he knew how greatly its
people hated him; but he had a palace in the city and he came to it
often for short visits. He may have been in Jerusalem when the Wise Men
came; or they may have sought Herod down at Jericho, twenty miles away,
where most of the time he lived.
As soon as the old king heard the question of these strangers, and
learned that they had been led by a star to his land, he was filled with
alarm. A child born to be king of the Jews--if there was such a child,
what would become of Herod's own throne and crown? If he could find
where this child was, he would send his soldiers to the place and soon
kill him, as he had killed many others whom he suspected of seeking to
take away his kingdom. But Herod hid his cruel purpose, and spoke kindly
to these strangers about their errand. He asked them when the star
appeared, how it looked, and how they knew that it showed that a king
had been born.
Then Herod sent for the wisest men in his land, the teachers of the law
who lived in Jerusalem. He knew that all the people were looking for the
coming of their Messiah-king, whom they also called the Christ.
"Can you tell me," asked Herod, "in what place this great King, the
Messiah or Christ, is to be born?"
The scholars were ready with their answer. They said:
"In Bethlehem of Judea, the city of David, this King who springs from
David's line shall be born. This is what the old prophets have said."
And they read to him one of the promises of the prophets that the King
should come out of Bethlehem.
Then Herod sent again for the Wise Men, and asked them to give him the
exact time when they first saw the star. When he had learned the time,
he thought at once that this long-looked-for King must have been born in
Bethlehem less than two years before.
"Go to Bethlehem," said Herod to the Wise Men, "and search through the
town until you find this child; and when you have found him, come and
tell me, for I wish to do honor to this King."
That was what Herod said; but what he meant to do was a very different
thing, as we shall see.
The Wise Men at once started for Bethlehem, which was only six miles
from Jerusalem. They went over one of the mountains, and then one said
to another:
"Look, there is the star once more! See it in the sky just before us!"
The star stood over the road leading to Bethlehem, and again they
followed it rejoicing. It led them straight to the city, and then to a
house, over which it seemed to pause. They knocked at the door, and when
it was opened they went into a room, where they found a baby lying in
its young mother's arms.
These Wise Men knew at once that here was the King for whom they had
sought so long and traveled so far. They bowed before him to the ground
to show the high honor in which they held him. Then they opened the
treasures which they had brought from their own land, and gave to him
rich gifts, such as were presented to kings. They gave him gold, and
frankincense and myrrh, the fragrant gums that were used in offerings
and were very costly. Thus, while in his own land only a few people
showed their gladness at the coming of their king, the strangers from a
distant country came to pay him honor. We would have thought that some
of the learned Jews, who could tell King Herod where the King was born,
might have come with the Wise Men to see him. But these great scholars
really cared very little about Jesus. They stayed at home and soon
forgot the men of the east, their journey, and their question.
[Illustration: The well of the Wise Men, near Bethlehem]
[Illustration: Joseph and Mary taking the child Jesus with them set out
on their journey to the land of Judea]
Safe in Egypt
CHAPTER 10
ON THE night after their visit to Mary and her child, the Wise Men had a
dream. In their dream they heard the voice of God saying to them:
"Do not go to meet King Herod again. He is no friend to this princely
child. Return to your own land by some other way, and do not let Herod
know it."
The Wise Men obeyed the voice of the Lord. They left Bethlehem very
quietly, telling no one the road that they were taking; and without
going through Herod's city, went back to their own land, far-distant
Parthia.
As soon as the Wise Men had left, on that night Joseph also had a dream.
He saw an angel by his bed, who said to Joseph:
"Rise up at once; take the little child and his mother, and go as
quickly as you can down to the land of Egypt, stay in that country until
I tell you to leave it, for very soon King Herod will try to kill this
child."
Without waiting a moment, Joseph awaked Mary from her sleep, and in the
night they left the house, taking the sleeping baby with them. They
passed silently through the dark streets of Bethlehem and found the road
that would lead them to Egypt. At times Mary rode upon an ass, holding
her precious child; at others she walked while Joseph guided the animal
which carried their possessions. It was a journey of more than a hundred
miles to Egypt, but they went in safety, unknown to King Herod.
In Egypt they could dwell safely, for that land was not a part of
Herod's kingdom. Many Jews were dwelling there, and among them Joseph
could live by his trade, for he was a skilful worker in wood. How long
they stayed in Egypt we do not know. It may have been either a few
months or a few years.
Herod waited for some time to see the Wise Men again, and to find where
the child-king was living. But as the days passed and he heard nothing
from them, and finally learned that they had left for their home-land
without obeying his command to come and see him, he was very angry. But
he was resolved to kill this child, who if he should live might take the
kingdom from him or from his family.
[Illustration: Joseph and Mary with Jesus in Egypt]
Herod planned and carried out a fearfully wicked deed, but not more
wicked than many deeds that he had already done. He sent a troop of his
soldiers to Bethlehem, with orders to go into every house in the
village, to find every child that was two years old or under that age,
and to kill them all. This terrible thing the soldiers did, and a great
cry went up to heaven from the mothers and fathers whose little ones had
been slain by the wicked king's command.
But Herod's slaughter of the little children was all in vain, as must be
every attempt to fight against God. Herod thought that surely this royal
child must be among those little dead bodies in Bethlehem, and that his
throne was safe. But by that time the little Jesus was in Egypt,
sleeping under one of its palm trees beside the river Nile, or looking
with wide-open baby eyes upon the pyramids and the Sphinx, the wonderful
works of ancient time, carved in stone.
Herod did not live long after this. He died full of years, full of
wickedness, and suffering great pain. Then Joseph in Egypt dreamed
again. The angel whom he had seen so many times before came once more
and said to him:
"Joseph, you may now take the young child and his mother and go back to
the land of the Jews, for those who sought to kill the child are dead
and can do him no harm."
Then Joseph as before fastened a saddle on the ass and placed their
possessions upon its back. The little family then set out upon its
journey back to the land of Judea. The purpose of Joseph and Mary was to
go back to Bethlehem, David's city, and there bring up this child whom
they expected one day to sit on David's throne as King of Israel. But on
the way they met other travelers and asked them:
"Who is now the King in Judea, since Herod is dead?" They said to
Joseph:
"The king over Jerusalem and Judea is now Archelaus, the son of the old
King Herod, and he is as wicked and as cruel as his father was before
him."
This news made Joseph and Mary afraid to go to Bethlehem. They thought,
"Perhaps King Archelaus may have heard of the child Jesus, and is
watching for the chance to kill him."
They made up their mind not to go near Bethlehem or Jerusalem, but
keeping away from the land ruled by Archelaus, to return to Nazareth,
where both had lived before their marriage. So it came to pass that
Jesus who was born in Bethlehem of Judea was brought up in Nazareth of
Galilee.
[Illustration: Bronze coin of Herod Agrippa I]
[Illustration: Large bronze coin of Agrippa II]
A Child's Life in Nazareth
CHAPTER 11
THE LITTLE Jesus must have been between two and five years old when he
was brought to Nazareth, just coming out of babyhood and growing into a
little boy; and Nazareth was his home for at least twenty-five years,
all through his childhood, his boyhood and his young manhood.
Jesus was not the only child living in that little white house of one
story and one room on the side of the hill. Soon another baby boy came,
who was named James, who grew up to become a great man, and many years
after wrote one of the books in the Bible, the Epistle of James. Then,
one after another, came three more boys, Joseph and Simon and Judas.
When we read that name "Judas" we are apt to think of the wicked Judas,
who sold the Lord Jesus for a few pieces of silver. But that was a
different Judas. This Judas, like his brother James, long afterward
wrote another book in the New Testament, the Epistle of Jude. Somewhere
in the list of children were two girls--there may have been more than
two, but the number and names of the girls have not been kept.
After a few years that little house must often have been crowded, with
children coming one after another, and always a baby to be cared for.
And much of the time it was the shop where father Joseph did his work as
a carpenter. The floor of brick or of clay was often littered with
shavings and the workman's tools were on the table.
[Illustration: The child Jesus loved outdoor life, he knew the flowers
that grew in the fields and the birds flying in the air.]
The house had very little furniture; no chairs, no bedstead with a
mattress upon it, no stove and no pictures upon the walls. In one
corner a little fire was lighted for cooking the meals, and the smoke
went up through a hole in the roof, unless the wind blew it back into
the room. They never made a fire to keep the house warm in winter, but
when it was cold just waited for the sun to come out. Sometimes a
snowstorm came, but the snow seldom stayed more than two or three days.
The children of Joseph never took a sleigh-ride and never coasted on
sleds down the steep hills.
[Illustration: Jesus as a boy at the house of his father and mother]
If there was a table for their meals, it was very low, less than two
feet high; and they sat around it on little cushions, dipping their
hands or pieces of bread into one common dish for food. Sometimes the
table was just a round measure turned upside down; and sometimes the
meal was served on the floor, as we serve meals on the grass at a
picnic.
When night came, they unrolled some mats, which through the day were
rolled up and stood against the wall, spread them on the floor and lay
down upon them to sleep, throwing over themselves the long mantle which
had been their outside garment through the day. When the door was shut,
the house was dark, for its only window was a little hole in the wall;
and they lighted it by an oil lamp, which stood either on a tall stand
or on a little shelf.
[Illustration: Women grinding grain in Bible times]
But the house was used little in the daytime, for everybody lived out of
doors, in the open court in front, in the streets and on the hills
around. On pleasant days Joseph took his tools in the court and worked
in wood. We are apt to think of Joseph as building houses, as in our
time that is the chief work of a carpenter. But the houses were made of
clay or rough stone, and the carpenter did very little work upon them.
His chief business was in making wooden plows, yokes for the oxen, the
little tables, and the peck or bushel measure, which was to be found in
every house, and was also used in place of a table.
One very useful article was either in the house or in the court--the
hand mill for grinding grain, made of two round flat stones. Our flour
comes to us from great factories, but in that land each family had its
own little mill. They poured the grain into a hole in the upper
millstone, and then turned the stone round and round by a handle until
the grain was ground into flour. This was hard work, but it was always
done by the women. Often two women helped each other to turn the handle
of the upper millstone. Mary's arms often ached in making the flour
needed for her large family. When her daughters grew strong, they helped
her in this work.
When Jesus became a boy six years old, he was sent to school with the
other boys. There were no schools for girls among the Jews, so far as we
know. The school was held in the village church, which they called the
synagogue. The teacher was always a man, and he was generally the
janitor of the church, who kept the building in order.
The Jews had a pretty name for the village school. They called it "The
Vineyard," as though the children were bunches of little grapes, growing
up to ripen in the sun. In this vineyard-school there was only one book
for study. That was the Bible. The Jews had only the Old Testament, for
the New Testament had not yet been written. Each of the larger books was
in a separate volume in the form of a long roll of parchment; that is, a
sheet made of sheepskin which had been made smooth, on which the words
were written. Several of the smaller books were written on one roll. In
the school there was only one copy of the Bible for all the scholars,
but each boy had a board and a piece of chalk, with which he wrote
sentences from the Bible and then learned them by heart. When his text
had been learned, each pupil cleaned off his board like a slate and
wrote on it a new lesson. All the teaching in a Jewish school was in the
Old Testament.
The copy of the Bible in the school was generally one that had been used
in the church until it had grown old and worn out. When they obtained a
new set of the books for the service in the church, they gave the old
copies to the school.
You can see in that same land now a school of children just like those
in the time when Jesus was a boy. The children sit on the floor in a
circle, the teacher being one of the ring. When they repeat their verses
in learning them, all are talking aloud at the same time, so that the
school is very noisy. We could not study in such a din, but they do not
seem to mind it.
[Illustration: Roll of book]
School was not very hard in that country. Our children have one holiday
in each week, free from school, but in the school where Jesus was
taught, they had two holidays in every week, besides the sabbath. In
addition to these holidays there was a long recess of three hours in the
middle of each day, and no school at all if the day was very hot.
When Jesus was a small boy he was taken by father Joseph to the church,
which you remember they called the synagogue. The men and boys sat on
the floor upon rugs or mats, while the women and girls were in a
gallery, looking down upon them. All the men and boys wore their hats in
the church. Their hats were turbans of cloth wrapped around their heads.
But each one as he entered the door slipped off his shoes or slippers,
and was barefooted in the church at the hour of worship. If at the hour
of worship you go to a Mohammedan church in that country--which they
call a mosque--you will see all the shoes standing outside the door.
In the church they had no minister to lead the service and to preach a
sermon. The men took turns in charge of the worship. One read from one
part of the Old Testament, another from another part. If they found a
boy who was a good reader he was often called upon to read the Bible in
the church service. They had prayers, always read from a book; they sang
together from the Psalms; and whoever wished to speak could do so.
But we are not to think of the child Jesus as always at school or at
church. He was a strong, hearty, healthy boy. He loved outdoor life, he
knew the flowers that grew in the fields and the birds flying in the
air. He played with other boys and knew all their games. Two of these
games he once happened to mention long after, while he was teaching. One
game was the wedding, when they sang and danced; the other was the
funeral, when they cried with loud voices, making a mournful wail. We
know, too, that in those times the boys played ball and marbles, and a
game somewhat like ten-pins.
Jesus was not a lonely boy, living apart. He was always fond of having
others around him. When he was a man, traveling and teaching over all
the land, he had his twelve chosen friends who were always with him,
and we may be sure that as a boy he liked to be with other boys, and in
turn was liked by the boys of his village.
We may be sure, too, that he grew up a good boy; one who always tried to
do right, at home, at school, or in play. At home he would help Joseph
in his shop and his mother in her work or in caring for the smaller
children; in school we know that he learned his verses in the Bible,
because in after years he could always call them to his mind and speak
them; and in play he was always fair and good-hearted and willing. We
are told that he grew in knowledge and in the favor of God and of all
people. In other words, he was a boy that everybody liked.
[Illustration: The citadel of ancient Bethshean, in the Jordan valley,
twelve miles south of sea of Galilee]
The Boy Lost and Found
CHAPTER 12
JESUS STAYED at the school in the village church until he was twelve
years old. By that time he could read and write and could also repeat
many verses. But as his reading book and spelling book and copy book and
memory verses were all in the Bible, and as he heard long readings from
its books at the church service, we may be sure that he knew quite well
all the best things in that best of all books, the Bible. One proof of
this is that in later years, when anyone tried to puzzle him with a hard
question, he often answered promptly with a sentence from the Bible.
A Jewish boy generally left school at the age of twelve, unless he
wished to become a rabbi, which was the name among the Jews for a
teacher of their law. If that was his wish or the purpose of his
parents, he was sent up to Jerusalem to study in the college held by the
scribes or teachers in the Temple. Saul of Tarsus, a boy about four
years younger than Jesus, whom we know as Paul the Apostle, was a
student in the Temple college, but Jesus was not. While the young Saul
was studying in Jerusalem, Jesus as a young man was working in the
carpenter shop at Nazareth.
When Jesus was twelve years old he was taken on his first journey from
Nazareth up to Jerusalem to attend the great feast of the Passover.
Three great feasts were held during the year. The feast of the Passover
was in the early spring, and kept in mind the great day when the
Israelites went out of Egypt, no longer slaves but free men. The feast
of the Pentecost was held in the late spring, just fifty days after the
Passover--the word "pentecost" meaning "fifty days"--and reminded the
people that fifty days after their fathers went out of Egypt, God gave
them their law amid lightning and thunder on Mount Sinai. The feast of
the Tabernacles, or "feast of tents" (for that is the meaning of the
word tabernacles), was held in the fall; and at this time the people
built for themselves huts of green branches, ate in them and slept in
them for a week, to show the outdoor life of the early days in the
wilderness, while they were marching to Canaan, the Promised Land. These
three great feasts were held in Jerusalem, and from every part of the
land the people came up to the city to attend them.
It was a great event when the boy Jesus for the first time went on this
journey to Jerusalem. The younger children were left at home, under the
care of some friend, for a boy did not begin attending these feasts
until he was twelve years old. Of course, Joseph and Mary knew all about
this journey, for they had made it many times. They went in the caravan
or company from Nazareth, following the road that Joseph and Mary had
taken on their way to Bethlehem, twelve years before. As they journeyed,
Mary seated on the ass, Joseph and the boy Jesus walking beside her,
they would talk about the places which they passed, and the stories of
old times told about them. Jesus knew all those stories, for every
Jewish boy had heard them, over and over.
As they paused on the top of the hill beside Nazareth, below them was
spread out the great plain of Esdraelon, and they would say, "That
mountain by the Great Sea on the west is Mount Carmel, where Elijah
built his altar and made his great offering, when in answer to his
prayer the fire came down from heaven and burned up the bullock laid on
the altar. Do you see that road running across the plain? On that road
Elijah ran in front of King Ahab's chariot, after the long drought, when
the rain was coming. And then, this plain! Over it from Mount Tabor,
there on the left, Deborah and Barak chased the flying Canaanites across
the plain. Do you see that second mountain beyond Tabor? That is Mount
Gilboa; and at its foot Gideon with his brave three hundred frightened
at night the Midianite host and won a great victory."
[Illustration: Mount Tabor and the plain of Esdraelon]
They went down into the Jordan valley and walked southward by the Roman
road, following the Jordan River. At one place the mountains on either
side came down close to the river, and there was barely room for the
road between the foaming stream on one side and the steep rocks on the
other.
"Look," said Joseph, "this is the place where the waters rose up and
stood in a heap when our fathers under Joshua were about to cross the
river, thirty miles below."
They crossed a brook which fell into the river; and Joseph said, "Do you
see this brook? Up there among the mountains was the place where the
prophet Elijah was fed by the ravens; for this is the brook Cherith."
They came to the place just above Jericho where under Joshua the
Israelites walked across the dry bed of the river, the holy ark carried
by the priests in front and the people following in a long procession.
There the river is very wide and quite shallow, so that people walk
across, except in the early spring, when it is swollen by the rains and
the melting snow on the high mountains far to the north.
[Illustration: The Temple of Herod restored by Fergusson. The covered
portico on the left is the royal porch extending along the southern side
of the Temple area. The colonnade running from left to right is
Solomon's porch extending across the eastern side of the area. The
courts were much larger than as here shown.]
[Illustration: At last his parents found Jesus in the Temple, the center
of a company of learned scholars; he was asking questions of them and
they were asking questions of him, while all around were people
listening and wondering at this boy's deep knowledge of the truth.]
There they would point out across the river Mount Nebo, where Moses
stood looking upon the land and then all alone lay down and died. They
stopped for a rest at Jericho, where were stories to tell of the walls
that fell down when the Israelites marched around them, and the
priests blew their ram's-horn trumpets. Perhaps they stopped and drank
at the great spring near Jericho where the water was made pure by Elisha
the prophet. And after a climb up to the mountains, at the end of six
days or a week, they came to Jerusalem, the end of their journey, and
the place called by the people "the holy city."
And then, there was the splendid Temple of God! How the boy's heart was
stirred as he walked over the bridge leading from Mount Zion to Mount
Moriah! They went into the great outside court, the court of the
Gentiles, the only place in the Temple where foreigners were allowed to
enter; and the boy Jesus was shocked to see that it had been turned into
a market, where cattle and sheep and doves were sold, and where tables
stood around for the men who changed foreign money into Jewish shekels.
Over the eastern wall and the Golden Gate, they saw the Mount of Olives,
then covered to the top with vineyards and olive trees and gardens. They
climbed up a flight of steps and passed through a gate called "the
Beautiful Gate," into a smaller court, like the outer court open to the
sky. This was named "The Court of the Women" because from its
lattice-covered gallery the women looked down on the altar and the
services of worship. Jesus noticed that in this Court of the Women were
many classes of young men studying, seated in a circle, listening to
their teachers. How he longed to sit down among them and listen to these
wise scholars; for though only a boy, he had thought deeply on many
things which he had read, and many questions had come to his mind which
he greatly desired to have answered. He saw the sacrifice offerings laid
on the altar and burned, while trumpets sounded and censers of incense
were waved and the priests chanted the psalms of David.
While the family were in Jerusalem they found friends with whom they
stayed, and in their house the Passover feast was eaten. It was a very
simple meal, just a roasted lamb, some vegetables and bread made without
yeast, in thin cakes, like soda biscuit, only larger. They ate the meal
lying down on couches around the table, their heads toward the table,
their feet away from it. It was the custom or rule of the Jews, at this
feast, to have the story of the first Passover. Perhaps Joseph said to
Jesus:
"My son, you know what took place when this passover was eaten for the
first time. Tell us the story."
[Illustration: David street, Jerusalem, looking toward Olivet]
Then the boy Jesus told of the terrible plagues that fell upon the land
of Egypt; of the last and greatest sorrow, the death of the oldest son
in every house; how the Israelites sprinkled their door-posts with the
blood of the slain lamb and were passed over by this death-angel; how
they ate the lamb on that night, dressed for their journey; and how they
went out of Egypt and marched through the Red Sea.
The family were in Jerusalem for a week, and every day Jesus went up to
the Temple to worship in its services and to learn what he could from
its teachers. The last day of their visit came, and at its close the
families going to Galilee met together for their homeward journey. A
horn was blown and the caravan or company started northward. Mary missed
her son, but thought that he was somewhere in the crowd, talking with
other boys of his own age. But when night came, the company stopped to
rest and Jesus did not appear. Mary was alarmed. They looked through all
the crowd, but no Jesus was to be found.
Then in great trouble, Joseph and Mary hastened back to Jerusalem,
looking for their boy. They asked for him among the friends at whose
house they had stayed, but he had not been there. They wandered up and
down the narrow streets, but while they saw many groups of boys, their
boy was not among them. At last, on the third day, they looked for him
in the Temple. In one of its courts a crowd of people were listening to
the teachers who seemed to be talking with someone. They drew near, and
Mary's heart began to beat as she suddenly heard a boy's voice sounding
from the middle of the throng. She knew that voice, in its clear, rich,
honest tone! She pressed her way in; and there stood her boy, the center
of a company of the learned scholars. He was asking questions of these
men, and they in their answers were asking him questions in turn, while
all around were people listening and wondering at this boy's deep
knowledge of the truth.
Mary hastily rushed up to Jesus, and said:
"My son, why have you treated us so unkindly? Your father and I have
been looking for you, in great trouble, for three days!"
Jesus looked up at his mother's face, with surprise, and said:
"Why should you look for me? Did you not know that I would be in my
Father's house?"
Evidently on the last day of their stay, he had slipped away for one
more visit to the Temple; and once there his mind and heart had been so
full that no thought of the home-going had come to him. He had just
stayed there in the courts of the Lord's house without a thought of the
outside world.
Where had he slept on those two nights? Who had given him food during
those three days? He might have lain down, as thousands did during the
feast, under the olive trees on the Mount of Olives. Some stranger may
have seen him and invited him to a meal. But it would not be strange if
in his deep, whole-souled interest, he had never thought of food and had
eaten nothing during those three days.
But without a word he took his mother's hand and walked out of the
Temple. He made the journey home to Nazareth, saying little but thinking
much of all that he had seen and heard. One great, precious truth at
least had come home to his heart. He felt that the Lord God of Israel
was his own Father and he could trust fully the Father God.
The Young Woodworker
CHAPTER 13
FOR EIGHTEEN years after the visit to the Temple, Jesus was living in
Nazareth, growing up from a boy to a young man. A Jewish boy generally
left his school at about thirteen years of age, and began working at
some trade or business. Jesus went into Joseph's shop and helped in the
work, making plows and ax-handles and rakes and the plain furniture for
the houses. Whatever Jesus did was done well, and we cannot doubt that
in his trade he soon became a skilful worker. His ax-handles and plows
were as good as the best; and if he made a bushel measure, it was a true
one, for Jesus was a boy that could be trusted.
As a boy, he was like other boys, playing happily in play-time and
working heartily in work-time. Some boys like to be alone, reading and
thinking and dreaming; but Jesus was not one of that kind. All through
his life he liked to have people around him, and as a boy we may be sure
he had many friends among other boys. He was strong, in good health,
could run and jump and climb trees. With his boy friends he wandered
among the mountains and upon the great plain just over the hills from
his town. The Sea of Galilee was only twenty miles away, and we do not
doubt that Jesus with his friends went fishing in its blue waters and
brought home to his mother the fish which he had caught.
[Illustration: Jesus went into Joseph's shop and helped in the work,
making plows and ax-handles and the plain furniture for the houses.]
After a time, Joseph, the husband of Mary, died, and Jesus was left to
care for his mother and her large family of children. It is no light
load for one just coming out of boyhood and just beginning to be a
man, to have laid upon him the earning of enough money to buy food for
a mother and at least six younger brothers and sisters; and this was the
load which the young Jesus took up. But although Joseph who had been a
father to him was gone, Jesus knew that his heavenly Father was still
with him, and he could call upon him for help in every need.
Jesus worked hard all the long days, but when the Sabbath day came,
which among the Jews was Saturday, his shop was shut up and he sat on
the floor of the village church, listening to the reading of the Old
Testament and joining in the songs of praise. He took his turn as the
reader at the desk, and as he read the lesson in Isaiah or Micah or
Hosea, he saw meanings in the verses that others could not see, for in
the long hours of the workshop he was thinking and praying and listening
to the voice of God.
[Illustration: Tools of an oriental carpenter. 1, 3, 4. Drills. 2.
Chisel. 5. Handle of a drill. 6. Nut held in the hand while the drill
revolves. 7. Saw. 8. Punch. 9. Horn of oil. 10. Mallet. 11. Bag for
nails. 11. Basket to hold tools.]
While Jesus was living this quiet life in the home and the shop some
changes were going on in the land. The ruler in Galilee was Herod
Antipas, the son of that wicked Herod who killed all the babies in
Bethlehem; and he was very little better than his father. In Judea, the
part of the land around Jerusalem, Archelaus, another son of Herod,
ruled so badly that all the people sent to the Emperor Tiberius at Rome
asking to have him taken away. The Jews hoped that they might then have
rulers of their own people; but the Emperor sent them a Roman governor,
whom they did not like but dared not make angry. In many places through
the land, especially in Galilee, where Jesus was living, some of the
people refused to pay their taxes to the Roman empire, and began
fighting against the rulers. They could not battle with the Roman
armies, and hid in the woods and caves and mountains, but came out in
bands and robbed the people on the roads. All through the land, north
and south, were fear and trouble. The people were not contented with
their rulers, and all hoped that the time was near when the Kingdom of
God would come and their Roman officers and tax-gatherers would be
driven away. They looked for a kingdom like the one over which David
reigned a thousand years before, a kingdom with armies and victories
over its enemies and a palace for the king.
But they did not know that in that little one-room house on the hillside
of Nazareth, the King was waiting for his call to go forth and bring in
the true Kingdom of God.
The Voice by the River
CHAPTER 14
WHILE JESUS was still living in Nazareth and working in his carpenter
shop, suddenly the news went through all the land that a strange man was
preaching in the desert country of Judea, not far from Jerusalem; and
that all the people were going out of the cities and villages to hear
him.
This man was John, the son of the old priest Zacharias and his wife
Elizabeth. You remember that an angel came to Zacharias while he was
standing by the altar in the Temple, and told him that he should have a
son, and that his name should be John. John had now grown up and was a
young man about thirty years old. He had lived out in the desert places
away from the cities and their crowds, so that he could be alone and
think and pray and listen to the voice of God. And God had spoken to him
in the desert and he had told him to preach to the people and tell them
how to get ready for the Kingdom of God, which was soon to come.
[Illustration: John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness]
John was preaching beside the river Jordan, at the foot of the
mountains; and from the cities and villages everywhere the people went
to listen to his words. John did not look like the men of his time. He
had never cut his hair, and it hung upon his shoulders in a long black
mass. His black beard, too, was very long, for it had never been
trimmed. His clothing was a skin torn from a beast or a mantle woven
from the rough, shaggy hair of the camel, fastened by a leather belt
around the waist. He had lived out of doors in the sun and the winds and
the rain, so that his face and arms and legs and his bare feet were
all brown and hard. He ate for his food the locusts which he could pick
up in the fields and the woods and the honey to be found in the hollow
trees. When the people looked at him, they thought of the great prophet
Elijah, who many hundred years before had gone up to heaven in a chariot
of fire near that very place where John was preaching, and they said
wonderingly to each other:
"This must be Elijah, the fiery prophet, who has come back to earth."
A prophet among the Israelites was a man who brought to the people the
word which God had given him to speak. The books of the Old Testament,
which all the people knew almost by heart, told of many prophets, such
as Moses, who brought water for his people by striking the rock; Samuel,
whose prayers saved the people from their enemies; Nathan, who spoke
bold words to David the king; and Elisha, who had made the bitter waters
of a spring sweet, had cured the leper Naaman and wrought many wonderful
works. Of all the prophets, they thought Elijah the greatest, and they
remembered that in the last book of the Old Testament, the book of the
prophet Malachi, it was written:
"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great day of the
Lord shall come."
And when the people looked at this strange man who was preaching by the
river, they thought that the day of the Lord was surely coming, and that
here was the prophet Elijah as had been promised.
John said to the people, in his preaching, that the Kingdom of God was
near at hand and that every man must be ready for it. To make themselves
ready, they were to confess their sins, to stop doing wrong and to begin
to do right. As a sign of their willingness to cease from evil and to
serve the Lord, they were baptized by John in the river Jordan. John
said to them:
"I baptize you with water, but there is one among you, of your own
people, one whom you do not know, who is greater than I, so much above
me that I am not worthy to stoop down and tie his shoestrings. He will
come soon; and when he comes, he will not baptize with water as I do. He
will baptize you with fire and with the Spirit of God."
[Illustration: The river Jordan]
He spoke further about this Greater One who was coming so soon, and
said:
"He shall deal with the people as the farmer deals with his grain on the
threshing floor. He will sweep the floor most carefully; the wheat he
will put in his barn and the chaff he will burn up with a fire that
cannot be put out."
The people came to John and said to him:
"What shall we do to make ready for the coming of this Great King?"
John answered them:
"Let everyone do what he can to help those who are in need. If any of
you have two coats, give one of them to some poor man that has no
garments; and those of you who have wheat and barley, give to those who
are hungry something to eat."
Some of the men who gathered the taxes from the people for the Roman
rulers came to John and said:
"What would you have us do to make ready for the coming of the King?
Shall we tell the people that they are to pay no more taxes?"
"No," answered John. "Let the people pay their taxes as before; but see
that you do not make them pay more than is right, and do not rob them."
For many of these tax-collectors (who were called publicans) took from
the people more than they had a right to take, and used the people's
money for themselves. They made themselves rich by robbing the people.
Everywhere the people hated these tax-collectors, and called them
"sinners."
The soldiers and policemen came to John and said, "And what shall we
do?"
John said to them:
"Do not be harsh and rough with the people. Treat everyone kindly. Be
contented with your pay, and do not make the people give you money that
you have no right to ask."
These were some of the many things that John said to the people. All his
words came to this: "If you are doing wrong, stop it and begin to do
right. Do not be selfish, but love your fellow men and do good to them.
And be ready when the King comes to obey him."
John was called "John the Baptist" because he baptized in the river
Jordan all those who promised to follow his teachings.
The leaders of the people in Jerusalem did not believe the words of John
and were not baptized by him. They did not know exactly what to think of
him, and they sent some priests and others to see him. These men came
and asked him:
"Who are you? Are you the Christ, the promised King?"
"No," answered John, "I am not the Christ."
"What then?" said they. "Are you Elijah the prophet come to earth again,
as some people say you are?"
"No," answered John again, "I am not Elijah."
"Well, then," they said, "tell us who you are, so that we can give an
answer to the rulers who have sent us."
And John said:
"In the book of the prophet Isaiah it is written, 'The Voice of him that
cries in the desert: prepare ye the way of the Lord, make a straight
path before him.' I am that voice to speak to the people and make them
ready for the King, who is even now among you, although you do not know
him, and who will soon make himself known."
The Carpenter Leaves His Shop
CHAPTER 15
AFTER SOME months the news was brought to Nazareth that John the Baptist
had come up the river Jordan and was now preaching at a place about
twelve miles south of the Sea of Galilee. The place where John was
preaching had two names. It was called "Bethany beyond Jordan," there
being another Bethany quite near Jerusalem; and it was also called
"Bethabara," a word which means "the place where one can walk across the
river"; for there the river Jordan was so shallow that people waded
across it. John had chosen this place because the sloping shore beside
the river was fitted for the crowds to listen to his preaching, and the
shallow water was near at hand for baptizing the people.
Bethabara or Bethany was about twenty-five miles from Nazareth; and over
the plain just across the hill was a road leading down to the river at
that place, where people used to cross the Jordan on their way to the
land of Decapolis and Perea beyond. Nearly all the people had heard John
preach, and most of them had been baptized by him as a sign that they
promised to turn from evil and do good and look for the King who was
soon to come.
Jesus felt that the time had now come for him to begin the work to which
God had called him. He had told no one of his purpose, not even his
mother; but one day he left his carpenter shop to his younger brothers,
who were now young men and able to care for their mother. He walked down
the valleys, came to the river Jordan, waded the stream, and at
Bethabara, in front of a crowd of people from every part of the land,
for the first time he saw John the Baptist. No doubt Mary had told her
son all the story of the angel by the altar, of John's birth and of his
early life; but in all the years Jesus and John had never met.
Jesus listened to the words of John, and then with the others he came
forward to be baptized. John looked at this strange young man who was
drawing near, and as he looked the voice within him said:
"The long-promised King has come! This Man is He!"
John felt that here was one who needed no baptism; for he knew that this
man had no sins to give up, and was already doing God's will perfectly.
He felt unwilling to baptize him, and said:
[Illustration: The Jordan. At the supposed place of Christ's baptism.]
"It is not fitting that I should baptize one so good and so great in the
sight of God as you are. I need to be baptized by you, and do you come
to me?"
But Jesus answered him:
"It is best that it should be so. Whatever is right for other men is
right also for me. Let me do this as my duty to God."
[Illustration: As Jesus rose out of the water, a light flashed from the
sky, resting on his head, and the voice of God was heard saying: "This
is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased."]
Then John yielded to the will of Jesus and baptized him. Just as Jesus
rose out of the water a strange thing happened. While he was praying a
light flashed from the sky and seemed to rest upon the head of Jesus
like a white, shining dove coming down upon him; and a voice was heard
somewhat like a peal of thunder. Those standing on the shore felt that
some words were spoken, but they could not understand them. John alone
heard and understood. It was the voice of God, and John afterward told
the people that these were the words spoken:
"This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased."
At that instant a mighty Power came upon Jesus. The Spirit of God had
always been with him and had caused him to feel that the Lord was
fitting him to do some great work. But in that moment when the light
from heaven fell upon him and the voice of God was heard, Jesus was
filled with the Spirit of God as no man, not even the greatest of the
prophets, had been filled before. He knew now that he was not only a
prophet, one who hears God's voice and speaks God's words; but more than
a prophet, he himself was the Son of God. He saw as in a flash what was
God's plan for his kingdom on the earth; and that it was a kingdom far
different from that expected by the Jewish people. He knew that he, who
up to that moment had been the woodworker of Nazareth, was from that
hour to be the Prince of the heavenly kingdom. He was to lead the people
to God and to show in his own life how men should live. He was to bring
God down to men and to bring men to God. All this and more that we
cannot understand came to the soul of Jesus as he stood on the brink of
Jordan with the light of God upon his face.
Alone in the Desert
CHAPTER 16
AFTER HIS baptism Jesus felt that for a time he must be alone to think
over the great change that had come upon him. Only yesterday he had been
the carpenter in Nazareth, and now he knew that he was the Son of God
and the King of Israel! So sudden and mighty a change as this made him
feel that he must go to some quiet, lonely place, where he could think
and pray and find out his Father's will for himself and the work that he
was to do.
Without speaking even a word with John, Jesus slipped out of the crowd
upon the bank of the river. He walked toward the south, not following
the well-known road beside the Jordan, over which he had walked many
times while attending the feasts in Jerusalem, but choosing the paths
along the mountain-side where he would not meet people, for he wished
not to talk with men but with God.
[Illustration: Jesus chose the paths along the mountainside where he
would not meet people, for he wished not to talk with men but with God.]
He came at last to a very lonely place, between Jericho and Jerusalem; a
place where no man lived and where even the Arabs of the desert scarcely
ever wandered. The only living creatures in the desolate land were the
wild beasts, the wolves and the foxes, whose howls could be heard at
night. There upon the top of a hill, with rocks all around, he sat down
to rest. His mind had been in such a whirl of excitement, and his heart
was beating with such strong feeling, that he had never thought of
taking with him any food to eat. For many days and nights he was alone,
praying and talking with God and never once thinking of eating. More
than a month passed away, even forty days, before the feeling of
hunger came upon him.
Then suddenly he felt a sharp gnawing in his body, and he knew that he
was famishing for food. He felt that he must have something to eat or he
would die there in the desert, with the great work to which God had
called him all left undone. Around him were the rough stones of the
wilderness, and as he looked on them, this thought came to his mind:
"There is no need for me to starve in this desert. If I am the Son of
God, as the voice from heaven said, then I need only to speak a word and
these stones will be turned to bread!"
Then Jesus thought again, and said to himself, "Yes, I am the Son of
God, and I have the power to make these stones turn into bread for me to
eat. But that power was given me by my heavenly Father; and it was
given, not that I should use it for myself, but for the help of others
who are in need. It is not God's will that I should make bread out of
stones for myself."
And then a sentence out of the Bible came to the mind of Jesus, and he
said, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that comes out of the mouth of God."
Jesus seemed to be alone in the desert, but there was one who was
watching him, all unseen. That one was the evil spirit, Satan, who hated
Jesus, knowing that he was the Son of God and the Saviour of the world.
He had put into the mind of Jesus the thought of turning stones to bread
and using the power which God had given him for himself alone. Jesus was
quick to see the purpose of Satan and to turn away from it.
[Illustration: When Satan, the wicked spirit, found that he could not
persuade Jesus to do his will, he left him.]
Then another thought came to the mind of Jesus. He said to himself, "I
know that I am the King of Israel, the Messiah whom the people have been
looking for so long. But how shall I cause the people to know that I
am their King? What can I do to make them believe in me?"
At that moment, while Jesus was trying to think out the best plan for
beginning his work and making himself, as the Son of God, known to the
people, Satan, the evil spirit, was ready with another word. He said,
"Here is a good plan. Go to the Temple in Jerusalem at some feast-time
when it is crowded with people, and in the sight of all the crowd, leap
off one of the towers. You will not fall to the ground, but will come
sailing down through the air, for all power is yours. And when the
people see you, they will fall on their faces before you and will
believe in you as the King so long promised. You know that you are the
Son of God and that God will take care of you. Don't you remember that
in one of the psalms it is written, 'He shall give his angels charge
over thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up so that thou shalt
not dash thy foot against a stone?'"
Jesus saw at once that this was not God's plan, but Satan's plan. It
would not be trusting God, but would be putting God's power and God's
care to a trial to show what Jesus himself could do. He would not
perform this foolish act, nor anything like it, of his own accord. He
would wait until God told him what to do, and would do nothing until he
was sure that it was the will of God. Again a sentence out of the Bible
came to his mind, and he said:
"It is written again, 'Thou shall not put the Lord thy God to trial.'"
That means that we should never make a show of our trust in God or let
others see by some act that is not needed what God can do to help us. We
must not venture into danger to show how God can bring us out of
danger.
Jesus had now settled two great questions. He would not use his
wonder-working powers for himself, even to save his own life; and he
would do nothing merely as a show, but would in all things work only the
will of his Father. There was one more question to be met: he was to
become the King of Israel, but what kind of a kingdom would he have?
He knew well that all the Israelite people, not only in Judea and
Galilee, but in all the lands, were looking for a king who should rule
in Jerusalem, somewhat as the Emperor Tiberius was ruling in Rome. They
hoped for a king who should gather an army, should drive out the Romans,
should fight battles, win victories and make his kingdom the ruling
power in the world. They looked for the time when the Romans should be
under their feet, and when all other lands should pay taxes and serve
their king in Jerusalem.
All this Jesus knew, and Satan, the wicked spirit, was at his side,
though unseen, to say to him:
"Take my advice, and I will give you all the kingdoms of the world; for
they are mine and I can give them to whom I please."
Jesus knew that what the people wanted was just what Satan wanted, a
worldly, wicked kingdom, built out of war and blood and the killing of
all who would not submit to it. But that would not be the Kingdom of
God. It would be the Kingdom of Satan, as so many kingdoms and nations
have been in the past. To do as Satan wished him to do would be just the
same as if he bowed down before Satan and worshipped him as his Lord and
Master. This he would not do; and his last words to the tempter were:
"Go away from me, Satan! It is written, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, and him only shalt thou serve!'"
Jesus saw plainly that in making this great choice to please God, he
would not please his own people, the Jews. He knew that the rulers and
the priests and the scribes, those who were the leading men of the time,
would be against him, would refuse to follow him, would try to stir up
the people against him and would try to kill him. But Jesus was ready to
die in serving God, rather than to live in doing the will of Satan.
When Satan, the wicked spirit, found that he could not persuade Jesus to
do his will, he left him. And afterward, angels from heaven, sent by his
Father, came to him in the desert and gave him all the food that he
needed.
The gospels of Matthew and Luke, which tell the story of this meeting
with Satan and of Jesus' victory, do not say just where it took place.
All we know is that it was in the "desert" or the "wilderness." But near
Jericho stands a mountain where it is thought by some that Jesus stayed
during those forty days. This mountain on that account is called by a
name which means "forty days"--Mount Quarantania.
[Illustration: Mount Quarantania. Believed by some to be the mount where
Jesus was tempted.]
[Illustration: Andrew brought his brother Simon to Jesus, who gave him a
new name, "The Rock," or Peter.]
The Earliest Followers of Jesus
CHAPTER 17
AFTER HIS forty days in the desert, Jesus began his work of winning men
to the Kingdom of God. This plan was, at first, to talk to men one by
one, until he could gather around him a little company of those who
would believe in his words as a teacher, and follow him as their leader.
The men who would be best fitted to become his first followers were some
of those who had been already taught by John the Baptist. So from the
wilderness Jesus turned his steps northward once more, and walked up the
well-trodden road toward Bethabara, where nearly two months ago he had
been baptized.
At Bethabara with John the Baptist was a group or company of young men,
who were known as John's "disciples," that is, men who stayed with him
to learn his teachings after the crowds had gone home. Some of these
were fishermen from the Sea of Galilee who had left their nets and their
work that they might listen to John.
John was standing with some of these men around him, when at some
distance a stranger was seen walking up the road. These disciples of
John did not know who this man was, but John remembered him, for the
light flashing from the sky upon his face at the moment of his baptism
and the voice from the heavens, had stamped Jesus upon his memory. He
pointed to Jesus and said:
"Look! Yonder is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
This is the one of whom I spoke when I said, 'After me shall come a man
who is greater than I, and who shall baptize not in water but in the
Holy Spirit.' Upon this man I saw the Spirit coming down like a dove
and resting upon him. And I tell you all that this man is the Son of
God."
While John was speaking these words, Jesus passed out of sight, and John
and his disciples saw no more of him that day. But on the next day, when
John was standing with two of his followers, Jesus again walked by, and
John again looked at him and said to the young men:
"Look! The Lamb of God!"
The two young men when they heard these words at once left John and
walked toward Jesus. As they drew near, Jesus turned and said to them:
"Why do you follow me? What is it that you wish?"
They said to him: "Teacher, we wish to know where you are staying, so
that we can see you and talk with you."
"Come and see," said Jesus; and he led them to the house where he was
staying as a guest. In those times the Jews welcomed to their homes
those who were on a journey and for a few days needed a resting place.
It was about ten o'clock in the morning when those two men sat down in
the house with Jesus, and they stayed with him all the rest of the day
until the sun went down, listening as he talked to them about the
Kingdom of God. His words went straight to their hearts, and on that day
those two young men believed in Jesus as their Messiah-Christ; that is,
the King of Israel, long promised by the prophets of the Old Testament
and long looked for by the Israelite people. The two words Messiah and
Christ mean the same. One is in the Hebrew language; the other in the
Greek, and both words mean "The Anointed One," or "the King of Israel."
Thus, on the first day of his teaching Jesus found two followers. Both
of these men were fishermen from the Sea of Galilee, not many miles
away. One was a man named John, who was afterward called "the disciple
whom Jesus loved," for of all his followers, John was the one nearest to
Jesus. Long afterward, John wrote one of the most precious books in the
Bible, "the Gospel according to John," which shows us, more than any
other book, the inmost heart of Jesus.
The other young man was named Andrew. He thought at once of his older
brother, Simon, who was also a follower of John the Baptist. He went to
find Simon, and said to him:
"We have found the Messiah, of whom the prophets have spoken!"
He spoke in the Hebrew tongue, which was the language of his people. If
he had spoken in Greek, the tongue in which the New Testament was first
written, he would have said, "We have found the Christ;" that is, the
King. Andrew brought his brother Simon to Jesus; and as soon as Jesus
looked at him, before Andrew had spoken his name, he said:
"Your name is Simon, and you are the son of Jonas. But I will give you a
new name. In the time to come you shall be called 'the Rock.'"
In the Hebrew language the word meaning "rock" is "Cephas" or "Kephas."
In Greek it is "Peter." After this Simon was sometimes called Cephas,
but more often Peter. He became a leader among the followers of Jesus,
and many years later wrote one, perhaps two, of the books in the New
Testament.
Jesus had now three followers who believed in him as their Lord and
King; and the next day he found a fourth. This man was named Philip, and
he came from a place called Bethsaida, on the northern shore of the Sea
of Galilee. Jesus said to Philip:
"Follow me."
And he too joined the little company of the disciples or followers of
Jesus. Philip at once thought of a friend of his own, a very good and
pure man, who he thought would be glad to join him as a follower of
Jesus. He went to look for him and found him standing under a fig tree.
He said:
"We have found him of whom Moses wrote in the law, and of whom the
prophets spoke, the Christ. His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph; and he
comes from the town of Nazareth."
Now Nathanael's home-town was Cana, only a few miles from Nazareth.
Nathanael thought of Nazareth as a mean place. He could not believe that
the great King of Israel, the Christ, should spring from such a village.
He looked for him to come from some great city, like Jerusalem, or from
Bethlehem, David's town. He did not know that Jesus had been born in
Bethlehem; in fact he had never heard of Jesus, and he said:
"Do you tell me that anything good can come out of Nazareth?"
Now, Philip was not wise enough to tell Nathanael the reasons why he
believed in Jesus. It is hard to put into words some of our deepest
thoughts. But he gave to Nathanael a very wise answer.
"Well," said Philip, "come and see Jesus for yourself."
Jesus had never seen Nathanael before, but as he drew near, Jesus said
to those who were standing by:
"Look! here comes a true Israelite, a man of God, one whose heart has in
it nothing evil."
Nathanael was greatly surprised at these words of Jesus. He said,
"How is it that you know me?"
"Before Philip spoke to you," answered Jesus, "while you were standing
under the fig tree, I saw you."
"Teacher," said Nathanael, "you are the Son of God; you are the King of
Israel."
Jesus said:
"Do you believe because I said, 'I saw you underneath the fig tree?' You
will yet see greater things than these. In truth, I say to you that you
shall see the heaven opened and the angels of God going up and coming
down upon the Son of Man."
By "the Son of Man," Jesus meant himself. He used those words to show
that while he was "the Son of God," he was also a man among men.
Jesus had been preaching or talking to a few men about the Kingdom of
God, and already he had gained five followers. There may have been
others, for not long afterwards we find James, the brother of John,
among his disciples.
[Illustration: The village of Bethphage, on the Mount of Olives]
[Illustration: Jesus, with his first followers, John, Andrew, Philip and
Nathanael, left the river Jordan and walked to the village of Cana in
Galilee.]
The Water Turned to Wine
CHAPTER 18
SOON AFTER Jesus met the men who became his first followers he left the
river Jordan, and with these men walked to the land of Galilee, to the
village of Cana, about six miles north of Nazareth. This was the town
where Nathanael, one of the first five followers of Jesus, lived.
At Cana a marriage was to be held, and Jesus with all his followers was
invited. In that land, at a marriage, a feast was always given, and all
the friends of the newly-married couple, with their friends also, and
almost everybody in the village, were expected to come. The feasting and
dancing and merry-making often lasted through a whole week.
Before the feast was over they found that the wine, which in those times
everybody drank freely, was used up, and those who were giving the feast
had no wine to set before their guests. This filled them with alarm, for
at such times the wine was expected to flow freely, and not to have wine
for the company at a feast was considered almost a disgrace.
The mother of Jesus was there as a friend of the family. She thought of
a way to help those who were giving the feast, and called her son aside
from the crowd, and said to him very quietly:
"They have no wine."
She knew what very few knew, that Jesus was the Son of God, and that all
power was in his hands. He had not yet done any of those wonderful works
of curing the sick, making the blind to see and making the deaf to
hear, which he did so often afterward; but Mary believed that he could
do them if he chose. She thought that perhaps he would use his power to
give the wine that was needed. It was with this hope that she said to
him, "They have no wine."
The answer that Jesus gave was not such in its words as to encourage
her.
"Woman," said he, "what have you to do with me in this matter? My time
is not yet come."
His speaking to his mother as "Woman," instead of saying "Mother," as a
young man would among us, was not lacking in respect. It was the usage
of that time for a son to say "Woman," and not "Mother." She saw in his
face a look showing her that she had not spoken in vain. So she turned
to the servants who were standing near. "Whatever he tells you to do,"
she said, "do it."
[Illustration: Cana, and its well]
One of the usages of the Jews was to wash their hands before they sat
down to a meal. This washing was not merely to make their hands clean;
it was a sort of religious service, and the Jews were very strict in
doing it. When so large a company met for a feast, a great deal of water
was needed. In the hall were standing six large jars for water, each jar
of a size to hold nearly twenty gallons. They were nearly empty,
because all the guests had washed their hands before sitting down at the
feast. Jesus pointed to these jars and said to the servants:
"Fill all those jars with water."
They obeyed him and filled all the jars up to the brim. Then Jesus said
again:
"Now draw out from the jars, and carry what you take out to the ruler of
the feast."
Wondering, the servants dipped their pitchers into the great jars which
only a few moments before they had filled with water. How surprised they
were to find each pitcher as it came out full of red wine! They carried
it to the ruler of the feast. He tasted it and saw that it was wine of
the very best kind. He did not know how it had been made, but supposed
that it had been brought suddenly from some wine merchant. He called the
young man who had been married, and in whose honor the feast was being
held, and said to him:
"Everybody serves his best wine at the beginning of his feast; and
afterward, when people have been drinking some time, he brings wine that
is poorer; but you have kept your best wine until now!"
[Illustration: Stone water-jars]
[Illustration: The mother of Jesus called her son aside and said to him
quietly: "They have no wine."]
The only ones who knew whence the new wine had come were the servants.
But they soon told others, and the word was passed around the company
that Jesus of Nazareth, Mary's son, had wrought this wonderful work. His
followers, the five or more disciples who had come with Jesus to the
wedding feast, now believed more fully than before that their teacher
was more than a mere man, that the power of God was upon him and that
whatever he should say was the word of God.
Such a work as that of turning the water into wine, a work that no man
could do without God's power, was called "a miracle." It showed that the
one who wrought it was a man sent from God, doing God's will and
speaking God's word. This was the first miracle or work of wonder that
Jesus wrought; but after this we shall read of many miracles.
From the wedding feast Jesus went down the mountains of Galilee to the
city of Capernaum, which stood on the shore of the Sea of Galilee on the
northwest. With Jesus on this visit to Capernaum were his mother, some
of his younger brothers and his followers.
[Illustration: Oriental basin, ewer, etc.]
[Illustration: Nicodemus sought Jesus quietly one night to talk with him
and learn more of his teachings.]
The Lord in His Temple
CHAPTER 19
THE SPRING-TIME of the year came, when the people from all parts of the
land went up to Jerusalem to attend the great feast of the Passover.
You remember that this feast was held to keep in mind how more than a
thousand years before God had led the Israelite people out of Egypt,
where they had been slaves. It was called the feast of the Passover
because on the night of their going-out the angel of death had "passed
over" the houses of the Israelites when he brought death to the Egyptian
homes. On that night, too, they went out of Egypt in such haste that the
women did not have time to wait for the bread to rise before baking it,
and all the bread eaten at that time was "unleavened bread," or bread
made without yeast.
To keep in mind that great day, the day when Israel became a nation,
ruling itself, in the spring of every year all the people gathered in
Jerusalem, and for one week ate unleavened bread, that is, bread made
without yeast. Great services were held in the Temple on every day of
this feast; and on one evening a special dinner of a roasted lamb was
eaten by everybody, to keep in mind the last meal which the Israelites
ate in the land of Egypt, with their hats on their heads and their
cloaks on their shoulders and their shoes on their feet, all ready to
march away.
Jesus and the little company of his disciples or followers went up to
Jerusalem, walking, as many times before, down the Jordan valley to
Jericho, and then climbing the hills to the holy city. For many years
Jesus had been coming to the feast of the Passover; but never before had
he come as he came now, in the power of the Spirit, as the Son of God.
Around the House of God was a great open court, called the Court of the
Gentiles, where foreign people who were not Jews came to pray; since
none but Jews or Israelites could enter the inner courts. But the Jews
held all Gentiles or foreign people in contempt. They did not look upon
the part of the Temple buildings where foreigners prayed as holy; and
they had turned this court, the Court of the Gentiles, into a market
place. Here Jesus found everywhere sheep and oxen brought there for
sale; cages full of doves, which were sold to the poorer people for
offerings upon the altar; counters where sat men changing the money of
people from other lands into the coins of Judea. There was nothing of
the quiet and peace which should be in a place of prayer; all was noise
and confusion; the lowing of oxen, the voices of men buying and selling,
the jingling of silver on the tables.
These sights and sounds stirred the heart of Jesus. He felt that such
work as went on around him was unfit and was wicked in a place set apart
for the worship of God. He picked up a piece of rope from the floor and
untwisted its cords until it seemed like a whip. Then standing before
the buyers and the sellers, he called upon them to stop their trading.
They looked up amazed at this stranger whose face glowed with power as
though he were a king.
Alone, without help from anyone, he drove all these people out of the
court. He bade them lead away the sheep and the oxen; he commanded those
who sold the doves to carry out their cages; he overturned the tables of
the money-changers and sent their silver rolling upon the floor.
[Illustration: Standing before the buyers and the sellers, he called
upon them to stop their trading; he overturned the tables of the money
changers and sent their silver rolling upon the floor.]
"Take all these things away," he cried out. "This is the house of my
Father; you shall not make it a house for buying and selling."
Even the little company of his disciples--Peter, John, Andrew and the
others--stood still in wonder as they saw their Master alone, armed only
with a piece of rope, driving out the gates this crowd of men, who were
frightened at the kingliness of his looks and fled before him, not for
one moment daring to resist his will.
But soon came the priests and rulers of the Temple. They ought not to
have allowed these men to trade in the Temple Court and to make it a
market place. But some of them took a share of the money that was made
in that place. One high priest, it is said, owned all the cages of doves
and pigeons that were kept in the Temple for sale. These rulers were
very angry to have the trading stopped and their gains taken away.
"What right have you to come here," they said to Jesus, "and make
trouble? Who are you that you should undertake to rule in this place?
Show us some sign or proof that you are Master here!"
"The time is coming," said Jesus, "when I will show you a sign of my
power, but not now; and when that sign comes, you will not believe it."
Then, making a motion of his hands as though pointing to himself, he
added:
"Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews were horrified at these words; for they thought that he was
speaking of the building on Mount Moriah, and in their mind to speak of
pulling down the house where God dwelt was a terrible thing. But Jesus
was speaking of himself as the Son of God, in whose body dwelt the
Spirit of God. Far more than that building, where men cheated and did
evil deeds, Jesus himself was the house of God. The rulers said:
"This Temple has taken forty-six years to build, and it is not finished
yet; and will you raise it up in three days?"
Nearly fifty years before, King Herod had begun to rebuild the Temple,
which in his time had become old and decayed. The repairs were made very
slowly, and in the time of Jesus the building was still far from being
finished. It was not finished until more than twenty years afterward.
We know what Jesus meant by those words; that three years afterward,
those very men would cause him, the Son of God, whose body was God's
dwelling place, to be put to death; and within three days after his
death he would rise from his tomb, to be the Temple of God again and
forever. The disciples of Jesus heard these words, but at that time did
not know what they meant.
Jesus stayed for some time in Jerusalem and talked to the people about
the Kingdom of God. He also did some wonderful works, such as curing the
sick; and the people who saw these acts believed his words, as from one
whom God had sent to men. But the priests and the rulers hated Jesus,
because he spoke against their wicked lives, and they did all that they
could to turn the people away from him.
Among the rulers, however, were a few men who listened to Jesus and
believed his words. One of these was a man named Nicodemus. He wished to
have a talk with Jesus and learn more of his teachings. But he was
afraid to be seen with Jesus in the day-time, knowing that the other
rulers were so strongly against Jesus. So he went quietly one night,
unknown to everybody, and had a meeting with Jesus. Nicodemus began by
saying:
"Teacher, we all know that you have been sent by God to speak to us,
because no one could do these wonderful things that you are doing unless
God were with him to give him power."
Jesus said to him:
"Let me tell you and all your people one thing. No man can have any part
in the Kingdom of God unless he is born again from God."
Nicodemus did not know what this meant, and he said, "How can a man be
born again after he is grown up?"
"Every man," said Jesus, "must become a new man and have the Spirit of
God dwelling in him, if he is to come into the Kingdom of God. Do not be
surprised that I say to you, 'You must be born anew.' There are many
things that you cannot understand. Listen to the wind blowing! You can
hear it, but you cannot tell from what place it comes nor to what place
it goes. Just so is it with every one who is born of God's spirit."
What Jesus meant in these words was that every one who would be a
follower of Christ needs to have a new heart and to live a new life; and
this new heart and new life God alone can give to him.
One great sentence was spoken by Jesus at this time. Here it is.
"God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life."
AT THE OLD WELL
CHAPTER 20
AFTER THE Passover, Jesus went teaching through the villages in Judea,
the province or part of the land around Jerusalem. As Judea was the
largest of the five provinces, it gave its name also to the whole land,
which was called both "Judea" and "the land of Israel." John the Baptist
was still preaching and baptizing, although the crowds which now came to
hear him were not so great as before. While John was near the Sea of
Galilee, Jesus stayed in Judea, so that none might think that he was
trying to draw the people away from John.
But after a time Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been put in
prison by Herod Antipas, the wicked ruler of Galilee and Perea. Herod
had stolen from his brother Philip his wife, named Herodias, and was
living with her. John said to him:
"It is against the law of Moses and of God for you to take away your
brother's wife."
This made Herod angry with John, and Herodias even more angry. She
wished to have John put to death for his bold words, but Herod, though
he was not a good man, was unwilling to have John slain, and partly to
keep him safe from the hate of his wife, he ordered that he should be
put into prison. To a man like John, used to the free life of the
wilderness, and not even willing to live in town or village, it must
have been hard to be shut up in a prison cell, within four walls, and to
be able only to see the outside world through grated windows.
As soon as Jesus learned that John the Baptist was shut up in prison, he
ended his work in Judea, and with his disciples started for Galilee, his
old home in the north. On this journey he did not go the way of the
river Jordan, but took the most direct road, which would lead him
through the land of Samaria. He knew that the Samaritan people who lived
in that land hated the Jews and often robbed them when they traveled
through their country. Still, Jesus made up his mind to go through
Samaria.
[Illustration: John the Baptist rebuking Herod]
Leading the little company of his followers, he walked northward from
Jerusalem, past Bethel, where long before Jacob lying on his pillow of
stone had his wonderful dream of the ladder reaching up to heaven; past
Shiloh, where once the holy Ark of God had been kept in the Tabernacle
in the days of Samuel; and over mountains where battles had been fought
and victories won.
Early one morning, after walking in the night, Jesus and his disciples
came to an old well, about two miles from the city of Shechem. Nearby
was a little village, named Sychar, which could be seen from the well,
and although it was a Samaritan village the followers of Jesus went to
it to buy some food. This well was very old. It had been dug by Jacob,
the early father of all the Israelite people, more than eighteen hundred
years before Jesus came to that place. And it is still there, a well dug
out of the solid rock nearly one hundred feet deep, and even now having
water in it ten months of the year, but apt to be dry in the summer.
That well is now nearly four thousand years old, yet every traveler who
visits it may look down into its depths, may see a bucket of water drawn
and may have a drink from it.
In that time a well did not have with it a pump for bringing up the
water, nor was there even a rope to let down into it; but each one who
came to draw water--and it was generally a woman--brought a rope and a
water-jar. As Jesus sat beside the well, very tired and hungry and
thirsty, he had nothing with which to draw water. As the Son of God upon
the earth, he could have made the water come to him, but he would not,
for you remember that in the desert Jesus would do no wonderful work, no
miracle, merely for his own need.
Suddenly Jesus heard the sound of someone coming. He looked up and saw a
woman, with her water-jar and rope, standing by the well. From her dress
he knew that she was not a Jewish but a Samaritan woman, and being the
Son of God, he saw more. He knew at once all her life, which had not
been a good life. But he looked into her heart and saw that she had a
longing after God and after good. He said to her:
"Will you give me a drink of water from this well?"
The woman glanced at Jesus, and knowing from his dress and his manner of
speaking that he was a Jew, said to him:
"How is it that you, who are a Jew, ask drink from me, a Samaritan
woman?"
The Jews looked down upon the Samaritans, never asked any favors of
them, and would not drink from a cup or pitcher that a Samaritan had
handled. The woman knew this, and was greatly surprised that this
strange young man of the Jewish race should speak to her. Jesus answered
her:
"If you knew what God's free gift is, and who he is that is asking you
for a drink, you would have asked him instead, and he would have given
you living water."
As Jesus said these words, very thoughtfully, the woman looking and
listening felt that this was no common man. She thought that he might be
a prophet, a man whom God had sent to do mighty works and speak the
words of God. She said, very respectfully:
"Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is very deep.
Where can you get your living water? Are you a greater man than our
father Jacob, who dug this well and gave it to us, and drank of its
water himself, with his sons and his sheep and oxen?"
Jesus answered her:
"Anyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but anyone who
drinks the water that I will give him will never thirst any more. The
water that I will give him will turn into a well of water springing up
to everlasting life."
"Oh, sir," said the woman, "give me some of your living water, so that
I need not be thirsty nor come all this road to draw water."
Jesus looked earnestly at the woman's face, and then said to her:
"Go home; call your husband, and come here again."
The woman's face clouded, her eyes dropped, and she looked as if she
felt ashamed, while she answered in a low voice, "I have no husband."
Jesus looked at her steadily, and said:
"You have spoken the truth. You have no husband. But you have had five
husbands, and the man with whom you are living now is not your husband.
You spoke the truth in those words."
The woman was filled with wonder as she heard the stranger speak. She
saw at once that here was a man who knew everything. She was sure that
God had spoken to this man and given him this knowledge of her. "Sir,"
said she, "I see that you are a prophet of God. Tell me, then, whether
our people or the Jews are right. Our fathers have worshipped God on
this mountain; but the Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where all
should go to worship God."
As she spoke, she pointed to the mountain that was standing near, Mount
Gerizim, on the top of which was the temple of the Samaritans.
"Woman, believe me," answered Jesus, "there is coming a time when men
shall worship God in other places besides this mountain and Jerusalem.
The time is near, it has even now come, when the true worshippers
everywhere shall pray to the Father in spirit and in truth. God is a
Spirit, dwelling everywhere, and those who worship him, must worship in
spirit and in truth."
[Illustration: Jesus sat beside the well, very tired and thirsty, but he
had nothing with which to draw water. Suddenly he heard the sound of
someone coming, and looking up saw a Samaritan woman with her water
jar.]
The woman said to Jesus:
"I know that Messiah is coming, the Christ sent from God to be our
King. When he comes he will explain everything to us."
Then Jesus said to her, "I who am now speaking to you am he, the
Christ!"
Just at that moment the followers of Jesus, John and Peter, and the
others, came back from the village with the food which they had bought.
They were surprised to find their Master talking with a woman, but they
said nothing.
The woman had come to the well to draw water, but in her interest in
this wonderful stranger she forgot all about her errand. Leaving her
water-jar she ran back to the village and said to everybody whom she
met:
"Come with me and meet a man who told me everything I have done in all
my life! Is not this man the Christ whom we are looking for?"
After the woman went away toward her home, the disciples urged Jesus to
eat some of the food which they had brought. A little while before Jesus
had been hungry, but now in talking with the woman and leading her mind
to the truth, he had forgotten his own needs.
"I have food to eat," said he, "that you know nothing of."
They looked at each other and said:
"Can it be that someone has brought him something to eat?"
But Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of my Father who sent
me into the world, and to finish the work that he gave me to do. Do you
say that there are four months before the harvest time will come? I tell
you to look on the fields, and find them already white for the harvest.
You shall reap and gain a rich harvest, gathering grain for everlasting
life."
Jesus meant that this woman, bad though she may have been before, was
now eager to hear his words and to come to God. So his disciples would
soon find the hearts of men everywhere, like a field of ripe grain,
ready to be won and to be saved.
Soon the woman came back to the well with many of her people. They all
asked Jesus to come to their village and teach them. He went to the town
of Sychar and stayed there two days, talking to the people about the
Kingdom of God and showing them how they might enter into it. Many of
the people in that place and near it believed in Jesus as the Christ,
the King sent from God, and they said:
"Now we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is really the
Saviour of the world."
[Illustration: Scene in Damascus, showing houses on the walls]
THE NOBLEMAN'S BOY
CHAPTER 21
[Illustration: Jacob's well as it is at the present time]
AFTER STAYING two days in Sychar, the village near Jacob's well, Jesus
and his disciples went on their way northward to the land of Galilee.
They walked across the great plain where so many battles had been fought
in the old times, and climbed the mountains beyond it. Nazareth, where
Jesus had lived for so many years, was on his way, but Jesus did not at
this time stop there, for he had in his mind to visit it a few weeks
later. With his followers, Jesus came for the second time to Cana, the
place where a few months before he had turned the water into wine.
When Jesus was at Cana at his first visit, very few people had heard his
name. But now everybody was talking about him, for all the people who
had come home from the Feast of the Passover told their friends and
neighbors of the wonderful young Prophet who had been preaching in
Jerusalem, and had driven the men buying and selling out of the Temple,
and had wrought wonders in curing the sick.
About twenty miles from Cana was the city of Capernaum, on the shore of
the Sea of Galilee. At Capernaum was living a man of high rank, an
official of King Herod Antipas. This nobleman was in deep trouble, for
his son was very ill with a great fever and lying at the point of death.
The news that Jesus was again in Galilee, and only twenty miles away,
brought to the nobleman a hope that perhaps this Prophet might be
willing to come down from Cana to Capernaum and cure his son.
[Illustration: In the court of a village home in Cana of Galilee]
At once he made up his mind to go to Jesus and ask him to come and help
him. It was a hard journey from Capernaum to Cana, twenty miles of
mountain climbing; but this anxious father started very early in the
morning, and came to Cana at about one o'clock in the afternoon. He
found Jesus, told him how ill his son was, and begged him to come to
Capernaum and cure him. Jesus did not seem very willing to go. He said
to the nobleman:
[Illustration: Site of Capernaum]
"Unless you people are always seeing me do wonderful works you will not
believe in me."
"Oh, sir," pleaded the troubled father, "do come down quickly or my son
will die!"
"There is no need for me to come," said Jesus. "You may go home, for
your son will live and will get well."
These words would make a heavy trial to this man's faith in Jesus. For
how could he know that his son would be well, without any sign given him
by Jesus? And how could he understand that Jesus by a word could cure
someone who he had not seen and who was twenty miles away? But the
father at once believed the promise of Jesus. He did not even hurry home
to see if his boy was cured, but waited until evening before starting
upon his journey.
The next day, as he was nearing home, his servants met him with the glad
news:
"Your son is living and is very much better."
"At what time," said the nobleman, "did he begin to improve?"
"It was yesterday," they told him, "at about one o'clock when the fever
left him."
The man was not surprised, for it was just as he had expected. That
hour, one o'clock, was the very time that Jesus had said to him, "Your
son will live."
This miracle, or work of wonder, was much talked about and led not only
this nobleman, but all his family with him, to believe that Jesus was
the Saviour and the King of Israel who had been promised so long.
The Carpenter in His Home-town
CHAPTER 22
SOON AFTER the visit to Cana, and the cure of the nobleman's son, Jesus
walked over to his old home at Nazareth, which was only six miles away.
He thought of his sisters in that city, who were now grown women with
children of their own, and he longed to see them. He thought, too, of
the boys with whom in other days he had played and had sat in the
school, now men with families; of his former neighbors, whom he had not
seen for nearly a year. His heart was full of love for his own people,
and he felt that out of the power God had given him he could speak to
them words that would do them good.
Of course, the people of Nazareth had heard wonderful stories about
their former townsman; that he had suddenly come forth as a great
teacher, speaking truths such as never had been heard before; and
especially, that he had done wondrous works of curing the sick at Cana
and at Capernaum. All these reports were surprising to the people of
Nazareth, because among them Jesus had never shown any signs of
greatness. He had sat in his seat in the church, but had never spoken
from the pulpit; and they had known him as a good young man, kind and
gentle toward all, and an honest, skilful workman at his trade. But they
had never thought of him as a teacher, or a prophet bearing a message
from God, or as a worker of wonders, such as they had heard of his doing
in Cana and Capernaum.
[Illustration: The people in the synagogue at Nazareth did not care for
the words of Jesus. In their rage and fury they leaped from their seats
and dragged him out of doors.]
It was expected that Jesus on the Sabbath day would speak in the church
at Nazareth (they called their church "the synagogue," a word that
means "a meeting of the people"); and everybody was present to see him
and to hear him. In a gallery on one side were his sisters, looking and
listening, but unseen, because the women's gallery in all Jewish
churches was covered with a lattice-work. There on the floor, seated on
rugs or mats, were his neighbors and the people who had seen him grow up
from a boy to a man. They were present, not to learn, but to listen and
judge his words, and especially to see what great things he might do.
Jesus walked up to the platform, and the officer in charge handed him
the rolls on which were written the lessons for the day. This officer
was at the same time the janitor or keeper of the building and the
teacher of the school held there during the week. This man may have been
the teacher who had taught Jesus as a boy to read. One of the lessons
for that day was in the sixty-first chapter of the book of Isaiah the
prophet. A part of it read thus:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he hath set me apart to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to say that the prisoners shall be set free,
That the blind shall have their sight again,
That the poor and suffering shall be given freedom,
That the time of favor from God has come."
While Jesus was reading from the Bible, he stood up, and all who were
present also stood, for the Jews showed their respect for the Bible by
standing whenever it was read. When he had finished the reading, he
folded up the roll, handed it back to the officer, and sat down, and the
people also sat down likewise. Often the man who preached in the
synagogue or church was seated while speaking. Jesus began by saying:
"Today this word of the prophet has come to pass in your hearing."
And he went on to tell in simple, gentle words how he had been sent to
preach to the poor, to set the prisoners free, to give sight to the
blind and to bring the news of God's goodness to men. At first the
people listened with the deepest interest, and their hearts were touched
by his kind and tender words.
But soon they began to whisper among themselves. One said, "Why should
this carpenter try to teach us?" And another, "This man is no teacher!
He is only the son of Joseph the carpenter! We know his brothers, and
his sisters are living here." And some began to say, "Why does he not do
here some of the wonderful things that they say he has done in other
places? We want to see some of his marvelous cures with sick people!"
Jesus knew their thoughts, but he would not do wonders merely to be seen
by men. He said to them:
"I know that you are saying, 'Let us see some wonderful work, like that
on the nobleman's son in Capernaum.' I tell you in truth, that no
prophet or teacher has honor among his own people.
"You remember that in the days of Elijah the prophet, when the sky was
shut up for three years and six months, and no rain fell, there was a
great famine in the land and a need of bread. At that time there were
many widows in the land of Israel, yet Elijah was not sent to any of
these, but to a widow woman in Zarephath of Zidon, a foreigner and a
Gentile. And in the time of Elisha the prophet after Elijah, there were
many lepers in the land of Israel, yet none of these was made clean of
his leprosy, but only Naaman the Syrian."
These words, telling how God had chosen foreigners instead of Israelites
for his works of wonder, made the people in the church very angry, for
they did not care for the words of Jesus; they only wished to see him do
some miracle or wonderful act. They would not listen to him; in their
rage and fury, they leaped from their seats; they rushed upon the
platform; they seized hold of Jesus and dragged him out of doors. They
took him up to the top of the hill above the city, and would have thrown
him down its steep side to his death. But the time for Jesus to die had
not yet come. By the power of God, Jesus slipped quietly out of their
hands and went away. He walked away very sadly from Nazareth, for he had
longed to bring the good news of God's blessings first of all to his own
people.
[Illustration: Approach to Jerusalem, from the railroad station on the
southwest]
[Illustration: Jewish fishermen by the Sea of Galilee]
Four Fishermen Called
CHAPTER 23
THE PLACE which Jesus chose for his home, after being driven away from
Nazareth, was Capernaum. This was a large city on the northwestern shore
of the Sea of Galilee. Only one city beside the lake was
larger--Tiberias. That was a new city, built by Herod, the ruler of
Galilee, and named after the Emperor Tiberius at Rome. But Tiberias was
not a Jewish city. It contained temples to idols, its people were
foreigners, and very few Jews were willing to live within its walls.
Then, too, Herod Antipas lived there in a palace which he had built, and
Jesus did not wish to be near Herod.
But Capernaum was a Jewish city, and Jesus felt that his work was to be
among the Jews. At least four of the early followers of Jesus lived in
Capernaum; two pair of brothers, Simon and Andrew, the sons of Jonas;
and James and John, the sons of Zebedee. These four men were partners
with Zebedee in the fishing trade. They owned a number of fishing boats
and had men working for them. The lake was full of fish, and many people
all around it lived by fishing. The fish in the Sea of Galilee were good
food, and were sent to all the nearby cities. It is said that one
emperor at Rome, not long after this time, had sent to him every week a
barrel full of fish from the Sea of Galilee, for his table in the
palace.
The people of Capernaum had heard of Jesus, for all those who went up to
the feasts in Jerusalem brought home reports of this wonderful teacher
and healer of the sick. Wherever Jesus went, crowds gathered around him
to listen to his words, and especially eager to see if he would do any
of his wonderful works.
[Illustration: LOWER GALILEE]
One morning while Jesus was walking on the beach, he met some of his
followers. Having now come to their own home, these men had gone back to
their old work, as fishermen, and their boats were lying upon the
shore. The men had been fishing in the night before, and they were now
washing their nets upon the beach. Jesus spoke to one of his followers,
Simon Peter, to push his boat a little way out into the water. He did
so, and then Jesus sat down in the boat, while a great crowd stood on
the shore, but within reach of his voice. Then from the boat as a pulpit
he talked to the people on the shore. What he said at that time was not
written down; but it was very much like his teachings as given in the
Sermon on the Mount, which may be read in the fifth, sixth, and seventh
chapters of the gospel by Matthew. There is no doubt that in his talks
in many places to different crowds, Jesus often gave the same teachings
over and over again.
After Jesus had ended his speaking to the people, he said to Simon, who
with the other fishermen was standing beside him:
"Push out into the deep water, and let down your nets for a catch of
fish."
"Master," answered Simon, "we worked all last night and caught not a
single fish. However, if you tell us to try again, I will let down the
nets."
They did so, and now their nets took in a great shoal of fish, so large
a number that the nets began to break. Then they beckoned to their
partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came, and helped
to pull up the nets and to empty the fish into the boats. So many were
the fish that they filled both the boats so full that they began to
sink. When Simon Peter saw all this, he was struck with wonder and with
fear, for he felt that this had been done by the power of God. He fell
upon his knees in the boat to Jesus, saying:
"O Lord, I am full of sin, and am not worthy of all this! Leave me, O
Lord!"
But Jesus said to him and to the other three men with him:
"Do not be afraid; come after me; and from this time you shall be
fishers of men."
He meant that they were now to leave their nets and their boats, to stay
with him; and after learning from him, they were to go out and show men
the way out of sin into the Kingdom of God.
As soon, therefore, as they had brought their nets and their fishes to
the land, they left them with Zebedee, the father of James and John, and
with the hired men.
From that day these four men stayed with Jesus and went with him on all
his journeys, listening to his words, until from hearing them often,
they learned them and could repeat them to others.
[Illustration: Pool of Hezekiah at Jerusalem]
[Illustration: The disciples let down their nets and took in a great
shoal of fish, so large a number that the nets began to break.]
Jesus in the Church, in the House, and in the Street
CHAPTER 24
THE STORY of the great catch of fish was told abroad, for many saw the
boats loaded with the fish brought to the shore, and we may be sure that
all who ate a breakfast of those fish spoke of the wonder. Partly as a
result of this report, when the Sabbath day came, the church in
Capernaum was crowded with people to see and hear this new Rabbi.
"Rabbi" was the name that Jews gave to men who taught the law in their
churches. Although Jesus had never taken the course of study at
Jerusalem which would give him that title, he was generally called
"Rabbi" by the people. The people listened with wonder to the words of
Jesus, for his teaching was very different from that of the scribes who
taught the law. He spoke on great things--the kingdom which God was soon
to set up, and how the people were to be made ready for his coming.
Then, too, he spoke with power, as Lord of all; and the listeners felt
that these were the words of one who had been sent by God.
[Illustration: From all parts of the city of Capernaum they brought
those that were sick, or had evil spirits, and Jesus healed them all.]
While Jesus was speaking in the church, the service was stopped by the
loud screaming of a furious man who had come in. This man was suffering
with a terrible evil, worse than any disease. Into his body had come in
some way an evil spirit, a demon. This demon controlled the man and
drove him to wild acts and words. The words which were spoken by this
man's tongue were not his own, but the words of the wicked spirit within
him. The spirit, using the man's voice, shrieked aloud:
"Ha, you Jesus of Nazareth, let us alone! What business have you with
us? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are; you are God's Holy
One!"
But Jesus at once said to the wicked spirit in the man, "Be still, and
come out of him!"
At these words the demon threw the man down upon the floor, as if to
kill him; and then went out of the man suddenly, leaving him almost
dead. Soon they found that the man, whom everybody had feared before, so
fierce had he been, was now perfectly well and quite free from the evil
spirit.
Then surprise and wonder came upon all. They talked about it to one
another, saying:
"What does all this mean? What new teaching is this? Why, this man
speaks to the evil spirits with power, and they obey him and come out."
As the people left the church they told everyone whom they met of this
mighty act of Jesus. These men and women told others, and soon the news
of Jesus' power went through all the towns and villages in that part of
the land.
After the service in the church was over, Jesus went home to dine in the
house of Simon and Andrew, and with him went also the two brothers,
James and John. In the house they told him that Simon's mother-in-law,
the mother of his wife, was very ill, having a high fever. He came,
stood by her bed, leaned over her and took her by the hand as if to
raise her up. As he touched her, she felt a new power shoot through her
body. Instantly the fever left her; she rose up from her bed, perfectly
well, and helped to make ready the dinner and serve it.
Jesus stayed in Simon's house that afternoon. When the sun went down and
the Sabbath was ended, they found a crowd of people filling the street
in front of the house. From all parts of the city they had brought
people that were sick, or had evil spirits, like the man whom Jesus had
cured in the church. As he came out of the house he laid his hands upon
these sick people, one by one; and as soon as he touched them, they rose
up well. The evil spirits in some of the men tried to speak to him. But
he would not allow them, and gave them command at once to come out of
the men in whom they were. They dared not to disobey Jesus, came out and
went away.
On that night, while everybody was sleeping, Jesus rose up long before
day, while it was still dark, and went out of the city. He found a quiet
place, with no houses or people near, and there for hours he prayed to
his Father. In the morning he was missed, and Simon Peter, with the
others, went out to look for him. They found him and said to him,
"Master, come back to the city, for everybody is looking for you!"
But Jesus said, "I was sent not only to your city but to other places
also. Let us go out and visit the towns that are near. It was for this
purpose that I have been sent by my Father, to preach everywhere the
good news of the Kingdom of God."
The Leper and the Palsied Man
CHAPTER 25
FROM THE city of Capernaum Jesus went forth and visited all the villages
on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee and on the mountains near by.
He took with him his disciples or followers, that they might see his
works and listen to his words. Great crowds of people came to hear him
during this journey; and everywhere he cured all kinds of sickness and
cast out of men evil spirits that were ruling them.
At one place a man came to Jesus who was covered with a dreadful disease
called leprosy and was called "a leper." No one ever touched a leper or
even came near him, for they feared that a touch might cause the
disease. A leper was driven out of the home, to live with other lepers
in a camp outside the city. When he saw anyone coming near, he must
stand at a distance, must cover his mouth with his garment, not to let
his breath reach anybody, and must call out, "Unclean! Unclean!" so that
no one might take his disease. Many lepers were in the land when Jesus
was preaching; and lepers may still be seen in that country.
This leper who saw Jesus came as near to him as he dared. He knelt down
before Jesus, touching his head to the ground, and called out to him:
"Oh, sir, if you choose to do it, you can take away my leprosy, and make
my flesh pure and clean."
Jesus was not afraid to touch the leper. He went to him and placed his
hand upon him. Then he said:
"I do choose; be clean!"
And at once all this man's leprosy passed way. His skin lost its waxen,
deadly whiteness, his eyes were bright, his deformed hands became
perfect and his voice was no longer hollow and cracked. He was no more a
leper, but was a man in perfect health.
Jesus said to him, "Do not tell anyone of your cure; but go to the
priest in the temple, let him see that you are clean, and make the
offering of thanksgiving to God. Let the priest give you a writing to
show that you are well, and then go to your own home."
Jesus knew that if this man should tell very many of his cure, there
would come such a crowd of people having diseases of all kinds, seeking
to be made well, that he could have no time nor chance to preach the
gospel, and his great purpose was, not to cure diseases, but to teach
men the way to God. It is better to be saved from sin than to be cured
of sickness.
But this man was so happy at being made well that he could not be still.
Everywhere he went he told people of his wonderful cure, and roused such
a desire among the people to see Jesus that Jesus could not go to the
cities, for so great were the crowds that he could no longer preach.
Everybody was eager to be cured of some illness or to see Jesus cure
others. Jesus was driven to seek the open country, where few people
lived, and even there the crowds sought him, coming from many places.
[Illustration: They broke open the roof and let the man down, wrapped in
a blanket and lying upon a mattress, right in front of Jesus.]
After some time, Jesus came again to Capernaum, which was now his home.
As soon as the people heard of his return, they gathered in great crowds
to see him, to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. He stood on
the porch of a house, where every room was full of people, and a company
was in front of him, crowding the court of the house to its utmost
corner. In this throng were some who were ready to believe in Jesus; but
there were also some men who had come from Judea to see who Jesus was,
what he was teaching and what he was doing. These men did not believe in
Jesus, but were there to find some fault with him. They belonged to a
class called "the Pharisees," who claimed to be better than others,
because they carefully kept all the rules of the Jewish law; but in
their hearts they were far from good, and they were bitterly opposed to
Jesus.
While Jesus was speaking, four men came, carrying on a bed a man who was
sick with the palsy, a disease which makes one helpless, unable to use
his hands, to walk or to stand alone. They were very eager to bring this
man to Jesus to be cured, but on account of the crowd they could not
come into the house or even into the yard in front of it. They were
bound, however, in some way to get this palsied man to Jesus. They
climbed up to the roof of the house and pulled the sick man up. Then
they broke open the roof, never minding the dust and litter that fell
upon the heads of the people below. When they had made an opening large
enough, they let the man down, wrapped in a blanket and lying upon a
mattress, right in front of Jesus. All this showed their faith in Jesus.
They believed that he could cure the palsied man, and were ready to take
any trouble to bring him before the Saviour.
Jesus looked at the man, and said to him:
"My son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven!"
Some of these Pharisees, the enemies of Jesus, were sitting near, and as
they heard these words they thought in their own minds, though they did
not speak it aloud:
"What wicked words are these! This man speaks as though he were God! No
man has the right to forgive sins; that belongs to God alone. What
wickedness, for this man to pretend to have God's power!"
[Illustration: The leper knelt down before Jesus and called out to him:
"Oh, sir, if you choose you can make my flesh pure and clean."]
Jesus knew their thoughts, for he could look into their hearts. He said
to them:
"Why do you think wicked things in your hearts? Which is the easier to
say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise up and walk'? But I will
show you that while I am on earth as the Son of Man, God has given me
the power to take away sin."
Then he turned to the palsied man lying on the couch, and said with a
voice of power:
"I tell you, rise up, take up your bed, and go to your house!"
In an instant a new life came to the palsied man. He stood upon his feet
in full strength, rolled up his blanket, took up the mattress upon which
he had been lying, placed it upon his shoulder and walked out through
the crowd, which opened to make a way for him. Through the streets the
man went to his home, praising God for his cure.
By this act of healing Jesus had shown that he was the Son of God, with
the right to forgive the sins of men. These Pharisees, the enemies of
Jesus, could find nothing to say, but in their hearts they hated him
more than before, for they saw that the people believed on Jesus. Wonder
filled the minds of those who saw this cure; they praised the God of
Israel and said to each other, "We have seen strange things today!"
[Illustration: Jesus looked at Levi-Matthew and said to him: "Come,
follow me!" At once Matthew rose and went after Jesus.]
How the Tax-Collector Became a Disciple
CHAPTER 26
SO GREAT were the crowds gathering from all parts of the land to see and
hear Jesus, that no place could be found in the city of Capernaum large
enough to hold the multitudes. The church was far too small; and there
were no open places in the city where so great a company could meet. So
every day Jesus went out of the city to the seaside, sometimes sitting
in Peter's boat, sometimes upon the shore, while all the people stood
upon the grass-covered hillside, with the blue sky above them and the
blue lake before them, while Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God and
showed how every man could enter into the kingdom by turning from his
sins and doing God's will.
Among these crowds of people Jesus noticed one man standing, who
listened closely to every word. This man was named Levi-Matthew. He was
an officer of the government, called "a publican"; and it was his work
to gather the taxes which the Roman rulers had laid upon the people.
Everybody was called upon to pay money to the Romans, who were the
rulers of the land. The people hated the Romans, who held the land under
their power, and hated also these tax-gatherers, who were often selfish
and unjust men, making the people pay more than they should, robbing the
poor and taking much of the money for themselves instead of paying it to
the Roman treasury. Because many of these tax-gatherers or publicans
were cruel and selfish, all of them were looked upon as wicked. They
were called "publicans and sinners," and the people despised them.
One day Jesus was passing the office where Levi-Matthew sat at his table
receiving the tax-money from the people. Jesus looked at the publican
and said to him, "Come, follow me!" At once Levi-Matthew rose up, left
his clerks and helpers to care for the money on the table, and went
after Jesus. From that hour he was no longer a tax-collector; he became
a disciple of Jesus, and followed him wherever he went, listening to his
words and keeping them in his mind and memory. Many years afterward,
when Jesus was no longer among men, Matthew wrote a book telling of what
Jesus said and did. That book is the Gospel according to Matthew, the
first book in the New Testament; and it tells what Matthew remembered of
the teachings and acts of the Lord Jesus. So it was well for the people
who lived after the time of Jesus, and for all the people who through
the ages since have read that gospel, and for the millions all over the
world who now read it, that Matthew the tax-gatherer became a disciple
of Jesus. But for this man's prompt obedience to Christ's call on that
day, that precious book would never have been written.
Matthew wished his fellow-publicans to meet Jesus and hear his words. He
gave a supper at his house to Jesus, and invited all the publicans or
tax-gatherers in that part of the country to come. Many of them came,
and with their friends sat down to the supper with Jesus. The Pharisees,
who were enemies of Jesus, looked scornfully at Jesus sitting at the
table with all the tax-gatherers around him. They said to the disciples
of Jesus:
"Why does your Teacher eat with those publicans and sinners?"
They told Jesus of these words, and he answered:
"Those who are well and strong have no need of a doctor, but only those
who are sick. I did not come to call those who think themselves good,
but those who know that they are sinful and want to be saved. But let
those Pharisees learn the meaning of the text where God says, 'I prefer
those who show kindness and mercy, to those who offer sacrifices upon
the altar.'"
This pointed to the Pharisees themselves, for while they were careful
about fasting and saying their prayers and making their offerings in the
Temple, they were often unjust and hard toward the poor.
[Illustration: Mosque El Aksa, near the ancient Temple]
[Illustration: Jesus saw lying there upon a mat a man who had been
helpless and unable to walk for almost forty years. He said to him:
"Would you like to be made well?"]
The Cripple at the Bath
CHAPTER 27
THE TIME came for another feast at Jerusalem, and as on the year before,
Jesus went to attend it. We do not know whether his disciples were with
him on this visit, for in the story as given by John in his gospel, they
are not mentioned.
On one Sabbath day, while Jesus was in the city, he walked past a public
bath not far from the Temple. It was a large pool or cistern, where
several could bathe at once; and beside it were five porches, forming an
arched-over platform. These porches, when Jesus came to the pool, were
crowded with people, all suffering with disease. Some were blind, some
were lame and some had legs or arms all withered and palsied.
At certain times the water in this bath used to bubble and rise up; then
it would go down again and be quiet. The people believed that this
bubbling up of the water was caused by an angel (whom no one could see)
going down and stirring up the pool. They believed, too, that at such
times when the water bubbled up, any person who was ill would be cured
by taking a bath in the pool. We know that there are many springs whose
water will cure diseases, and this pool may have been one of these
health-giving springs.
Jesus saw lying there upon a mat beside the bath one man who had been
helpless, unable to walk for almost forty years. Jesus who knew all
things, knew that this man had been ill for a long time. He said to him:
"Would you like to be made well?"
This man had never seen Jesus before and did not know who he was.
"Sir," he answered, "there is nobody to put me in the bath when the
water rises; but while I am trying to crawl down and get into the water,
somebody who can walk steps in ahead of me."
[Illustration: Pool of Bethesda from above]
Jesus said:
"Rise, take up your mat, and walk!"
The crippled man had never heard words like these; but as soon as they
were spoken, he felt a new power shooting through his body. He stood up
for the first time in thirty-eight years, picked up his piece of
matting, rolled it up and put it upon his shoulder. Then he started to
walk toward his house, carrying his burden.
You remember that it was on the Sabbath day that this took place. The
Jews were exceedingly careful in keeping the Sabbath. God had said to
their fathers many years before, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it
holy." But the Jews had added to this commandment many useless rules.
They could not light a fire on that day, for that would be working; they
could not hold a pen, for that would be carrying a load. These little
rules had not b
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