The History of Christianity - John S. C. Abbott (bookstand for reading .txt) 📗

Infamy of Herod.—​Jesus in the Desert.—​Feeds the Five Thousand.—​Walks on the Sea.—​Preaches to the People.—​Visits Tyre and Sidon.—​The Syro-Phœnician Woman.—​Cures all Manner of Diseases.—​Feeds the Four Thousand.—​Restores Sight to a Blind Man.—​Conversation with Peter.—​The Transfiguration.—​Cure of the Lunatic.—​Dispute of the Apostles.—​Law of Forgiveness.—​Visits Jerusalem.—​Plot to seize Jesus.—​The Adulteress.—​Jesus the Son of God.—​The Blind Man.—​Parable of the Good Shepherd.—​Raising of Lazarus.

HE fame of Jesus had reached the ears of King Herod, the son of Herod called the Great. This wretched man had already ordered the death of his prisoner, John the Baptist, to gratify a woman who had deserted her own husband, and had induced him to abandon his own wife, that they might be united in guilty bonds. Agitated by remorse, he feared that his beheaded victim had risen from the grave.

It would seem to be a matter deeply to be regretted that we have no record of the adventures of the apostles upon their first missionary excursion. At its close they returned to Jesus, who was at Capernaum, “and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught.

“And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while; for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.” Upon the northern shore of the lake, there was the city of Bethsaida, just east of the entrance of the Jordan into the Sea of Galilee. Near that place there was a desert region of silence and solitude. Embarking in one of the fishermen’s boats, called a ship, Jesus and his apostles sought this retreat; but the excited multitude followed upon the shore on foot. There was no seclusion for Jesus. An immense crowd soon again surrounded him. They were in the desert, and, without food, were in danger of perishing. Jesus, “moved with compassion towards them, received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.”

Ascending a small eminence, Jesus looked with tender sympathy over the vast and hungry throng, amounting to five thousand men, besides women and children. His disciples ventured to suggest, that as night was coming on, and they had nothing to eat, he should send them all away, that in the villages around they might obtain food. Jesus requested them to ascertain how much food there was at their disposal. Having made inquiries, they reported to him that there were but five barley-loaves and two small fishes.

He then requested the multitude to sit down upon the ground in companies of fifty. Taking the loaves and the fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and brake. The disciples then distributed to the multitude; “and they did all eat, and were filled. And they took up of the fragments which remained twelve baskets full.”

Having thus fed them, Jesus requested them all to retire to their homes. At the same time, he directed his disciples to get into the ship, and return to the western side of the lake. He himself, entirely alone, went up into a mountain apart to pray. The gloom of night soon enveloped the whole region. A violent head wind arose, tossing the little ship which contained the disciples upon a boisterous sea. It was the darkest hour of the night, just before the dawn of the morning, when the disciples, toiling at the oars against the contrary wind, were affrighted by seeing some one approach them, walking over the waves. All saw the apparition, and were so greatly alarmed, that they cried out for fear.

But soon they were re-assured by hearing the well-known voice of Jesus saying unto them, “Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.” The impulsive Peter immediately exclaimed, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And, when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But, when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and, beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me! And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith! wherefore didst thou doubt?”

As Jesus entered the ship, the wind ceased, and they found themselves entering their destined port near Capernaum. The crowd still thronged Jesus in ever-increasing numbers wherever he appeared. They came swarming over the lake in boats, and by all paths on the land, “and ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was. And whithersoever he entered, into villages or cities or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment; and as many as touched him were made whole.”

The miracles Jesus performed seemed to be but the incidental part of his mission, intended to draw attention to his preaching, and to enforce its authority. Surrounded by the turmoil, of which we can form but a feeble conception, we have the record of the following remarkable sayings. Alluding to the miracle by which he fed the five thousand, he said,—

“Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed;” that is, accredited as an ambassador.

When some one alluded to the miracle which Moses performed in the gift of manna in the desert, Jesus replied, “Verily I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me,—that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me,—that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

It is not strange that reflective men should have been profoundly moved by such extraordinary utterances, sustained as they were by the most astounding miracles. Here was a man born in their own neighborhood, in the most humble ranks of life, saying, “I am the bread of life;” “He that cometh to me shall never hunger;” “I came down from heaven;” “I will raise him up at the last day.”

“The Jews then murmured at him” because he said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”

But Jesus said unto them, “Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Verily I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Well might those who listened to such extraordinary teachings as these say, “Never man spake like this man.” “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Jesus replied in still more extraordinary and apparently inexplicable declarations: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.”

It was in the synagogue at Capernaum that Jesus made these remarks. Even his disciples were perplexed, and said “This is a hard saying: who can hear it?” Jesus, knowing their thoughts, instead of explaining his meaning, added,—

“Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not.”18

John, who records these words, adds, “For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe, and are sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon; for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.”

The Jewish doctors at Jerusalem, hearing of the fame of Jesus, and of the vast influence which he was acquiring, sent several of their most influential men to Galilee as spies upon his conduct, and, if possible, to entrap him. After a time, they accused the disciples of Jesus of not conforming to the ceremonial observances which their rules enjoined,—particularly in the matter of not performing sufficiently minute and numerous ablutions before eating, or after returning from market. Jesus silenced them by showing that they, by their unwarranted traditions, had established burdensome ceremonies which the law did not enjoin, and that they had wickedly substituted these external rites for obedience, and holiness of heart.

“Ye reject,” said he, “the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. Ye hypocrites! well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.”

Soon after this, Jesus took another excursion through the whole length of Galilee, in a north-west direction, to Tyre and Sidon, in the province of Syro-Phœnicia, on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, then cities of great commercial importance. Sidon was at the distance of about sixty miles from Capernaum. Both of these cities were inhabited mainly by idolaters. Entering a house in that distant region, a woman of the country, who had doubtless heard of his miraculous powers, came to him, and, in very imploring terms, cried out,—

“Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David! my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.”

Jesus, for some unexplained reason, for a time paid no heed to her cry. At length, with great seeming severity, he said to her, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.”

She replied, “Truth, Lord; yet the