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

The whole city of Jerusalem was agitated by the coming of Jesus, the now widely-renowned prophet of Galilee. Jesus proceeded at once to the temple. The blind and the lame were brought in throngs to him. He healed them all. The city resounded with his acclaim. Even the children in the streets shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” The chief priests and the scribes were sorely annoyed, saying, “The world has gone after him.”

Some Greeks who were in Jerusalem came to the disciples, and expressed a wish to see Jesus. They were brought to him. Jesus, probably addressing them, said,—

“The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone; but, if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my Father honor. Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.” It is added, “Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

All who stood by heard the supernatural noise, and some the distinctly-articulated voice, and said, “An angel spake to him.” Jesus answered,—

“This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” “This,” adds the inspired writer, “he said, signifying what death he should die.”

The people, bewildered by such assertions, replied, “We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever; and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?”

Jesus answered, “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you; for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.”

Jesus, after these words, withdrew secretly with his disciples from the city (for it was night), and returned to Bethany. In the morning, he came back to Jerusalem. Being hungry, and seeing a fig-tree by the way, he went to it, and found leaves only. We know not now what lesson Jesus intended to teach us: he said, “Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever.” The tree withered away. Again, finding the temple sacrilegiously perverted to purposes of traffic, he, by his authoritative person and voice, drove the traffickers out, saying, “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

The scribes and chief priests were becoming more and more exasperated by these reproofs. But they feared to lay violent hands upon Jesus, he was so popular with the masses of the people. He continued through the day teaching the crowds ever thronging the temple to listen to his calm, impressive words. At the approach of evening, he returned to the quietude of Bethany, and in the morning re-entered the city. As he was teaching in the temple, the chief priests and scribes came and inquired of him by what authority he did these things. Jesus baffled their malignity by asking them what they thought of the prophet John. They were greatly annoyed. If they should say he was a prophet, Jesus would inquire why they did not believe in him. If, on the other hand, they should say that he was but a common man, the indignation of the people would be aroused; for they all regarded John as a prophet. They therefore said, “We cannot tell.” Jesus replied, “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.” Having thus silenced them, and put them to shame, Jesus addressed them in the parable of the father and his two sons, and then in the parable of the vineyard let out to husbandmen.48

He made such personal application of these parables as to leave no doubt in the minds of the scribes and Pharisees that he referred to them. “But, when they sought to lay hands upon him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.” Another parable he added, that of the marriage-feast, illustrative of the same truth, that the Gentiles would enter the kingdom of God, which the Jews refused to enter.

The Pharisees endeavored to entrap him by inducing him to say something which would render him unpopular with the people. After much deliberation, they sent some spies to him to inquire whether it were lawful to pay tribute to Cæsar, who had conquered and enslaved them. If he should say “No,” it would be treason: if he should say “Yes,” it would exasperate the people.

Jesus, “knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Bring me a penny. And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They said unto him, Cæsar’s. Jesus, answering, said, Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” It is added, “They marvelled, and left him, and went their way.”

Again: the Sadducees, who denied the doctrine of the resurrection, inquired of him whose wife a woman in the resurrection would be, who had married, one after another, seven husbands. Their cavilling spirit was silenced by the reply, that, in the future world, those who should “rise from the dead” would not marry, but would be as the angels of God in heaven.49 He then re-affirmed the doctrine of a future life, saying,—

“Now, that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; for he is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”50

The Pharisees were quite pleased in finding the Sadducees thus confounded. Still they sought the destruction of Jesus. After taking counsel together, they commissioned one of their lawyers to ask which was the chief commandment of the law. Among these ritualists, there was quite a diversity of opinion upon this subject. Some said, “Sacrifices;” others, “Circumcision;” others, “The law of the sabbath,” &c. Jesus replied,—

“The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind: this is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”51 It is recorded, “No man, after this, durst ask him any question.”

Jesus now, in his turn, asked the Pharisees a question, to show them the divine character of the Messiah, and how far their views of his dignity fell short of the truth.

“What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” They replied, “The son of David.” Jesus rejoined, “How, then, doth David, by the Holy Ghost, call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David, then, call him Lord, how is he his son?”

They again being thus baffled, it is recorded, “And no man was able to answer him a word.”

Jesus then warned his disciples to beware of the pride, ambition, and ostentation of the scribes; of their ceremonial display, and of their moral corruption. In the temple were placed several money-boxes to receive the voluntary contributions of the people for the service of the temple. Jesus noticed the people as they came with their contributions,—many of the rich casting in large sums, not at all unwilling that the amount should be known by the lookers-on. “And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God; but she, of her penury, hath cast in all the living that she hath.”52

Notwithstanding the abounding evidence of the divine mission of Jesus, there were many who hardened their hearts, and who refused to believe in him. Others there were, then as now, who, though they were convinced of his Messiahship, had not sufficient moral courage to confess him before men. It is recorded, “Nevertheless, among the chief rulers, also, many believed on him: but, because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”53

In reference to all who thus rejected him, Jesus exclaimed, “He that believeth on me, believeth, not on me, but on Him that sent me; and he that seeth me seeth Him that sent me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.”54

He then, addressing the multitude, warned them in the most solemn manner to avoid the hypocrisy and haughty display of these proud and pompous ceremonialists. His denunciations of them were terrible, and must have roused them to the highest pitch of rage.

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” he said, “for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and, for a pretence, make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and, when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves,” &c.55

A more terrible, and at the same time calm and truthful, denunciation cannot be found in any language. As Jesus left the temple, his disciples called his attention to the massive stones of which it was reared. Jesus assured them that the temple was to be so utterly destroyed, that not one stone should be left upon another. Departing from the city, he went with his disciples to the Mount of Olives. As he sat upon that eminence, which overlooked the city, he gave them an appalling account of the scenes which were to ensue at the time of its destruction. In reference to the persecutions which they were to encounter, he