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XX

THE TOUR AND ITS CLOSE

ECAUSE of the active hostility of the Temple, it

were manifestly unwise for Jesus to tarry in Jeru

salem. Attended by many disciples, he retired to a neighboring town, let us say to Ephraim, sixteen miles north of Jerusalem, where he organized the mission of the seventy. These were not evangelists, but heralds, like John the baptizer, and with a proclamation quite similar: "The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you." 8

It is evident that Jesus intended a tour throughout that region. The time was limited. From the close of the Feast of Tabernacles to the Feast of Dedication, which also he proposed to attend, was just two months and one week. To economize the time, he sent these messengers in couples before his face into every city and place wither he himself was about to come. If they were rejected by any city, more time could be given to others; but, Woe unto that city! Where welcomed, they were to announce his coming, so that the people might be ready to receive and to hear him. As a foretaste of the blessing he gave the messengers power to heal.

A week, probably, was consumed by this mission. The heralds return, and report joyfully, saying:

"Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name."

Alluding to the great temptation, he cries:

"I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven." A shout of triumph. Another victory won.

The tour begins. The first movement is southward from Ephraim to a station on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. There a certain lawyer stood up and tried him with questions, which gave occasion for that pearl of parables, The Good Samaritan. The scene is in loco. The story is very vivid, and apparently very simple. It is in answer to the question, Who is my neighbor? The neighbor in the parable proves to be, not the Priest nor the Levite, who passed him by, but the Samaritan, who succored him. Then the wounded man whom he succored is under the law to love that Samaritan as himself. This, generalized, commands us to love our benefactors as ourselves, which is not philanthropy, but gratitude. The primary and purposed lesson is of gratitude to benefactors, and supremely to God, the greatest benefactor. A general philanthropy is abundantly taught elsewhere, but nowhere are we commanded to love all men as ourselves.84

Now as they went on their way, he entered into the village Bethany, on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives; and a certain woman named Martha, the widow of Simon the leper, received him into her house. This is the first mention of the home at Bethany, but very likely he made its acquaintance two years before this, during his first Judean ministry. Here in five verses of Luke is a pictorial characterization of the sisters, Martha and Mary, so clear and distinct, and in such perfect harmony with what John says of them, that, if it be not history, says Meyer, then it is a literary miracle. The exquisite contrast between the bustling, anxious, fretful housewife, and the calm, docile, contemplative pupil sitting at the Teacher's feet, has made a deep impression on the world;

and the Master's gentle, pleasant, kindly approval of his pupil's choice is quoted to sanction the seclusion of the convent.85

From Bethany they went further southward, leaving Jerusalem on the right. Was it not to some one of those neighboring heights, which had been in old times a Mount of Offense, crowned with the grove of Ashtaroth, or serving as a pedestal to the brazen Moloch, that Jesus retired for prayer? When he had ceased, one of the disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray. Now to the school of Gratitude and the school of Docility is added the school of Petition. But the disciples had already been taught the lesson in the Sermon on the Mount. Had they forgotten? Perhaps they wanted something new, something more. How abashed they must have been to hear him significantly repeat in condensed form the old lesson! How gentle the reproof, how strong the emphasis! Perhaps now they caught sight of that perpetuity in these words that excludes change; of that complete universality which cannot be enlarged. Then the Teacher, by the parable of the importunate Friend at Midnight, encourages perseverance in the one petition, and adds the gracious promise, Ask and ye shall receive.86

After this, did not Jesus with his attendants traverse the plain of Bethlehem, where the shepherds watched, where David fed symbolic flocks, where Ruth gleaned? Did he not enter the historic village, and visit the cave of his nativity, and the house of his epiphany? Did he not teach and heal in Hebron, the birthplace of John, and look upon the cave of Machpelah? Were not Arimathea, and Joppa and Lydda and Emmaus in his circuit ?

Somewhere in that region, he healed a dumb demoniac. Certain witnesses accused him of being in league with Beelzebub. He indignantly repelled the charge. Then a woman among those present, recognizing no doubt the longed-for Messiah, whose maternity was the ardent hope of every Jewess, cried out and pronounced his mother Blessed. This is the only record in the Gospels of that title applied to the Virgin in accord with her own prophecy in the Magnificat. It is worthy of note that it was not allowed to pass unnoticed along with other concurrent exclamations. The Lord does not deny it, but instantly rectifies it by reducing the Virgin, in respect of blessedness, to the common level of all believers.87

To the wondering multitude that speedily gathered about him, he addressed solemn warnings, and claimed for himself superiority to Jonah the effective preacher, and to Solomon the wise king.

Now as he spake, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He accepted the invitation though really it was more hostile than hospitable. Its spirit is revealed by a sanctimonious cavil, which calls down upon the Pharisees a fearful threefold woe. Then a lawyer, one of the learned class superior to the common Pharisees, an aristocrat, who honored the occasion by his presence, haughtily undertook to quell this tempest of denunciation, and to overawe Jesus by pointing out that such sayings were also a reproach to him and his influential class in society. His success was not commensurate with his expectations. Another threefold woe of even deeper intensity was instantly hurled upon the lawyers.88

Jesus left the table and the house, followed by the em

bittered company, who vehemently tried to provoke him to say something by which they might accuse him. Meantime a multitude of many thousands had gathered without, already infected with the hostile spirit of Jerusalem. It were easy to excite a tumult. Jesus calmed the alarm of his disciples, bidding them, Fear not; the very hairs of your head are all numbered. While he was talking with them, a bystander made an unseemly request. This was rebuked, and gave occasion for the parable of The Rich Fool, which has its counterpart and perhaps its ground in the Old Testament story of Nabal.89

From this as a text, Jesus continues to teach his disciples, as they passed from the thronging multitude, and out of the town on their way to another station. The discourse is woven of the richest materials, some of which are repeated from the Sermon on the Mount. As the little band followed the highway, the sight of ravens floating in the air, of lilies growing in the field, of meadows clothed with grass, suggested his illustrations, which were enriched by the parable of The Wedding Feast.

Mingled with the disciples was a large following of hypocrites. Some of these told him of certain Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. This is the first mention of the Roman governor, and gives at once a correct impression of his character. Now Jesus was a Galilean, and very likely it was expected that his aroused sympathy would break forth in some words that would ensnare him. A well planned trap, worthy of Satan himself; for how diabolical to seek to use a man's generous, patriotic, humane impulses to destroy him. He was in Pilate's jurisdiction. Word carried to him of a hasty speech would surely bring on an arrest for treason. But the tempter in this master stroke was

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