Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/694

664 JESUS thenceforth decrease ; and shortly after this time he was thrown into prison by Herod Antipas. In consequence of this event Jesus withdrew into Galilee. He chose the route through Samaria, and it was to a poor frail woman by Jacob s well that He seems first to have distinctly revealed His Messiahship. His acceptance of the invitation of the Samaritans to stay a few days with them was a rebuke to the spirit of fanatical hatred and exclusiveuess, which in that day so filled the minds of His countrymen that they regarded any intercourse with Samaritans as involving pollution. (2) Although Jesus was aware that a prophet is often least known in his own country and among his own kindred, He made His way, preaching as He went in various synagogues, direct to Nazareth. 1 There, in the synagogue, He read aloud part of Isaiah Ixi., and amid deep silence applied it to Himself. But He had not proceeded far when the spell of His divine teaching was broken by the pride and ignorance of the Naz Irenes, who began to murmur among themselves about His humble birth and occupation, and to demand that He should do some deed of power among them. It was on His reminding them that Elijah and Elisha had wrought their miracles of healing upon strangers that they rose in fury, and dragged Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built. Something, however, in the majesty of His bearing seems to have created in their minds a supernatural awe, so that, as on later occasions, He was able "to pass through the midst of them, and go on His way." To the place of His birth He seems never to have returned. From this time His home, so far as He could in any sense bs said to have a home, was at the bright little city of Capernaum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, to which, perhaps in consequence of the churlishness of the Nazarenes, His mother and brethren also migrated. At this point begins the period of His brightest activity, the year which was in a pre-eminent sense " the acceptable year of the Lord." The scene of that ministry was mainly the beauti ful and populous plain of Gennesaret through which passed " the way of the sea," the great caravan road which led to Damascus. It was the manufacturing district of Palestine, thronged by men of all nationalities, and therefore pre-eminently suited for the proclamation of the kingdom. At the same time it was a scene of infinite charm, and the opportunities of sailing from place to place, and of earning a livelihood, which were afforded by the inland lake, rendered it specially appropriate. On the way to Caper naum Jesus healed by His word the son of the courtier of Herod, 2 who in consequence believed with his whole house. Much of the brief story of the Gospels is made up of the records of single days which stood out with marked prominence. One such day was the first Sabbath at Capernaum. Christ began with a sermon in the synagogue, during which He wrought one of His great exorcisms on a raving demoniac who was present in the audienc . Retir ing to the house of Peter, He healed Peter s mother-in-law of a fever, and at sunset, when the Sabbath ended, wrought many cures upon a multitude of sufferers. The fame of this day rang even to Syria, and, finding that even tem porary seclusion was now impossible, Jesus went from village to village preaching the kingdom of God. 3 It was at this time that He preached to the multitude from Peter s boat, and after the miraculous draught of fishes called Andrew, Peter, and the sons of Zebedee 4 to a closer and 1 Luke iv. 15. 2 Not improbably Chuza, Herod s steward, whose wife Joanna was one of the "ministering women." 3 Three such circuits in Galilee are faintly traceable ; but it is not possible to mark their separate incidents. 4 They were probably first cousins of Jesus, for it seems probable from Mark xv. 40, John xix. 25, that Salome the wife of Zebedee was a sister of the Virgin Mary. more unremitting discipleship. Matthew the publican was the next to "leave all" and follow Christ. The choice of the full number of twelve to be apostles took place just before the sermon on the mount, and nothing can more decisively show the wisdom and insight of Jesus than tli3 fact that among the twelve were characters so opposite as a zealot and a publican. Judas, the " man of Kerioth," was probably the only Juda^an in the little band of Galileeans. The great discourse known as the Sermon on the Mount was delivered primarily to the disciples, but was intended also for the multitude. The hill by the Galilnean lake 5 was the Sinai of the new dispensation, but it was a mount not of terrors but of beatitudes. The sermon first sketched the character of the citizens of the new kingdom both absolutely and relatively. 6 It proceeded to sketch the new law in contrast, both general and special, with the old. 7 The last great section of it was occupied with the characteristics of the new life its devotion, its duties, and its dangers. 8 It ended with the contrast between doers and mere hearers. 9 The grandeur, originality, independ ence, and authoritative tone of the sermon, with its vivid illustrations and divine idealism, produced a very deep and wide impression. The inauguration of the doctrine was followed by deeds of mercy and power. From this time He was constantly surrounded by thronging multitudes, and was constantly appealed to for miracles of compassion. We are told in quick succession of the healing of a leper by a touch, of the centurion s servant by a word, and the raising from the dead of the widow s son at Nain ; and so incessant was His activity that His mother and His brethren began to be alarmed. Soon after the miracle at Nain He received the deputation from John the Baptist, then in his gloomy prison at Machrerus, to ask whether He were indeed the Messiah. He bade the messengers take back no other answer than the works which they had witnessed or heard, and pre-eminent among them was the preaching the gospel to the poor. It was after their departure that He pronounced the unequalled eulogy on John as the greatest of the prophets, while yet " the least in the kingdom of heaven" was, in spiritual privileges, greater than He. It was in this discourse that He con trasted the glad and natural geniality of His own example as one who came " eating and drinking " with the asceticism and gloom of the Baptist. He never refused the invitations even of the Pharisees, and it was at the banquet of a Pharisee named Simon that He accepted the pathetic devotion of the " woman that was a sinner " (whom Christian tradition persistently identifies with Mary of Magdala), and rebuked the haughty and untender for malism of His host. His life during this period, as He wandered about Gennesaret and its vicinity, preaching to rejoicing crowds, was a life of poverty, toil, and simplicity, but it was also a life of exalted joy from the rapturous gratitude of the people and the faith which enabled Him to work many deeds of mercy among them. Of one episode of the period many details are preserved. After one of the missionary tours in Galilee, Jesus, finding Him self surrounded by a vast throng, began fur the first time to preach to them in those parables which were the most characteristic form of His subsequent teaching, and which had the additional advantage of testing the moral and spiri tual qualities of His hearers. He began with the parable of the sower, and this method of instruction naturally stimu lated to such an extent the eagerness of His hearers that He was kept teaching till evening came. A second ill-judged attempt of His mother and brethren to control His pro ceedings probably combined with the sense of deep weari- 5 Probably Karn Hatti n. 7 Matt. v. 17-48. 9 Matt vii. 24-27. 6 Matt. v. 1-16. 8 Matt. vi. 1 to vii. 23.