Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/695

JESUS 665 ness to create a desire for brief rest and retirement, and He urged His disciples to a hasty departure to the lonelier eastern shores of the lake. During the sail of about 6 miles there rose one of the violent sudden storms to which the Sea of Galilee is specially liable. He was sleeping on the leather cushion of the steersman the deep sleep of fatigue, which not even the waves now dashing into the boat could disturb. The disciples woke Him in wild alarm, and the calm majesty with which He hushed the storm made an indelible impression on their minds. No sooner had they landed on the other side than they were met by a naked and raving maniac, whose dwelling was in the tombs which are still visible on the neighbouring hillsides. Jesus healed him, and (as we are told in a narrative which evidently touches on things entirely beyond our cognizance) suffered the demons to enter into a herd of swine hard by, which immediately rushed violently over a steep place into the sea. The semi-heathen inhabitants of the district, alarmed by His presence, and vexed at the loss of their swine, entreated Him to depart out of their coasts. He granted their evil petition, but left the healed demoniac to lead them to a better frame of mind. The people on the other side recognized the sail of His return ing vessel, and were waiting in multitudes to meet Him. While preaching to them in a house at Capernaum, the friends of a paralytic, who had been unable to get near Him for the press, let down the sick man through the roof in front of Him, and He healed him, exciting some murmurs from the Scribes, who had already begun to watch Him with suspicion, by first using the formula " Thy sins are forgiven thee." From the house He adjourned to the shore, and after another brief time of teaching there went to the farewell feast which Matthew gave to the publicans and sinners " who had been his friends. The Pharisees, afraid as yet to find fault with Him directly, asked the disciples in great displeasure why their Master ate with publicans and sinners, whose very touch they regarded as a pollution. The answer of Jesus was given in the memor able quotation, to which He more than once referred, " Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice." 1 He answered the inquiry of St John s disciples about fasting by pointing out to them that the glad initiation of the marriage feast of the kingdom of heaven was no time for fasting, 2 and that the embodiment of a new spirit in old form was like putting new wine in worn skins, or a new patch on an old garment. It seems to have been immediately after the banquet that He received the heartrending appeal of Jairus that He would come and heal his little daughter. On the way He healed the woman with the issue who secretly touched the fringe of His garment. 3 By the time He reached the house of Jairus the little maid was dead, and His three most chosen disciples Peter, James, and John were alone admitted with the father and mother to witness this second instance in which He recalled the dead to life. It was probably at this point of the ministry that there occurred the visit to that unnamed feast at Jerusalem, 4 which was almost certainly the Feast of Purim. Perhaps with a view to this absence from Galilee He sent out the twelve, two and two, to preach and perform works of mercy in His name, sending them " like lambs among wolves," and bidding them set the example of the most absolute contentment and simplicity. During His visit to Jerusalem, 1 Hos. vi. 6. 2 His reference to the days " when the bridegroom should be taken away from them " (a-rrap6y) is one of those early intimations of His death of which one hint had already been given in the night discourse to Nicodemus (John iii. 16). 3 An interesting indication that he observed even the minute par ticulars of the Mosaic law (Numb. xv. 37-40 ; Deut. xxii. 12). 4 John v. 1. where as we learn from St John, whose facts are inciden tally confirmed by allusions in the Synoptists He had many friends and followers, He healed the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda, and excited the bitter enmity of the Jews by deliberately ignoring the exaggerated minutiae of the traditional law which made them regard it as a heinous crime to carry even the smallest burden on the Sabbath. The simple command to the healed man to take up the mat on which he lay and walk aroused the Jews to fury ; and from that incident, as St John expressly tells us, the overt persecution of Jesus began. 5 He seems to have been summoned before some committee of the Sanhedrin, but on this occasion they did not dare to punish His violation of their traditions, and on the contrary had to listen in unavailing wrath, not only to His irresistible defence of what He had done on the Sabbath, but to Divine claims which they declared to be blasphemy. They did not dare to touch Him, knowing His power with the people, but from that day the leading authorities of Jerusalem seem to have determined on His death, and their hostility was so bitter and persistent that He left Jerusalem without waiting for the approaching Passover. (3) It was from this moment that the period of determined opposition began. Hitherto the local Pharisees and Scribes of Galilee might disapprove and murmur, but they had not dared to set themselves in distinct and public antagonism against Him. They were now encouraged to do so by the fact that the leading authorities of the capital had repudi ated His claims. The high priests and Pharisees even sent some of their number to act as spies upon His words and actions, and sea how they might contrive occasions for His ruin. He returned to Galilee with the full knowledge that His human day was beginning to fade into evening, and that the sentence of violent death hung over Him. It was at this solemn time that the murder of John thrilled men s hearts with horror. Jesus retired with the disciples to a desert plain near the town at the northern end of the lake known as Bethsaida Julias, which was in the dominion of the milder Philip, and beyond the jurisdiction of the blood-stained Antipas. Even to this retirement, however, the multitude followed Him, and here it was that, moved with deep compassion, He fed the five thousand with five barley loaves and two small fishes. Then urging the departure of His disciples by boat to Capernaum, He dismissed the multitude in the gathering dusk, and at last fled from thence 6 to the top of a neighbouring hill where He spent the night in prayer. During the night a terrible storm arose, and He came to His disciples walking upon the sea, and rescued St Peter as with a half faith he en deavoured to meet Him on the water. The next day at Capernaum He uttered that memorable discourse about Himself as the bread of life, and the necessity of " eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking His blood," which was expressly designed to dissipate idle chiliastic and material delusions, and to test the sincerity of a spiritual faith. The discourse created deep discontent, and from that time many forsook Him. He even foresaw that one of His chosen apostles was " a devil " ; but Peter spoke the conviction of the rest in the noble words, " Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." But henceforth opposition became more marked and more fearless. It had already been stirred up in the hearts of all Jewish formalists by His claiming to forgive sins, by His disapproval of asceticism, by His intercourse with publicans and sinners. It gathered force from His consistent depreciation of the petty traditional superstitions which had degraded the Sabbath from a delight and a blessing into a mere fetish of servitude. When the incident at Bethesda had attracted the notice of the Sanhedrin, the 5 John v. 16. (Vulg.) <f>evyei, John vi. 22. XIII. -- 84