Jesus and the Sadducees—the Great Commandment—the Christ the Son of David

III: Jesus and the Sadducees—the Great Commandment—the Christ the Son of David

Mark xii. 18-37; Matt. xxii. 23-46; Luke xx. 27-45.

This new defeat so discouraged the Sanhedrin that a majority of its members forthwith renounced the struggle.  Some, nevertheless, made of more obstinate stuff, wished to try if they could not get better success.  They belonged to that sect of Sadducees who make themselves conspicuous among the Jews by their Epicurean tenets and their contempt for the traditions.  Although thus far they had disdained to meddle much with the Nazarene, leaving to the Pharisees the task of defending their observances which He condemned, yet, during these last few days, they had begun to fear lest some new uprising should come of this to trouble their peace with Rome.  Even at this moment it would seem that it was not so much hatred which set them against the Christ as it was their own curiosity, along with a certain ambition to succeed where their rivals had lately been worsted.  They counted upon confounding Him with one of the objections they had raised against the resurrection of the body,— one which to them seemed unanswerable.

Approaching the Saviour with every token of consideration,—

"Master," they began, "Moses said: ‘If any one die without any children, let his brother marry his wife and raise up children to his brother.’  Now there were with us seven brothers, and the first having married, died, and as he had no children, he left his wife to his brother, in like manner the second and the third, and so on to the seventh.  And after all the others, the wife dies also.  In the Resurrection, to which one of the seven shall she be as wife, for such she had been unto them all?"

This tale, invented to suit their purpose, seemed pregnant with weighty matter to men who could conceive of no life nor any happiness outside and beyond the senses.  They ridiculed the Pharisees' decision, that the first of the seven husbands would take back his wife, and therefrom took occasion to conclude that all things die with the body.

How infinitely higher was the reply of Jesus!  For an instant, He flung open Heaven's gates and let them contemplate, what their dull hearts had never dreamed,— the life of the Blessed.

"In this life," He said,1 "men take unto themselves wives, and women take unto themselves husband; but amongst are those that are judged worthy of the life to come and of being raised from the dead, it shall not to be thus.  They all shall be immortal, like unto the Angels, children of God, children of the Resurrection." Born again into the incorruptible, these elect, like the Angels, shall know no need of preserving their race by generations of time or by mortal marriage, for nothing shall perish anymore, but "God shall be all in all."

These words showed the different tone which Jesus assumed with the Sadducees from that with which He treated the Pharisees.  He knew that there was more self-conceit than malice in the queries of His new opponents; furthermore, taking compassion upon the blindness which led them to decry the possibility of a supernatural world, He pointed out that the two-fold cause of their error: for this, He said, was because they misunderstood the power of God, Who, out of His love for mankind, can do and has done things far above the reach of our reason; it was also because they had as yet but poorly understood the Scriptures, and had degraded them to the level of their own carnal minds.  How came it that they had notread that the dead rise again, even as Moses had revealed to them long ago?  Jesus intentionally omitted the Prophets, who in the eyes of the Sadducees had not the same authority as the Law, but simply appealed to their great law-giver, as witness of Jehovah and sovereign arbitrator in all cases of doctrine.

"As to whether the dead rise again, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage of The Bush, how God said to him: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob?" If these Patriarchs had been naught but a heap of poor remains, enclosed in their lonely tombs, Jehovah would not have deigned to take this title and call Himself the god of a handful of cold dust.  Therefore something of these men must have outlasted their death and thus still remains in the sight of the Eternal; "for God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Then, extending to all humanity what He had said of the first fathers of Israel:—

" All," added the Master, "are living unto God.  And therefore you do greatly deceive yourselves," He concluded, addressing the Sadducees.

The people who had followed this new debate, stood speechless with wonder at such power; some Doctors of the Law loudly declared their delight, and one of them, desiring to be better informed as to the School of the Christ, approached near and put this question two Him:—

"Master, which is the first of all the commandments?"

The this indeed was one of the questions which occupied every thoughtful mind in these times, disturbed as they were by the futile discussions of the Synagogue.  In their worship of the Law the masters of Israel had really rendered the moral law an issueless labyrinth, accumulating precept upon precept without end, concerning its every word.  For some, the commandments of Tradition even outweighed those of Moses; for others, the one thing essential was to scrupulousy follow the Pharisaic "Customs." Accordingly, the Scribe asked to Jesus to pronounce between them.

The response of the Master did not leave them long in doubt.  He pointed to the legend graven upon the phylacteries of His hearers: each of them, in fact, contained that Prayer, repeated twice a day by pious Israelites, which commenced with the Hebrew word: Shema, Hearken — "Hearken, oh Israel, the Lord thy God is the only God.  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength."

"Lo!  The first Commandment," said the Saviour, "and the second, which is like unto it, is this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  There is no other commandment greater than these."

We should have to be living, like the Jews of that day, in the midst of the clouds accumulated by the Rabbis, to appreciate what a holy, beneficent lights this speech seemed to shed upon their overflowing hearts.  The simplest minds among them easily saw its truth; in two words it expressed the entire Law, or rather it reduced it to one single duty: Love,— to love God, above all things, and the neighbour for God's dear sake and in His sight.  The Lord did not condemn the ignorant and weak to any irksome toil; He did not even exact of them that they should search the Scriptures.  For mankind this is the whole Law and the Prophets, that they love God and their fellow-man.

Enraptured with a Doctrine which confirmed all that he had been able to describe in the Holy Books, the Scribe testified openly to his delight.

"Master," he cried, "you have well said!"

And one by one he repeated the Saviour's words:—

" Truly God is One, and there is none other besides Him!. . .  He must be love with all our heart, with all our intelligence, with our whole soul, and with all our strength.. . .  To love our neighbour as ourself is more than all holocausts and burnt sacrifices."

These words of Osee connected in this way with those of the Christ, show what pious heedfulness the Christ had brought to the study of sacred literature.  Jesus was touched at such tokens of earnestness.  He praised the wisdom of his reply and encouraged him to take the final steps which yet lay between him and the perfect light.

"You are not far," He told him, "from the Heavenly Kingdom."

This conversation reached the ears of the Pharisees, for now, more than ever agitated, after the failure of their emissaries, they had gathered together and were inspecting with an anxious eye this Man Whom they durst no longer openly affront.

Jesus was well aware of their presence, and this time without waiting for them to cross-question Him, He addressed His words to them.

"What think you of the Christ?" He asked them; "whose Son is He?"

"David’s," they answered.

"How then," replied Jesus, "did David, divinely inspired, call Him his Lord?

"‘The Lord said unto my Lord:

Sit Thou on My right hand,

Until I reduce Thy foes as a footstool unto Thy feet.’

"If David calls Him his Lord, how then is He his Son?"

They could not answer this question without acknowledging the true origin of Jesus; David’s Son, according to the flesh, He was still his Lord and Master, by eternal generation; yet now passion blinded their minds, and they remained silent while that "the people heard Him gladly." After the controversies of this morning no one dared question the Christ; they had discovered at last that it would be far easier to destroy Him than to refute His teaching.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Caesar’s Denarius

II: Caesar’s Denarius

Mark xii. 13-17; Matt. xxii. 15-22; Luke xx. 20-26.

The Sanhedrin's ambassage had not lingered to hear the end of this Parable; they had withdrawn, despairing of conquering the Christ by their own efforts, but more than ever ardently bent upon rallying other enemies against Him.  They proceeded at once to take counsel, and, as their fear of the Nazarene outweighed every other feeling, they decided to renew the alliance heretofore made in Galilee, and accordingly courted the cooperation of such Herodians as they encountered in the Temple.  Intense as was the aversion usually shown by the Pharisees for these courtiers of the Roman power, they did not scruple at this juncture to make them the instrument of their wily designs.

Now the plan in view was to ask Jesus some question the answer to which, however it might be stated, should involve His ruin.  If put to Him by the Zealots of the Law any such insidious demand would be likely to awaken the suspicions of the Christ, and by this time His foes knew him well enough to expect that, with a word, He would snap the snares wherewith they wished to entangle Him.  But, on the contrary, when conversing with the Herodians, was there not good reason to hope that the young Rabbi, no longer on His guard, would fall into the trap?  However, dreading lest these courtiers should become engaged in any discussion with Him (for thus, as they were unaccustomed to religious controversies, their new allies might be easily confounded), the Sanhedrin at the same time commissioned to attend them some of their own disciples who are not so well known as the headmen of the Synagogue, but were nonetheless experts in the guile.  The part the Herodians were to play in this odious comedy was to counterfeit the actions of honest, upright men, coming forward as if anxious to know the truth, and so lie in wait for an opportune instant to surprise the Lord.

At the propitious season (so it seemed) the Herodians probably pretended to be engaged in an argument among themselves; then approach Jesus, praying that he would arbitrate between them.

"Master," they began, with great demonstrations of reverence, "we know that you are true-spoken, and that you do not put yourself out for anyone, whoever he may be; for you have no respect for the person of men, but teach the way of God in all sincerity.  Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar or not?"

It seemed impossible for Jesus to escape them this time.  To condemn the tribute would be to run the risk of incurring the vengeance of the Rome; to accounted legitimate would be to infuriate the Jews, who would construe it is a bit of flattery intended to conciliate these Gentiles.  Clearly seeing the ambush, the Master turned toward the Scribes.

"Hypocrites," He said, " why do you tempt Me?  Bring me the coin with which you pay the tribute."

"Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar or not?" J-J Tissot.

Not one among the Zealots of the Law could keep in his purse a piece of metal stamped with idolatrous emblems; it was necessary, therefore, to procure one from the neighbouring money-changers, or from someone in the crowd.  It so fell out that the piece presented to the Lord was not the peculiar coin which the Romans had authorised four Judaea,— which bore the name without the image of the Emperor,— but a real Roman Denarius.  On one side Jesus displayed to the Pharisees the figure of Tiberius with the exergue: TIBERIUS CAESAR, SON OF THE DIVINE AUGUSTUS. [1]

[1] TI. CAESAR. DIVI. AUG. F. AUGUSTUS. On the reverse is a woman seated, and these words: PONTIF. [EX] MAXIM. [US]

Caesar's Tribute.  DrusMAX / CC BY-SA 

"Whose is this image and this inscription?" The Lord demanded of them.

"Caesar's," they said.

This answer contained their condemnation, for, following the teaching of their foremost Rabbis, to accept the money of a sovereign was to acknowledge his power.  Now the Pharisees made use of Caesar's money in all matters of contract and commerce.  By what right, after reaping the advantages of imperial protection, could they refuse to meet the common cost, and to pay what they owed according to strict justice?

"Render to Caesar that which is Caesar's," added Jesus, "and to God that which is Gods."

This decision determined what falls to Caesar's share and what is God's.  To the princes of the earth belong obedience and tribute; the soul belongs to God.

This left the Pharisees hopeless of either ensnaring the Christ in His talk or exciting the hatred of the mob against Him; they retired in confusion.  Three days later they recalled this scene in Pilate's Praetorium, but only to travesty His words by their calumny:—

" We found this fellow," they then said, "forbidding the people to pay tribute to Caesar."

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Chapter II: The Last Day in the Ministry of Jesus

I: Jesus and the Members of the Sanhedrin, Parables of the Vine-Dressers and the Wedding Festival

Mark xi. 20-33, xii. 1-12; Matt. xxi. 20-46, xxii. 1-14; Luke xx. 1-19.

The following morning, after spending this night, like the preceding one, without the city walls, Jesus returned for the last time to the Temple. By the roadside still stood the fig-tree He had condemned when passing that way yesterday, now no longer arrayed in glistening foliage, but parched and dry, blasted to the root.  Peter was the first to notice it.

"Master," he said, "look yonder!  The fig tree which you coerced has withered away."

A fig tree (Hinnom). J-J jTissot.

The suddenness of this death so astonished the Apostles that they forgot the lesson which Jesus had drawn from the incidents the day before, preoccupied as they were with the overwhelming effects of His lightest word.  Accommodating Himself to their thoughts, the Lord now spoke to them of this attribute of Omnipotence, and declared that they might rightfully assume alike power.

"Of a truth," He said, "if you have faith and a waver not you shall not only cause a fig tree to wither away, but you shall say to this mountain, 'Uproot thyself, and cast a thyself into the sea!' Immediately it shall be done."

The Apostles, who had been so amazed at the wonder He had worked, were even more astounded to hear Him say that they might do as much.  In their surprise they stood staring at the Mount of Olives, whither the Lord had just pointed, their minds bewildered at the notion of stirring so huge a mass.  Jesus pursued His thought further.

"All things which you shall ask in prayer do but believe and you shall receive them."

Surely this was to give the sole a partnership in the Divine Power.  But the faith of which the Master is speaking here is worthless without charity, and this truth He inculcated by adding that no prayer is granted which does not spring from love and forgiveness of injuries.

"And when you would betake yourselves to prayer, whatever you may have against any one forgive it him, in order that your Father Who is in Heaven may also pardon you your offences.  And if you do not forgive him neither will your Father Who is in Heaven pardon you your offences."

Meanwhile, conversing in this manner, they had passed under the gates of Jerusalem and ascended to the Temple.  The crowds had not yet gathered in any great number.  Walking under the galleries Jesus was beginning His instructions to such as He found already assembled there, when a deputation approached him.  It included, if not the whole Sanhedrin, at least representatives from its various divisions,— Pontiffs, Scribes, and Ancients of the people.  Filled with wrath, as they watched the Galilean's triumphant reception during the last few days, they now came in person to question Him, making sure that their presence would overawe the multitude; and in fact the people at once fell to one side at their approach.

"By what authority," they demanded, " do you do all these things?  And who has given you this power" of instructing and exercising dominion in the Temple?

"I also will propose a question to you," so Jesus, "and, if you answer Me, I will tell you by what authority I do these things?  From whom are was the Baptism of John?  From Heaven, or from men?"

John the Baptist and the Pharisees. J-J Tissot.

The Sanhedrin delegation was disconcerted; for, with a word, the Saviour had reversed their respective roles, and obliged His judges to defend themselves.

"Answer Me," He repeated.

But it was without avail.  They saw only too well just what His question involved, for John had given testimony in the presence of all Judaea that Jesus the Christ was still greater than he.

"If we say:'It was from Heaven,'" they muttered among themselves, "he will answer us:'Why did you not believe him?'And if we say:'It is from men,' the people will stone us." For all regarded John as a true Prophet, and they would incur great danger by even contradicting his words; so then, dreading any uprising of the multitude, the Sanhedrin's emissaries were forced to acknowledge their defeat, saying:—

"We know nothing about it."

They knew nothing about it!  they, the masters of Israel, who had arrogated to themselves the right of expounding everything, of judging all things, of alone being able to distinguish the inspired Prophet from the seducer of the people,— they could not tell what this man was whose voice had startled Judaea, and attracted to the Jordan, not only the ignorant multitude, but the Doctors of the Law and the great men of Jerusalem.  They were so publicly put to confusion that Jesus was content to add:—

"No more will I tell you by what authority I do these things;" and He turned away from them.

After having thus reduced the lawyers and doctors to silence Jesus continued to teach the people.6

" What think you of this?" He asked them.  "A man had two sons, and coming to the first he said to him:—

"'My son, go work today in my vineyard.'

"'I will not,' he answered; but afterwards, touched with repentance, he went.

"Coming to the second, he spoke to him in the same words.

"'I go, Sir,' this one answered, and went not.

"Which of the two did the will of his father?"

With one voice the crowd exclaimed:—

"The first!"

Thereby they unwittingly condemned the Sanhedrin party, for it was to them that Jesus referred under the guise of this son, so ready with his lip-service,— too insincere to disobey openly, too corrupt either to will or to do what is right.  Then He added that publicans and harlots should go before them into God's Kingdom.  The latter indeed were converted by the power of John's words; whereas the princes of the people, on the contrary, " had seen all that perfectness of righteousness which is of the Law that was in John, yet nothing about him had touched them or moved them to believe."

But what after all was this incredulity when compared with the crimes which they were even now meditating?  In order to display its blackness Jesus brought forward another Parable.  He described one of the vineyards which then covered the suburbs of Jerusalem.

 

Vineyards with watchtowers. J-J Tissot.

This one the master of the household has planted with his own hands, has encircled with a wall and bristling shrubs whereby to ward off the wild beasts; his zealous care has prompted him to have a tower built, and by night and by day a watchman keeps guard from this height; a huge basin, hollowed from the rock, receives the wine which the vine dressers pour in purple streams from the press.  Nothing is wanting to complete this cherished vineyard, and the lord may well demand:—

" What more ought I to have done that I have not done?"

And, notwithstanding, when the vintage season came at last it was of no avail for him to send his servants the Prophets to warn them that it was high time to render some fruits.  The husbandmen laid hold upon these Messengers, beat some, slew and stoned the rest.  Others of his retainers sent in greater numbers suffered the same outrageous treatment at their hands.

What else was this but a history of the same Jews, of whom Saint Stephen could truly say:—

"Which one of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted?  They have massacred them which proclaimed you the coming of the Just One, of Whom you have been but now the betrayers and murderers."

The rest of the Parable still more plainly declared what the Sanhedrin was about to put into effect only three days later.

The master of the vineyard had an only son whom he loved much.

"What shall I do?" He mused.  "I will send them my beloved son; perchance when they see him they will have respect for him."

Then, when the husbandmen had caught sight of him, they said among themselves:—

"And this is the heir.  Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours!"

And laying hold on him, they dragged him outside the vineyard, and there they killed him.

"When, therefore, the master of the vineyard shall come what will he do to these vine-dressers?" demanded Jesus, and He looked fixedly at these members of the Sanhedrin.

But on their part the sole thought was to divert the attention of the multitude from themselves; accordingly, in order to forestall any such personal application, they stigmatised the crime in unmeasured terms.

" He will punish these wicked men in proportion to their wickedness," they said; " he will have them slain, and let out his vineyard to others."

"God forbid!" cried out the people, who comprehended that this Vineyard was Israel, and now heard their leaders launching curses upon their own heads.  But Jesus did but confirm this sentence which they now had uttered against themselves.

According to the Psalmist's Prophecy the Stone at first rejected by men for the foundation of God's Church was thereafter to become the mighty Basework whereon Jews and Gentile should together erect a new Edifice.  This Corner-stone was Jesus, whose humble appearance had made Him a stumbling block to these masters of Israel.  Woe unto them, for that they had fallen against this Rock of Offence, and were thereby broken in pieces!  Yet, even now, there was space left them to retrieve their fall and rise once more; whereas, if they consummated their crime, the Stone would crush them, grinding them into such fine chaff that the lightest wind would sweep them from off the threshing-floor.

"The Kingdom of God shall be taken away from you," said the Lord, "and given to the people who shall bring forth the fruits thereof."

These last words of the Saviour left no room for misconception; "the princes of the priesthood and the Pharisees understood that He was speaking of them, and sought means to seize Him; but still they feared the people, who regarded Him as a Prophet." Thus protected from their wrath, Jesus only answered them by forcing them to hear what should be the result of their plottings.

To this end He went on to repeat an illustration which He had used at other times, that of a marriage-banquet which the guests refused to attend.  But since the day when the Lord first presented this picture of their reprobation before the eyes of the Jews the aspect of affairs had altogether altered; the hatred, so long repressed, had broken its bonds; the Pharisees, who had formally invited the Christ to sit at table with them, only gathered about Him here in Jerusalem in the hope of apprehending Him and putting Him to death.

These deplorable circumstances are reflected in the details of the Second Wedding Feast.  For this time the scene is one of imposing richness; it is no longer a private individual who bids them to a dinner,— now all we have anything left celebrating the nuptials of his son.  While those invited to the first entertainment excuse themselves courteously, these who are called to the second shamefully maltreat the servants of the prince, while some proceed so far as to scourge and kill them.  Such heinous crimes cry out for vengeance; accordingly, while only excluded from the banquet in the first Parable, in the present one the guilty ingrates are punished rigorously.  The king "dispatches his armies, destroys the murderers, and sets fire to their city." The threatening Prophecy indeed; one, alas!  which the Jews did not comprehend even when Jerusalem lay in ashes at their feet.

Turning away from these reprobates, Jesus spoke of the other guests whom the Apostles, His servants, were soon to usher into the Church; for He had commanded them the "to gather in all that they should find, good or evil," in order to fill up the banquet-hall.  But it would not be enough for a man to have been called to the feast-making with Jesus in order to make him really worthy of such high honour.  Indeed it would be with them as when "the king, having gone in to see the guests, perceives a man present who has not on a wedding-garment.  Whereupon he says to him:—

"'Friend, how did you enter here without having put on marriage raiment?'

"And he had nothing to answer.

"Then sayeth he to his servants:—

"'Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness!'

"There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Jesus could add nothing to this Parable but that one cry of warning so often repeated by him:—

" Many are called, but few chosen!"

This He exclaimed now, no longer with the hope of alarming the Jews, but thinking more of His disciples, since even in their ranks and at His Last Supper this saying would find its fulfilment.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Holy Monday

II: Holy Monday

Mark xi. 12-29; Matt. Xxi. 12-19; Luke xix. 45-38; John xii. 20-50.

On the morrow, during the early dawn, Jesus left the neighbourhood of Bethany and returned with His disciples to Jerusalem; in that out of the way region He had not been able to procure even the little food He required, and now He felt the pangs of hunger on the road.  The fields through which they were passing, albeit a sorry enough landscape in our times, were then covered with trees, especially fig-trees, which bordered the highways.  The Saviour noticed one standing alone fully leaved-out; He stepped near and looked for figs on its branches, but in vain.  Then said the lord:—

"Henceforth may never fruit be found upon thee!"

And from that moment the fig-tree began to wither away.

A fig tree (Valley of Hinnom). J-J Tissot. 

Surely a strange anathema this, if we consider it as merely affecting the tree, incapable of merit in praise or blame; but a terrible judgment for the hypocrites, for whom this fig-tree was the figure, most of all terrible for the Jewish people who, while boasting of their laws and their ceremonies, used these outward signs only to hide the hollow insincerity of their righteousness.  This death-blow is the only one dealt by the Saviour's merciful hands; indeed it was only wrung from his heart during the last days of His stay among them in the hope of striking their stubborn souls with a holy fear of God; and even here the tender mercies of His heart warded off the blow, moving Him still to spare mankind, and in their stead simply sacrifice an insensible object of His own handiwork.

The Master hardly halted long enough to launch this malediction, for a pressing duty was urging Him onward to Jerusalem.  Sorely indignant at the profanations which on the evening before had met His sight, He had resolved to once more raise His arm in judgment against those who had polluted the Temple.  Although it was an early hour in the morning He found the courts already crowded with traffickers and littered over with beasts.  Doubtless with blows from a thong, as He had done once before, so on this occasion did He beat the buyers and sellers before Him, overturning the money tables, together with the stands of the dove-vendors.

"It is written, 'My House is a House of Prayer,'" He cried, "and you have made it a den of thieves!"

Christ cleansing the Temple. J-J Tissot.

Trembling before Him they all took to flight; soon Jesus remained sole master in the Sanctuary He had purified.  "Nor would He so much as suffer a man to pass through the Temple with an unhallowed vessel." Then, while those Jews He had just now expelled made shift to conceal their confusion in the outskirts of the Temple, the blind folk and cripples came hurrying to Him and He healed them.  The multitude flocked about Him to hear His words, and were filled with wondering delight.

A few moments had sufficed to change the aspect of God's Holy Hill; whereupon, in place of the noisy tumult, there fell a great calm, like the spirit of recollection, over the courts.  Even the children about the Temple were awe-stricken at the stillness; but then, recalling last night's Triumph, forthwith they began to re-enact the victorious chants which had then greeted the Christ.

"Hosanna!" sang those little voices, "Hosanna to the Son of David!"

There childish homage angered the enemies of the Lord; they were all there, High-Priests, Scribes, and Chief-Magistrates of the people, all watching Him with envious looks.  At sight of these young servants of God, brought up by them, and now hymning the praises of the Nazarene, they could contain themselves no longer.

" Do you hear what these are saying?" they cried.

" Ay," replied the Master, " have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast brought forth a perfect praise?'" 

After this manner Jesus past the day wherein, fulfilling Malachy's prediction, He had appeared in the Temple, therein to exercise dominion.  Struck with what they had seen and heard, certain Greeks, who at this time happened to be in the Gentiles' porches, approached Philip and made this request:—

"Sir, we desire to see Jesus."

Where did these men hail from, and what did they want of the Lord?  There is a tradition which represents them as envoys from Abgar V., King of Edessa, who had lately been notified of the perils besetting Jesus in Judaea, and desired to tender Him an asylum in his States; the Lord, they tell us, recompensed this prince by healing him of his leprosy, and sent him a message which is still to be found in the Annals of Armenia.  Uncertain as these facts seem, it is right to recall them here, for they show at least that antiquity regarded these strangers as Pagans, come from a faraway country.

As Philip, whose Greek name had attracted attention, did not feel sure how to proceed in the matter, he addressed Andrew, who was from Bethsaïda like himself; the latter, who was of hardier character, bade him accompany him to the Saviour, and so together they repeated their demand of these unknown foreigners.

Evidently the Master had expected the coming of these Gentiles', for He answered immediately,—

"The hour is come wherein the Son of Man is about to be glorified."

Thus He indicated that His Realm was soon to be extended over the whole earth, and at the same time testified two His own great joy thereat.  But, foreseeing also at what cost this conquest must be bought, He felt rising within His soul the horror of death.  His fast approaching Passion now appalled Him.

"Now is My Soul troubled.  What shall I say?" He cried, as though uncertain of Himself, and in His anguish of spirit He besought Heaven to deliver Him.

" Father, save Me from this hour!"

Yet at once, crashing down the weakness of the flesh,—

" Nevertheless," He added, "I came for this hour.  Father, glorify Thy Name."

Straightway a Voice came from on High that said:—

"I have glorified It and I will glorify It again."

It was the Father, Who celebrated the triumph of His Son beforehand and did honour to Him, as formerly in the Jordan and again upon Mount Tabor.

This evidence of His Godhead was not comprehended then.  " It was thunder!" cried the crowds, though others added:—

"An Angel spoke to Him."

"This Voice is not for me, but for you," Jesus replied.

And He explained the mystery it foreshadowed: inasmuch as the world is judged and convicted of its sins by the Holy Spirit, Satan, the Prince of the World, shall shortly be cast out.  But as for the Christ, He shall be lifted up, like the Serpent in the wilderness; and then only shall He draw all men unto Him.  "Now He said this to declare by what death He must die." 

These lessons were far above the thoughts of the crowd; accordingly they would not hearken longer, but began to besiege the Master with questions.  What did He mean by saying, "It is necessary that the Son of Man be lifted above the earth?" Did this signify the death of the cross?  But then how could He call Himself the Son of Man, since this name was the title of the Messiah, and surely the Psalmist had proclaimed that the Reign of the Christ should be eternal?

Without entering into any longer disputes Jesus reminded His auditors that, for yet a little while, they had the light among them.

" Believe in the Light," He added, "while still you possess it, in order that you may be the children of light."

These were the words Jesus then spoke to the people, but what occurred afterward between Him and the Greeks?  Saint John does not inform us; he is content to tell us simply that these visitors "will come up to worship at the Feast." A Heaven-sprung light, like that which had once illumined the minds of the Magi, at first had revealed to the newcomers the excellence of the Jewish Law; but once arrived in Jerusalem they could find therein nothing greater than Jesus, and, in all simplicity and singleness of heart, they turned to Him.  The Eastern world had knelt and adored Him in His cradle; now the West, in the person of these Greeks, came to bow down and worship before His Cross.

The interview between Jesus and the Gentiles is the last incident of the Divine Ministry recounted by Saint John.  Enclosing his account of this period he stops to cast one sad backward glance at the scanty harvest which the Master had gathered as the fruit of His mighty labours.  His teaching, it is true, had compelled the admiration of many; even here and now His words could hold the multitude spellbound, howbeit, without working their conversion.  Isaiah's Oracle was accomplished: for three full years Israel had now looked upon the Messiah without recognizing Him, had hearkened without understanding, all the time hardening its heart, so that it could be neither healed nor be turned unto Him.

"Truly this was what the Prophet had predicted when, after having beheld the glory of the Christ, he spoke those words concerning Him." Amid this universal blindness a few princes of the people believed in Jesus, but even these durst not avow their faith for fear of being expelled from the Synagogue.  Repeating the Evangelist's reproachful words, " the Glory of men was dearer to them than than the glory of God."

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

The Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem

Book Sixth: Holy Week

Chapter I: The Triumph of Jesus

I: The Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem

John xi. 55-57; xii. 12-19; Mark xi. 1-11; Luke xix. 29-44; xxi. 37-38; Matt. xxi. 1-11.

The Sanhedrin Councillors had indeed compelled Jesus to fly from the Holy City, but they had not been able to blot out either the memory of His prodigies, or the authority of His language, or His Name now famous throughout the length and breadth of Judaea.  While the Lord retired to spend His last few days in the Desert of Ephrem, very many Jews had gone up to the Temple in order to purify themselves before the Passover, and ever since their arrival they had been on the lookout for Jesus.  Their disappointment was lively on learning that He was no longer to be seen in Jerusalem, and that no one knew where He was.

In the porches, where the numerous ablutions and sacrifices necessitated longer hours of standing about for these crowds of visitors, the only topic of discussion was the young Prophet.

"What do you think?" They asked among themselves; "is it really true that He will not come?"

The Councillors could overhear them speaking such words, could note the agitation of the first comers, and so must have congratulated themselves for having avoided the disturbances with which the Festival was threatened, by thus getting rid of Jesus.

Their satisfaction was destined to be of short duration; for just six days before the Pasch news reached their ears that the Saviour was approaching.  The Sabbath prevented the people from hurrying out immediately from the town, but as soon as sunset signalled the end of the hallowed repose, many went out as far as Bethany.  "They went thither, not only for the sake of Jesus, but for Lazarus also,"bent upon seeing this man once dead but now called back from the tomb.  They gazed at him, were thrilled at the thought, and, finally, overborne by the power of Jesus' words, great numbers re-entered Jerusalem, that same night, believing in the Saviour.  Now among them were certain princes of the people, a fact which was exceedingly irritating to the excited members of the Sanhedrin.  The Pontiffs especially, Sadducees for the most part, with no belief in the Resurrection of the dead, where indignant that these nobles should be the cause of such a commotion.  To their way of thinking, there was only one means of putting an end to the things, and that was to kill the resuscitated man; this they resolved to do.  But other cares weighed upon their minds, for now the rumour came (as already noise about in Bethany) that on the following day Jesus would enter the town.  This news stirred up the entire populace, and all were making preparations to receive the Lord.

And accordingly, on the Morrow, Jesus quitted the home of His friends to make His way Jerusalemward.  He did not follow the usual high road for caravans but took the footpath, which crosses over the ridge connecting the Mountain of Olives with Bethany.  On passing out from under the long rows of palm trees which shade the village streets, then, just a little to His right, among the stony fields planted here and there with fig trees, the Saviour came in sight of Bethpagë (The House of Figs) surrounded by vineyards bearing a plentiful load of fruit.

Bringing the company about Him to a halt, Jesus sent to disciples on ahead.

The ass and the colt at Bethpagë. J-J Tissot.

"Go into yonder village lying before us," He said.  "Upon your entrance you shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her, on which no man has never yet mounted.  Loose them and bring them to Me.  And if anyone say to you, 'What are you doing?'  Say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and straightway he will let them go."

Everything took place as Jesus had foretold them: in a byway of the town they found a she-ass, tied with her foal outside the gateway; and they unfastened them.

"What are you doing?" enquired some of the bystanders; whereupon they made answer just as the Lord had commanded them, and they let them go.

The Apostles were impatiently awaiting their return; since now, for the first time, they beheld the Master making ready something which might be likened to a Triumph, by preparing to mount the very animal of old devoted to the service of the Royal House of Israel, the ass of Eastern lands, of solemn gait and noble carriage.  Jewish traditions had proclaimed that the Messiah would choose no other equipage on the day of His manifestation.

"And so," thought they, "at last the hour has come when the Master, after so long persisting in concealing Himself, will appear and establish His kingdom."

The delight and enthusiasm of the Galileans was so great that they tore off their mantles and with them decked the ass has a richly as they might; then making Jesus sit thereon, they thronged about Him with shouts of great joy.  "They knew not," adds Saint John, "the Mystery contained in that which they were doing, but after Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that all these things had been written of Him, and that they had fulfilled them." For it was long ago recorded, in the words of Zachary:—

" Rejoice greatly, thou daughter of Sion! Lift up a shout of gladness, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold thy King cometh to thee: lonely and gentle, He bringeth thee salvation; poor, He rideth upon an ass and upon an ass's colt."

Meanwhile the retinue was advancing toward a Jerusalem,— Lazarus and the Apostles nearest to the Lord's side, while the ass walked slowly alongside her foal.  The multitude, hastening out from Bethany, shared the disciples' wild transports.  Some cast their garments on the ground, to beautify the road before Him; others, stripping the fig and the olive trees of their leafy boughs, covered the way with green branches; all vied with one another in celebrating the wondrous deeds of the Christ and Lazarus whom He had brought back alive from the tomb.

The Procession on the Mount of Olives. J-J Tissot.

The route along which Jesus was advancing climbs over the crest of the Mount of Olives and speedily reaches its summit.  From this point the Holy City suddenly arises in full view, its snowy ramparts towering over the dark ravines.  Surprising as this scene is, even nowadays, to the traveller who climbs up this way from the Jordan, the spectacle was still more thrilling then, when in gazing upon Jerusalem they beheld one of the wonders of the Oriental world.  Girdled with towers and battlements, crowned with palaces, the brilliant town reached out to the east and to the west, as if bent upon marshalling all her splendours before the beholder.  In a southerly direction especially, when the sunlight would beat upon the white marbles and golden roofs of the Temple, the dazzled sight was unable to endure such a blaze of fire.  So soon as this beloved vision unrolled itself before them, the Apostles burst forth into songs of triumph:—

"Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed be the King of Israel,

Who cometh in the Name of the Lord,

and blessed be the Kingdom

of our Father move David, which is come!

Hosanna, peace, Glory

in the highest off the Heavens!"

Amidst these cries of gladness Jesus alone was silent.  He had stopped and was looking down upon the city wherein He was about to die.  At last Sion had heaped up the full measure of ungratefulness, and the Saviour wept aloud over her.

"If thou hadst known," He mourned, "if thou hadst known — if only in this day which is still granted thee — that which might bring the Peace!  But now all this is hidden from the thine eyes.  There will come a time when thine enemies shall compass thee about with trenches, and shall destroy thee and thy children, all beaten down to the ground in thy midst, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou hast not known the time wherein God hath visited thee."

No one else besides Jesus foresaw this catastrophe at that moment.  His disciples indeed saw Him weeping, they heard His predictions, and felt a momentary thrill of disquiet, but the impression was effaced shortly.  So many times hadst the Lord’s brow grown sad, and His tears had flowed freely before them so often, that they no longer felt much amazement at the spectacle!

Meanwhile joyous acclamations, re-echoing from afar, had published on every hand the progress of the Son of David.  And now, from the houses down in the valley and from the Pilgrims' tents, pitched in every available spot in that neighbourhood, there came out a great multitude to meet Him, advancing, having all palm branches in their hands.  Then straightway the two great companies joined forces and together descended to Jerusalem,— one throng going before the Master, the other following after, all waving their green branches and filling the air with Hosannas.

"Hosanna!" they cried, while at every step the concourse swelled in number; loud plaudits, shouts of praise, triumphal chants, nothing was wanting which could lend majesty to this long-locked-for entry of their King.

The Procession in Jerusalem. J-J T

Some of the Pharisees took alarm at all this.  For who would be able to set any bounds to this emotion of the people?  Would the Romans look with a favourable eye upon this public proclamation of a Messiah, Son of David, – a royalty which certainly promised nothing better than new and interminable seditions?  However, as they had dared venture nothing openly against these crowds now enraptured with great joy, they only managed to approach Jesus.

"Master," they said, "restrain your disciples'."

"If they hold their peace," responded Jesus, "the very stones will cry out!"

Then He entered into the city.  Here all was excitement.

"Who is this?" asked some; and those around them were crying:—

"It is Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth!"

The while "all this great multitude with Him gave testimony that He it was Who had recalled Lazarus from the grave and raised him from the dead.  It was for this that they flocked about Him, because they heard that He had wrought that Miracle."

Then indeed the Pharisees began to say to each other, —

" You see, we are gaining nothing.  All the world is running after him!"

In this royal state the Saviour was conducted the length of Jerusalem as far as the Mountain of the Temple; there, doubtless, the great procession dispersed, for Jewish customs did not permit Pilgrims to approach the Sanctuary in travelling attire, their feet stained with dust.

And so, entering alone into the House of God, Jesus found it once more just as it had been three years back.  Again avarice and greed had broken the bounds of respect; cages of doves, herds of cattle and sheep, tables for money-changers, these all blocked up the porches, stretching along beneath the galleries even to the confines of The Holy.  Moreover, just at this moment the marketing seemed to wax more shrill and tumultuous than ever, since somewhere about the tenth day of Nisan the lamb had to be selected, so that every one was hurrying to buy the Paschal victim.

Jesus "scanned it all and on all sides." But perhaps he did nothing further on this day; for evening was drawing on, and he must needs make haste to depart from the city.  In fact the Sanhedrin people, who were the more infuriated at losing Him as they saw He was gaining greater power daily, now had dogged His every step.  Obliged to smother their hatred during this triumphal day, they looked to find facilities for avenging themselves upon Him, come nightfall.  In the midst of the sleeping city nothing could be easier than suddenly to seize the Nazarene.  Jesus foresaw the danger, and with His Apostles withdrew in the direction of Bethany.

Did He go as far as that village?  We fancy not; for on this night as on the three following the Saviour would no longer have been safe in Lazarus' house, marked out as it was for the watchful spies.  Wandering over the lonely and desolate sides of the Mount of Olives He made His bed up on the bare ground, surrounded by His disciples.  According to His own words the Son of Man had no longer "where to lay His head."

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

Jericho and Bethany

Chapter XII: Jericho and Bethany

Luke xviii. 31-43; xix. 1-28; Mark x. 32-52; xiv. 3-9;Matt. xx. 17-34; xxvi. 6-13; John xii. 1-11.

Preaching and blessing His people Jesus descended the eastern bank of the Jordan.  Arrived at the spot where the road veers off Jerusalemward the and crosses the stream the disciples saw that He was making as if to take that direction, and they were seized such trepidation and dismay that for the most part they stood motionless and dumbfounded; the Master, however, walked on before them, and the Apostles alone slowly followed, but at a distance, and filled with overwhelming fears.

The Saviour stopped, made a sign to the Twelve to draw nearer, and thereupon announced His Passion for the third time, for telling clearly (which hitherto He had not done) that He was to hang upon the Cross.

"Look you now, we are going up to Jerusalem," He said, "and soon all things which the Prophets have written concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished.  He shall be delivered unto the Princes of the Priesthood and to the Scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and they shall deliver Him to the Gentiles.  He shall be mocked and reviled; they shall spit upon His face; after they have scourged Him they shall crucify Him, and the third day He shall rise again."1

Jesus could not have described in distincter terms the sufferings by which He must needs establish His Kingdom; but the disciples were so engrossed in their Judaic visions of the Messiah's Advent "that they understood naught of all these things, and this saying," plain and unmistakable as it was, "remained hidden to them."2 They only concluded that there Master was soon to inaugurate His Rain, and thus they were as much preoccupied as ever with dreams of wondrous wealth, mighty thrones, and earthly greatness.

Certainly nothing could give us a better idea of the heavy bandage which covered their eyes than the step taken just at this juncture by the wife of Zebedee3 the fisherman.

Her two sons hurried to her side, overflowing with all they had just been hearing from the Lord's lips; they instructed her that there were great things now close at hand, grievous trials, to be followed shortly by a splendid Resurrection and a surpassing glory.  Was it not high time to arrange for the foremost places under the Messiahs new reign?  Eager and excited as James and John were, they knew with what sternness the Master rebuked anything like selfish ambitions; they therefore durst not utter their requests themselves.  But their mother Salome, like many other women, had quitted Galilee to be one of His companions and minister to His needs.4  Her sons believed that her prayer would be all-powerful to reach the heart of Jesus, and so they made her a sharer in the high-soaring hopes.

With the two young men following after she made her way to the Lord, knelt down at His feet, and besought Him to grant whatever she might ask of Him.

"What is it you desire?" Jesus responded.

"Only say," proceeded Salome, "that my two sons here may sit, the one on your right hand, the other on your left, in your kingdom."

The Saviour had compassion upon their blindness; to right and to left of Him but a few days later there would be raised two crosses, and upon them two tortured thieves would meet a dreadful death.

"You know not what you ask," He said quietly; then openly alluding to the awful pangs of His Passion and bloody death, " Can you drink the chalice which I must drink," He demanded, "or receive the baptism wherewith I must be baptised?"

James and John fancied that all this merely meant whether they dared to brave some great peril for His sake, and they replied instantly,—

"We can!"

Jesus loved the generous souls of these two "Sons of the Thunder," and later on He would accept their sacrifice; for James did indeed meet a Martyr's death, the first of all the Apostles, and John survived the rest only that he might fulfill a longer space of suffering.  But as for the first seats in His Kingdom, the Master declared that He was unable to show partiality in disposing of them, for God alone dispenses the graces whereby the highest merits are retained, and man himself can alone render those graces efficacious by corresponding to the designs of Heaven.

However secretly the two brothers had preferred their request it reached the ears of the Apostles.5  All were highly incensed; they had already begun to inveigh against the ambitious pair, each boasting of his own great merits, when Jesus called them to Him.  Again He set to work teaching them, as He had done so many times before, that in His holy Realm the highest rank is reserved for the humblest souls; just the opposite of those earthly empires where the great ones of a day seek only to enhance the splendour of their borrowed authority, "he who is first in the Church must be the servant of all, and imitate that Model, which is the Son of Man, Who came, not to be served, but Himself to serve, and to give His life for the redemption of many."

Meantime Jesus and his companions had crossed Jordan-Valley and were approaching Jericho.  By this name they designated what was in those days an oasis glittering with the clustered pleasure-houses and gardens of the great, glowing with palm-trees and fields of roses.  At either extremity of this rich stretch of country two towns had been built: near the fountain of Eliseus the Jericho of ancient days, overthrown by Joshua and reconstructed by Hiel of Bethel; at the southern end was the new city of Jericho, a magnificent pile of edifices erected by Herod and Archelaus.

As the Lord was passing along the highway which connects the two cities He came across a blind man seated by the wayside; it was the son of Timeus (Bar-Timeus), who was begging in company with another unfortunate.  A great concourse of people had already crowded about Jesus, and were following him from town to town, meaning to enter Herod's city of Jericho in His train.  The blind men listened to the clamour of the multitude; learning that it was Jesus of Nazareth they began to cry out,—

Healing two blind men, Jericho. J-J Tissot.

" Jesus, Son of David, have pity upon us!"

Their shrill shouts kept growing more importunate until those who passed before them began to rail at them, bidding them hold their peace.  The only cried out the louder,—

"Have pity on us, O Lord, Son of David!"

Touched with compassion Jesus stopped and commanded that they be brought to Him.  A number hurried to Bar-Timeus.

"Be of good cheer," they told him; "rise up, He is calling you."

The blind man cast away his long mantle, and guided by those who were nearest him rushed toward where Jesus stood.

"What would you have Me to do for you?" said the Lord.

"Master," he replied, "that I may see!"

"Go," Jesus said; " your faith has saved you."

In like manner He called the other blind man; laying His hands upon his eyes they were opened; and the two followed on after Him in the midst of a multitude that joined them chanting glory and praise to God.

There were still some six hours of foot-travel before they could reach Bethany.  Jesus resolved to spend the night in Jericho.6  Along these grand streets, through which resounded the shouts of the throngs proclaiming His glory, many doors would then eagerly have been flung open to welcome Him, but, even to the last day steadfast in His design of seeking out the lost sheep of Israel, He asked the hospitality of a dwelling despised by all the citizens.

At this time there were many publicans residing in Jericho; for this city was the bonding-warehouse of Perea, and the Roman treasury here regulated its tax-levies upon the incoming wealth of the valley, and particularly upon the balm which is so abundant in this country.  At the head of the tax-collectors was a personage named Zacheus, hated by the populace because of the great fortune he had accumulated in the exercise of his office, and especially because, though by birth a Jew, he lent his aid to their foreign masters.  Notwithstanding, he was a generous and upright man, much nearer the Kingdom of Heaven than his enemies.

As it happened, on this day all his efforts to get sight of Jesus were unavailing, for the crowd kept thrusting him aside contemptuously, and his short stature did not allow his seeing very far.  At last he resolved to run on ahead and climb into an Egyptian fig tree7 which overshadowed the road.  The Saviour would surely pass by this spot, and so Zacheus would at last get sight of Him Who was known as Friend of the Publicans." His good fortune exceeded his brightest hopes; for he beheld the Master, as He trod the dusty highway, halt, raise His eyes, and, meeting his longing look, heard Him call him by name.

Zacheus in the sycamore tree. J-J Tissot.

"Zacheus, make haste and come down, for today I must lodge in your house."

The publican instantly obeyed, and overwhelmed with gladness conducted the Christ to his residence.

The Jews followed after with murmurs of disapproval.

"He is going to lunch in the house of a sinner!" they said, and all were incensed that, while disdaining the Levites and nobility of Jericho, Jesus should reserve His favours for this outcast of the people.

But their insults and jeers had little effect upon the happy hosts; overflowing with great joy he opened his heart to the Saviour even before he could fling wide the gates of his home, and by such tokens proved his worthiness to be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven.  And indeed on the morrow, standing up before the multitude, he made this generous renunciation:—

"Lord, behold, now I give the half of my goods to the poor, and for every wrong that I have done I now return fourfold."

In a word, he had arisen far above the perfection prescribed by the Law; not content with making reparation for the past, he made sacrifice of his lawful rights and property, offering it to the poor.  Moved by this ready self-abnegation the Lord held up this publican, ennobled by his charity, as a model for the people.

"Today," He said, "this household has found salvation, and this man is truly a child of Abraham, for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

As we have said, this took place on the day following Zacheus' reception of his divine Guest, and just at the moment when Jesus was taking leave of His host.  The crowds assembled anew about the portals of Zacheus' mansion, and impatiently awaited the departure of the Master; for His reappearance after such a long period of seclusion, the Miracle of the preceding afternoon, His avowed intention to show Himself in Jerusalem, all seemed to imply that the Mission of the Christ was to come speedily to an issue.  Already it had begun to be common talk in Jericho that "the Kingdom of God was to be made manifest immediately," and the whole town was absorbed in expectancy.  Before withdrawing from their midst the Lord wished to dissipate these dreams of temporal Glory.  High up in sight of all the listening town folk towered that great palace which Archelaus had built.  This monument of fallen grandeur was a perpetual reminder of the exiled prince and the striking features of his reign,— his journey to Rome, his investiture with the rule of Judaea at the hands of Augustus, the Jews' bitter opposition to this proceeding, his servants' defence of their master's estates during his absence, and the vengeance which he wreaked upon his foes on his return.  Out of these reminiscences still burning in the minds of His auditors Jesus saw fit to compose the Parable of the Pounds.

"A man of noble birth went into a far distant region to take possession of a kingdom and to return speedily.  Now, after calling together ten of his servants, he gave them ten mina and told them:—

"Trade herewith till I come.

"But the people of his land hated him; and they sent an embassy after him, saying:—

" We will not have this man to reign over us.

"So, when he returned, having taken possession of the kingdom, he had the servants summoned to whom he had given the money, that he might know what each had gained by trading.

"The first came, saying:—

" ‘Lord, your mina made ten.’

"And he said to him:—

" ‘Well done, good servant that you are; because you have been faithful in the little matter you shall have power over the ten cities.’

"And the second came, saying:—

" 'Lord, your mina has made five.'

"Then he said to him also:—

" ‘And you likewise shall be over five cities.’

"And the other came, saying:—

" ‘Lord, see, here is your mina which I have kept wrapped up in a napkin; for I feared you, because you are an austere man; you take up what you laid not down, you reap that which you have not sown.’

"Then he said unto him:—

"Thou wicked servant, thou shalt be judged out of thine own mouth.  Thou knowest that I am an austere man, taking up what I have not laid down, and reaping that which I have not sown; why, then, didst thou not give my money into the bank, that after my return I might have exacted it with usuary?'  And he said to them that stood by:—

"’Take away his mina from him and give it to him who has ten.'

" And they said to him:—

" 'Lord he has ten mina.'

"But I say unto you: To everyone that hath it shall be given, and he shall abound; but from him that hath not even that which he hath shall be taken away.  As for those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither and slay them in my presence."

By its allusions to those current events which were even then changing the face of Judaea this Parable captivated the crowds, while at the same time it answered another purpose, for it announced to the Jews who looked to find in Jesus a monarch of this world that soon they would disown Him, and in Pilate's Praetorium would repeat the very cry once uttered by the enemies of Archelaus: "We will not have this man to reign over us!" The punishment of the rebels would certainly be fearful; but to the disciples, on the contrary, there was a recompense assured which was to be the more magnificent in proportion as their fidelity should show itself more earnest and eager.  Howbeit, let them not expect to receive it all together in this life, but on that Day when the Christ shall return invested with an Eternal Kinghood.

With this prophetic lesson Jesus left the people of Jericho, and took the road leading toward Jerusalem in company with His Apostles.  The multitude followed Him respectfully; they watched Him as He led the way through the deep defiles of the mountain, making His way up towards the Holy City.  But He did not mean to enter its gates on this day, since He had decided to stop at Bethany, and thus make Lazarus' house His last dwelling-place on earth.

He reached their residence on Friday evening, about the time when, with the setting sun, began "the sixth day before the Passover." On the morrow all observed the Sacred Repose, but during the late hours of that Sabbath afternoon the Lord’s entertainers celebrated His arrival by a great feast, which took place "in the house of Simon the Leper." Who was this townsman of Bethany, who is mentioned nowhere else in the Gospel?  Did he owe the cure of his malady to the Christ, and so was he one of those who sat down to the board which was spread in his dining hall on this day?  Or, again, although long since dead, is he mentioned here because universally known as the father of Lazarus' and the two sisters?  Between these conjectures, both equally probable, it is difficult to choose; but, whoever Simon the Leper may have been, we know that the dinner given in his mansion was of sufficient splendour to attract thither a goodly company of Jews, curious to see Jesus and this His friend, who such a little while ago was raised from the dead.

At sight of the Master seated beside Lazarus, and remembering His benefits, Mary's heart was thrilled, and she cast about in her mind for some token of homage, whereby to give evidence of her gratefulness.  At once her memory reverted to the repast at Naïm; she recalled the floods of tears which had then cleansed her heart of its dark stains and the perfumes which it shared, moved by great love.  Leaving Martha to care for the needs of their guests, she sped away in search of an alabaster vial filled with spikenard of exquisite purity; taking this in her hands and leaning over the couch on which Jesus rested, she shattered the fragile vessel.  The fragrant stream poured over the head and feet of the Christ, and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

Mary Magdalen anoints the feet of Jesus. J-J Tissot.

Turning on His arm, Jesus saw this woman lying at His feet as once before, and once more wiping them with her heavy locks.  She was generously sacrificing, in His honour, the most precious possession of her home in Bethany.  The Master understood her heart, and with silent approbation accepted Mary's act of adoration.  But the Galileans, who were ranged around her, were indignant at seeing a treasure of so much value squandered in an instant, and one of them went so far as to openly after his complaints against her,— it was Judas Iskarioth.

"Could not do this perfume have been sold for three hundred denarii, and that some have been given to the poor?"

"Now he said this, not that he cared so much for the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the purse, he had charge of what was given for it." Then taking pattern from him the Apostles began murmuring and repeated after him:—

" What good is done by this waste?"

Jesus reproved them.

"Why do you molest this woman?" He said.  "For you will always have the poor with you, and when you will, you may do them good; but Me you have not always.  As for her, so much as lay in her power, she hath done.  She hath anointed My body beforehand for My burial."

"For My burial!" Mary realized then the truth which Jesus had already three times revealed without being understood.  More detached from the world than the Apostles, and faithfully meditating upon the word of God, she had had, all along, a foreboding of the Saviour’s end, and fearing that after the execution His blood-stained body might be left without honours, "she poured balm upon Him beforehand." Jesus bade His disciples everywhere publish Mary's deed.

"Of a truth, I say to you wherever the Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that which she has now done shall be told in memory of her."

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

II: Divorce, Jesus with the Children, The Rich Young Man, The Workmen in the Vineyard

Mark x. 2-31; Matt. xix.3-30; xx. 1-16; Luke xviii. 15-30.

This lesson was the last which Galilee was to hear from the Great Teacher.  Bidding His native land a last farewell, Jesus crossed Jordan and descended the eastern bank of the stream.  Soon Pharisees of Perea crowded around Him again; they no longer came to listen, but to tempt the Master.

"Is it allowable they began, "to leave the wife for any reason, whatever it may be?"

A weighty question this, and one just now engrossing the attention of Jewish doctors, as it turned upon that of obscure text in Deuteronomy:1 "When the man who has married a wife, conceives a loathing of the woman, because he has found some stain upon her, he shall give her a writing of divorce, and having put it within the woman's hands, he shall send her out of his house."

What were they to understand by that word stain?  Did any corporal infirmity, or the least lightness of conduct deserve this epithet? Hillel and his school championed this opinion. Of rigider views the disciples of Shammaï only conceded that divorce was lawful in cases showing scandalous disorders.  But their austere principles were little relished by the many; great men of the people, Levites, Doctors of the Law, and generally speaking, all private individuals treated the marriage-bond with a liberty which was not far from licence; divorce or simply replaced polygamy, and though the Israelite no longer maintained a number of wives under the same roof, he managed to pass from one to another, according to the promptings of his fancy.  Doubtless Judea never knew the excesses of the Pagan world; here the women did not, as in Rome, reckon the years of their life by the number of their husbands, but whatever restraints the laws of Moses still imposed upon them, they had become powerless to check this increasing profligacy in the conduct of life.

So, then, for Jesus to take any part in this controversy by answering the Pharisees' question would be to strike full at the worst passions of those about Him; at the same time it would be a blow direct at the tetrarch whose territory they were crossing, thus branding his union as incestuous adultery.  For just such daring frankness as this John Baptist had forfeited his head.  But no such fears could gain access to the soul of Jesus; alike indifferent to the hatred of the populace and to Herod's anger, His only care was to uplift their hearts to thoughts of less carnal things.

And therefore He disdained to pronounce between Hillel and Shammaï, content to remind them that the union of man and wife must remain an eternal bond between them.  God Himself, on the first day of the world, had established this order, commanding the man to leave his father and his mother and give himself altogether to her, thereafter being but one with his espoused.  It was in token of this fruitful unity that He had created male and female, and taken Eve from the side of sleeping Adam.

"Even so," the Lord concluded, "they are no more twain, but the one same flash.  Then let not man put asunder what God has joined together."

The Pharisees comprehended that Jesus had avoided the pitfall by uttering these words, but they were anxious to involve Him in direct contradiction with the Law.

"But why, then," they objected,2 "did Moses command us to give the woman a Bill of Divorce, and so leave her?"

They indeed had transformed the toleration of an act into a positive precept.  To lay bare their trickery, Jesus needed only to explain what was the true spirit animating the Law.

"It was because of the hardness of your hearts," He replied calmly, "that Moses permitted you to leave your wives, but at the beginning it was not thus." Whereupon He added those words which have dowered the marriage state with its final perfection: " I say unto you, every man that leaves his wife, except it be for adultery, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries the wife that is thus put away commits adultery."

His enemies realized that the Christ had vanquished them; they durst not so much as contend that this teaching was an open affront to Herod, as well as a drastic measure of reform for all Israel.  Discomfited and abashed, they are obliged to let Him withdraw into His dwelling place unmolested.  Hardly were they within doors when the disciples began to question in their turn.

"If the case stands thus between husband and wife," they said, "it were better by far not to marry."

No more telling testimony could be found as to the depth of degradation to which public morals had descended than these words.  So, even the Apostles looked upon the notion of marital fidelity as an intolerable idea; the sadness and the reproach of a single life seem slight and insignificant compared to the irksomeness of such an unbearable yoke.

Far from abating His law by one whit, the Master responded that it was only the first step in the way of Chastity now set before the feet of His faithful followers; for very soon a heavenly grace would impel His chosen souls to loftier Heights, and so bear them beyond the reach of earthly loves and desires.  To make known this mystery of the stainless soul to these rough fishermen of Galilee would seem a hopeless task; but notwithstanding, Jesus essaye to raise their minds to that supreme standpoint.

In uttering there cry of discouragement, they had unwittingly spoken truth,—

"It were better not to marry!"

"All men," added the Lord, " comprehend not this saying, but only those to whom it is a given."

And to mark the road to this knowledge, He spoke of the eunuchs in the courts of Eastern monarchs.  It must needs be some inherited misfortune, or perhaps their master's cruelty, which had put them beyond the reach of carnal delights; yet how much mightier and more efficacious is the Christian’s holiness, which, by spiritual strength, suffices to transform the eunuch of the Heavenly Courts into a man who, while tarrying in these are fleshy habitations, is no longer of the flesh, but partakes rather of the Angel than of man.  Still, as yet Jesus could not do more than barely lift the veil which concealed this austere continency from the ancient world, and that but for instant.

"Whosoever is able to understand, let him understand!" He said to His disciples.

But there were few among them so freed from the slavery of the senses as to be able to glimpse the loveliness of a virgin soul.  It would be necessary for the Holy Spirit to descend upon them ere their ears could be opened to that hymning of Virgins to which John hearkened in the celestial Vision,— "harmonious as the quiring of many harps, a song which none can either learn or understand, save only they that follow the LamB withersoever He goeth."

Even as He was speaking, the Saviour noted the entrance of a little group of mothers who had brought with them their little ones.  Learning that the Master was about to depart from their neighbourhood they were eager to have lay His hands upon the children's heads and breathed a prayer over them.  Indeed it was then a hallowed usage among pious folk to beg a blessing for their babies at the hands of Doctors whom they revered; and Jesus all the more willingly sanctioned the old custom because the sweet purity of babyhood always refreshed and gladdened His heart.  But the Apostles only regarded these newcomers as troublesome intruders, and "they rebuffed them with harsh words;" and thereat Jesus was much displeased with them, saying:—

"He took them into His arms, laid His hands upon them, and blessed them." J-J tissot.

"Suffer these little children and forbid them not to come unto Me, for God's Kingdom is for such as are like unto them." And immediately, calling them about Him He took them into His arms, laid His hands upon them, and blessed them.

The disciples stood gazing at the scene, amazed at seeing Him display such tender familiarity with children; they did not know, as yet, that it belonged to Jesus to quicken these feeble bodies with an invisible life, and make them heirs of a heavenly Glory, by the gift of Baptism.  Already He had proclaimed their prerogatives more than once, and again on this day He declared the same truth once more, for, before bidding them farewell, He held these little ones up as the model for His disciples.

"In very truth, I say unto you," these were His words, "whoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter therein."

Almost immediately Jesus came forth from the dwelling in which He had been giving them these lovely lessons of life and proceeded along the road.  At once a young man came running after Him.

According to Saint Luke's account he was a personage of distinction in those parts, a youth of great and noble heart, that could not be satisfied with the righteousness of the Law, but hungered and thirsty for purer and higher truths.  All that he had heard about Jesus made him hope that the Master would soon reveal the mysteries which still overshadowed the ancient Scriptures; and he made haste to kneel before Him, asking: –

"Good Master, what shall I do that I may have eternal life?"

Jesus did not accept this praise.

"Why do you call Me good?" He said; "why do you question Me concerning that which is good?  There is none good save God alone."

His answer plainly implies that this young nobleman sought in Jesus only a man like himself, and it was meant to teach him that, as mercy and goodness on in the gift of the Divine Being, he must not seek them of any of His creatures,— who obtain them by grace,— but from God Himself, in Whom they abide in their fullness.  But nevertheless, added the Lord, "if you would enter into life, keep the commandments."

"Which commandments?" ejaculated the young man in amazement; for he had looked for some new light, and could not believe that the Master would simply refer him to the Precepts of the Law.

To make him understand that God esteems humble faith as of higher worth than splendid achievements, Jesus merely quoted from the Mosaic ordinances those duties which govern the everyday life of men:—

"Thou shalt not be an adulterer; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt not defraud anyone; honour thy father and thy mother, and love thy neighbour as thyself."

"Master," replied the young man in his bewilderment, "I have observed all this from my youth; what lack I yet?"

Jesus, looking longer upon him, loved him, for He saw the lad was of a true and upright heart, sincere and earnest in the pursuit of righteousness: rising above the beaten roads which all must run, He pointed out the narrow track, which leads the Saints up to the far heights of perfection.

"One thing is lacking yet," He said; "go, sell all that you have, and give it to the poor.  You shall have a treasure in Heaven; then come and follow me."

It was too much; the young Jew’s courage failed him; a great sadness fell upon his soul.  Grief-struck and with a somber countenance, "he went away, for he had great possessions."

Jesus followed him with His eyes, thinking on all the souls that would be ruined by riches, and looking about Him at His disciples,—

"How difficult it is," He said to them, "for the rich to enter into God's Kingdom!"

It was not the first time the Master had expressed Himself thus before them, but their ears, as well as their hearts, were closed to the truths which offended and shocked them; and they were as much astonished now at this saying as though it were some new thing.

Jesus gave no signs of irritation; yet, without abating one whit of its former severity, He repeated what He had often said, but in the most touching manner; no mother ever displayed greater tenderness in pressing to her baby’s lips the bitter drink which will save his life.

"My dearly beloved sons," came the answer, "ah!  How hard it is for those that trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God!  It is easier for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into God's Kingdom."

Thus the sentence was formal and explicit; it condemned all attachment to ask the goods.  The Apostles were still more amazed, and standing there, they began to say to one another:—

" But, then, who can be saved?"

Looking at them still, Jesus replied in the same gentle accents:—

"With men this is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible."

Peter, as hasty and eager as ever, always the first to regain his courage as he was first to despair, – Peter here broke in upon his Master.3

"Lord," said he, "we have left all to follow you, what shall there be for us?"

The Saviour's response was a succession of promises: for the Apostles, there were set twelve thrones whence they should judge the tribes of Israel in the day when, with all things born under the new life, the Son of Man shall take possession of the Throne of His Majesty; and for all His faithful disciples, even from this present time, an hundred-fold for everything they shall have left, whether it be home, or brothers, sisters, parents, husband or wife, children or land; a foretaste of Heaven "even in the midst of persecution, and in the ages to come life everlasting."

So gracious and glorious were those prerogatives that Jesus feared lest His Apostles should be puffed up with pride at the glowing prospect, and imagine that such was their rightful inheritance; for this reason He went on at once to add that they were purely the gates of grace, and that if the sons of Israel were the first to be called, yet the Gentilse should precede them and share all things with them in that celestial kingdom.  The heavenly Father, in that new Realm, is like the lord of the vineyard, who hires workmen at different hours of the day; when the night comes he is free to reward the last comers with the denarius promised to those who have toiled since daybreak; for that same denarius who represents Eternal Life, which is beyond anything that man can merit,— a gratuitous recompense, born of God's boundless love.

To the Jews who grudge the Gentiles their portion, to the Pharisees of every age, God will make answer:—

"My friend, I do you no wrong; did you not agree with Me for a denarius?  Then take what is yours and go.  If notwithstanding I wish to give unto this last as much as to you, is it not lawful for me to do what I will with Mine own, and must your eye be evil, because I am good?"

And Jesus concluded by uttering one of those maxims He so often repeated, which were so heart-rending to the haughty spirit of the Jews:—

"The first shall be last, and the last first."

"Many are called but few chosen!"

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.