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."
No comments:
Post a Comment