The Anniversary of the Dedication

Chapter VIII:The Anniversary of the Dedication

Luke xiii. 1-35; John x. 22-42

While Jesus was thus telling the Good Tidings to the land of Perea a rumour passed from mouth to mouth that another bloody insurrection had purpled the streets of Jerusalem.  Certain of the Galileans had striven to shake off the yoke of Rome; but surprised by Pilate's soldiery just in the act of offering sacrifice, the revolutionists all fell in front of the great Altar, mingling their blood with that of the victims.  To Jewish eyes it seemed that so baleful an event could but be regarded as permitted by God in atonement for some heinous crime; for it was a deep-rooted feeling with them that that man is most grievously affected who is he guiltiest in the sight of God.  Anxious to know what awful sins had drawn down such punishment upon the conspirators, some of the disciples hastened to give an account of this massacre to the Christ.

Jesus knew their thoughts.  "Do you believe," He replied, "that these Galileans were the greatest sinners among their countrymen because they have suffered such things?  Nay, I tell you."

Then He recalled how, not long since, at Siloë, but our had crashed down upon some eighteen person; and here again He denied that any man of them was more blameworthy in God's sight and the other citizens of Jerusalem.  To estimate the wrongdoing of these poor victims by the horror of such accidents is to forget that our present life is a season of trial, in which misfortune does not always visit us as a chastisement for our crimes.  And yet what seems like a meaningless jumble of human events does indeed but conceal a marvellous order, a Plan full of unfathomable wisdom and goodness, a Design which as yet remains the secret of God.  Jesus bade His disciples refrain from all efforts to sound the depths of God's mysteries, urging them rather to turn their gaze inward upon themselves, and thus mould and fashion their wills to that of the Divine Justice, while still there was time.  Then, the better to convince their minds, He made use of a Parable:—

"There was a man who had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; thither he came looking for fruit and found none.  Then he said to the vine dresser: ‘For three years I have come looking for fruit from this fig tree, and I find nonE.  Cut it down; why does it still cumber the ground?’  The vine dresser answered: ‘Lord, let it alone for this one more year, until I dig about it and dung it.  Then if it to bear fruit, it shall be kept; if not, you shall cut it down?’"

In the person of this Vintager Jesus represented Himself pleading for Judaea, His cherished Vineyard, most of all for Jerusalem, which rose up in the midst like a barren fig tree.  For three years had the heavenly Father sought fruit from off its branches, but without avail; at length with His death so near at hand, all that Jesus could do was to obtain from God one last year of patience, that year which was to extend from the Passion up to the destruction of Jerusalem.  Oh that Israel would but hearken to this final, mighty appeal!  Would indeed that she might bring forth the flowerr and the fruit so long and patiently expected!

The woman with an infirmity of eighteen years. J-J Tissot.

In Perea, at least, the his earnest words of the Lord continue to meet with a favourable reception, and the synagogues, though elsewhere shut against him, were here thrown open to welcome Him.  About this time, in fact, we find Him teaching in one of them on a Sabbath-day, as He used formerly to do in Galilee.  "And here, behold a woman coming to him, who had a spirit of infirmity for now eighteen years, all bent over and not able so much has to look upwards." The devil which had possession of her had not only enfeebled her body, but had weighed her heart earthward there, and while he robbed her of the sight of her Saviour, he likewise blotted out all thought of calling upon Him for help.  Touched by so great misery Jesus called her to Him.

"Woman," He said to her, "you are cured of your infirmity;" and at the same time He laid his hands upon her.

Straightening up until she stood erect once more, she broke forth glorifying God; but the ruler of the synagogue could not brook this spectacle of Jesus receiving homage from his congregation; angered alike by the prodigy and the joyous chorus of acclamations, he gave utterance to impatient words.

"During six days," he cried, "man may labour; within that time come here to be healed, and not upon the Sabbath-day."

Then Jesus replied: "Hypocrites!  Does not each one of you loose his ox or his ass from the manger and lead them to water on the Sabbath-day?  And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has held fast and bound for eighteen years, be loosed from these fetters upon the Sabbath-day?" This argument confounded the Master’s adversaries, and the people rejoiced for all the things that were gloriously done by Him.

Thus, then, the mission of Jesus on the other side of Jordan had not been altogether fruitless, for men's hearts were turning toward the new reign of the Christ; yet along with this throbbing expectation there were mingled feelings of a uneasiness.  What signified those words of His, when He said that He would come like a thief in the night, or like the master who appears of a sudden to surprise his drowsy household?  Why must theyy all be watching night and today with girded loins, torch in hand?  Would the season for entering the Kingdom of Heaven be so swiftly fleeting that it behoved one to lay hold upon it in all haste, for the acceptable time once paid by never more would return?  Thoughts like these disquieted their minds, till at last some of the Jews broached the subject to Jesus.

"Lord," they ask, "shall there be only a few saved?"

The Master was at no pains to ease the burden of their fears.  He knew well the obstinate self-confidence of the sons of Israel, so ready to believe themselves perfect, if only from the simple fact that they were God's people.  Therefore He told them again of the narrow gateway whereby His Church is entered, which is opened only by the expenditure of efforts whereof very many are incapable.  Then how would it profit them at the last moment to have heard and seen the Messiah, when the soul that has not entered His Kingdom before death will find the door closed and the Father of the family retired within doors?

"When you, standing outside," continued Jesus, "shall begin to knock, crying out: ‘Lord, open to us?’  And He shall answer you: ‘I know not whence you are,’ then you shall begin to say: ‘We have eaten and drunk in Thy Presence, and Thou hast taught in our public squares.’  And He shall say to you: ‘I know not whence you are; depart from Me, all Ye workers of iniquity.’  There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you shall see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you cast forth without.  And they shall come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, and they shall have their share in the banquet."

They were now upon the high road, leading to the Holy City, when Jesus prophesied to the Jews that, though first to be called to the heavenly Kingdom, they should be the last to find the way thither.  That he purposed going up to Jerusalem for the anniversary festival of the Dedication had come to be known to all, and the Pharisees of Perea were much rejoiced thereat.  In their impatience to witness His departure they pretended to fear some outbreak of wrath from Herod, and so pressed Him to fly the country.

"Leave these parts," they urge; " get away from here, for Herod has a mind to kill you."

These threatening words had little effect upon the Lord.  He informed His enemies that nothing would hinder His fulfilling His Mission to the very end, and the steps he would do by proceeding onward towards the frontiers of Judaea, not through any fears of Herod, but in obedience to the mandates of Heaven, which were now beckoning Him on Jerusalemwards.  Then, branding the wretched policy of that prince whose name they had invoked, He responded to the Pharisees:—

"Go and say to that fox that I shall cast out devils and heal the sick today and tomorrow, and on the third day I shall have finished; nevertheless, today and tomorrow and the day following I must walk, for the it cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem."

And so at the time appointed the Saviour quitted the realm of Herod, passed over the Jordan and wended His way through the rocky defiles which led up to the Holy City.  Doubtless it was just as He was about to enter within her walls and at sight of the multitudes grouped around her gates, that the heart of Jesus was torn with grief He wept over the ungrateful city, foretelling that she would see Him only once again, that so she might welcome Him with a first outburst of gladness, and straightway thereafter put Him to death.

" Jerusalem!  Jerusalem!" He cried, "thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent to thee, how often would I have gathered thy children as the hen doth her brood under her wings!"

This sad foreknowledge did not prevent Jesus from entering the streets of Jerusalem there to proffer her His gift of Salvation for the last time.  Just now the town was given over to joyous celebrations, for the Feast of the Dedication was no less brilliant than were those of the Tabernacles or the Passover.  For the space of one week the Jews, with palm branches in their hands, surged in crowds through the Temple, with sacred songs commemorating the Purification of the Sanctuary by the Maccabees, while every evening the town was ablaze with lights, in memory of that single flask of oil which for eight days had sufficed for the needs of the divine service.

Leaving His disciples to take part in the feast-making, Jesus withdrew further into the Temple, till He came to Solomon’s Portico.  This gallery bordered Kedron Ravine, and during the sharper spells of winter furnished a walk which was exposed to the warm rays of the sun.  There some of the Sanhedrin's people caught sight of Jesus, and made haste to gather around him.

"Until when," they said, "do you mean to keep us in suspense?  If you are the Christ, say so openly."

Jesus avoided if the snare they were now laying for Him.  To proclaim Himself the Messiah would be to furnish them with an occasion for handing Him over to the Roman authorities.  He was content to recall what He had told them as to His Mission, and by what wondrous deeds He had given proof thereof.  Then, repeating the parable He had given them at the Feast of the Tabernacles, He assured them anew "that He was their Shepherd, that if they were willing to be His sheep, following Him and hearkening to His voice, having Him for their Safeguard and their Watchman, they might rest in sweet security, for the Father had communicated unto Him His attributes, that divine Power which is above all things whatsoever; yet no one is able to wrest aught from the hand of the Father." And then He added: "My Father and I are but One."

The essential vigour of these mighty words would alone have made their meaning clearly manifest.  By them Jesus declared Himself their God,—not simply united to the Father by faith and love, but having only the one same Substance with Him.  And it was in this sense the Jews understood His words, for they snatched up stones, thinking to stone Him.  With a word Jesus quelled their madness.

"I have done in your presence," He said to them, "many good works from My Father; for which one are you now about to stone Me?"

"It is not for any good work that we intend to stone you," they made answer, "but for blasphemy, and because being a man, you make yourself God."

And the Lord was moved to pity by their blindness; He showed them how, in the Holy books, Jehovah Himself announced and foreshadowed this Mystery which was so abhorrent to their minds.  Not content with having appeared to their fathers under a human form, to prove that He did not deem our flesh unworthy to be united with His Divinity He had even bestowed his in communicable Name upon the judges of Israel.  "You are the Gods of earth," He had said; " you are all sons of the Most High." Since the Voice of Infallibility, and the words of Scripture, which can never perish, had both attributed this title to mere creatures, how durst these enemies of the Christ accuse Him of blasphemy for that He said: "I am the Son of God?"

Nor did Jesus confine Himself to reducing them to silence by this personal argument; He proceeded to fortify His position by means of those Marvels which the Father had worked by Him, in order to evidence that He was with Him and in Him, and so concluded by disclosing His Divinity more plainly than ever before.

"My Father is in Me," He said, "and I in My Father."

Upon these words the Sanhedrin rushed upon Him to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hands and went forth from the Temple.

Once again He made it appear that the princes of Judah were obstinately determined to reject His proffered gifts; and thereupon He quitted Jerusalem and returned to the other side of the Jordan, into the land of Perea which had aforetime given Him kindly welcome.  Henceforth it was to be the only part of Israel where the Incarnate Truth might find patient listeners; indeed it would appear that this region remained faithful unto the end, for scarcely had Jesus revisited the places where John had baptised when the country-people flocked about Him again.  "John did not do any miracle," they said, " but everything that John said of this Man was true.  And many believed in Jesus."

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam