IT

CHAPTER LII.

A WANDERING LIFE.

T was now near the end of Khislev-the cold month- CHAP. LII. equivalent to part of our November and December. The twenty-fifth of the month, which, according to Wieseler, fell, this year, on the 20th December, was, with the next seven days, a time of universal rejoicing:1 for the Dedication Festival, in commemoration of the renewal of the Temple worship, after its suspension under Antiochus Epiphanes, was held through the week.a

Lightfoot, on Ewald, iv. 356. τὰ ἐγκαίνια.

John 10. 22.

3 B.C. 175-163. The profanation of the

B.C. 167-164.

Jesus, ever pleased to mingle in innocent joys, and glad Temple was to seize the opportunity for proclaiming the New Kingdom, which the gatherings of the season afforded, once more returned to Jerusalem to attend it. He had been in the neighbourhood since the Feast of Tabernacles, nearly three months before, and this visit would be the last, till His final entry, to die.4

The weather had been wet and rough, so that He was fain to avail Himself, like the crowds, of the shelter of the arcade running along the east side of the Temple enclosure; known as Solomon's porch, from a fragment of the first Temple, left standing by Nebuchadnezzar.6

The rain drove the people from the open courts, and Jesus, like others, was in the Porch it, apparently without His disciples. The time was fitted to wake the old temptation of ambition, had it had any charms. How easily might He eclipse the hero of all this rejoicing, and by His supernatural power achieve victories, compared with which those of Judas Maccabæus would be nothing! But He had far nobler aims.

The Pharisaic party, themselves, may have had such secret

4 John 10.22-42.

Augusti und
Bibel.

De Wette's

6 Ant. xx. 9. 7.

CHAP. LII.

thoughts in connection with Him. Be this as it may, they now suddenly came and began to ask Him if He would not, at last, relieve their minds by some direct and express declaration whether He were the Messiah or not. It may be, He could read in their looks that He needed only to speak a word to have their support, and He knew that both they and the nation, at such a time, were ready to flame into universal enthusiasm for any leader who would undertake to lead them against Rome. But earthly ambition had no attractions for His pure spirit.

"We have waited long and anxiously," said they, "for some decisive word. If Thou art the Messiah, tell us openly."

"I have already told you," answered Jesus, "both by the witness of the miracles I have done in my Father's name, and in words; but you have not believed me, because, as I said not long ago, you are not my disciples; or, as I love to call them, my sheep. If you had been, you would have be7 John 10.22-42. lieved in me.7 You may, yourselves, see that you are not of my flock, for those who are so listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, as sheep know and listen to the voice of their shepherd, and are known by him, and follow him. Nothing, indeed, can be more close and abiding than my relations to them, for I lead them not to mere earthly good, but give them eternal life, and am their shepherd hereafter as well as here; taking care that they shall never perish, and that no one, even beyond death, shall snatch them out of my hand. Moreover, being in my hand, they are, in effect, in that of my Father, for He is ever with me, and works by me. He gave them to me at first, and He still guards them, nor can any one snatch them from His hands, for He is greater than all the powers of earth and hell. Wonder not that I speak of their being both in my Father's hands and in mine, for I and the Father are One."

The excitable, fanatical crowd had listened patiently till the last words, which seemed the most audacious blasphemy -a claim of essential oneness with the Almighty. moment they were once more scattered in search of stones,

In a

with which to kill Him, for what they deemed His crime, CHAP. LIL and presently gathered round Him again with them, to fell Him to the earth. But Jesus remained undismayed. "I have done many great works of mercy," said He, calmly, "which show that the Father is with me, because they could only come from the presence of His power. They are enough to show you that He thinks me no blasphemer. For which of these mighty works will you stone me?"

"We would not think of stoning Thee for a good work," answered the crowd; "it is for your blasphemy-that you, a man, should make yourself God."

8

9

Meyer, De Augusti.

Wette and

"Is it not written in your Law," replied Jesus,8 "of the Ps. 82. 6. rulers of Israel, the representatives and earthly embodiments of the majesty of Jehovah, your invisible King, 'I said, Ye are gods?' If God Himself called them gods, to whom this utterance of His came,—and you cannot deny the authority of Scripture, how can you say of me,-whom the Father has consecrated to a far higher office than ruler, or even prophet-to that of Messiah; and whom He has not only thus set apart to this great office, but sent into the world. clothed with the mighty powers I have shown, and the fulness of grace and truth you now see in me,-that I blaspheme, because I have said I am God's Son? Your unbelief in me, which is the ground of the charge, would have some excuse if I did not perform such works as prove me to have been sent by my Father. But if I do such works, then believe them, if you will not believe me; that you may thus learn and know b that what I have said is true-that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."

They had waited for a retractation, but had heard a defence. Instantly, hands were thrust out on every side, to lay hold on Him, 10 and lead Him outside the Temple to stone Him; but 10 Verse 39. He shrank back into the crowd, and passing through it, escaped.

Jerusalem and Judea were evidently closed against Him, as Galilee had been for some time past. There seemed only one district in any measure safe,-the half-heathen territory of Perea, across the Jordan. The ecclesiastical authorities and the people at large, instead of accepting Him, and the

CHAP. LII. Spiritual salvation He offered, had become steadily more obdurate and hostile. It was necessary at last to give up all attempts to win them, and to retire, for the short time that yet remained to Him, to this safer district. He chose the part of it in which John had begun his ministrations; perhaps in hopes of a more hopeful soil, from the cherished. remembrance of His predecessor; perhaps as a spot sacred to holy associations of His own.

11 John 10.

40-42.

12 John 11. 1-46.

Here, with His wonted earnestness, He once more proclaimed the New Kingdom, and was cheered by a last flicker of success; for crowds once more resorted to Him, many of whom became His disciples.11 "John," said they, "did no miracles, great though he was, but his testimony to this Man, who was to come after him,—that He was greater than himself, is true; for not only does He teach us the words of truth; He confirms them by mighty wonders, which show Him to be the Messiah." Jesus was reaping, as Bengel says, the posthumous fruit of the Baptist's work.

The quiet retreat of Perca was, however, soon to be broken. The family of Bethany, to whom Jesus owed so many happy hours, had been in health when He left, but a message suddenly reached Him from the two sisters, Mary and Martha, the very simplicity of which still touches the heart: "Lord, he whom Thou lovest,―our brother Lazarus,—is sick." His love they felt would need nothing more.12 The messengers doubtless expected that He would have returned with them at once, but He saw things in a higher light, and moved on a different spiritual plane. Instead of going with them therefore, He dismissed them with the intimation that the sickness would not really end in death; but would be overruled by God to His own glory, by disclosing that of His Son-Jesus Himself. It was from no indifference that He thus delayed, though it left His friends to bitter disappointment, and Himself to the suspicion of neglect. "He loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus," says John. But still He delayed, in obedience to a higher counsel than man's.

The messengers had taken a day to come, and it would take another for Jesus to go to Bethany, but though He knew this, He remained two days more in the place where