Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles

OW long Jesus remained in Capernaum, on His visit there aftei

E returning from Caesarea Philippi, it is difficult to determine; but 1 r circumstances indicate that He entered the place only a short while before the Feast of Tabernacles, which was held at Jerusalem in the latter part of September and the early part of October. He had now remained away from Jerusalem for a period of nearly eighteen months, during which time He had been persecuted wherever He went and practically outlawed by the bitterly jealous Pharisees. He had been hunted, driven, reviled, and threatened, until His life was menaced, and to have appeared in Jerusalem at any time during this unhappy period would be to invite His arrest and probable execution. Nevertheless, His relatives from Nazareth, and His friends throughout Galilee, urged Him to attend the Feast of Tabernacles, (or of harvest) having always in mind His divine power, which they hoped to have Him exercise for the establishment of His rights to the dignity of King of the Jews. The old traditions had represented that the new king, who was to bring back and emphasize the glory of Judah, would be declared at Jerusalem, and regarding Him as the truly anointed one they urged Him now to show Himself there and assume the rulership and confound His enemies. But Jesus answered them always that His time had not yet come, that His was a mission of peace, and that His was a spiritual and not an earthly kingdom. With these excuses Jesus remained a while at Capernaum, after the great caravans of pilgrims had gone by toward the Holy City, by which delay He avoided a commingling with crowds on the way that would have created fresh disputes and made His entrance into Jerusalem a cause for public demonstration that might have ended abruptly in His arrest. The feast continued for eight days, culminating on the last in a magnificence of celebration far exceeding that of the preceding days, and Jesus therefore deferred His departure from Capernaum for two or three days after the great body of pilgrims had passed, being content to attend only the latter part of the festival.

On the Way to Jerusalem.

Jesus at length set out for Jerusalem attended by His twelve apostles and several disciples, proceeding southward by the way of the plains of Esdraelon and then into Samaria, probably selecting the route over which He journeyed to

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35^ FROH HANGER TO THRONE.

Galilee after the close of His ministry in Judea. While on the way He sent messengers in advance to secure lodgings for the night for His large party. At one place application for entertainment was refused by Samaritans, whose ire had been aroused upon learning that Jesus, whom they had been told was the Messiah, was going to Jerusalem to participate in the feast of Ingathering, and was therefore passing by Gerizim, where they looked for the Messiah to set up His kingdom.. This inhospitality so offended John and James that they asked Jesus if they might not call down fire from heaven to consume the jealous Samaritans, as Elijah had destroyed his enemies, but Christ rebuked their intemperate and fiery passion, saying,” Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of, for the Son of Man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And- they went to another village.” As they journeyed forward Jesus instructed His disciples again in their dutiestowards all men and the necessity of that faith which was likened to child-like dependence and confidence in a parent. And many who came to Him asking admission to apostleship He dismissed as being without the necessary qualifications for such a mission, which involved a renunciation of the greater comforts and lustful pleasures of this life. But though He accepted few on the journey, there was so large a following of worthy disciples that He ordained seventy — corresponding to the Jewish idea of the number of nations on earth — to go forth in pairs and preach the gospel, laying upon them the same injunctions that He gave ta the apostles when sending them out on a like mission.

Ten Lepers Drop Their Scales.

While still on the way through Samaria, but perhaps when near the boundary of Judea, as they came within sight of a village, a sad spectacle arrested the progress of Jesus, and called forth another exhibition of His divine power for the relief of the distressingly afflicted. Accustomed to human suffering as He was, Jesus must have been specially moved by the appearance of ten lepers whom He saw sitting a little way back from the highway that led into the village. The Samaritans suffered no lepers to enter any of their towns, condemning these poor unfortunates to isolation, and thus limiting their subsistence to what charity offered, or what friends might place at convenient distance for lepers to receive only after the donors had withdrawn, near approach to people not thus afflicted being prohibited.

The horrors of this slow-consuming and most repulsive disease were such that hope of cure was abandoned and the sufferers, having no privilege to associatewith others, naturally sought the society of their kind, so that bitter as was the hatreds between Jews and Samaritans, all enmity was dispelled by this desperate peace-maker, and the lepers of the two hostile peoples freely mingled with one another.

As Jesus plodded along the highway, followed by His disciples, the ten lepers descried Him, and whether by intuition or report which had reached them of His early coming that way, they raised their cracked voices with cries of “Unclean, unclean! Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” To such an appeal for help, coupled as it was by faith, Jesus never turned a deaf ear, and to these He therefore said, “Go shew yourselves unto the priests.” Off they started at once in the happiness of hopeful assurance, but they had gone but a few steps when lo! crippled feet, distorted hands, rheumy eyes, furred tongue, distracted body, and all the pathological phases of the; living death suddenly became changed, until the living death became rejuvenated life, and the features of leprosy assumed the appearance of perfect health, and every organ resumed its natural function, every peccant humor was eliminated, every sore and ulcer and canker not only healed, but not a scar left to remind them that they had ever been victims to the most dreadful disease that mortal was ever afflicted with.

But though the lepers felt the quickened power of their limbs, they used them to continue on speedily to receive a cleansing at the hands of their priests, rather than return first to express their gratitude to Jesus. Nine of them, who were Jews, ran rapidly to the village, not even so much as casting a grateful look, nor voicing, a single word of thanks. They perhaps all started off together, the Jews setting out for Jerusalem to procure a certificate of cleansing, and the Samaritan probably starting for Gerizim, or to the nearest Samaritan priest, for a like certificate of release from the quarantine under which he had been held for so long a time. But the latter had not proceeded far when he felt the thoroughness of his cure and, placing gratitude before religious ceremonial, he returned, and casting himself upon his face before Jesus he poured out his thanks in fullest measure and raised his voice in glorification of God. Jesus said to him, in appearance of surprise,” Why, were there not ten lepers? Where are the other nine? Is there only one who feels any gratitude for recovery? Is

UPPER STORIES AND HOUSETOPS OF JERUSALEM, OFTEN USED
AS LODGING-PLACES WHEN THE CITY WAS CROWDED WITH
STRANGERS.

there no Jew among the number who has any sense of gratefulness for his release from the greatest of afflictions? Is it possible that only one, and he a Samaritan, an enemy of the Jews, whom they call a heathen, comes back to render his acknowledgments?” But so it was, and Jesus said unto him, “Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.”

Jesus Appears on the Temple Porch.

On the first day of the feast at Jerusalem, inquiries about Jesus began to be made and so increased that He soon became the subject of general conversation among the attendants. “Has Jesus put in an appearance yet? Is He coming? Surely He would not remain away, being a Jew, nd especially claiming to be the Messiah.”” What do you think of Him?” “Why,” says one,” evidently He is a holy man, for His teachings and examples are all praiseworthy.”” No,” says another,” He is a blasphemer, an enemy of the rabbis, a desecrator of the Sabbath day. Why, did He not heal a man at Bethesda’s pool on the Sabbath, and did He not heal a blind man on the Sabbath, and did He not pluck ears of corn, or suffer his disciples to do so, on the Sabbath?” And thus the disputes and discussions went on among the bazaars and temple booths for three days or more, when to the astonishment of everybody Jesus suddenly, without any announcement of His coming, appeared on the Temple porch in the place reserved for the rabbis, and as one having authority to preach from that station. He began to discourse to the people who speedily flocked around to hear Him. Among the audience were hundreds, yes, thousands, of His old enemies, whom the rabbis led in hostility and who had plotted secretly to compass His death. They were dumfounded however at His bold denunciation and His fearlessness, which seemed a defiance of them in their stronghold, and aroused them to such a pitch of fury that they procured an order for His arrest. But their threats in no wise disturbed Him; with calmness and the irresistible power of His illustrations, reasoning and captivating eloquence. He gave testimony to His Messiahship, though with a spirit of humility that offered no sign of self-aggrandizement, and at the same time He gave a severe rebuke to the hypocrisy of his critics who were such sophists, and withal so inconsistent, that they command circumcision on the Sabbath, while violently condemning the healing of the sick as a desecration of the day.

To these declarations the Pharisees and rabbis entered vigorous protests, but their anger was increased to the greatest intensity by the announcement which Christ made, not only reflecting upon their sincerity, but boldly charging them with a false conception of God, whom indeed they did not know. Said He, “Ye know Me, and ye know whence I am; and I am not come of Myself, but He that sent Me is true, whom ye know not. But I know Him, for I am from Him.”

Here was a direct declaration that Christ was an emissary from God, and that the religious teachers of the Jews were not only unfitted for the profession of spiritual instructors, by reason of their attachment to tradition and to binding ceremonials, and the unmerciful quality of their beliefs, but that they did not even know God. But to this charge He added that of capriciousness, for, while upholding the Mosaic laws with an affectation of great consistency and sincerity, Jesus told them that they only sustained the law when it served their purpose, and violated it when their interest seemed to advise. Said He in effect:” You say I am ignorant of the law; but it were better to be ignorant of the law and not disobey it, than knowing what it enjoins and deliberately violate it. The law requires you to love your neighbor, but you set the Sabbath above any who need assistance; the law says ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ and yet you have in your hearts a murderous feeling against Me, though I have not offended against the law, for good works only have I done.”

His bold utterances struck home, and while it increased the anger of the rabbis, many who heard His words believed on Him and said, “When Christ Cometh, will He do more miracles than these which this man hath done? “But the Pharisees were furious, and the chief priests sent officers to arrest Him, but Jesus knowing their plot against His life said, “Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him that sent Me. Ye shall seek Me and shall not find Me, and where I am thither ye cannot come. My time is almost come when I shall be offered as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. After the death which you can inflict I shall ascend again to My Father. Some day you will discover the iniquity of your acts; some day you will come to bathe the feet of My cross with tears of regret; some day you will look aloft and cry, ‘Lord, Lord; ’ but I shall not recognize you; and where I sit, in the Kingdom eternal, beside the Father who was from the beginning, there ye cannot come.” But the Pharisees could not understand Him, nor did their conception ever arise above low material conditions that fitted their earthly ambitions and temporal conveniences.

“Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said, ‘Of a truth this is the prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Christ.’ But some said, ‘Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the Scripture said that Christ Cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? ‘So there was a division among the people because of Him, and some of them would have taken Him; but no man laid hands on Him.”

When the Pharisees and chief priests found that Jesus had not been arrested, in pursuance of their orders, they sent for the officers and asked them why they had not performed their duty. But the officers only answered, “Never man spake like this Man.” This was a short reply for subordinates to make to their superiors, but it was pregnant with great meaning. It might be interpreted, “We acknowledge you as our rulers, we confess our duties, we try to serve you and obey the law. If you tell us to arrest a criminal we will take him at the risk of our lives, for we regard no danger when in the execution of your orders. But, with all deference to your position, we crave your pardon for acknowledging a power that is far above you. We believe that Jesus, while having committed no ofifence, is that power to which all the world owes acknowledgment as the Christ; to arrest Him would therefore be to insult God, to arraign earth against heaven, and our consciences cannot approve such an attempt.”

Jesus had so aroused the feelings of the people that whereas He was spoken of in kindly terms only in secret during the first days of the festival, He was now championed by such a large number that the chief priests would not hazard the forcing of His arrest. The members of the Sanhedrim, however, exerted all their influence against Him, except Nicodemus, who, finding himself alone in a belief of Christ’s divinity, if indeed he entertained so high an opinion, was barely bold enough to rise before that body and ask, “Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth?”

But they cried him down by a fierce and captious question, asking in derision,” Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look; for out of Galilee ariseth no

prophet.”

The Woman Taken in Crime.

Although every Jew attending the great festival was expected to find lodgment in some booth, or inn, or hospitable residence, Jesus was so beset by enemies that when night came He retired to the Mount of Olives. Whether He found entertainment there in the house of some friend, or sought the seclusion of cave or orchard, or the camp of His followers, we are not told; but in the early morning, John says. He returned to the Temple and resumed His discourse to the people. While He was thus teaching, the audience was disturbed by an incident which has ever since served to afford the strongest possible evidence of God’s immeasurable mercy and the illimitable extent of His forgiveness.

A group of men are pulling and pushing along a woman who had committed the worst crime against society. When they have brought her in front of Christ, they ask that He sentence her to death by stoning. They are a critical, merciless, disingenuous crowd. They want to get Christ into controversy and public reprehension. If He say “Let her die,” they will charge Him with cruelty. If He let her go, they will charge Him with being in complicity with wickedness. Whichever way He does they would howl at Him.

Rebuked in Fitting Words.

Then occurs a scene which has not been sufficiently regarded. He leaves the lounge or bench on which He was sitting and goes down on one knee, or both

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knees, and with the forefinger of His right hand He begins to write in the dust of the floor, word after word. But they were not to be diverted or hindered. They kept on demanding that He settle this case of transgression, until He looked up and told them that they might themselves begin the woman’s assassination, if the complainant who had never done anything wrong himself would open the fire. “Go ahead, but be sure the man who flings the first missile is immaculate.” Then He resumed writing with His finger in the dust of the floor, word after word. Instead of looking over His shoulder to see what He had written, the scoundrels skulked away. Finally the whole place is clear of pursuers, antagonists and plaintiffs, and when Christ had finished this strange chirography in the dust. He looks up and finds the woman all alone. The prisoner is the only one of the court room left, the judges, the police, the prosecuting attorneys having cleared out. Christ is victor, and He says to the woman:” Where are the prosecutors in this case? Are they all gone? Then I discharge you; go and sin no more.”

But what did Christ write on the ground? The Bible does not state. Yet, as Christ never wrote anything except that once, you cannot blame us for wanting to know what He really did write. But I am certain He wrote nothing trivial or nothing unimportant. And will you allow me to say that I think I know what He wrote on the ground? I judge from the circumstances. He might have written other things, but kneeling there in the Temple, surrounded by a pack of hypocrites, who were a self-appointed constabulary and having in his presence a persecuted woman who evidently was very penitent for her sins, I am sure He wrote two words, both of them graphic and tremendous and reverberating. And one word was “Hypocrisy,” and the other word was “Forgiveness.” From the way these Pharisees and scribes vacated the premises and got out into fresh air, as Christ, with just one ironical sentence, unmasked them, I know they were first-class hypocrites. It was then as it is now. The more faults and inconsistencies people have of their own, the more severe and censorious are they about the faults of others. Here they are: twenty stout men arresting and arraigning one weak woman. Magnificent business to be engaged in. They wanted the fun of seeing her faint away under a heavy judicial sentence from Christ, and then after she had been taken outside the -city and fastened at the foot of a precipice, the scribes and Pharisees wanted the satisfaction of each coming forth and dropping a big stone on her head, for that was the style of capital punishment that they asked for. All of those libertines, dramatizing indignation against impurity. Blind bats lecturing on optics. A flock of crows on their way up -from a carcass,

denouncing carrion.

A Clean Sweep of Pardon.

Yes, I think that one word written on the ground that day by the finger of Christ was the awful word “Hypocrisy.” But I am sure there was another word

JHSI’S I’KDTiccTS THH ICKKING WOMAN. — Drawu by Dor.

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in that dust. From her entire manner I am sure that arraigned woman was repentant. She made no apology, and Christ in no wise belittled her sin. But her supplicatory behavior and her tears moved Him, and when He stooped down to write on the ground. He wrote that mighty, that imperial word, “Forgiveness.” When on Sinai God wrote the law. He wrote it with finger of lightning on tables of stone, each word cut as by a chisel into, the hard granitic surface. But when He writes the offence of this woman He writes it in dust, so that it cao be easily rubbed out when she repents of it. Oh, He was a merciful Christ! 1 was reading of a legend that is told in the far East about Him. He was walking through the streets of a city and He saw a crowd around a dead dog. And one man said: “What a loathsome object is that dog !•” “Yes,” said another, “his ears are mauled and bleeding.” “Yes,” said another, “even his hide would not be of any use to the tanner.” “Yes,” said another, “the odor of his carcass is dreadful.” Then Christ, standing there, said: “But pearls cannot equal the whiteness of his teeth.” Then the people, moved by the idea that any one could find anything pleasant concerning a dead dog, said: “Why, this must be Jesus of Nazareth.” Reproved and convicted they went away. Surely this legend of Christ is good enough to be true. Kindness in all His words and ways and habits, “Forgiveness.” Word of ele^en letters, and some of them thrones, and some of them palm branches. Better have Christ write close to our names that one word,, though He write it in dust, than to have our name cut into monumental granite with the letters that the storms of a thousand years cannot obliterate. Bishop Babington had a book of only three leaves. The first leaf was black, the second leaf red, the third leaf white. The black leaf suggested sin; the red leaf atonement; the white leaf purification. That is the whole story. God will abundantly

pardon.

Give Woman a Chance.

I must not forget to say that as Christ, stooping down, with His finger wrote on the ground, it is evident that His Sympathies are with this penitent woman, that He has no sympathy with her hypocritical pursuers. Just opposite to that is the world’s habit. Why did not these unclean Pharisees bring one of their own number to Christ for excoriation and capital punishment? No, no; they overlook that in a man which they damnate in a woman. And so the world has had foi offending women scourges and abjurgation, and for just one offence she becomes an outcast, while for men whose lives have been sodomic for twenty years the world swings open its doors of brilliant welcome, and they may sit in lyCgislatures and Senates and Parliaments or on thrones. Unlike the blessed Christ the world writes a man’s misdemeanor in dust, but chisels a woman’s offence with great capitals upon ineffaceable marble. For foreign lords and princes, whose names cannot even be mentioned in respectable circles abroad because they are walking lazarettos of abomination, our American princesses of fortune wait, and at the first beck sail out with them into the blackness of darkness forever. And in what are called higher circles of society there is now not only the imitation of foreign manners, but in imitation of foreign dissoluteness. I like an Englishman and I like an America::, but the sickest creature on earth is an American playing the English-, man. Society needs to be reconstructed on this subject. Treat them alike, masculine crime and feminine crime. If you cut the one in granite, cut them both in granite. If you write the one in dust, write the other in dust. No, no, says the world; let woman go down and let man go up. What is that I hear splashing into the East river at midnight, and then there is a gurgle as of strangulation and all is still? Never mind, it is only a woman too discouraged to live. Let the mills of the cruel world grind right on.

And now I can believe that which I read, how that a mother kept burning a candle in the window every night for ten years, and one night very late a poor waif of the street entered. The aged woman said to her, “Sit down by the fire,” and the stranger said, “Why do you keep that light in the window? “The aged woman said:” That is to light my wayward daughter when she returns. Since she went away ten years ago my hair has turned white. Folks blame me for worrj’ing about her, but you see I am her mother, and sometimes, half a dozen times a night, I open the door and look out into the darkness and cr>’: ‘Lizzie! Lizzie! ‘But I must not tell you any more about my trouble, for I guess, from the way you cry, you have trouble enough of j-our own. Why, how cold and sick you seem! Oh, my! can it be? Yes, you are Lizzie, my own lost child. Thank God that you are home again!” And what a time of rejoicing there was in that house that night! And Christ stooped down and in the ashes of that hearth, now lighted up not more by the great blazing logs than by the joy of a re-united household, wrote the same liberating words that he had written more than eighteen hundred years ago in the dust of the Jerusalem temple — “Forgiveness!” — a word broad enough and high enough to let pass through it all the armies of heaven, a million abreast, on white horses, nostril to nostril, flank to. flank.

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