Part 14 (1/2)

They knew that on the mountaintop they had been with G.o.d.

10. The Way to Jerusalem

Jesus had made up his mind that he would go to Jerusalem for the Pa.s.sover next year. He knew that if he did he would get into trouble.

The disciples knew it too, for he had told them so. There was a hard time ahead for them all.

There was hardly anyone whom Jesus could count on any more. Often even the disciples did not understand him. Once in a while other people would offer to come along and be disciples too. But few actually came, after Jesus explained how much he expected his disciples to give up for his sake.

There was one man who came to Jesus, and said bravely, ”Lord, I will follow you wherever you go!”

Jesus replied: ”Even the foxes have holes in the ground to sleep in at night. The birds of the air have their nests. But I travel across the country without a home that I can call my own.”

The man thought of his own comfortable house, and decided he did not want to follow Jesus after all.

Another time Jesus invited a man to join him. This man said that he would be glad to come, but that his father had just died, and he must first look after the funeral. That would take a long time, for the Jews loved their customs, and when anybody died they held ceremonies which lasted for many days. Jesus could not wait for this man, so he answered:

[Ill.u.s.tration]

”Let people who don't believe in me look after things like that. You have something more important to do. Your job is to go out and preach, right away. That's what you would do if you really believed in me.”

Still another man was willing to come, if only he could first go home and say good-by to his family. Jesus saw that this man too had not really decided to give up everything for G.o.d. He told him:

”You're like a farmer who starts to plow a field, and then turns around and wonders if he shouldn't be doing something back at the house. Unless you put your whole heart into following me, I'm afraid you will never be of much use.”

Even some of those who used to call themselves followers of Jesus were going away. Jesus said to the twelve, who had been with him from the beginning:

”Are you going to leave me too?”

Peter answered: ”Lord, where would we go? We should die if we did not hear your words. We believe that you are the Christ.”

Jesus said, ”Yes, you are the men I have chosen to be with me--though there is one of _you_ who will come to a bad end.”

He was speaking of a disciple named Judas Iscariot, though the others did not know it. Jesus knew that Judas was not to be trusted.

In those difficult days Jesus spent much of his time in prayer. The disciples felt that they also needed strength and help from G.o.d. Once, when Jesus had finished praying, they said to him,

”Lord, teach us to pray, just as John the Baptist used to teach his disciples.”

So Jesus taught them a prayer, and this is how it went:

”Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

Then Jesus looked at his disciples, and told them that they ought to pray more than they did.

”Suppose,” he said, ”one of you went to a friend's house at midnight, and called through the window, 'Lend me some bread, for company has come unexpectedly and I haven't anything in my house.' Your friend might not want to get up out of bed, but if you kept on pleading with him, he would give you what you asked for. In the same way, keep on praying to G.o.d! Prayer is like knocking on a door. Knock, and the door will be opened.”

Jesus knew, better than the disciples did themselves, how much they were going to need G.o.d's help.