Part 30 (1/2)
LAST JOURNEY OF JESUS TO JERUSALEM
Jesus had for a long ti a period of ti on a pilgrie to Jerusale to the hypothesis we have adopted), his relations, always o there The evangelist John seems to insinuate that there was some hidden project to ruin hio into Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest For there is noin secret, and he his, show thyself to the world” Jesus, suspecting sorims had set out, he started on the journey, unknown to every one, and almost alone[4] It was the last farehich he bade to Galilee The feast of Tabernacles fell at the autumnal equinox Six months still had to elapse before the fatal denoue this interval, Jesus saw no more his beloved provinces of the north The pleasant days had passed away; he must now traverse, step by step, the painful path that will teruish of death
[Footnote 1: Matt xvi 20, 21; Mark viii 30, 31]
[Footnote 2: John vii 1]
[Footnote 3: John vii 5]
[Footnote 4: John vii 10]
His disciples, and the pious woain in Judea[1] But how er at Jerusalem He felt that there was a wall of resistance he could not penetrate Surrounded by snares and difficulties, he was unceasingly pursued by the ill-will of the Pharisees[2] Instead of that illiift of youthful natures, which he found in Galilee--instead of those good and gentle people, aree of ill-will and indocility) had no existence, he met there at each step an obstinate incredulity, upon which the means of action that had so well succeeded in the north had little effect His disciples were despised as being Galileans Nicodemus, who, on one of his forht, al wished to defend him ”Art thou also of Galilee?” they said to him ”Search and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet”[3]
[Footnote 1: Matt xxvii 55; Mark xv 41; Luke xxiii 49, 55]
[Footnote 2: John vii 20, 25, 30, 32]
[Footnote 3: John vii 50, and following]
The city, as we have already said, displeased Jesus Until then he had always avoided great centres, preferring for his action the country and the towns of save to his apostles were absolutely inapplicable, except in a si no idea of the world, and accustomed to the kindly communism of Galilee, remarks continually escaped hiular[2] His iination and his love of Nature found theion does not proceed from the tumult of towns, but from the tranquil serenity of the fields
[Footnote 1: Matt x 11-13; Mark vi 10; Luke x 5-8]
[Footnote 2: Matt xxi 3, xxvi 18; Mark xi 3, xiv 13, 14; Luke xix 31, xxii 10-12]
The arrogance of the priests rendered the courts of the tereeable to him One day some of his disciples, who knew Jerusalem better than he, wished his of the temple, the admirable choice of s that covered the walls ”Seest thou these buildings?”
said he; ”there shall not be left one stone upon another”[1] He refused to ad, except it was a poor ho passed at that moment, and threw a small coin into the box ”She has cast in more than they all,” said he; ”for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God; but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had”[2] Thisall he observed at Jerusale the rich who gavefor the good of the people, naturally exasperated the sacerdotal caste As the seat of a conservative aristocracy, the temple, like the Mussulman _haram_ which succeeded it, was the last place in the world where revolution could prosper
I in our days to preach the overturning of Islamism round the mosque of Omar! There, however, was the centre of the Jewish life, the point where it was necessary to conquer or die
On this Calvary, where certainly Jesus suffered otha, his days passed away in disputation and bitterness, in thecanonical law and exegesis, for which his great e, positively unfitted him
[Footnote 1: Matt xxiv 1, 2; Mark xiii 1, 2; Luke xix 44, xxi 5, 6 Cf Mark xi 11]
[Footnote 2: Mark xii 41, and following; Luke xxi 1, and following]
[Footnote 3: Mark xii 41]
In the midst of this troubled life, the sensitive and kindly heart of Jesus found a refuge, where he enjoyedin the te Jesus descended into the valley of Kedron, and rested a while in the orchard of a far of oil) naarden to the inhabitants
Thence he proceeded to pass the night upon the Mount of Olives, which limits the horizon of the city on the east[2] This side is the only one, in the environs of Jerusale and verdant The plantations of olives, figs, and pales, fare, Gethsemane, and Bethany[3] There were upon the Mount of Olives two great cedars, the st the dispersed Jews; their branches served as an asylum to clouds of doves, and under their shade were established small bazaars[4] All this precinct was in a manner the abode of Jesus and his disciples; they knew it field by field and house by house
[Footnote 1: Mark xi 19; Luke xxii 39; John xviii 1, 2 This orchard could not be very far from the place where the piety of the Catholics has surrounded some old olive-trees by a wall The word _Gethsenify ”oil-press”]
[Footnote 2: Luke xxi 37, xxii 39; John viii 1, 2]
[Footnote 3: Talm of Bab, _Pesachim_, 53 _a_]
[Footnote 4: Tale of Bethany, in particular,[1] situated at the summit of the hill, upon the incline which commands the Dead Sea and the Jordan, at a journey of an hour and a half from Jerusalem, was the place especially beloved by Jesus[2] He there made the acquaintance of a family composed of three persons, two sisters and a brother, whose friendshi+p had a great charm for hiing, kind, and assiduous person;[4] the other, nauor,[5] and by her strongly developed speculative instincts