Part 16 (1/2)

Jesus and the disciples caroves near the village of Bethany Now only the Mount of Olives and the brook called Kidron stood between Jesus and Jerusaleates of the city and up to the Teri the week of the Passover Here at Bethany, Jesus had friends who loved him, and here he found a place in which to stay

A man named Simon, whom Jesus once cured of the dreaded leprosy, had a house in Bethany where Jesus elcome There also was a wo was too ive to Jesus Like another wory, she came to Jesus when he sat at dinner in Simon's house and poured precious ointment on his head

But this tiry, for there were no Pharisees in the house It was Jesus' own disciples, especially Judas Iscariot, who said that it rong to waste anything that cost as much as the ointment Judas spoke up and said, ”Why was not this ointiven to the poor?”

Judas did not really care about the poor He looked after the money for Jesus and the disciples, and when he wanted any, he secretly helped hiht that if the precious ointment had been sold, there would have been more money in the purse he carried

When Jesus heard the disciples coift, he said: ”Let her alone This is a good thing that she has done There will always be poor people, and you can give theone But you will not have _me_ always You know your custom is that when your loved ones die you put ointment on their bodies before you bury theet me ready to be buried, before I am even dead I tell you, this woman's name will be remembered all over the world because of what she did for ed Jesus the oint won Many times in these last few months Jesus had had to speak sharply to his disciples The longer they ith his that he had taught the lonelier every day, and the hardest task was still ahead

One ti very proud of hi people ere out of theiryour name to do it! Naturally we told hiht to use your name, when he wasn't one of us!”

Jesus answered: ”You shouldn't have stopped hi us any harm, then he was on our side!”

Then there was a terrible scene one day, when Jesus found the disciples quarreling about which of the Each thought that he ought to have a higher position than the rest

”You aren't supposed to be looking out for yourselves,” Jesus told thes, and order other people about But the greatest one of you will be the one who does the most to help others, no matter what it costs him Which would you rather do--sit down to a dinner and have your food brought to you, or bring the food for somebody else? You'd rather sit down and let a servant wait on you, of course But I a you, the servant of everyone”

The disciples could not get over thinking that some people were more important than others, and that they themselves counted for ht their little children to Jesus, hoping that he would put his hands on them and bless them The disciples did not think that the children counted for anything, and they were going to send theht not to come where they were not wanted

But Jesus called the little children to him, and said: ”Let the little children codom is made up of people like these children God hasn't any place for a person who thinks hi themselves forward They are humble, and it would be better if you were more like them!”

With these words Jesus laid his hands upon the children and gave the, as thethat Jesus said, which the disciples could not understand, was that they ought to forgive anyone who did them an injury One day Peter ca to ive hiht that seven ti very well But Jesus answered: ”_Seven_ tiive him until you have lost count of the times!”

When the disciples heard that, they knew that Jesus ed them This seemed to them to be more than they could do unless God helped theive us more faith than we have”

Then Jesus had to tell them that they really did not have any faith at all He said: ”If your faith were only as big as a mustard seed--the smallest seed there is--you could say to that tree over there, 'Be pulled up and be planted in the sea,' and it would be done”

No, the disciples did not have much faith They did not understand Jesus They were jealous of one another They thought that Jesus ought to be a king, and each of theht-hand man The disciples were afraid If Jesus went up to Jerusaleht it would be best if Jesus would stay out of sight where his enemies could not find him

Worst of all, there was one of the disciples as not loyal--Judas Iscariot Judas was planning so so terrible that no one except Jesus knehat it was

Jesus could not wait until his disciples understood He could not wait until they were brave enough, or strong enough or good enough If he did, he would wait forever And there was very little ti he had planned to do all along Back in the days when he was all alone in the wilderness, after John baptized him in the Jordan, he knew that this hat he would have to do soo back to the Temple, where he had stood and watched the Passover laet ready for the Passover

[Illustration]

Jerusalem was about two o to Jerusaleave his orders

”Go into the village, and there you will find a young donkey tied No one has ever ridden it Untie it and bring it here If the owner questions you, tell him, 'The Lord needs this donkey' He will let you have it at once”

The disciples went to do as they were told, and they did not need to be told twice They knehat Jesus meant, for they knew the Scriptures If this was the way Jesus was going to Jerusale to be afraid of!