THE BREAD OF LIFE

For next day, in the synagogue at Capharnaum, having returned to the town during the night, Jesus told the people that the bread with which He had miraculously fed them the day before was not worth having compared with that which He intended to give them later on. This other bread would be Himself, and in receiving it they would be eating His very flesh and drinking His very blood. Moreover, this food would give eternal life and not merely keep them alive for a little longer in this world, which is all that ordinary food can do.

Most of those present were horrified by these words. Talking among themselves, they said that He was going altogether too far, making it impossible for them to accept His teaching. And many, who had been His disciples till then, abandoned Him altogether.

Needless to say, the Scribes and Pharisees were delighted at the turn things were taking, and worked among the discontented people to make them active enemies of Jesus with themselves.

This marked a critical change in the life of Jesus in this world. Between the approaching Passover and that of next year, which was to be His last, He never again met with enthusiasm from vast crowds as He had up till then, except on one isolated occasion. Henceforth, thrown back more and more upon the twelve Apostles, He concentrated on training them for their future work.

One stormy encounter with Scribes and Pharisees who had come from Jerusalem marked the closing of His ministry in Galilee. They attacked Him for violating their traditions, whereupon He denounced their hypocrisy and their man-made traditions, declaring them to be “blind leaders of the blind.”

Then, taking the twelve, He shook the dust of Galilee off His feet and went elsewhere.

PETER THE ROCK

Jesus and the Apostles, having left the territory of Herod Antipas, spent some months travelling through Phoenicia and Decapolis, eventually coming to Caesarea Philippi, at one of the sources of the Jordan beyond the northern border of Galilee. There an event of the utmost importance for His Church took place.

The very name “Caesarea” and “Philippi” bespoke the dominance of Rome and Greece. They were symbols excluding all dreams of a Jewish national kingdom. And there, in that depressing place as regards Jewish hopes of political supremacy, Jesus put a direct question to the twelve about Himself. “What,” He asked them, “do people think of Me?”

They all began to speak at once. “Some say You are John the Baptist, come back to life again; others say no, but that You are Elias, or Jeremias.”

“And you yourself, what do you think?”

Peter spoke up instantly: “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”

It was a clear declaration of his divinity among all the shifting sands of vague opinions.

“If you know that,” Jesus said to him, “it is not because you have thought of it for yourself, but because My Father in heaven has revealed it to you. And now, in turn, I say to you: You are Peter, the rock, as I called you when I changed your name from that of Simon; and upon this rock I will build My Church. The forces of evil will never prevail against it. And I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.”

It was not enough, however, that the twelve should know the fact that He was the Messiah. They had still much to learn about the nature of His mission. So Jesus went on to explain to them that He must go up to Jerusalem, to be there rejected, tortured, and put to death by His own people; that only thus could He redeem them; but that on the third day He would rise again.

The shock of this declaration was so great that the last words were completely overlooked; and Peter, unable to reconcile himself to such treatment of His adored Master, exclaimed impulsively: “God forbid. Nothing like that must happen to You.”

But Jesus told him that to try to prevent it would be to play the part of Satan. “You would have Me,” He said, “turn aside from the very thing I came into this world to do! You are thinking as men think, and not seeing things as God sees them. Not self-interest, but self-sacrifice is demanded of Me. And if any man will come after Me, he too must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.”

TRAINING OF THE TWELVE

Again and again, from then on, Jesus tried to impress upon the minds of the Twelve that He had to endure an ignominious passion of suffering and death.

But He did not neglect measures to confirm them in their faith, and to reassure them of His ultimate triumph.

Only six days after Peter’s profession of faith He took Peter and James and John with Him up to a high mountain-top, and was there transfigured before them, His face shining radiantly, His clothes glorious with an unearthly whiteness. Two men were conversing with Him, whom the Apostles recognized as Moses and Elias, representatives of the Old Testament Law and the Prophets. They were talking about the very thing Jesus had been stressing all the week, the necessity of His passion and death. And in the midst of it all a voice came from Heaven: “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him.”

The whole experience raised the thoughts of the Apostles to the divine level; but it was for themselves alone. “Tell the vision to no man,” Jesus said to them afterwards, “till the Son of Man be risen from the dead.”

From now on, concentrating more intensely still on the formation of the Twelve, He gave them many lessons bearing upon their own spiritual lives, above all on the necessity for prayer, of humility, and of the forgiving of injuries.

One day, setting a little child in the midst of them, He said: “Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Then, thinking of the welfare of little children themselves, He added severely that it would be better to have a millstone tied round one’s neck and to be thrown into the sea, than to teach evil to any one of them.

“Despise not one of these little ones,” He said, “for I tell you, their angels in Heaven always see the face of My Father who is in Heaven.” He knew what the angels do in Heaven, for He was, as He had described Himself: “The Son of Man, descended from Heaven, but who yet is in Heaven.”

As to the forgiveness of injuries, to Peter, who thought it generous that pardon should be granted seven times, Jesus replied: “Not seven times, but seventy-times seven times,” or indefinitely.

VISIT TO JERUSALEM

So the instructions continued, in between the various duties of the ministry, until in the October of that year the Feast of Tabernacles, a kind of Harvest Festival, was at hand. Many were accustomed to going up to Jerusalem for the festivities, and Jesus decided to go also. Afterwards He intended to work in Judea rather than in Galilee.

After His journeying through Phoenicia and Decapolis, He had returned for a brief stay at Capharnaum. Setting out from there along the road towards Nazareth, He came to the heights of Magdala and paused at that vantage point to have a last look back at the Sea of Galilee and the towns along its Northern shores. Sad at heart, He reproached the cities for their resistance to divine grace, saying: “Woe to you, Corozain; woe to you, Bethsaida; woe to you, Capharnaum. If the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented. If they had been done even in Sodom, that place would have been spared. In the day of judgment it will go easier with those wicked cities than with yourselves.” Then he turned, and set His face resolutely towards Jerusalem.

His journey took Him through Samaria, and at one village, to which James and John had gone ahead to prepare accommodation, they were refused hospitality on the ground that the party was travelling to the Jerusalem so hated by the Samaritans. The two Apostles returned to Jesus full of indignation and wanted to call down fire upon the town as Elias had done upon the insolent villagers. But Jesus quietly reproved them, telling them that they certainly had not the right spirit yet. It was one thing for Himself to declare what would be the just judgment of God on the Galilean cities which had refused divine grace; but it was not for them to invoke disasters upon villagers who had merely refused hospitality to strangers. Patiently, therefore, He went on with them to another village.

Arrived within the vicinity of Jerusalem, Jesus stayed in the little town of Bethany, only about two miles from the Holy City. St. John says simply, in his gospel: “Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus.” These were friends in whose house He was always welcome; and that home He often visited during His ministry in Judea.

CLASH WITH THE PHARISEES

During these days of the Feast of Tabernacles, He Himself was the main topic of conversation. Many Galileans were already there before He arrived, and people were asking whether He, too, was coming. Opinions about Him were very divided. Some said that He was a good man; others that He was a fraud and a deceiver.

Suddenly, one day, He appeared in the Temple court, and there began to teach the people openly. He spoke about Himself more clearly than ever before and the people were amazed at His utterances as He answered all that was being said against Him by His enemies.

No. He had not studied in the Rabbinical schools in Jerusalem. But then, His doctrine was not of men; it was directly from God. Yes. He had healed the sick on the Sabbath day. But circumcision was performed on the Sabbath day, and far from breaking the Law of Moses, was performed precisely to keep that Law; and He certainly was not breaking the Law by giving the blessing of health. They knew His family and could point to His relatives, maybe; but they had not made allowance for His heavenly mission of which His miracles were the guarantee.

The Scribes and Pharisees present, unable to bear this, discussed the possibility of arresting Him, but scarcely knew how to go about it. Too many of the people were sympathetically disposed towards Him. The Sanhedrin sent some officers to try, but the officers returned empty-handed, excusing themselves by saying: “Never did man speak like this man.”

Evidently the thing to do was to undermine His standing with the people. Next day, therefore, when He was again speaking in the Temple courtyard, the Scribes and Pharisees thought to force the issue by bringing to Him a woman taken in adultery.

Moses, they said, commanded such a one to be stoned to death. What did He say? They thought, diabolically, that if He agreed to her death He would forfeit the sympathy of the people; if He released her, they themselves could challenge Him with having publicly flouted the Law of Moses.

But all His divine wisdom was at the disposal of His mercy. Without denying the Law of Moses, He said, with words full of meaning and authority: “Very well. But let him that is without sin among you cast the first stone.”

Speechless, they edged away, beginning with the eldest. They had the feeling that He was reading them like a book. As for the poor woman, forgiveness did not mean condonation. “Go,” He said, “and now, sin no more.”

Jesus continued His discourses. He declared Himself to be the “Light of the World.” Whilst others were but “of earth,” He was “of Heaven.” If people wanted freedom, let them follow Him; for His disciples would know that true freedom which is freedom from sin.

This was too much for the Pharisees, who cried out that they had such freedom and were already acceptable in God’s sight as children of Abraham. But Jesus countered by saying that Abraham himself was overjoyed by the sight of His advent.

“What,” they replied, “you are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?”

“I can assure you,” He answered, “before Abraham so much as existed, I am.” This was a claim to share in the very name by which God had described Himself to Moses, and they took up stones from the Temple courtyard to stone Him to death for the blasphemy. But Jesus evaded them, and mingling with the crowd, went away.

Outside the Temple precincts, He came upon a man blind from birth whom He healed. The news of such a miracle in crowded Jerusalem rapidly spread, filling the people with astonishment and admiration. The Pharisees, however, were filled with consternation. They sent for the man, and unable to shake his testimony, abused him. The man sought out Jesus to tell Him of this, and Jesus said to him, in the presence of some Pharisees: “I am come into this world, that they who see not, may see; and they who see, may become blind.”

The Pharisees who heard Him asked: “Are we blind?” Jesus declared that they were deliberately so, and therefore guilty in the sight of God.

JUDEAN MINISTRY

Leaving Jerusalem, He went home to His friends at Bethany. During a brief stay there, He preached to the country people round about, and such visitors from Jerusalem as happened to be present.

He told the people that He was the door to the true sheepfold. Only through Him could they enter upon the way that led to salvation. Yet more, He was the Good Shepherd who was prepared to give His life for His sheep. In fact, He would do so, and voluntarily; although afterwards He would rise from the dead.

His words were carried back to Jerusalem, where they caused much discussion; and opinions concerning Him were more divided than ever.

He now went farther afield, and during the next two months taught in various country villages throughout Judea and Perea. He also chose and sent seventy-two disciples to help in the work.

The doctrines taught were concerning the Kingdom of God in general, but more specifically the fatherhood of God, the necessity of prayer, the generous fulfillment of duties, the obligation of fraternal charity, and the final judgment in which the reward of eternal happiness or the punishment of eternal misery will be the lot of each man according to his deserts.

When the disciples came back to Him full of enthusiasm and with reports of the great success which had attended their labors, He said: “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, and the ears which hear the things you have heard.”

To this period belongs the expression of His own great love for men, when He spoke those memorable words: “Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke is sweet, and My burden light.”

All through, too, He manifested His constant spirit of communion with the heavenly Father He so loved, giving Himself to such prolonged and fervent prayer that His Apostles, observing Him, felt that they had never known what it really is to pray. So they asked Him to teach them also to pray.

It was in response to this request that He taught them the prayer, as sublime as it is simple: “Our Father, who 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 trespasses, as we forgive them who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

THE SUPREME DECLARATION

In the following December Jesus went back to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Dedication, which commemorated the deliverance of the Temple in 165 A.D. from the desecration to which it had been subjected by Antiochus Epiphanes some five years earlier. Antiochus was a tyrant who had tried to stamp out Judaism and impose upon the people his own Greek paganism.

Arriving shortly before the Feast, Jesus stayed once more with His friends Lazarus, Martha and Mary, at Bethany, two miles outside the city. Then, on the festival day itself, He went to pay His visit to the Temple.

As soon as He appeared there, the people at once gathered around Him. But the Pharisees were there also; and they were determined to force Him to say openly whether or not He claimed to be the promised Messiah. So they threw the challenge at Him: “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, say so straight out.”

Jesus answered that whatever He might say they would not believe Him, but that the miracles He had wrought in the name of His Father were evidence enough of His divine mission. Then he added the momentous words: “I and the Father are one.”

The implications of this were only too clear, and at once the Pharisees took up stones from the courtyard to stone Him.

But Jesus challenged them in turn, saying that He had done many good works that only God could do. “For which of My good works,” He asked, “do you stone Me?”

“Not for any good works,” they shouted, “but for blasphemy, because, being a man, you make yourself God.”

Dropping the stones, they made a concerted rush towards Him, intent on arresting Him; but once more He escaped them by losing Himself in the surging throng, left the Temple courtyard, and Jerusalem itself, setting out at once, not back to Bethany, but to the far side of the Jordan some twenty miles away, near to the place where John the Baptist had first commenced his mission.

But He went in tears, saying: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem. You kill the prophets, and stone them that are sent to you. How often would I have gathered your children as the hen her chickens under her wing, and you would not!”

RAISING OF LAZARUS

The next three months Jesus spent in Perea, teaching, doing good always, and making many converts.

The Pharisees, however, constantly dogged His footsteps; and one day a group of them told Him to get out of Perea because Herod Antipas, who was Governor of Perea as well as of Galilee, was planning to kill Him.

No thought of His welfare made the Pharisees warn Him. Full of envy and hatred, they thought that the threat might at least put an end to His present work, impelling Him to go elsewhere.

But He merely replied to them: “Go and tell that fox I shall continue My work until it is time for Me to go to Jerusalem. If a prophet is to perish, it can only be in that city. Yet when I do go there, I will be met with the cry of welcome: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

At last came a call of charity which He could not refuse. Messengers came from Martha and Mary at Bethany to say that their brother Lazarus was dangerously ill. The message sent by the sisters was merely: “Lord, he whom You love is sick.” They knew that they need not say more.

But Jesus was well aware that whilst the couriers were making their twenty-mile journey Lazarus had died; and He deliberately allowed two further days to elapse before saying to His Apostles: “Let us go into Judea again.” They reminded Him of the plots to kill Him there; but it was in vain, and seeing His determination to go, Thomas said to the others: “Let us also go, and die with Him.”

Lazarus had already been four days in the grave as they approached Bethany, and Martha, hearing of His coming, went to meet Him with the tearful words: “Lord, had You been here, my brother would not have died.” Her sister Mary came also, when told Jesus was asking for her, and said practically the same words. The two sisters had probably said repeatedly to each other that had Jesus been there, He would never have let their brother die.

At His request, they took Him to the cave where Lazarus was entombed, and He told the men present to remove the stone covering the entrance to it. Then, after a prayer to His Father, He commanded Lazarus to return to life and come out from the grave. Lazarus at once did so, to the immense excitement of all who witnessed it, and the conversion of most of them. Not, however, of all. Some hurried to Jerusalem and informed the Pharisees, who immediately demanded a meeting of the Sanhedrin or Supreme Council of the Jews.

The meeting of the Sanhedrin was held in the house of Caiaphas, the High Priest for that year. All agreed that something had to be done. If Jesus was allowed to continue with such impressive confirmations of His teaching, all would eventually believe in Him. The Romans might even step in and reduce them to absolute slavery, taking away all their present privileges.

The discussion went on until Caiaphas put an end to it by saying: “There is only one thing to do. It is better for Him to die than for the whole nation to perish.”

Jesus was doomed. But they could not lay hands upon Him for the moment. He had left Bethany and gone into the desert country some miles North, near Ephraim. The Sanhedrin could but make their plans for His death, issuing orders that anyone knowing where He was to be found should immediately inform them.

LAST MISSIONARY DAYS

Jesus did not stay at Ephraim. He spent some three weeks journeying through Samaria, Galilee and Perea. His movements were reported to the members of the Sanhedrin, in Jerusalem; but He was always moving, and they could bide their time.

Wherever He went Pharisees were in attendance, and He had many skirmishes with them. On one occasion they brought up the important question of marriage and divorce. In response to their declaration that the Law of Moses permitted a man to put away his wife and marry another, He told them uncompromisingly that Moses had never really meant to approve of such laxity, but had merely tolerated the practice because of their lack of good dispositions. Such laxity, He said, was quite against God’s original intentions. Nor could it be tolerated henceforth. “From now on,” He proclaimed, “if a man puts away his wife and marries another, he commits adultery. And if the woman who is put away marries another, she commits adultery.”

That sounded severe even to the Apostles, but they knew that if He spoke in such a way, it was a sheer matter of principle. They had too many evidences of His gentleness and mercy to think otherwise.

Thus, about this same time, He healed the ten lepers who cried out to Him so movingly: “Jesus, Master, have pity on us.”

So, too, He blessed the little children some women brought to Him, despite the efforts of the Apostles to prevent them from bothering Him. “Suffer the little children to come unto Me and forbid them not,” He said, “for of such is the Kingdom of God.”

One day, as they were approaching Jericho and getting ever nearer to Jerusalem, He told the Apostles what would happen to Him there. He would be arrested, condemned, mocked, spat upon, and put to death; but on the third day He would rise again. He had warned them so often of these things, but still they could make nothing of it all. It seemed so unreal.

Two of them, however, felt at least that the climax was approaching and that the Kingdom for which Jesus had been so long preparing them was at hand. So they begged Him to grant them the privilege of sitting, one on His right and the other on His left, when the glorious Kingdom would at last be His. In reply, Jesus asked them if they were willing to share in His sufferings, and on receiving their answer in the affirmative said: “That at least I can promise you, but not more. What you have asked rests not with Me but with My Father in Heaven.” Then to all twelve He spoke seriously on the necessity of humility.

When they entered Jericho, He asked the publican Zacchaeus, a local customs’ officer, for hospitality. Zacchaeus, who was not very tall, had climbed into a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus over the heads of the crowd who had gathered for the occasion; and Jesus singled him out as a sincere and honest man despite the fact that the Pharisees regarded him as a sinner.

Next day, as He was leaving the town, He was accosted by Bartimeus, a blind man. Bartimeus had been told that the noise of the crowd was because Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. Again and again, therefore, the blind man cried out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” In vain others told him to be quiet. Impressed by the man’s faith and perseverance, Jesus stopped, ordered the man to be brought to Him, asked what he wanted, and bestowed upon him the gift of sight that he so desired.

BANQUET AT BETHANY

It was only about twenty miles to Bethany from Jericho, and when Jesus came into the little town on the Friday afternoon, just six days before the Passover, He was welcomed by all. Only a month ago He had raised Lazarus, so well-known and popular with everybody, from the dead.

A wealthy citizen named Simon even put on a banquet for Him and for His Apostles, inviting Lazarus, Martha and Mary to be present also.

During the course of the evening, in the presence of the whole company, Mary gave expression to her reverence, love and gratitude by lavishing upon the head and feet of Jesus a most costly and refreshing perfume. This greatly distressed Judas, who protested against such waste, saying that the precious ointment could have been sold for some fifty or sixty dollars, and the money given to the poor. But Jesus defended her. “The poor you have always with you,” He said, “but not Myself. She has done well, preparing My body beforehand for burial. And I tell you that wherever the gospel is preached in the world, what she has done will be recalled in memory of her.”

Judas, however, was anything but appeased; He had been repelled by what he had seen. The loss of the money rankled. Thoughts of selling the precious ointment began to yield place in his mind to thoughts of selling something infinitely more precious, Jesus Himself.

During these days Jerusalem was seething with excitement. Caravans of pilgrims were pouring in every day from everywhere for the Passover. On the hillsides round about tents were pitched, and daily the crowds from them went into the Holy City. Many Galileans were amongst them. All the talk was of Jesus, and above all of the miracle He had wrought a month ago, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. People, coming and going, thronged the two miles of road between Jerusalem and Bethany. So many of them wanted to see Lazarus with their own eyes.

PALM SUNDAY

It was into the midst of all this excitement that Jesus had come on the Friday of His arrival at Bethany, and He determined to go on to Jerusalem after the Sabbath, on the first day of the week. But, unlike previous visits, this one was to take the form of a public entry into the City. He, therefore, sent two of His disciples to a nearby village to bring back a donkey’s foal which He said they would find tethered there, and which the owner would gladly let them have.

The news that He was coming in such a way quickly spread, even to Jerusalem itself; and as He rode up the hillside towards the city, the people came to meet the miracle-worker from Nazareth, waving palms and crying out: “Welcome. Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the Highest!”

It was in vain that angry priests and Pharisees bade the people stop, asking what they meant by it. “This is Jesus the Prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee,” they said, and went on with their demonstrations of joy. The Pharisees then turned to Jesus. “It is for you to stop all this,” they said. “Bid them cease.” “If I did,” He replied, “the very stones would cry out.”

As a sudden turn in the road brought the city into sight Jesus was moved to tears. Here He was, publicly accepting the role of the Messiah, yet knowing that within a few days He would be as emphatically rejected. “If you but knew,” He said, half-aloud, “the things that are to your peace. But now they are hidden from you. There will not be left in you a stone upon a stone, because you have not known the time of your visitation.”

Entering into the teeming city, He visited the Temple to give Himself to prayer. But the priests and Pharisees said to one another angrily: “We have accomplished nothing. The whole world seems to have gone after Him.” They therefore held another meeting to consider what next move they should make.

No further developments took place that day in Jerusalem; and, having looked round on what He saw there, Jesus returned in the evening to Bethany. It was little more than half-an-hour’s walk.

SECOND CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE

Next day, Monday, He went back to the city with the twelve. On the way, coming upon a fig-tree in full leaf, but bearing no fruit, He wrought His only miracle of judgment, condemning it to death. On the following day, to their astonishment, the Apostles noticed that it had completely withered away. The incident was a kind of acted parable, a “visual-aid” in the religious education of the Apostles, teaching them the fate that awaited Jerusalem itself, so splendid in promise yet so disappointing in results.

In the city He found the Temple precincts once more turned into a marketplace, with beasts and birds for sale and booths set up for changing the various moneys of pilgrims from different localities. Again, therefore, He drove them all out, declaring the Temple to be A House of Worship, not to be desecrated by such trafficking. Had the offenders refused to go, Jesus and His handful of disciples could not have expelled them by physical force, short of a miracle. But the moral authority and blazing indignation of Jesus were more than they could resist. Naturally, the Chief Priests were furious; but Jesus had received such a wonderful welcome from the people the day before that they could not arrest Him publicly.

He spent the rest of the day teaching in the Temple without interruption, save for one incident only.

Some small children came in whilst He was speaking, and recognizing Him as the central figure of the procession of the day before, began to chant the words they had then heard: “Hosanna to the Son of David!” The Temple authorities, unable to bear it, said to Him: “Don’t you hear what they are singing?” “Yes,” He replied. “But have you never read that God has inspired the perfection of praise from the lips of babes and sucklings?”

That night He again spent at Bethany, returning to the city on Tuesday morning.

DAY OF QUESTIONS

The Chief Priests and others had had time to think things over, and when He began teaching again in the Temple they interrupted Him, demanding to know by what authority He took such duties upon Himself.

He retorted with another question. “From whom did John the Baptist receive his authority?” They were reduced to silence. For if they said that John the Baptist had no authority, they would have angered the people who regarded him as a prophet of God. If, on the other hand, they said from God, the reply would have been: “Then why did you not obey Him?”

Taking advantage of their discomfiture, Jesus then preached the parables of the “Two Sons” (Matthew 21:28-32); of the “Wicked Husbandmen” (Luke 20:9-18); and of the “Wedding Feast.” (Matthew 22:1-14). All three parables predicted God’s rejection of the Jews as His chosen people, and the bestowal of their inheritance upon the Gentiles.

Enraged by these, the Pharisees sought to get Him into trouble with the Roman authorities by asking whether or not it was lawful to pay tribute to Caesar? They gained nothing by that, for He replied simply: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

The Sadducees then put a captious question about marriage in Heaven which Jesus summarily dismissed by saying that in Heaven there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage, conditions there being quite different from those on earth.

The Pharisees then tried again by asking which is the greatest commandment? Jesus replied that the first is to love God, and that the second is to love one’s neighbor—a love they certainly were not then manifesting!

After that there were no more questions, but Jesus went on to warn the people against the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees. These took His words as a declaration of open war; and Jesus knew that He had virtually pronounced His own death-sentence.

As He was leaving the Temple, never to enter it again, He saw a poor widow put two mites into a collection-box for the upkeep of the Temple. How small an offering that was can be realized from the fact that eight mites would be equal to a single cent! Yet Jesus praised her sacrificial giving, saying that she merited more than all the others because she had given all she had.

A little later, however, He predicted to His Apostles the total ruin of the Temple despite its vast stones and solid structure.

Going home to Bethany, He broke the journey by going to Mt. Olivet, taking apart with Him His Apostles Peter, James and John, to whom He spoke at great length about the Last Judgment.

JUDAS THE BETRAYER

Next day, Wednesday, Jesus spent in retirement with His Apostles, possibly in Bethany, probably out in the nearby hills. These were the last hours of spiritual preparation, and during them He told them clearly once more: “It is but two days to the Passover. Then I shall be given up to be crucified.”

One Apostle, however, was missing for some hours on that day. He had gone alone to Jerusalem, where the Sanhedrin was holding a meeting in the morning, trying to decide what to do about Jesus. The members were worried by the number of His friends who had come in from the country areas. But, to their delight, Judas came to them, asking what they would give him if he would inform them where they could find Jesus away from the usual crowds. They agreed to give him thirty pieces of silver, possibly equal to between fifteen and twenty dollars in our money. It must have seemed a rather poor bargain, but still Judas accepted it. He had been disgusted by the way in which Jesus had failed again and again to assert Himself as the Messiah-King of Jewish nationalist aspirations when opportunities had presented themselves.