“Master,” he demanded, “when did you come here?”
Jesus studied the coppersmith and his companions for a moment, reading what was in their hearts. “You do not seek Me because you saw the miracles, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled,” He said severely. “Do not labor for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life.”
“What shall we do that we might work the works of God?” Shobeal asked eagerly.
“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him He has sent.”
Arza was not satisfied. Something spectacular was needed, something that would arouse the people of Capernaum as the feeding of the five thousand had stirred the crowd who had eaten the loaves and the fish. “What signs will you show that we may see and believe?” he demanded.
If Jesus had not experienced and put away this form of temptation long ago when He had wrestled with the voice of evil on the mountain after His baptism by John, He might have been tempted now to give the people the sign they wished. But He had no desire to achieve earthly glory or to attain high position in the eyes of men.
When Jesus did not answer Arza’s question, the merchant Shobeal spoke again. “Our fathers ate manna in the desert,” he said. “And it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
The merchant was challenging Jesus to produce bread here in Capernaum out of nothing, an act which must surely have made a tremendous impression upon the crowd, many of whom were always hungry. But again Jesus did not rise to the challenge.
“Moses did not give you that bread from heaven, but My Father gave you the true bread from heaven,” He replied. “The bread of God is He that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
They still did not understand, thinking He meant bread in the same sense as that of the loaves and fish He had provided. “Lord, evermore give us this bread,” Ahab begged, thinking to impress those of the people who had not eaten with the five thousand.
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven,” Jesus said. “If any man eat of this bread he shall live forever.”
In the silence someone in the crowd called out in a loud and contemptuous voice. “How can He say, ‘I come down from heaven’ when we know He comes from Nazareth?” he demanded.
At that the people began to laugh. Arza realized now that Jesus would not let Himself be made king in Galilee. To save face, he turned and began to move away. All of them had heard Arza and the others ask Jesus for a sign to prove He was the expected Messiah and had heard Him refuse. To them this could only mean that He had no divine power; it was unthinkable that a man should possess such power and refuse to reply to a demand that He prove it.
When Jesus saw that many of those who had listened to His teachings were now leaving Him, He turned to the Twelve. “Will you also go away?” He asked.
For a moment no one answered. Many of them, too, had been shaken by His failure to announce Himself as the Anointed One of God. It was Simon Peter, who put into words the very essence of his faith.
“Lord, to whom shall we go?” the tall fisherman asked. “You have the words of eternal life.”
Chapter 19
No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
Luke 9:62
During the spring Jesus moved about northern Galilee and the border region of Syro-Phoenicia, taking His message to the smaller villages and towns. The approach of summer had already begun to bathe the Sea of Galilee with an intense heat which would grow steadily more enervating as the season advanced. Herod’s hostility had steadily increased when spies had brought the tetrarch word of the abortive attempt to make Him king after the feeding of the five thousand. For these reasons Jesus decided to leave Galilee and spend some time in the mountainous region to the north where the climate would be more pleasant. In addition, He could be sure of less political opposition in this region, for Philip, the tetrarch who ruled there, had shown no animosity toward Him.
Leaving Bethsaida-Julias on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus and the disciples traveled northward on the east bank of the Jordan toward Caesarea-Philippi. The river in this area was about twenty-five paces wide, a swift-rushing stream filled with fish and fringed by a belt of oleanders, zakkum, tall fan-like papyrus, and giant reeds which made penetration for any distance from the road almost impossible. Along the river were many towns and villages where Jesus paused to teach, for although this was predominantly a Gentile region, many Jews lived here.
Almost halfway from Bethsaida to Caesarea the Jordan widened out to form a small body of water called Lake Huleh by the Jews and Lake Semechonitis by the Gentiles. At its southern end, the lake was an impenetrable canebrake or morass with a very large growth of papyrus. Wild mustard grew to a great height with giant lilies whose petals met overhead like a canopy. The jungle-like swamp abounded with. animals, birds in great numbers nested here, and the hum of bees was a constant obbligato to the rush of water.
A broad, fertile plain extended north of Lake Huleh for some eight or ten miles. To the east were the foothills of Mount Hermon and in the midst of a fertile plain the ancient city of Dan or Laish, “a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth,” according to the ancient writings. On the west side of the city, at the foot of the slope upon which it lay, a great stream burst forth from the earth to form one of the sources of the Jordan, joining another which arose some distance away. The northernmost town in ancient Israel, when its limits extended from “Dan to Beersheba,” the city had always been a polyglot one.
From Laish to Caesarea-Philippi was a two hours’ walk along a road winding upward from the lower slopes of Mount Hermon. With the coming of summer the snow had begun to melt, but the crest of the mountain was still a glossy white and there were streaks in the bottoms of the ravines. From the mountain’s lofty crest, visible upon a clear day from almost every point in Israel, the Great Sea could be seen and, looking southward, the jewel-like outlines of Lake Huleh and the Sea of Galilee with the Jordan connecting them like a silver band. To the east the white roofs of Damascus might also be visible.
At the foot of the slope upon which Caesarea stood, the chief source of the Jordan burst from beneath a high wall of rock in what had been called since ancient times the Cave of Pan. Here in the beautiful region around Caesarea where the air was fragrant with flowers and cool even in summer, Jesus and His disciples withdrew together from the press of the crowds which had followed them for so many months.
II
From the slopes of Mount Hermon where He had gone alone to pray, Jesus could look down upon the whole broad panorama of the Jewish homeland and the people to whom He had been sent. When finally He returned to where the disciples waited, they could see that whatever it was that His prayers had revealed, it had brought Him no joy. There was a look of gravity and sadness in His eyes.
The Twelve gathering around Him again, He propounded to them the simple question, “Who do men say that I am?”
“Some say John the Baptist,” He was told, “and others Elijah.”
Another of the disciples added, “One of the prophets.”
“And who do you say that I am?”
Simon, the tall, impetuous fisherman answered, “You are the Christ,” he said simply. “The Son of the living God.”
Jesus smiled and His great love for the big man with the simple faith and love was declared by the glow in His eyes. “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonas,” Jesus said. “For flesh and blood did not reveal it to you but My Father which is in heaven. I say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Here was more than a play on the words Petros meaning Peter and petra which meant rock. Jesus here announced publicly what had been apparent to the disciples for a long time; Simon Peter w
as close to the Master and, after Him, their rightful leader. At the same time, Jesus had not denied Peter’s identification of Him as the Christ, a fact which they interpreted to mean that He had at last announced Himself as the Messiah.
Some of the disciples had joined the group because they believed Jesus to be the Messiah who would soon assume temporal power in Israel and the religious leadership of the people. His refusal to seize that power when it had been offered Him in Galilee had strongly shaken their faith. Now they were overjoyed to hear Him admit His identity as the Christ, a term with the same meaning as Messiah, even though the identification had been made indirectly by Peter. Then hopes rose that when they returned to Galilee, He would assume political power.
Jesus’ next words dashed their hopes, for He charged them not to tell anyone the true nature of His divine calling. “The Son of Man must suffer many things,” He explained, “and be rejected of the elders and the chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised up on the third day.”
Simon Peter rebuked Him. “Be it far from you, Lord,” he protested. “This shall not happen to you.”
“Get thee behind Me, Satan,” Jesus said sharply to Peter, “for you mind not the things of God but the things of men!” Then He turned to the others, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever will save his life shall lose it, and whoever shall lose his life for My sake shall find it. What does a man profit if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
III
For six days Jesus and the disciples moved through the towns and villages in the prosperous region around Caesarea-Philippi. At the end of that period, He took with Him the three whom He had first called on the shores of Galilee and climbed part of the way up the slopes of Mount Hermon. There He drew aside and began to pray.
It had been a tiring climb and as the three waited, their eyes grew heavy. Describing long afterward what then had proceeded to happen, none of them could be sure whether it was that they had seen a vision there on Mount Hermon or had only experienced an extraordinarily vivid dream.
Jesus had gone a short distance away from them into a wooded glen on the mountainside. For a moment they had lost sight of Him, then, as a brilliant white light began to fill the glen, they saw Him reappear. The blinding glory flooded the whole area with a light such as none of them had ever witnessed before and Jesus stood in the very midst of it. Now His rough garments were white and glistening, as were those of the two men who stood at His side talking with Him. The lines of care that had been in His face of late were erased and His countenance was as that of a King—or God.
The two men who shared with Jesus the center of the unearthly brilliance were much older than He, yet they seemed to speak to Him with deference. The disciples could not hear the words, but Simon Peter, impetuous as ever, called out to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
Ever since the Children of Israel had come up out of Egypt, the building of the small booths of interlaced branches called tabernacles had been customary with them when they worshiped God in a place where there was no synagogue. During the Feast of Tabernacles, every pious Jew built such a structure in his yard and lived there for the period of the feast, thus symbolically putting aside the temptations and the sins of everyday life and dwelling intimately in the presence of God.
It was this custom that now moved Peter to suggest building the tabernacles. He could not have said why he spoke the names of the prophets, except that he, as James and John, was now conscious of the identity of the two men there with Jesus. Strangely, the three of them had felt no fear in the presence of these men who had been dead for hundreds of years.
Jesus did not answer Peter’s suggestion that they build tabernacles for Him and Moses and Elijah. But a thick white cloud now rolled across the face of the mountain, shutting from their view the glen and the scene they had been witnessing and blotting out the brilliant white light. From the midst of the cloud, they heard a voice, like none they had ever heard before.
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” the voice said. “Hear Him.”
Slowly the cloud drifted away. When it was gone, the three now saw Jesus standing in the glen clothed in His usual homespun. But when they told Him excitedly what they had seen, He instructed them not to reveal it to anyone. Only long afterward, when the nature of the vision had at last become clear to them, did any of the three reveal what happened that afternoon on Mount Hermon.
At the foot of the mountain a crowd had gathered, among them some scribes who had been questioning the rest of the Twelve.
“What do you question them?” Jesus asked, and a man stepped from the crowd leading a boy.
“Master, I have brought you my son who has a dumb spirit,” he said. “When the demon seizes him, he tears him and the boy foams and gnashes with his teeth and pines away. I asked Your disciples to cast the demon out and they could not.”
Jesus’ eyes went from one to another of the nine who had remained behind when He went up on the mountain with Peter, James, and John. One by one they looked away, unable to meet His eyes.
“O faithless generation,” He said. “How long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?” Then He turned back to the father of the boy. “Bring him to Me,” He directed.
As the father led him forward, the boy was seized with a fit and fell to the ground, thrashing about and foaming at the mouth in a severe epileptic convulsion.
“How long has he had this?” Jesus asked.
“Since he was a child,” the father said. “Sometimes it has thrown him into the fire or the water to destroy him. If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
“If you can believe,” Jesus told him, “all things are possible.”
The father of the afflicted boy dropped to his knees, with tears running down his cheeks. “Lord, I believe,” he said, “help my unbelief!”
When He saw the man’s faith, Jesus spoke and the boy was cured. Later the discomfited nine came to Him and asked, “Why could not we cast out the demon?”
“Because of your unbelief,” He told them. “Truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Remove hence to yonder place,’ and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to you.”
After healing the epileptic child, Jesus and the disciples turned westward from the district of Caesarea-Philippi and entered northern Galilee, moving down on the west side of the Jordan toward the lake once more. On the way He tried to tell them what had been revealed to Him on the mountain. “The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of men,” He said, “and they shall kill Him. And after He is killed, He shall rise on the third day.”
But they thought He was speaking in a parable and did not understand.
IV
In the Law of Moses it was written: “They shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary. A half-shekel shall be the offering unto the Lord. Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to the Lord.”
In accordance with this law, a half-shekel tribute was exacted annually from each adult Jew for the support of the temple and the regular religious services there.
As soon as Jesus and the disciples returned to Capernaum from the region around Caesarea-Philippi, those concerned with collecting the half-shekel tribute came to Peter, knowing him to be close to Jesus. “Does not your Master pay the tribute?” they asked.
Remembering how often Jesus had denounced the temple authorities at Jerusalem as charlatans in the house of the Most High, Peter should have immediately recognized the reason for the question. If Jesus failed to pay the half-shekel, He wou
ld be transgressing a strict Mosaic Law and could be brought to trial and severely punished. On the other hand, if He paid the shekel, the act would be cited as evidence that He supported the priestly hierarchy.
Peter, however, did not stop to consider the deeper implications of the seemingly innocent question. The Law said the tribute was to be paid, everyone knowing that much of the money went into the already heavy purses of the chief priests n Jerusalem. Peter did not consult Jesus but went into the house to get money for the tribute.
Jesus had heard and seen all this, and when Peter came for the money, He stopped him. “What do you think, Simon?” He asked. “Of whom do the kings of earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children or of strangers?”
Peter could give only one answer. “Of strangers.”
“Then the children are free,” Jesus pointed out to him. Peter was greatly troubled by Jesus’ words. He had told the tax gatherer Jesus would pay the tribute. Not only would he lose face if now he had to admit that he had spoken untruly, but to announce Jesus’ refusal to obey such an important provision of the Law could cause further serious conflict with the religious authorities.
Jesus understood Peter’s concern and its source. “Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them,” He said quietly, “go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up. When you open its mouth you will find a piece of money. Take that and give it to them for us.”
It was a strange task Jesus had set Peter, more strange even than His instructions long ago near this very spot to let down the net into the deep waters of the lake in the daytime when no one could expect to catch fish. On that occasion the catch of fish had almost sunk both Peter’s boat and that of the sons of Zebedee—it was a thing that a fisherman could be counted on not to forget.
The Crown and the Cross: The Life of Christ Page 20