“You have answered right,” Jesus told him. “This do and you shall live.”
“Who is my neighbor?” the lawyer persisted.
Jesus answered him with a parable: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance there came down a certain priest that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on the man and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him had compassion on him. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, the Samaritan took out two pence and gave them to the host and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever you spend in addition I will repay you when I come again.’”
Speaking directly to the lawyer, Jesus asked, “Which now of these three do you think was neighbor to him that fell among the thieves?”
The man could give only one answer, but even then he quibbled at the hated word, Samaritan. “He that showed mercy on him,” he admitted reluctantly.
“Go and do likewise,” Jesus counseled.
The lawyer departed sorely troubled, for he recognized the truth of what Jesus had told him but did not wish to carry it out.
VI
Knowing that the temple authorities were still plotting to kill Him, Jesus did not return to Jerusalem for several months but continued to travel through Judea with His disciples, maintaining His headquarters at the home of Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus at Bethany. As always, He spoke in the synagogues on the Sabbath. And when people begged Him to heal the sick and afflicted, He did not withhold His miracle-working power from them, although the Pharisees continued to upbraid Him for healing on the Sabbath day. As He went about He tried wherever possible to teach His disciples privately, using the parables which explained to them, perhaps more clearly than actual preaching, the great truths which He had come to earth to make known to man.
“Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?” He assured them. “Even the very hairs of your head are numbered. Fear not therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Also, I say unto you, whoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God. But he that denies Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him, but to him that blasphemes against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.
“And when they bring you to the synagogues and to the magistrates,” He advised them, “take no thought how or what you shall answer or what you shall say, for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the same hour what you ought to say.”
During the cool and sometimes frosty months of autumn, Jesus moved about in the hill country of Judea but did not come nearer to Jerusalem than Bethany. Only upon the occasion of the Feast of Dedication at the beginning of the winter did He return to Jerusalem in order to preach to the crowds which gathered there for the religious holiday.
The occasion celebrated by this festival was the dedication of the temple after Judas Maccabaeus had taken Jerusalem from the Seleucid emperors of Syria, almost exactly two hundred years before. The festival lasted for eight days and because it was usual for the weather to be pleasantly cool at this time, large crowds came to Jerusalem.
As was His custom, Jesus entered the temple and began to preach from Solomon’s Porch. This time one of the listeners put the question of His mission on earth directly to Him. “How long will you make us doubt?” he demanded. “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
“I told you and you did not believe,” Jesus answered a little sadly. “The works that I do in My Father’s name bear witness of Me, but you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. As I said to you, My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me and I give them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father who gave them to Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”
This bold claim of direct kinship with God was more than some of the questioners could accept. Indignant at what they considered blasphemy, they took up stones to kill Him.
Jesus stopped them with the power of His voice. “Many good works I showed you from My Father,” He said sternly. “For which of these works would you stone Me?”
“For a good work we would not stone You,” His critics answered. “But for blasphemy and because You, being a man, make Yourself God.”
“Is it not written in your Law,” He demanded, said, “You are gods”‘? If He calls them gods to whom the word of God came and the Scripture cannot be broken, would you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said that I am the Son of God? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me. But if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me and I am in Him.”
They would not listen, however, having been stirred up by the Pharisees and the chief priests to stone Him then and there for blasphemy. But as had happened on another occasion, the crowd protected Jesus. Surrounded by His disciples He moved out of the temple. This time He did as He had advised His disciples to do when a city would not receive them; He shook the dust of Jerusalem from His feet and departed toward the east, going beyond the Jordan to the town of Bethabara where John had first baptized Him.
His mission had now come a complete circle, for here it had begun.
Chapter 22
Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.
Luke 15:6
The district called Peraea or sometimes simply “beyond Jordan,” was populated with Jews, but because the Greek cities of the Decapolis were also within the area, it was not so traditionally Pharisaic in its religious worship as was Judea. Jesus chose this region because from there He could readily return to teach during the religious festivals when the city teemed with people from all parts of Israel as well as with the Jews of the Dispersion. Samaria was largely forbidden by the intense enmity between Jews and Samaritans, so that Peraea was a natural choice.
Only a day’s journey from Jerusalem for a vigorous man, the Jordan Valley was warm and pleasant during the months when the hill country around Jerusalem was chill and bleak. Although the largest cities were mostly Greek, there were in the “wilderness” across Jordan many villages and towns where Jesus found large audiences and little of the opposition which had made His mission in Jerusalem and other large cities so difficult.
For Jesus, Bethabara had nostalgic associations. Here He had been baptized by John and had experienced the vision from heaven and heard the voice of His Father. Here, too, on His return from the temptations, His first disciples had followed Him. Now He came to dwell in this pleasant place and to teach in the villages and in the sycamore grove that had been John’s pulpit.
The river was not yet swollen by the melting snows of Mount Hermon as it would be later in the spring. In the thick groves along its banks the leopard still stalked his prey and the thickets teemed with smaller animals and birds. The slopes of the mountains were covered with sycamore, beech, terebinth, ilex, and great fig trees. Altogether it was a hospitable place in which to spend the winter months.
Jesus had always received all who came to Him, and He stayed in any house where He was sincerely invited to rest. Often this meant consorting with tax collectors and with the common people shunned by Pharisees as “the accursed multitude who know not the Law.” When He was upbraided by the self-righteous for associating with sinners, Jesus answered with a series of parables which were among the most beautiful a
nd expressive in all His teachings.
“What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he finds it?” He asked. “When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.’ I say unto you, there shall be more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance.”
Then to drive home the truth that God was ready to receive with joy any who sincerely repented of their sins, even the common people who found it impossible to obey strict Mosaic Law, Jesus told another story.
“A certain man had two sons,” He said. “And the younger of them said, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ And he divided to them his living. Not many days after, the younger son gathered everything together and took a journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living. When he had spent all, there was a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country who sent him into the fields to feed the swine, and he would have filled his belly with the husks, but no man gave to him.”
For a Jew, to whom even to touch a pig was defilement, eating the husks of grain thrown to the swine was the worst possible humiliation.
“When he came to himself,” Jesus continued, “he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare while I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you and am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’
“Then he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him, and the son said to him, ‘Father I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight and am no more worthy to be called your son.’
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
“Now his elder son was in the field,” Jesus continued. “As he came and drew nigh to the house he heard music and dancing, so he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. The servant said, ‘Your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he received him safe and sound.’
“Then the brother was angry and would not go in, but the father came out and begged him. ‘Lo, these many years have I served you,’ he answered his father. ‘Neither have I transgressed your will at any time. Yet you never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as your son came back who had devoured your living with harlots, you have killed the fatted calf for him.’
“Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are ever with me and all that I have is yours. It was fitting that we should make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
With His divine genius for understanding and reaching the hearts of men, Jesus had made clear through this beautiful story how boundless was the love of God for those who sought to serve Him. The elder son represented those who were sincere in their concern for obeying the Law of Moses but not puffed up with pride because of their own righteousness. They, in the words of the parable, were “ever with me and all that I have is yours.” But like the single sheep who was lost from the ninety and nine, there was also a place in the boundless realm of God’s love for those who, having sinned and wasted the endless riches of life He had given them, still repented and came asking forgiveness and a place in His kingdom.
As Jesus Himself had said on another occasion in Capernaum, “I am come not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
II
It was raining as Lazarus rode home late one afternoon, a chilly drizzle that promised a beginning soon of the moreh or spring rain. In the valleys the harbingers of spring could be seen. Sprigs of green were appearing upon the carefully pruned grape vines, small clusters of tender violets grew among the rocks, and here and there the broad leaves of wild daffodils, sea leeks, and mandrake were beginning to unfold, while the tiny yellow and mauve blossoms of the crocus peeped forth. Only in the Judean highlands was winter still in undisputed possession.
Lazarus’s spirits were always a little dampened during the often grim Judean winter but his depression quickly evaporated once the green began to show upon the vines. He had been on a tour of the family holdings that day, receiving the report of the herdsmen and seeing that the keepers of the vineyards were busy repairing the fences of sharp thorns. These were tasks Lazarus loved for he was at heart a husbandman, as concerned with his task of overseeing the not inconsiderable family holdings as Martha was with their spotlessly clean house on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives.
Mary was the dreamer of the three, he thought fondly. Noticing an especially fine clump of violets peeping up beside the road, he stopped his mule and got down to pick them for her, even though the rain was falling and his clothing was already soaked. He and Mary were much alike in their love of beauty, he thought, as he mounted the mule again. Perhaps it was as well that they had had practical, and sometimes stern, Martha to hold them to their tasks after their parents had died some years before. If she had not kept him busy while a youth, Lazarus knew, he might have spent the time roistering as so many young men in Jerusalem did, indulging in the Greek love of luxurious living instead of being industrious and keeping the Law. It was from Martha he had learned the rewards of industry and under his management the inheritance had grown like the story Jesus loved to tell about the mustard seed falling upon fallow ground and multiplying sometimes thirty-, sometimes sixty-, and sometimes a hundredfold.
Yes, it was good to be alive in this Promised Land at this season. Even the tough parasitic burnet thorn that covered the rocky hillsides was fully alive with the promise of spring. The leaves were already a blanket of rich green and in barely another month the tiny red blossoms, whose scarlet tint was the hue of blood, would suddenly turn the slopes into a riot of color.
As he rode by, Lazarus called a courteous greeting to Jonas, the hunchbacked old woodseller who was gathering dried thornbushes on the hillsides and pulling up green ones to put away to dry. The burnet thorn made an intensely hot flame that left little ash and was much prized by lime burners and by the potters of Jerusalem who made fine ware to sell to visitors.
As his mule wound its way along the path, Lazarus could see the road from Jericho to Jerusalem twisting across the hilltops and the summit of the Mount of Olives. Many of his friends left the Holy City at this time of year, preferring the warm sun of Jericho and the luxury of the hot mineral baths there. Once Lazarus, too, would have sought his pleasure among the Romans and the members of Herod’s court, but that had been before Jesus had begun to stay at their house in Bethany during His visits to Jerusalem for the religious festivals. Hearing the Master teach the duty of men to love one another and to love God rather than rigid adherence to the details of the Law that a young man of spirit instinctively resented, Lazarus had gained a new view of life and work.
“The laborer is worthy of his hire,” Jesus had said in His gentle voice, describing the dignity of work and its rewards in personal satisfaction through accomplishment. Lazarus had always looked upon the task of overseeing the vineyards and the olive groves as something Martha had devised to keep him from more pleasurable pursuits. But when Jesus spoke of how the shepherd went into the hills, perhaps on just such a cold and damp day as this, seeking a lost sheep, he had gained a new respect for the dignity of even the simplest occupation.
/> Lazarus had wanted to follow Jesus as one of His disciples, but when he heard the Master say, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven,” he had understood that he could serve God as effectively here in Bethany as traveling the mountain paths of Peraea with Jesus.
In his heart, Lazarus knew that the satisfactions of following Jesus were deeper than any others could be. Nicodemus, the lawyer and an old friend of the family, had spoken of his talk with the Master one night at the camp of the Galileans on the slope of the mountain overlooking Jerusalem. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,” Jesus had told Nicodemus. And Lazarus had realized that this was the secret which bound all who loved the Master, the trust that death would be merely a journey to another country in His company, there to dwell with Him forever.
A shoulder of the Mount of Olives hid Jerusalem from Bethany, but as Lazarus rode down a winding path along the hillside, he could see the cloud of black smoke from the fires of the afternoon sacrifices drifting down the Kedron Valley. In another month, Jesus would be returning to Jerusalem for the Passover and there was sure to be trouble again between Him and the authorities.
It was no secret that some of the more revolutionary-minded Galileans had wished to proclaim Jesus Messiah during the Feast of Dedication. At least two of His own disciples, Judas of Kerioth and Simon called Zelotes, belonged to that group, Lazarus was certain, while James and John, the “Sons of Thunder” were of much the same mind. The truth, Lazarus himself knew, was that Jesus had no political ambitions. Had He possessed them, His enthusiastic following among the common people and their readiness to name Him the Messiah on more than one occasion would already have enabled Him to accomplish that purpose.
The Crown and the Cross: The Life of Christ Page 24