[Illustration: A modern Jew's wedding party in Galilee.]
But when Mary went back, she told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them. Close to the house there were six great stone jars or waterpots, and Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And lo! when the water was taken out of the jars, it was water no longer, but wine.
This was the very first miracle that Jesus did, and He did it to make people happy, and to make them believe that He was the Son of God. Dear children, Jesus wants you to be happy. And the best way to be happy is to ask Jesus to go with you everywhere and always, just as those wedding people asked Him to come to their party.
He did not stay very many days in Capernaum. The lovely spring flowers told Him that the Passover time was coming, so He went up with His disciples, to Jerusalem. When Jesus had come to Jerusalem, you may be sure that His disciples and He soon went to the Temple, and when they got inside the great Court of the Gentiles they found a market was going on there. Men were selling oxen and sheep and doves for sacrifice. Others were sitting at little tables changing money. And there must have been plenty of noise, for people in the East shout and quarrel a great deal when they are buying or selling.
When Jesus saw this, He was angry; and He made a whip with pieces of cord, and He drove away all the people who were selling in the Temple. And He turned out the sheep and the oxen; and he told the men who sold doves to take them away, and not turn His Father's House into a store. Jesus upset the tables of the money-changers too, and poured out their money.
Jesus did a great many wonderful things when He was in Jerusalem that Passover time, and many persons saw His miracles, and thought, 'Yes, this is the Messiah.' But Jesus did not trust any of those people. He knew that they did not really love Him. But there was one man in Jerusalem who did want to be Jesus Christ's disciple. His name was Nicodemus. He was a great Rabbi, but not proud like the other Rabbis, and he wanted to ask Jesus a great many questions. But he did not want the other Rabbis and the priests to see him coming to Jesus. So he came to Jesus by night—in the dark.
Did Jesus say, 'You are not brave, Nicodemus, I am ashamed of you; go away'? Ah no! He talked kindly to him, and He told him that he would have to be born again. He meant that Nicodemus must ask God to send him His Holy Spirit, and to give him a new heart. And then Jesus explained to Nicodemus why He had come down from heaven. He said:
'GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE.'
CHAPTER VI
SOME WORDS AND WORKS OF JESUS
Jesus having to go to Galilee, made up His mind to pass through Samaria. It was a long, rough journey, and at last they came near a town called Sychar. Near by was the well dug by Jacob when he lived in Shechem. Jesus was so tired that He sat down to rest on the edge of the well, while His disciples went on to buy food.
