From this time also he began to be very careful, even to disquietude, concerning us his disciples, what should be our estate when he should have departed from us; and he desired to impart to us this Bread of Life that we also in turn might impart it to the multitude. Moreover he would fain exercise us already in imparting this [pg 214]Bread of Life, yea, before he had passed away; to the end that, by beginning in his presence, we might learn by degrees to be steadfast in the ministering of the Bread even though he were absent from us. And for this he found occasion not many days afterwards. For about the tenth day before the Passover, Jesus being still on the other side of the lake (but I had been sent with Judas on an errand to Capernaum), it came to pass that much people resorted to him; some from Capernaum, and others from the parts round about the village wherein he had lodged. For, because of the Passover, which was at hand, many were going up to Jerusalem. Also of the Galileans some came; howbeit not James nor Barabbas, nor any of them which had most authority with the Galileans. Now Jesus himself ministered unto certain of them the Bread of Life, and forgave sins, and healed the sick. But afterwards, because of the multitude of them which came unto him (for they were more than five thousand) he caused the disciples to divide them into companies and to minister the Bread unto the people. So they ministered as Jesus bade them, and the grace of the Lord was with them; insomuch that Thomas (who had been at the first loth to minister the Bread, as not being worthy) came afterwards to Jesus saying, “Of a truth the crumbs of thy Banquet which are fallen from the table of the guests do suffice unto them that minister: for the Lord hath increased the Bread of Life within us.” So mightily did the Bread of our Master increase in the hands of the Twelve. And Matthew said that Jesus had not only spread a table in the wilderness for the hungry, but that he had also fulfilled his saying, “Give and it shall be given unto [pg 215]you. For,” said he, “behold, to each of the disciples there cometh back his basketful of the fragments of the Feast.” And the like happened on another occasion, when they ministered the Bread unto another very great multitude about four thousand in number.
All this I heard when I returned with Judas from Capernaum, bringing word that the Thracians had left the town. So we returned to Capernaum, and there we kept the Passover; for Jesus would not go up to Jerusalem to keep it, though we were very desirous that he should go up; but he said that his hour had not yet come. But scarcely had we been in Capernaum five or six days, and the Feast of the Passover was still not ended, when we fled (upon some new rumour of danger) from Capernaum again to the eastern side of the lake. Now while we were rowing across, some of us murmured (though not so loud methought that Jesus could hear) concerning our many flights and wanderings, and we wondered why our Master would not suffer the common people to make him king.
In the midst of our disputing Jesus called unto us from the hinder part of the boat and said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the leaven of the Sadducees.” Then we looked one at another, for we felt that we were guilty; for in the haste of our embarking, because we had come on board before it was well dawn (for fear of the arrival of the Thracians, which was reported to us) we had forgotten to bring with us any unleavened bread; and the feast of the Passover wanted yet two days before it should have an end, and behold, we were going to a Gentile country where our customs were not regarded, so that we could [pg 216]not easily obtain such bread as was needful. Therefore we confessed to Jesus, and said that indeed we were verily guilty of sore neglect.
But when Jesus heard our words, he rebuked us for our want of understanding; and he asked us whether we did not remember how the disciples had ministered the Bread of Life to the four thousand and to the five thousand; and he made mention of the saying of Thomas, one of the Twelve, how the bread had been multiplied in the hands of the Twelve, and also of the saying of Matthew the son of Levi, how the fragments of the Feast had returned to them that ministered, and had satisfied them. So we perceived that he spake not of the leaven that leaveneth bread of corn, but of the leaven which leaveneth and corrupteth the bread of the soul.
Yet forasmuch as the Pharisees agree not with the Sadducees (neither do they teach the same doctrine, nor observe the same customs) I could not understand what this “leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” might be. But when I asked Nathanael thereof, he said that perchance Jesus desired to warn us lest we should be led away in our hearts by the desire of this world, and by the haste to be prosperous. “For,” said Nathanael, “the Sadducees love place and wealth and ease, and the Pharisees love power with the people, and the salutations of the rich, and the respect of the poor, and the name and reputation for piety; and these sects do both go straight towards their several ends. But, though several in appearance, their ends are really the same. For both the Pharisees and Sadducees serve themselves, and live for their own pleasure. And methinks our Master feareth lest we too in the same way may [pg 217]follow him not out of love and out of faithfulness, but from a desire to be prosperous.”
“But are we not,” asked I, “to be prosperous in the end?” “Yes, assuredly in the end,” replied Nathanael; “but the end may perchance be somewhat farther off than we suppose, and our course may perchance be somewhat slow. For in all works there are two courses, the course of men and the course of God. Now men work visibly and speedily, and with much stir and noise; but the Father in Heaven worketh for the most part invisibly and slowly, and very gently. Now it may be that the slow ways are best. But in any case I begin to perceive that our Master loveth the slow ways best, according to his saying that the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto the wheat, which is sown and watered and resteth long unseen in the earth, and springeth up at last and by degrees, and putteth forth, first the blade, and then the ear and then the full corn; and all this by slow ways, quietly and gently, while the husbandman riseth and sleepeth and goeth in and out, and taketh no heed how great a work the gentle hand of the Lord is working around him.”
Thus spake Nathanael, and I gave heed unto his words; for he seemed day by day to grow in the love and knowledge of our Master, and behold, the knowledge of Jesus seemed to bestow upon him knowledge of all spiritual things, so that he was not like the same Nathanael whom I had first known now a year ago. And the other disciples also were greatly changed from their former selves. For we had now been a full year with the Lord Jesus; and it was the sixteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar.