This first signal victory over death filled all those, who witnessed it, with awe and astonishment, and they thankfully glorified God who had raised up a prophet among them and truly visited His people (Lk. vii. 16). No such miracle had been wrought since the days of Elisha, and the fame of it went forth throughout all Judæa, and throughout all the region round about. (Lk. vii. 17). Amongst those to whom it was related, together with the mighty works of the Saviour, was the Baptist, still detained in prison in the gloomy castle of Machærus[307] (Mtt. xi. 2; Lk. vii. 18). Thereupon he sent two of his disciples[308] to Jesus with the question, Art Thou He that should come, or do we look for another? Whatever was his precise motive in making this formal enquiry, whether it was for the sake of fully convincing his own disciples, or from a desire for the comfort of a definite assurance from the Saviour’s own lips, or from impatience at the slow establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah, it was fully answered. At the hour when the messengers arrived, the Saviour was actively engaged in His daily labours of love, healing diseases, casting out demons, and restoring sight to the blind (Lk. vii. 21); He therefore bade the two disciples return and tell their master what things they had seen and heard, how the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the dead were raised, the poor had the Gospel preached to them (Mtt. xi. 5). But besides these proofs of His Messiahship, which, as the Baptist could hardly fail to remember, had been distinctly indicated by the Prophets (comp. Isai. xxxv. 5, 6; lxi. 1), the Holy One added a special word for John’s weary prison-hours and the doubts of his disciples, saying, Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me (Mtt. xi. 6; Lk. vii. 23), “at My calm and unassuming course of mercy and love to mankind, at My total disregard of worldly honours, at My refusal to place Myself at the head of the people as a temporal Messiah[309].”
No sooner, however, had the messengers departed than the Saviour took the opportunity of vindicating before the bystanders[310], who, perhaps, from the enquiry he had put, might receive an unfavourable impression respecting the Baptist, the true greatness of his character. No reed shaken by the wind was he, whom, a little more than a year ago, all Judæa and Jerusalem had flocked forth into the wilderness to see; no effeminate prince clad in luxurious apparel; no prophet merely, such as those of the Old Testament dispensation. Himself the subject of prophecy (Mtt. xi. 10), he was greater than all the prophets that had preceded him, being no other than the long-expected Forerunner of the Messiah (Mtt. xi. 10; Lk. vii. 27), the true Elias of whom Malachi had spoken, as destined to prepare His way before Him.
CHAPTER II.
TEACHING IN GALILEE.
A.D. 28–9.
APPARENTLY while He was in the neighbourhood of Nain[311], the Saviour received an invitation from a Pharisee, named Simon, to enter his house, and sit at meat with him (Lk. vii. 36). Among the guests there pressed in a woman of unchaste life[312], which had brought her into bad repute amongst her neighbours. Standing behind Him weeping, she kissed His feet, and anointed them, as He reclined at meat, with a costly unguent from an alabaster box[313], and wiped away with her hair the copious tears that fell from her eyes. Shrinking from any moral or physical uncleanness, Simon marvelled that the Holy One suffered such a woman to approach Him, and could only attribute it to His ignorance of her real character. But the Saviour addressing His entertainer in the touching parable of the “Two Debtors[314]” (Lk. vii. 40–43), pointed out that there was hope and mercy even for the lowest and most degraded, and turning to the woman bade her go in peace, for her faith had saved her, and her sins, though many, were forgiven (Lk. vii. 10, 47).
Almost immediately after this striking incident, accompanied not only by the Twelve, but by pious women, amongst whom were Mary of Magdala, Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward[315], Susanna, and many others (Lk. viii. 3), He proceeded on a somewhat lengthened tour through the cities and villages of Galilee, preaching the kingdom of God. Returning, as it seems most probable, to Capernaum, the multitude quickly gathered around Him, thronged Him in such numbers, and importuned Him with such persistent craving for His merciful aid, that neither He nor His disciples had sufficient leisure even to eat bread (Mk. iii. 20). The enthusiastic zeal of Him, whose meat it was to do the will of Him that sent Him and to finish His work (Jn. iv. 34) inspired His mother and brethren with the desire to interpose, and to protest against such exhausting labours[316] (Mk. iii. 21). But the intelligence that they were without the circle of the crowd seeking Him, did not induce Him to suspend His loving toil. Stretching forth His hands towards His disciples (Mtt. xii. 49), He declared that they and all who heard and did the will of His Father in heaven were as dear to Him as brother, or sister, or mother (Mtt. xii. 49, 50; Mk. iii. 34, 35; Lk. viii. 21).
While, however, the feelings of the multitude were thus openly enlisted on the side of the Redeemer, those of the Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem were tinged with the intensest virulence and hostility. The miraculous cure of a deaf and dumb demoniac (Mtt. xii. 22) caused the greatest astonishment amongst the multitudes, and roused the enquiry whether this was not the Messiah, the son of David (Mtt. xii. 23). Resolved to check their enthusiasm, the Pharisaic faction openly declared that the Saviour owed His authority over the inferior demons to a secret compact with Beelzebub, the prince of the powers of darkness (Mk. iii. 22). Such a fearful charge, which ascribed to the influence of the Author of Evil works of beneficence and divine power, brought down upon those who urged it a terrible reply. The Saviour’s acts, they were reminded, were those of purest beneficence, while evil spirits took a malignant pleasure in the miseries of men. Could it be believed that Satan would allow his kingdom thus to be divided, that he would cast out those who were only accomplishing his will? Such an ascription of works of purest mercy to the energy of the Prince of Darkness, was an outward expression of an inward hatred of all that was good and Divine, and bordered closely on a terrible climax of sin, incapable of forgiveness either in this world or the world to come, even sin against the Holy Ghost (Mtt. xii. 24–37; Mk. iii. 22–30; Lk. xi. 17–23).
In the afternoon or evening of the day on which these solemn warnings were uttered, the Lord went down to the shores of the Lake (Mtt. xiii. 1; Mk. iv. 1), followed by a great multitude from all the towns round about. So numerous, indeed, were the crowds which gathered around Him, that, for the sake of more conveniently addressing them, He entered into one of the fishing-vessels, and sitting there a little distance from the water’s edge, addressed them in a series of parables[317] illustrative of the growth and extension of His kingdom—the Sower (Mtt. xiii. 3–9; Mk. iv. 3–9; Lk. viii. 4–15); the Wheat and the Tares (Mtt. xiii. 24–30); the Seed growing secretly (Mk. iv. 26–29); the grain of Mustard-seed (Mtt. xiii. 31–33; Mk. iv. 30–32; Lk. xiii. 18–21); the Hid Treasure (Mtt. xiii. 44); the Merchant and the Pearl (Mtt. xiii. 45, 46); the Draw-net (Mtt. xiii. 47–50).
Later in the evening He requested of His disciples that they would push across the lake towards the Eastern shore; on which, they took Him as He was (Mk. iv. 36), i.e. without any preparations for the voyage, and made for the opposite coast. Wearied with the toils of that long and exhausting day He fell asleep on a cushion in the stern, when suddenly from one of the deep clefts in the surrounding hills a violent storm of wind[318] (Mk. iv. 37; Lk. viii. 23) burst upon the surface of the lake, lashed it into waves (Mk. iv. 37), which almost hid the little vessel (Mtt. viii. 24), and threatened to sink it to the bottom. Terror-stricken at the sudden tempest, the Apostles hastily awoke Him, and implored His aid, lest they should perish, whereupon He arose, rebuked the wind and the surging waters, and instantly there was a great calm (Mtt. viii. 26; Mk. iv. 39), amidst which they reached next morning the other side, deeply wondering at the power of their Master, which could reduce even the winds and the sea to obedience to His word.
In the country of the Gadarenes[319], where they now arrived, a fearful spectacle awaited them. Amongst the tombs, which existed, and can even now be traced in more than one of the ravines on the Eastern side of the lake, dwelt two demoniacs. The more notable or fiercer of the two was possessed of such extraordinary muscular strength that all efforts to bind and restrain him had proved ineffectual, and the chains and fetters, with which he had at times been secured, had been broken and crushed, nor had any been able to tame him (Mk. v. 4). Fleeing from the fellowship of his kind (Lk. viii. 27), he had for a long time taken up his dwelling in the tombs, and there in the paroxysms of his misery he often cried out and cut himself with stones (Mk. v. 5), and so terrified all travellers, that they dared not pass by that way (Mtt. viii. 28).