THE NEWS that Jesus was at Bethany went abroad, and very soon the village was thronged with people eager to see him. Many of these were men who had come from the country up to Jerusalem for the feast of the Pa.s.sover; and most of them were ready to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the promised King of Israel. Some came to Bethany, not only to see Jesus, but to see Lazarus also, the man whom Jesus had raised from death to life. The rulers, who had already made up their minds to put Jesus to death and had paid Judas to give him up to them, said to each other:

"If we are to prevent these people from making Jesus of Nazareth their king, it will not be enough to kill Jesus; we must first kill Lazarus, for on his account many are following Jesus."

On the morning after the supper at Simon"s house, Jesus decided to go into Jerusalem. He called two of his disciples and said to them:

"Go into the next village on the road to Jerusalem, and just on the edge of it you will find an a.s.s tied, and with it a colt on which no one has ever ridden; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone asks you, "Why are you doing that?" tell him, "The Master needs them; and will send them back soon;" and he will let you take the a.s.s and the colt."

The two disciples went to the village, and found in the street in front of a house an a.s.s and a colt tied just as Jesus had said. They were untying them when the owner, who was standing by, said:

"What are you doing, untying the a.s.s?"

"The Master needs it," answered the disciples; and when the man heard this, he allowed them to take the a.s.s and the colt. They brought them to Jesus at Bethany; and on the a.s.s-colt they laid their cloaks, to form a cushion for Jesus; and he sat upon the colt, which never before had been ridden upon. Then the crowd, seeing that Jesus was riding toward Jerusalem, walked with him, some going before and some following after.

Those in front spread their clothes upon the road before Jesus; others threw on the ground leaves from the field; while many waved branches of palm taken from the trees beside the road.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The brook Kedron]

And before they came to the top of the Mount of Olives, which was between Bethany and Jerusalem, another crowd of people met them, coming from the city to see Jesus. And all the mult.i.tude shouted together:

"G.o.d save the King, the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the Lord"s name! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David! Praises be to the Lord!"

For all this crowd of people believed that now, at last, the kingdom of G.o.d was to be set up, with Jesus as Christ and King. But in the mult.i.tude were some Pharisees, enemies of Jesus, who became very angry as they saw the crowd waving the palm branches and cheering for Jesus as King. These men came up to Jesus as he was riding and said to him:

"Teacher, tell your followers to stop this noise!"

"I tell you," answered Jesus, "that if these men should keep still, the very stones would cry out!"

Soon they came to the top of the Mount of Olives, and then the Temple and the city of Jerusalem were in sight before them.

As Jesus looked upon the city, the tears came into his eyes and he said:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! If only you might know, even now, while yet there is time, what would give you peace! But no, it is hidden from your sight! The time is coming when your enemies will build walls and forts around you, and shut you in on every side; and trample you down into the dust, and your children with you. They will not leave in you one stone standing upon another--and all because you would not understand when the Lord was visiting you."

Jesus rode down the Mount of Olives, and across the valley of the brook Kedron. At the gate of the Temple he got off from the back of the colt, and sent it with the a.s.s back to its owner. As he came into the city and the Temple there was a great stir, the people everywhere flocking to meet him.

"Who is this?" they said; and the crowds answered, "This is the Prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Many waved branches of palm, and all the mult.i.tude shouted together: "G.o.d save the King, the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the Lord"s name!"]

The Pharisees said to each other, "We can do nothing! The whole world has gone after Jesus!"

Everybody, both the friends and enemies of Jesus, looked to have him take control of the city and act as a king. But Jesus only went into the Temple and walked around it. By this time it was evening, and Jesus returned with his disciples to Bethany.

Forty years after that time, the terrible things that Jesus declared were to fall upon Jerusalem, did come to pa.s.s. The Jews rose against the Romans and made war upon them. A mighty Roman army came, and swept over all the land, bringing ruin and death everywhere. The Romans laid siege to Jerusalem, and built a strong wall around it, so that no one could come out or go in. The people fought desperately, until they were starved and could fight no more. At last the Romans broke into the Temple, and set the city on fire. Both the Temple and all the city were utterly destroyed; untold thousands of the people were slain, and many thousands more were sold as slaves. And from that time, seventy years after Jesus was born, and forty years after he died on the cross, the Jews have not had of their own a land or a city.

[Ill.u.s.tration: After teaching in the Temple all day, Jesus went out in the evening over the Mount of Olives to the home of his friends in Bethany.]

Monday on the Mount and in the Temple

CHAPTER 74

AFTER THE royal coming of Jesus to the city and the Temple, on the next morning--which was Monday--Jesus left Bethany very early, without waiting for his breakfast, and with his twelve disciples walked over the Mount of Olives toward Jerusalem. The walk and the early morning air made him hungry, and seeing a fig tree covered with green leaves in a field near the road, he went to it, hoping to find some figs upon it.

The laws of the Jews allowed any person pa.s.sing by a field which was not his own, to take as much fruit or grain as he wished to eat, but not to carry any away; so that Jesus had a right to go to this tree and help himself to its fruit. Jesus knew that it was not quite the time for ripe figs, for they do not become ripe in that country before May or June, and that day may have been in March. But on the sunny slope of the Mount of Olives figs often ripen early in the season and as the figs always come before the leaves, wherever the leaves were abundant, there might be among them some ripe figs.

But when Jesus came to the fig tree, and looked at it closely, he found that upon it was no fruit, either ripe or green, but only leaves. Then a thought came to Jesus, and in the presence of his disciples he spoke to the fig tree.

"From this time let no fruit ever be picked from this tree forever!" he said.

This was not because Jesus was angry with the poor tree, which could not help not having fruit. It was because he saw in that tree a parable or picture of the Jewish people. They made a show of serving G.o.d, and were like trees covered with leaves; but they did not bring forth the fruit of good lives, of love to G.o.d and their fellow-men. They were fruitless trees, and trees which have been planted and kept for fruit are of no use without fruit.

The twelve disciples who were with Jesus around the fig tree heard those words, and soon had cause to remember them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: As the traders looked upon Jesus and heard his stern rebuke, they became afraid and rushed out of the court before him]

From the Mount of Olives they walked, as on the day before, across the valley of the brook Kedron, and again came into the Temple. You remember that two years before when Jesus visited the Temple, he then drove out from its court all the people that he found buying and selling and changing money. But in the two years that had pa.s.sed, they had all come back, and the Court of the Gentiles was again a place of business and of confusion. All around were oxen lowing and sheep bleating; their owners calling upon the people pa.s.sing by to come and buy them; cages full of pigeons and doves were standing on every side; and from a row of tables might be heard the c.h.i.n.k of silver, as the money of foreign lands was changed for that of Judea.

When these traders saw Jesus standing before them, some of them could remember how two years before he had driven them out of the Temple, and all saw in him the man whom only yesterday the people had welcomed as the coming King of Israel. There was a look upon the face of Jesus which made all these wrongdoers afraid of him; and when he spoke in the hearing of them all, "G.o.d"s book says, "My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a den of robbers,"" with one accord they rushed out of the court before him, driving out the sheep and oxen, carrying away the cages of doves, and even upsetting the tables of the money-changers.

Jesus saw that people who were coming from outside the wall were carrying goods and jars of water and of oil through the Court of the Gentiles as the nearest way to the city, so that the court was becoming merely a street between the city and the country. He put a stop to this carrying of loads through the Temple courts; and would not allow even a jar of water to be taken by way of the Temple into the city. This building in all its parts was the house of G.o.d, and Jesus as the Son of G.o.d gave commands that everywhere it was to be used only for the worship of his heavenly Father.

After casting out all these evil things from the outer court, Jesus walked up the steps to the inner court, called the Treasury. There he sat down, and for the rest of the day taught the people who crowded around him.

While he was in the Treasury, they led to him the blind, and he gave them sight by a word; and the lame came in on crutches, or were carried in by their friends to his feet, and he gave them power to walk. Boys too were marching around the Temple and shouting everywhere, "May G.o.d save the Son of David!"

All these things made the priests and the rulers very angry; for they were only waiting for a chance to find Jesus alone and make him their prisoner, and they could do nothing while such crowds were around him, all believing that he was the promised Son of David and King of Israel.

But these enemies of Jesus could not keep quiet amid all these praises.

"Do you hear," they said to Jesus, "what these boys are shouting? Why do you not tell them to be still?"

"Yes, I hear them," answered Jesus, "and have you never read what is said in the book of Psalms, "Out of the lips of little children, even of babies in their mothers" arms, thy praises have been made perfect?""

Jesus stayed in the Temple teaching until the evening drew near. Then he went with his disciples back to Bethany for the night. There among his friends he was safe.

Tuesday Morning in the Temple

CHAPTER 75

AGAIN ON Tuesday morning of that great week, the last week of our Saviour"s life on earth, he went with his disciples out of Bethany to go to Jerusalem. As they were walking up the Mount of Olives, they came to the fig tree to which Jesus had spoken on the morning before. It was standing upon the hillside, but withered and dead, its dry leaves turned yellow, rustling in the wind.

"Master, look!" said Peter, "the fig tree to which you spoke those words yesterday is all withered!"