SECTION XIII.

THE MESSIAH BANISHED AND EXPELLED FROM HIS OWN COUNTRY, AND THE DISTANT JOURNEYS HE THEN TAKES.

(Matt. xiii. 54-xvi. 12.)

It was not only in His manner of teaching, as shown by His choice of the parable-form, but also in His life itself, that our Lord, since His great conflict with the Pharisee spirit of His people, had to maintain the utmost reserve and retirement. Now began the time in which He could hardly any more walk about in Galilee, free, undisturbed, and without danger. The hostile party encountered Him everywhere, and excited movements which might easily lead to His apprehension and execution. But although at these times He often retired before them, and although His journeys connected therewith sometimes assumed the appearance of flight, yet we cannot see in these appearances the slightest indication of Christ's abandoning His post. We rather see here characteristic facts of the mutual repulsion between His spirit and that of the Pharisees, which facts present themselves in an outward withdrawal of Jesus. They bear the stamp of Jesus' voluntary self-banishment. The element of foresight is certainly one operative cause: He will not lightly give Himself up to His enemies before His time is come. His relation to the disciples must also be taken into account: they must be prepared for the dangerous time of the separation of His cause from the cause of the people. Christ also makes use of these excursions and short journeys to arm Himself in silent resolution for His going up to Jerusalem.

The Evangelist, in his thoughtful manner, has collected together all these separate influences, and has represented them in a definitely marked progression.

The treatment which Jesus experienced first of all in His own city stands at the head, like a dark foretoken of all later rejections. He came into His own town, and taught there in the synagogue.¹ His countrymen were astonished at Him, and said, 'Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? and His brethren James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Whence, then, hath this man all these things?' And they were offended in Him, adds the Evangelist. He gives no account of the act by which they expressed this. Enough that Jesus saw Himself limited in His working by the unbelief of His countrymen, and could not do many mighty works there. He saw Himself compelled to leave Nazareth, uttering the saying: 'A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country and in his own house.'

This experience was, however, continued in still larger proportions. The prince, too, of His own country, Herod, compelled Him to leave his territory. It was shortly after he had caused John the Baptist to be beheaded. About this time the fame of Jesus' deeds spread more than ever in Galilee. When Herod heard of Him, he said to his servants, 'This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him '(which, in Herod's opinion, were in him before, but bound as yet).

For explanation of what has been said, the Evangelist relates the fate of John. Herod had laid hold of John, and bound him, and put him in prison, for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife; for John had said to him, 'It is not lawful for thee to have her.' At that very time he would have put him to death, but he feared the people, because they counted him a prophet. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before the guests. This pleased Herod so much, that he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask; and she, being before instructed of her mother, said, 'Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger?' This terrible demand seems to have awakened the king from his festive merriment: he was sorry, but he thought that for his oath's sake, and for the sake of the guests present, he could not draw back. Thus he foolishly imagined that it was due to his religion, his conscience, and his honour, to give the frivolous dancer her wished-for, bloody honorarium, the prophet's head. So he sent and beheaded John in the prison. The head was actually brought on a charger and given to the maiden, and she brought it to her mother. Then came his disciples, and took the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus.

This fearful murder of a prophet had just been committed at the adulterous court, when Jesus heard that Herod the tetrarch said that he was John the Baptist risen from the dead, and was theologizing on the reason why mighty works came to be manifested in Him. The Evangelist gives us plainly to understand, that by this news our Lord felt Himself constrained to depart. (See above, vol, ii. p. 237.) The tyrant, who had so shamefully sacrificed His faithful forerunner, was becoming interested about Him. This sort of interest and inclination was more disagreeable and dangerous than enmity itself. As soon as Jesus heard of it, He departed thence by ship to the east side of the lake, and there retired into the loneliness of the desert. But the news of His departure spread among the people, and great multitudes from the cities on the west side soon sought Him again, by travelling on foot around the lake.² So Jesus was compelled again to come forth from His solitude. And when He came. He saw a great multitude, whose appearance moved His deepest compassion. He began His work at once, and healed the sick who were brought to Him. At the approach of evening, the disciples reminded our Lord that the multitude could find no food in the desert place in which they were, and that therefore it was time to send them away, that they might go into the neighbouring villages and buy themselves victuals. Jesus answered, 'They need not depart; give ye them to eat.' But they made the observation, that they had no provisions except five loaves and two fishes. He said, 'Bring them hither to Me! 'And He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass.³ He then took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to Heaven, He blessed and brake, and divided the loaves to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled; and, moreover, took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten, remarks the Evangelist, were about five thousand men, besides women and children. But we are not justified in assuming that by these latter the number of the multitude was doubled;⁴ for, as the place was remote, and took a long walk to reach it, the company must have been chiefly composed of men.

Thus the banished Son of man, who had not where to lay His head, fed the poor people by thousands in the wilderness, while the prince of the land was feasting riotously, and paying the wages of a dancer with the blood of a prophet.

Immediately after this, Jesus constrained His disciples to get into a ship, and to go before Him in the direction which they had to take for crossing over (touching first at the east side). His direct intention was by this means to get rid of the multitude, which (as we learn more in detail from John) He could not at this time accomplish without some difficulty. The miraculous feeding had introduced a fresh adherence to Him, which in the case of many assumed of necessity a very egoistic character. As our Lord had to be aware of the importunities or the snares of Herod on the west side, it may be conjectured that this circumstance had contributed to make Him send His disciples on before Him. For in this case the multitude, returning home, could bring back no information respecting the place of His abode which would have enabled Herod to send in search of Him. Perhaps, therefore, He found it first of all necessary, for the sake of getting quite away from the people, to retire, after sending them away, into solitude, but not towards the sea-shore. He went up into a mountain, and there continued long in prayer. This solemn engaging in prayer by night is often in the life of Christ markedly prominent on great occasions. And such was the present experience He was undergoing. He had this day overcome two evils which always threaten the populace: first, lack of food, including without doubt the egoism on which it rested;⁵ and then their inclination to found a chiliastic kingdom in a revolutionary form (see John vi. 15). Thus He had given two great signs of His Christian humanity, and founded two great blessings whose effects continue through all ages, becoming necessarily more and more prominent. But in this night, which had already commenced, He designed to overcome and remove a third evil incident to man, namely, the terrors of the storm, distress at sea. Thus He rejoiced in thankful retrospect and hopeful prospect in the presence of His father. It was by setting out from the mount of prayer that He, as the great leader of the human race, carried on all His wars, and gained all His victories. And in the midst of these three great fights and victories. He had special need to be alone with His Father on the mountain top in the stillness of the night.

He was still alone on the mountain at nightfall. But the disciples' little ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with the waves, for the wind was contrary. If the disciples had really received our Lord's direction to cross the sea without Him, they must have had a very quick and favourable voyage to be already half across. But if we take the view that they intended only to go before Him on the east side, in order to take Him on board at a certain point, we have a vivid presentation of the occurrence (see above, vol. ii. p. 241). The wind blew from the east or north-east, and drove them always farther from the point at which they wished to take our Lord on board. Hence their inexpressible distress; and hence also Christ's great motive for hastening to them on the wings of love, while they were tossed by the wind and waves. He had a great aim: He wished to succour those distressed by the storm, the little ship of his agonized Church; and so He stepped upon the water, and came to them in the fourth watch of the night, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him approaching in the form of a man walking on the waves, terror seized them. A new alarm — dread of spirits — was added to the terror of the storm. They thought He was a spirit, and became so completely beside themselves with fright that they cried out. But He was instantly at their side, saying, 'Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid.' And how extraordinary a revolution was immediately produced in the hearts of His disciples by this saying, is shown by Peter's bold utterance, 'Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water.' And He said, Come;' and Peter stepped out of the ship to go to Jesus, But he said first, If it he Thou; — he had, perhaps, still retained a doubt even in the midst of his extraordinary and enthusiastic faith. And now, when he saw that a boisterous wind again rnfHed the sea, he became afraid and began to sink, having difficulty to keep himself as a swimmer above water. In this distress he cried, 'Lord, save me!' and immediately Jesus was beside him, stretched forth His hand and caught him, saying to him, '0 thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?' So it was only in consequence of his doubt that Peter had sunk; a proof how much stress Christ, in the forth-putting of His miraculous power, lays upon the faith of His disciples. And this very example of Peter shows that man is bound to walk in the fellowship of Christ, and in His power — even over the waves with Him. This duty, indeed, is not, as to its historical purport, to be displayed here below in a succession of miraculous acts, but by a man's becoming free from the terrors of nature, winds and waves — by his becoming in Christ a free and kingly prince on and over the sea.⁶ Jesus now with the rescued Peter ascended the ship, and about this time the wind also ceased. The trial of the disciples was completed. They gathered around Him, and fell down before Him with the confession, 'Of a truth Thou art the Son of God.'

Thus our Lord, in order to withdraw from the caprice of a despot who was interested about Him, went cheerfully to meet the three great distresses of man — hunger, popular excitement, and the turbulence of the waves. And He overcame all these hostile powers, not merely for once, but for all. From that time a silent rule of His spirit began in the world, which will finally put an end to all the terrors of famine, insurrection, storms, and floods; and besides, and above all, to all kinds of spectral terrors, which, by their frightful illusions, increase threefold the real miseries of men.

They thus finished their voyage across, and landed in the district of Gennesaret. And scarcely was His arrival here known, when the men of the place sent messengers into all the country round about, and brought unto Him all that were diseased. Belief in His miraculous power was at that time so firm and fast, that many besought Him to permit them to touch only the hem of His garment; and that alone sufficed to make them perfectly whole.

Our Lord was driven the third time out of Galilee by the plots of the Pharisee party. The Pharisees were bound together by the same interests throughout the whole land.⁷ It was, therefore, quite in their spirit to maintain constant interchange of communication regarding a personality so suspected and hated by them as Jesus was. We have no doubt that it was in connection with such associations that a deputation, or at least a considerable company, of scribes and Pharisees came from Jerusalem to Galilee, and questioned our Lord respecting an offence which they alleged the disciples had lately committed (probably at their last Passover in Jerusalem; see above, vol. ii. p. 292). The question put was this: 'Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread' (take their meals). He replied, 'Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your (own) tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and thy mother; and also. He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death (Ex. xx. 12, xxi. 17). But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother. It is a gift (bestowed upon the temple), by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, then he is no longer to honour his father (and his mother).⁸ Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth and honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men' (in propounding, with an empty doctorial gravity, empty and arbitrary precepts containing no divine doctrine; see Isa. xxix. 13). After our Lord had in this way despatched His influential antagonists with a severe castigation, He called the multitude and said unto them, 'Hear and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man (levitically or ecclesiastically, so that he may not come into the church); but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.' This saying was a very decisive word, by which our Lord gave notice that the former laws for food, which were appointed to guard symbolically the soul's life against defilement, were just about to pass over into new and higher precepts concerning what could defile the soul of man; that it was true that the mouth should still be the organ of the defilement of the life, yet not as the door of entrance for bodily food, but as the door of exit for the utterances of the spirit. In this case the disciples could not but observe very quickly what impression the words of Jesus made upon His opponents, since it was they who had given occasion for this disquisition. They now came to our Lord with the observation, 'Knowest Thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying?' But Jesus answered, saying, 'Every plant that My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.' Peter⁹ now wished to receive an explanation from our Lord of the saying, which seemed aimed against the former laws regarding food. Our Lord saw, by the way he made his request, that he looked upon this utterance as a parable — a proof that he had not understood it — and replied, 'Are ye also yet without understanding? Do ye not yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? Bat those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man (make the man unclean or common). For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies (namely, first in the tendencies, plans, and sinful imaginations of the word, which strives to make them fact). These are the things which defile a man; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.'

On this collision with His antagonists, our Lord had not only laid down the fundamental laws in respect to New Testament purity and church order, which were symbolized by the Old Testament regulations, in opposition to the way and manner in which the Pharisees sought to change these regulations into ever-enduring maxims; but He had at the same time given His enemies to understand that His disciples had not become unclean through what had entered in at their mouth, but that they themselves were unclean by what proceeded out of their mouth, through their murderous designs and blasphemies especially, with which they ever anew beset Him. He had thus designated them as persons who were righteously exposed to the sentence of excommunication. And as they were the leaders of the people, and consequently land and people were unclean through them, it may be surmised that He designed to testify symbolically to this fact by departing thence, and for the first time, so far as we know, leaving the land and betaking Himself to a heathen district. Perhaps He found it necessary, by this distant journey to a heathen land, to impress strongly upon the disciples, who still had so little comprehension of the contrast between Pharisaism and His religion of the spirit, that the sentence of uncleanuess lay upon the holy land and its inhabitants. But this occasion for a symbolic action for the benefit of His disciples could not have then determined Him, unless He had had a real occasion for Himself to repose a while outside of His own country from the irksome and depressing influences of hypocritical traditionalism.

So He went with the disciples in a north-west direction out of His own country, in order to strengthen Himself for further conflict by tarrying for a time in quiet retirement in the borders of Phoenicia (Tyre and Sidon).

Yet He could not even here remain unknown. 'And, behold,' says the Evangelist, 'a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried (from a distance) unto Him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.' We are not informed how she came to know the significance attached to the person of Christ; possibly her daughter, in her demoniac condition, had designated Him as the helper. But He answered her not a word. Not only for her sake, but also for the sake of the disciples, He found Himself bound to meet the cry for help with silence. The woman could not receive the miraculous aid of the kingdom of God until it became manifest that she had a germ of theocratic faith, or faith in accordance with the kingdom of God, and consequently that she did not call upon Him with heathen superstitious ideas, whereby she might have imagined His miraculous power to be a kind of magic. And the disciples could not, without taking offence, look upon such a miracle of their Lord until they came to feel that a pious request of faith was uttered by this heathen woman, to which the Lord needs not refuse His compassion. Thus minded, they really came and interceded with their Master, saying, 'Send her away (with aid granted), for she crieth after us (piteously).' But He answered them, 'I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' This apparent refusal may be thus interpreted: So far as the disciples were concerned, everything was now clear to Him in consequence of their intercession. But with respect to the woman, she had yet to show whether she really could be numbered, in a spiritual sense, with the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She had in the meantime overtaken Him; a proof that He had not walked first in order to hasten away from her. She cast herself down before Him, uttering the entreaty, 'Lord, help me.' But He answered, 'It is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs.' It should not be overlooked here, that this saying is, in the first place, an Oriental proverb, and to be understood as such. Our Lord told her, that in the affairs of the household of God there is a definite order, as in those of an earthly household. As here the bread should not be taken from the children to give it to dogs; so there, not from the Jews in order to cast it to the heathen. True, the proverb had in Christ's mouth a deeper sense. He declared the fundamental law, that the bread of God's miraculous aid in His kingdom is only for the childlike apprehension of faith, but not for the heathen, dull, sensuous, and unfree superstitious belief in magic. So she too had first to show this childlike apprehension. And the form of Christ's saying served to help her to this. It was so put that the woman was obliged to find in it either a harsh Jewish word of refusal, or a cheering theocratic word, according to her spiritual frame of mind. She took it in the latter sense, and said, 'Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table.' She acquiesced in the household arrangements of the kingdom of God. But this house, thought she, is a rich and kindly house, in which abundance of fragments fall from the table, and are ungrudgingly given to the dogs. She thus humbled herself on account of her heathen standpoint, and for this very reason could in faith count herself as belonging to the household of God. She so well expressed her faith in the permission of the heathen to share in the blessings of the Jewish theocracy, that our Lord, marvelling, said to her, '0 woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt.' And so it was done unto her: in that very hour her daughter was made whole. Her heart and her intercession were the way for the miraculous aid of Christ, which immediately reached and ransomed her absent daughter.

After this, Jesus again departed and returned to the east side of the Sea of Galilee, and sat down upon a mountain to rest. But those who needed and sought His aid again found Him here: great multitudes came, bringing with them sufferers of every sort, the lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others taken with the most various diseases. The pressure upon Him of such sufferers now began to assume the character of bold importunity. They cast the sufferers down at Jesus' feet without much regard to circumstances; nevertheless He helped them. And so there arose a moving camp of divine miracles, which again overcame the spiritual indifference of the people. They saw the dumb speak, the maimed made whole, the lame walk, and the blind see, and they glorified the God of Israel. In this circle Jesus found occasion to perform the second miracle of feeding. 'I have compassion on the multitude,' said He, 'because they have continued with Me now three days, and have nothing to eat; and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint by the way.' The disciples objected, 'Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness to fill so great a multitude?' The remembrance of the former feeding does not work powerfully enough in them to make them, with silent confidence, at once expect a fresh miracle. This time also they saw, as it appears, new and special difficulties which seemed to them to stand in the way of our Lord's intention. Jesus asked them, 'How many loaves have ye? 'They answered, 'Seven, and a few little fishes.' He then again arranged the positions of the guests; took the food as He did the former time; and having given thanks, distributed the bread and the fishes. Again they were all filled; and this time also there were fragments left, seven baskets full. The number of guests fed this time amounted to four thousand men, besides women and children. After this, our Lord returned to the west coast, and landed, as it appears, at an unusual landing-place in the district of Magdala.

But notwithstanding that Christ had departed far from the land, as if He meant to leave it for ever, and had then returned through unknown districts to the eastern side, and finally landed at an unusual place on the western shore, yet the aroused spirit of persecution soon discovered Him again, and forthwith went to meet Him again with an attack which it considered as a decisive sign that His pilgrimage in Galilee would soon be at an end. It was a bad sign in the outset, that this time Pharisees and Sadducees had combined to stop His path. The combination of these two parties, which mutually hated one another, proves that the hatred against Him had come to a climax. The step taken by these plotters was this: they desired Him to show them a sign from heaven. Thus they insisted that He should, by producing an outward cosmic phenomenon, legitimate Himself as the Messiah; and the alternative, that, if He did not, they meant to seize and treat Him as a false messiah, was at the same time plainly indicated. But to their assumed and merely apparent decisiveness, Jesus opposed the most perfect real decisiveness. He replied to them, 'When it is evening, ye say. To-morrow it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning ye say, It will be foul weather to-day, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but ye cannot discern the signs of the times! 'Thus the latter should, as our Lord hinted, lie much nearer to their thoughts than the former. He proceeds, saying, 'A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall be no sign given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah.' It lay nearer to Him now than the former time to intimate to them by that historical symbol, that His death and resurrection would serve as a sign to them, since they were already preparing to compass His death. He then left them standing, turned round and departed. The return to the other side was so suddenly undertaken, and the disciples were, as it appears, so excited and confused, that they forgot to take bread with them. On the way our Lord spoke to them the surprising word, 'Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.' We see that He had now quite the feeling of an exile. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they were forbidden to take any of the leaven of the Egyptians along with them. This ordinance set before them in an emblematic manner, that they ought to cleanse themselves from everything Egyptian. And when our Lord on His decisive retreat warns the disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, He doubtless does it with the feeling that He was now making His exodus from a popular system which had lapsed into heathenism. Nay, in reality the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt was a type which first received an entire fulfilment in the commencing exodus of Christ out of the old world. He also well knew what need His disciples had of the admonition to purge themselves from the leaven of the leaders of the people — hypocrisy and worldliness. But the disciples did not all understand either the deep utterance or the lofty tone of their Master. They were occupied with entirely outward concerns. It had gradually occurred to them that, in the haste of the departure, they had not provided themselves with bread. Thus, as soon as Jesus uttered the word leaven, they thought that He intended an allusion to this circumstance, however little His saying tallied with this thought. When Jesus perceived this misunderstanding, He corrected their mistake: '0 ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? 'Now at last they understood that He warned them not against the actual leaven of bread, but against the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

So little did His disciples yet understand His doctrine and His life; and yet the decision of His earthly pilgrimage, and the trial for them connected with it, stood close at hand. Hence it was time for Him to initiate them still deeper into the consciousness of the contrast of His Spirit, and the institution He founds, to the old order of things.

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