SECTION XI.

JESUS IS CONSTRAINED TO LEAVE GALILEE BY THE GALILEAN PHARISEES. HIS RETURN OVER THE SEA, AND THE DISTINCT ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS APPROACHING DEATH.

(Mark. viii. 10-ix. 29.)

On this occasion likewise, after the feeding of the multitude, Jesus hastened His departure. He entered into a ship, and came with His disciples into the parts of Dalmanutha. However, notwithstanding His landing at an uncommon and less known place, the Pharisees were again speedily at hand. They came forth to meet Him, and began to question with Him; and tempting Him, they sought of Him a sign from heaven.

When they met Him with this categorical demand, He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, 'Why doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, If a sign should be given this generation — —'¹ (impossible!) And He left them, entered again into the ship, and departed to the other side.

Thus was His deep sigh interpreted. In Galilee He could remain no longer. By their sudden departure, the disciples had forgotten to take bread with them, and they had no more than one loaf in the ship. And just then Jesus charged them with earnest exhortation, 'Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.' And they reasoned among themselves what this could mean, and thought at length they had found the reason: 'It is because we have no bread.' But when Jesus knew it, He said unto them, 'Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? Perceive ye not yet, nor understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Have ye eyes, and see not? Have ye ears, and hear not? And do ye not remember? When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets² full of fragments took ye up?' They said unto Him, 'Twelve.' 'And when I brake the seven among four thousand, how many baskets³ full of fragments took ye there up?' They said, 'Seven.' This was followed by the further question, 'How is it, then, that ye do not understand (apprehend in the living connection of the Spirit)?'

And He came to Bethsaida (eastwards, on the other side of the sea). Here they brought a blind man unto Him, and besought Him to touch him. And He took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes, and put His hands upon him, He asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up and said, 'I see men as trees walking'— the multitude of the people in the distance, whom they had left, appeared to him like a dark forest, only that the trees walked. After this He put His hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up a second time; and he was restored, and saw everything from the distance clearly. And Jesus sent him away to his house, with the word, 'Go not (now) into the town, and tell it to no man in the town' — (perhaps later).

After this the Lord journeyed with His disciples into the villages around Caesarea Philippi. And by the way He asked His disciples, 'Whom do men say that I am?' They answered, 'They say Thou art John the Baptist; but some say Thou art Elias; and others, One of the prophets.' And He said unto them, 'But whom say ye that I am?' Then answered Peter, and said, 'Thou art the Christ.' And He charged them, that they should tell (this) to no man of Him. Then began the Lord to teach His disciples, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. With entire plainness He said to them this word. Then Peter took Him aside, and began (even) to rebuke Him. But He turned about (away from him), and looking on His disciples (who were near), He rebuked Peter, saying, 'Get thee behind me, Satan; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men' (which these regard, in their opposition to God). On this He called together the multitude which followed Him, along with His disciples, and said unto them, 'Whosoever will follow after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what can a man give as a compensation for his soul (when he has once lost it)? Whosoever, then, shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when He Cometh in the glory of the Father, with the holy angels. Verily I say unto you,' continued He further, 'There be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.'

Six days later, Jesus took Peter, and James, and John, and led them up to a high mountain into the deepest solitude; and He was transfigured before them. His raiment became shining, exceeding white, as snow; such a white as no fuller on earth can make. And there appeared unto them Elias and Moses. And they talked with Jesus. And Peter, answering — that is, in the highest degree moved to mingle in the conversation — said to Jesus, 'Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles: one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.' But he wist not what he said; for they were sorely perturbed by fear (terror on account of the presence of spirits withdrawing them from the sphere of ordinary consciousness). And there was a cloud that overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud: 'This is My beloved Son: hear Him.' And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only (standing) by them. And as they came down from the mountain, He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that word fast among themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. And they asked Him, saying, 'Say not the scribes that Elias must first come? '

This announcement of the coming of Elias seemed to them to be inconsistent with the thought of the death of the Messiah, for Elias executed the judgments of God on His enemies. Should he therefore go before the Messiah, this precedence did not appear to point to the way of suffering. Jesus answered, and told them, Elias truly Cometh first, and restoreth all things.' He then referred them to the counter-statement, which excluded the thought which they had just indicated: 'How is it written of the Son of man, that He must suffer many things, and be set at nought? But I say unto you, Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him.' (See above, vol. ii. p. 331).

When He now returned to His other disciples. He saw a great multitude assembled about them, and scribes who contended (disputed) with them. And all the people, immediately on seeing Him, were greatly perplexed, because probably they were in a perverse temper of mind in reference to His disciples and in reference to Himself (see above, ii. 336); and they ran to meet Him, and saluted Him. He, on the other hand, turned straightway to the scribes with the question, 'Why contend ye with them? 'On this, one from amongst the multitude began to speak, and said, 'Master, I have brought unto Thee my son, who hath a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he foameth and gnasheth with his teeth; and thus he (the sufferer) pineth away: and I spake to Thy disciples, that they should cast him out; and they could not.' To this Jesus replied, 'O faithless generation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? Bring him to Me.' And they brought him to Him. So soon, however, as the spirit saw Him, he shook him, cast himself (with him) on the ground, rolled himself about, and foamed. Jesus allowed the demon, apparently, to have his will, and asked his father, 'How long is it ago since this came unto him? 'And he said, 'Of a child. And of times it hath cast him into the fire, and into the water, to destroy him; but if Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us.' Jesus said unto him, 'If thou only canst believe! all things are possible to him that believeth.' And straightway the father of the child cried out, with tears, 'Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.' When Jesus now saw that the people came running together (ever the more), He rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, 'Thou speechless and dumb (silent) spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.' And the spirit cried out (for the first time giving utterance to the voice), shook him sore, and came out of him. And he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, 'He is dead.' But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up. And he arose (his independent life returned, so that he stood on his feet). And when He was come into the house. His disciples asked Him privately, 'Why could not we cast him out?' And He said unto them, 'This kind can come forth (be cast out) by nothing but by prayer and fasting.'

Thus Jesus vanquishes also the spirit of gloomy, taciturn reserve, of murmuring dejection and bitterness; or rather, which does not even grumble, but broods, resents, and chafes in sullen secrecy. He compels it to cry out, to give forth its loudest utterance; and thus He casts it out. The disciples had been then all the less able to tame it, inasmuch as in these days of the announcement of the sufferings of Christ, they themselves were tempted by a frame of mind allied to it, of gloomy, secret resentment and dejection, and inasmuch as the most wicked demon of this kind had already begun to take possession of the mind of Judas.

We see, on the other hand, that the anticipation of suffering has not in the least enfeebled the Lord, but only raises Him still higher, notwithstanding that the disciples are as yet so little able to understand His frame of mind. On the Mount of Transfiguration this anticipation causes the glory of His inward life to come forth, even to the transformation of His outward appearance, even to the manifestation of His oneness with heaven and with heavenly spirits; and deep down in the valley it occasions the most violent excitement against Him of the gloomiest spirits of hell, — only, however, that with divine calmness and assurance He may banish them to their place.

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