CHAPTER I. FINAL DEPARTURE OF JESUS FROM GALILEE. JESUS RETURNS TO GALILEE-SENDS MESSENGERS TO SAMARIA-REBUKES THE SONS OF THUNDER"-SENDS OUT THE SEVENTY-FOLLOWS THEMJESUS TEMPTED BY A LAWYER-PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN. LUKE IX. 51-52; x. 1–37. "He JESUS was again in Galilee, but only for a little season. While many had become His disciples, He was by the majority, including the Pharisees and ecclesiastical rulers, rejected and persecuted. Knowing that His work among His ungrateful countrymen was almost finished, and that “the time was come when He should be received up," He prepared to bid a final farewell to the scenes and places which had been so long hallowed by His presence. steadfastly set His face to go up to Jerusalem." This journey, however, was to differ, in one important circumstance, from all that preceded it. Some of those had been made secretly; and in none of them had He publicly appeared as the King of Israel. The time had now come for Him to declare Himself in the most public manner as the Messiah. He therefore sent messengers in advance, to make ready for Him, in the cities and villages through which He intended to pass. Who these messengers were, and in what sense they were to prepare for His coming, is not recorded; but they were probably instructed to announce Him as THE KING So long promised and expected. We certainly can not accept the sug gestion that their sole business was to prepare lodgings for Him. This would have savored more of the soft and ease-loving temper of an earthly prince, than of the selfdenial of the Son of man who had not where to lay His head. We rather incline to the opinion that these messengers were sent forth as the accredited heralds of the King, and that their mission was to call upon the people to receive Him gladly and do Him homage. The messengers found the inhabitants of a certain Samaritan village inhospitable, if not positively hostile they refused to receive the Lord, "because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem." Had it been His declared intention to worship at Mount Gerizim, they would doubtless have received Him with open arms. When James and John, the "sons of thunder," exulting as they probably were in the belief that their Master was about to ascend the throne of David, saw the indignity which was offered Him by these Samaritan villagers, their anger was stirred, and they said to Jesus, "Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elijah did?" They alluded to the destruction by fire of the two companies sent by the dying Ahaziah to arrest the prophet Elijah.* They were carried away by a generous zeal, which however was not according to knowledge. Jesus therefore turned and rebuked them, saying, "Ye know not what spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." As if He had said, "Can you still be ignorant that the Spirit of my kingdom-that Spirit to which you belong-is not one of wrath and vengeance, but rather of gentleness, long-suffering and forgiveness? Elijah was a minister of fearful judgments to an idolatrous people; I am come, not to destroy, but to save." *II. Kings i. 10, 12. Having spoken these words, doubtless in the hearing of the Samaritans, Jesus meekly left them and sought repose in another village. This last may have been in Galilee. We conjecture that the two villages were near each other, on opposite sides of the line, between the provinces. This rejection by the Samaritans was final; the Lord did not again visit them. It is very interesting, however, to know that the same John who desired to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans, afterwards went down to Samaria to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost on the Samaritan believers."* It may have been one who had witnessed this veryscene, that said to our Lord, as He was pursuing His way: "Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever Thou goest." The reply of Jesus carries an allusion to His homeless and houseless state, just refused, as He had been, shelter for a night: "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." That is to say, "If you will follow Me, you must renounce all hope of earthly ease and comfort; for I Myself am a houseless pilgrim and wanderer." To another He said, "Follow Me." The summons was sudden and peculiarly trying, for the person addressed had at home a father either at the point of death or already dead, to whom He felt bound by filial duty and affection: "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father." "Let the dead," Jesus rejoined, “bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." Those who are dead in worldliness and sin are competent to bury their dead; that is their appropriate work; but you have to do, not with death, but with life; you are called to preach the glad tidings of salvation; enter at once on your mission." Another also said to Jesus, "Lord, I will follow Thee; but let me *Acts viii. 14-17. |