Child's Story of the Bible Part 28

In the midst of it there was a loud cry from a man who looked like a maniac. He had followed the people in, and the words of Jesus had disturbed the evil spirit that was in Him,

"Let us alone," it cried, "what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth. Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who Thou art,--the Holy One of G.o.d."

"Hold thy peace, and come out of Him," said Jesus, and the poor man fell headlong on the marble floor, but in a moment he was free, for the evil spirit had obeyed the word of Jesus, and this astonished the people so much that they told it through all the town and the country round about.

When He went home from the synagogue, for Peter's house was one of His homes, He found the mother of Peter's wife very ill of fever, and they brought Jesus to her bed. He bent over her and said some words to that which had caused the fever, and at once it was gone.

She seemed to be quite well again, and her first wish was to do something for this wonderful man whom Peter had been following, and she rose and helped to prepare food for Him.

The people did not dare to come to Jesus for healing while it was yet the Sabbath, for the Rabbis said it was wrong to cure people on the Sabbath day, but as soon as the sun had set the Sabbath ended, and then the streets were filled with people who came for themselves, or bringing their sick friends to be touched by the hand of Jesus. All around the little house of Peter they crowded, while He walked among them looking at them with pitying love, and "He laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them."

CHAPTER XVI.

FOLLOWING JESUS.

The next morning Jesus went out among the hills alone. All day He was pressed upon by the poor, the sick, the blind, and the lame, or those who were hungry for the word, and so at night or early morning He went out to be alone, to think of the great work he had come to do, and to pray or talk to the Father, for Jesus and the Father were one. But the people followed Him, and begged him not to leave them.

"I must preach the kingdom of G.o.d to other cities also," He said, "for therefore am I sent." And He took his disciples and started on a journey from village to village through Galilee. There were about two hundred of these towns, and they were near together. It was the springtime, and the fields and hills between the villages were beautiful with flowers and growing grain. Sometimes He taught in their churches, and sometimes under their trees or trellises, and wherever He went the common people heard him gladly.

Once as He drew near a town a leper followed Him. He followed Him into the town, which was against the law, for the leper was not allowed to live inside a town, or to come near the people, as the touch of a leper would give the disease to another. But so earnest was he to see Jesus that he came through the crowd and fell on his face before Jesus, saying,

"Lord if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean."

Jesus put forth His hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be thou clean."

Suddenly the leprosy left the man, and his dead and filthy skin became as healthy as a child's, and Jesus sent him to the priest to offer that which the law commanded for the cleansing of lepers. It was a long, and often costly process that a leper must pa.s.s through to be cleansed from his disease, but the word of Jesus was with power, and brought divine life to take the place of death, for leprosy was a slow death.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Jesus healing the sick]

When the Lord came back to Capernaum the people thronged Him, and when He rested in the shaded court of a friend's house it was soon filled with the eager people who longed to hear His word, or be healed by His touch.

Once it was so crowded in the court that some men, who were bringing a friend to Jesus who was helpless with palsy, took him up by the outside stairs to the housetop. There, by taking up a few tiles, they made an opening just over the place where Jesus sat, and the people soon saw the man lying on his mat before Jesus, for they had let it down by cords through the opening.

Jesus saw the faith of the four men who had let their sick friend down at His feet, and it touched His heart. He also saw the longing in the soul of the sick man to be good and pure, and He said,

"Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee."

The Scribes, who were always copying the Scriptures--for there was no printing done in those days--were always watching to hear Jesus say something contrary to the Law of Moses, that they might tell it to the priests, and some who were sitting there looked at each other and said in their hearts,

"Who can forgive sins but G.o.d only?"

Jesus heard their thoughts and asked them why they reasoned in this way with themselves, and which seemed to them the easier, to forgive sins or to heal the body.

But that they might know that He had power over the body as well as the soul He said to the sick man,

"Arise; take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house."

The man rose and rolled up his mat and carried it out, the people falling back astonished to let him pa.s.s, for his palsy had left him and he walked out strong and well.

"We have seen strange things to-day," the people said among themselves for they could not understand how a man could forgive sins or heal disease.

When Jesus left the house to go down to the sea-sh.o.r.e He pa.s.sed the Custom-house, where the tax-gatherers, or "publicans," gathered money from the Jewish people to pay to their conquerors, the Romans.

The Romans were very hard in their dealings with the Jews, and made themselves rich by taking money from the poor of their provinces.

The people did not like the tax-gatherer, and his was not a pleasant office.

Levi, also called Matthew, was a rich tax-gatherer at Capernaum, and as he sat in his office looking out upon the market-place he saw Jesus pa.s.sing by. Perhaps he had often heard Jesus teach by the sh.o.r.e and in the market-place, and longed to follow Him. He saw the Teacher stop at his open door, and heard Him say,

"Follow Me."

That was enough; Matthew left all, rose up and followed Jesus. He had a business that made him rich, but he was ready to leave it all to be a disciple of Jesus.

He wanted all to know that he had chosen a new life, and so he gave a great dinner to his friends, and invited Jesus and His five disciples that he might confess before them all his faith in Jesus.

The Pharisees looked down upon the publicans and thought them a people unfit to a.s.sociate with, and when they pa.s.sed by and saw Jesus sitting in Matthew's house at the feast they asked His disciples as they went in and out why their Master ate with "publicans and sinners," a thing they felt themselves too good to do.

Jesus Himself answered them in words that have helped many sinful people to come to Him since.

"They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

And then He turned to talk with Matthew and his friends, who listened to every word that fell from His lips, and did not try to find fault with Him as the Pharisees did.

Matthew had made a rich feast, and his table was no doubt piled with the beautiful fruits of the plain of Gennesaret, but the eyes of all and the thoughts of all were fixed upon the wonderful Teacher, and Matthew, the publican, who had become His disciple.

CHAPTER XVII.

FRIENDS OF JESUS.

Jesus had a good and true reason for choosing just twelve men to help Him to begin to build the first Christian Church, or the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth. We cannot yet understand the reason for everything He did, but quite enough to help us to believe in Him, and to give us a place in His kingdom. He had called half that number and soon He called six more to join them, and named them apostles.

Before He called them He went up into a mountain to be alone. He left Capernaum and went up through a rocky vale to a high plain where the gra.s.s lay thick and the wild flowers were coming up among it, for it was spring-time. Two hills, or peaks rose out of this plain, and there was a gra.s.sy hollow between. They were called the "Horns of Hattin."

From one of these hills Jesus could see the lake with its cities, and the plain dotted with villages below, and beyond them the great Mount Hermon crowned with snow. Here Jesus stayed all night, and the next morning came down into the gra.s.sy dale between the peaks where the people were gathering. The disciples went to meet Him, and He told them that He had chosen twelve of them to be with Him in His work, and to preach the Good Tidings to the people.

He called to His side Peter and Andrew, and James and John--the two pairs of brothers who were His first friends; then Philip, of Bethsaida. Bartholomen, from Cana, and Matthew, the tax-gatherer of Capernaum, who afterward wrote the first gospel. He also chose Thomas, of Galilee; James and Jude, two brothers from Capernaum; Simon, of Galilee, and Judas Iscariot, who came from the country near Jerusalem.

Five of these, it is said, were His cousins. More than half of them were fisherman, and none of them were learned men, unless Bartholomew might be called one. How wonderful it must have been to see these twelve earnest young men gathered around Jesus, ready to go where He should send them, or follow Him to death. No kings or emperors on earth ever had so great honor given them as that which Jesus gave to these men, for they became the Lord's spiritual brothers, and princes in His spiritual kingdom.

Then Jesus came down among the people. Some had brought sick friends up the rocky gorge for Jesus to touch; or they had brought poor souls possessed by devils for Him to set free, and He healed them all.

Then He sat down and taught the people. The sayings of that wonderful day are kept in the gospels, and are called the "Sermon on the Mount."

There was no choir, no organ, no church made with hands, but the words are now read in every Christian church in the world. The preacher sat on a green hillock, His dark cloak thrown back showing His white tunic, and the spring sunshine lay on His holy, beautiful face and flowing hair. All this the people saw, but they saw much more than this. They saw something divine in His face. His form, and the light around Him, and what they heard seemed to them to be the words of a Divine Man. He looked lovingly on the little group of disciples near Him, and blessed them in beautiful words that we call the Beat.i.tudes, or the Ten Blessings. He said to them and to us that the "blessed" (happy) are the good, humble, pure souls who have little of this world's wealth and friendship, but much faith and love.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sermon on the Mount]