"Granny's Chapters" Part 3

The Rabbis who taught in the academies attached to the synagogues, sat in the midst of their scholars, who all stood round them.

We have said, that "When Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee," preaching and teaching throughout the country. "And leaving Nazareth," which had been the home of His childhood, "he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast (of the lake of Tiberias), in the borders of Zabulon and Nepthalim." Thus was fulfilled the prophecy spoken by Esaias, that is Isaiah, "The land of Zabulon and the land of Nepthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." In the holy Scriptures, the word "darkness" constantly means ignorance and sin; whilst "light" is used to express the contrary, as knowledge and goodness. The people of Galilee were ignorant and sinful, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ was as a light to drive away this darkness, by teaching men to believe in their Saviour, and obey the Will of G.o.d. This blessing was now brought, as the prophet Isaiah had foretold, to the country round about Capernaum.

From this time, Capernaum seems to have been the home of Jesus Christ; as far, at least, as he could be said to have a home, when His whole life was spent in moving about the country from one place to another, "teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people."

In the Four Gospels you must look for the full account of the miracles, parables, and conversations of our blessed Saviour; here many of them will be only briefly mentioned.

In pa.s.sing on one occasion from Judaea into Galilee, "He must needs go through Samaria." His disciples being gone into the town to buy food, Jesus asked a woman of Samaria who came to draw water from the well, to give Him to drink; and He took this occasion to tell her, that it signified little in what place men worshipped G.o.d, if they worshipped Him properly "in spirit and in truth," that is, truly and sincerely, in faith; and he ended by telling her plainly that He was the Messiah, expected by Samaritans as well as by Jews. In consequence of what pa.s.sed between our Lord and this woman, many of the Samaritans believed in Him as the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Jesus appears to have remained at Samaria for two days; and we may be quite sure that during that time He preached "the Gospel of the Kingdom" to all who would hear His words.

Next we hear of another miracle worked at Cana, where He had changed the water into wine. A certain n.o.bleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum, came to Him to implore His help: this n.o.bleman believed that Jesus could heal his son, and his faith was rewarded by having his child restored to health. After this, Jesus "came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him," eagerly expecting the explanation of this pa.s.sage of holy writ. Jesus told them, that this prophecy was now fulfilled in Him; and when they hesitated to believe in "Joseph's son," and seemed to wonder why He did not work miracles there, He reminded them that miracles were worked, and always had been worked, just according to the pleasure of G.o.d, who often chose the most unlikely persons to work his miracles upon. His words made all who were in the synagogue very wrath; "and they rose and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow (or edge) of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong,"

and so put an end to his life and his preaching; but not yet, and not so, was the Son of man to die. He therefore worked a miracle to save himself, and "pa.s.sing through the midst of them, went His way."

Chapter X.--CALLING OF SIMON AND OTHERS.

The number of Christ's disciples increased, but it was necessary that He should have a certain number of faithful men constantly with Him, to be witnesses of all that He said and did whilst on earth; so that they might teach "the Gospel of the Kingdom" to others, when he should have returned to His Father in Heaven. To this end, therefore, when walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus bid the two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew, leave their occupation of fishermen, and follow Him wheresoever He should go; telling them that He would make them fishers of men: meaning, that as by putting their nets into the sea, they had hitherto brought fish to land; so now, by preaching the Gospel, they should bring men to the kingdom of Heaven. Jesus did not speak in vain: "straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.

And when he had gone a little farther thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. And straightway he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him." A miracle quickly confirmed the faith of these four disciples. The people, who had gathered round our Lord to hear his words, so pressed upon Him, that He entered into Simon's ship, and from thence taught the people. When He had spoken to them for some time, "he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught." Now Peter, who had been toiling all night, which is the best time for catching fish, knew that there was little chance of taking any then; but the command of his Master was enough for him. His obedience was rewarded by a wonderful draught (or take) of fishes, which greatly astonished Simon and Andrew, as well as their partners, James and John. Peter, seeing the wonderful works of G.o.d, felt that he was utterly unworthy even to be the servant of so glorious a Being, and falling at Jesus's knees, he exclaimed, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" But Jesus encouraged him, and repeated His promise, that His disciples should by their preaching of the Gospel bring the hearts of men to love and obey the Lord, for "he said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him."

From henceforth these four disciples, who had been especially called, became the constant attendants of our Lord. Three of them, Simon, James, and John, were more particularly favoured; for they are mentioned as being with the Lord on many occasions, when His other disciples were not with Him; thus they were witnesses of all the wonderful events in His life.

After the calling of Simon and his companions, Jesus went with them into Capernaum; "and on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught." Jesus did not talk to the people, as many of the Scribes did, about ceremonies and traditions; but he tried to draw their thoughts away from such comparative trifles, and fix them upon the Lord G.o.d Almighty--upon His goodness and mercy, and upon the necessity of faith and love producing perfect obedience to His holy Will. Jesus spake of holiness and righteousness in a way that they had never before heard; and he spake also in a tone of authority as One who had a right to command. He told them that he was indeed the Son of G.o.d, and that he spake unto them in the name of the Lord G.o.d of Israel: He warned the impenitent and disobedient, that they would bring eternal misery upon themselves, while He promised eternal happiness to all who would believe and obey. No wonder that His hearers were astonished at such teaching, from one who appeared to be merely a man like themselves. But to convince them that they might safely believe in Him, Jesus, even in the synagogue, healed a man who had a spirit of an unclean devil, so that "the people spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this? for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. And immediately the fame of him went out, and spread abroad throughout all the region, into every place of the country round about Galilee."

"And when they were come out of the synagogue, Jesus with James and John entered into the house of Simon and Andrew: here the mother of Simon's wife lay sick of a fever." The poor woman's friends besought Jesus for her; He took her by the hand; the fever left her at once; and then, instead of being weak, as people naturally are after a fever, her health and strength returned at once, and "immediately she arose and ministered unto them." The news of so wonderful a cure, increased the fame of Jesus.

The wonderful cures performed by Jesus brought many to ask His help.

"And when the even was come," that is, as soon as the Sabbath was over,--for the Jews reckoned their Sabbath to begin at sunset, or about six o'clock on Friday evening, and to end at the same hour on Sat.u.r.day night,--as soon, therefore, as the Sabbath was past, "all the city was gathered together at the door, and they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick."

Thus were fulfilled the words spoken, 700 years before, by Esaias the prophet, who said, "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses."

This prophecy was doubly fulfilled: first, by healing sicknesses and diseases, Christ, during his lifetime, took away the consequence of the punishment of sin; secondly, by His death upon the Cross, He took away sin, and procured forgiveness and salvation, for all who seek it in the way appointed by Him.

"And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place and there prayed." Having taken upon Himself the form and nature of man, Jesus now set His disciples an example of what prayer ought to be. It is a blessed thing to be allowed to pray to G.o.d--to tell Him of all our joys and sorrows--and to beg Him to bless us, and make us able to do well, whatever work He may give us to do. We sinful creatures have also another thing to pray for; and that is, forgiveness of our sins for Jesus Christ's sake, and such true repentance, as will make us try every day to do His holy Will better and better. For all these blessings we should constantly pray: but you must remember, that it is quite possible for you to kneel down every morning and evening and repeat the prayers which you have learnt, and _yet never really pray one bit_.

Prayer is speaking to G.o.d, and begging Him to give us what we stand in need of, both for our souls and bodies. Now, amongst ourselves, it is thought very rude and disrespectful, to speak to any person without thinking of what we are saying: and what should we think of a person who went into the presence of an earthly king, to ask some great favour, and then spake in a careless, indifferent manner, without seeming to know or care what he was asking for? We should all blame such a person; and think that he did not deserve to have his pet.i.tions granted. What must it be, then, to speak to the Lord G.o.d Almighty, the King of Kings, in such a manner? Then, again, if you really wanted your Parents to do anything for you, or give you anything, you would not ask them carelessly, as if you did not care whether they said "Yes" or "No"; you would beg and pray earnestly with all your heart.

Now this is what you should do when you say your prayers to G.o.d, your heavenly Father, Who can give you all you need on earth; and can besides, put His holy Spirit into your heart, and give you eternal happiness hereafter. Try, then, always to pray from your heart, and never allow yourself to repeat words carelessly, as if prayer was a task, to be got through as soon as possible. Such prayers can never please G.o.d; on the contrary, by praying in such a way we commit a great sin; for we take G.o.d's holy Name in vain, every time we kneel down to say our prayers. Written prayers are useful as helps; but you should also try of your own self to ask G.o.d to forgive you for any naughty things you have done, and help you to do better: G.o.d does not care what words we say, if our hearts really pray.

Jesus, you will observe, got up before it was light, and went into a quiet place, where he could pray without interruption. He would rather give up His night's rest, than not have time to pray to His heavenly Father; and we must remember, that as He had taken upon Him the nature of man, He was just as liable to be tired and sleepy as we are; and therefore, He suffered as much from giving up his night's rest as we should do; let His conduct, therefore, be an example to us.

In the morning, "Simon and they that were with him," (the three other disciples already called,) missed their Master, "and followed after him. And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee." No doubt, as soon as it was day, all they that had any sick in their families, brought them to be healed, and were disappointed at finding only the disciples.

After this, "Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria; his wonderful cures were heard of in neighbouring lands, and they brought unto him all sick people and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic (or mad); and he healed them." And there followed him great mult.i.tudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

Chapter XI.--THE LEPER HEALED.

We read so often in the Gospels, of Jesus casting out devils and unclean spirits, that it may be as well to say something on this subject, as in these days there is nothing of the kind. We know that the Devil has ever been the greatest enemy of mankind, trying to destroy the souls and bodies of men. In the Old Testament, we read of diviners, enchanters, wizards, sorcerers, and magicians, who were all persons wicked enough to try to have communication with evil spirits; and we also read that the children of Israel were commanded to put all such to death. But it seems that when men would persist in doing the Devil's work by sinning against G.o.d, the evil spirits were allowed to have power over their bodies, as they had, by listening to his temptations, given him power over their souls. Certain it is, that in the time of our Lord, the evil spirits had some extraordinary power over the bodies of some men; entering into them as it were, and making them do things hurtful to themselves and others. Such people are spoken of as "demoniacs," or as being "possessed of devils" or "unclean spirits."

Most likely the reason why G.o.d allowed the Devil to have power over the bodies of men, was to show the people the reality of a "ghostly enemy"; and to remind them, that if they allowed the Devil to get into their hearts and make them serve him, they would be unfit ever to go into the kingdom of G.o.d. The sad state in which these poor demoniacs were, was a sort of sign of the dreadful condition in which all the descendants of Adam must for ever have continued, if the Son of G.o.d had not come down to destroy the works of the Devil, and free the souls of men from his power.

When Jesus cast the devils and unclean spirits out of the _bodies_ of men, it was a plain proof that His power was greater than theirs; and that he could, therefore, most certainly deliver the _souls_ of men from the power of their enemy.

Evil spirits were thus allowed to show their power, in order more clearly to manifest, or show forth, the great power and glory of the Son of G.o.d, Whom even the devils were bound to obey: they were, moreover, forced to bear witness to the fact that He _was_ the Messiah, for on many occasions they cried out, "Thou art Christ, the Son of G.o.d."

When we read of these unhappy men who were possessed by devils, let us remember that the same evil spirit is watching to destroy us; and that though he has now no power over the bodies of men, he tries to get possession of our hearts, and unless we resist him steadfastly, he will succeed. To encourage us to fight against the Devil, we must remember that he has no power over our souls but what we give him, by wilfully sinning against G.o.d. Powerful as our enemy is, our Friend and Saviour is vastly more powerful; and He will bless and keep all who do resist the Devil, and strive to obey and serve G.o.d faithfully.

The next miracle mentioned, was the cure of a leper. Both Jews and Gentiles looked upon leprosy as a type of sin; that is, as being to the body, what sin is to the soul: the leprosy first shows itself in a little spot, but quickly spreads, and covers the whole body with sores. Sin begins in some act of disobedience; not being resisted, one sin leads to another, till the whole heart is filled with evil pa.s.sions.

The leper was considered unclean, and was not allowed to live amongst G.o.d's people, nor enter into the Courts of the Temple; typifying that sin is hateful in the sight of G.o.d, and that those who persist in it cannot enter into the kingdom of Heaven.

The leprosy was looked upon as incurable by any human means, and therefore whenever a leper was healed, it was attributed to an especial exertion of the Divine power. In like manner, G.o.d only could take away the guilt and punishment of sin, and cleanse the heart of a sinner.

The Leper, who went to Jesus beseeching Him, knew that no human skill could heal his disease; but believing Him to be the Son of G.o.d--the Messiah, he "fell on his face worshipping Him, and saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean."

Pleased with the man's faith, Jesus touched him, and said, "I will; be thou clean: and immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them." The Levitical Law declared, that the priests were to be judges in all cases of leprosy. Any one suspected of having this dreadful disease, was to be examined by the Priest: if the Priest p.r.o.nounced his disease to be leprosy, he was at once considered unclean, and cut off from all communication with his fellow men. In like manner, if it pleased G.o.d to take away the disease, the leper was to go again to the Priest to be examined, and if he p.r.o.nounced him to be cured, the poor man was then considered clean, and restored to the society of his fellow creatures.

When our Lord dismissed the leper, He told him to "offer those things which Moses commanded." The ceremony of cleansing, to be observed by every one who had been cured of leprosy, was as follows:--Two live and clean birds were to be taken, with cedar-wood, hyssop, and other things; one of these birds was to be killed over a brook of running water, and its blood received in an earthen vessel: the living bird, with the other things mentioned, was to be dipped in the blood of the dead bird, and the leper was afterwards to be sprinkled with the blood. This was to show, as all sacrifices were intended to do, that sin and uncleanliness could only be done away with, by shedding the blood of the innocent and clean: and thus pointing out to all men, that the blood of Jesus Christ, the spotless lamb of G.o.d, could alone wash away the sin of man.

The living bird was then to be let loose in the open fields, to signify that the leper now cleansed from his plague, was free to go where he would amongst his fellow men. This was the ceremony which Jesus bade the leper observe, and he was not to mention his cure until all was accomplished. For this there appear to have been two reasons: in the first place, Jesus did not wish His ministry to be disturbed, by the excitement which the knowledge of such a miracle would create amongst the people, who on several occasions desired to make Him their king even on earth. In the second place, the Priests were so obstinately prejudiced against our Lord, that they would have been very unwilling to p.r.o.nounce the leper to be clean, had they known how his cure had been effected: but when once they had declared him to be healed, they could not unsay their own words.

The healing of this leper, was the plainest proof that Christ could give of His being indeed the Son of G.o.d; for there was a tradition universally believed by the Jews, that when the Messiah should come, He would cure the leprosy.

The leper did not keep silence, but began to publish it abroad, and so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great mult.i.tudes came together to hear, and "to be healed of their infirmities; insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter the city," without exciting that attention, which at present He wished to avoid: and "He withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed": but even here, "they came to him from every quarter."

"And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them." When we read of the mult.i.tudes who crowded to hear Jesus, it does seem sad that so few profited by what they heard: let us try not to be only "hearers of the word, but doers also."

One day, when Jesus was thus teaching, with Pharisees and doctors of the law, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem, sitting by, a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed which was borne of four, was brought to be healed.

The palsy is a sad disease, which often takes away the use of the legs and arms, and renders the poor sufferer perfectly helpless; nor can the physician restore the use of the limbs.

Those who had brought this poor man on a kind of litter, sought means to bring him into the house, and lay him before Jesus: and when they found that they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they went upon the house-top, and uncovered the roof where he was; and when they had broken it up, they let the poor man down through the tiling with his couch, into the midst of the mult.i.tude, before Jesus. The Jewish houses, as we must remember, were only one story high; and in the flat roof was an opening, leading directly to the room below.

This opening was closed by a flat door; but it seems that when they had uncovered the opening, by removing the trapdoor, the aperture was not large enough for the litter to pa.s.s through it; and therefore they broke up some of the roof, so as to enlarge the opening, and when they had done this, they fastened ropes to the four corners of the sick man's bed, and so let him down at Jesus's feet. The trouble they had taken to bring to Him a man, who, as they well knew, could not be cured by any human creature, showed that those who brought him, believed that Jesus was indeed the Son of G.o.d, able to heal all manner of diseases. And they received the blessing sought in faith.

Chapter XII.--CALLING OF MATTHEW.

When Jesus saw the faith of those who had brought the man sick of the palsy, He said, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee."

These words offended the Scribes (or Doctors) and the Pharisees who were sitting there; and they said within themselves, or thought, "This man blasphemeth," that is, He takes to himself a power which no human being can possess, for "Who can forgive sins, but G.o.d alone?" Here they were right: no _man could_ forgive sin, nor with a word take away the diseases consequent upon sin.