The History of Christianity by John S. C. Abbott (free children's ebooks pdf .TXT) 📖

PALESTINE

Jesus, being informed of the spirit of rivalry which existed on the part of John’s disciples, decided to withdraw from that region, and return to Galilee. His direct route led through the central district of Samaria. There was a bitter feud between the inhabitants of Judæa and Samaria, so that there was but little social intercourse or traffic between them. The road led first over barren plains as far as Bethel; then traversed a region of undulating hills smiling with verdure, till it became lost in a winding mountain-pass quite densely wooded. On the third day of the journey, Jesus, toiling on foot beneath the scorching sun of Syria, reached Sychar, in the heart of Samaria. About a mile and a half from the village, at the foot of Mount Gerizim, there was a celebrated well, which the patriarch Jacob had dug several centuries before. Jesus sat down by the well to rest, while his disciples, who accompanied him, went into the village to purchase some food. While seated there alone, a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink.” His dress and language indicated that he was a Jew.

The woman replied, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?”

“If thou knewest,” said Jesus, “the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.”

To this enigmatical reply, which evidently aroused the attention of the woman, she rejoined, “Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence, then, hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children and his cattle?”

Again Jesus replied in enigmatical language, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

The woman, bewildered, and with excited curiosity, said, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”

“Go, call thy husband,” said Jesus, “and come hither.”

The woman, conscience-smitten, and somewhat alarmed by the mysterious nature of the conversation, answered, “I have no husband.”

The startling response of Jesus was, “Thou hast well said, I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that saidst thou truly.”

The woman, alarmed, and anxious to withdraw the conversation from her own sins and personal duty, sought, as half-awakened sinners have ever endeavored to do from that day to this, to change the theme into a theological discussion.

“Sir,” she said, “I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

This question was a standing controversy between the Jews and the Samaritans. “Believe me,” Jesus replied, “the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

The Samaritans rejected the prophets, and received only the five books of Moses. Jesus therefore announced that the Jewish, not the Samaritan faith, was the true religion; while at the same time he declared that external forms were important only as they promoted and indicated holiness of heart.

The woman replied, “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things.”

Her astonishment must have been great when Jesus rejoined, “I that speak unto thee am he.”

The conversation was here interrupted by the return of the disciples who had gone into the village. Though surprised in seeing Jesus engaged in earnest conversation with the Samaritan woman, they asked him no questions upon the subject; but the woman, so agitated that she forgot to take her water-pot with her, hurried back to the village, saying to her friends, in language somewhat exaggerated, “Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?”

Quite a crowd of Samaritans were soon gathered around the well. In the mean time, the disciples besought Jesus to partake of the refreshments which they had brought from the village. His remarkable reply was,—

“I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat” (the great object of my life) “is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye have entered into their labors.”

It is probable that Jesus went from the well into the village or city of Sychar; for he continued in that region for two days, preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. The result was, that many more believed, and said unto the woman, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying; for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”

Continuing his journey, Jesus proceeded still northward to Galilee. The fame of his words and of his works was spreading far and wide. As he travelled, he entered the synagogues of the villages, and preached his gospel probably to large crowds. Popularity accompanied his steps; for, we are informed by the sacred historian, “he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.”

Upon reaching the province of Galilee, he repaired to Cana, where his first miracle was performed. His name was now upon all lips; and, wherever he appeared, crowds were attracted. About twelve miles north-east from Cana, upon the shores of the Lake of Galilee, was the city of Capernaum. A nobleman there, of high official rank, had a son dangerously sick. Hearing of the arrival of Jesus in Cana, and fully convinced of his miraculous powers, he hastened to him, and entreated him to come down and heal his son. Immediately upon the application of the nobleman, appreciating the faith he thus exhibited, he said, “Go thy way: thy son liveth.” Apparently untroubled with any incredulity, the nobleman set out on his return. Meeting servants by the way, they informed him that his son was recovering. Upon inquiry, he learned that his convalescence commenced apparently at the very moment in which Jesus assured him of his safety. In consequence of this second miracle in Galilee, the nobleman and all his family became disciples of Jesus.

From Cana, Jesus went to the home of his childhood and youth, in Nazareth, which was but a few miles south of Cana. It is probable that his reputed father, Joseph, was dead, as we have no subsequent allusion to him; and that there was no home in Nazareth to welcome the wanderer. Upon the sabbath day, according to his custom, he repaired to the synagogue. Taking the Bible, he opened to the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, and read those prophetic words of the promised Messiah which had