JESUS AGAIN in NAZARETH. Jesus had been rejected by the people of Nazareth, who thrust Him out from their synagog and tried to kill Him. It appears that subsequent to the events noted in our last chapter, He returned to the town of His youth, and again raised His voice in the synagog. The Nazarenes, as they had done before, now again openly expressed their astonishment at the words He spoke, and at the many miraculous works He had wrought. They rejected Him anew, for He came not as they expected the Messiah to come; and they refused to know Him save as "the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and

Jesus reminded them of the proverb then current among the people, "A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his Own house." Their unbelief was so dense as to cause Him to marvel. Because of their lack of faith He was unable to accomplish any great work except to heal a few exceptional believers upon whom He laid His hands. About this time, also, Jesus inaugurated a notable expansion of the ministry of the kingdom, by sending forth the Twelve on assigned missions. Since their ordination the apostles had been with their Lord, learning from Him by public discourse and private exposition, and acquiring invaluable experience and training through that privileged and blessed companionship.

They were directed to confine their ministrations for the time being "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and not to open a propaganda among the Gentiles. This was a temporary restriction, imposed in wisdom and prudence; later, as we shall see, they were Directed to preach among all nations, with the world for their field. They were specifically and solemnly charged. Some of the instructions given them on this occasion had particular reference to their first mission, from which they would in due time return and report. Other directions and admonitions were to be of effect throughout their ministry, even after the Lord's ascension.

The subject of their discourses was to be that upon which they had heard the Master preach. Personal comfort and bodily needs they were not to provide for. People were to be proved as to their willingness to receive and assist those who came in the name of the Lord. The apostles themselves were to learn to rely upon a Provider more to be trusted than man. In the several towns they entered they were to seek entertainment and leave their blessing upon every worthy family into which they were received.

If they found themselves rejected by a household or by a town as a whole, they were to shake the dust from their feet on leaving, as a testimony against the people. It was decreed that, in the day of judgment, the place so denounced would fare worse than wicked Sodom and Gomorrha. The apostles were told to be prudent, to give no needless offense, but to be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. They were not to recklessly entrust themselves to the power of men, for wicked men would persecute them.

These servants of Christ were told that they would be hated of all men, but were assured that their sufferings were to be for His name's sake. They were not to trust even the claims of kinship for protection, for families would be divided over the truth.

They were admonished to humility, and were always to remember that they were servants, who ought not to expect to escape when even their Master was assailed. Nevertheless they were to be fearless, hesitating not to preach the gospel in plainness. They were solemnly warned that whosoever would freely confess the Christ before men would be acknowledged by Him in the Father's presence.

And again they were told that the gospel would bring strife, whereby households would be disrupted; for the doctrine the Lord had taught would be as a sword to cut and divide. The duties of their special ministry were to supersede the love for kindred. They must be willing to leave father, mother, son, or daughter, whatever the sacrifice; for, said Jesus "He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me" The significance of this figure must have been solemnly impressive, and actually terrifying.

They were never to forget in whose name they were sent; and were comforted with the assurance that whoever received them would be rewarded as one who had received the Christ and His Father. The period of their absence was marked by many important developments in the individual labors of Jesus. It is probable that during this time our Lord visited Jerusalem, on the occasion mentioned by John as coincident with the unnamed feast of the Jews.

While the apostles were absent, Jesus was visited by the Baptist's disciples, as we have already seen. The return of the Twelve occurred near the time of the infamous execution of John the Baptist in prison. Herod Antipas, who had given the fatal order, trembled in his palace. He heard, with fear due to inward conviction of guilt, of the marvelous works wrought by Jesus, and in terror averred that Christ could be none other than John Baptist returned from the tomb.

Herod feared that the murdered John had returned to life. His fawning courtiers essayed to allay his fears by saying that Jesus was Elijah, or some other of the prophets whose advent had been predicted. But the conscience-stricken Herod said: "It is John whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead." Herod desired to see Jesus; perhaps through the fascination of fear, or with the faint hope that sight of the renowned Prophet of Nazareth might dispel his superstitious dread.

Jesus and the Twelve withdrew from the throng, and privately entered a boat in which they crossed to a rural spot adjacent to the city of Bethsaida. Their departure had not been unobserved, and eager crowds hastened along the shore, and partly around the northerly end of the lake, to join the party at the landing place. From John's account we are led to infer that, before the arrival of great numbers, Jesus and His companions had ascended the hillside near the shore where, for a short time they had rested.

Five thousand people gathered in the wilderness to be fed. Jesus asked Philip, one of the Twelve, "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" The purpose of the question was to test the apostle's faith, but the Lord had already determined as to what was to be done.

Philip's reply showed surprize at the question, and conveyed his thought that the suggested undertaking was impossible. Andrew added that there was a lad present who had five barley loaves, and two small fishes, "But," said he, "what are they among so many?" Such is John's account; the other writers state that the apostles reminded Jesus of the lateness of the hour, and urged that He send the people away to seek for themselves food and lodging in the nearest towns. The Master's reply to the apostles was: "They need not depart; give ye them to eat."

In amazed wonder they replied: "We have here but five loaves and two fishes;" and Andrew's despairing comment is implied again—What are they among so many? Jesus gave command, and the people seated themselves on the grass in orderly array; they were grouped in fifties and hundreds. The substance of both fish and bread increased under the Master's touch; and the multitude feasted there in the desert, until all were satisfied. To the disciples Jesus said: "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost;" and twelve baskets were filled with the surplus. As to the miracle itself, human knowledge is powerless to explain.

Though wrought on so great a scale, it is no more nor less inexplicable than any other of the Lord's miraculous works. It was a manifestation of creative power, by which material elements were organized and compounded to serve a present and pressing need. Our Lord's direction to gather up the fragments was an impressive object-lesson against waste; and it may have been to afford such lesson that an excess was supplied. The multitude, now fed and filled, gave some consideration to the miracle. The conversion of water into wine at Cana was a qualitative transmutation; the feeding of the multitude involved a quantitative increase. Who can say that one, or which, of these miracles of provision was the more wonderful?

In Jesus, by whom so great a work had been wrought, they recognized One having superhuman powers. Jesus directed His disciples to depart by boat, while He remained to dismiss the now excited multitude. The disciples hesitated to leave their Master, but He constrained them and they obeyed. His insistence, that the Twelve depart from both Himself and the multitude, may have been due to a desire to protect the chosen disciples against possible infection by the materialistic and unrighteous designs of the throng to make Him king. Such was their gross conception of Messianic supremacy.

He caused the people to disperse; and, as night came on, He found that for which He had come in quest, solitude and quiet. Ascending the hill, He chose a secluded place, and there remained in prayer during the greater part of the night. "IT IS I; BE NOT AFRAID." The return by boat proved to be a memorable journey for the disciples. They encountered a boisterous head-wind, which of course rendered impossible the use of sails. Though they had labored through the night they had progressed less than four miles on their course. To turn and run before the wind would have been to invite disastrous wreck. Their sole hope lay in their holding the vessel to the wind by sheer

Jesus, in His place of solitary retirement, was aware of their sad plight. When the voyagers caught sight of Him as He approached the ship in the faint light of the near-spent night, they were overcome by superstitious fears. "But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." Relieved by these assuring words, Peter, impetuous and impulsive as usual, cried out: "Lord, if   and it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water."

Jesus caught him by the hand, saying: "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" From Peter's remarkable experience, we learn that the power by which Christ was able to walk the waves could be made operative in others, provided only their faith was enduring. It was on Peter's own request that he was permitted to attempt the feat. Had Jesus forbidden him, the man's faith might have suffered a check. His attempt, though attended by partial failure, was a demonstration of the efficacy of faith in the Lord, such as no verbal teaching could ever have conveyed.

Marveling at the power of One to whom the wind-lashed sea was a sustaining floor, the apostles bowed before the Lord in reverent worship. Aside from the marvelous circumstances of its literal occurrence, the miracle is rich in symbolism and suggestion. By what law or principle the effect of gravitation was superseded, so that a human body could be supported upon the watery surface, man is unable to affirm. The phenomenon is a concrete demonstration of the great truth that faith is a principle of power, whereby natural forces may be conditioned and controlled.

The night voyage, in the course of which Jesus had reached the boat with its frightened occupants while "in the midst of the sea," ended at some point within the district known as the land of Gennesaret. Word of our Lord's presence there spread rapidly, and, from "all that country round about" the people flocked to Him, bringing their afflicted to receive of His beneficence by word or touch.

In the towns through which He walked, the sick were laid in the streets that the blessing of His passing might fall upon them. Many "besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment; and as many as touched him were made whole" Bounteously did He impart of His healing virtue to all who came asking with faith and confidence. The multitude who, on the yesterday, had partaken of His bounty on the other side of the lake, were greatly surprized in the morning to discover that He had departed. They had seen the disciples leave in the only boat there present, while Jesus had remained on shore. They knew that the night tempest had precluded the possibility of other

Some boats were sighted, bound for the western coast; these they hailed, and, securing passage, crossed to Capernaum. Their difficulty in locating Jesus was at an end, for His presence was known throughout the town. Coming to Him, probably as He sat in the synagog, for on this day He taught there, some of the most intrusive of the crowd asked, brusquely and almost rudely, "Rabbi, when camest thou hither?" Jesus deigned no direct reply; in the miracle of the preceding night the people had no part, and no account of our Lord's movements was given them. In tone of impressive rebuke Jesus said unto them: "Verily, verily, I

One who could supply them with victuals as He had done must not be lost sight of. "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you," Jesus said.

Moses had fed their fathers with manna in the desert, they said. They regarded a continued daily supply as a greater gift than a single meal of bread and fish. Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread of heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world"

They were mistaken in assuming that Moses had given them manna. Jesus met their appeal with an explanation: "I am the bread of life" He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall not thirst. The request was not wholly gross; there may have been in the hearts of some of them at least a genuine desire for spiritual nourishment.

He reminded them that though they had seen Him they believed not His words. He assured them that those who really accepted Him would do as the Father directed. Then, without metaphor or symbolism, He affirmed: "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me"

He advized them to cease their murmurings; for it was a certainty that they could not apprehend His meaning, and therefore would not believe Him, unless they had been "taught of God" as the prophets had written. Then, reverting to the symbolism of the bread, He reiterated: "I am the bread of life." In further elucidation He explained that while their fathers did truly eat manna in the wilderness, yet they were dead.

Jesus said: "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him" He added: "This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead" There was little excuse for the Jews pretending to understand that our Lord meant an actual eating and drinking of His material flesh and blood.

The utterances to which they objected were far more readily understood by them than they are by us on first reading. The representation of the law and of truth in general as bread, and the acceptance thereof as a process of eating and drinking, were figures in every-day use by the rabbis of that time. Their failure to comprehend the symbolism of Christ's doctrine was an act of will, not the natural consequence of innocent ignorance. To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ was and is to believe in and accept Him as the literal Son of God and Savior of the world. By these means only may the Spirit of God become an abiding part of man's individual being, even as the substance of the food he eats is

It is not sufficing to accept the precepts of Christ as we may adopt the doctrines of scientists, philosophers, and savants, however great the wisdom of these sages may be. Such acceptance is by mental assent or deliberate exercize of will, and has relation to the doctrine only as independent of the author. The teachings of Jesus Christ endure because of their intrinsic worth. Many men respect His aphorisms, proverbs, parables, and His profoundly philosophical precepts, who yet reject Him as the Son of God.

The sacrament of the Lord's supper perpetuates the symbolism of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, by the partaking of bread and wine in remembrance of Him. Acceptance of Jesus as the Christ implies obedience to the laws and ordinances of His gospel. To profess the One and refuse the other is but to convict ourselves of inconsistency, insincerity, and hypocrisy. The truth respecting Himself, as taught by the Lord in this, His last, discourse in the synagog at Capernaum, proved to be a test of faith through which many fell away.

Not alone critical Jews of the official class, but those who had professed some measure of belief in Him were affected. "Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?" Jesus, cognizant of their disaffection, asked: "Doth this offend you?" and added: "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" His ascension, which was to follow His death and resurrection, is here definitely implied. The spiritual significance of His teachings was put beyond question by the explanation that only through the Spirit could they comprehend. Many deserted Him, and from that time sought Him no more. The effect was

Even the Twelve were unable to comprehend the deeper meaning of these latest teachings. They were puzzled, though none actually deserted. Peter, speaking for himself and his brethren, answered with pathos and conviction: "Lord, to whom shall we go?" They knew Jesus to be the Christ, and were faithful to Him while others turned away into the dark depths of apostasy. The spirit of the Holy Apostleship was manifest in this confession.

While Peter spoke for the apostolic body as a whole, there was among them one who silently revolted. The Lord knew this man's heart, and said: "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" The historian adds: "He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve"

Luke's account refers to an occasion immediately following the first return of Jesus to Galilee after His baptism and temptations. Matthew (13:53-58) and Mark (6:1-6) chronicle a visit later than the occasion of the first teaching in parables. We have good reason for accepting Luke's record as that of an early incident, and the accounts given by Matthew and Mark as those of a later visit. 2. Jews designated all other peoples as Gentiles; though the same Hebrew word is rendered in the Old Testament variously, as "Gentiles" (Gen. 10:5; Judg. 4:2, 13, 16; Isa. 11:10; etc. ), "

of the Bible, we read "It acquired an ethnographic and also an invidious meaning, as other nations were idolatrous, rude, hostile, etc." Dr. Edward E. Nourse, writing for the Standard Bible Dictionary, says: "In New Testament times, the Jew divided mankind into three classes, (1) Jews, (2) Greeks (Hellenes, made to include Romans, thus meaning the civilized peoples of the Roman Empire), and (3) barbarians (the uncivilized)." The injunction laid by Jesus upon the Twelve—"Go not into the way of the Gentiles"—was to restrain them for the time being from attempting to make converts among the Romans and Greeks.

To ceremonially shake the dust from one's feet as a testimony against another was understood by the Jews to symbolize a cessation of fellowship and a renunciation of all responsibility. It became an ordinance of accusation and testimony by the Lord's instructions to His apostles as cited in the text. In the current dispensation, the Lord has similarly directed His authorized servants to so testify against those who wilfully and maliciously oppose the truth when authoritatively presented.

Bethsaida Julias was the town of that name in Perea, on the eastern side of the Jordan. The Perean village of Bethsaida had been enlarged and raised to the rank of a town by the tetrarch, Philip. The Gospel narratives of the voyage by which Jesus and His companions reached the place, and of the return therefrom, are conformable to the assumption that the "desert place" referred to was an outlying district.

Matthew specifies two evenings of the day on which the five thousand were fed. "When it was evening" the disciples asked Jesus to send away the multitude. After the miraculous feeding and after the disciples had left by boat, "when the evening was come" Jesus was alone on the mountain (Matt. 14:15, 23; compare Mark 6:35, 47). Trench Notes on the Miracles, (p. 217) says: "St. Matthew and St. Mark with him, makes two evenings to this day—one which had already commenced before the preparations for the feeding of the multitude had begun (verse 15)... the second evening being the twilight, or from six o'clock to twilight,

During the greater part of Old Testament time, the people of Israel divided the night into three watches, each of four hours. Before the beginning of the Christian era, however, the Jews had adopted the Roman order of four night-watches, each lasting three hours. These were designated numerically, e.g. the fourth watch mentioned in the text (see Matt. 14:25), or as even, midnight, cock-crowing, and morning (see Mark 13:35).

The fourth watch was the last of the three-hour periods between sunset and sunrise. The Jews regarded the border or hem of their outer robes as of particular importance. The desire to touch the hem of Christ's robe may have been associated with this thought of sanctity attaching to the hem or border.

The supplying of manna to the Israelites incident to the exodus and the long travel in the wilderness, was rightly regarded as a work of surpassing wonder (Exo. 16:14-36; Numb. 11:7-9; Deut. 8:3, 16; Josh. 5:12; Psa. 78:24, 25). Many traditions, some of them perniciously erroneous, gathered about the incident, and were transmitted with invented additions from generation to generation. In the time of Christ the rabbinical teaching was that the manna on which the fathers had fed was literally the food of the angels, sent down from heaven; and that it was of diverse taste and flavor to suit all

These erroneous conceptions in part explain the demand of those who had been fed on barley loaves and fishes, for a sign that would surpass the giving of manna in the olden days, as evidence of the Messiahship of Jesus. Although faith is called the first principle of the Gospel of Christ, though it be in fact the foundation of all religion, yet even faith is preceded by sincerity of disposition and humility of soul.

The idea of eating, as a metaphor for receiving spiritual benefit, was familiar to Christ's hearers. In Isaiah 3:1, the words 'the whole stay of bread,' were explained by the rabbis as referring to their own teaching. It was a saying among them—'In the time of the Messiah the Israelites will be fed by Him'

'Messiah is not likely to come to Israel,' said Hillel, 'for they have already eaten Him' —that is, greedily received His words. A current conventionalism in the synagogs was that the just would 'eat the Shekinah' It was peculiar to the Jews to be taught in such metaphorical language. Their rabbis never spoke in plain words, and it is expressly said that Jesus submitted to the popular taste, for 'without a parable spake he not unto them' (Mark 4:34). "—Geikie, Life and Words of Christ , vol. i, p. 184.

Upon this many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. Nay, the searching trial reached even unto the hearts of the Twelve. Would they also go away? It was an anticipation of Gethsemane—its first experience. But one thing kept them true. It was the experience of the past. This was the basis of their present faith and allegiance. They could not go back to their old past; they must cleave to Him. Whither can we go for words of eternal life, if not to Christ? If He fails us, then all hope of the eternal is gone.

But He has the words of eternal life—and we believed when they first came to us; nay, we know that He is the Holy One of God. And this conveys all that faith needs for further learning. The rest will He show when He is transfigured in our sight. But of these Twelve Christ knew one to be a devil—like that angel, fallen from highest height to lowest depth. The apostasy of Judas had already commenced in his heart. The hour of decision was past, and the hand on the dial pointed to the hour of His death."

This is the first occurrence of this title in the Synoptic Gospels, as applied to Jesus by mortals. Note similar testimony of the Seventy, who were sent out at a later time, and who returned rejoicing in the power that had been manifest in their ministry. That is to say, "since" or "inasmuch". Compare Peter's impetuous leap into the sea to reach the resurrected Lord on the shore, John 21:7. "Articles of Faith," v:11-13—"Faith a Principle of Power." Josephus, Wars. iii, 10:7, 8.

Mark 6:53-56; compare Matt. 14:34-36. John 6:32-59. John 4:13-15; page 174. Isa. 54:13; Jer. 31:34; Micah 4:2; compare Heb. 8:10; 10:16.