Mary alone knew her son to be the promised Messiah; and though the long years may somewhat have dulled her hopes, they flamed up again suddenly when the news came that John the forerunner had begun to preach ‘The kingdom of God is at hand,’ and that multitudes, even of the Pharisees, were flocking to his baptism, so to enlist themselves as subjects of the new kingdom.
But this news did not make any change in our Lord. There was not less tenderness and pity in His heart when He lived among His neighbours in Nazareth than when He healed the sick who came to Him from every quarter. Neither was there any more ambition in His spirit when He passed from town to town, amid a throng of followers, than when He climbed up into the loneliness of the mountains about His village home. How could He be touched by any earthly ambition, who knew Himself to be not only a Son of God, but the only-begotten Son of the Father? He had been waiting through these quiet, homely years for the call to come, and now He was ready to quit all, with the words in His heart, ‘Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will, O my God!’
It may well be that Mary went with Him a little way on His road towards Jordan, on that wintry morning, when He quitted His workshop, and the familiar streets of Nazareth, to dwell in them no more. There was no surprise to her in what had come to pass; but there must have been a thrill of exultation mingled with fear. He had been her son all these years, but now He was to belong, not to her, but to the nation. What sorrow and triumph must have been in her heart when at last He bade her farewell, and she watched Him as long as He was in sight, clad in the robe she had woven for Him without seam, like the robe of a priest Was He not a priest and a king already to her?
It was winter, and though not cold in the valley of the Jordan, the heavy and continuous rains must have dispersed the multitudes that had gone out to John, leaving him almost in solitude once more. There could have been no crowd of spectators when Jesus was baptized. Yet even in January there are mild and sunny days when He and John might have gone down into the river for the significant rite which was to mark the beginning of His new career. But John would not at first consent to baptize his cousin Jesus, declaring that it would be more fit for himself to be baptized by one whose life had been holier and happier than his own. The rich and powerful and pious Pharisees John had sent away with rebukes, yet when Jesus came from Galilee, he forbade Him.
But Jesus would not take his refusal For some months John had been waiting for a sign promised to him from heaven, which should point out to him the true Messiah; and the people of the land looked to him to show them the Christ, whose kingdom he was proclaiming. Now, after he had baptized his cousin in the waters of the Jordan, already troubled with the rains from the mountains, and they were coming up again out of the river, he saw the pale, wintry sky above them opening, and the Spirit of God descending, visible to his eyes in the form of a dove, which lighted upon Jesus, whilst a voice came from heaven, speaking to him, and saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ What passed between them further, the Messiah and His forerunner, we are not told. Jesus did not stay with John the Baptist, for immediately He left him, and the place where He had been baptized, and went away into the wilderness, far from the busy haunts of ordinary men, such as He had dwelt among until now. His commonplace, everyday life was ended, and had fallen from Him for ever. A dense cloud of mystery which no one has been able to pierce through surrounds the forty days in which He was alone in the wilderness, suffering the first pangs of the grief with which He was bruised and smitten for our iniquities, being fiercely assailed of the devil, that He might Himself suffer being tempted, and so able to succour all those who are tempted. The compassion and fellow-feeling He had before had for sufferers He was henceforth to feel for sinners. There was to be no gulf between Him and the sinners He was about to call to repentance; He was to be their friend, their companion, and it was His part to know the stress and strain of temptation which had overcome them. Sinners were to feel, when they drew near to Him, that He knew all about them and their sins, and needed not that any man should tell Him. He had been in all points tempted as they had been.
CHAPTER II.
CANA OF GALILEE.
When Jesus returned to Jordan the short winter of Palestine was over, and already an eager crowd had gathered again about John. On the day of His return, a deputation from the Pharisees had come from Jerusalem to question John as to his authority for thus baptizing the people. They were the religious rulers of the nation, and felt themselves bound to inquire into any new religious rite, and to ask for the credentials of any would-be prophet These priests who had come to see John knew him to be a priest, and were, probably, inclined to take his part, if they could do so in safety. They asked him, eagerly, ‘Art thou Christ?’ ‘Art thou Elias?’ ‘Art thou that prophet?’ And when he answered, ‘No,’ they ask again, ‘Who art thou? What sayest thou of thyself?’ The crowd was listening, and Jesus, standing amongst them, was also listening for his reply. ‘I am a voice,’ he said, ‘the voice spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the ways of the Lord.’ The priests were disappointed with this answer, and asked, ‘Why baptizest thou then?’ They had not given him authority to appear as a prophet, yet here he was drawing great multitudes about him, and publicly reproving the most religious sect of the nation, calling them a generation of vipers, and bidding them bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. From that time they began to throw discredit upon the preaching of John the Baptist, and spoke despitefully against him, saying, ‘He hath a devil.’ Nothing is easier than to fling a bad name at those who are not of our own way of thinking.
Two days after this, John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to two of his disciples as the Messiah whose coming he had foretold. These two, Andrew and a young man named John, immediately followed Jesus, and being invited by Him to the place where He was staying, they remained the rest of the day with Him; probably took their first meal with Him, their hearts burning within them as He opened the Scriptures to their understanding. The next morning Andrew met with his brother Simon, and said, ‘We have found the Messiah,’ and brought him to Jesus. The day following, Jesus was about to start home again to Galilee, and seeing Philip, who already knew Him, He said to him, ‘Follow Me!’ Simon and Andrew, who were Philip’s townsmen, were at that time with Jesus; Philip was ready to obey, but he first found Nathanael, and said to him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, is He of whom Moses and the prophets did write!’ ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ cried Nathanael, doubtingly; but he went to Jesus and was so satisfied by the few words He spoke to him, that he exclaimed, ‘Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel!’
With these five followers Jesus turned His steps homewards, after an absence of nearly two months. All of them lived in Galilee; and Simon Peter and Andrew, who had a house in Capernaum, at the head of the Lake of Galilee, appear to have turned off and left the little company, at the point where their nearest way home crossed the route taken by the others. Jesus went on with the other three: Philip, whom He had distinctly called to follow Him; Nathanael, whose home in Cana of Galilee lay directly north of Nazareth; and John, who was hardly more than a youth, and as yet free from the ties and duties of manhood. A pleasant march must that have been along the valleys lying south of Mount Tabor, with the spring sun shining overhead, and all the green sward bedecked with flowers, and the birds singing in the cool, fragrant air of morning and evening.
But they did not find Mary at Nazareth. She was gone with the cousins of Jesus to a marriage at Cana in Galilee, the town of Nathanael, where he had a home, to which he gladly urged his new-found Rabbi to go. He could not have foreseen this pleasure; but now, as they went on northward to Cana, the Messiah was his guest, and, with Philip and John, was to enter into his house. But no sooner was it known that they were come into the village than Jesus was called with His friends, one of whom was an old neighbour of the bridegroom, to join the marriage feast.
There was very much that Mary longed to hear from her son after
