BIBLE READINGS. I. THE BEGINNING OF THE THIRD YEAR OF OUR LORD'S MINISTRY. MATT. XV. MARK VII. LUKE XI. THE Passover, the great feast of the Jewish nation, was now going on at Jerusalem; it was the third since the Lord Jesus had appeared as a public teacher; but this time it seems He did not attend it.* While the whole people went down as one great stream to Jerusalem, He remained in Galilee, or rather He withdrew to the farthest border of the country.* Whatever were his reasons for this, they must have been right and wise. He knew that His appointed hour was not yet come, and perhaps his presence in Jerusalem, while it was filled with people from every part, might have raised such a tumult there, that the work He had still to do might have been hindered. A whole year of labour had yet to be completed, and Jesus would not hasten the time. St. John writes-" After these things"-that is after He had fed the five thousand in the desert, and spoken that long discourse in which He told the people, that He was himself VOL. III. * Greswell's Diss. viii. 320. Vol. II. B "the bread of life ". "Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry (the country of the Jews) because the Jews sought to kill him." Be his reasons what they may, instead of going to Jerusalem he seems at this time often to have changed his place and to have travelled farther north than He yet had done, even to the borders of Tyre and Sidon; and perhaps this movement of his may have yet increased the jealousy of those who closely watched all his steps. They were always ready to accuse him of despising their laws; and we shall find that the Scribes and Pharisees, who were of Jerusalem, thought it worth their while to come so far, that they might be on the watch to find some fault in him. By their being able to leave Jerusalem we see that the Passover was ended.* MARK VII. 1 -4. "Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables." This washing was not that they might be clean, but was looked upon as a religious service. The word, as it is written, *It has been thought probable that it was during the time of the Passover, that the disturbance at Jerusalem took place, in which Pilate caused a number of Galileans to be put to death even in the Temple itself. Our Lord afterwards speaks of their blood having been mingled with their sacrifices. Luke xiii. 1., and perhaps knowing that this massacre would happen, he did not choose that his disciples, most of them Galileans, should be brought into danger by it, or should be thought to have any thing to do with those who had caused the disturbance. |