death was inevitable he hoped to the end that his Father would spare him this sacrifice. But he clearly saw that the conversion of his people was not to be secured simply by the means which up to this time he had employed. He was obliged to give up the hope of accomplishing the pure spiritualization of Judaism as certain of the Pharisees understood it. He himself gave up his Judaism, and became in the most absolute sense unsectarian. He was no longer to be simply the spiritual and moral Messiah who was born in the days of the temptation in the desert; he was to be the suffering Messiah, sealing his work by martyrdom. His death was to precede the coming of the kingdom, which he still continued to proclaim near at hand. III. The third period may be entitled The Final Struggle and the Last Week.1 We shall study it in our third volume. It is the best-known period of Jesus' life. The light which authentic documents shed upon his life, a light which from the beginning grows ever stronger, is for these last days as perfect as could be desired. 1 Matt. xx.-xxviii.; Mark x.-xvi.; Luke ix. 53xxiv.; John vii.-xx. CHAPTER I THE EARLIER ACTIVITY OF JESUS UR first volume brought events down to the time when Jesus, at about thirty years of age, began his ministry. Still thrilling through and through with the burning words of John the Baptist, and the solemn refrain of his preaching, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," he began by repeating these words, and for the time he said no others. But it was not at Nazareth that he was to preach what he already called the "gospel," - the good news, that is, the coming renovation of things, prepared for by a change in men's hearts and lives. In Nazareth he had no authority: he had been known there from childhood, and "no man is a prophet in his own country." And, besides, he would there remain unknown. Nazareth is hidden away in the hills; he needed a centre from which to radiate into the far distance. Therefore he chose Capernaum, deciding that this village should be the point of departure for his preaching, his calls to his people. The choice was, no doubt, the result of careful investigation on his part. He might have stationed himself elsewhere; but remaining in Galilee, giving up for the outset the idea of Jerusalem,1 he could be nowhere better placed than in Capernaum. He certainly knew this town and all the lake shore, and in his youth he had often taken the six or seven hours' walk which separated Nazareth from the Sea of Galilee. He decided, therefore, to leave the place where he had always lived. The rupture was certainly painful. This village where he had grown up was entwined with memories not merely of his childhood, but of all his youth and his life up to the age of thirty. It is true that these memories were of mingled character. His mother did not understand him; his brothers dis 1 "For the outset," because his first attempts upon Jerusalem had not succeeded. See, further, Chapter VIII., "Journeys to Jerusalem." |