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Page 51
When Jesus came to Jerusalem, he found in the courts of the Temple men
who were selling oxen and sheep and doves for the sacrifices, and other
men sitting at tables changing the money of Jews who came from other
lands into the money of Judea. All this made the courts around the
Temple seem like a market, and not a place for the worship of God.
[Illustration: _"Take these things away"_]
Jesus picked up some cord and made from it a little whip. With it he
began to drive out of the Temple all the buyers and sellers. He was but
one, and they were many; but such power was in his look, that they ran
before him. He drove the men and the sheep and the oxen; he overturned
the tables and threw on the floor the money, and to those who were
selling the doves he said: "Take these things away; make not my Father's
house a house for selling and buying!"
The acts of Jesus were not pleasing to the rulers of the Jews, for many
of them were making money by this selling of sacrifices and changing of
money. Some of the rulers came to Jesus and said to him: "What right
have you to come here and do such things as these? What sign can you
show that God has given to you power to rule in this place?"
Jesus said to them: "I will give you a sign. Destroy this house of God,
and in three days I will raise it up."
Then said the Jews, "It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple,
and it is not finished yet. Will you raise it up in three days?"
But Jesus did not mean that Temple on Mount Moriah. He was speaking of
himself, for in him God was dwelling as in a temple, and he meant that
when they should put him to death, he would rise again in three days.
Afterward, when Jesus had died and risen again, his followers, the
disciples, thought of what he had said, and understood these words.
THE STORY OF THE STRANGER AT THE WELL
While Jesus was teaching in Jerusalem and in the country places near it,
John the Baptist was still preaching and baptizing. But already the
people were leaving John and going to hear Jesus. Some of the followers
of John the Baptist were not pleased as they saw that fewer people came
to their master, and that the crowds were seeking Jesus. But John said
to them: "I told you that I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before
him. Jesus is the Christ, the king. He must grow greater, while I must
grow less; and I am glad that it is so."
Soon after this, Herod Antipas, the king of the province or land of
Galilee, put John in prison. Herod had taken for his wife a woman named
Herodias, who had left her husband to live with Herod, which was very
wicked. John sent word to Herod, that it was not right for him to have
this woman as his wife. These words of John made Herodias very angry.
She hated John, and tried to kill him. Herod himself did not hate John
so greatly, for he knew that John had spoken the truth. But he was weak,
and yielded to his wife Herodias. To please her, he sent John the
Baptist to a lonely prison among the mountains east of the Dead Sea; for
the land in that region, as well as Galilee, was under Herod's rule.
There in prison Herod hoped to keep John safe from the hate of his wife
Herodias.
Soon after John the Baptist was thrown into prison, Jesus left the
country near Jerusalem with his disciples, and went toward Galilee, the
province in the north. Between Judea in the south and Galilee in the
north, lay the land of Samaria, where the Samaritans lived, who hated
the Jews. They worshipped the Lord as the Jews worshipped him, but they
had their own Temple and their own priests. And they had their own
Bible, which was only the five books of Moses; for they would not read
the other books of the old Testament. The Jews and the Samaritans would
scarcely ever speak to each other, so great was the hate between them.
When Jews went from Galilee to Jerusalem, or from Jerusalem to Galilee,
they would not pass through Samaria, but went down the mountains to the
river Jordan, and walked beside the river, in order to go around
Samaria. But Jesus, when he would go from Jerusalem to Galilee, walked
over the mountains straight through Samaria. One morning while he was on
his journey, he stopped to rest beside an old well at the foot of Mount
Gerizim, not far from the city of Shechem, but nearer to a little
village that was called Sychar. This well had been dug by Jacob, the
great father or ancestor of the Israelites, many hundreds of years
before. It was an old well then in the days of Jesus; and it is much
older now; for the same well may be seen in that place still. Even now
travelers may have a drink from Jacob's well.
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