FROM VILLAGE TO VILLAGE HE WANDERED.HE TALKED TO ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF PEOPLE.MEN,WOMEN AND CHILDREN CAME TO LISTEN EAGERLY TO THE NEW WORDS OF GOOD-WILL AND CHARITY AND LOVE.THEY CALLED JESUS THEIR MASTER AND FOLLOWED HIM WHEREVER HE WENT AS HIS FAITHFUL DISCIPLES
In the days of Jesus it was comparatively easy for an intelligent man with a new idea to get a hearing.
He did not need a lecture room and he was not obliged to spend his valuable time waiting until some one had made him a professor or had ordained him as a minister.
The problem of board and lodging was as easily settled in Judaea as it was almost anywhere in Egypt or in western Asia.
The climate was mild.One suit of clothes would last almost a lifetime.Food was plentiful in a land where most people ate only just as much as was necessary to exist and where they could pluck their daily bread from the trees.
In the time of the Judges and the Kings,when the priestly class had ruled supreme,wandering orators who preached strange heresies were not tolerated.But now the Roman policeman stood guard on the highroads and watched the traffic in the busy cities.
The Romans,indifferent in matters of a spiritual nature,allowed all men to seek salvation after their own fashion,provided they kept away from subjects too closely connected with politics.As long as one did not advocate open rebellion or sedition,there was practically no limit to the freedom of speech.The Roman magistrate existed to see that this rule was enforced and woe to the Pharisee who would have dared to disturb such a meeting.
No wonder that the new prophet was soon followed by a large number of curious villagers and ere he had been gone a month,he had gained a reputation as a speaker and a prophet which reached far beyond the narrow confines of Galilee.
It was then the turn of John to be curious.He was still at liberty although he was closely watched by members of the National Council.He left his beloved Judaea and travelled northward to meet Jesus.
It was the last interview between the two men.
It seems extremely doubtful whether John ever understood what was in the mind of his cousin.The two prophets looked upon this world from entirely different angles.John urged the people to repent of their sins in fear of a wrathful and avenging Jehovah.
In this he was only following what he had learned from the Old Testament,which had been hacked out of the granite rock of Mount Sinai.
Jesus,on the other hand (not yet with any great decisiveness),conceived of life in terms which like the flowers of his native land had been smiled upon by the pleasant sun of a warm climate.
John the Baptist preached “Nay!”
Jesus,just as eagerly,answered “Yea!”
John shared the belief of his fellow Jews,who had created the coming Messiah after the image of their relentless Jehovah.
Jesus had a vision of something nobler and endowed the common Father of all things with everlasting forbearance and a love that surpassed human understanding.
Between those two views,no compromise was possible.
For a moment,John seems to have had a glimpse of what Jesus might come to mean.He told his disciples that they must not expect too much of him,that he was only the forerunner of another teacher,greater than himself.And when two of those pupils (acting upon this suggestion)left him to follow Jesus,he was not angry.
He had given the best there was in him.
Somehow or other,he felt that he had failed.
His death,however terrible,came to him as a welcome relief.
As for Jesus,almost immediately after the encounter with John,he went back to Galilee for a short visit to Nazareth.
Joseph no longer lived,but Mary cleverly kept her small household together and the children could always return to the old home whenever they needed a vacation.