CHAP. III. OCCURRENCES OF PASSION WEEK. intrOcitiCiOy events : Friday and Satztra'ay. —With Wieseler (Chronol. Synops. 386-392), Ave asstune Friday, Sth of Nisan (March 31 of A.D. 3o, or A. C.C. 783) to have been the day refet-red to by St. John (xii. I) as that of our Lord's arrival at Bethany. After quitting the hospitable roof of Zacchmus, and traversing the rough road which lay between Jericho arid Jerusalem, he would without difficulty complete his journey before the com mencement of the Sabbath at six o'clock. This, the last Sabbath of his mortal life, he spent in the retirement of the village where his most devoted friends, Lazarus and his sisters, lived. The grateful family, to do him honour, prepared him a, supper (John xii. 2), at the house of a certain Simon, con nected probably with them by a close relationship, on whom, as on Lazarus himself, the Lord it would seem had bestowed his mighty power ; for from the epithet attached to his name by St. Matthew (xxvi. 6), and St. Mark (xiv. 3), it has been con jectured that he had been recovered of the frightful disease of leprosy. This domestic entertainment is interesting, not only for the presence of Lazarus, Avhom the late astounding miracle had made a most observed person (John xii. 2, io), but as eliciting the character of his sisters. Martha served,' deeply impressed, no doubt, with the honour of service to one whose greatness she had, on a former occasion, acknowledged to be more than human (John xi. 27) ; Avhile the thoughtful Mary proved, by a remarkable act, that she had not in va,in sat at Jesus' feet. During the meal she approached the trio/a/um whereon the Lord reclined, arid having first anointed his head and then his bare feet with most costly and fragrant unguents which she had prepared (comp. Matt. xxvi. 7 and Mark xiv. 3, with John xii. 3), she proceeded, in token of a still intenser devotion, to wipe his feet with her hair. As on a former not dissimilar occasion (Luke vii. 37-49), so here also, the Lord commended the act in terms of emphatic praise ; but in this case he recognised a specially profound faith in Mary. She seemed to be the only one whose intuition of belief embraced with prophetic power the great consummation, which all were- so slow to allow, of his approaching sacrifice. While Judas and (sad to say-) his fellow-disciples (Matt. xxvi. 8 comp. with John xii. 4) were disin genuously grudging this precious office of love and faith, the Lord bestowed on it one of the most expressive commendations to be met with in the Gospel : She hath done what she could,' he said, she is come beforehand to anoint boa'y to the butying-' (Mark xiv. 8) : and he graciously added the promise of immortality as tbe guerdon of her love ; the pages of the Gospel should be for ever as redolent with the record of that pious deed (ver. 9) as was all the house at that moment with the oclour of the ointment (John xii. 3). After the Sabbath, but before the day was past, many from the neighbouring city seem to have been attracted to Bethany by the information that Jesus and La zarus were both to be seen there (ver. 9). But, true to their old malignity, while the many were displaying a popular attachment, if not an actual faith and adhesion to Christ (ver. r), the Phari saic authorities began to renew their efforts to ap prehend him, including, in their malevolent pur pose, on this occasion., his friend, whose fame the great miracle had indissolubly linked with his own (ver. to).
Sztntlay of Passion wed ; loth tVisan (Apri12). Owing to his absence from the last year's Passover, and his cautious attendance only at the festivals of Tabernacles and Dedication, much speculation was rife as to the possibility of his further absence from the present feast (John xi. 56). It was, however, known on the morrow after the Sabbath that Jesus would certainly visit Jerusalem. This evoked the grand enthusiasm, of which some symptoms had appeared at Jericho, and which termmated the Messianic triumph of a public entiy into the metropolis amidst the applause of the nation. Not only the country population who had tome to the Passover (6xXos Irons eAS-cly els Tip .tr,p..r7jv, John xii. 12), but the urban also, whom the resurrec tion of Lazarus had lately roused (Kai innjurncrev 6 6xXos, K. T. X., ver. .6), united their loud and cor dial Hosannahs to his praise as the Son of David come to his royal heritage. The four evangelists unite in describing, the illustrious welcome which Christ received in his progress front Bethany to the capital (Matt. xxi. 1-9 ; Mark xi. 1- to ; Luke xix. 29-35 ; John xii. .12-1_5). Moving beyond descrip tion was the scene, when, amidst the palm-bearing multitudes, who shouted their pmans of victory, and strawed the way with their garments, in honour of him whom they were conducting as their sin cerely accepted Messiah to the city of his royal ancestors, the meek and lowly Saviour, accepting the homage of the moment, but prescient withal of the approaching apostasy and the miseries it would bring, came to the spot, on a ledge of Olivet, where, as travellers say, the whole city in an instant bursts into view' (Stanley, Sinai and Pal., [ed. 3],
p. 193). The sudden view which met the Re deemer's eye drew tears of profoundest sorrow from him ; and as the glory of his transfiguration was shadowed by his cross and death (Luke ix. ,31), so this, the twin glory of his triumph, was dimmed with that shower of tears wherewith' [as Jeremy Taylor says] he wet the polaris with a dew sweeter than the moistures upon Mount Hermon or the manna-drops, as he wept over undone Jerusalem in the day of his triumph' (Life of Christ, part iii. sec. 15). And another bitterness mingled itself with this brief joy. We have seen how often the holiest, happiest moments of the Saviour's life were intruded on by the carping Pharisees. Their spite did not spare him now. They urge him to check the rejoicing crowds (Luke xix. 39). But in vain He, who in Galilee so often repressed the ambition of his followers and their offers to proclaim him king, now accepts all their homage .and encourages all theii loyal acclamations : I tell you, if these should hold their peace, the stones would imme diately cry out !' (ver. 4o). He had actually him self initiated this great demonstration ; for, on arriving at Bethphage, the suburb or pom6rrium which stretches away to the eastern basement of the temple (Renan, Vie de 3/sits, p. 374, n. 4), he de spatched two of his attendants to fetch the fresh and unsullied colt on which he meant to enter the city (Mark xi. 1-7). Every act almost was a deli berate verification of ancient prophecy (comp. Zech. ix. 9 with Matt. xxi. 4), and every hour was bring ing him nearer to that death which was the very purpose of his life and mission. So he will check nothing, conceal nothing. The unrepressed excite ment which greeted him outside Jerusalem, con tagiously spread to the population within the gates. All the city was moved, saying, Who is this ?' (Matt. xxi. to). His approach to the temple was welcomed by the Hosannah-chants of little chil dren (comp. Ps. viii. 2), amidst the murmurs of' the chief priests and scribes (Matt. xxi. 15, t6), and signalised by his merciful cures upon the blind and the lame, who gathered around him within the sacred precincts (ver. 14). So complete was the sensation which his arrival excited among the varied inhabitants of the capital whom the Passover had collected, that St. John notices it as a memorable fact, that sundry Gentile proselytes humbly and reverentially sought an interview with Jesus by the assistance of the apostles Philip and Andrew (John xii. 2o-36). He freely announced his own impend ing death, and proclaims its universal efficacy for Gentile no less than Jew. In direct allusion also to the mode of his dying, he said : And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me' (ver. 33). The short address which Christ delivered on this remarkable occasion (which Dr. Stier strikingly couples with the visit of the Magi, as an indication of the interest of the Gentiles in him, at the end of his career, such as that event had betokened at its commencement), was inter rupted by a voice of heavenly approbation like that which had greeted him at his baptism and his transfiguration (vers. 28-3o). Far otherwise was its reception among the carping bystanders. It spoke of light,' as befitted the announcement of blessing to the benighted heathen (comp. Luke ii. 32 and Matt. ii. 2), and of himself as that light. Happy would he be if they would only bask in such a sunshine I But, alas ! their minds were blinded by prejudice against so glorious an exten sion of spiritual blessing. They were for quench ing the light. The melancholy record follows : These things spake Jesus, and departed and did hide himself from them' ( John xii. 36). This state ment probably synchronises with Matt. xxi. 17 and Mark xi. ; if so, our Lord's retreat from the hatred and opposition of the city was to the love and faith of the happy Bethany. Before this re markable day, the loth of Nisan, ends, we cannot refrain from noticing the typical provision of the Mosaic law (Exod. xii. 3), which prescribed to the whale • congregation of Israel ' the separation on it of the paschal lamb in readiness for its offering on the 14th. Do we not read, in the events of the day just past, the solemn, though most unconscious consecration, on the part of the universal nation, of him who was so soon to be sacrificed as the true paschal lamb ? From an important statement of St. Luke (xxi. 37, 38), it wotild appear that during the few remaining days of his earthly ministry, the Lord devoted the mornings to public teaching in the temple, eager to embrace every opportunity which the favourable temper of the people allowed him, of impressing their minds with his instruction. The rest of the day seems to have been given to the disciples, with whom he would at eventide retire to Bethany.