CHAPTER XVI.

JESUS ENTERS JERUSALEM IN TRIUMPH.

EVENTS

OF THE FIRST DAY. THE GREEKS DESIRE TO SEE HIM. HE RETIRES TO BETHANY.

ALTHOUGH it was yet six days before the Passover, the people had already collected in great numbers at Jerusalem. There were certain legal defilements which required purification, some of them for seven days, before the feast could be partaken. This obliged many to resort early to the city; and it is reasonable to suppose that, in many instances, they were accompanied by their friends. Hence it is easy to see that the crowd must have been gathering for several days; and St. John informs us, that, as they met and talked in the courts of the temple, there was a general inquiry for Jesus. “What think ye?" said they, "will he not come to the feast?" They remembered how he had been treated at his former visits to the city; how he had been harassed and stoned; and how but four months ago, at the feast of Dedication, he had been obliged to fly for his life, be

John xi. 55.

fore he had been there a day. They knew, too, that there was a proclamation abroad against him, and that the chief council had given commandment, that, if any man knew where he was, he should inform of it, that he might be seized. It was therefore a great matter of inquiry among the people, whether he would venture, at this obvious risk of his life, to show himself at the feast. They did not know, as he did, that his time was come, and he would shun danger no longer.

It must have been with no little surprise that they heard, on Saturday evening, the report of his arrival at Bethany. On former occasions he had come late and privately. But now he was among the first to arrive, and was coming publicly. The strong sentiment of grateful admiration prevailed; and, in spite of the decrees of the ruling powers, there was a spontaneous movement in the multitude to do honor to the benevolent prophet. The next morning, therefore, they went out to meet him, and conduct him into the city. All history does not record a more genuine instance of enthusiastic public homage. It was the more striking in this case because so transient.

Meantime Jesus had left Bethany; and as he went toward Jerusalem he sent two of his disciples into the village of Bethphage, which lay just

Matthew xxi. 1. Mark xi. 1. Luke xix. 29. John xii. 12.

off the highway, with directions to bring to him a young ass, which they should find tied with its dam at the entrance of the village. It undoubtedly belonged to one of his friends and followers, as the owner at once allowed it to be taken, on being told, "the Lord hath need of him." Some of the disciples placed their garments on the beast, and Jesus sat upon him. This seemed to the attending multitude a signal that he was now to assume the rank and title which they believed to be his, and they set no limits to their expressions of delight and transport. They took off their garments, and laid them in the path; they cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way. They thus proceeded till they were met, probably as they descended the Mount of Olives toward the city, by the people coming from Jerusalem. They too were bearing branches of palm-trees, and they fell in with the procession. And the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and to praise God for all the mighty works which they had seen. And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh

in the name of the Lord! Blessed be the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" Thus they went forward to Jerusalem.

Little did the multitude know what was pass

ing in the thoughts of him whom they were thus honoring. Little did they understand how far he was from sharing the feelings and purposes by which they were impelled. In the midst of the triumph, the central figure of the whole, to whom all eyes and hearts turned, he was borne along passively, taking no part in the scene of which he was chief part. There was nothing to him exhilarating in the shouts or the gladness of the people; there was nothing to him glorious in this princely approach to the capital of the nation. He looked far beyond it all. He saw the truth and knew the future. And as the procession rolled on from the Mount of Olives and across the valley, he fixed his eyes on the guilty city, and wept at the ruin which was about to overtake it. "O that thou hadst known," he exclaimed, "even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace! But now they are hidden from thine eyes."

As this remarkable assemblage drew near, it is no wonder that, as Matthew expresses it, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?" And the people answered, "This is Jesus of Nazareth, the Prophet of Galilee." Thus they proceeded into the gate, and wound up the steep ascent, and conducted Jesus to the temple.

The Pharisees and priests could ill bear this outbreak of popular enthusiasm. They said among

themselves, "Ye perceive how we prevail nothing; the world is gone out after him." Some of them went to Jesus on the road, and attempted to persuade him to put an end to the commotion. But he replied, "I tell you if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." After he had arrived in the temple, and the very children, seeing his miracles and catching the feeling of the crowd, shouted, "Hosanna to the son of David," the priests and scribes could not conceal their displeasure, and expressed it to him. "Hearest thou what these say?" "Yea," answered he, "have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" Thus on all sides his malicious enemies were baffled. It was impossible for them, at such a moment, to execute their purpose.

Another occurrence was adapted still further to mortify them. Some Greeks, who, being probably proselytes to the Jewish faith, had come up to the festival, expressed to Philip a desire to be introduced to Jesus. They entertained the common expectations respecting the Messiah, and probably hoped, by attaching themselves to him, to share in the advantages of the kingdom, which, they judged from the events of the morning, was about being set up. Philip and Andrew made known. to Jesus their request. Whether he granted it, and had an interview with the Greeks, is not said.