  The Teachings of Jesus Page 2: Evening 2  TAKEN FROM THE CATHOLIC BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE, Vol. 1: The Coming of the King, Virtue and Co. LTD, London Nihil Obstat Joannes Barton, D.D. F.S.A. HE TALKS TO SINNERS "Well, Alan!" Uncle David laid down his pen as Alan entered the library. "I was just beginning to wonder if you had got sent up to bed in disgrace after the way you knocked over the coffee-pot at dinner tonight!" "Of course not!" Alan replied. "I said I was sorry, and you know how I helped to clean up the carpet afterwards. If you're really and truly sorry and if it is only an accident, anyway, you don't get punished. But, of course," Alan added, as he settled down in the big red armchair near his uncle, "you have to be sorry, and do what you can to put things right. ..." "And that," said his uncle, "is a very good start to what we are going to talk about tonight, because I had in mind to go right back to that first question of yours last night. Do you remember---you said you wanted to know all about Jesus. If there is one thing Jesus taught it was that you had to be truly sorry. You couldn't enter into His Kingdom unless you were sorry for the wrong things you had done. I'm not saying it was wrong of you to knock the coffee-pot over," his uncle continued, a twinkle in his eyes; "but I do rather feel if you had not been trying to reach for those nice sugared biscuits in such a hurry, it might not have happened!" Alan grinned as he met his uncle's eyes. "Of course," he cried, "you are perfectly right, and Mummy was just being kind when she said that it was an accident! Could you tell me what Jesus was really like, please? I mean not just what he taught the people, but how and when. People didn't go to classes to hear Him, did they?" "No," said his uncle, "though sometimes He taught in the synagogues. There was the time soon after He had begun to preach when He returned to Nazareth. The people had heard of some of the wonderful things He had done, and when Jesus went with them to the synagogue on the Sabbath, they asked Him to preach to them." "Was the synagogue like the church?" Alan asked suddenly. "I want to know exactly about it, please, so that I can shut my eyes and picture Jesus there." Uncle David smiled. "The Jews only offered sacrifice in the Temple, but they met in other buildings, called synagogues, Alan, for religious instruction, and for the reading of the Books of Scriptures. The synagogue consisted of a long hall. At one end Jesus would see a wooden chest covered with a veil, in which the Sacred Books were kept, and when He stood up to preach, He would stand on a raised platform near the centre of the hall. He would then be facing the main body of the synagogue, which was divided into two parts---the men in one side, and the women in another." "But before He started to preach, He would join in the singing of the psalms, and listen to the rabbi saying a prayer. There was nothing very unusual in inviting Jesus to preach, because it was the custom to invite any well-known man present to do this; and usually he preached on whichever part of the Bible the rabbi had chosen for the reading." "What did Our Lord read that day?" Alan asked, shutting his eyes. "Did the rabbi hand him a Bible?" "The Bible was not in book form as we know it, remember," his uncle answered. "At that time books were written on long scrolls of specially treated sheep---or goat-skin called parchment, so you must imagine the rabbi handing Our Lord a long scroll, which He would unroll. It was the scroll of the Book of Isaias, the Prophet. Everybody present in the synagogue that day must have watched Jesus intently---wondering what He was going to say. You see, some remembered Him as a little boy, and others found it hard to believe that the little boy they had seen in Joseph's carpentry shed could possibly be able to preach to them." "Please go on telling me what He said," Alan cried, opening his eyes. "It must have been so thrilling to have been there, and I can imagine it all so clearly now that I know what a synagogue looks like." "First of all," began his uncle, "He read the passage from Isaias. Let me see if I can remember it for you: 'The Lord has anointed me, on me His spirit has fallen: He has sent me to bring good news to men that are humbled, to heal contrite hearts, promising the release of captives, the opening of prison doors, proclaiming the year of the Lord's pardon, the day when He, our God, will give us redress. ...' I think I have remembered it perfectly accurately," his uncle concluded; "I know that I learned it a long time ago, and have never forgotten it, just ..." "Just like me and the Beatitudes, Uncle," David said, "then I suppose Jesus rolled up the scroll and began to preach?" His uncle nodded. "He told them the scripture He had just read was fulfilled in Him---in other words, that what the Prophet Isaias had said was about Himself. He had come to heal the contrite of heart---'contrite' means being sorry for wrong doing and save men from sin." "At first all the people were delighted with His words. At least some of them were, for they felt proud of Him---after all, He had been born in their own little village! But soon their pleasure turned to annoyance when they found Jesus would not perform any miracles for them. You see, they had heard of His miracles in Capharnaum, so they expected Him to do the same for His Own people. "It was then Jesus said to them sadly that a prophet is not honoured in his own country. The people might have believed in Him if He had performed miracles, but Jesus was not prepared to convince them in that way. He wanted them to believe in Him without miracles. He wanted their love and trust without forcing it from them. And the sad thing is, Alan, that on that day, after such a happy beginning, the people turned against Him, and threw Him out of the synagogue. They even began dragging Him up a steep hill, meaning to throw Him over the precipice, but suddenly Jesus freed Himself, and they were unable to harm Him as He walked away from them." "He must have been very sad," Alan murmured softly, "at being so badly treated by His Own people. Where did He go then?" "He went back to Capharnaum," his uncle replied, "and began preaching there. Our Lord had no fixed pulpit, you understand. He spoke to people wherever He found them. He taught in the fields, on the mountainside, by the shores of the Sea of Galilee, sometimes even from a boat, when the crowd pressed in on Him too much. Of course, He spoke in the courts of the Temple, and in the streets of whichever town He happened to be in, because He could be sure of finding an audience to listen to Him. Do you remember His meeting with Nicodemus? Nicodemus was a Pharisee and one of the rulers of the Jews. He had probably seen Jesus in the street, perhaps he had even lingered on the edge of the crowd listening to. Him, but, of course, he would not want his friends to see him having anything to do with the young preacher from Nazareth." "I know!" Alan cried. "He came to Our Lord's house at night, and he said to Jesus, didn't he, that he knew He had come from God, because no other man could perform such miracles? I like Nicodemus for saying that, even though he wasn't brave enough to speak to Jesus in the open." Uncle David smiled. "Jesus told him that a man could not see the Kingdom of God unless he was born anew, and poor Nicodemus was puzzled; he thought Jesus meant that he had to be born again like a new baby, and he knew that that was impossible. Jesus really meant that he had to be Baptised, and start his spiritual life again." "And then Our Lord went on to talk about Himself. He said 'And this Son of Man must be lifted up, as the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, so that those who believe in Him may not perish, but have eternal life.' Then, Alan, came the lovely words, which all of us know so well: 'God so loved the world" that He gave up His Only-begotten Son so that those who believe in Him may not perish, but have eternal life!' These words are full of hope and comfort for all of us, Alan, just as they were for Nicodemus that night. I'm sure Nicodemus after listening to Jesus was a changed man." "Then there was another man, much later, a publican, who also had a change of heart. Do you know his name? It begins with Z-?" Alan thought for a moment. "The little man in the tree," he exclaimed at last. "Zach---Zacchaeus! It was when Jesus was entering Jericho, and Zacchaeus was in the crowd, only he was so short he couldn't get a glimpse of Our Lord, so he climbed a tree ..." "It was just before Passion Week," his uncle said, "and Jesus and His disciples with hundreds of other pilgrims were on their way to the Temple at Jerusalem. Jericho was a very prosperous place in those days, and Zacchaeus in his role as chief tax-gatherer must have been prosperous, too. Jesus, you remember, looked up into the branches of the sycamore tree and saw Zacchaeus---perhaps Our Lord smiled a little to Himself when He saw how this important little man had dared the ridicule of his friends in climbing the tree. Anyway, He told him to come down quickly because He wanted to stay at his house." "Zacchaeus made Jesus very welcome. Like Jesus he knew what everybody was saying---that he was a sinner, and had no right to be sheltering the Son of Man; but Zacchaeus could not go on sinning, and he said so to Jesus. He said he would give half of what he owned to the poor, and repay anybody he had cheated four times over. Zacchaeus might have been short in stature, but he proved that he had a big heart." "Jesus answered him in a way which must have brought tears of joy to his eyes. He said: 'Today, salvation has been brought to this house, he too is a son of Abraham. That is what the Son of Man has come for, to search out and to save what was lost.'" "Our Lord said many times what He had come to do for men. To both Nicodemus and Zacchaeus He made absolutely direct statements as to the purpose of His coming. 'To search out and to save what was lost.' You understand that He meant He had come to look for sinners and save them. He used almost the same words to the Scribes and Pharisees: 'I have come to call sinners to repentance.' And to Pilate He said 'What I was born for, what I came into the world for is to bear witness of the truth.'" "All that Our Lord said of Himself is simply a fulfilling, a carrying on of what was said by the prophets about the Messias. I know," his uncle continued, seeing Alan just bursting to interrupt, "that you are thinking we have talked about this already, but I don't think we can talk about it too often. You see in order to know Jesus, we must know why He came, and how better can we know it than by listening to His Own words?" Alan nodded eagerly. "He came to save the world from sin," he said, "and to found His Kingdom, and---and to be our Redeemer." "Yes," said his uncle quietly, "to be our Redeemer, and He knew what the result of His Coming would be. 'Do not imagine that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have come to bring a sword, not peace.'" "Peace would come only to those who followed His teaching, those who did not listen would perish." "How I wish everybody had listened," Alan cried impulsively, "but I know they did not. They were just blind, weren't they? I suppose they were just like some of the people now who don't believe in Him. I wish I could make everybody see ..." The shadows deepened outside, as Alan and his uncle sat in silence for a time. Alan was busy with his own thoughts, wondering how anybody could turn away from Jesus after they had actually seen and talked with Him. At last he burst out: "But, Uncle David, how could people refuse Our Lord's invitation? I mean when He spoke to them directly." "There was the rich man," Uncle David replied quietly, "a Scribe, who after listening to Our Lord felt just as you do at this moment, Alan. He went up to Him, saying that he would follow him anywhere, but Jesus looked into his heart, and knew that for all his promises he was not sincere. Our Lord knew then that he would never give up all his worldly possessions to follow Him, so the Lord said: 'He that is not with Me is against Me.' And again, 'He that gathereth not with Me, scattereth. No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will bear with the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon.'" "So you see, Alan, what Our Lord meant about the sword: and when he said 'It is fire I have come to spread over the earth'. Now you can begin to understand why even seeing and talking to Jesus was not always enough to change men's hearts. Some people were already too sinful and selfish to be able to shake off their old lives and start again. And others did not have enough courage to sacrifice everything they had previously held most dear. Though there were some ..." "Uncle--I know who you are thinking of---Mary Magdalen!" Alan's eyes were shining. "We have such a lovely picture of her at school. She is kneeling at Our Lord's feet, and she has a kind of jar in her hand. She's just been rubbing the ointment on his feet. And the man who asked Jesus to dinner is looking horrid. He's got a sort of sneer ..." "You remember, don't you," his uncle said quietly, "you remember what Our Lord did?" "Well, he stood up for Mary, didn't he?" "Yes. The Pharisee was thinking that Jesus couldn't really be a holy person, or else He would have known that it was a bad woman who was touching Him ..." "But what did the man expect Him to do?" Alan asked. "Probably what he himself would have done: drawn his feet away from her and told her to go away." "Wouldn't that have been a mean thing to do?" cried Alan. "Jesus knew what the Pharisee was thinking," the priest continued, "so he told him a parable. It was about two men who owed money. One owed a lot and the other owed a little. The man to whom they owed the money let them both off. 'Which do you think', Jesus asked, 'would have been most grateful and loving?'" "The one who was let off most!" Alan exclaimed. "That was what the Pharisee said," Father David replied, "and Jesus agreed but showed him that he had not been very courteous to Him. Even though he had asked Him to dinner, he had given Him no water for his feet. The sinful woman had shown Him her faith and much more love. That was why she was forgiven. He said it to the woman herself: 'Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.' That was how Jesus treated one who had the courage to shake off a bad life and start again." "Mary Magdalen's action is one of the most beautiful incidents in the whole of the life of Our Lord on earth," Uncle David remarked. "For she had been a great sinner. What she did, showed the whole world how God's love can reach out and change even the most hardened of sinners. Jesus Himself said that the story of her great love would be told wherever the gospel was preached among men." As he spoke the last flickering flame of the fire spluttered, and went out. "We too must go out, Alan---to bed," said Uncle David rising, "God keep you; you have plenty to think about as you say your prayers tonight." Continued forward.  E-MAIL HOME-------------------CATECHISM www.catholictradition.org/Children/good-shepherd2.htm |
