128. Jesus Christ--Survives Assassination Attempt

Jesus Christ--Survives Assassination Attempt

Luk 4:20-32. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son? And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land: but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way, and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath-days. And they ware astonished at his doctrine; for his word was with power.

It is truly affecting to think on what a slippery foundation men attempt to rear the fabric of happiness. They dream of deriving it from their own stores. In the pride of his heart a man imagines himself to be equal to everything. What can elude his penetration; what can resist his force; what can fatigue his industry? Nevertheless, the stammering of a child betrays his purpose; the rustling of a leaf melts his resolution; a stone cut out of the mountain, and hurled at him by an invisible hand, crushes in a moment all his powers into the dust. Are they more secure, or more successful, who defend on foreign aid; who build their felicity on the ability, the constancy, or the affection of others? Alas, it is an attempt to erect a house upon the sand; the washing of the next tide levels it to the ground. Friendship, in a flush of zeal, promised you all encouragement and support. The hour of need comes, and you have recourse to the heart which fondly cherished you; it has waxed cold, it is alienated, it acknowledges no longer. Your mountain stood strong in a prince’s favor. What shall hot “be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” Ah, his breath is in his nostrils, he died yesterday, he has returned to his dust. Applauding multitudes hang upon your lips, the public finger points you out with approbation: but “you have heard” of the sufferings, as well as of the patience of Job. “When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street, the young men saw me and hid themselves: and the aged arose and stood up. When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me. Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel. They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth as for the latter rain; I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army.--But,” O sad reverse! “they that are younger than I, have me in derision. And now I am their song, yea I am their by-word. They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face. Upon my right hand rise the youth, they push away my feet: they mar my path, they set forward my calamity.” And such is everyone who trusteth in popular favor; he feedeth on the wind, and graspeth the east wind in his arms. But a more illustrious and more instructive instance, to this purpose, than that of Job, is before us. Now the eyes of the admiring multitude in the synagogue are fastened with wonder and delight on the face of Jesus, anon they are filled with wrath against him: now all bear him witness, and dwell upon the gracious words which proceed out of his mouth;” next moment they are up in arms, they thrust him out of the city, they hurry him to the brow of the hill, with an intention to cast him down headlong. The cry today is, “let us take him and make him a king; never man spake like this man;” tomorrow it is, “away with him, crucify him; not this man but Barabbas.” Let us trace the progress of the scene, and observe what produced the sudden change, and learn to cease from man, and to draw consolation and support from the approbation of God, and from the testimony of a conscience void of offence. The passage which he had read from the prophet was deeply interesting and affecting. It held up to view a most illustrious personage, supporting a dignified and important character, and singularly qualified for the exercise of it, employed in rendering the most seasonable and the most essential services to mankind; evangelizing the poor, healing the broken-hearted, redeeming the captive, enlightening the blind, setting the prisoner free, proclaiming the jubilee year, the era of universal joy. The value and weight of the subject were greatly enhanced by the manner in which he rehearsed it. Into his lips grace was poured: what majesty sat enthroned on his brow! what mild glory beamed from his eyes! what dignity and race in his attitude as he rose and sat down, in receiving the book and delivering it again to the minister! Behold every eye is fixed upon him, every ear is attention, while in these few but emphatic words, he explains and applies the prediction of the prophet, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” “I am He to whom the prophet gives witness; I am come into the world on this benevolent design; I, your bone and your flesh, your brother, your neighbor, your fellow-citizen, your friend.” “Come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” On this admiration gradually, gives way to a feeling less gentle. Familiarity lowers the object with which it converses; self-love cannot brook to acknowledge a superior in an equal; envy seeks to indemnify itself under the oppression of eminent worth and excellence, by discovering and fixing upon some humiliating, mortifying circumstance, that reduces the hated greatness nearer to its own level. This explains the change which so quickly appeared in our Savior’s auditory. Dazzled at first, by both the matter and manner of his address, they crown him with applause. But perceiving themselves eclipsed in the luster of his graces and virtues, sinking as he rose, they strive to tumble him from his excellency, as if by degrading him, they were themselves to mount. His parentage is his only vulnerable part; that was poor, and mean, and despised, and that, accordingly, envy brings forward with affected surprise. “Is not this Joseph’s son?” And when once this baleful, malignant passion has taken possession of the breast, every claim of justice, every plea of worth, every call of gratitude, every emotion of mercy, is disregarded, stifled, trampled under foot.

Christ observes it with pity, not with indignation; for he came not only to relieve the miserable, but to bear with and overcome the forward, to convince, subdue, and melt the obstinate, to cure prejudice, and to instruct indocility. Their uncivil, invidious inquiry excites in him no resentment; it can do him no hurt; but grieved at the hardness of their heart, and at the same time, compassionating their weakness, he at once reproves the one and makes an apology for the other. The apology he draws from the common, and well known principles of human nature. No prophet is accepted in his own country. Among strangers, a man is esteemed according to his talents and virtues. His ancestry and kindred are a matter of no moment. It is even a degree of merit to have emerged out of obscurity; but at home, among kindred and acquaintance, eminent qualities are regarded with a jealous eye. The reputation, ability, and wisdom of exalted goodness are considered by the less deserving as a reproach to themselves: What is every day within our reach we every day neglect. What costs us little we lightly esteem. Difficulty, and danger, and distance enhance the value of every object of pursuit. But the very apology implies a censure of human nature, as wicked, unjust, and absurd, in undervaluing worth merely because it is allied to us, and neglecting good for no better reason than that it is known. Our blessed Lord, accordingly, blends mild and gentle reproof with the excuse which he makes for the unkind return that his countrymen and kinsfolk had made to his affectionate endeavors to serve and to instruct them. And this seems to be the force of his reasoning.--“You have heard, my dear friends, of my going about doing good, at Capernaum and elsewhere; and you will naturally and with justice say to me, in the language of the common proverb, Physician, heal thyself: look at home; in attention to objects more remote, overlook not such as are equally pressing, and still more nearly interesting; let thy own country, if not in preference, at least in common with strangers, reap the benefit of these thy extraordinary, supernatural powers. Well, my beloved countrymen, here I am for this very purpose: ready to instruct you in the way of salvation, ready to heal all your plagues, to perform all the offices of mercy and loving-kindness which the prophet, in the passage which I now read, predicted concerning me: but I know the meaning of these ungracious looks, of these malignant whispers, of that envious inquiry into my pedigree, and occupation, and connections in life. You are under the power of prejudice, you are too well acquainted with me to reap benefit from my ministrations: my labors will be more acceptable where I am less known.

“It happeneth to me as it did to the prophets of old; they were neglected, hated, persecuted of their own countrymen; and you inherit the spirit of your fathers, whom no calamity could subdue, no arguments convince, no goodness charm. I appeal to the history of our own nation. The times of Elijah’s prophecy were marked with many signal interpositions of Divine Providence, particularly with a grievous famine, occasioned by a drought of uncommon duration, three years and six months. It was universally felt, particularly by the poorer and more unprotected part of the community, the widow, and the fatherless; and the extraordinary powers of the prophet were equally well known and acknowledged. But what is the fact? Was the prophet sought unto? Did the general distress drive the sufferers to seek relief in the piety and miraculous powers of the man of God? No, he was the Tishbite, the son of somebody whom they knew, he was at home, among his own, and therefore his person was despised, his office slighted, and even the widow and the fatherless unsubdued by the strong hand of necessity, perished from want, because they scorned the humane and compassionate interposition of a neighbor and kinsman. But O how acceptable was his visit to a stranger, a pagan, a woman of Sidon? She felt with others the pressure of the common calamity; the law of self-preservation, and compassion for the son of her womb, were strong in her, as in any widow or mother in Israel: but more faithful and believing than they, she cheerfully made the sacrifice of her last earthly provision; at the word of the prophet, she gave up her own and her son’s subsistence; she reposed confidence in heaven, she acknowledged the ensigns of Deity, she cast herself upon a miracle, and her hope made her not ashamed.

“Take another example, my friends, from your own history, and let it admonish and reprove you. Elisha inherited a double portion of the spirit of his master Elijah; he performed many notable miracles, he divided the waters of the river, he made iron to swim, he raised the dead to life, he employed the supernatural powers which were conferred upon him, in removing the miseries of his fellow-creatures. Among these the leprosy was one, a disease which baffles the skill of the physician, which not medicine, but the immediate power of God alone can cure. Now, what saith the record? What Israelitish lepers applied to the prophet, of the multitudes who were affected with this loathsome distemper? Not so much as one. He was at home, among those of his own house; the wretched patient, loathsome to himself, and a burden offensive to everyone about him, chooses rather to continue an abomination, than to be beholden to an acquaintance, to an equal, to a prophet of his own country, for the miracle of cleansing. Not so the son of the stranger: Naaman, the Syrian, the commander of armies, the favorite of a prince a worshipper of strange gods. He believes the report, he flies to the physician; he follows the prescription, he washes in Jordan and becomes clean.” The conscience of his audience makes the application of our Savior’s doctrine; and what ensues? What always did, and always will, when the principle of conscience is awakened, either humble and contrite submission to the reproof and an honest endeavor to profit by it: or else a rancorous animosity against the reprover, the confirmation of prejudice, a willful exclusion of light, or a determined perseverance in what is known to be wrong. Unhappily the frequenters of the synagogue at Nazareth were of this last description. Their indignation falls, not as it ought to have done, on their own mean, unworthy, ungenerous, unmanly spirit, but on their kind, affectionate, gentle monitor. And what follows? Is it the cynical representation of some surly traducer of mankind a or is it truth and history? Merciful Father of mankind! must I believe that the very persons who just now gazed with delight on that super-angelic face, who listened with rapture to the accents of that celestial voice, who justly gloried in their townsman, companion, and friend, are instantaneously, converted into demons of hell? What, meditate, digest murder! the murder of innocence, truth; and wisdom! What, all of them! not one calm, moderate spirit to suggest milder counsels, to plead the cause of goodness, to arrest the hand of violence! No, not one. O human nature, what wert thou; and what art thou become! I tremble to think that I am a partaker of thee; of a “heart deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” “They rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.” And shall not fire come down from heaven, as it did once, and a second time, to avenge a lighter insult offered to a much inferior prophet? O no! “the Son of man came not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” Behold a more glorious triumph, a miracle of grace and condescension, a triumph worthy of the Son of God, and the Savior of men. “He, passing through the midst of them, went his way.” Behold power and mercy united. Were they, like the men of Sodom, stricken with blindness? Were their hands, like Jeroboam’s, dried up and rendered immoveable? Were their eyes, like the disciples going to Emmaus, holden, that they should not know him? I stop not to inquire. Suffice it to say, his “hour was not yet come,” and they had no power at all over him but what was permitted of God. And vain is the contention of man against God: it is hard for thee, O persecutor, to “kick against the pricks.” In the history referred to by our Lord, and in the instance of a miraculous supply of food to the widow of Sarepta, in a season ofextreme scarcity, as well as in the other equally noted instance of a miraculous cure of leprosy performed on the body of Naaman the Syrian, we perceive the dawning of the gospel day upon the Gentile world. They believed and obeyed the word of the prophet, and they obtained relief, while “the seed of Abraham after the flesh” remained unbelieving and impenitent. “Of a truth, God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation, he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” “The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance, unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” How God will deal in the judgment with those who never enjoyed the benefit of either the law or the gospel, it is not for us to determine. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” But “we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation; which, at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?”

Among other evidences that the Christian dispensation is from heaven, the universality of it is not the least. This act of grace contains no unkind exceptions. There is no proscribed region, or family, or individual. The proclamation is, “peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord.” This dawning light was now in a progress “unto the perfect day.” Though Christ’s personal ministry was, in the first instance, addressed “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” its influence quickly spread far beyond the confines of Judea. “His fame went throughout all Syria;” a woman of Canaan believed on him, and her daughter was healed: the Roman centurion, who had been made partaker of the same precious faith, in like manner had power with God, and prevailed in behalf of his palsied servant. Some of our Lord’s immediate attendants lived to see “the kingdom of God come with power.” “The centurion, and they that were with him watching Jesus” on the cross, “when they saw the earthquake, and those things that were done,” though unaccustomed to fear, “they feared greatly,” and made this open confession; “Truly this was the Son of God.” The miraculous effusion of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, in the gift of tongues on the day of Pentecost, opened a passage in all directions for the speedy diffusion of the truth as it is in Jesus, over all lands. Peter no longer trembles and denies his master, but stands boldly up to plead his cause, and precious souls by thousands are added unto the Lord. Cured of his Jewish prejudices, by a vision from heaven, he descends to Caesarea, preaches the word of life to the centurion, Cornelius and “his kinsmen and near friends.” It is accompanied with power, and “with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” That same apostle was spared to address epistles “to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” Philippians the evangelist, “went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which be did.” That evangelist finds a proselyte in the desert of Gaza, in a person of “great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure.” he, too, gladly receives the word, is baptized, and goes on his way rejoicing, to carry into those dark regions the light of divine truth, and the Scripture is fulfilled which saith, “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.”

Time would fail in tracing the progress, and marking the success, of him, who is emphatically denominated the Apostle of the Gentiles, through the islands of the Mediterranean, over the states of Greece, in Italy, at Rome. John the beloved disciple, had the pleasure of dispatching particular letters, dictated by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, to the seven churches of Asia. He was one of those, then, concerning whom Christ said, in the passage already quoted, “verily I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.” His life was prolonged to extreme old age. He saw the kingdom of his divine Master established in Europe, in Asia, in Africa. The great Western World was still unknown; but, in the wisdom of God, it too has emerged out of the bosom of the vast ocean, to swell the Redeemer’s empire. To embrace the whole globe is its generous design. The period approaches, when “great voices in heaven” shall proclaim, saying: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” “Though Israel,” therefore, “be not gathered,” Messiah “shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord:” for be saith of him; “it is a light thin that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” And as the ancient dispensation contained many intimations of favor to the Gentile world, so the Gospel contains and discloses a dawn of hope to the Jewish nation. “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out?”

Some interpreters of note have remarked a coincidence between the duration of the great famine which afflicted Israel, in the days of Elias, and that of our Savior’s ministry from his baptism to his death, namely three years and six months. As during the former period, at the word of the prophet, heaven was shut up, and all elementary influence suspended, to the inexpressible distress of the whole land; so during the latter, through the mediation of a greater than Elias, full communication was opened. In the one we have displayed the severity of the Law, in the other the grace of the Gospel; in Elias, the minister of wrath and condemnation: in Jesus, the minister of mercy and reconciliation; the one inflicting a temporary curse, the other calling down an everlasting benediction; there the clouds bound up, and the dew restrained; here a “doctrine dropping as the rain, and speech distilling as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.” The prophet represents, in beautiful language, the blessedness of an open communication between earth and heaven: “It shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.” But the contrast is dreadful! “She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax; and I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees.” The prayer of faith is the channel of this interesting communication.

It is humiliating to observe, and to reflect on the uniform and unrelenting malignity of the human heart. That greatness, power, wealth should be envied, and the possessor hated and thrust at, is not so much an object of surprise; but that simplicity, innocence, kindness, beneficence should provoke hostility, would exceed belief, were not the proofs too numerous and too stubborn to be resisted. We justly detest the wickedness, injustice, and ingratitude of the Nazarenes, in attempting to destroy their unassuming, unoffending townsman: but is the angry, the lofty spirit of man now subdued to the obedience and love of Christ? Has not a daring attempt lately been made by a great nation, once denominated Christian, to obliterate the name, and overwhelm the cause of Christ? Wherefore change the ancient measurements of time? It was in the hope of swallowing up the distinction of days, and thereby of sinking the observance of the Lord’s day in the mass. With the abolition of the sabbath the service of the sanctuary is swept away; and the spirit of Christianity, it was presumed, would not long survive its forms and rites. Are there none among ourselves who express rancorous animosity against the worthy name which they so unworthily bear? Is not the Lord’s day profaned and the temple deserted; and, in defiance of the law of the land, to say nothing of the obligations of decency and religion, are not efforts made by persons high in place and station, to discredit and disuse the ordinances of the Gospel, and thereby to bring the Gospel itself into disrepute? We say, however, concerning such men, in the spirit and words of the wise Gamaliel: “Refrain from these men and let them alone: for if this counsel, or this work, be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, they cannot overthrow it; lest haply they be found even to fight against God.” To this fell spirit in man, what a striking, what an amiable contrast have we in the temper and conduct of our blessed Lord! To withdraw himself from among these ingrates is the only mark of displeasure expressed by him. He desisted from teaching persons who were determined not to learn; “He did not many mighty works there,” because they were liable to misapprehension, to misrepresentation. “He, passing through the midst of them, went his way.” Thus men grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and he departs from them. And thus the Apostles of the Lord, Paul and Barnabas, when “the Jews, filled with envy, spake against them, contradicting and blaspheming,” they said; “It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo we turn to the Gentiles.” And is it no punishment to be forsaken of a friend; a friend whom we have grieved and offended, who feels himself constrained to retire, but retires silently, slowly, reluctantly? Little do men reflect what sorrow, what remorse they are treasuring up to themselves, in slighting, in neglecting a day of merciful visitation. It drew tears from the eyes of the compassionate friend of mankind: “And when he was come near he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.”

We conclude with pointing out the Savior as a pattern of perseverance in well-doing. Nazareth is no longer a theatre of teaching and working. Does he therefore sullenly, resentfully cease from discharging the duties of his high office? No, other cities will gladly receive him. “He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath-days.” And what a course of active, unwearied beneficence did the remainder of his earthly pilgrimage exhibit! through evil report and good report, through opposition and discouragement, through sorrow and suffering, by night and by day, till, bowing his head, he could say, “It is finished.” “Arm yourselves,” therefore, Christians, “with the same mind:” “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith:--consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” “And let us not be weary in well-doing; for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”