Читать книгу The Story of Jesus The Christ - Helen Braun Hojt - Страница 20

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with fresh, green leaves, and these leaves keep the water clean and

cool. Jesus told the servants to empty all the water from the jars,

and then to fill them again with clear water. This they did, fill¬

ing them to the brim.

Then Jesus said, u Draw some out now, and take it to the gov¬

ernor of the feast. This was the chief guest, who had the

direction of much of the

feast. The servants did

as he told them. The

governor took a taste of

what they brought him,

and said: 66 How is this?

At most feasts they

serve their best wine at

the beginning, and keep

the poorest till the last;

but here at the end of

the feast they are serv¬

ing their best wine.»

And it was so, for Jesus

had changed the water

in the six jars to the

richest of wine.

You remember that

although he was very

hungry in the wilder- The Marriage Feast at Cana

ness a few days before

this he would not turn the stones into bread for his own use.

Now it was different; other people were in trouble, not he him¬

self. By using this power which God had given him, he could

not only do a kindness to these people, but he could also show

them that he was different from the other teachers they had

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A CHILD’S STORY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST

known; that he was the Son of God. And so he did what no one

else could possibly have done; it was a miracle. It was the first

time Jesus had done anything of the kind, so far as we know;

but we shall hear of a good many miracles after this, and we

shall find that every time that he used this wonderful power,

during all his life, it was for this very same reason; to do a

kindness to some one. He never used it to make himself more

comfortable; and, least of all, to make any one else uncomfort¬

able.

No one was more interested in what he had done than his five

new friends. They had known their Master only a few days, but

in that time they had learned to love him; and now they were

sure that they had made no mistake in believing him to be the

Christ, for no one could do such things as this unless God gave

him the power.

After the feast was over Jesus and his disciples went to Caper¬

naum, a busy city on the shore of a lake which is known by three

names; the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias, and Lake Gen-

nesaret. It was a beautiful lake thirteen miles long and six miles

wide; and on it were thousands of boats of every kind. There

were the war-ships of the Romans, which were very tiny in com¬

parison with those of our time. There were the little rough boats

of the fishermen, and many gay pleasure boats.

The country around the lake was beautiful also. Mountains

and hills sloped down to the shore, and on these mountain-sides

anything that was planted would grow; for the soil was very rich.

Scattered about were fields of wheat, groves of palms, olives, figs,

and oranges. Where nothing else was planted, wild flowers

sprang up in great plenty. There are a great many kinds of

wild flowers in Palestine, many of them very beautiful, with

rich, gay colors. A field of these flowers is said to be a won¬

derful sight that no one ever forgets who has seen it once.

the MINISTRY OF THE CHRIST

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All along the shores of the lake cities and larg^ towns had

been built; and Capernaum was one of the busiest of these cities.

Roman soldiers were always there on guard, and strangers were

coming and going all the time, for Capernaum was a central place,

through which people passed in going from one country to another,

and from every direction people came here to trade.

It was a place where Jesus could meet and talk with people

of many nations. Later in his life he spent much time in Caper¬

naum; for, besides the work which he could find to do right in

the city, it was easy to make short trips into the country around.

But now Jesus stayed in the city only a few days, for it was time

to go to the Passover Feast at Jerusalem.

You remember how delighted he was when his parents took

him for the first time to the Passover, when he was twelve years

old, and how he loved to stay in the temple? But this time

when he entered the temple courts, he was not at all pleased.

Site of Capernaum, Sea of Galilee

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A CHILD’S STORY OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST

Instead of tjie quietness and respect which belong to the house

of God, there was the greatest confusion. Money was being

changed, doves and sheep and oxen were being sold, even inside

the temple wall. Such a noise as there was! And all the while

the temple service was going on!

Jesus saw some small cords which had probably been used to

tie the animals. Out of these curds he made a whip, and drove

from the temple the sheep

and oxen, and the men who

had charge of them. He

upset the tables of the

money-changers, and their

money rolled about on the

floor. Then he said to

those who sold the doves:

«Take these things away

from here, and do not make

my Father’s house a place

of business.» His voice

was stern, and no one dared

to disobey him; so the

temple court was soon

cleared.

You may wonder why

they ever thought of doing

such things as buying and

selling animals in the tem-

The Purification of the Temple pie. The reason Was that

many of the people who

came to worship lived a long way from Jerusalem, and could not

easily bring with them the animals for their sacrifices; it was

better that they should buy them in Jerusalem and near the