Jesus very well knew that they had brought this question to him hoping, whatever he said, to make trouble for him. If he should say, "Let her go free," they would declare that Jesus was a breaker of the law and cared nothing for crimes. If, on the other hand, he said, "Let her be punished," they could say to the Roman rulers, "This man is acting as a judge and claims to be the King of Israel;" and this might cause the Romans to put him to death. So, whatever Jesus might say, they could find some reason to accuse him.
But Jesus seemed to pay no attention to their words. He stooped down, and began to write with his finger on the floor. But as they kept on asking him the same question, finally he rose up, looked his enemies full in the face, and said:
"Let the one among you who has never done wrong throw the first stone at her."
Then he stooped down again and continued writing with his finger. They stood silent for some time and then began quietly to go away, the oldest men first and the younger men later. After a while, Jesus looked up and saw the woman standing alone before him. He rose up and said:
"Woman, where are those men? Does no man say that you are guilty?"
She answered him, "No man, Lord."
Jesus said to her, "Neither do I call you guilty. Go away, and never sin again."
Then Jesus went on with his teaching, which had been stopped by the bringing in of the woman by his enemies. He said:
"I am the light of the whole world. He who follows me and obeys my words will not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
Many other things Jesus said to the people at that time; and some of those who heard him began to believe that he was a teacher come from G.o.d. To those who believed, he said:
"If you stand faithful to my words, you are truly my followers; and you shall understand the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "I am the light of the whole world. He who follows me and obeys my words will not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life"]
"What do you mean by those words, "You shall be made free"?" said the people. "We are sprung from Abraham, and have never been slaves. How can we be made free?"
"In very truth, I tell you," answered Jesus, "every one who sins is a slave. Now the slave does not stay in the home always, but the son stays, for it is his home, and he has a right to be there. So, if the Son of the heavenly Father sets you free from sin, you will be free indeed."
As Jesus went on speaking, the people who listened became very angry. At last he said:
"Your great father Abraham longed to see the day when I should come to the earth; and he saw it coming, and it made him glad."
"Why," the Jews said, "you are not fifty years old, and do you say that Abraham saw you?"
"I tell you truly," answered Jesus, "before Abraham was born, I was living!"
At this, they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself from them and left the Temple.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The so-called tower of David in Jerusalem]
The Blind Man at the Pool of Siloam
CHAPTER 56
ON A SABBATH morning, which was not Sunday, but Sat.u.r.day, the Jewish day of rest and church-going--Jesus and his disciples were on their way to the service in the Temple, when they pa.s.sed a blind man. They had seen this man before and knew that he had been blind all his life. He had come into the world without eyesight, to the great sorrow of his father and mother; and he lived upon the little coins that people gave him as they were on their way to the Temple.
The Jews believed that every disease was caused by some act of sin; that if a man became ill, it was because he had done some wicked deed and was being punished for it; and if a child was born blind, or dumb, or crippled, it must have been because either its father or mother had sinned against G.o.d"s law. Some of the scribes, who were the teachers of the law, said that each soul lived many times on the earth; that when a man died, his soul went into a body that was born at that moment; and if the new-born baby was blind, or diseased, it was because it had done wrong in some life before that one. None of these things are believed now since Christ has taught men, but they were held by nearly all people while Jesus was on the earth.
As the disciples were pa.s.sing by this blind man, one of them said to Jesus:
"Teacher, whose sin was it that caused this man to be born blind? Was it the fault of his parents? Or was it his own fault?"
"It was through no fault of his, nor of his father or mother that this man was born blind," answered Jesus. "It was that G.o.d might show a wonderful work in him. While daylight lasts, we must be doing G.o.d"s work; the night will soon come when we can work no longer. As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world, and give light to men."
As he said this, he spat on the ground and mixed the spittle with dust, making it into mud, and smeared it on the man"s eyes. He said to the blind man:
"Now, go down to the pool of Siloam and wash."
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Pool of Siloam at the present time]
The pool of Siloam was a large tank or reservoir on the southeast of the city, where the valley of the brook Kedron and the valley of Hinnom meet. To go to that place the blind man with two great blotches of mud on his face must walk across the city of Jerusalem, pa.s.sing all the crowds on their way to worship. He went down to the pool of Siloam, climbed down its steps to the water and washed the mud from his face. In a moment his white, sightless eyes flashed with a new light. He looked up, and for the first time in all his life he could see!
As he went to his father"s house, everybody who saw him noticed how differently he looked. All had known him as a blind man, groping his way to the place where he used to sit as a beggar. The people asked each other:
"Is this the same blind man that begged in the street?"
Some said, "Yes, this is the same man."
But others said, "No, this cannot be the man; but he is one who looks somewhat like him."
He said, "I am the same man."
"Then how did you get your sight?" they asked.
"The man whom they call Jesus," he answered, "made some mud and put it on my eyes, and said, "Go to Siloam and wash your eyes." So I went and washed them; and my sight came to me."
"Where is this man who cured you?" they asked.
"I do not know," he answered.
They took the man who had been blind to the Pharisees, who were the leaders of the people. We have seen that the Pharisees were always enemies to Jesus. So the Pharisees asked him to tell again how he had gained his sight; and he told them:
"The man named Jesus smeared some mud on my eyes, and I washed them, and now I can see."
Some of the Pharisees said, "This man Jesus cannot be from G.o.d, because he does not keep the Sabbath."
The scribes had made a rule that mixing up mud on the Sabbath day was working; that carrying it from one place to another was bearing a load; and that to give any treatment to a sick man on the Sabbath, unless it was necessary to save his life, was Sabbath breaking. So to their eyes, Jesus in curing the blind man had broken the Sabbath rules in more than one way.
But some others said, "How can a bad man do such wonderful works? Is not this work of cure a sign that G.o.d is with him?"
So there were two parties among them in their opinion about Jesus. They asked the blind man again:
"What do you say of this man who has opened your eyes?"
"I say that he is a prophet from G.o.d," answered the man.