JESUS' LAST JOURNEY. 549 been promised long before.* It is very positive that they had not received it up to the day of ascension. Why? The reading of Acts 1: 6 is very convincing. Up to this hour they had no spiritual ideas whatever. They were still looking and asking for a temporal kingdom. Where He lived, what He did, and what He taught, in so many words, while in Galilee, we shall never know. There is no doubt that He remained in Galilee—if " in the body;" but if in the body or out of the body, I no more know than did Saint Paul on a certain occasion. In favor of Galilee, it may be said that here the apostles were at home and among friends, and that amidst the scenes of His former teachings, His present words would come with double power and meaning; whilst in Jerusalem, they would be among His enemies, and in a state of disquietude, if not positive fear." We may then suppose that it was near the fortieth day ere they went up to Jerusalem.-Andrews. This then was "Jesus' last journey" upon earth. However, we find the Eleven assembled in the upper chamber in the city of Jerusalem (12, 13), and the Lord in their midst. We know it was as above, because Luke says that, after the ascension, they returned to " where they were abiding," before going out. Rather as the word "abiding " here implies, a habitual abiding place. 'He met them in Jerusalem," says Canon Farrar, " and as He led them toward Bethany, He bade them wait in the Holy City until they had received the promised Holy Spirit." "Tarry in the city until ye be clothed with power from on high."-Luke 24: 49. The matter recorded by Matthew (28: 16, 17) must refer to the same occasion mentioned by Paul, where there were some 500 disciples presént-in Galilee, wherein Matthew says that 66 some doubted." It could not have been the Eleven who now doubted. They were advanced past that, after their late interview at breakfast on the lake-shore. There was no doubting after that with the Eleven. Hence we place the * John 14: 16, 17. 550 HARMONIZING OF THE GOSPELS. 16th and 17th verses, as recorded by Matthew, in Galilee, and the 18th to the 20th in Jerusalem. This closes Matthew's gospel. Mark we have left already, because "The two oldest Greek manuscripts-it was originally written in Greek-and some other authorities, omit from verse 9 to the end" of chapter 16. Let us suppose, if any desire, that it was all written by Mark we still have the better and fuller, and undoubted record of Luke, by which to conclude this chapter. John's gospel also was closed, two chapters back. We except the two verses named at the head of this chapter (21, 22) already shown to belong to the closing scene of Christ's earthly acts, and not really completed till Pentecost. At this last meeting in Jerusalem, there is no question that Jesus gave the Eleven very complete and lengthy instructions for their future conduct. When they first came together, on this last occasion, the Eleven, still with their minds fixed on an immediate temporal kingdom, asked Him "Lord, do you at this time (now) restore the kingdom to Israel?"-Acts 1: 6. At this juncture we would place the words of Luke.—24: 45, 46. "Then opened He their mind, that they might understand the Scriptures," where it is written, "That the Christ should suffer (as He had suffered), and rise again from the dead on the third day." It is not supposed, nor possible, that all of Luke 24: 36 to 49 refers to one and the same meeting, any more than a continuation (50-53) can refer to one and the same. Verses 36-43 refer to the evening of the resurrection, and, probably, verse 44, while verse 45 to the end refer to the day of ascension. By reference to a continuation of Luke (in Acts 1), we find this division to be correct. In the latter he wastes no words in repeating, “And Jesus led them out over against Bethany" (Luke 24: 50), but refers his friend Theophilus to that "former treatise." In Luke's Gospel he says that "Jesus led them out over WHY THEY WENT A-FISHING. 551 against Bethany." In Acts he says (v. 12), that after the ascension they returned from the Mount of Olives. Bethany is repeatedly called the "Mount of Olives," and vice versa, in the Gospels. Verse 49 (of Luke 24) compares with Acts 1: 4. It would seem that it was not Jesus' purpose to meet the Eleven in Jerusalem, at first, after the resurrection, for repeatedly He had bade them meet Him in a certain mountain in Galilee, after His resurrection; but in their bewilderment and unbelief, they did not obey Him, but remained in their secret quarters in the city. To them He sent five witnesses of His resurrection, but to whom it was a mere “idle tale." Then He sent Cleopas and Simon, Himself having gone several miles out on the way, but they did not believe these two witnesses. Then He went Himself, and "stood before them," for their inspection, but they would not believe. He next called for food, and sat down and ate in their presence. Finally, they so far believed, as to start on their way to the mount of appointment, but their belief oozed out; their courage, their money, and food, all failing them, we find them next trying to help themselves at their old occupation of fishing! How totally they failed in this has already been recorded. Again Jesus came to them! BLESSED, PATIENT JESUS. This time they all believe; they meet Him again, with all the known disciples-requiring many days in which to notify them all in a temporal manner—at the Holy Mountain. There He bids farewell to the many. After this, the Eleven return to their old quarters in Jerusalem, and He meets them for the last time. After all that Jesus must needs have said to the Eleven on this last occasion in Jerusalem, it must have been towards night when they finally went out of the eastern gate and down the hill-side, over Kidron, once again; past the garden of Gethsemane, and up the western declivity of the Mount of Olives. 552 THE LAST WALK TO OLIVET. Did He look back, as of old, upon Jerusalem ? or was she now past all hope, beyond redemption, by prayers and And Peter and those others who had so long been taught to sing, "O Jerusalem! If I forget thee, Let my right hand, too, forget; Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth If I prefer not Jerusalem to my greatest joy;" Did they once look back upon the wicked city, in which they had heard that bloodthirsty cry, "Crucify Him, Crucify Him?" No, no! Henceforth they only looked toward the "New Jerusalem," and "a spiritual house, built of living stones, and a holy priesthood, who would offer up spiritual sacrifices, only acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ." Of all these things Jesus was earnestly talking, as they reached the spot, and they were all looking upon Him, and as eagerly listening to "His gracious words," when "He lifted up His hands and blessed them." "And," continues Luke, "while the blessing was on His lips, a cloud received Him out of their sight" (Acts), or, "He parted from them and was carried up into heaven." "And I saw, and behold," said John, many years afterward, in Revelation 14: 14, "a white cloud, and on the cloud one sitting like the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. "And an angel came out from the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, "Send forth thy sickle and reap, for the hour of reaping is come; the harvest of the earth is over-ripe.' "And he who sat on the cloud cast his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped." END OF THE JOURNEYS OF JESUS. |