LESSON XCVII.

THE SUPPER AT BETHANY.

A.D. 30.-MATT. xxvi. ; MARK xiv. ; JOHN xiii. (collated).

Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lararus was one of them that sat at the table with him.

Then took Mary an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,

Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?

This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.

And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.

For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good but me ye have not always.

She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached through. out the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.

But the Chief Priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death;

Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.

COMMENT.-Three Evangelists describe this incident, but St. John only gives the names in full detail, and likewise explains the time at which it happened. It is plain that it was on the last Sabbath of Our Lord's life. He had halted at Bethany, where He was so much known and loved, after His coming up from Jericho, and before entering Jerusalem, and therefore this last time was offered to Him one of those feasts which were eaten after sunset

when the Sabbath was over and the fast was broken. It was in the house of Simon the leper. Now a leper could not have entertained a company while suffering from the disease, therefore Simon must have been one of those whom our Lord had healed, but to whom the name still clung as a distinction, for observe, he was a believer. No evil underthought is recorded of nim as of that other Simon the Pharisee, in whose house the same act of love was done two years previously by the woman who had been a sinner. He had spread his feast in thankful love, and bidden to it those who most loved the Saviour, while many more thronged round-people who had come from the country round or from the numerous distant settlements of the Jews, curious to see both the man who had been dead and was alive again, and Him Who had raised him with a word. It was a concourse that when reported to the Chief Priests made them more than ever determined on cutting off One who seemed to them likely to provoke Roman jealousy.

The men, as usual, reclined round the table, Lazarus among them, and among the serving women Martha had the inexpressible joy of waiting on Him Who had given back her brother, but to Mary's love something more was needing. She took the costliest things she could find, ointment perfumed with spikenard, such as would be used only by the most luxurious, and held in an alabaster casket, which for the greater sense of devoting entirely the most precious, she broke, the better to pour the ointment on the Sacred Head; and then she turned to the Feet, and anointing them, wiped them with her hair. She meant the deed to have been secret, but the sweet odour filled the house, as so often happens with a good deed, though hidden by the doer from all eyes. The first two Evangelists say that "the disciples " found fault with the waste. St. John says it was Judas, whose murmur probably incited the others to reckon how much good the value of this costly offering would have done; and here it is first noted how Judas, as treasurer and bearing the common purse, was betraying his trust, and the love of money, which is the root of all evil, was beginning to lead him astray. The grudging murmur was at once rebuked, and most touchingly, showing that our Lord does indeed prize the outcome of ardent personal love. He first rebuked what has come to be called the utilitarian spirit, namely, that which grudges all that is not laid

out to be " of use,” all ornament of churches, expense in services and the like, because it is not spent on the poor. Sometimes this is really in the temper of Judas, not indeed to defraud the bag, but in the dread of being called on to spend. Churches and services give us one way of showing this personal love and devotion, and therefore, as long as we give in love to Him, not to please our own taste, it may be sharing Mary's work. Then He spake of the poor being for ever the charge of His people, but with human tenderness added that the time was but short in which such ways of showing affection would be possible. "She hath done what she could." Most precious words! The Lord accepts us according to our hearts and our powers, and who knows or can judge of them as He can? If we do what we can, so that it be truly all that we can, how great is the blessing! And when He said she anointed Him to His burial, probably the hearers thought from so poor a man that it meant that such embalming only would be His part at His death, little thinking that on that very day week He would be lying in the grave, wrapped in spices brought partly by Mary.

He added that wherever His Gospel should be preached this deed of Mary's should be known with it. And it is given by three writers of the Gospel, the fourth giving in its stead that former action of the same kind, probably by Mary Magdalene at Capernaum. So does love have its blessing—so are we encouraged to do and give all to Christ our Beloved.

A.D. 30.—MATT. xxi. ; LUKE xix. (collated).

And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,

Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.

And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto Because the Lord hath need of him.

that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said

And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?

And they said, The Lord hath need of him.

And they brought him to Jesus; and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.

All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,

Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.

And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.

And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;

Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.

And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.

And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.

And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?

And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

Comment.—All through the journey from Galilee, the train of the Great Prophet had been swelling in numbers, and when Jericho was passed, and Olivet, the last hill on the way, had been climbed, He was leaving Bethany, where was still fresh the memory of His greatest miracle, and "Lazarus, wakened from his four days' sleep," was "enduring life again that Passover to keep."

Now there were some special promises to Jerusalem still to be fulfilled. Jeremiah had said (Jer. xvii. 24—27)—

And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;

Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever.

And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD.

But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

-and Zechariah had repeated the song, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." (Zech. ix. 9.)

Observe, the original prophecy and promise was fully given by Jeremiah, and was specially attached to the keeping of the Sabbath, which was the point of the law outwardly observed most scrupulously by the Jews, though inwardly they did not hallow it in the spirit of love, and thus they were to have not only the blessing, but the punishment foretold by the prophet.

At Bethphage (the place of figs), our Lord sent two disciples to bring the young ass not yet ridden, leading with him his mother, that he might come readily. The creatures belonged to a believer, who would send them readily on hearing that the Lord had need of them. The ass, the large handsome Eastern animal, had in the best and most faithful times of the Jewish nation been the creature used in State. It was connected with the thought of the great judges and kings, whereas the horse, unfit for the mountain-land, was connected with foreign invasion and subjection, so that the choice of the ass was recalling David and David's line. So the people felt it, when on the hill over which David once fled from Absalom and came back among his rejoicing people, they saw the Son of David seated on the ass, and they began to strew branches from the trees, myrtles, olives, palms, and willows that clothed the hill-where they were wont to gather boughs for the Feast of Tabernacles-and cast their robes in the way as for a conqueror, singing that verse of the Hallel Passover Psalm (the 118th), which they were literally fulfilling. (Hosanna means Save now"):

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Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.

Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.

No part of the Gospel history can be better realized from the present scenery than this; when on coming up through the woods and