Volume 2

232
Life of jesus Christ
dwelling belonging to the children of His deceased friend,
Eliud the Essenian. They washed His feet, gave Him
some refreshment, and remarked how rejoiced the
Nazarenes would be at His coming. Jesus replied that
their joy would be of short duration, since they would not
care to hear what He must say to them, and then He
went into the city. Someone had been appointed to wait
for Him at the gate. Scarcely had He nlade His appearance
when several Pharisees and a crowd of people
came forward to meet Him. They received Him very
cerenl0niously and wanted to conduct Him to a public
inn where they had prepared for Him a feast of welcome
before the Sabbath. But Jesus refused to partake of it,
saying that He had just now other work on hand. He
,went immediately to the synagogue, whither He was
followed by the Pharisees and a concourse of people. The
hour of the Sabbath had not yet sounded.
Jesus taught of the coming of the Kingdom and the
fulfillment of the Prophecies. Asking for the Book of
Isaias, He unrolled it and read as follows: "The Spirit of
the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord hath anointed
Me: He hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the
contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the captives,
and deliverance to them that are shut up." I The manner
in which Jesus read this text gave His hearers to understand
that it was spoken of Himself, that the Spirit of
God had descended upon Himself, that He Himself had
come to announce salvation to poor, suffering humanity,
that all wrong should be made right, widows should be
consoled, the sick cured, sinners forgiven. His words
were so beautiful, so loving that, wondering and full of
joy, they said one to another: "He speaks as if He Himself
were the Messiah!" They were so carried away with
admiration for Him that they became quite vain of the
fact that He belonged to their own city. Jesus went on
teaching after the Sabbath began. He spoke of the voice