Volume 2

274 Life of Jesus Christ
a lesson from John's imprisonment! What He said of the
fulfillment of the weeks of Daniel, of the near conling of
the Messiah, and of the King of the Jews, was excellent
and quite in accordance with their own ideas. But, as He
told them, they might seek where they would, they would
still nowhere find the Messiah. Jesus had, though rather
vaguely, applied the Prophecies to Himself. They understood
Him well enough, but they pretended that such
things could not happen to anyone, and that they had
failed to catch His meaning. In reality they wanted to
force Hinl to speak out more clearly, so that they might
get something of which to accuse Him. Jesus said to them:
"How ye play the hypocrite! What turns ye away from
Me? Why do ye despise Me? Ye lay snares for Me, and ye
seek to form new plots with the Sadducees, as ye did in
Jerusalem at the Pasch! Why do ye caution Me, citing
John and Herod?" Then He cast into their face Herod's
shameful deeds, his murders, his dread of the newborn
King of the Jews, his cruel massacre of the Innocents, and
his frightful death, the crimes of his successors, the adultery
of Antipas, and the imprisonment of John. He spoke
of the hypocritical, secret sect of the Herodians who were
in league with the Sadducees, and showed them what kind
of a Messiah and what sort of a Kingdom of God they
were awaiting. He pointed to different places in the distance,
saying: "They will be able to do nothing against
Me until My nlission is fulfilled. I shall twice traverse
Sanlaria, Judea, and Galilee. Ye have witnessed great
signs wrought by Me, and seeing still greater, ye shall remain
blind." Then He spoke of judgment, of the death of
the Prophets, and of the chastisement that was to overtake
Jerusalem. The Herodians, that secret society, seeing
themselves discovered, blanched with rage when Jesus
referred to Herod's misdeeds and laid open the secrets of
the sect before the people. They were silent and, one by
one, left the synagogue, as did also the Sadducees who