HAVING finished his memorable sermon on the mount, Jesus descended from the natural sanctuary in the mountain, followed by his disciples and the multitudes who heard him, and again entered Capernaum which is called "his own city," Matt. 9:1, and where, as a citizen, he paid his proportion of dues and taxes. "He had hardly reached home," says Geikie, "when a deputation of the elders of the Jews waited on him. They were the foremost men in the Capernaum community—the governing body of the synagogue, and, as such, the Jewish magistrates of the town. It is the habit in the East to send such embassies when any request is to be made or invitation given with circumstances of special respect, but there was a feature in this case that made it very unusual. The members of the deputation, though Jewish ecclesiastical officials, came as the representatives of a heathen, possibly of a Samaritan. Lying on the edge of his territory, Herod Antipas kept a small garrison in Capernaum, and this, at that time, was under command of a centurion, who, like many of the better heathen of the day, had been drawn toward Judaism by its favorable contrast with idolatry. He had shown his sympathy with the nation, and his generous spirit, in a way then not uncommon among the wealthy, by building a synagogue in the town—perhaps that of which the massive ruins still remain. One of his slaves had been struck with a paralytic affection, and was fast sinking; and with a tenderness that did him infinite honor in an age when a slave, with many masters, and even in the eye of the Roman law, was treated as a mere chattel, he prayed Jesus, through the Jewish elders, to heal him. Their request was at once complied with, and Jesus forthwith set out with them to the centurion's quarters."
When not far from the house, the centurion sent another delegation to meet him and apologize for having so troubled him, and begging in view of his unworthiness to have such an holy one come under his roof, that he would but speak the word, and his servant should be healed. And when Jesus heard these things, he said, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness." "To share a grand banquet with the patriarchs in the Messianic kingdom, was a favorite mode with the Jews of picturing the blessedness that kingdom would bring. 'In the future world,' they made God say, in one of their Rabbinical lessons, 'I shall spread for you Jews a great table, which the Gentiles will see and be ashamed.' But now, according to Christ's words, rejection and despair are to be theirs!
'Go thy way,' added he to the centurion, 'and as thou hast believed, so be it done to thee.' And his slave was healed in that very hour."
He had apparently left Capernaum the same day, for we find him, the next, at a village called Nain, twenty-five miles to the south-west, on the northern slope of Little Hermon, a clump of hills at the eastern end of the great plain of Esdraelon. It was still the early and popular time of his ministry, and crowds followed him wherever he appeared. Nain, which is now a poor and miserable hamlet, inhabited only by a few fanatical Mahometans, may then have deserved its name—the beautiful. The only antiquities about it are some tombs hewn in the hills, seen as you approach, beside the road which winds up to the village.
The presence of the Prince of Life, with a throng of disciples and followers, might well have banished thoughts of sadness, but shadows everywhere lie side by side with the light. As he came near, another procession met him, descending from Nain, the dismal sounds rising from it, even at a distance, telling too plainly what it was. Death had been busy under those blue summer skies, and its prey was now being borne, amidst the wail of the mourner, to its last resting-place. A colder heart than that of Jesus would have been touched, for it was a case so sad that the whole town had poured forth to show its sympathy with the broken heart that followed next the bier. It was the funeral of a young man, the only son of a widow, now left in that saddest of all positions to a Jew—to mourn alone in the desolate home in which he had died, doubtless only a very few hours before. Moved with the pity at all times an instinct with him, Jesus could not let the train sweep on. It was not meet that death should reap its triumph in his presence. Stepping toward the poor mother, he dried up the fountain of her tears by a soft appeal. 'Weep not,' said he, and then moved to the bier, careless of the defilement which would have made a Rabbi pass as far as he could from the dead. Touching it, those who bore the body at once stood still. It was, doubtless, a mere open frame, like that still used for such purposes in Palestine. 'Young man,' said he, 'I say unto thee, Arise.' He that was dead sat up and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother."
It was at Shunem, a village on the other side of the very hill on which Nain stood, that Elisha had raised the only son of the lady who had hospitably entertained him; and the luxuriant plain of Jezreel, stretching out beneath, had been the scene of the greatest events in the life of Elijah, who had raised to life the son of the widow in the Phenician village of Sarepta, on the far northern coast. No prouder sign of their greatness as prophets had lingered in the mind of the nation than such triumphs over the grave, and in no place could such associations have been more rife than in the very scene of the life of both. At the sight of the young man once more alive, the memory of Elijah and Elisha was on every lip, and cries rose on all sides, that a great prophet had again risen, and that God had visited his people. Nor did the report confine itself to these upland regions. It flew far and near to Judea in the south, and even to the remote Perea."
John the Baptist who had now lain for six months or a year in prison, but who was permitted to receive frequent visits from his disciples, heard through them of the wonderful miracles Christ had wrought, and he sent them to inquire of him, 'Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?' 'Having spent his life in the open air, in active, persevering labor, enduring privations, hardship, and toil, he had never before,' says Mrs. E. G. White, in Great Controversy, vol. 2, 'experienced the trials of confined, living. He therefore became desponding, and even doubts troubled him whether Christ was indeed the Messiah. He concluded that if Christ was indeed the Messiah, he would publicly proclaim himself as the Saviour of the world. He had indistinct ideas of the kingdom Christ came to establish, as also had the disciples of Christ. They thought Christ would establish a temporal kingdom, and reign upon the throne of David in Jerusalem. He became impatient because Christ did not make himself known, assume kingly authority, and subdue the Romans. He hoped that if Christ established his kingdom, he would be brought out of prison. He decided that if Jesus was really the son of God, and could do all things, he would exercise his power and set him at liberty."
'His disciples sought the presence of Christ; but they could not communicate with him immediately, because of the crowd who were bearing the sick to Jesus. The afflicted, blind, and lame, were passing through the throng. The disciples of John saw the miracles of Christ, and at that instant at his word the lifeless clay became animate, and the glow of health took the place of the pallor of death. Jesus said to the disciples of John, 'Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.'"
'In these words John is gently reproved for his impatience. The cautious reproof returned to John was not lost upon him. He then better understood the character of Christ's mission. And with submission and faith, he yielded himself into the hands of God, to live, or to die, as should best advance his glory.'"