THE NEWS that Jesus was at Bethany went abroad, and very soon the village was thronged with people eager to see him. Many of these were men who had come from the country up to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover; and most of them were ready to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the promised King of Israel. Some came to Bethany, not only to see Jesus, but to see Lazarus also, the man whom Jesus had raised from death to life. The rulers, who had already made up their minds to put Jesus to death and had paid Judas to give him up to them, said to each other: "If we are to prevent these people from making Jesus of Nazareth their king, it will not be enough to kill Jesus; we must first kill Lazarus, for on his account many are following Jesus." On the morning after the supper at Simon's house, Jesus decided to go into Jerusalem. He called two of his disciples and said to them: "Go into the next village on the road to Jerusalem, and just on the edge of it you will find an ass tied, and with it a colt on which no one has ever ridden; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing that?' tell him, 'The Master needs them; and will send them back soon;' and he will let you take the ass and the colt." The two disciples went to the village, and found in the street in front of a house an ass and a colt tied just as Jesus had said. They were untying them when the owner, who was standing by, said: "What are you doing, untying the ass?" "The Master needs it," answered the disciples; and when the man heard this, he allowed them to take the ass and the colt. They brought them to Jesus at Bethany; and on the ass-colt they laid their cloaks, to form a cushion for Jesus; and he sat upon the colt, which never before had been ridden upon. Then the crowd, seeing that Jesus was riding toward Jerusalem, walked with him, some going before and some following after. Those in front spread their clothes upon the road before Jesus; others threw on the ground leaves from the field; while many waved branches of palm taken from the trees beside the road. [Illustration: The brook Kedron] And before they came to the top of the Mount of Olives, which was between Bethany and Jerusalem, another crowd of people met them, coming from the city to see Jesus. And all the multitude shouted together: "God save the King, the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the Lord's name! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David! Praises be to the Lord!" For all this crowd of people believed that now, at last, the kingdom of God was to be set up, with Jesus as Christ and King. But in the multitude were some Pharisees, enemies of Jesus, who became very angry as they saw the crowd waving the palm branches and cheering for Jesus as King. These men came up to Jesus as he was riding and said to him: "Teacher, tell your followers to stop this noise!" "I tell you," answered Jesus, "that if these men should keep still, the very stones would cry out!"