subjects, masters and slaves, rich and poor, the arrogantly virtuous,
the humble sinners, free and prisoners. The sun of God will shine on
all, the citizens of the Kingdom will be one family of fathers and
brothers and the gates of Paradise will be open again to the sons of
Adam become as gods.
Jesus conquered Satan in Himself and now came out of the desert to
conquer him among men.
THE RETURN
As soon as Jesus came again among men, He learned that the Tetrarch
(second husband of Herodias) had imprisoned John in the fortress of
Machaerus. The voice crying in the wilderness was stilled and pilgrims
to the Jordan saw no more the long shadow of the wild Baptizer fall
across the water.
He had done his work and was now to give way to a more powerful voice.
John waited in the blackness of the prison until his bloody head was
carried on a golden platter to the banquet—almost the last dish served
to that evil woman, betrayer of men.
Now Jesus understands that His day is at hand, and crossing Samaria He
returns into Galilee to announce at once the coming of the Kingdom. He
does not go to Jerusalem, the city of the great king, the capital. Jesus
comes to destroy that Jerusalem of stone and arrogance, proud on its
three hills, hard of heart like the stones. The men whom Jesus comes to
combat are precisely those who glory in great cities, in the capitals,
in the Jerusalems of the world.
At Jerusalem live the powerful of the world, the Romans, masters of the
world and of Judea, with their soldiers in arms. Jerusalem is ruled by
the representatives of the Cæsars; of Tiberius, the drunken assassin,
the perfidious heir of Augustus, the hypocritical voluptuary, and of
Julius the adulterous spendthrift. At Jerusalem live the High Priests,
the old custodians of the Temple, the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, the
Levites and their guards, the descendants of those who pursued and
killed the prophets, the petrifiers of the Law, the bigots of the
letter, the haughty depositories of arid fanaticism. At Jerusalem are
the treasurers of God, the treasurers of Cæsar, the guardians of the
treasure, the lovers of wealth; the Publicans with their excisemen and
parasites, the rich with their servants and their concubines, the
merchants with their crowded shops; money bags clinking with shekels in
the warmth of the bosom above the heart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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