The Story of the Bible

So many people sought to see Jesus in that place, that he left that land with his disciples, and went around Galilee, and came again to the country called Decapolis, on the east of the Sea of Galilee. You remember that Jesus had visited this country before, when he cast the army of evil spirits out of a man into the hogs, as we read in Story Sixteen of this Part. At that time the people almost drove Jesus away from their land; but now they were glad to see him, and brought their sick to him to be healed. Perhaps they had heard from the man out of whom the evil spirits had gone; how kind and good and helpful Jesus was.

They led to Jesus a man who was deaf, and could not speak plainly. He was what we would call "tongue-tied." They asked Jesus to cure him; but Jesus would not do his work as a sight for men to look upon. He took the man away from the crowd, and when he was alone with him he put his fingers into the man's ears and touched his tongue. Then he looked up to heaven, and gave a sigh, and said to the man, "Be opened!"

Then the man's ears were opened, and his tongue was set free, so that he heard and spoke plainly. Jesus told the man, and those with him, not to let others know what he had done; but they could not keep from telling the good news to everybody. They were full of wonder, for they had not before seen the works of Jesus; and they said, "He has done all things well; he makes even the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak!"

And in the land of Decapolis, as before in Galilee, great crowds of people came to see and hear Jesus. They followed him, without thinking that they would need any food to eat; and Jesus said to his disciples, "I feel a pity for this people, for they have now been with me three days, and they have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will faint by the way, for many of them came from far."

The disciples answered him, "How can we find bread for such a great crowd of people, here in a desert place, so far from the villages?"

"How many loaves of bread have you?" asked Jesus. They said, "We have seven loaves and a few small fishes."

Then he told all the people to sit down on the ground. When they were seated, Jesus took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks to God, and broke them, and gave them to his disciples, and they gave them to the people. Then, as before, he caused them to gather up the food that was left, and they filled seven large baskets with the pieces. At this time four thousand men were fed, besides women and children. And at once after the meal, he sent the people to their homes, and with his disciples went on board a boat, and sailed across the lake to a place on the western shore. There he stayed only a short time, and then sailed northward to Bethsaida, at the head of the lake.

At Bethsaida they brought to him a blind man, and asked him to touch his eyes. But Jesus would not heal the man while a crowd was looking on. He led the man by his hand out of the village alone. Then he spat on the man's eyes, and touched them with his hands, and said to him, "Can you see anything?"

The man looked up, and said, "I see men; but they look like trees walking."

Then again Jesus laid his hands upon the man's eyes. He looked once more, and now could see all things clearly. Jesus sent him to his home, and said to him, "Do not even go into the village, nor tell it to any one in the village."

For Jesus wished not to have crowds of people coming to him, but to be alone with his disciples, for he had many things to teach them.

The Glory of Jesus on the Mountain

Matthew xvi: 13, to xvii: 23; Mark viii: 27, to ix: 32; Luke ix: 18 to 45.

From Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus led his disciples still further north to Casearea-philippi, at the foot of the great Mount Hermon. The name of this place means "Philip's Caesarea;" and it was so called because it was under the rule of King Herod Philip, a brother of King Herod Antipas, who ruled in Galilee; and there was another Caesarea on the shore of the Great Sea, south of Mount Carmel. At Caesarea-philipi, Jesus asked his disciples this question, "Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" "The Son of man" was the name by which Jesus often spoke of himself.

They answered him:

"Some men say that you are John the Baptist risen from the dead; some say that you are the prophet Elijah, or the prophet Jeremiah, come again to earth."

Then said Jesus, "But who do you say that I am?"

Simon Peter answered for them all, saying:

"Thou art the Anointed One, the Christ, the Son of the living God!"

Jesus said to Peter:

"Simon, this has come to you not from men, but from my Father who is in heaven. You are Peter, the Rock; and on this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of earth shall not overcome it."