The Good Shepherd | Page 8

to the woman. They brought Him the things they had been buying, and said, 'Master, eat.' But Jesus was so happy that He had been able to speak good words to that poor woman that He did not feel hungry any more. He told His disciples that doing God's work was the food He liked best.
After this Jesus lived for awhile first at Nazareth, and then at Capernaum. There was a boy ill in Capernaum just then with a fever. It is so hot near the Sea of Galilee that the people who live there often get fever. That sick boy's father was rich, but money could not make the dying boy well. His father had heard of Jesus, and when he knew that Jesus had come into Galilee, and that He was only a few miles away, he came to Him, and begged Him to come down to Capernaum and make his child well. At first Jesus said to him, 'You will not believe on Me unless you see Me do some wonderful thing.' But when He saw how eager the poor father was, He thought He would try him, and He said to him, 'Go thy way, thy son liveth.' Directly Jesus said that, the man felt sure in his heart that his boy was well. He did not ask Jesus any more to come with him, but he just went back home quietly by himself.
Next day, as he was going down the long hilly road from Cana to Capernaum, some of the servants from his house came to meet him, and they said to him, 'Thy son liveth.' Then the father asked them what time it was when the boy began to get better, and said, 'Yesterday, at the seventh hour (that means at one o'clock) the fever left him.' Then the father knew that that was the very time when Jesus had said to him, 'Thy son liveth,' and he and all the people in the house believed in Jesus.
The Jews could not bear paying taxes to the Romans, and they hated the publicans. They would not eat with them or talk with them. But Jesus did not hate the publicans. He only hated the wrong things they did. So one day, when He was outside the town of Capernaum, and saw Matthew sitting and taking the taxes, He said to him, 'Follow Me.' And Matthew got up from his work, and at once left all and followed Jesus.
Jesus often told His disciples beautiful stories. One day He told them a story to teach them not to be proud like the Pharisees. 'Two men went up into the Temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are; I thank Thee that I am not even as this publican. Twice a week I go without food, and I give away a great deal of money. But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. When the publican went home that night he was better and happier than the Pharisee. The Pharisee thought he was good; he did not want to be forgiven, and so God let him carry all his sins back home with him again. But the publican knew he was a sinner, and was sorry, and so God forgave his sins.'
While Jesus was in Capernaum, He went every Sabbath day to teach in the synagogue. One day a man shouted out--
'What have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God.'
Satan had put an unclean spirit, or devil, in that man. Jesus was not angry with the poor man, but He spoke to the unclean spirit, and said, 'Be silent, and come out of him.' He came out, and the man became well. The people in the synagogue were greatly surprised. They said, 'What thing is this? He commandeth even the unclean spirits and they obey Him.'
When the service was over, the people who had seen the miracle went home, and talked to everybody about what they had seen. Some of them had sick friends, and some had friends with unclean spirits, and they longed to bring them to Jesus. But it was the Sabbath, and they would not bring them until the evening, at which time their Sabbath came to an end. So as soon as the sun set that Sabbath day, a great crowd was seen standing round Peter's house. It seemed as if all the people of Capernaum must be there! They had brought their sick friends,