Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-05
Why the Savior Left the City Of Ca
pernaum for a Long Journey.
PAGAN PREFERRED TO PHARISEE.
Avoiding the Arguments Of Hair-Splitting
TheOlOgians.
HIS WORK AMONG THE POOR HEATHEN
WRITTEN Ton THE D1spArcH.l

It was not the custom OF Christ to 90 far
from home. He has set US an inspiring ex-
ample of the patient and humble doing
of the nearest duty. He was content to
talk to the peasants of Galilee, to the fisher
men Of Capernaum, to the scribes of Jeru-
salem, and to spend His days, for the most
part, within the narrow boundary of the
contracted territory of the Jews. And this
long journey is on that account the more
singular and significant.
It may repay us, then, to look this matter
up little, and find out why it was that the
Master departed on this occasion from His
usual custom, and into what sort of place
He went. Why did He go away from Cali
lee, and why. going away, did He venture
into such places as Tyre, Sidon. and Decap-
oils?
may as we'll begin by putting the an
swer in advance of the problem, and tell
you at the start, in one sentence, that He
took this journey to get rid of some very
disagreeable people.
The land of Palestine was in one way like
the State of Pennsylvania. It had great
city at each end of it. Only instead of being
like Pittsburg and Philadelphia, at the
eastern and western boundaries, one was in
the north and the other in the south. In
the north was Capernaun, and in the south
Jerusalem. Now, each Of these great cities
had a character distinctly its own. When
men spoke of Capernaum, they thoughtfof
business, Tor Capernaum was city of mer-
chants; when they spoke of Jerusalem, they
thought of religion, for Jerusalem was
CITY OF PRIESTS.
And the cities were good representatives
of the adjoining country. Galilee was like
Capernaum, Judea was like. Jerusalem.
So that the Rabbis had this proverb: "If
anyone wants to be rich let him go north; if
he wants to be religious, let him come
SOUTH"
The Rabbis had not the smallest doubt as
to the choice which good man ought to
make between the two divisions of their
country. But it is quite significant that
Christ, who differed from. them in so many
ways, differed also in this, that He preferred
the north. The city which the writers of
the Gospels call His Gown city" was not
Jerusalem, as one might have thought, but
Capernaum. It was in the north that He
preached most of His sermons, did most of
His miracles, and spent most of His life.
When name had to be invented to describe
His followers, men found fitting one in
a town of Galilee, and called then
Nazarenes. When among His disci-
pies He. chose twelve who should
be closest to Him, and to whom He might
teach His profoundest lessons, only one of
the whole company came from the South
and his name was Judas Iscariot. Christ
was known throughout all Palestine as the
Prophet of Galilee.
call this significant, because it means
that Christ found acceptance where many
people would have least expected Him to
find it. 1t is one of the revelations which
Christ's coming made, that they were really
the farthest away from Him who thought
and talked the most about their goodness,
and that a, knowledge of theology and an
intimate acquaintance with the whole rubric
of ritual may exist without any real religion
at all. The busy men and women who put
their duty into daily practice, and were
quite ignorant of definitions were the people
who accepted Christ. In the shops and
along the wharves of Cspernsum He found
a hearing which was denied Him in the syn
agogues of Jerusalem.
VISITORS FROM JERUSALEM.
Now, sometimes the South made visit to
the North. And just before the beginning
of this long journey which ended at Decapo-
lis we find the record of such a visit. There
had come deputation of Pharisees, and
certain Scribes also in their company, who
having arrived from Jerusalem, sought out
the Master and proceeded to hold an inter-
view with Him. They were good types of
the characteristics of Judea, and they
brought their Southern temper with them.
For we find that they at once attacked Christ
about insignificant matters of ritual. They
had grievous complaint to bring Him
about the way in which His disciples ate
their dinners. In the first place they had
neglected certain rubrics about the washing
of their hands before they ate; and. besides
that, they had allowed their taste to stray in
directions; they had for
gotten some of the complexities of
the law of forbidden food. These
complaints they brought to Christ.
To Him, with His perfectly true judg-
ment as to what was great and what was
small, all this was simply annoying. He
had come to make mems souls clean; they
might keep their hands clean in their own
way. He had come to make men true and
pure and profitable of speech; as to what
went into their mouths, what mattered it?
AT last, to get away from these trifers with
religion, with whom there was no persuad-
ing and with whom it was no good to argue,
He left Capernaum, and started off into the
long roads toward the North, getting finally
out of Palestine altogether into the bounda-
ries of Tyre and Sidon. And then retiring,
as it would seem, fearing that some Pharisee
might still be lingering in Galilee, He
struck off toward the East, along the
wooded passes Of Lebanon, and crossing the
Jordan, journeyed to the South until
WE. FIND HIM IN DECAPoLIs.
And Decspolis was the abode of pagan
ism. The people of the Decapolis district
were all heathen. Even paganism Christ
seems to have accounted better than Phari-
seeism. He preferred a good, honest,
and sincere heather rather
than a petty, narrow-minded, prejudiced,
dogmatic, even orthodox believer. I read
in the visit of Jesus to Decapolis His pro-
test against unmanly and unhealthy re-
ligion. To be so occupied with worldly
thoughts that there is no room for petty no.
tions, to be so interested in great and wide
purposes for the helping on of all that is
best in life, that there is no time for the
of ritual and small patience
Ior the study of the fine shades of rubrics; to
be free from the 'infrmities of false per-
spection" which magni6es molehills into
mountains. This is part of what it means
to be upon the side of Christ.
So Christ came to Decapolis. And here
The whole population crowded out around
Him, bringing their sick, attracted some of
hem, no doubt, by the fame of Christ. Be-
cause Decapolis was neighbor to Galilee;
,he renown of the words and works of the
great teacher must often have passed the
narrow boundary of the Jordan. Some of
he people of Decapolis had indeed with
heir own ears heard Christ speak. We read
low they mingled with the multitude who
listened to the sermon on the Mount. Some
# them had seen Christ's wonderful works
,r had at least been told them by the men
Who saw the demoniacs of Gadara and
to tell the story of their cure
throughout Decapolis.
And if there were any who had not heard
II known, and to whom the fame of Christ
vas no attraction, am sure that the face of
Christ was attraction enough. HE could
lot be hid," the evangelist says. Even
way up in that far off Tyre and Sidon dis
rict they found Him out. There must have
'een something
INDESCRIBABLY ATTRACTIVE,
encouraging about His face, to