How knoweth this man letters, having never learned!  He seems to know, to know surprisingly well.  He seems keenly versed in the law, able quickly to turn the tables upon their catch questions.  But then it can’t be the real article of learning, because He hasn’t been in our established schools.  He has no sheepskin in a dead language with our learned doctors’ names learnedly inscribed.  How indeed!  An upstart!!

Yet always to the earnest, sincere inquirer there was authority enough.  In His acts, an open-minded doctor of the law could read the stamp of God’s approval.  The ear open to learn, not waxed up by self-seeking plans, or filled with gold dust, heard the voice of divine approval out of the clouds, or in His presence and acts.

The Aggressive Rejection.

Then came the second stage, the aggressive rejection. This is the plotting stage.  Their hot passion is cooling now into a hardening purpose.  This has been shaping itself under the surface for months.  Now it is open.  This was a crowded year for Jesus, and a year of crowds.  The Galileans had been in His southern audiences many a time and seen His miracles.  The news of His coming up north to their country swiftly spread everywhere.  The throngs are so great that the towns and villages are blockaded, and Jesus has recourse to the fields, where the people gather in untold thousands.

An ominous incident occurs at the very beginning of this Galilean work.  It is a fine touch of character that Jesus at once pays a visit to His home village.  One always thinks more of Him for that.  He never forgot the home folk.  The synagogue service on the Sabbath day gathers the villagers together.  Jesus takes the teacher’s place, and reads, from Isaiah, a bit of the prophecy of the coming One.  Then with a rare graciousness and winsomeness that wins all hearts, and fastens every eye upon Himself, He begins talking of the fulfilment of that word in Himself.

Then there comes a strange, quick revulsion of feeling.  Had some Jerusalem spy gotten in and begun his poisoning work already?  Eyes begin to harden and jaws become set.  “Why, that is the man that made our cattle-yoke.”—­“Yes, and fixed our kitchen table.”—­“He—­the Messiah!” Then words of rebuke gently spoken, but with truth’s razor edge.  Then a hot burst of passion, and He is hustled out to the jagged edge of the hill to be thrown over.  Then that wondrous presence awing them back, as their hooked hands lose hold, and their eyes again fasten with wonder, and He passed quietly on His way undisturbed.  Surely that was the best evidence of the truth of His despised word.