At the Feast of Dedication

164:2.1Je­sus had at­tended the feast of taber­na­cles that he might pro­claim the gospel to the pil­grims from all parts of the em­pire; he now went up to the feast of the ded­i­ca­tion for just one pur­pose: to give the San­hedrin and the Jew­ish lead­ers an­other chance to see the light. The prin­ci­pal event of these few days in Je­ru­sa­lem oc­curred on Fri­day night at the home of Nicode­mus. Here were gath­ered to­gether some twenty-five Jew­ish lead­ers who be­lieved Je­sus’ teach­ing. Among this group were four­teen men who were then, or had re­cently been, mem­bers of the San­hedrin. This meet­ing was at­tended by Eber, Mata­dor­mus, and Joseph of Ari­mathea.

164:2.2On this oc­ca­sion Je­sus’ hear­ers were all learned men, and both they and his two apos­tles were amazed at the breadth and depth of the re­marks which the Mas­ter made to this dis­tin­guished group. Not since the times when he had taught in Alexan­dria, Rome, and in the is­lands of the Med­i­ter­ra­nean, had he ex­hib­ited such learn­ing and shown such a grasp of the af­fairs of men, both sec­u­lar and re­li­gious.

164:2.3When this lit­tle meet­ing broke up, all went away mys­ti­fied by the Mas­ter’s per­son­al­ity, charmed by his gra­cious man­ner, and in love with the man. They had sought to ad­vise Je­sus con­cern­ing his de­sire to win the re­main­ing mem­bers of the San­hedrin. The Mas­ter lis­tened at­ten­tively, but silently, to all their pro­pos­als. He well knew none of their plans would work. He sur­mised that the ma­jor­ity of the Jew­ish lead­ers never would ac­cept the gospel of the king­dom; nev­er­the­less, he gave them all this one more chance to choose. But when he went forth that night, with Na­than­iel and Thomas, to lodge on the Mount of Olives, he had not yet de­cided upon the method he would pur­sue in bring­ing his work once more to the no­tice of the San­hedrin.

164:2.4That night Na­than­iel and Thomas slept lit­tle; they were too much amazed by what they had heard at Nicode­mus’s house. They thought much over the fi­nal re­mark of Je­sus re­gard­ing the of­fer of the for­mer and pres­ent mem­bers of the San­hedrin to go with him be­fore the sev­enty. The Mas­ter said: “No, my breth­ren, it would be to no pur­pose. You would mul­ti­ply the wrath to be vis­ited upon your own heads, but you would not in the least mit­i­gate the ha­tred which they bear me. Go, each of you, about the Fa­ther’s busi­ness as the spirit leads you while I once more bring the king­dom to their no­tice in the man­ner which my Fa­ther may di­rect.”