Wednesday, the Rest Day

177:0.1When the work of teach­ing the peo­ple did not press them, it was the cus­tom of Je­sus and his apos­tles to rest from their labors each Wednes­day. On this par­tic­u­lar Wednes­day they ate break­fast some­what later than usual, and the camp was per­vaded by an omi­nous si­lence; lit­tle was said dur­ing the first half of this morn­ing meal. At last Je­sus spoke: “I de­sire that you rest to­day. Take time to think over all that has hap­pened since we came to Je­ru­sa­lem and med­i­tate on what is just ahead, of which I have plainly told you. Make sure that the truth abides in your lives, and that you daily grow in grace.”

177:0.2Af­ter break­fast the Mas­ter in­formed An­drew that he in­tended to be ab­sent for the day and sug­gested that the apos­tles be per­mit­ted to spend the time in ac­cor­dance with their own choos­ing, ex­cept that un­der no cir­cum­stances should they go within the gates of Je­ru­sa­lem.

177:0.3When Je­sus made ready to go into the hills alone, David Zeb­e­dee ac­costed him, say­ing: “You well know, Mas­ter, that the Phar­isees and rulers seek to de­stroy you, and yet you make ready to go alone into the hills. To do this is folly; I will there­fore send three men with you well pre­pared to see that no harm be­falls you.” Je­sus looked over the three well-armed and stal­wart Galileans and said to David: “You mean well, but you err in that you fail to un­der­stand that the Son of Man needs no one to de­fend him. No man will lay hands on me un­til that hour when I am ready to lay down my life in con­for­mity to my Fa­ther’s will. These men may not ac­com­pany me. I de­sire to go alone, that I may com­mune with the Fa­ther.”

177:0.4Upon hear­ing these words, David and his armed guards with­drew; but as Je­sus started off alone, John Mark came for­ward with a small bas­ket con­tain­ing food and wa­ter and sug­gested that, if he in­tended to be away all day, he might find him­self hun­gry. The Mas­ter smiled on John and reached down to take the bas­ket.