The King Nobody Wanted

people began to talk about the gr

," they said, "that h

ey were talking about.

t afraid of him. John was a rough, strong man. Next to his skin he wore leather

usalem and from all the countryside round about to hear him preach. It was a wild

how he

r God is coming to rule over men! I am a voice cryin

ard out of the crowd. John led them down the bank into the river and baptized them as a sign that they w

e Pharisees and the Sadducees came to be baptized, and John would have nothing to do with them.

think that something terrible is going to happen, and so you're pretending to be good people so that it won't go so hard with you. You will have to show me that you want to

. It made people think more than ever that he might be the Messiah. Who e

many people said that the only way to do that would be to get an army together. Some men were meantime killing all the Romans they could. They were called "Zealots," be

hey said, "just by preaching. You will

id that he was

eone is coming whose shoe-laces I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

and John was busy baptizing the people as fast as they came t

The next one was coming forward. John looked up to see wh

arse whisper. "No! I can't baptize

hat anything was wrong, Jesu

ftly. "Treat me just like the rest of them. We

zed him. In a moment Jesus was up the bank and l

The crowd made way for Jesus, thinking, There goe

ut of heaven like a dove, and light upon him. Jesus is the Son of God. I

toward John. John stood peering into t

do. He went into the loneliest part of the desert, whe

s no doubt that I am the Messiah. I m

Jesus grew hungry. He looked around him, and saw

e inside him which was no

to say the word and these stones would be turned into bread. Then you would have plenty to eat for yourself, a

the wilderness. The

tones, 'Stones, become bread!' and then nothing happened! T

y playing tricks with stones. It would not matter if he did turn them into bread. Bread was not the most important thing in the world. People might think that there was nothing so important as eating, but there were bigge

ve that he was the Messiah? The

ddenly out of heaven. You would come down suddenly enough that way! And nothing would happen to you. It says in the Scriptures that God will send

t away, and again he thought

eep me from being hurt. And it won't make me the Messiah just to cause a big sensation in Jerusalem.

oice spok

ays that the Messiah is going to be a world ruler, great and good. Don't let the people down

tan tempting me, that's

ke out

ures say, 'Thou shall worship the Lord

eded to do right away. He was the Messiah, but he did not need to make the country wealthy. He

body about it yet. It was going to be his secret for a while. But somed

ness forty days, and that was long enough. He found the trail b

ch to people in the streets. What he said at fir

n to live a new life, for Go

were not so large as those that

n everything he had to tell them. John the Baptist had his followers; "disci

the Sea of Galilee. When he came back to

e had once been a disciple of John the Baptist. He had seen John point to Jesus,

Sea of Galilee, he found them putting a net int

said t

, and I will make y

ready to give it up to follow the man John had call

James and John, and they were with their father, Zebedee. They had done so well at fishing that they could afford to hav

at one of them was wicked. That was Levi, who was also called Matthew. The trouble with Levi was that he was a taxgatherer. E

s, which made it all the worse. They were looked upon as traitors, for they collected t

heard him say that he ought to give up his sins, and begin to live a new life. When Jesus came to Levi's table one day, and said, "Follow me," just as he had said it to the honest fishermen by the

an to wag. No one seemed to notice that Levi had stopped collecting taxes. He had

ith Jesus and his disciples, along with many pe

Jesus kept. One day they came to one of these dinner parties, and to

t your master eats and drinks

d them, an

ome here for the sake of the good people, such as you think that y

ees still obje

ciples are so religious that they sometimes go without

o is being married. When someone is to be married, his friends have a great feast. They are joyful beca

e was the Messiah, and no one knew what he was talking about. The Pharisees would have had more respect for him if he had had a bet

e Messiah. When they saw the kind of friends h