, whose knowledge served
but to harden their hearts against the truth, these devoted servants
were as babes in humility, trust, and faith. Such children were and are
among the nobles of the kingdom. As in the hours of darkest sorrow, so
in this moment of righteous exultation over the faithfulness of His
followers, Jesus communed with the Father, to do whose will was His sole
purpose.

Our Lord's joy on this occasion is comparable to that which He
experienced when Peter had burst forth with the confession of his soul:
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." In solemn discourse
Jesus said: "All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man
knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the
Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." Then in more intimate
communion with the disciples He added: "Blessed are the eyes which see
the things that ye see: For I tell you, that many prophets and kings
have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them;
and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them."

WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?

We have seen that the Pharisees and their kind were constantly on the
alert to annoy and if possible disconcert Jesus on questions of law and
doctrine, and to provoke Him to some overt utterance or deed.[905] It
may be such an attempt that is recorded by Luke in immediate sequence to
his account of the joyous return of the Seventy,[906] for he tells us
that the "certain lawyer," of whom he speaks, put a question to tempt
Jesus. Viewing the questioner's motive with all possible charity, for
the basal meaning of the verb which appears in our version of the Bible
as "to tempt" is that of putting to test or trial and not necessarily
and solely to allure into evil,[907] though the element of entrapping or
ensnaring is connoted, we may assume that he wished to test the
knowledge and wisdom of the famous Teacher, probably for the purpose of
embarrassing Him. Certainly his purpose was not that of sincere search
for truth.

This lawyer, standing up among the people who had gathered to hear
Jesus, asked: "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"[908]
Jesus replied by a counter question, in which was plainly intimated that
if this man, who was professedly learned in the law, had read and
studied properly, he should know without asking what he ought to do.
"What is written in the law? how readest thou?" The man replied with an
admirable