A few months later He is back in Jerusalem. But the interval seems not
to have cooled their passion, only to have heated and hardened their
enmity. They at once begin an aggressive wordy attack. Then losing
self-control in their rage they again reach down for the stones to kill
Him at once. And again they are restrained from their passionate
purpose, as Jesus quietly goes on talking with them. Again they attempt
to seize His person. And the simple striking sentence used, "He went
forth out of their hand," points to the extent of their purpose and to a
yet greater use of His power of restraint over their unwilling
wills.[101]

The last incident of this sort is the kingly entry into the city amid
the enthusiasm of the pilgrim and city crowds. It says not a word about
any attempt on their part nor of His restraint over them. But the very
boldness of this wholly unexpected move on His part constituted a
tremendous restraint. Their hate had gone through several stages of
refined hardening during the few months preceding. The formal decision
to kill, the edict of excommunication, the public notice that any
information of His whereabouts must be made known, and the decision to
kill Lazarus also,--all indicate the hotter burning of the flames of
their rage.

Yet into just such a situation He quietly turns the head of His untamed
unridden young colt of an ass and rides through the city surrounded by
the crowds under the very eyes of these leaders and their hireling legal
minions. The tenseness of the whole scene, the power of restraint so put
forth, the volcano smouldering underfoot waiting the slightest extra jar
to loose out its explosion, all are revealed in the little sentence so
pregnant in its concealed dynamic meaning, Jesus "_hid Himself from,
them_." There's an exquisite blending of restraint over them and
boldness with cautious prudence. He was walking very close to the edge
that time.[102]

So His power, shown so quietly but irresistibly before the eyes of all
during those brief years, rises to a double climax nothing short of
stupendous. Miraculous power in the realm of nature and of the human
body had reached its climax in the raising of Lazarus, attested beyond
question. Power over the human will both in affecting a voluntary
change, and in actually restraining its action against its own set
purpose, had risen to its climax in the bold open entry in broadest
daylight into the capital where His death was official