e Sabbath was over, and they could do
as they pleased. It seemed as though the whole town wanted to do only
one thing, and that was to go to see Jesus.

A great throng of sick people were soon gathered outside the door of
the house, with everyone else in Capernaum looking on. Jesus came out
to heal the sick. Darkness fell, and night came on, and still the
people pressed around Jesus to have him touch them and make them well.
Hour after hour he worked with them, until it was too late to do
anything more that night.

Yet Jesus was out of bed in the morning before the sun was up. It had
been a busy Sabbath, and he needed to go off by himself and rest. And
what he needed more than anything else was to pray. He wanted to be
alone for a while with his Father. So many people to preach to! So
many men who had begun to hate him! Jesus needed strength for it all,
and he knew that praying would make him strong.

While everyone else was sleeping, and the darkness still lay upon the
land, Jesus silently slipped away from the house. He found a lonely
place, where no one would disturb him.

But when Simon and the other disciples woke up, they could not wait
for him to come back. They went at once to look for him. And when they
had found him, they said,

"Everyone is looking for you."

It was quiet out there in the hills. Jesus would have liked to stay
there for the whole day. All day long he could have rested and prayed.
But then he thought of the people who were waiting for him. He thought
of the people who needed him. He thought of the places he had not yet
visited. There was so much to do, and there was so little time.

[Illustration]

He rose to his feet.

"Let us go, then," he said. "Let us go to the next towns, so that I
can preach in them too. After all, that is why I came into the
world--to tell men the good news from God!"

He left the quiet countryside, and went back to the towns. The people
who loved him were there. The people who needed him were there. And
the people who were afraid of him, and the people who had begun to
hate him--they too were there.

Jesus returned to the towns, where his friends and his foes were
waiting.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

6. Friends and Foes

Jesus thought the time had come to visit Nazareth. Before he had gone
away, there was nobody who thought that he was a person of any great
importance. But he had become a famous man. The whole of Galilee was
talking ab